Help for neurotic dogs and more!

Happy day after the fourth of July!

I ended up not going anywhere on this fourth of July.  Why? you may be asking yourself.  Well, my poor neurotic dog decided he was afraid of fireworks and thunderstorms within the last week.  Last year, he was fine.  This year, he was clawing his way into the drywall.  Not knowing he had developed this phobia, I did not have time to go talk to my vet about tranquilizers.  I guess that's just as well, because the idea of doping up a pet with hardcore drugs does not seem like the best idea in the world to me, though I completely understand those of you who need to do this for your animals.

So, I went to the store and did some internet research and came up with a plan of attack.  I read about TTouch and "wrapping" dogs for calm behavior.  You wrap the dog in an Ace wrap following a certain pattern.  The dog is calmed  because of the steady pressure.  Apparently, this has been used on autistic children, fussy babies, and anxious horses.  You can find directions here for how to wrap a dog .  I also got valuable information from the helpful people on the English Shepherd yahoo group.

I went to PetCo to try to find a pre-made dog anxiety wrap, but did not find one.  Glad I didn't, because the Ace wrap I got ended up working very well.  I got a 6" wide, 5' long one for $9.99 at Dominick's, though I'm sure it would have been cheaper if I'd driven to Wal-mart.

Anyhow, when I was at PetCo, I found an herbal pet calmer, incidentally, Pet Calm, by Richard's Organics.  Here's the Amazon page for it.  I wrote a review for it yesterday, so if you look at the one for the fourth of July, that would be mine.

July 3rd, I was at my mom's with Riley and left the stuff at home.  He was a complete mess.  Eyes bulging, muscles almost vibrating, bunching up, shaking, pacing, drooling, trying to climb into my mom's clothing, hiding in the bathroom.  The above photos are pics of him at home after the kids outside my house dropped a few pop-pops on the asphalt (just tiny things).

July 4th, I stayed home, wrapped him in the Ace wrap, gave him 3 droppers of Pet Calm and here's the result:

I live in front of a large park where kids were setting off illegal fireworks, so this is nothing short of a miracle.  As you can see, he is not hiding, he does not look concerned, and he is sleeping (it was ten at night).  He occasionally would get up and move around when there was a huge bang, but he did not look groggy or panicky.  When I took off the Ace wrap later, he seemed a bit more agitated, but still not so much, so the combination of the Pet Calm and the Ace wrap is a good one.

Hooray!  Next year I might actually be able to go out on the 4th of July!!

Anyway, since he's given me so much grief, I decided to put him to good use and use him for a model in my Zazzle store.  Here are two items I made with his gorgeous face:

I also made mugs, t-shirts, buttons, hoodies, etc., with the two designs.  You can see the English Shepherd Big Nose design here, and the Back Away design here.

I got a new camera, so there's my reason for all the photos.  It's a purple Nikon CoolPix, 12 mp, which is more than I need.  I mean, do you really need to see the individual pores in a person's face in a picture?  Not really.  But it makes for some good animal pictures:

New Hoodie and Doggie Update

Sooooo..... here's my latest hoodie, a pink, kawaii-style upcycled Old Navy hoodie, with cupcakes and hearts and everything.  It's in my etsy DaisyDreams shop.  It took me several hours to make, but it was worth it.  It's extra-super soft and awesome.  I keep thinking I should keep these for myself, but again, my hoodie collection is far too large as it is.

Puppy hurt his paw last Thursday, no idea how.  I came home from work and he was limping and did not get an answer from dog-walking friend as to whether something had happened when they went out.  Took pup to the vet and they said paw infection, antibiotics, and rest.  I dunno about an infection, since he's not licking his paw, but whatever.

The vet and the tech, however, did wax poetic about Riley's white teeth, saying they'd seen white teeth before, but these were ridiculously white.  I told them it was a healthy raw-based diet, and for the first time ever, they did not chastise me.  They apparently now have a holistic vet working there, so they can't say much anymore. :0)

So, I'm taking it easy with Riley and we're walking in our local park instead of at the hunting training grounds. I don't think I'm going to the training grounds anymore till tick season is over.  Staying in our sprayed park from now on.  It's worth having a slightly hyper doggie if it means no ticks!

Tomorrow is my 34th birthday!  My students are all up to something.  I think they just want an excuse to bring food and not do class.  I told them we could eat cake and do class at the same time. :0P

More to come...  two days till the weekend!

Rose Geramium Oil, Ticks, Frontline, Pets

Hooray!  I'm back!  And I finally built a website.  Get to my website here.  Then, you can get to know everything about me.

I've been, for the past few weeks, trying to figure out some sort of tick repellent for both me and the little shepherd dog.  He needs to run every day, at least 20 miles off leash (yes, that is per day, still) or he's a nervous wreck.  The only place to take him is a local training ground for hunters.  Unfortunately, it's full of ticks, and ticks are disgusting.

I always thought I was "immune" to ticks, mostly because I went 33 years without ever having one stuck to me. There was, obviously, grave disillusionment on my behalf when I found a tick embedded in the crook of my knee later that night. There was actually more shaking and feelings of nausea than disillusionment, actually. I know, I know. I'm such a wimp-girl, but I live alone and I had to pull it out by myself, and oh-woe-is-me!

Sooooooo.... I put Frontline on every being in the house except me. If they made Frontline for humans, I'd be all there. I hate the idea of sticking all those chemicals on the cats and the dog, but ticks are not my idea of good times.

I researched natural repellents, and came up with, from many Google searches, essential oil of rose geranium. I can't use it on the cats (be careful with cats and essential oils), but I apply it to Riley's collar and to myself (mixed with a carrier oil on me). I also spray my neck and hair with a solution of water and rose geranium.

And the results?

We both smell like the grandmas-of-yore, with rosewater perfumes. They don't call it rose geranium for nothing. But... in the past week, I've found only one attached tick to Riley. This is a definite improvement from 3 a night.

Riley hates the smell.  Apparently, putting a strong scent on a dog inhibits their sense of smell.  So they get disoriented somewhat and feel the urge to roll in such attractive smells as dead fish and deer poop.  Yummy.  Riley did this, and he rubs his nose on the ground.  After he gets outside and starts running, he forgets about it.

Luckily for us, these are dog ticks, not deer ticks. I don't know how this would work on deer ticks, but I do know it seems to be working on the dog ticks. It's been a bit cooler here this past week than it was two weeks ago, so maybe temperature has something to do with it. I did read, however, that ticks are active over 45*F, so I guess being that it was 65*F as opposed to last week's 80*, it's not really an issue.

I'll continue with this, because I'm curious. It would be nice to know that it works. I also purchased some Palmerosa Oil, which is cheaper and is said to have the same effect. I'll keep you posted, mostly because I have become neurotic about ticks.

I purchased both the Rose Geranium Oil and the Palmerosa Oil from Ananda Apothecary online. It was excellent, quick service, with degradable wrapping, etc. Very nice stuff. I'm not affiliated with them. But I am their Facebook Fan!

Above are some pics of the little Shepherd dog at the training grounds. He found a construction helmet and a dead fish (mmmm....sushi), and spent a lot of time toting them around.