JackieMaya

I'm so sorry to hear that you had to make such a tough decision with Sassy. It's the hardest decision a dog owner can make, but it's also the kindest decision we have to make. At least you know that Sassy is happy and healthy up in doggie heaven.

I just might have to try that (once I get in shape). I live in the winter wonderland of Minnesota, and Jackie and Maya love being outside in the winter. It really looks like a blast!

I was the one who used the citronella spray collar on Maya, my Golden Retriever/Husky mix. I work until midnight, so I don't want them barking that late at night when I let them out after work. Maya is a very vocal dog. I put the citronella collar on her at night, and she doesn't bark at all when she has it on! It works wonderfully! Once in a while my other dog, Jackie, will go up to Maya and bark at her and get sprayed (hee hee). Maya has learned that she can do low quiet little "woofs" and play growls, and that won't set off the collar. Here is a picture of the citronella collar (the picture was from the Petsmart website). [img]http://www.petsmart.com/images/product/large/z301789.jpg[/img]

I've seen ski jouring on Animal Planet, and it looks like a blast. But I have a question about it. When the dogs get used to pulling like they do when they're pulling you, will they pull when you lead them too? I assume you use certain commands when ski jouring, but I was wondering if it's hard to get the "wanting to pull" out of them when you have them on a leash.

For most of the year, I feed my girls out of stainless steel bowls. But they like eating their food outside, and I don't want their poor little tongues sticking to their stainless steel bowls outside! So when it's below freezing, I use plastic bowls. I was afraid that the ceramic bowls would crack in the cold temperatures.

Both of my girls get Science Diet dry dog food. Jackie gets the Large Breed variety (with glucosamine and chondroitan) and Maya gets the Light variety. And they each get about a tablespoon or so of doggie gravy that I got at Petsmart (which also has glucosamine in it). I have the chicken flavor and t-bone flavor. The chicken flavor is REALLY stinky (to me) but the girls love both flavors. Jackie doesn't always want to eat when it's dinner time, and Maya is such a food hog that she would eat Jackie's food if I left it out. With the gravy, Jackie always eats her food now! And all of their treats are low fat treats.

Jackie and Maya (who each weigh 80 pounds) used to pull when I would walk them. With the Gentle Leaders, they walk right next to me on a slack leash! I LOVE THE GENTLE LEADER! When they start to pull, you just gently pull their head to the side back toward you (not a tug). And the Gentle Leaders worked right away! I highly recommend them!

I used the Gentle Leaders on Jackie and Maya today for the first time. And for the first time, [u][size=6]I[/size][/u] took my dogs for a walk, instead of the other way around! When I first put them on, Jackie pouted and Maya had a little temper tantrum. But after walking around in front of my house for about 5 minutes, they were both great, and both walked right beside me on a loose leash! The thing I didn't like about the Gentle Leader (LOL) is that I ended up walking faster than usual because I wasn't trying to hold my dogs back! So I got a real good work-out! I could really feel it in my legs by the time we got home! So it's actually great for all three of us! My two girls (160 pounds worth together) used to really pull, especially for the first half of our walk. Now they are perfect little girls, and were still wagging their tails. I've lost 40 pounds so far, and taking my dogs for a brisk walk every day is going to help the weight to keep coming off! So I highly recommend the Gentle Leader!

Sorry, the last post was mine. I thought I was logged in.

Rott, do you have some email address or something that I could post on my other dog boards so that if anyone has any information they could contact you? Or do you have the address of the police department or something like that?

I'm so sorry to hear that someone stole your Snow White! That's about the lowest thing someone could to do a dogowner. I hope the police get the bastards who took her. For those who haven't seen a picture of Snow White, I took the liberty of posting a picture here of her. [img]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/93707/Dsc00188.jpg[/img]

Last Tuesday my brother had to have his 15 year-old Cocker Spaniel "Porky" put to sleep. He had been deaf for the last several years, but he didn't seem to know. He was still a happy boy and liked to go for walks in the mountains outside of Las Vegas. Lately he had been having seizures, and he was semi-comatose the day they had to have him put to sleep. I put together this little memorial to my furbaby nephew, Porky. In the picture, he's wearing his reindeer antlers around his "waist." [img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0PwDZAvUSUl7N5VqLXl0NnR3gGo!uwn7L*3ulkLsYeFV*GdKv6asztoQh2eTZqZNCWDfyI!SWOPL7fABWsmHSxI3B9XTczFo7/porky.jpg?dc=4675439108371597370[/img]

How weird is that? I see that I AM logged in. hmmm. :hmmmm:

[This is JackieMaya. For some reason, I'm not able to log in] I pick up dog poop about every other day. I have a fenced-in back yard, and they only go in the "minefields."

Today I took Jackie and Maya to the barn with me. There are 4 dogs out at the barn who bark at anyone driving up, so Jackie was scared to come out of the car. But once the dogs stopped barking, she finally got out and her tail started wagging immediately, and never stopped. She had a blast! I let Jackie go off leash at the barn, but I keep a leash on Maya because she'll chase the horses (which is NOT good). The first thing Jackie does when she gets in the barn is go into one or two stalls and roll around in the wood shavings. Luckily, the stalls she was rolling around in had already been cleaned (and of course didn't have horses in them). The indoor arena is insulated, so it stays fairly cool, so I let both girls loose in there so they could play. Well... Maya found a nice pile of fresh horse poop to roll in! I got a wet towel and got most of it out. Maya also took a nibble of the horse poop until I told her to leave it. They had a ton of fun exploring and smelling stuff. And they slept the whole way home. I should have gotten a picture of poopy Maya before I wiped it off. I forgot until after the fact that I had a camera out there. Oh well, I'm sure she'll give me another chance! Here is a picture I took of Jackie last year cooling off in a mud puddle at the barn. We haven't had rain for so long that there weren't any puddles for her this time. [img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0RgDUApYV9g8rS8gJKYfE49LYVO3kEehP2ejWXGnuTEmki5QWkshDQ749HE09gXUsKE!d9MVQp51cXAkELidlhqaWMZmGXF7cTOAW0WThA30/jackiepuddle.jpg?dc=4675422732902824829[/img] Goofy girls!

Awww, what a good puppygirl she is! You SHOULD be proud of her!

The other night after I got home from work, I was sitting outside with Jackie and Maya. I couldn't believe what I saw: [b]Jackie snatched a flying bird [color=red]out of the air[/color]![/b] The bird was coming in for a landing (probably was aiming for the evergreen tree by Jackie), and Jackie jumped up a little bit and grabbed the bird right out of the air. There were three chirps, and then the bird was dead. Then Jackie gave the dead bird to Maya and let her play with it. Neither of them ate it, they just played with it. I don't think they knew what to do with it. There was no growling or anything over the bird either. Jackie really is an amazing hunter! I certainly hope nobody's pet rabbit or cat come into my yard! Jackie leaves the cats alone at the barn, but if one ran into her yard, I think she would go after it. yummy! [img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0RQCqAjcUO7mgMta0IkIX0yRbTUD!Zc2IHQIqQpoZnl8kubfSeGGDExgZL4peNACd6ELWGdkr766uBhQ2KmWOVys*rXTlFSfBDOKnSdxlg9w/yummy%252D2.jpg?dc=4675424811245828419[/img]

I got dental chews for my girls, and their teeth look just great! They look like flat rawhides but with the enzymes in the chews, along with the dogs' natural chewing action, they really clean their teeth! My girls also play tug of war and chew on big ropes with knots in them, and that also helps to keep their teeth clean. I just bought a finger toothbrush from PetSmart. It's a rubber thingie that just fits on the end of your finger and has little rubber nubbies that you can put tooth paste on. I haven't tried it yet, but I think it'll work much better than a toothbrush.

Jackie's 3rd birthday is August 9! Well, that's what I set her birthday as. The rescue shelter I adopted her from had gotten her from the pound, so there was no history on her. I adopted her on February 9, 2002 and the vet said that she was 1-1/2, so she was probably born in August. So I just say that her birthday is August 9. I can't believe my Jackie-girl is 3 years old already! She was a shy, skinny 1-1/2 year-old dog with a bad coat when I got her. Now she's a healthy, happy, outgoing, beautiful 85-pound puppygirl with a gorgeous thick coat and a tail you could hang the American flag on! Happy Birthday sweetie! [img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0SQCEA5EWtVDcqskXN2eFF2vVVcJZfq0hNAC7IEQ5kgrzj4ZI6QjNWd*MBXqxduDdl2ERofiWcFf1ZIaNBbkfcnVEoDsFiZRaoUlB0kD14MTvmFW4r0GvjQ/Jackieball.jpg?dc=4675410120408569472[/img]

Maya has a black spot on her tongue (about the size of a fingerprint) and the vet said it was like a birthmark. Hopefully you can see the mark in this picture. [img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0QgDKAmES7EKdQwmWD!oqYoXs9GJZ75!YgyORGlU9sUgn*X*awhUOS9uHADDhXlirsODGSvXxxKyg9UYuifFKtYqDCOV7aL7NNsw!05ooor4/DCP_0018.JPG?dc=4675422733929178848[/img]

Maya has a slight yeast infection, so she's on doggie amoxycillen (can't remember the exact name), and she has to have two pills twice a day. As I have fairly long acrylic nails, it's kind of hard to put the pills far enough down so that she'll swallow them. Today, I smeared creamy peanut butter on the bottom of her food bowl (like greasing a cake pan), sprinkled the crushed up pills over that, and put her food over that. She licked up every single bit! I PBed Jackie's food bowl too so she wouldn't feel left out. And what dog doesn't like peanut butter? The horse I used to have just LOVED molasses, so if I had to give her pills, I would just put some molasses over the pill in her feed (didn't even have to crush the pill), and she would eat it all, and I would hear her slurping up every single bit.

This thread is so funny! I taught my girls "time out" for when they get playing too much when it's time to be quiet (or if one wants to play and the other one doesn't). Maya has to be on a 40-foot cable when she and Jackie are in the back yard since Maya learned how to jump the fence. I watch them the whole time they're out there. Once in a while, they'll get tangled up. At first, I would say "wait," and I would go untangle them, but now they just stand there and look at me and wait for me to come over there. I also use "wait" when I'm letting them out. I have Maya's harness and cable hooked on the outside of the door. So I say "wait" while I open the door and grab the harness. One day I played "hide under the blanket" with them, and now if I put a towel or blanket or anything on Maya, Jackie will just go nuts because she wants to find her under the blanket. My nephew has two pugs, and if he tells them to do something and they don't listen, he says "that's one." After he says that, sometimes they'll give him an "I don't wanna" look. If he says "that's two," they start walking toward him with their heads down, sulking. I don't think he's ever had to say "that's three."

Behle, I'm so very, very sorry to hear about Max. I had to have my dear horse, Lena, put down last fall, and that was the hardest decision I've ever had to make, but I know that it was time for her to go. So I know what a hard decision it was for you. Now Max is up with Cracker (my Golden Retriever who died about 20 years ago), and they're playing and both healthy and happy! Hang in there!

Mommacat, I like your idea of a stock tank for a doggie pool! I have a horse, and the last time my dogs were out to the stable with me, Maya REALLY wanted to climb in one of the water tanks, but she couldn't figure it out. They have lower-sided ones that would be big enough for both dogs to fit in. Thanks for the idea! I'll let you know if I find one that would work. I live in Minneapolis, and there's a Fleet Farm about 15 minutes from me (not to mention a million other places I could look).

Just unbelievable! What an ignorant irresponsible "breeder."