Today was a BEAUTIFUL sunny Sunday in Seattle! Not the first day of Spring, but the first day it really felt like the flowers would begin to bloom. While I’ve enjoyed playing on the snow-packed mountains with the pups, I’m thrilled for the abundance of warm weather, fur-friendly activities. Below is the beginning of our 2010 Spring/Summer must-do list. Lots to do, but I’m sure I’m missing a ton of hidden, creative and downright fun ideas, and that’s where you come in. Big and small, all ideas are welcome and appreciated.

Dogland Approved Activities

• Hop the ferry and float your way to the San Juan Islands for a relaxing weekend with your dog(s)
• Step into action and walk for a cause. We had a great time participating in last year’s Walk for the Animals and can’t wait for round two. September 26, 2010 (we’ll post more on this later)
• Escape the bustling city and head south to the Oregon Coast where you and your pooch can pop a tent and unwind to the sounds of the sea
• Grab your pup, then grab a brew at Norm’s Eatery & Ale House
• If you only have an hour or two, visit your local dog park (Magnuson’s our favorite), stroll around the neighborhood and let your dog socialize and smell the activity around them, or get a heart pumping exercise in with a hike through one of the thousands of Washington trails

Above all else, don’t forget to keep your dogs cool in the heat.

Happy adventures!

Before I dive into my next and long overdue post, I would like to first sincerely apologize to my fellow Dogland bloggers and five (maybe six?) loyal followers for my lack of posts over the past few months. I wish I had a good excuse, but sadly I don’t.  I’ve let life (work, gym, volunteering, funeral, holidays) get in the way of writing about two things I love dearly, Ruckus and Kaiya.

The good news, however, is that my furry babies have not been tossed to the side like my writing. They’ve enjoyed trekking through Alpental’s trails, hiking through St. Edwards’s forest, splashing in Lake Washington and playing with their 500 closest friends every week at Magnuson.

I’m happy to report I’m back on blogger duty and look forward to sharing our many adventures and lessons learned. And a special thanks to Angela (and Winnie) for holdin’ down the fort, er blog.

Winnie and I have a long-standing battle on where and how she rides in the car. I say it should be in the back, she thinks it should be in the front, on my lap. Completely frustrated (not to mention scared for our lives) Alex and I bought Winnie a car harness that enables us to strap her in using a seatbelt in the backseat. Problem solved.

Well, for a while.

If you know Winnie, you know she is nothing if not determined. That little stinker manages to wiggle out of her harness or unbuckle her seatbelt about 60% of the time. It’s usually just when she’s super amped up, like when we’re on our way to Doggie Day Care. She knows the route and knows exactly where we’re going.

In the past month, the problem has gotten worse. I fight back and by pulling over when she wiggles her little way out and buckling her back in, but it’s a giant pain if you’re on a tight schedule. I also tighten the harness everytime before I put it on her, and I don’t know of any other way to lock the seat belt than by buckling it.

Any other thoughts? More fool-proof solutions to keep her buckled in? My next stop is tranquilizers, so all suggestions are welcome.

Sharing a link to this USA Today post about Dogland Adventure pup, Winnie! Hope to see a post about Jenna go up soon as well, and we’ll flag if and when it does. In the meantime, I encourage you to follow USA Today’s ‘Paw Prints’ community. They’re doing great work sharing stories about dogs everywhere, including rescue pups who overpopulate every shelter in the country. If the stories they publish inspire just one person to adopt from a shelter, that’s a wonderful outcome.

Santa was good to us this year, bringing us snowshoes and warm weather gear. To show our appreciation, we made the trek to Stevens Pass, hitched the huskies up to long leads and hiked our way through the snow and up to some of the best views I’ve seen in a long time. Even Jenna (the foster husky who recently found her perfect forever home) made the trip.

I can definitely say I am now a true fan of snowshoeing. LOVE IT! Even when Kaiya dragged me down a good size hill on my back screaming and laughing all to be clothes-lined by Jeff and Ruckus at the bottom. At least they stop us from going off the side. But more than me, our dogs loved snowshoeing. For them (and us) it means lots of exercise, cold weather and piles of snow to play in.

Next up… Snoqualmie!

What to take for your pups:

• Long lead, preferably attached to a harness: Our “kids” are too young still and their prey drive is on overload, so unlike Jenna, they aren’t quite ready to go off leash; I’m looking forward to the day they’re ready for this.
• Snacks: To avoid the dreadful bloat, make sure you don’t feed your pooch a big meal right before they exercise. However, like you they’ll likely want a couple of treats if you take a break mid-hike. Then, following the hike they’ll be ready to chow down.
• Water: Our dogs were more interested in eating the snow than drinking the water we brought, but still a good idea to have on hand since they’re working up a sweat like you. And don’t forget the water bowl.
• Proper attire: I know, who says this for dogs, but it’s true. If you dog has a short coat and you plan on being outside for a good amount of time, pack them a warm waterproof dog jacket. You also never know when a storm may roll in and better to be prepared than watch your furry loved one shivering.

Like a moth to a flame, Winnie can’t get enough of sharp objects. Be it pruning shears in the garden, an axe near the wood pile, a razor knicked from the shower or a tantalizing knife block on the counter, Winnie loves to find the most dangerous objects in our home and put them in her mouth. I don’t know if it’s the thrill of living on the edge or just the fact that most sharp things have handles made out wood, rubber or something else Winnie loves to gnaw on, but it’s her own personal little fetish. And it scare the bejesus out of us.

Take a look at some of the lovely objects we’ve discovered in Winnie’s mouth over the past several months. The plunger she dismantled isn’t really scary, just gross.

About four weeks ago Jeff and I (and Ruckus and Kaiya, of course) welcomed our first ever foster pup – a five year old husky/Samoyed mix named Jenna.

After living her entire life chained up in someone’s backyard with no shelter and poor nutrition, the sweet girl was abandoned in a park and then sentenced to her death by the Kent animal shelter. The day before Jenna was scheduled to be put down our good friend sprung her from the joint and brought her to live with us until we found her forever home.

I’ll admit, the first one-two weeks were challenging. We had to keep Jenna separated from our other animals since she came to us with kennel cough, which we think came from being in the shelter for three weeks. Jenna was timid, malnourished, didn’t want us to pet her except on her head and wasn’t 100% housebroken. If you did pet her back of legs she would emit an ear-piercing cry. However, we learned so many great things about Jenna in just a couple of days of knowing her that we had no doubt she would soon make a turn for the better. Now, just four weeks after joining our pack, I’m so happy to say that Jenna has been reborn!

Below are just a few of the things that make Jenna such an amazing animal, and a couple of things she still needs to work on. All-in-all, Jenna loves people and will want to be very close to whoever she ends up with. She needs a fully-fenced yard, someone who will exercise her at least 5 days a week, will need to sleep indoors and will need someone that is patient and willing to gain her trust. If all that is done, her forever home will have an amazing animal to love and who will love them in return.

I have grown to truly love Jenna, the little white fuzz ball that has a strong resemblance to the Coca Cola bears. If we could take in a third dog permanently at this time, I would keep Jenna in a heartbeat. I’m so excited to see how Jenna will continue to flourish.

Jenna’s Pros:

• She’s not in the least bit aggressive. You can put your hands in her food bowl when she eats, take toys from her, feed her around our other dogs and wrestle with her.
• She loves to be outdoors: The girl can run, enjoys going on hikes, always up for a walk, loves car rides and likes to wade in the lake.
• She’s super friendly: Jenna gets along with our cats, our two huskies, all the dogs at the dog park, adults and children.
• She’s a great listener: Jenna knows her name really well, comes when you call (usually, she is still a husky and they sometimes have selective hearing), is often in our front yard with us and never runs off.
• She’s a FAST learner: It only takes Jenna once to learn if she likes doing something or not. From car rides to dog parks, everything is new to her and she learns by watching our huskies and often mimics them. She also learns commands really well. Within a week she learned to sit for her treats, she learned “down”, knows what we mean when we say “who’s hungry” and goes running to the bin that holds the food.
• She mirrors your energy: If you’re frustrated, she’s concerned, if you’re stressed she’s stressed, but if you’re happy and smiling, she is tens times more excited and shows it by doing screams of joy and talks to you with the husky chatter.

Jenna’s need-to-knows: (I don’t call them cons because she doesn’t do anything because she’s bad, she’s just ignorant to certain things due to her past)

• Housetraining could use some work: She has had only a couple of accidents in the house and realizes as soon as you catch her that she did something wrong. The problem is she’s just now learning how to tell us when she needs to go out, and there have no accidents in over a week. We have been crate training her in the evening when she goes to bed and put her outside often during the day. She’s definitely catching on.
• She’s a bit self-conscious: Jenna was chained up her whole life and it appears physically mistreated as well. Therefore, it takes about two solid weeks of someone giving her love, patience and guidance before she feels she can trust them, relax and let someone pet her all over without cringing or giving one of her ear piercing shrieks.

To learn more about Jenna, visit http://home4jenna.tumblr.com

If you’re interested in being considered for Jenna’s forever home, email home4jenna@gmail.com

Had the first appointment with Bark Busters this weekend. All in all, a good experience. The method is sound, and our trainer (David) is knowledgeable and clearly knows what he’s doing. He let us know that our biggest challenge with Winnie – surprise, surprise – will be in getting her to pay attention to us and to respect us as the leaders of our pack. While we saw results with David coaching us at every turn, we’ve continued practicing with Winnie 20 minutes per day with mixed success.

Bark Buster’s philosophy is that dogs act out when they are unsure of their rank in the pack and feel insecure about who is in charge. For peace in the home, this requires dog owners to communicate with their dogs as canine pack leaders do to clearly demonstrate who is the Alpha and who is the Omega. This includes growling – yes growling – at your dog. I was skeptical at first, but don’t knock it until you try it! Growling at your dog when it’s not behaving serves as a warning to it that it’s acting out of line. You growl to get your dog’s attention (the HARDEST part about training Winnie without treats…ug), then when you have a brief moment of attention-giving submission, you correct your dog into the appropriate behavior and praise it as it complies. For instance, if you’re trying to break your dog of the habit of freaking out every time someone knocks on your door, you should do this:

Knock at the door

Dog rushes, barking the whole way, to see who is there 

Owner: “Grrrr”

Dog: looks at owner

Owner: crouches down to a welcoming position “Come”

Dog: goes to owner

Owner: “Good dog. Sit. Stay.”

In our home, it sometimes looks like that. Most often, we have to add a few more growls and loud noises before we get her attention, might have to grab her leash and pull her to us and it can take a while to get her to focus on a sit/stay. Winnie is an incredibly high-energy dog that would rather focus on everything around than my or Alex’s voice. Even David called her a “pill” and told us she’s one of those dogs that will take a lot of work and creativity on our part to consistently capture her attention. Wonderful.

David did give us a good tip for potentially turning her energy down a notch: changing her diet. Right now, Winnie eats Iams kibble, the same thing she ate at the Humane Society. David pointed out that Iams top ingredients are all high-carb foods, which will eventually turn into sugar in her system. We might as well be pumping her full of candy. He recommended that we gradually switch her to a dog food that is higher in protein-rich ingredients. The change in her diet – combined with our daily training – will hopefully result in a calmer, more well-behaved dog in about 4-6 weeks. I’ll keep you posted.

After nearly six months with Winnie, we’ve reached a breaking point, and something has to change.

Don’t misunderstand me; Winnie isn’t going anywhere. We love and adore her. However, we find ourselves at a critical point in our relationship with her where it’s time to get serious about course-correcting her destructive behavior.

I’ll be the first to admit that we haven’t been as diligent in her training as we should be. Winnie (like many dogs) requires continuous reinforcement to succeed. We’re busy, sometimes we’re lazy in enforcing the rules, and too often we let her win. Though we invested in weeks of positive reinforcement training, practiced that training at home for hours and hours, give her regular exercise and have managed our house to the point where no trashcans sit on the ground and no food is left unsupervised anywhere, we are failing to properly channel Winnie’s excessive energy into something good and to reign in her bad behavior.

At the end of our rope, what have we decided to do? Throw money at the situation and bring in an expert.

In a couple of weeks, we’ll have our first appointment with David from Bark Busters, a franchise of in-home dog trainers based in cities across the globe that promise to train even the most untrainable of dogs. Bark Busters offers a few different levels of service for your dog, and the program we’ve opted for involves inviting David into our home for a 2-3 hour consultation and intensive training session for Winnie, with unlimited consultations over the course of the next 12 months. He’ll help us learn how to communicate better, set boundaries that we all understand and (ideally) leave us with a plan we can implement to successfully correct Winnie’s destructive behavior.

Via Dogland Adventures, I’ll chronicle our experience with Bark Busters and the resulting training program we implement. I recognize that the first step to success is in acknowledging that the bulk of responsibility in Winnie’s success lies in our ability to enforce routine and continuity into our daily interactions with her. Just as I know Winnie is good, smart, kind dog who wants nothing more than please us, I know that we can return her good intentions and establish order in our pack that makes everyone happy.

Quick post to catalogue the things Winnie has destroyed in the past month. My oh my, I think it’s time for an in-home trainer…

• A keyless entry device for a Honda Civic
• A pair of sunglasses
• A hands-free cell phone earpiece
• A book
• A vase
• A mini-mouse sensory button embedded in a laptop

Fortunately, most of these items are easily replaced, some at a higher price than others. As luck would have it, in the same week Microsoft launched Windows 7 (full disclosure – I work for an agency that does PR for Microsoft  ), Winnie’s destruction outlined in that last bullet may be a sign that it’s time for me to upgrade my existing PC. Which new Windows 7 machine should I get? Check them out here and let me know what you think: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pc-scout/default.aspx