Archive for June 2009
Eureka! North Now in Vermont
Jan Gordon headed back to Vermont at the start of June, to avoid the Texas summer! She arrived there on Friday June 5th, and did her first consultation as Eureka! North on Sunday June 7th. We’ve added a page to the website so people in Vermont (especially around Stowe and Burlington) can find us.
Meanwhile, business continues to grow in the DFW area. We have Canine Good Citizen classes on Saturday mornings at the McKinney Community Center, and a fun introduction to agility at our location near McKinney on Sunday mornings, as well as providing in home consultations and training. Of course, we are also proud to be local distributors for The Honest Kitchen nutritious dog foods and treats (featured recently in the Food Network’s “Will Work for Food“).
Jan of course is greatly missed but continues to provide advice and support from the frozen north. However, to help meet growing demand in Texas, we have started working with Dan, and he is assisting with classes and on some consultations. He also works independently with clients who need assistance with dog walking or “walking dates” for their dogs.
No one should abandon a dog
Times are hard for many people, and animals are suffering as a result. Last October, we heard about a sweet young dog, Blue, who was trying to find a new home. We offered a free training session to whoever adopted her, and the foster home passed that information to the adopter. They also offered to refund the money and take Blue back if it did not work out. A single mother adopted the dog, and she and her boyfriend came out with Blue and we gave them some tips on how to keep control and walk her properly, and teach her basic commands.
A few days ago, we heard from the foster home. They had been contacted by an animal shelter in May, as Blue’s microchip had been traced back to them. Blue had been abandoned, and the property owner had asked the shelter to come and pick her up. The shelter did not find the chip when they scanned her, but they kept her for 2 weeks. Then she became sick and they decided to euthanize her. They did a final scan, and this time they found the chip.
The foster mother went to the shelter, and in her words “I went and picked her up and was shocked at her appearance. She was skin and bones and had a horrible head cold with kennel cough. We have decided to keep her because she had been through enough hell in her short life…I would like to sue [the adopter], not for the money but as an example. There was absolutely no reason for her to let this happen. I even told her that I’d give her money back if it didn’t work out with Blue.”
If you take a dog into your home, you have responsibilities. There are many circumstances where it is not possible to keep the dog yourself. Your responsibility is to find a new home for that dog. In this case, there was a place they could have taken the dog, but they chose not to do so. Dogs left to fend for themselves do not usually do well. They end up abused or killed, either by wild animals or by people, or simply in accidents. They become sick and often starve to death. People who abandon a dog simply lack the moral courage to take action. If the dog lives with you, you can find a shelter to take him or her. Even if it is not a no-kill shelter, the dog will be given food and safety and a chance at adoption – they will not end their lives in fear and misery.
Some people simply leave their dog in the house when they go away. Typically, those dogs starve to death before they are found and can be rescued. Other people seem to think their dog will survive if abandoned in a rural area. Perhaps they have some fantasy about returning a domestic dog to the wild. Around here, there are coyotes, wildcats, snakes, and other abandoned dogs, among many other hazards. You do not do your dog a favor by leaving him or her to try and survive in a hostile environment.
Blue is a very lucky dog. She still needs training, but she has been rescued by people who care. If you are running into difficulties and there is a possibility that you will not be able to continue to provide a home for your pet, DO SOMETHING. There is no reason to make a family pet suffer and die. Start looking at the options available in the worst case scenario. Abandoning a dog is cowardly and unnecessary.
Dog Clean-Up Continued
Well, I have to report that the vegetable oil was awesome in helping me remove all the tar from Xena’s feet. It was a big worry, because she had a huge amount of very sticky tar on all four paws, so her ability to cool down was compromised. The vegetable oil made chemical changes to the tar over a 24 hour period so that it could easily be picked and washed off. Of course, she was not steady on her feet after the initial application!
The other great piece of news is that courtesy of the Skunk Whisperer, we now have a good recipe for removing the skunk smell from dogs and their collars. It is a mixture of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and liquid dish soap, see www.totalwildlifecontrol.com. This recipe comes with all sorts of warnings, because it can be an irritant, so be sure to wash your dog after it has done its work, keep it away from eyes, etc. and make sure your dog gets plenty of oils for his/her skin. And you can’t prepare it in advance – it has to be freshly made each time! But it worked much better than the commercial remedy I was trying. (But I still think that Skunk Off is a good commercial remedy, I just didn’t have any.)