Too Many Toys?!?!?

It’s almost here!  The Holiday Season that is.  Lots of folks don’t like “the holidays” because they feel rushed and stressed out.  Not me, I love them.

 Sure, we work more time at the Studio making our gift baskets, but that’s fun. It’s fun because we are making gifts that make people and pets happy.  I ‘specially like my job when I’m testing new toys or filling the pet gift baskets with them.  I make sure there are lots of toys in them cuz from experience I know you can NEVER have enough toys.  And treats, you can never have too many of those either.

 Different pets like different toys.  Personally, I like toys that I can chase or play tug of war with.  Right now my favorites are the blue ball that makes a flashing light when it bounces and my tug toy made out of a fire hose.  I drop the ball at the top of the stairs watch the blinky light go all the way down.  If I get tired of going after it, I let Mom get it for me and put it back in the toy box.  The fire hose tug toy is really like two toys cuz it’s also a good carry around one.

 Since DixieLee came to live with us, we had to change the kinds of toys that we get.  She didn’t get the nickname Dixie The Destroyer for nothing.  She should work for a pet toy company.  If a toy lasts for more than five minutes with her, they can say it is indestructible.

 When she moved in she ate all my soft cuddly and squeaky toys, but that’s okay since they weren’t my favorites anyway. Now our toy box is filled with toys like Kongs and antlers.  We love antlers.

 I have to admit, I’m still learning what toys should go in our cat gift baskets.  Since we don’t have a cat that lives with us, I have to rely on the cat friends we’ve met on line.  Obviously I like social media. I have this blog, I sometimes write for the company blog, I manage the Laurel Mountain Basket Co Pet Division Facebook page and I have accounts with sites like 3MillionDogs.com and PetPav.com.  There are some really smart cats on PetPav.com so I get good advice from them.

 Cats love treats too so we make sure we put lots of treats in our cat gift baskets.  Cats seem to like shiny things and feathers.  They also like balls that they can hit with their paws and chase.  We have lots of different kinds of balls.  I like to put the little ones with a bell inside them in most of our cat gift baskets cuz those seem to be a favorite with our cat friends.  The best cat toy, I think anyway, is the one that looks like a mouse. It is soooo cute.

 Well, time to check the inventory to make sure we have enough toys for the upcoming Holiday Season. 

 Your Santa Paws Helper,

 Zeva

 P.S. Blatant self-promotion.  Holiday Special! 10% off any of our Pet Gift Baskets, now until December 20, 2014 so act today.  On line ordering, enter the coupon code “Yappy Holidays!”.

 

Dogs Have Allergies Too

I have to go to the Vet again cuz I have the itchies.  I have scratched my face so hard I have little cuts all over and I have licked my legs so much I how have hot spots.  I don’t like having the itchies.

 Mom tries putting tea tree oil spray on my hot spots but I don’t like it much.  I know when she picks up that green spray bottle I’m going to get squirted so I run and hide.

 When Mom called the Vet people the lady at the telephone said I probably had an allergic to fleas and that I should use Advantix.  We don’t like putting chemical on us and our Pet Protector says it keeps fleas and ticks off of dogs.

 Flea allergics is the kind dogs get the most but dogs can have other allergics just like people.  We can have allergics to pollen, grass, cleaning products, mold, dust mites and other stuff.

 Until I get my appointment, I can take a Benadryl.  We don’t like taking Benadryl cuz that’s a chemical that goes on the inside but if it stops the itchies and I only have to take it a little, it could be okay.

 Mom also started giving us fish oil cuz it’s got some Omega-3 stuff which is good for lots of things and it’s more natural.   I wish we could have real tuna fish but that’s not happening.

 Mom noticed that I was licking and scratching way more and what is normal and then one day she saw I had bloods on my face from scratching.

 We can’t always tell our humans when we don’t feel good so here are some ways your humans can tell if you might have allergics.

1. Lots of scratching.

2. Lots of licking.

3. Red patches and irritated skin.

4. Licking or chewing feet.

5. Rubbing face in the carpet or on furniture.

6. Rubbing or scratching ears.

7. Coughing or sneezing.

8. Breathing hard.

9. Lack of energy.

 Having the itchies is not fun.  I’m not looking forward to going to the vet because she is going to make me step on the scale and if I haven’t lost some pounds I’ll be in trouble but I sure would like to get rid of these itchies.  I hope she can make them go away.

 Do you get itchies and if you do, how do you make them stop.

 Your scratching friend,

Zeva

 

P.S. Blatant Self-promotion.  Have a friend who needs a little pampering?  One of our Spots SPA Gift Baskets will do the trick.

Rain Rain Go Away

Just because I’m part Lab and my ancestors were probably St John’s Water Dogs doesn’t mean that I like to get wet.   I really hate the feeling of water squishing between my webbed toes and bouncing off of my head.  I know that my pretty coat is water repellant so cold water doesn’t get next to my skin but it still gets wet and drippy and I have to shake, shake, shake until it all gets off.

I thought I was the only one who didn’t like to get wet but I found out that lots of dogs would rather not go outside when it is raining.  Some dogs, like my sister DixieLee, will even hold their pee for a long, long time rather than go out in the rain.  I won’t go that far but I don’t waste any time when I do go out.

Most people think that dogs don’t like to go out in the rain because they don’t like to get wet.  Well, that’s only part of it.  Some dogs, like me, don’t want to go out in the rain because rain is noisy.  It’s all splashy and drummy.  Remember, our hearing is better than yours so that pitter patter you hear sounds more like bam bam to us.

Sometimes the rain brings thunder and lightning with it.  Thunder and lightning make rain much worse but that’s a subject for a different blog.

There is another thing that hurts our ears when it rains.  It’s called barry metric pressure.  I’m not sure how it works because it’s about science but when rain comes, especially if it’s a big rain, the barry metric pressure falls down and makes our ears feel funny.

There is one good thing about going out in the rain and that’s coming back inside.  When we come back inside Mom and Dad are waiting for us with big fluffy towels and extra treats.  They wrap us in the towels and scrub us until we are nice and dry.  It’s very relaxing and a cookie makes things like getting wet feet and drippy coats almost worthwhile.

Do you like to go outside in the rain, and if not, what do your humans do?

Your fluffy dry friend,

Zeva

P.S. Blatant self-promotion our Puppy Power Gift Basket is filled with lots of toys and treats for playing indoors or out!

Walkin' The Dog

The mail person brought a package for me and DixieLee the other day.  It was a surprise.  Mom bought us new harnesses.  I have to admit I am not the best leash walker.  I like to go fast and Mom is so slow.  It’s not her fault that humans only have two legs so they can only go half as fast as us dogs who have four legs. 

 Not being a great leash walker hasn’t been a big problem since we do most of our walking at Dog Park or at Dog Mountain where I don’t have to be on leash.  It would be nice to be able to walk other places so we have tried a bunch of different collars and harnesses but I didn’t like any of them.   I had a nice harness that I sort of liked but I still pulled cuz I wanted to go faster.  I know, we are supposed to do training but it just frustrates Mom and me so we gave up

 I liked that harness, it was a pretty purple color and it worked okay until DixieLee ate it. With two dogs to walk, we really needed to find something that made us be good leash walkers. Instead of buying a new harness right away, we tried using a gentle leader but I didn’t like it on my face.  DixieLee is okay with her gentle leader but it makes her face itchy and she tries to rub it off after it’s been on for a while.

 We looked at all kinds of leashes and harnesses but we didn’t like any of them much.  Then Mom heard about a new kind of harness that connects the leash to the front on my chest instead from behind on my shoulders.   It’s called Walk Your Dog With Love.  It works sort of like the gentle leader, turning me around if I start going too fast or going in a different direction than Mom wants me to go in.

 My new harness is black which looks absolutely stunning on me and goes nicely with my pink collar.   DixieLee’s is blue which looks very nice with her brown coat.  Mom’s pretty good with knowing fashion stuff.  This harness is very easy to put on too.   With my other harness, I had to pick up my foot and then Mom had to clip it this way and that.  The Walk Your Dog With Love harness is super easy to put on.  It slips over my head and Mom takes the strap under my tummy and clips it on the other side.

 Having an easy to get on harness is very helpful when you have a dog like DixieLee who gets so excited that she rolls around and squiggles every which way when you try to get her ready to go out. Mom likes that these harnesses are made in the USA.  They even have some stuff called Scotchlite on it which makes it easy to see us in the dark. 

 We tried them out today and I think they are going to work good.  We all went for a big walk in town and I hardly pulled at all.  I walked slower and Mom was able to keep up.  DixieLee walked better than me but that’s cuz she got to practice yesterday.  The only one who failed walking was Dad.  He was a real slow poke.  He needs lots more practice if he is going to walk with us again.

 Going for walks is one of the best funs we have so I’m happy we found a harness that makes walking even more fun.  Were you always a good leash walker and if not, how did you get better?

 Your good walking friend,

 Zeva

 P.S.  Blatant Self-promotion.   Our To The Rescue Gift Basket has everything a new dog needs, even a pretty leash.

The Ten Pound Challenge

I had my annual check up at the vet last week and I am soooo upset.  That mean man said I was FAT.  What's worse is he said in front of the techs and anyone in the waiting room could hear.  I was so embarrassed and upset it's taken me this long just to talk about it.  I may need to go into therapy.

I am part lab and we all know labs aren't skinny chic like greyhounds.  Labs are more robust and have a layer of fat around us so we don't get cold in the water.  So my layer of fat is a little thicker than some other lab's layer of fat.  So I'm  a few pounds overweight.  Well, actually ten.

Instead of siding with me, Mom is siding with the vet.  She says it's all Dad's fault.  Since he got retired he is home with us all the time and he was much easier to train than Mom.  DixieLee and I figured out that if we want a treat and our usual tricks like looking cute or showing him where the cookie jar is don't work, DixieLee goes into Crazy Dog mode.  She runs around and jumps on the furniture.  I chase her until Dad says "enough" and gives us a cookie to quiet us down.

Works every time. Well, it worked every time until Mom read Dad something called the Riot Act.  Now we only get half cookies and only right after meals and before bed.  Now when we do Crazy Dog Dad makes us go outside instead of giving us a treat.

The mean vet gave Mom this teeny, tiny cup to measure my food with too.  He said that I don't need to eat as much as the people who make the dog food say I should eat.  After all, they want me to eat lots so we have to buy more.  Mom always bought us good quality food, not loaded with fillers, but even if it's full of good stuff, too much isn't good for you.

I guess the only good thing is that Mom thinks DixieLee is getting a little chunky so she only gets the teeny, tiny cups of food and half treats too.  The other thing is we are supposed to get more exercise.  I like that part.  Exercise means playing and going for walks.

When DixieLee came to live with us, Mom thought she would be a good playmate and we would get lots of exercise together.  That didn't work out so well.  She and I both like to nap and she'd rather chew on a toy than play chase.  My friends Sadie likes to play chase so Mom said Dad needs to take me to play with her more.

Dad likes that cuz Sadie's Dad is his good friend and they do guy stuff all the time.  Last time they got to paly with these big machines that dug a giant hole  in the ground.  DixieLee would have been impressed cuz she likes to dig holes.  When I go to Sadie's house we just run around her yard.  I like her yard because it is miles big and there is no fence.

I would really like to make that ten pounds disappear because I don't want Mom to be upset.  She said dogs who are overweight get died sooner than dogs who aren't and she wants me to be her Zeva for a long, long time.  I'm good with that!

Any of you have any suggestions.  Did you ever have to lose weight and if so, how did you do it?

Your starving friend,

Zeva

P.S. Blatant self-promotion: Every dog is a good dog, that's why we created our Good Dog Spot gift basket.

How Spoiled Are You?

I heard that celebrities and people with lots and lots of money spoil their dogs.  For example, Paris Hilton’s dogs have a two story dog house with a winding staircase, pink walls and a balcony. 


Hummm…. What’s the big deal?  I have a two story house, well if you include the basement where we have our studio.  It has stairs but thankfully the walls are sort of white, not pink! We don’t have a balcony but we have a nice screened in porch we can lay in and watch the birds and squirrels.

 DixieLee and I have our own place in the studio with a big soft rug and toys so we can play and nap when we get tired of working and we can go anywhere we want upstairs.  We can sleep on the big bed or on the couch and we each have our own creates in the office if we want to have some private time.

 
I also read that there is a company that makes mink coats for dogs.  How horrible!  First of all I have my own fur coat and it is quite beautiful, thank you.  Second, why would I kill another animal to steal its fur?  Sometimes I worry about humans.

 
Did you know they make dog collars with diamonds in them?  I sort of liked the one I saw.  It was very sparkly and it might look good on me.  I’ll have to figure out how many dog cookies I can buy for $1.2 million before I ask Mom to get me one.  The diamond collar is very nice but if I have to give up too many dog cookies, it’s not worth it.

 
Speaking of cookies, mostly we get ordinary cookies.   When she shops for regular cookies, Mom makes sure they are made in the USA.  Too many pets got sick or got died from eating cookies not made in the USA.  Sometimes, we get special cookies, like when we get an order from Locomotion Pet Treats for our gift baskets or samples from another company we might like to order from.

 Another friend, Organic Pet Boutique, has a Kobe Beef and Truffle Jerky Treat that sounded pretty good to me but Mom said $1,000.00 for an 8 ounce bag was a little out of our budget.  They have other treats we can have, but not that one.  She must be right cuz she knows money stuff.

 Summer time is vacation time.  Some dogs have to stay in kennels when their humans go on vacation, others get to go along.  I read about one dog who won a special vacation that cost $73,000.  He got to do lots of stuff like get a chauffeured car ride, had a personal chef, got grooming and Reiki sessions and got to meet a famous author and dog behavior expert. 

 
I don’t see what was so special about that.  We get chauffeured car rides all the time.  We get chauffeured to the vet, the dog park and daycare.  No big deal. We have a personal chef.   His name is Dad.  He fixes us breakfast, lunch and dinner and makes sure we have our snacks on time.  We can get groomed when we go to day care, I hate it but DixieLee likes to have her nails clipped, and Mom is a Reiki practitioner so we get Reiki all the time. I got to meet The Amazing Dog Training Man lots of times.  He is a famous author and a famous dog behavior guy.

 

 

 You don’t have to live with a celebrity or a super rich person to be a spoiled dog.  We have a sign at our front door that says “Spoiled Rotten Dogs Live Here” and I guess that’s true.

 
If you’re a spoiled rotten dog, I’d like to hear what your humans do for you that makes you feel special.

 Your Spoiled Rotten Friend,

Zeva

 P.S. Blatant self promotion.  You can have your very own sign that says:  A Spoiled Rotten Dog Lives Here so there's no question who's spoiled at your house.  Just go to our website and order and I'll make sure you get your special sign.

 

Dogs Against Fireworks

July 4^th (Independence Day) is a big holiday for humans in the United States.  They get together and they have picnics, which means the Dads cook on the grill and everyone eats outside.  Then, when it gets dark, they like to have fireworks.

 Fireworks are an important part of the Independence Day celebration.  Even the old guys who signed the Declaration of Independence said the day should be celebrated with bells and bonfires and the Congress of Philadelphia said there should be 13 fireworks to represent the 13 colonies/states.

 Fireworks are big explosions of color in the sky which I might like if it weren’t for the noise. Fireworks are very, very loud.  Human have little ears that are close to their heads.  Dogs have big ears so we hear things ten times louder than you do.  That would make fireworks very, very loud times ten.

 I read a lot and so I know all about 4^th of July and fireworks but most dogs don’t so imagine, hanging out at home, catching a little nap after a nice day of begging for treats at the picnic and all of a sudden, the world explodes!  Whoa!  Next thing you know, Spot and Fluffy are 20 miles from home and still running.

 Here are some things humans can do to help pet not be scared when there are fireworks.

 1.  First thing is to know when there are going to be fireworks.  Lots of towns have big fireworks shows where everyone goes to the park and watches.  LEAVE YOUR DOG AT HOME!  Check for fireworks in all towns near you because, remember, dogs can hear things happening much farther away than you can.

 2.  Make sure your pet has their tags on and that their microchips are up to date.  That way, if they do run away, it will be easier for them to find someone to help them get back home.

 3.  Being in the house will make your pet feel safer.

 You can make it even better by keeping the lights on (not only humans are afraid of the dark).  Closing curtains helps with the sound and with the flashing lights.  When I’m scared I go in my crate and close my eyes.  DixieLee’s crate is a wire one so Mom puts a blanket over the top and two sides.  She keeps the front open so DixieLee can get air.

 If your pet doesn’t have a crate, keep them in one room.  If they get really scared, they will want to run and could hurt themselves running and jumping from room to room trying to get away from the noise.

 Make sure they have water.  Drinking water can help keep calm.

 Turn on some soothing music or the tv.  Having a little noise will make the house more “normal”.

 4.  If you are home with your pet, don’t get crazy yourself.  If we want to cuddle, hey, cuddling is good, but if we don’t, please don’t force.  Remember we are scared and scared pets will scratch and bite even if we don’t mean to.

 If you set up a nice room for us but we prefer being under the bed, let us stay under the bed.  We know what makes us feel safe even if we can’t tell you.

 5. If you know your pet is really scared of fireworks, talk to his/her vet.  They may be able to give them something to help keep them calm.  I prefer something herbal but that’s up to you.  My friends tell me Thunder Shirts work too.

 6.  If you had fireworks at your house, check the yard the next day.  The firework’s casing and sparkler sticks don’t make the best toys.   

 Knowing your pet is safe will make celebrating Independence Day much more fun for you.

 Your friend,

 

Zeva

 

 P.S. Please check out my new Facebook page at Laurel Mountain Basket Company Pet Division where you’ll find lots of fun and interest pet posts.  Like us while you’re there.  Don’t make me beg!