JackieMaya

I was using a "static" collar on Maya to try to keep her from barking at the nocturnal critters at night when I let her and Jackie outside after I get home from work. It was working somewhat, but she would still get into her frenzied "there's critters out there" barking. So this weekend I got her an anti-bark collar from Petsmart that sprays citronella from the collar when she barks, and man, does that ever work great! Last night (within a time period of about two hours) she did four separate, single barks. When it would spray, she would jump sideways and look at the ground, and down at her chest, trying to figure out where that spray came from. We both like this MUCH better than having to use the shock collar. Here is a picture of it (I hope). It cost $139 at Petsmart, and I tell ya, it's well worth it! [img]http://www.petsmart.com/images/product/large/z301789.jpg[/img]

My dogs most definitely make my heart smile! I adopted Jackie on February 9, 2002. I had moved back home (to the house I grew up in) to take care of my dad during the final months of his battle with cancer. Jackie kept my dad company while I was working (until I stayed home full-time to take care of him), and her goofy antics made him laugh out loud several times even though he was in a deep depression. We had also put my mom in a nursing home in January due to advanced Alzheimers. She does't know any of us any more, but she's happy. I brought Jackie to the nursing home several times, and she brightened up everyone's faces. I know that Jackie made a big difference in my dad's final months (he passed away on April 5, 2002), and I don't know how I could have gotten through everything without her. And the week before I had to have my beloved horse, Lena, put down last November, I adopted Maya so that Jackie could have a sister. My dogs made what was the worst year in my life bearable. No matter how depressed or sad I might be, when Jackie and Maya meet me at the door wiggling from head to tail and showing me their goofy puppy smiles, they always make me smile. I always look so forward to getting home to them. I always wave to them when I leave and when I come home. They are my babies; they are my life!

Man strips to his shorts, jumps into Lake Harriet and rescues dog Martha Sawyer Allen, Star Tribune Published May 6, 2003 DOG06 Every once in a while, a man is a dog's best friend. On Saturday morning a dog swam about 300 yards into chilly Lake Harriet in south Minneapolis. Apparently, it got confused and didn't know where to turn.. The dog appeared to be in serious trouble. About a dozen folks standing on shore were talking to the dog's owner, asking whether it was time to get help. Just then a man walked up, saw the dog, stripped to his shorts and swam into the 52-degree water. He reached the dog and swam back to shore, talking to the pooch the whole way. "I helped the guy up the bank when he got in," said Jon Haugee of St. Louis Park. "He said he was a dog owner and a lifeguard and he just couldn't do anything else." No one knows the man's name, so the dog's owner couldn't thank him. He rested for a while on a bench, put on his clothes and left.

Dog gets Medtronic defibrillator like Cheney's Associated Press Published May 5, 2003 FIB06 PULLMAN, Wash. -- Honus the dog lacked that old spark, and the solution was a heart defibrillator. Doctors at Washington State University's veterinary hospital operated on the canine Thursday to insert the device, similar to the one that regulates the heart of Vice President Dick Cheney. The $30,000 operation was a success, with the device regulating the heartbeat of the 2-year-old dog, named for baseball player Honus Wagner. ``Now Honus is our most expensive piece of technology,'' said owner Bryan MacDonald. ``He's worth more than our computer.'' Honus was diagnosed with ventricular tachycardia, in which the lower ventricles of the heart beat abnormally and can trigger a heart attack. It caused him to be weak and vomit. Until now, the only treatment was to bring Honus to the hospital for lidocaine shots. His attacks grew so frequent, the MacDonalds had to come to the emergency room every two weeks. The metal unit, the size of a 9-volt battery, can sense when the heart's rhythm changes. If the beats grow irregular, the device sends out a shock, resetting the heart at a normal rate. The device isn't used much on dogs because of the cost of the unit and the surgery. In Honus' case, Fridley, Minn.-based Medtronic Inc. agreed to donate the $15,000 defibrillator as well as two $6,000 leads. The MacDonalds will pay for a portion of the $2,500 surgery and hospital costs.

Here is a picture of Jackie on her therapeutic bed. She actually sleeps on sofas more than she does on her dog bed though. And she's 75 pounds with a long body. [img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0WQAAAM8ccUAAAtYNq!vlS4ZC1cF2WEQSKkETAmJojzyhmMGxgALqttVks3Woo1wdd*qJdNITRVoEPQCTSZtRKAv49jwZld8iu*as0dawW8LtXh3d92VOHQk0iK!sKoPZexLzMOdi0OI/dogbed-crop.jpg?dc=4675379910903435469[/img]

I'm a karaoke fanatic, so I'm always singing. My dogs are used to hearing me sing. In fact, one of my friends came over last weekend, and we spend about 4 hours singing to our karaoke disks, and both of my dogs fell asleep. Either we were very boring or soothing! I used play "A Knight's Tale" in my bedroom TV/VCR and would sing "We Will Rock You" along with the movie while pounding on the bed with the beat, and Jackie would jump up and down on the bed and bark along with me. I haven't tried doing that since I got Maya. I'll have to have a trio with my two girls one of these days! One time in the car I was singing along with "I Can't Stop This Feeling" by Swede where they do the OOGA-CHUCKA-OOGA-OOGA-OOGA, and Jackie REALLY thought that was strange! LOL!

Computers definitely weren't around when I was a teenager either. But one time I was going to stay overnight at the State Fairgrounds with a bunch of horsie friends, but my dad decided after okaying it that it sounded like a bad idea. So he came to the fairgrounds and got me. I was so mad and humiliated! The things parents have to go through dealing with the teenage years!

Pretty is beautiful! Good luck with getting her!

That's my goal in life: to be a Dogomaniac! Well, maybe not the most important goal, but I'm working toward it! Way to go!

That man was most definitely out of line for disciplining his dog that way. That's just like if your dog doesn't come when called, and when he finally comes, you hit him. As much as you might want to get mad at the dog, when they finally come up to you, you have to praise them. One of my dogs, Maya, doesn't always come when called, especially if she's not done playing yet (I can picture her saying, "You're not the boss of me"). But when she finally comes, I tell her she's a good girl and give her a treat. Dogs associate the discipline with the last thing they did, so that poor Flatcoat thought his ear was being pulled for lying down, which is what his owner had asked him to do. Poor dog!

Bk_Blue: Yes, she's ALWAYS a happy, smiling girl!

Well, already I'm using ONLY the beep on the collar and not the shock for Maya when I turn her out at night, so that makes me feel a lot better. I hated having to shock her when she barked. The beeping seems to be working! YIPPEE! But if she ever gets to the point where she'll stop barking when I tell her to, I'm still going to put a dummy collar on her at night so that she thinks she has the "naughty collar" on! [img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0UgDdAj8akWRmdTiX3wX2y*S44of1ii1EeNR24SlYeoMS916T9ebVNZztetkWUfrNyuuqWE54h6y98Sbp2nGKEtYXrCGNC9nr8yH6j!zZ9OMDas!LVuGeHARPWtnDFYKY/maya-sit?dc=4675410099675801534[/img]

Here is an update on Dosha. CLEARLAKE, Calif. -- Dosha, the dog who survived being hit by a car, shot in the head and thrown in a freezer, can go home soon. The tenacious canine was given a clean bill of health by her veterinarian on Monday. She will be allowed to move back in with her owner, Louetta Mallard, as soon as a better fence is erected to keep her from escaping from Mallard's yard, according to Debra Sally, the owner of the Clearlake Veterinary Clinic. Dosha has been at the clinic since April 15, when she escaped from her yard and was hit by a car. A policeman shot her because he said she was in pain. She was taken to an animal shelter and put in a freezer for disposal, but about two hours later, a worker at the center opened the freezer to find Dosha standing up in a plastic bag. Dosha's head was x-rayed Monday to check her right ear, which Sally feared had been damaged by the bullet. ``Everything looked OK,'' she said. Local animal welfare groups have raised enough money to cover Dosha's medical expenses, Sally said. [img]http://www.startribune.com/stonline/images/news99/dog25.l.jpg[/img]

[color=red][size=7]Happy Birthday Charlie![/size] I hope you get to play a lot and get lots of doggie treats![/color]

Wow, those bearcoat Sharpei's are really cool! I never knew they came that way! I'm partial to hairy dogs myself!

I'm so terribly sorry to hear about Hazel. I know how much you loved her and how much time and effort you put into her. Don't think of the times when she was bad, just think of the all the good times you had with her and cherish those memories. I too think that you should keep your screen name. Hang in there kiddo!

I love Maya to death, but I think that she would have gone through several homes if she didn't have a patient, loving owner like me! I adopted Maya from a rescue shelter in October of 2002, and she had been an owner-surrender. She's a 2 year-old Golden Retriever/Husky mix. She's wonderful in the house, and she's wonderful outside during the day (except when I have to leave to go to work and she's not done playing, then she's hard to catch). But at night she just goes nuts barking at the nocturnal critters. I work until midnight, so Maya and Jackie are outside until 2:00 or 3:00 a.m., and I'm sure my neighbors don't like to hear barking at that time! So unfortunately I have to put a shock collar on her when she goes outside at night so I can keep her from barking and jumping on the fence. I hate having to do that to her, but she gets mommy-deaf if I just tell her to stop barking. Her former owners had her tied outside for 8 hours a day, and that's probably where her barking started. She's also part Husky, and that's probably another reason why she's so vocal. But most of the time she's a WONDERFUL dog, and she and Jackie just love each other. I'm just SO glad that I got Maya and not somebody else. She'll be with Jackie and me forever. Hopefully she'll get to the point where I can put a dummy collar on her at night so that she thinks she's wearing the shock collar. I love both of my puppies, and they love me! [img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0VADdApAao4GqTS9FPK56AoCrnlEZBRZ6sU82illczHdqoYB4qkyhC*qs02SX!9pelklagi!gvKg6jyDV*!BdM03TgYywQxMn2SVa7oBaPJdo3990QlA8u8ziYVa4xbfn/maya-2.jpg?dc=4675410099407334264[/img]

Someone emailed this to me and I thought it was real cute. [img]http://groups.msn.com/isapi/fetch.dll?action=MyPhotos_GetMBPhoto&ImageID=nDwBMGIoE*xu*y29JzNFO*z6zBPMVQVS8W7VAoteVWCg[/img]

I took my two girls to Petsmart today to get them bathed, as I really don't have a place to do it at home. They said the dogs would be there for 3-4 hours. They ended up being there for 3 hours, and they looked great. BUT... they hadn't given them any water the whole time they were there, and both dogs ran for the water dishes as soon as we got home. Maya seemed to deal with the ordeal okay, but Jackie seemed to be quite traumatized by the whole thing. When they let Jackie through the door, she was crying like crazy, and was barking in the store (I took them through the store to get them treats), which she NEVER does. One of my friends took her dogs to a place about 25 minutes from my home where they supply the bathing facilities, shampoo, etc., and you do it yourself. That's where I'm taking them next time!

Can you even believe this one? CLEARLAKE, Calif. -- A dog named Dosha may have as many lives as a cat. She was hit by a car, shot in the head and kept in a freezer for two hours, but she survived and is now doing well under a veterinarian's care. Local animal groups and the Humane Society of the United States have begun fund-raising efforts to pay for her care. Last Tuesday, Dosha was hit by a car. A police officer reported to the scene and no one could tell him who owned the dog. Officer Bob MacDonald shot the dog, apparently to save her the pain of her injuries. Dosha, presumed dead, was taken to Animal Control, where she was put in a freezer. ``Apparently, it was assumed dead,'' said Denise Johnson, Animal Control's interim director. ``I went to the freezer and found that she was alive and cold.'' She had hypothermia and a gunshot wound, but no broken bones from the car accident, Johnson said. Police are investigating.

I have the same worry with Maya. I don't know if it's the Husky in her, but if she gets loose, she has WAY too much fun running around to come to me. I live a block from a lake, and I took Jackie swimming there last year. She comes when I call her, but I don't think I could trust Maya to not take off. And there's a fairly busy road by the lake. Maybe I'll try the long rope method with her this summer.

He's a cutie pie!

This is so funny to hear your squeaker stories! Right before Easter last year, my sister-in-law bought a bunny for Jackie that made a sound like "boing-boing-boing" (I didn't have Maya yet). Jackie immediately ripped off the ears and tail so it looked more like a guinea pig than a bunny. Then it was her baby. She would take it to bed with her and would lick it. Jackie just loved the sound. We called that toy her "boing-boing" and it FINALLY met its demise. For Christmas, my sister-in-law gave the girls a squeaky monkey that starts out with quiet "oo-oo-oo-oo" and graduates into loud "AW-AW-AW-AW". I could only put it out occasionally, because Maya would try to play tug with Jackie with squeaky toys and kill them. Now I can leave the monkey out and they take turns with it. It's still hanging in there. Jackie loves the red ball that, when it hits the ground, it glows and makes several different noises. And neither one of them have been able to chew through it. I have several of them in the yard, but only one of them still makes noise.

Encyclopedia, the shepherd is adorable. I hope you get her/him (don't remember which it was). I found both of my wonderful girls on Petfinder.com, and ended up getting them both from the same shelter, six months apart. The shelter I got them from housed all the animals in foster homes, so that way I got a fairly good idea of how they each were in a home setting. And what the fosters said about the dogs ended up being right on.

If my dogs were human: Jackie would be an athlete and honors student, and in the school choir, always keeping herself clean, always behaving herself and doing what her teachers asked. If she got dirty, she would get cleaned up before she went anywhere. She would be on the shy side but would be a fun-loving girl who would always get home before curfew. If she did anything wrong, she would be able to charm her way out of it. She would probably have a steady boyfriend. Maya would be a tomboy with a great sense of humor who would tend to be loud, and would always say what was on her mind. She would be the class clown. She wouldn't care if she got dirty, she would go out anyway. She would be one of those "doesn't live up to her potential" students who tends to either stare out the window at the other kids, or would throw spitballs at the other kids. She would have guys and girls as friends. What about your "kids"?