One Dog's Christmas

Holy Santa Paws Batman!!! What a wonderful Christmas this was at my house.  As you can see from the photo, I hit the jackpot this year on toys and I also got a bunch of treats including a BIG box of my favorite cookies!

One of the gifts I got this year that I never got before was an antler. (That's what I am chewing on in the photo).  My Dad is a woodsman so we have moose antlers in our rock garden that he found and some deer antlers too.  But they are for decoration so I never thought they would be okay for dogs to chew.

Boy, was I wrong!  I am so glad Santa Paws brought me an antler for Christmas this year.  They are almost like the marrow bones Dad brings me from the humans' food store, but not quite.  Antlers are great to chew on.  They are good for my teeth and gums and they last forever.  They are made of protein which I understand is a good thing for dogs to eat.  They also come in all sizes so any dog from a tiny Chihuahua to a huge Bernese Mountain dog can have an antler that is just the right size for them.

I found out that good antlers are found all around in woods, just like the moose antlers Dad found that he put in the garden.  The antlers from deer, moose and elk fall off in the fall and if humans find them before the mice and other rodents gnaw them down, they make great chew toys for dogs.

Antlers that are found like that are all natural and the animals are still alive to grow new antlers in the spring.  Since antlers are all natural, there are no dyes or preservatives in them.  They don't chip or splinter when they are new.  And they don't get stinky they way marrow bones can get.  "Stinky" in humans' minds anyway.  I actually like the scent of a "aged" marrow bone.  And a little bit of dirt doesn't hurt the aging process.

Anyway, I hope you all had a great Christmas.  I'd love to know what your favorite Christmas gift was.

Happy New Year,

Your friend,

Zeva

P.S. Shameless self promotion -- for some really awesome pet gifts, check out http://laurelmtbasket.com/index.php/store/category/pet-gifts-and-baskets

Can We Talk?

Dogs and humans have different communication styles. It is quite obvious how different they are when Mom and I go to the dog park.  When we meet others coming up the path, we dogs circle and smell each other and then decide if we want to play together.  Humans say “hello” and decide if they want to stop and talk.

Dogs and human communicate with each other too.  Lots of that communication is by body language. When Mom stands with her feet apart and her hands on her hips when she looks at me, I know she is not happy about something I did. When I push my bowl against the wall, it means I want to eat.  I know they know what I mean cuz they usually say, “It’s not time yet”.

Sometimes it’s not what Mom says but how she says it. “Zeva” and “ZE VA” mean very different things and I know the difference.

But dogs are smarter than some people think.  We can understand spoken language very well.  I know some dogs who understand the same words in more than one language.  Mostly we associate words with objects. One thing Mom had to be very careful of when I was a puppy was to use the same word every time.  She couldn’t say “fetch” one time and “get it” the next time cuz I would get confused.

My Mom talks to me all the time. I like it when does.  It makes me feel important and loved.  She tells me where we are going and what we are going to do.  She tells me about work and the people she knows. She asks my opinion about lots of things too.  Dad laughs because one of Mom’s favorite things to say to me is “What are you thinking?”

It’s not just the sound of my Mom’s voice that I respond to.  I understand lots of the words. Just because I can’t say them, doesn’t mean I don’t know what they mean. The average dog can learn the meaning of around 165 human words.  A smart dog, like a border collie, can lean 250 words or more.  That is about as many words as a human who is two years old can understand.

One of the first words I learned was Zeva. That was probably the first word I learned because it is a very important word.  Some of my favorite words are:  cookie, toy, and dog park.  “What’s in your bowl?”  means I’m getting a special treat like chicken or eggs and “Do you want to help?” means one of the humans is going somewhere and I can go with them.

I’d love to know what some of your favorite words are.

Your friend,

Zeva

Blatant self promotion: The Holidays are coming and this year we've added several new designs to our collection.  The new Santa Paws Gift Basket is one of my favorites.

Santa Paws' Helper

At Laurel Mountain Basket Co we're designing new gift baskets for the upcoming Holiday Season.  I love this time of year cuz as Product Tester for the Pet Division,I get to find and test all the new toys and treats before we order them for our Holiday gift baskets.

I've already found some sweet new toys in the catalogs that we just have to try.  I've also been searching on line for new and interesting gift ideas.  I found some really exciting things but I think they would blow my budget big time.
 

Don't know how I would justify ordering any I Love Dogs 52- carat Diamond Dog Collars at $1.8 million or Dog Tiaras at $4.2 million.  I think I would look stunning in the collar and I know my cousin Sophie would love the Tiara.  She likes to dress up fancy.

All the dogs I know like to roll in dead stuff so I don't think Les Pooch V.I.P. Dog Parfum at $3,000 would be a good match for our clientele or the Louis XV Pet Pavilion dog bed at $23,990 either since we like sleeping on our humans' beds.

However, I was impressed with the dog houses I saw.  Our friends at Kanes Krusaders are building houses for dogs who have to live outside but I don't think they are as fancy as the Super Dog House with a plasma T.V. and SPA that costs $410,825.  I also saw Paris Hilton's dogs' houses that have heating and air conditioning and something called a crystal chandelier. Rachel Hunter's dog's house has running water too.

No, we're going to keep making our gift baskets with fun toys and yummy treats and leave the fru fru stuff and bling for another day.

Don't forget when you write your letter to Santa Paws, make sure you let him know which of our gift baskets you want this year.

Your friend,

Zeva

FRANKENSTORM

Mom keeps watching the Weather Channel.  I don't know why. It is beautiful outside. The sun is shining and it's warm for late October in New England.  She says she's watching the progress of Hurricane Sandy.

Hurricanes are not good things to have but there are certain things that can make a regular hurricane even scarier. It has to do with weather patterns. (yawn)  Anyway, last year.... I don't know how it happened but we had a big snow storm in October which is way too early for snow. The storm made the electric lines fall down and we didn't have lights or heat for 5 days!

The news people are saying that Hurricane Sandy could be like that storm we had last year.

I don't know why Mom is worried.  We are prepared.  We bought me a big bag of dog food last week and we have lots of bottled water and two boxes of cookies.  We also went to the human food store and got canned food like tuna fish (I love tuna fish juice!!) and other stuff that doesn't need to be cooked.  She also made sure we had a hand held can opener. I love the sound of a can opener, don't you?

Mom says that in the 20 years she has lived in our house they have had some bad storms where there was no heat or lights.  One time, she couldn't even leave the house for three days cuz of all the snow and the trees were down across the roads.   It was in the middle of winter and it was very cold and very dark.  Those times were bad but not so bad that she had to leave our house and go somewhere else.

I'm not worried cuz Mom is smart and knows where we can go if it gets really, really bad.  There are places like schools and halls where people can go if they have no heat or lights and Mom knows about the one where people can bring their pets.

We always have emergency kits ready in case we need to leave our house.  There is one for Mom and Dad that has their important stuff and one for me.  We keep my emergency kit on the kitchen counter.  It's a pretty box where we keep all of my medical records, license and micro chip information.  I keep any meds I'm taking, like my heartworm pills in there too.  We can just grab that and my food, put it in my crate and take everything to the car.

Since I always wear my collar and tags, we don't need to think about making sure I have them on and Mom and Dad both have lots of photos of me on their cell phones so they have recent pictures if I get lost.

Today I am going to continue to lay in the sun and enjoy a beautiful Fall day in New England.  A man named Mark Twain said  "If you don't like the weather in New England, just wait a few minutes" so if we do get a hurricane or blizzard next week, I'll just wait a minute and it will change.

In the mean time, it's best to be prepared.

Your prepared friend,

Zeva

P.S.  Blatant self-promotion.  Winter makes me think of the Holidays and Yappy Holidays!  is one of my very favorite gift baskets!

Better than Cookies!

I never thought I would think there was anything better than cookies but I would give up half of my cookies (maybe not exactly half) but some of my cookies if I could go to the dog park every day and have as much fun as I had today.

There are so many good things about the dog park that I go to.  First of all, it's seven acres which is really, really big.  We live in a place that my Mom calls "rural".  That means that there are more trees than people so our dog park has room to be really big.  It is so big that there can be lots and lots of dogs at the park but there are so many different trails that you only see one or two dogs at a time.

Another best thing about my dog park is that we get to be off leash.  I only wear my leash when I am going in or out of my car because there are lots of cars near ours.   Some times if Mom sees a dog that is shy, she will put my leash on so the other dog is not scared.  I don't know why anyone would be scared of me, but it happens.

When I do meet a dog that wants to play, most of the time our humans let us play together. Then Mom and I go on our way again until we meet another dog and I get to play with them. Not all dogs get to play but most of them do say hello before they have to run after their humans.

There is a river (not very deep) that runs along the side of the park and there are lots of places where the paths lead to beaches.  We always meet dogs who have been swimming.  May be next summer I'll try swimming but for now, I just like to run in the big fields and along the trails.

Today I met a lot of dogs and got to play with some of them.  Just before we left the park I met a Pitbull mix named Dakin.  He is only one years old and loves to run.  Mom and Dakin's dad talked for a long time so we got to play forever!  Dakin is a rescue dog too.  He got his name because he was born at the Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society shelter.  I know where that is because Mom and I collect food and supplies to bring to the shelter all the time.

Mom says as long as the weather is nice, we can go back to the park. I hope we find more time to go again soon.  Any of you who go to the Northampton (Massachusetts) Dog Park at the old State Hospital grounds, let me know and maybe we can have a play date.

Your friend,

Zeva

P.S.  Blatant self-promotion.  After a nice day at the dog park, a bubbly bath and nice brushing are in order.  Our Spot's SPA Gift Basket  (shown) is perfect for such an occasion.

Zeva The Dog An Autobiography

October is adopt a shelter dog month. I know lots of my friends are adopted, some as babies, some when they were older.  The one thing we all have in common is that we were lucky enough to choose the right humans to share our lives with.

Today I want to tell you my story.  My six litter mates and I were born in a shelter in South Carolina.  We were lucky.  Some nice person found my dog mom and took her to a no kill shelter where we were born.  When we were just 11 weeks old, we were put in a van and rode all the way to New England.

I don't remember much of the ride cuz I slept most of the way.  The ride was long and we got to ride with different people along the way.  Before we left South Carolina had our shots, were spay and neutered and had micro chips. When we got to New England, the two ladies who ran the rescue site took us to a vet and we got examined again.

Then the ladies took our pictures so we could go on PetFinders.com. That's where my Mom saw me.  She said the minute she saw my picture, she knew I had to come and live with her.  My name back then was Puff cuz I looked like a little ball of cotton and I didn't bark but made a little puffing sound. I bark now but sometimes I still like to puff.

My Mom and Dad lived far from where I was so they asked the nice lady who was taking care of me if she would please, please, please not adopt me to anyone else until they could come and get me.  It was good she made the lady promise because it took a couple of days for them to get to me and by then five of my litter mates were adopted.  It was just me and one brother left.

As soon as my Dad saw me, he said I had to come home with them,  he said it was love at first sight for him too. I think he was right.

When I saw the lady who was going to be my Mom, she looked so sad.  The two dog who lived in my house before me had just gone to Rainbow Bridge and she was very lonely.  I knew right then that I had to rescue her.  I am soooo glad I did.

Mom, Dad and me make a good team. Now all of us try to help other humans adopt shelter dogs so they won't be sad or lonely either.

If you were adopted, I'd love to hear how you found your humans.

Your rescued friend,
Zeva

P.S.  Blatant self promotion.  One of my favorite Laurel Mountain Basket Co gift baskets, Dogs In Toyland cuz a dog can never have too many toys.

Harvard, Yale or Podunk State?

So, you’re thinking of getting a dog?  Great… I think every dog should have a good home but that doesn’t mean I think every home should have a dog.

I don’t want to see any dog have to live in a puppy mill or shelter but being adopted by the wrong humans could mean that they get abandoned and end up back in a shelter or worse.

For those thinking of getting a dog, I hope you will think about a few things first.  For starters, what kind of dog do you want?  The most popular dogs in the US today are Labrador Retrievers (I’m part Lab), German Sheppards, Beagles and Golden Retrievers.    All of these are great breeds and have certain characteristics that make them special.

Let’s say you want to get a Lab because we are good with young children.  Do you know we Labs are high energy dogs so we need lots of exercise and we’re also high strung so we need good consistent training?  We’re also very smart so we need lots of mental as well as physical stimulation.  We also tend to like to eat so without a lot of exercise, we get obese.  Like humans, obese dogs tend to have many more health problems like diabetes and hip, knee and joint problems.

When choosing a dog please remember that a dog is not a status symbol, fashion statement or a lawn ornament.  A dog is a living being that needs love and attention.  If you want to buy a pure bred German Sheppard for example, you could pay anywhere from $3,000 to $24,000.  A Pharaoh Hound $2,500 to $6,500 and a Bearded Collie is a steal at $1,000 to $5,000.  The average shelter charges from around $300 to $575.  And shelter dogs often come with all of their shots, spayed/neutered and with a micro chip! 

Having a dog is expensive.  I’m not only talking about how much it costs to buy a dog, I’m talking about how much it costs to keep a dog.  The first year, the cost to have a dog in your household averages between $1,300 for a small dog and $1,800 for a big dog.  After the first year it averages between $580 and $875 a year.  If your dog gets extra special treats like I do, the cost will be more.

October is Adopt a Shelter Dog Month.  If you are considering getting a dog, please check your local shelters or rescue service and choose a dog that fits your life style.  Consider adopting an older dog if you don’t have lots of time for training.  Many dogs in shelters already know the basics, like knowing to go outside to pee. 

 You don’t have to go to a big name college to get a great education and you don’t need to pay a ton of money to get a great dog.  I didn’t come from a high cost breeder but from a really small rescue organization and I am the perfect dog for my family.

Your Adopted Friend,

Zeva

P.S. Shameless self promotion.  Your dog doesn't need lots of blue ribbons to deserve one of our Best In Show gift baskets. (shown above)