Beware of Cheap Imitations

We had a bit of a 'dog day' yesterday! 

Salvador and I decided to go and visit his friend Jameson in Franschoek this weekend and it was great apart from the scary Sunday drama we experienced...here follows the tale.

So the weather is balmy and it's great to be with a friend (after all, this week has been a bit lonely for Salvador with one of his favourite humans out of the country and the other one going off to work for a good part of the day). Naturally there are a few games of tug'o war going on and a few tennis balls scattered about, but unfortunately Salvador does not share balls and chew toys well and the game of blanket tug'o war is soon abandoned for a spot of 'who can fit the most tennis balls in his mouth'. Due to Salvador's little sharing issue, he naturally takes this too far and feels like it would be better for him to 

1. Rip up the tennis ball and, 

2. Somehow get it into a place where Jameson will never find it i.e. his stomach...

Unfortunately by the time we notice some suspicious behaviour going on under the table, half the tennis ball is already tucked away in it's desired hiding place (his stomach) and there isn't much to do. 

So the day goes on and later everyone is relaxing on the couch when the heaving and belching begins...At first I thought he somehow got hold of Jameson's food due to the large amount he was bringing up (sorry, I'm aware that this is gross...), but then we started noticing the little bits of black rubber...

After non stop puking and eventually just bringing up bile we phone the vet in hysterics! 

Luckily the vet assured us it is a good thing that he's bringing it up and that it's just his body's way of getting rid of the unwanted objects - if he is still throwing up in the morning then he should see a vet. Also no food for him that night! 

 

Fortunately he started to look a bit better soon after the call to the vet and the puking stopped and we had no issues during the night and this morning!

Now, the moral of this disgusting story is that apparently you should never give your dog tennis balls that are not bought from a pet store - YES! It seems like there is something like a pet friendly tennis ball!? I'm not sure what the difference is - obviously something that the balls are made of, but I gave one of those cheap and cheerful ones from yesterday a good sniff and it was pure chemicals! Horrible stuff! 

Be safe out there pet pals,

Licks & Kisses!

xxx 

Dog Language

Happy Friday!

Licks and Kisses

xxx

Sunday morning at Camps Bay Beach

Salvador and I went to the beach this morning with some friends. He's slightly down in the dumps because one of his best humans left the country last night for a brief work trip in the UK, so I thought the sun and sand might cheer him up.
This only being his 2nd time at a beach in his whole entire short life, he had a blast!

For some reason I thought that dogs were not allowed on Camps Bay Main Beach, but alas, I was very wrong! There were plenty of dog friends out early this morning and I'm telling you, there's no better way to start the day!

I'm slightly worried about how much he enjoyed digging massive holes though....and hoping this won't happen to our garden now...

Digging one's hole...

Protecting one's hole!

I'm also happy to inform you that Salvador was extremely well behaved towards other dogs - meeting and greeting everyone happily! Great improvement!

Licks and Kisses!
xxx

The Mysterious Case of the Dog Stealing the Tennis ball in Broad Daylight

Salvador has had many adventures, but I see the following as a true adventure in that I was not part of it and can merely speculate on the exact happenings, yet might never find out what truly happened yesterday. Here follows a brief telling of what I think might have gone down...

Yesterday I took Salvador with me to work since the girls have been asking me to do so for some time now. Upon arriving at the school, I realized we were pretty early and it being extremely hot in the car, I decided that we would go and wait out the extra half hour on a forest clearing just across the road from school - there being lots of shade and a little stream for him to catch a dip in and all. When we arrive he runs off sniffing and I find a shady spot to sit in while he explores. With this area being not very level, I lost sight of him for a while, but eventually he returns with tennis ball in mouth and all is well. At last it's time for us to go and collect the girls and the tennis ball is left on this field - I presumed it belonged to some other dog that also just left it there.

Skipping the rest of the afternoon's shenanigans, we arrive at the girl's bi-weekly tennis lesson whereupon the tennis instructor asks me, "was this dog at school today, I'm sure this dog came into the school today and stole one of my tennis balls!". So I tell him that Salvador was indeed at school this day, but he was on a lead the whole time and we were at the Primary school section, which is separate and quite some distance from the Pre-School area, where he couches the toddlers. So he says,"Strange, because a dog exactly like this one ran straight into the Prep school, took one of my tennis balls and promptly ran out again...", to which I said it must have been someone else's dog and we laughed. Although, upon further pondering about this funny story, I remembered Salvador returning to me earlier that day on the field with a RED and YELLOW tennis ball - the colors of the tennis balls the tennis teacher uses.

It then occurred to me that Salvador was indeed the culprit! This means in the space of a minute he crossed the road from the park to the school, slipped into the school parking lot, bypassing at least 3 security personnel, went into the prep school through two slam-lock type doors, which means these doors must have been opened by unaware parents at just the right moment, ran into the quad where the tennis lesson was in full swing, ran through at least 30 excited little girls (for which he has a large soft spot) and 2 fully grown human tennis couches, took a ball in his mouth, exited by way of before mentioned entrance and made it back in time to make it seem like he was responding to my 'COME' command!

No that is what I call a true adventure!
Makes you wonder what your dog gets up to when your aren't around....

Licks and Kisses

xxx

Training tips through the looking glass

Hi all,

If you live in Cape Town - how amazing has the weather been this past week and weekend?! But in all seriousness, I'm not here to remark on the weather - there has been some serious breakthroughs with Salvador this week, but alas, also one breakdown...

Last week I was on the verge of calling in a pet behaviorist due to Salvador's selective anger towards some dogs, especially when on the lead and ESPECIALLY towards puppies (I suppose it has something to do with the fact that they show weakness and with Salvador being a rather dominant and arrogant fellow, this does not always go down well).
Yet, as you might or might not have read in my previous post, we made quite a substantial amount of progress as far as meetings with other dogs go so in light of this I have started trusting him a bit more when we go to the local park and I just let him go off the leash, dogs or no dogs. I'm also feeling way more confident that he will respond to my commands as we've actively been reinforcing them over the past two weeks.
So the breakthrough occurred on Monday morning when we were on the park and a fellow park goer came along with his ball obsessed Collie X and a tiny wee Lab X girl puppy. At noticing these two, Salvador was already off the lead so tensing up and running home wasn't an option and to my amazement he promptly ran over to the older dog, stole his tennis ball and proceeded to run off with it in the direction of the puppy...I'm not sure if the thought of dropping the ball and in the processes losing it was too much to deal with for him, but he ended up running a few circles around the puppy, sniffing at her and then ran off again!
This morning the same two was at the park again and they both came up to meet him while he was still on the lead and instead of growling and aggression, he met them as if they were old friends!?
No more behaviorists needed here!!

What we've learned this week:

• Stick to your teachings, it takes time, be patient and reinforce them by giving a treat where a treat is due.
• Distraction is a great training tool! If your dog loves balls, take some to the park and use them to distract your dog from a situation where you feel there might be some tension.
• Stay calm - having a monologue ( because as much as you think so, your dog does not understand fully articulated sentences...) with your dog at his aggressive behavior towards another dog does not help. Stick to the single word commands he/she knows.

I guess it's time to tell you about the breakdown...

So Salvador has this new thing where he wants to sleep next to my bed, but due to extremely loud snoring on his part I chased him out last night. At 5 my boyfriend woke up because of noises, only to find Salvador is busy chewing up the contents of the recycling bin...I don't think I've told you that he only ever does this kind of bin destruction thing when we leave him alone at home for a while, almost like he's doing it out of anger or throwing a tantrum. 

Does your dog do this and what are your thought about his strange behavior?  

Licks and kisses!

xxx

Happy Spring Day Cape Town!!

Licks and Kisses!
xxx