M.L.

I've been having the same type of situation lately. I've been giving our dogs raw bones to chew for 10 - 15 minutes a day for a long time. The last two times they have all gotten really bad diarrhea. Both times the bones were fresh from the butcher. The first time it happened we threw them away and went and got new. Then it happened again. I know the marrow is really rich, but I'm not sure why it is suddenly becoming a problem. Their teeth are getting cleaner (tartar is coming off in chunks!), but cleaning up piles of disgusting crap is no fun! I'm also interested in any suggestions.

I agree that most folks on here don't consider a yard a substitute for interacting with their dogs. However, I will say that a large chunk of my friends have dogs (not BCs) and they do seem to think that as long as a dog can hang out in a yard all day they are fine. I have friends who leave their dogs out when they go to work, come home and feed them and then stick them back out in the yard again while they go out. They hardly ever interact with their dogs and then they wonder why the neighbors complain about barking, the yard is dug up, trees are destroyed, etc. It may not be the fact that they have a yard, though. They would probably just leave the dogs in the house all day and never walk them if they didn't have a yard! I'm just generalizing from my experience.

My main reason for giving bones is for teeth cleaning. I'm not really concerned about the nutritional value of the bones since the dogs eat a mix of home cooked and kibble. The dogs pretty much clean the meat off the first time they get the bones. This whole bone thing is a pain! I do notice that their teeth look better, though.

I remember somebody posting that refreezing them keeps any bacteria from surviving.

I know this has been answered before, but I can't find the post. I give the dogs a raw bone to chew on every couple of days for about 15 minutes at a time. I've been storing them in the freezer (suggested here on the board) but the dogs don't like to chew on them right out of the freezer. I usually leave them sit at room temperature for awhile, then give them to the dogs. I take the bones after the 15 minutes and put them back in the freezer until next time. Could I put them in the fridge between chewings instead? And if I did, how long could I store them in the fridge for? Or is this not a good idea due to bacteria? Thanks in advance.

I plan on going but I'm not sure which day I'll be there.

It really doesn't bother me in any context. Maybe it is my Jersey trucker mouth! I'm 30, but I don't think age matters in this case. I've got dogs and bitches. I'm a bitch. My husband bitches at me when I'm being a bitch. Sometimes I'm bitchin' and that's a good thing. Sometimes I get tired of bitchy attitudes. Sometimes I like to ditch the men and hang with my bitches. And so on...

I've been teaching the dogs some commands in portuguese (brazilian) just for fun because my hubby is from Brazil and I'm trying to learn the language myself.

My three have also been on Heartgard for about 3 or 4 years now. I give it year round. There have been no issues.

I just copied your post and emailed it to my aunt in Rifle. I asked her to email it to anyone she knows in the area. Fingers crossed for a safe return!

Great news! Glad to hear of your progress!

I've had to teach all the kids in my neighborhood how to approach my dogs. They all love throwing the ball or frisbee, and they mean well, but their parents just let them run wild. Luckily, all the kids have been pretty well behaved after talking to them and demonstrating how to act around dogs. There is one five year old that is just adorable, though. She knows each of my dogs by name and before she goes near them she reiterates all the rules about that particular dog to me. "This is Willow. She's shy. I have to be gentle. Blah, blah, blah. This is Bailey. He doesn't like to be pet or hugged. I can throw the ball for him. I can't tease him. Blah, blah, blah. This is Ginger. She gets scared if I run around and act crazy. She doesn't like it if I stomp my feet. I should pet her on her chest and let her sniff my hand first. Blah, blah, blah." The kid is quite cute and extremely smart for a five year old. She even makes them sit, down or stay before she'll throw the ball - using our hand signals with the word. She started doing that on her own after watching me. It happens all the time when I volunteer, too. Kids running up to unfamiliar dogs, trying to hug them. Sticking their fingers in cages. Sometimes the adults are just as bad! I've watched people continue to do whatever they are doing, even after a dog has given a warning growl or snapped at them. Then it's the dog's fault when it bites. Or they punish the dog. I think the majority of kids are pretty thoughtful, once you explain and show them how to behave around dogs. Maybe that's just because I teach and I tend to have more patience with the kiddos than the average person. You really have to be angry at the parents and just try to teach the kids what their parents failed to teach them - including proper behavior around dogs!

The important thing to remember is to start small. Don't expect Cheyenne to pay attention to you out on walks because you have treats, etc. You will have to start the focus training at home, then move to the yard, then move to somewhere fairly quiet, then add distraction, etc. Then you will need to work on her focus when other dogs approach or when you approach them. The hard thing is that you will need to only work at her limitation, which may be when the dog is on the other side of the road. Then 10 ft. from the other dog. Then 5 ft. When you get to a point where her focus is off you, you have to go back to a point where her focus is on you. It is very hard to control situations, which is the tricky part, especially when you are out and about.

Yes, I was. Sorry, I worded that badly!

I don't always get out before the sun is properly up. I try to get out early, but the earliest is usually around 6 a.m. and the sun is already bright and hot at that time! The air is cool, but the sun really beats down on you. I can feel a decent difference between how hot Bailey and Willow's backs get and how hot Ginger's back gets. The two black dogs are significantly hotter. There are no dog parks with lakes in Tucson. I do hose the dogs down often if we are playing outside of our townhome. The cool medic vests claim to keep body temperature 25 - 30 degrees cooler than without the vest, even in 114 degree heat (coolmedics.com). Bailey has a vet appointment today (yearly checkup). I'll ask the vet for his opinion as well. Some of you may wonder why I'm thinking about this now. I've lived in Tucson since 2003. Well, the dogs are getting older and they seem to mind the heat more than they used to - especially Bailey. Not to mention I have the summer off, so I'm bored!

What if I just sew up a light weight, breathable, light colored vest type thing to keep the sun from being so hot on the black hair on their backs? Do you think that would help at all?

Has anyone used one of these cooling vests for their dog? I wonder if it works well. We are in Tucson, which means it is super hot. I'd like to find a way to keep the dogs a little cooler on walks. We walk early morning and evening, but it is still extremely hot out. Here is a link to the one I'm considering Ruff Wear Swamp Cooler - Cooling Vest.

Every two weeks. I trim them myself. It bothers me to see dogs with really long nails!

Bailey will eat bars of soap if he can get to them. I really can't see how a bar of soap can taste good to a dog. Bailey has eaten rather large chunks of soap and didn't suffer any ill effects.

I agree with Debbie's advice. It will take time and you will have to test your own patience, but you will be able to retrain Cheyenne's behavior. I used to have three out of control BCs when I got home. You heard Bailey and Willow barking - imagine coming home to that plus the crazy behavior! Now we have a fairly calm routine. I really like mat training and that may help you in this situation. You can slowly train her to "go place" or whatever your command is to have her go to her mat. You could eventually train her to go to her mat when you walk in the door where she can wait for a release command. You can either keep her there until she calms down (sending her back after release if she starts to get crazy) or you can then approach her at the mat and say hello. You can also use the mat to trigger relaxation and calmness. I do that with Willow. She gets massaged on her mat and so she is slowly starting to associate her mat with being calm and relaxed. The idea is that eventually I can use the mat wherever we are to trigger calmness when she gets worked up. I should bring it to our BC meetups! I learned this in a Control Unleashed class that I took. You can take the mat with you when you go places. I just use a bath mat. You should only use the mat for the massages and as a "go place" mat. The mat should be something new and different - don't start training with something that she has already been using as a bed. If you want the info on how to mat train I can scan it and email it to you - just let me know.

I live in Tucson and my townhome community has a decent amount of grass. I have found a few ticks on Bailey over the past month and a few weekends ago I found one crawling across my kitchen counter. I have no idea how it got there. It was flat, so it wasn't bloodsucking anybody before ending up on the counter. Gross! I have lived in Tucson since 2003 and this is the first time I've seen this many ticks in such a short period of time.

Do the dogs get them from your yard? My suggestion is to get some guinea hens because they eat the ticks. When I lived back in Jersey my boyfriend's family got some and the amount of ticks dropped considerably. Here is a link with some info http://www.lymediseasepa.com/GuineaHens.htm

Bailey had one of those little growths on his chest above his leg. It was about the same size. We went to the vet and I had the same concerns and asked the same questions that you did. My vet also thought that I should wait because he thought it would most likely go away. It went away on its own after about two months. That was about 6 months ago and it hasn't come back.

Same here! Ginger and Willow were done for the night once we got home. Bailey napped for about 45 minutes and then he was back to his usual energetic self. I had to give him some activity before bed. This morning they are back to normal. Ginger ripped one of her pads though, so she is slower than usual.

Great time at the meetup! Do you think that her leg was bothering her before the meetup? There was that moment when she cried out yesterday and was favoring it. Maybe her leg has been hurting and that is why she hasn't wanted to jump up into the truck.