A Playful Attempt at Treibball!

   This isn't really a review of anything in particular, more a reminder that even regular household items can also be a lot of fun for our dogs!  For those of you who don't know, and I'm guess that's lots of you, Treibball is a new dog sport out of Germany that involves teaching your dog to herd large balls.

How it should look

   It's designed to work herding dogs (or any dogs really) that don't have a flock of their own to tend.  That pretty much sounds like us!  We tried to get into the class at a local training facility (not our usual one), but it filled up so fast!  Instead we had a go in our basement with an exercise ball my husband bought for $10 at Target.   Chris must have found a deal because I can't find it on the Target website for that price anymore.  Cassie loved it!  She even scored a goal...sort of.  
   This was a cheap and easy way to work on her herding instincts, (attempt) to teach her not to bite things that move and to get some fun indoor exercise on a day when the backyard looked like a mud hole.  Can't wait to get better at it!  Maybe someday she will start taking direction...though I doubt it!  Give it a try and let me know what you think!  Are there any other household items that work as dog toys?? Let me know!

Our 1st Attempt

Nina Ottosson's Interactive Tornado!

  I found out about Nina Ottosson like I often find good products: watching TV.  Victoria Stilwell of It's Me or the Dog fame had a young couple with a bored puppy on and introduced them to one of Nina's toys!  I got on Google pretty fast and started reading about Nina and her philosophy on dog toys and really liked it.  Cassie got the Tornado for Christmas, which is a spinning three-tiered bone with compartments for food/treats and three insertable covers that make the game harder.

  Any time I need a few minutes of alone time or  any time Cassie is having a restless moment, I pull it out and fill it up (usually just with dog kibble, but sometimes with treats or cheese) and set her loose on it.  It doesn't take her very long to finish it now that she's figured it out, but it is still fun and rewarding for her.  She still has to think about how to figure out each level.  The games tire her brain out for awhile and give her a nice incentive to use her nose as well!  Sniffing dogs are tired dogs, which means happy dogs!

   Each game (there are several) comes with a training dvd and instructions, but Cassie pretty much figured it out right away and the Tornado is on the hardest level of difficulty.  My friend Tracey bought another Nina game for her dogs and the Jack Russell figured it out right away, while the Whippet puppy is still working on it!

   They are a little pricey (around $40), but are very durable (Cassie has only put some tooth marks in it). They can be purchased through Amazon, Nina's website or I'm told even in store at Petco under the Company of Animals heading.  I'll put up more reviews of individual games as they come along!  Hope you like them as much as we do!

Haltis, Easy Walks & Muzzles: I'm Just Being Honest

The Easy Walk

   I've already expressed my profound love of the Premier Easy Walk harness.  Cassie, like many medium-large dogs, was an instant puller.  She actually used to pull in both directions (backwards and forwards) and she would become very excited during classes and would charge through the door and race for other dogs.  A great deal of time, patience and training has helped to bring an end to all these issues (for the most part) and the use of the Easy Walk in the early days did a great deal to help!  What I liked best about it, as one of my trainers pointed out, is that it doesn't put any pressure on the fragile muscles and bones of the puppy's neck and head, instead transferring all the pressure to the chest.  The Easy Walk made Cassie more manageable and, therefore, easier to focus for training.  It wasn't a long term device (though we do still pull it out for large crowds and lots of children), but was instead simply a short term management tool and training device.  Once the training was completed and there was no longer any bad behavior to manage the device went away and we are now on a very nice martingale collar (she still likes to pull backwards from time to time).

The Halti

   Now that Cassie is a year old and a good walker, I decided it was time to start training a new behavior...running!   This brought on a new set of issues that needed to be curbed and corrected, namely her herding instinct.  Many people will tell you about herding dogs (Border Collies, Aussies, etc) that will nip at the heels of fleeing children.  My herding dog, unfortunately, chose to herd me during our brief stints of unbridled running.  It was becoming such a problem that even our agility practice in the backyard was becoming a daily onslaught of nips and increasingly upsetting bites.  So with my arms black-and-blue, I went to my trainers in tears.  They suggested moving onto the next step in the harness line: a head harness. My trainer recommended starting with the Halti, so that is where we started.

   The Halti is a fairly simple device that fits over the dog's nose and secures behind its head.  It's not a muzzle, but it can be used to slip a hand up the nose loop and close the dog's mouth while turning its head away for a moment.  That should be enough to control the episode of nipping, while not harming the dog in any way.

  One of the key elements of the Halti (or any head collar I've seen) is the need to desensitize the dog to its presence.  So, over the past two weeks that's what we've been working on.  We're up to the point where she'll happily wear it around the house with a leash trailing.   We haven't yet gotten to the point where we could resume our walks (let alone our runs) with the Halti.   In the meantime, I have resorted to a somewhat more drastic management device: a muzzle.

The muzzle

   I'm not happy about it.  The muzzle I purchased makes her look like a dead ringer for Hannibal Lecter and I'm acutely aware of the looks we get from the neighbors, but it has allowed us to start desensitizing Cassie to the movement of me running.  For the first time we're able to run like a normal pair without my having to worry about soaking bruises afterwards.  I'm not going to recommend the muzzle I bought from Amazon.  The basket is made of cheap plastic and the straps are very flimsy, but what is most inconvenient is that the buckle that allows you to resize the neck strap is useless.  It constantly slips loose and the whole muzzle comes off.  So I'm going to look for a better one, unless I can phase out the muzzle completely before then.   Like I said this is a temporary management tool; we're going to wean her off the muzzle and onto the Halti and then hopefully onto nothing at all.  Training devices can't become crutches, I'm aware of that, but this seems to be the best solution for the time being.  We'll keep you updated on our progress.  Now stop looking at us like that!

An Update on Petunia

Petunia Pig is still alive and fairly well!  After three days of a full on love affair between Cassie and Petunia, the poor pig has lost a tail, the better part of two ears and her cute piggy snout is quickly disintegrating!  But for the most part, she is right as rain!  Unfortunately, someone (me) left the door open and Chris found the poor pig out back in a big mud puddle.  He's now cleaning her up and hoping she can be saved from the washing machine!  I'll report back soon!

Petunia has been saved!  She cleaned up pretty well actually!  Good on you Mighty Dog toy company!

   I thought a big photo might show the extent of the damage (not so much really)!  Pardon the obstruction in front of the poor pig!  Someone (ahem) literally couldn't keep her paws off of her pig long enough for me to take a photo!

The Pet Carrier That Nearly Ruined Christmas!

   Since the moment we brought Cassie home I tried to acclamate her to simply lying in the back seat of the car while I'm driving.  Well, that was fine when she was ten pounds and I could still drive with one hand and hold her at bay in the passenger seat with the other.  However, now that she is 50 lbs and very excited about car rides leaving her loose in the car is just not an option.
    We've tried seat belt harnesses, dividers and putting her in both the front and the back seats.  Finally on one 5 mile drive home from training when I had pulled over for the 3rd time to get her back in her seat belt (she really is a houdini dog) I decided that it was time to buy a crate.  Well, maybe Christmas time wasn't the best time to try it out, but I am a glutton for punishment.  So one day on the spur of the moment I picked up a collapsible dog crate from Target and brought it home to try it out...what a mistake:

The Boots & Barkley Large Pop Open Dog Kennel:

    I start in my defense:  At this point I still wasn't sold on the idea of carrying a dog kennel around in the back of my car, so the facts that it is 1) cheap ($25) and 2) collapsible had the impulse shopper in me interested.  In addition, I was increasingly desperate for an end to my daily stops along the side of the interstate to re-fit a seat-belt harness.  I brought the Pop Open Kennel home on a whim and carefully read the brief instructions (that were also unclear).   From the beginning, I was never able to get the thing back into the tight circle it came in (even though that was meant to be a selling feature).  It wasn't frightening to Cassie, but I did do some work with getting her used to being inside the kennel when it was zipped up. She seemed fine.
   On Christmas morning my husband sat in the passenger seat straddling a bucket of brining cornish game hens while holding Lilly, who was instantly asleep in his lap and Cassie jumped right into the Pop Up Kennel that my husband had meticulously fitted into the backseat.   To say she didn't like it was an understatement.   We made it to the end of our neighborhood before trouble started with scratching and clawing at the filmsy material of the kennel walls.  The next problem came a quarter mile down the road, when Cassie somehow tipped the kennel towards the footwell, which resulted in her becoming trapped within the collapsed sides of the kennel in the footwell screaming frantically for help.   It was a terrible start to Christmas morning!  I pulled over, extracted my dog from the kennel and ripped it out of the car, folded it as much as possible and threw it in the trunk...My husband spent the rest of the ride to my parents' house in the backseat with Cassie, while Lilly slept by herself in the front seat.  When we finally pulled into my parents' driveway, I had to wait with Cassie until my father could bring Tobey's old Crate up from the basement so we could enjoy opening presents without chew marks!

  Moral of the story folks: If your dog won't sit still in the car and can get out of seatbelts like mine can, just buckle down and buy the biggest hard-sided crate that will fit in your car.  I did (The Petmate Kennel) and I've not seen the shoulder of the interstate since.

Cassie's 1st Birthday!

     Today is Cassie's 1st birthday, so in recognition of how much she's grown I've added a few pics below.

    For the occasion we went to Petsmart so that she could pick out a present!  After ten minutes of trying out everything from squeaker balls, Jolly Balls, rope toys and a few plush items she kept coming back to one choice: the Mighty Dog Toys Pink Pig.  I also picked out something I thought she would benefit from the Tuffy Ultimate Tug-o-War.  In the mail (and hopefully arriving soon thanks to the weather) is a new agility tunnel, but she doesn't know that yet so please don't tell her.

  1. The Mighty Dog Toys Piglet:
      What can I say she picked out something that she clearly loved.   When I told her it was ok she picked it up, carried it to the front of the store, handed it to the gentleman at the counter and waited patiently until we got back in the car where I handed it over.   She hasn't put it down since.
     The pig ranks an 8 on the Dura-scale provided by www.mydogtoy.com, which they state means it’s "Long lasting and really durable."  It seems to be true (so far).  It's constructed of several layers of dense fleece and has no edges to encourage chewing and she really likes just carrying it around and chasing it across the floor.  By the time we got home the tail was gone, but that I expected.  Time will tell whether it is a long lasting favorite.  PS:  It also makes a good pillow!

  2.  The Tuffy Ultimate Tug-o-War:
        Can't comment on this too much yet, she is still too fixated on the pig.  I picked it up mainly to encourage backward tugging that might strengthen her thigh muscles (her trainers think she is weak in the inner thighs).  So we'll see how it goes.




Just a note that I've signed up to be a product tester for www.mydogtoy.com.  Every other month I will now be purchasing one of their toys and telling you (and them) about it.  The incentive is that it comes with a 45% discount on their toys, but you have to agree to buy one ever other month (you can increase or decrease the frequency, but the discount also shifts).  In this age of transparency I thought I would let you know!  You can join too, it's not like it's an exclusive club.  You just have to agree to follow the plan (it really is a good discount on a wide variety of toys!)  Happy shopping! And Happy Birthday to My Not-so-little Puppy!

Is the Hartz Tuff Stuff Line Really Tuff Enough?

   The Hartz Tuff Stuff line is widely available at most big stores like Walmart and even Giant grocery stores.  I always stop by the dog toy aisle for new stuff or bargins and have found the Hartz toys very good for short term (ie quickly destroyed) use.  The common toy manufacturers phrase: "For play only. Supervise your pet"is clearly written on all Hartz toys (translation: we are not responsible if your dog rips it up, swallows big sharp pieces and then costs you thousands of dollars in surgery to have them removed). It's true that some dogs will be able to rip up anything and should of course be monitored especially with soft toys, but there should be strong toys out there for our Super Chewers.  So, when I came across the Tuff Stuff line I was excited but dubious about the prospect of taking something home that wouldn't end up in the trash by evening.
    To my surprise, the material stands up well and Cassie has fallen in love with a wide variety of them.  Three examples:

   1. Hartz Tuff Stuff Flyer:
        This is a frisbee style disk made of ballistic nylon.  It has a squeeker in the middle, three large openings that make for great tugging and easy catching and the outer circle is lined with a flexible wire (I think it's wire) reenforcement.  So far after several weeks of use there are no complaints with this toy.  It has stood up to throwing, tugging, outright chewing, and freezing in snow and then chewing all without so much as the painted decoration coming off.  It flies well without much effort and happily the flexible wire makes the return attack in a toothy mouth less like being run into with a plastic knife and more like being hit by a fast moving teddy bear.  The best feature for me has been how much fun tugging is with this flyer. Cassie can be in a full backwards pull, over and over and not so much as a stitch will pop!  That's saying something if you've ever had a 50 lb Aussie on the other end of a normal plastic frisbee.   It's one of my top toys and I'll buy another one if this one ever gives out.

   2. Hartz Tuff Stuff Retriever:
         After the success of the Flyer I went back to Walmart and picked up the Retriever, which is really just a soft bumper with rope knots on the end.  Again the ballistic nylon body has held up amazingly (I left it out for Cassie to chew away on it without problems).  She liked carrying it around the house or chasing it down and really liked to tug on it.  The major problem I found with the retriever was the rope knots on the end.  By the end of the second day of tugging I guess some small stitch holding the knot together tore and left me with nothing but an immediately unravelled tail that Cassie then started gagging on.  I tried re-tying it with no luck and thought about cutting the the knot tails off and keeping the body,  but the tails seem to be imbedded in such a way that this can't be done and now the stuffing is starting to fall out the bottom.  The more we tugged the more the stitching that held the tails in place (and the bottom of the body closed) started to snap and pull loose.  Sad that such a small thing has made a big difference in what was otherwise a great toy.   To the trash it goes....

The Retriever: Day 2

  3. The Hartz Tuff Nose Divers (Ducks):
        When Cassie was a puppy we started her playing with the plush quacker ducks that are available now from a wide variety of companies (including Hartz).  Now, the super chewer that she is, these soft ducks quickly loose first their feet and then their necks (and stuffing).  So a tougher alternative was a joyful find.  Like the other Tuff Stuff products, the body (including beak) of the duck in made from ballistic nylon and held up well to chewing, tugging, etc.  I would have liked to see a squeeker of some kind.  The tail/handle of the duck was a thick twisted rope inside of which a flexible wire was placed to give it some body.  By-and-large these were great toys and stood up pretty well.  They were only thrown away once the beak had been successfully chewed through by miss Cassie.  I have seen photos from other reviewers who did not "Supervise Your Pet" and the ducks are basically gone, leaving some nylon and rope covered wire (see the Amazon Review for these photos).
     They were good for fetch or for playing our favorite game of "Duck on a Stick," which is a must for all herding dogs.  I've bought new ones since the old ones went kaput so I guess it was worth the money, but you do need to watch your dog with this one.