Some fun Dogland links for today:

Dogland favorite DesignSponge alerted us to Found My Animal - accessories for adopted animals and their people.  Click through for beautiful custom-made rope leashes, tags and collars, with 25% of profits going to Louis Animal Foundation.

The Onion takes a humorous look at dog parks – here’s Banjo’s story.  Also check out their dog-related “News in Photos” slideshow.  

The New York Times has a new Puppy Diaries entry  on the importance of play.  Submit your dog’s photo and story to the collection of readers’ dogs photos here!

This weekend, it was Winnie’s turn for a bath. Or, as I’m sure she likes to think of it, her turn for torture.

No matter how much this dog loves water (and she LOVES it), there’s something about water + soap + limited room to move that she despises. However, after a four-day camping trip along a stretch of muddy river in southwestern Washington, Winnie lost the bath battle.

Unwilling to subject our home shower to the same smelly, dirty mess that had infiltrated our tent and car all weekend, we decided a trip to Lucky Dog Seattle for a DIY bath was in order. We chose Lucky Dog because it’s where Winnie recently started day care, as I alluded to in an earlier post**. Rates there compare to other self-service dog washes in the area at $20/dog, or $15/dog if you bring your own shampoo. For the fee, you and your pet get:
• Your own private washing station, equipped with a short leash to keep your pup confined to the tub area
• Water-resistant aprons
• Towels for you and your pup
• Ear-cleaning supplies
• A hose for drying
• Doggie hair brushes
• Shampoo and conditioner (for an additional $5)

Though Winnie was not a huge fan of the service, we absolutely were. The short leash confining her to the tub + the hose for drying made the experience worth every penny. At-home Winnie-baths are wet disasters full of unhappy people and an unhappy pup. The self-service wash at Lucky Dog was much more efficient, effective and – most importantly to us – much less messy than an at-home bath. Only thing I’d do differently next time? Bring my own shampoo. While Lucky Dog’s shampoo and conditioner smelled lovely, it’s not quite worth the $5 splurge when you can bring a perfectly fine variety from home.

Any other self-service dog washes in the Pacific Northwest people recommend?

**On a side note, I neglected to mention in the previous doggie day care post why we chose Lucky Dog over other doggie day care options in Seattle. We’d been researching a few local options online for several weeks and had narrowed it down to a facility that was super-close to our house. By chance, the day before we’d planned to take Winnie to that facility for a test run, I met the owner of Lucky Dog while volunteering at the Seattle Animal Shelter. He was at the shelter because he had a 9-year old pit bull mix and was looking to add a younger pup to his family. He asked to meet a 9-month old pit bull named Sophie, who was an adorable ball of energy. I was the volunteer who assisted him as he first played with Sophie and eventually introduced her to his older dog.

During the course of conversation, I discovered that he owned a doggie day care and spa business in Ballard, and I told him that my boyfriend and I were in the process of scouting doggie day care options for our dog. Even though he was at the shelter on his day off searching for a new pet, he was super-helpful in talking me through the experience and benefits of doggie day care and didn’t try to hard-sell me on Lucky Dog by any means. He simply provided an introduction to “Doggie Day Care 101.”

By the end of our conversation, he decided to adopt Sophie (yay!), and I decided that I wanted to give my business to someone who adopts less-adoptable dogs from local shelters.

Between the trips to Lake Washington, play dates with their fellow fluff balls, and dive bombing in the mud during last week’s rain spell, our two pups had hit their max on filth. Even their own mother (me) couldn’t stand the smell of them for one more night. Their white fur was taking on a tannish brown color. Enough was enough.

In an effort to avoid the mess of washing in our bath tub at home and the somewhat hefty costs that can come with a full-service groomer, we opted to take our pups into a little shop we found in Kirkland known as Pup Scrub. It’s a self-serve puppy wash (although they have full-service if you really want it), and they’ve thought of everything. You pick your scent of shampoo and conditioner (we prefer the oatmeal scent), the friendly staff shows you and your pooch to your oversized tub, throw on an apron, roll up your sleeves and get to work. After spending as much time as you need de-funking your pup, you pat them down with a towel and then turn on the turbo dryers that leave their fur fluffy and full. You give a final cotton swab to the ears, run a brush through their coat and ta da , your pup is good as new.

Believe it or not, this gives you some great quality time with your dog and is actually a lot of fun. We’re even considering upgrading and getting the Booster Bath for at home, but it’s kinda nice getting to leave the fur balls behind at Pub Scrub.

Winnie has it pretty good. Between my boyfriend’s work schedule and mine, she’s home alone less than half the week. She is an 18-month old ball of crazy who cannot be left unsupervised** and is crate-trained to spend anywhere from 8-10 hours in her crate, three days a week.

Even though her crate time is minimal compared to most dogs with working owners, we still feel guilty. Winnie has an excess of energy and, like most collies, she needs near-constant stimulation to remain sane. You can only imagine how much fun this trait is when you want nothing more on a lazy weeknight than to take a relaxing walk, cook dinner and crash in front of the TV. Pretty hard to do with the Energizer bunny jumping in your face.

Guilt + our own sanity led us to Lucky Dog Seattle, which describes itself as a “day spa for your canine companion.” I like to call it heaven.

After spending the day playing with more than a dozen other dogs and a great staff of dog-lovers, Winnie returned home exhausted. She actually – wait for it – SLEPT while we ate dinner. She didn’t jump on the table, didn’t drop toys in our laps or bark at us, she SLEPT. In fact as I’m typing this, she’s snoozing on the couch next to me instead of chasing shadows around our living room. 

Doggie day care costs vary, but in Seattle it’ll typically run you anywhere from $22 – $30 per session. Lucky Dog is reasonably priced at $25 per session, for up to 12 hours at a time. It’s not cheap, but if one day a week we pay $25 to guarantee a happy dog and happy owners, it’s worth every penny.

Lucky Dog, we’ll be back. We’ll be the ones buying the 15-day package in advance.

**True story: she once broke out of a poorly-secured crate and chewed up a razor. Since then, we’ve added a padlock to the crate.

Title: Seattle Humane Society\’s \”Walk for the Animals\”
Location: University Village Shopping Center
Link out: Click here
Description: Join the Seattle Humane Society on September 27, 2009 for Walk for the Animals – a scenic walk in and around the University Village Shopping Center. Registration & Check-in for the Walk is at 8:00 a.m. and the walk begins at 9:30 a.m. The cost to register is only $30.00, but all walkers receive a t-shirt and bandana for their furry friends. Make sure you arrive early to enjoy breakfast, fun activities, yoga with your dog, and other animal demonstrations. For more event information and to register to walk with your pooch, make sure to visit the Walk for the Animals website.

Start Time: 8:00 a.m.
Date: 2009-09-27

Sometimes, my dog can be the devil. People don’t expect it from Winnie. “But she’s so cute! She’s so sweet!” Yes, she is both of those things about 80 percent of the time. But, the remaining 20 percent? Welcome, Mr. Hyde.

Winnie is good-natured, but she’s sassy. Where this behavior tends to rear its ugly head most frequently is on runs when she insists on fighting over control of the leash. (Looks like: her growling and grabbing the leash in her mouth, either pulling it in a game of tug of war or jumping up on me to try and get me to tug back.) It’s embarrassing, it’s irritating and it can be unsafe. She almost caused a biker to crash on the Fremont Bridge a couple of weeks ago…yikes!

I’ve tried several tactics for discouraging this behavior including:

• Spraying Bitter Apple on her leash
• Rubbing hot sauce on her leash
• Wrapping aluminum foil around her leash
• Turning my back and ignoring her for 60 seconds
• Moving her harness hook from her chest to her back, removing the leash from her sight
• Rewarding her every 30-60 seconds with a treat on runs when she’s behaving well
• Telling her to ‘drop it’
• Offering her a rawhide in exchange for the leash to bite

Nothing. Works. I’m at the point of trying a gentle lead (this is after she’s destroyed two harnesses and is working on destroying her third), and if that fails, I’m seriously considering a muzzle. It’s simply unbearable to run this dog on a leash, and I’m at my wit’s end for how to correct this behavior.

Any suggestions??