A Good Boy - Even When He Hates What We Are Doing

Phod was totally smelling like dog and the waterless shampoo wasn't cutting it so bath time!

First we put a towel down in the tub so he wouldn't slip.
Next Man lifted him into the tub.
Then I washed and rinsed.
I towel dried him.
Man lifted him out.
He shook, and then off he went.
He was awesome in the tub. I could tell he didn't love it, but he totally tolerated it.
As we don't bathe him often, I didn't wash his head, just his body.

Let's hope the smell goes away now!

Hailey's Pill Update

We are 12 days into the use of Prozac with Hailey, and while the vet said to give it a full 30 days, I thought I would updated how things are going now.

As shown on Tuesday, Hailey takes her pill like a champ, so no problems there.

The vet had said the drug could make her very hungry and to date we haven't seen that. In fact, for the first time since she entered our lives, we have seen her leave food in her dish. Phod, who has had a slight cutback in his food, is liking this and sometimes sneaks the rest of hers.

She seems to be a bit sleeper, but that could be because she is more relaxed and not hiding all the time.
She is not just going to hid at 8 pm every night. 2 nights, she actually slept on the couch.

However, when there was thunder earlier this week, she hid. She hid when we had fireworks. We had people over, including a 2 year old and she barked a lot (she actually settled in the crate for 2 hours and when she was let out she was ok). She is still showing some anxiety. We haven't had a really windy day yet to see if she is fearful of the wind. We haven't had a night of obsessive barking.

Is it working? She is being quieter about being anxious. She isn't having a panting fit in the kitchen every night.

We will give it another 2 weeks and decide if the changes in her behaviour are worth having her on meds. It is not the cost of the meds (it was $40 for the month), but more my belief in that we shouldn't take meds we don't need.

Wordless Wednesday - Synchronized Rolling

Pill Time

It has been a long time since we have had to regularly give pills to our pups. When angel Loki was dying, he had as many as 15 pills a day. Now we have Phod on 2 tablets of glucosamine 2 times per day and Hailey on Prozac once a day.

Over the years, I have tried a lot of "trick your pets" into taking the pills. I have done the cheese, the pill pockets and the peanut butter just to name a few. However, I have found the best way to ensure they take their pills is the "shove it down the throat method" followed by a treat. I have saved some of the favourite treats to go with this, after all I am a behaviour analyst and understand the power of reinforcement! When they hear me get the treats, they both coming running (ok Hailey runs, Phod comes because he is called).

Pill time looks like this in our house:

The set up - 2 pieces of Hero Lamb Liver (the treat of the week), Hailey's little pill, Phod's big pills

My girl:

My reluctant boy:

What pill method do you use?

Mischief Monday - Lady Did It

Last Tuesday, while out with the dogs in our yard, in my foggy migraine state, I threw Phod's precious (his orange and blue chuck it ball) and it was lost. I couldn't even tell you which way I threw it to even start looking in the bush. Phod frantically searched on Tuesday. He was given an all orange chuck it ball, which he lost because he refused to fetch it (I actually think he hid it). He searched for Precious all day Wednesday. He searched outside, he searched in the ball basket, he searched and searched and was very stressed every time we went out and didn't want to come in.

On Thursday, his Gotcha Day, I stopped by PetSmart and picked up a package of 2 orange and blue chuck it balls, that looked just like precious. I brought them home and gave him one. I was worried that this ball that seemed almost identical would not be a replacement for precious. (Who I guess will turn up in the fall when the bush starts to die for the winter).

Phod was so excited about the new ball, he actually threw up (I think he choked himself with it). He loves the new precious. We have put one of the 2 out and the other is hidden away, for when I, the Lady, am an idiot and loses his ball again!

Black and White Sunday - Happy Hailey

Lady's Birthday Adventure - Part 7

Today we are talking about water. Most will be in the form of waterfalls. If you don't like waterfalls, Iceland is not the place to visit. We saw hundreds of them.

Our drive along the road was littered with lots of this:

Up close at a spring run off:

Our favourite waterfall, Skogafoss was in the Vik area (south) of the island.

The mist was like being in a rain shower

Of course, there was some other really cool water in the south of the country, where the black beaches stretched out.

As we stood and watched the water batter the shores, I couldn't imagine what possessed Vikings to put their little boats in such places. 

Note the people on the rock - we saw many get soaked standing there. We didn't go that close as we didn't want to get wet or pushed in. 

One of our hikes was this gorge. It was a nice hike, but would have been nicer if we weren't walking up the hill into gail force winds!

Here are some more examples of the falls we saw:

Dettifoss, most powerful waterfall in Europe

Selfoss, near Dettifoss

Lady at the top of Selfoss

In the summer, Iceland could be called waterfall land.

Next week we will look at some of the cool rocks we saw.