One of the most rewarding things about raising a dog from puppyhood is seeing her development from a tiny, wide-eyed poo-monster into a sentient, clever, and strategic human trainer. Our trainer has taught us to give her treats whenever she does a consistent routine of movements that make us laugh, called “tricks”. In all seriousness though, it’s amazing how quickly our Havanese picked up these tricks, some within a matter of minutes. As simple as they may be, she’s got them down pat. It probably has a lot to do with her breed, which has a reputation for making good circus dogs.
note: Any training, tricks or obedience, is much easier when the dog is tired. Try taking him/her out for an hour walk or long romp around a dog run and you’ll find it much easier to keep their attention focused on you. Remember to give them lots of affection and praise when they do a successful trick. Try not to get frustrated if they don’t get it right away, as you’ve got to make training time a positive bonding activity for you and your dog. Keep consistent and practice routinely.
::THE EASY:: Sit
-hold the treat over dog’s head
-say “sit” while pushing the butt down with your hand into sitting position
Lie Down
-from “sit”, hold the treat down lower to the ground
-say “lie down” and push head down with your hand into lying down position
note:Sometimes with those above 2 tricks, you don’t even have to manually push anything down. They follow the treat, so it’s good to keep the visual cues consistent for them to follow. Eventually they’ll understand the vocal commands alone.
::SMARTIE PANTS:: Roll Over
-from “lie down”, roll dog over onto back with one hand and keep hand on tummy
-hold treat above dog, say “rollover”, and let go of tummy
- ta-da! rollover. repeat while waving treat in circular motion as visual cue
Up
-from “sit” position, hold treat way above dog’s head
-say “up” and reward with treat when dog stands up on hind legs
(may require manual prodding)
Walk
-from “up” position, keep treat above dog’s head
-move treat away from dog while saying “walk”
(Move treat away an inch at a time and reward as long as dog stays on hind legs.)
Circle
-from “up” position, keep treat above dog’s head
-move treat in circular motion above their head while saying “circle”
(Start with walking dog around in big circles and eventually make tighter, smaller circles. They’ll follow the treat.)
::BONUS ROUND:: Bang!
-from “lie down” position, roll dog over to his/her side
-keep hand on dog to keep in position
-with other hand mimic a gun
-say “bang!”
-hold dog down manually for few seconds before rewarding with treat
(Notice you may not have an extra hand to be holding out a treat. Helpful to have your friend/partner/spouse/roommate/parent to hold out the treat as a reminder for dog to focus on and look forward to.)
A great way to get your dog happy and tired without tiring yourself out are the dog runs! It’s definitely a good way for dogs to socialize and freely run around without being leashed. We like to stay about an hour to get our dog really tuckered out. Usually there is a little area penned off next to the regular dog run for smaller dogs. Even though our girl is technically a small dog (9lbs), she enjoys the space of the bigger run and playing with dogs of all sizes. The smaller run is a good way to start off young puppies, but we found that dogs are able to referee themselves and play well together, no matter the size. Don’t worry if play looks a little rough. It’s natural for dogs to bite, pull, roll, chase, hump, and paw at each other. Just make sure there isn’t any aggressive growling, barking, yelping or excessive humping.
psssst, I have a secret...
the getting-to-know-you Butt Sniff
leap!
watching the action
Some Dog Run Etiquette
-don’t leave your dog alone in the run
-always keep an eye out for pooping and clean up after your dog
-sometimes play can get too rough, so be on hand to break up anything that gets too exciting
Some Tips
-take water with you. usually hoses/fountains are provided, but sometimes not
-take a treat or 2 with you if your dog doesn’t always come when called (this can save you the embarrassment of chasing your dog around trying to get the leash back on)
-take some toys like balls or frisbees for your dog to chase/retrieve
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We try to leave our girl with something that might occupy a good chunk of her day while we’re out. We found that she just mostly sleeps when we’re gone, but leaving her the option of having something to play with at least makes us feel better as we walk out the door. Also it helps lessen their home-alone anxiety by leaving them with something they link to being “good”.
Now enter – The Kong
We mentioned this toy in our previous blog, but here’s specifically what works for us and her diet.
1. Kong + baby carrot + peanut butter
We used to do this before we started the raw meat diet, but I think it’s still a relatively healthy recipe to use for any dog. Make sure the peanut butter is unsweetened, organic is better. Drop in one baby carrot, plug up the top with dollop of peanut butter, and put in freezer for at least an hour. We used to prep this the night before and let it freeze overnight. The carrot might come out floppy depending on how long you freeze it, but our girl never cared.
2. Kong + chicken jerky Stuff generous piece of jerky all the way into the Kong. If it’s wide enough, it won’t fall out. We do this now that she’s on a meat-only diet and she LOVES chicken jerky.
We stay away from that kong “stuff’n” stuff and we’ve definitely stopped feeding our dog any pre-processed dog foods and biscuits mentioned in old posts. (We’re learning!) For more information, see excerpt.
**Also see a tip I found from Miss Kylie for bigger dogs. Great for staying cool in the summer!
So it’s been 5 months now since we started our pup on the raw meat diet. Now she’s not even a pup anymore since we just celebrated her 1 year birthday last month.
Havanese First Birthday!
We’re happy to report that she can chomp through chicken drumsticks and thighs like they’re pretzel rods, and slurp down meat faster than Kobayashi can eat hotdogs. We shot this footage while visiting my parents’ place, and she didn’t like the camera or the slippery kitchen floor so she’s acting a bit skiddish.
The Meat
So far, most of her diet is chicken. It’s just convenient for us. We can get chicken for 0.49-0.99 cents/lb and it’s an easy prep/clean up. We buy whatever packages of chicken are available (whole or drumsticks or breasts; 2-3% water; unseasoned), cut it up, put the chunks in plastic bags, and freeze for a week or two. Each bag we freeze (approx 1 lb each) will feed her for about 5 days. We defrost a bag overnight and it’s ready to eat the next morning. She eats twice a day, and each meal for her is about 2 slivers of breast meat or the meat off a drumstick. We also feed her liver once a month- just the size of a thumbnail (our dog is 9 lbs now, full-grown). As for other meats, she tried turkey during Thanksgiving. She enjoyed it, but it was a hard meat to prep. Very sinewy, thick, and has lots of cartilage-like splint things all through the meat. We’ve tried beef, which she loved (but had poo issues, see below). She also loves pork, but we’re a little wary of that other white meat. Honestly, for no logical reason. MANY raw feeders feed their dogs pork on a regular basis so don’t let this post dissuade you. We’re interested in getting our hands on goat, venison, or rabbit but we haven’t really seen it around in stores. If you have a big dog, you might consider ordering meat online in bulk. Depending on your location, you might also be successful with sites like Freecycle. We highly recommend joining Yahoo!’s Rawfeeding group for other people’s experiences, tips, and advice.
Bag of Frozen Chicken, 1 lb
The Bones We highly recommend getting a meat cleaver- we got ours in Chinatown. It hacks through bones with little effort. Makes it easier to estimate the 10% bone she’s supposed to get since she’s a small dog. For us, 10% bone is about half a drumstick per meal. She still won’t touch anything with her paws, but she does fine picking up the bones in her mouth and chomping down.
Meat Cleaver
Veggies and Supplements?
Nope, none of the above needed. As long as their diet consists of everything from the prey model, it’s plenty full of their needed vitamins, minerals, etc. Not every single meal has to consist of the prey model though. As long as somewhere in there they get organs once in awhile and a variety of meats + bones, it’s perfectly healthy. We’ve fed our girl salmon on two occasions, which she loved. (If you have excess bones, save them in the freezer. They come in handy on fish-meal days. Without the bone, it’ll give your dog the runs.) If your dog has dry skin, you might consider feeding fish/fish oil.
Helping Her Eat Salmon Sashimi
The Cleanup We spritz down the floor with our vinegar solution (1 part vinegar, 1 part water, couple squirts of soap). We wash the fur around her mouth with doggie soap. Sometimes we just babywipe her face if it was a clean meal. That’s it….
The Poo
It’s great! Well, as great as poo can be. She poops about twice a day, usually after each meal. It comes out in little hard pellets and stinks much less. She did have a little trouble with raw beef though. It’s fine going down but just recently it gave her Exploding Butt Syndrome for a day and half. We’re not so sure we want to go through cleaning that mess and losing any more rugs, so we’ll probably re-introduce it gradually later on, in moderation.
How Is She Doing Overall? As for the physical effects of raw feeding, it seems to work wonders. Her coat is silky smooth and she smells great. No need for baths unless she gets a romp around the dog run and decides to roll in the dirt. Her teeth are pearly white with no signs of buildup. We don’t have to do a thing for the upkeep- no brushing, no dog breath products, etc. (Greenies warning here.) The bones in every meal work their magic just fine.
Havanese Teeth - 1 year
She’s now bounding with energy with rockhard muscles. Sometimes after a big meal she lies on her back and looks at us blissfully with smiling eyes and tongue hanging out. She’s totally uninterested in eating human food or trash, and she clearly doesn’t miss the kibble one bit. One happy dog.
We were letting our pup grow out her hair for the winter, which looked nice AND kept her warm. But after 5+ months of no trims, this non-shedding dog was starting to leave traces of fur here and there. Eventually, brushing her became pretty high maintenance and the tangled strands were turning into huge knots that we had to start cutting out. Especially under her arms and neck.
Enough. Haircut time.
The last time we got her back from a professional groomer, it seemed like I could save $50 and trim her myself. It looked easy enough. And considering the economy going forward, I might as well start practicing now. In the long run, saving $50 every 4-5 months adds up, right?
So here we go…
12:30pm
Long and silky…
In case you couldn’t tell, she’s standing on our steel trash can.
We found this to be THE best way to make her stay still for anything we need (putting on her shoes, cleaning her ears, etc). For her, it’s the perfect size- just big enough for her to sit on and just high enough to scare her so she wouldn’t try to jump off. So if you don’t have a grooming table, look around the house for a platform or table that can suffice.
2pm…
Such a happy little lamb! Feels so fresh and light as a feather!
The Tools
1. So basically I first cut out all the big knots in her fur.
2. Then I brushed her out thoroughly with the wire brush and then used the flea comb for her face (eye boogers).
3. With the small scissors, I cut her fur all around evenly. It was easier for me to maneuver around her body using the small scissors.
4. To finish, we used the clippers to even her fur out and catch all the stray strands that the scissors missed. They also work to trim the fur on the paws and the hard-to-reach spots on the legs.
Are you wondering why we didn’t use just the clippers all around and save an hour? Well the small clippers we have wouldn’t work on her dense fur. There was way too much fur for the them to work.
We’re investing in bigger clippers for next time’s grooming session.
We found this cool new leash at the King of Prussia mall in PA. It’s essentially a short leash made of latex surgical tubing instead of nylon or leather. The principle is simple – the more the dog jerks on the collar, the more the leash pulls back. It’s like bungie jumping for your dog. It relieves the jerking effect on both you and your dog, and requires a lot less effort in your leash corrections. We got the “urban” version leash for small 6 – 12 lb dogs, which is about 1.5 ft total in length. It’s the perfect length for making your dog walk right by your side, as they should. We weren’t planning on buying any more products, considering she has a full outfit from nose to paw, but after one test drive around the mall, we decided to drop $20 and give it a try. So far so good. One little tug on the leash and she snaps smoothly back into place and seems to wander off less. It’s definitely a lot less frustrating for us and the dog compared to a regular nylon leash.
It looks like their website (www.wackywalkr.com) is down at the moment, but you can see it at Amazon.
We never thought we would be “those” people who dress up their dogs from head to toe, but lately with the temperature dropping below 20, we’ve been dressing our warm-weather pooch like this:
So it goes without saying that we’re now totally fine with doggie couture. But it’s only because she needs it. Long-hair dogs with so-called “human hair” that doesn’t shed, like our Havanese, can get cold quickly because their hair is thin and doesn’t keep them very warm. The smaller the dog, the more they need the clothing.
Their paws, however, are usually fine in the cold, rain, and even the snow. But when it snows here in the city, the sidewalks are sprayed with rock salt and ice melting chemicals that are toxic and very harsh on dog feet. Our poor girl was getting red sores in between her pads, and would gnaw on her irritated paws aggravating the situation. We put a little Cortizone ointment on her paws right before bedtime. It got a bit better over the next few days, but the redness returned after each walk. We also routinely wash her paws with soap after each walk, which we think made them drier and more irritated. We decided to put on her boots before walking.
The velcro strap-on boots (that we mentioned a few posts ago) are good in theory and look cute, but the construction doesn’t really work well for paws. She doesn’t really have ankles, so regardless of how tightly we fastened the straps, the boots always came off the paws, especially when it’s wet and slushy outside. (And going back to re-trace your steps and looking for a tiny boot in the snow is no fun.) So we looked around online and found something we thought could work:
They’re called Pawz and they’re basically the bulb end of a balloon. We got them at a place called Pet Stop on the Upper West Side. At $12+ for a box of 12 they’re not cheap, but they work great for our purposes. They come in different sizes, which are color coded. They’re a bit tricky to put on each paw, and you have to be careful not to let their nails pierce through the rubber. Once they’re on, they stay on pretty well and they completely shield your dog’s paws from any dirt, snow, rain, or whatever. They’re reusable and can supposedly last for an entire season. Ours have lasted for 2 weeks so far, with only 1 ripping. And since she’s been wearing them on her daily walks, her paws are much better and have almost completely healed. (Note: Resist the urge to wash them after each use – the rubber sticks to itself and become impossible to get back on the paws.)
Now that she’s got these rubber booties, our little cadet is too cool for school and all the grannies stop and compliment her on her bright orange kicks. She’s such a showoff.
A treadmill is a great way to get some of that anxious pent-up energy out of your dog. They LOVE it, once they get used to the idea. By no means is this a replacement for a real walk outside (all you lazy bums) – they need the fresh air and stimulation from all the sights, sounds, and smells of different environments. But if you have access to a treadmill, it’s a great second best alternative. Check out the tongue action on our pup’s first walk!
On a slightly related note, if you need to practice walking your dog, or don’t have a dog to walk, head over to Japan and play this arcade game:
This may be the weirdest idea for a video game, but if you’ve ever tried walking our dog, this should be a breeze! Do your best though, because if you fail your little furry friend will die!
Traveling with a pet, even our little 10-inch long darling, has always been a major pain in the butt and wallet. We’re starting to find more accomodating routes to travel with our furball.
Here are two promising tidbits of pet travel news:
1.) JetBlue announces the JetPaws pet travel program:
“[JetBlue] is excited to introduce JetPaws, JetBlue’s exclusive program designed to provide pets and their owners the tips and tools they need for a smooth trip from start to finish. We’re simply committed to each and every one of our customers-including the four-legged ones. There’s no charge and the program provides:
Pet carrier bag tag – a bag tag will be attached to your pet carrier at check in to let everyone know your pet is ready to jet.
Travel Petiquette – a handy list of JetBlue’s social graces of pet travel.
TrueBlue points – you’ll earn two TrueBlue points each way when traveling with your pet. If you’re not a TrueBlue member, sign up now, it’s free!
JetPaws welcome email – once you book your pet, you will receive a welcome email with useful information such as next steps, Petiquette and travel tips.
Free Pet Travel Guide – a useful, downloadable e-booklet…”
2.) Pet Airways, a new pet only airline, is coming soon. Now pets ride in the main cabin and not in cargo. But for how much?
“Welcome to Pet Airways, a pet only airline, dedicated to a pet-friendly travel experience for your pet.
With Pet Airways your pet will be safe and comfortable, flying in the main cabin, not in cargo.
From check-in at our Pet Lounge, and throughout the flight, our Pet Attendants will be caring and catering to all your pet’s needs.
You can even monitor how your pet is doing.”
