Walking smart in darkness

It's that time of the year when the mornings are dark as are the evenings. Our neighborhood has very few street lights and no sidewalks so we are very aware of poor visibility and sharing the road.
Since I am a natural geek I take precautions to attempt to be visible.
I wear a high visibility vest with reflective stripes. I have reflective bands around my ankles and I try to wear light colored clothing.
Bugsy being dark would be impossible to see for drivers so he has a reflective collar, a white mesh vest with reflective stripes and a red light that attaches to his collar.
I am still very aware that we are likely to be barely visible until the vehicle gets fairly close.

Please no matter what color fur your dog has take some precautions - safety before fashion.
There are many reflective collars available, the light I have is by RuffWear but others abound and get an inexpensive safety vest for yourself. I've seen the latter at Walmart, farm supply stores, and various other places.

I was reminded once again of how poor the visibility is when I drove home last night about 9pm and I didn't see a man walking two labs until I was nearly on them.

I love my cool dark walks but I do all that I can to make them safe - you should too!

Halloween and Dogs - play it safe

A few safety tips copied from an Honest Kitchen email:
Halloween Safety

As you prepare for Halloween this year, keep these safety tips in mind to help keep your animal companion out of harm's way.

1. Guard the Halloween candy — chocolate and certain sweeteners such as Xylitol can be fatal for pets so be sure to keep your Trick-or-Treat stash stored safely and out of reach. Remember that empty plastic and aluminum wrappers can be just as dangerous as the candies themselves.
2. If your pet does consume a large amount of chocolate or candy, make a call to the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center for guidance. If in doubt, take your pup or kitty to the vet in case medical intervention is required.
3. Don't take Fido Trick-or-Treating — Many pets can be frightened by unusual sights and sounds that come along with Trick-or-Treating, so keep them at home for their own safety. Nervous pets can feel very alarmed when kids in costume try to pet them, and this could result in a fear based bit in extreme cases.

well that was clever

Yesterday Bugsy did his normal nuisance behavior at about 3pm desperate to get my attention.
When he does this and I have the time, I grab the clicker & some Charlie Bear treats and do a few minutes of training.

I had a hide-a-gingerbread toy (its a house with three small toys that go inside the house) and his intellibone toy. The latter is a center piece with five rings that go over the center and the dog must remove the rings.

He does both of these very quickly so to make it a bit more interesting I decided to toss the small gingerbread toys around the room after he removed them and told him to 'bring it'. 'Bring it' is a term we use in various situations but not in this context prior to yesterday.

By using the clicker I got him to bring me one of the gingerbread toys, for this he got a charlie bear treat. Then something amazing happened - amazing to me anyway - he collected the two remaining toys and brought them to me - not one at a time. For this he got a higher value treat (Zuke's)

We then moved on to the intellibone. First I had him remove the rings for which he received a treat, then I tossed the five rings around the room and told him to 'bring it'.

He brought me the first ring - earned a charlie bear
Then he brought me THREE rings! - earned a few charlie bear treats
Then he brought me the last ring and the center piece to earn the Zuke's treat.

I don't know enough about dogs to know if this is unusual behavior but it sure impressed me.

I did the intellibone with him a few more times and each time he at times brought a single ring and others brought 2-3 rings.

I admit I thought this was way cool

Even Bugsy has some quiet moments

Most of the time I describe Bugsy (accurately) as insane. Anyone that meets him would say the same.
But my boy has a sweet side of him that he reserves for me and sometimes my husband.
Earlier this evening he huddled up close to me and nuzzled his head in my neck and worked himself under my arm. So gentle, so CALM and peaceful.
Wonderful moments.
He has an amazing scent about him - not very doggy, not of shampoo, just his scent. I can't really say what it smells like but it is a nice smell. A very nice smell. A smell you can only detect when he's up close.

I cherish these quiet still moments all the more because of his inability to be touched as a puppy. He was over a year old before I could pet him without him getting up and trying to initiate a game or mouthing me. It took even longer before he would lay still for my husband. Sometimes he even lets a friend snuggle him must to the surprise of all witnesses.

Thanks for the quiet sweet moments Bugsy I hope that we can enjoy them for a long time to come.

FUN , FUN , FUN

Yup there's been lots of fun of late. We finally have consistently cool mornings and evenings. The days are still too warm for insanity but hey even the Bugs needs a nap on occasion.
He's been out and about and playing with his girlfriends and sneaking into people's homes (not really I was told to open the door a bit and their dog would come out but instead Mr. Greased Lightning flew in and said hi to all the inhabitants before being captured and escorted out).
This morning as per usual he had his Sunday playdate with his girl Izzy. They are always good for a laugh and today didn't disappoint.

He greeted Izzy with kisses - but she looks not too pleased with his breath or something


We did have one not so happy moment when Izzy decided that sharing his ice cube treat was not good enough. (I put some cheese or bacon bits or other yummy in a 32oz yogurt tub and fill it about halfway with water before freezing. It makes a cool low cal treat and he loves to gnaw away at the ice) At first Bugsy was so happy when she came over to join in,

but then she really went after him and we had to break the treat in two and then all was right again. Poor Bugsy he always wants to share and he usually has his treats stolen and/or gets ripped into!

Very happy to say there was no issue once we had two hunks of ice they ate their ice and went right back to being silly best buddies!

He did it!

We are enjoying a little break from the heat with lows in the 50's so I decided that it was time to take Bugsy on a hike.
Somewhere different, green, and with water access
I decided to go to Raven Rock State Park and was really pleased with the trails, the day, the people we saw, and the Cape Fear River.
The trail we chose, OK I chose it LOL, was 5 miles and labeled 'moderate'.
We haven't done any trails in well over a year due to his knee so neither of us is tip-top shape but I thought I was in decent shape.
This is leading to this; we were very tired at the end!

I was getting a bit concerned about his legs but I didn't see him limping just tired. No limping last night or today, just tired legs.

Well not so tired, in fact we just had a Bugsy move - we blocked the doggie door that leads from the porch to the free world because a friend was coming by and we didn't want him charging the car to greet them.
So she pulled in the drive, he realized who it was and he leaped over the footstool in front of the doggie door, hit the porch door which swung open, but instead of going out of the opening door he dove through the doggie door as the door was swinging open, so he nearly crashed into the house windows but didn't.

Now one could say is a bull in a china shop and no doubt he is but he is a darn agile bull LOL = INSANE

chocolate and your dog

Just a quick post to share an informative article on chocolate and dogs. Most dog owners are aware that chocolate can be dangerous for their canine buddies - this is a chart of which types of chocolate are more dangerous
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/10/pets/chocolate-chart-interactive