My Dog Lacey

Lacey and I babysat 2 bullmastiff puppies today. It was quite a day, to say the least. The puppies are 4 months old (Lacey is about 9 months old) and they already weigh almost twice what Lace weighs.

When we went in the house, the puppies were in the kitchen behind a puppy gate. So the dogs could see each other but not get to each other. They growled and barked. I decided that wasn’t the best way to introduce them so I put the 2 pups outside and kept Lacey with me. They could see each other from afar and get used to seeing each other.

I went outside with the 2 pups and left Lacey inside for just a little bit. Of course Lacey was terribly jealous, but I wanted to befriend the pups and establish my authority. I went back in to be with Lacey and left them outside for about 2 hours.

I brought all the dogs into the kitchen, Lacey with her house lead on in case there was a brawl and I needed to get her out quickly.

It was SO INTERESTING to watch them. Lacey picked out the most dominant of them and established her dominance over him immediately. The other submitted with no problem.

The rest of the day, Lacey continued her dominance thing with them, but also played and played and played. She absolutely wore them out.

I don’t know the subtleties of everything I was observing….. I wish Neal had been with me to explain things. I know it would have been fascinating.

Now, everybody’s worn completely out. Exhausted. Including me. Babysitting 3 puppies can be pretty tiring. And so much fun!!

Anna

Lacey has her favorite places to dig in our back yard. Some of them are ok for her to dig, some of them are definitely not ok. It’s time to do something about it.

Tomorrow morning, we’re having a house projects day. One of our projects involves helping Lacey not want to dig in the rose garden. Here’s what we’re doing:

First, we’re putting up a 2-3 inch border around the area as a deterrent — kinda like a miniature fence. She’ll be able to hop over it, so I doubt this will keep her completely out of the bushes, but it’ll be inconvenient for her to maneuver around it. The area is long and skinny and part of her body has to be on the cement to dig, so the fence will scratch her belly as she digs. Get the picture?

Second, (and this may not happen tomorrow, but it will very soon), we’ll get some chicken wire and put it where she likes to dig. Specifically, it should be placed about an inch or two under the dirt across the length of the spot where she likes to dig.

If one of these two things (or the combination) doesn’t work, we’ll have to take more drastic steps. She just can’t keep digging in the roses — even though it’s hilarious to watch her do it. Especially the time she buried one of her raw chicken necks there.

I’ll be interested to see what she does when she realizes what’s happening. Hm, I imagine her grabbing it (the fencing) in her mouth and trying to pull it up or rip it or bend it or in some other way tear it to pieces.

I’ll write as things get uncovered.

Anna

ok, I have to be my mom for a minute. As much as I always hated when she would talk about me to her friends, telling them how great I am, all my (supposed) accomplishments, etc., I’m gonna be just like her now.

This is the greatest dog. She makes me laugh all the time. The way she sits on our stairs with her butt sitting two steps above her paws. She goes in the bathroom with me and watches the toilet flush — something about circling yellow water. Because I won’t buy her any toys (I’m kidding, of course. you can’t walk through the house in any direction without stepping on at least a few), she chases her tail, AND CATCHES IT! And she’s so happy. She runs around smiling and wagging her tail.

She’s soooo sensitive. The other day she took my stuffed Gretchen dog (you know Gretchen, the Westie I had for 12 years before Lacey) off my bed and was playing with her. I took it from her and said very sternly and with a semi-raised voice “no! this is not yours. no!” She slinked away with her head down, ears back, and tail between her legs, and hid under my desk until I went to get her and loved her. Fortunately, I threw all my temper tantrums and screaming fits with Gretchen. Lacey rarely gets anything from me but praise. Gretchen, had she been able to hear me (she was deaf at birth), probably would have thought her name was Jesus Christ Gretchen, or You Little S__t.

I think Lacey is clear her name is Lacey or Good Girl or Sweetie. Or in some moments, she’s Lacey the Turkey, or Lacey the Dork (as I watch her watch the toilet flush, I usually comment on what a Dork she is), or the Wild Child. all said with so much love and affection.

ok, enough with the adoration. I think it’s quite apparent how much I love this dog.
Anna

I took Lacey on our morning walk at 6am. The routine these days is to walk for a while, do a little training, then finish the walk. Inside the house, we have breakfast. She then goes in her crate while I go to the gym.

She’s getting the training, even with just a few minutes a day. I reinforce what she knows and sometimes teach her something new. She’s got “stay” and “come” now, on a 6′ leash. Next will be to get a longer leash and continue working them. Eventually, I’ll work with her off-lead, but not yet.

Today I introduced “go home”. All I did was when we got done with the walk and got up on the front porch, I said “Lacey, good go home.” I’ll do this every time we walk up on the front porch. Eventually she’ll associate them and when I give the command from somewhere else, she’ll clue in.

I love this dog.
Anna

What?! If the dog is housetrained, what’s the problem? Why does she still occasionally pee inside??? Oh, and she doesn’t just pee inside, she pees on particular rugs in a particular person’s bathroom. I’m stumped. The rugs go in the washer, hung out to dry, on the floor, get peed on, go in the washer, hung out to dry, on the floor, — you get the picture. We’ve worked on this housetraining thing quite a bit — housetraining and the house lead, and still we have this hanger-on of a problem.

It’s almost like, when she gets to go in that room, she runs downstairs and drinks a whole bunch of water, out of our indoor fountain no doubt, and runs back upstairs just so she can pee on those rugs. arg.

So I talked to my great friend and dog trainer extraordinaire Neal — dog whisperer, if you will (don’t you hate it when people say that? “if you will” what exactly does that mean? “if i will what?”).

She asked if I had deodorized the rugs, as in, get all the pee smell out with some kind of real deodorizer (as opposed to the Costco variety of detergent: “no hormones, no antibiotics, cage free” — oops, wrong disclaimer — “fragrance free, no dyes or added colors” which probably doesn’t neutralize dog or cat urine). She suggested a real detergent (maybe I’ll throw some of the Borax in that I’ve put in the carpet for fleas — it’s just a detergent, you know), and when it gets to the rinse cycle, put in a cup of vinegar. ok, I can do that. I’m not quite sure how to know when the rinse cycle comes around. Do I stand at the washer and watch the dial and when the arrow points to “Rinse” I’ll put vinegar in? That sounds horribly boring. o well, I’ll figure it out. Anyway, I should put them through the washer twice (with vinegar in the rinse cycle each time).

Then she says to deodorize the carpet underneath the rugs. Which I will do with the wonder product that I’ve used for years “Nature’s Miracle Stain and Odor Remover” which is in a white bottle with red letters and a red squeeze top.

THEN, when the rugs are dry, bring them into my room and see what she does with them. If she pees, get new rugs. If she leaves them alone (ie, no peeing), bring them back up to their “home” bedroom and see what she does. If she pees, get new rugs. If not, problem solved.

So, since I have nothing else to do with my time these days, I’m going to get right to work on this. Or, more realistically, it’s a project for the weekend.

We’ll see what happens.
Anna

Hardly. Advantage doesn’t work on ticks. Advantage works on fleas, and boy does it kill fleas. Yesterday was our second Advantage treatment. I put Lacey in her crate to sleep because last time I treated her, the place she slept had tons of dead and barely alive fleas when she got up.

This morning I immediately threw her bedding in the wash with a little bleach and got the flea comb after her. I was surprised that I didn’t get much from the comb, but there were tons in her bedding and in the bottom of the crate. Gross.

Anyway, it’s killing them. The question is, are they dying faster than they’re reproducing? Is our flea infestation being improved or just growing? Not sure, going to give it 2 more weeks like Alexis said, then maybe call Fleabusters. My friend Leslie says it works great and apparently it’s natural, you can do it yourself or have their service come in and do it for you. This is looking like a good possibility.

Now, for the tick thing. Advantage doesn’t kill ticks, unfortunately. And Lacey had a big one under her chin, just above the collar line. I didn’t even know it was there until yesterday. Alexis said to light it on fire — WHAT?!! I’m not sticking a match under my baby’s chin to see if I can burn a flea off without burning her! By the way, seems like there’s a fire theme going — burn the vacuum cleaner bag to kill the fleas, burn ticks to kill them.

Anyway, I ended up giving her (Lacey, not Alexis) a piece of ice to chew while I took a different piece and rubbed it on the culprit tick. Who knows what that did or if it helped. Then I grabbed it’s little brown, totally gross body, and worked it out. I got the head, which is always the goal. I dropped him in this metal dish and went about working on the bite (neosporin because I’ve lost my tea tree oil).

Next thing I know, I’m smelling smoke and a tick on fire!! Alexis, our (apparent) resident pyromaniac, burned the tick. Dead. At least we know that setting a parasite on fire does work to end said parasite’s life. I’m still a little hesitant to use fire too much, because of the whole burning-down-the-house issue.

Anyway, fleas are dying. Ticks are dying. It’s a good day.

Anna

Here’s an update on the raw chicken we have every day. I’ve written about giving raw chicken to Lacey a couple of times — BARF and raw chicken and raw food and raw chicken.

Lacey gets either 2-3 raw chicken necks or 1-2 raw chicken backs every day as a meal. I order them from Jimbos at about 6-8 pounds per order. A package will last 10 days to 2 weeks. If they’re frozen, I put them in the fridge and thaw them out a little. Then break them into servings of 2-3 days, ziplock baggie them, and put them back in the freezer. I pull out a baggie when I need it.

The great thing is, it doesn’t matter if it goes “bad” as we humans think of bad. The smellier it is, the more interested she is in eating it. The darker the color, even to the point of being blue, the more she likes it. Sometimes I open the baggie and nearly pass out from the smell! whew weee.

She still has to work to get it though — usually a sit/stay or a down/stay until I release her and hand it over. We only do the raw chicken on the patio, so once she gets it, she takes it over to her favorite spot in the flower bed and rolls it around in the dirt, licking it. Then she chomps down, crunch, crunch. Man, is she ever happy. She finishes then comes back for another.

BTW, dogs have potent digestive juices and salmonella, bacteria, etc gets killed immediately in their bellies. I must give this little disclaimer — before you start a total raw food diet, if your dog has been eating dry food for years, their immune system, overall health, and digestive juice potency might be compromised. Test it out and let them get healthy before you give them the stinky meat.

So that’s the update on raw chicken and my girl. oh and of course it’s organic! (no hormones, pesticides, uppers, downers, or clipped beaks in our cuisine).

Anna

Little did I know that the greatest dog toy ever would be in the form of chunks of frozen water. After all the money I’ve spent on rope toys, Nylabones, Kongs, plush and squeeky balls, multi-armed colorful octopus-looking things, tennis ball toys, pieces of carpet, bannisters (just kidding, no really, she only chewed the bannister one time and there wasn’t even any noticeable teeth marks!).

After all that money spent at the pet store, she likes ice cubes the best. They slide across the marble floor so she chases them, they’re cold and wet, she can crunch them — what could possibly be better in a dog toy, or dog treat for that matter.

Alexis usually gives them to her. I watch as Alexis goes to the freezer, talking to Lacey. Lacey runs over and plops her butt on the ground, waiting for “good sit” and the prized ice cube, which entertains her for many minutes. Of course, it melts or she eats it, but there’s a little slice of ecstacy in those few minutes while the ice is alive.

This is really a handy thing to know actually. If I want to get her attention, if her energy is totally out of control (which happens more often than I want to recount), if she’s totally being a turkey, just go for the ice. I have her undivided attention, she immediately gives a sit, and she’s entertained for a few minutes (hopefully forgetting about whatever undesireable — to me — thing she was doing before).

Is this overt manipulation? I think so, and I”m happy to partake if it gets me what I want. Which is always a dog that behaves.

I love this dog.
Anna

Fleas, fleas, fleas — do they ever go away or even just get managed?? Here’s the beginning of the story — yikes! my girl has fleas!, flea control the gentle way, and Advantage, the wonder flea product.

Before I left on my trip, I sprinkled Borax on the carpet in some of the Lacey-frequented rooms (Linda says she’s getting flea bites, and I know there must be fleas in my carpet and in the carpet of the other bedrooms). I was hoping that would kill the ones in the carpet.

I’ve been asking Kevin to spray the backyard with Sunlight (diluted, of course), so maybe he’ll do that while I’m away.

The 2nd day I’m gone, Melissa calls and says she’s got thousands of flea bites on her legs and feet. Interesting, I don’t have a single one! whatever…..

So I’m a thousand miles away trying to think of what to do about the flea problem in the house. No solutions come to mind the whole week. I couldn’t imagine why that Advantage wasn’t working because apparently Lacey still has fleas walking around all over her body.

I get home Sunday night and Alexis tells me the real story of Advantage (which she got from her friend who knows the real story). Advantage works to kill the fleas on a treated animal, but the fleas only die when they bite said treated animal. (As opposed to a flea collar where the chemicals from the collar kill the fleas without them having to bite the animal — I think).

The flea cycle (from laying eggs to hatching, growing, adulthood, death) is 6 weeks or so. So any fleas on Lacey bite her and die. Then the fleas that are in the house jump on her, bite her, and die. As eggs hatch, they look for a host (Lacey or one of the cats) and jump on for the ride. They bite and die from the Advantage. This process continues until all the fleas are gone(either death by borax in the carpet and being vacuumed or biting said treated dog). Basically, Lacey is a flea mop for the house.

Doesn’t seem quite fair, does it?

Oh well. She and the cats brought in the fleas, they can certainly host their extermination. And way better than a chemical bomb in the house, right?

I also read that fleas can be sucked up into a vacuum cleaner bag (using a vacuum cleaner of course). The key is, you have to get rid of the vc bag right away (the web site I was reading talked about burning it. Hm, that’s all I need. To have to tell the fire department and the insurance company that I burned down the house to get rid of the fleas.)

I will bathe her in Sunlight one of these days to get rid of the fleas on her in the moment. And hopefully Kevin will get the yard sprayed before he leaves for a month-long trip. Did I mention that the Sunlight yard bath is also good for roses?

Anyway, I’m determined to get these mongrels under control without harsh chemicals.
Will keep you posted.
Anna

I got home from San Francisco about 10:30pm last night. I walked in the house with all my luggage and it was so great to be home. Lacey was in her crate in my bedroom. Surprisingly, and to my great relief, the house was still intact and recognizable. Nothing expensive chewed up or in pieces (except sprinkler heads, which I’ll deal with another time).

I walked in the room and she looked up at me and started wagging her tail. She was so calm and it felt like she was relieved that I was home. Not that she didn’t totally have a good time while I was away, but it seemed like something settled down when she saw me.

I let her out and sat on the floor with her for a long time, petting, holding, playing, talking, just lovin’ her up. I was up for another 2 hours or so and she wouldn’t leave my side (except to go out to the bathroom — and I’m very grateful for that!!).

She slept until the normal getting-up hour — about 5:30 — and then she was up rustling around. I was exhausted and not ready to get up, so I opened the door to my bedroom. She was in and out, in and out, checking to see if I was gonna get up. Putting her head near my head on the bed, waiting….. waiting…… waiting, and not so very patiently or quietly. In fact, she was darn pushy wanting me to get up and get going.

Finally, I dragged out of bed, and again, she didn’t leave my side all morning while I unpacked and did laundry.

I had lunch with Melissa to get the real debrief on the week, which actually wasn’t nearly so bad as I thought it would be. We ate on a restaurant patio and Lacey had her bone in the nearby bushes (raw, of course, with some good marrow inside and it had been in the fridge so long — maybe 3 or 4 weeks — it had a nice stench going). Lacey loved it.

I know she had fun last week with Melissa because as soon as we saw her, Lacey’s whole backend started wagging, and she ran up to her so happy to see her.

I’m so glad to be home and back with my girl.
I love this dog.
Anna

ps, maybe we won’t have to go through the “I’m mad at you for leaving and I’m going to punish you by [fill in the blank with whatever horrific dog act you can think of]”. Maybe she’s happy to see me and that’ll be the end of it.