http://www.dailydogwalk.com

There are some great deals on dog food and treats at Tractor Supply or anything else you might need for your four footed friend at Drs. Foster and Smith.
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Thanks. K

Blood pressure, not perfect but still in the normal range for me.

Blood sugar, high but to be expected for the Monday after Easter.  Note too many candy eggs, throw the rest away.

Weight, up by FIVE pounds.  I didn’t eat that many candy eggs did I?

So as I laced up my shoes and hooked the dogs to their leashes, I began to contimplate going back to a more strict Atkins diet.  I hate Atkins and the very thought of all that meat makes me want to puke, but there is no better way to lose weight than to feel nausea all the time.

So the dogs are crazy as soon as I open the door.  One is pulling around the front of the car and the other is wrapped around the shrubs and the third is wrapped around me.  We haven’t even left the house and I’m getting frustrated.

My Mastiff is hell bent on pulling me sideways and my Rottie wants to wrap me up in her leash.  Then my Mastiff decides he is tired so he stops.  There is no way I can move him when he doesn’t want to move.

Our hour walk is beginning to look like it is going to take all day.  My blood pressure is rapidly approaching the popping point.

Then I looked at them.  My beautiful dogs sitting there on the sidewalk, panting and looking so healthy and happy.

How could I be angry with them.  My frustration wasn’t their fault.

They weren’t following me because I wasn’t leading them.

So I took a deep breath, chanted my meditation a couple of times and when I opened my eyes, the dogs were looking at me as if they were waiting for instruction.

We made it home.  Our hour walk was a hour and twenty minutes but by the time we got home, we all felt better.

So….

Take your dog for a walk, it can be a spiritual experience.

Check me out at www.dailydogwalk.com or tweet me at kathryn223

If you buy dog food, dog treats, dog vitamins or toys or whatever, check out the links on my web page for some pretty good prices and great selection.

See ya on the walk.

Are they nuts!!!  Let’s give the Insurance companies just one more way of making a fortune.  But that is not the thing that really gets me going.  The idea that ALL dogs over 40 pounds are dangerous is absolutely insane.

I have been attacked by more little dogs than big dogs.

But the truly scary thing is that we are not teaching our children how to be around dogs.

What if every person who currently owns a dog or wants to own a dog, subjects themselves and their dogs to a training class.  This class would teach how to handle a dog, take it for a walk and how to provide for it so that the likelihood that it will bite are diminished.

And what if we included children, being children, in those training classes so that dogs that don’t live with children, know how to be around children and children learn how to be around dogs.

And what if we incorporated dog classes in our Elementary schools.  Children would learn how to approach a strange dog.  They would learn the danger signs of a dog that is about to attack and most of all what to do about it so that they don’t get hurt.

And then there are people.  I know this won’t be popular but there are some people who should not own dogs.

Recently in our town a couple of dogs attacked and killed an infant.  Tragic!  But completely preventable.  The dogs apparently belonged to the family of the infant.  They were confined to a small yard most of the time and were known to be vicious.  (Why they were vicious is anybodies guess but I bet it is in part because they were not exercised and were probably not fed properly and probably had limited contact with humans.)  Anyways, the dogs were in the house on this day with the grandmother who was babysitting.  The grandmother laid the baby down in his crib and left to fix a bottle.  The dogs were in the room with the baby.  It is anybodies guess as to why they attacked the baby, Grandma was injured as well, the dogs were killed by police.

It is cases like this that says there are people who have no business owning dogs.

If you aren’t going to teach your dog that people are to be respected, then your dog is going to be a danger to others.

If you aren’t going to exercise your dog, then he is going to be frustrated and unpredictable.

If you don’t feed your dog regularly, a diet that his system needs, that is a meat based diet, then he will be sick and unpredictable.

And finally you need to introduce your dog to other people and animals or otherwise he will think everything and everyone is a target.  (Okay, I tried to introduce my dogs to my daughter’s kitties but the kitties would have no part of it and my dogs were just a bit too excited so kitties are still a problem, especially ones that look like my daughter’s.  Squrrels are a problem too.)

So instead of more laws that don’t make sense, why don’t we use a bit of common sense and train our kids how to be around dogs and train our dogs how to be around people.

Check me out at www.dailydogwalk.com  or tweet me at kathryn223

“Oh My God the dog is loose!!!  Call out the National Guard.  Get SWAT on the Phone.  Don’t Let him run in the street!!!”

Then they get a hold of him and they start swearing a blue streek or “spanking” the poor dog.

That happened just this morning.  We were walking along and saw a woman with a couple of dogs.  No big deal, it looked like she had them on leashes and so about four houses from her we started to cross the street so that we wouldn’t meet face to face.  About that time another woman came running out of her garage and she is waving down the woman that has the two dogs.  The woman with the dogs stops and is tring to hide behind a large garbage can.

Now I realize my dogs are big scary dogs, really they are cuddle babies, and most people just don’t want to come near them but this was different.  These two women were in a panic and nothing had happened.

So as we approached the woman with the dogs, from the other side of the street, one of her dogs started pulling and barking at us and got loose.

Both women started screaming and swearing and chasing this poor dog who is now excited and scared and probably a bit agressive.  He wants to sniff my dogs.

My dogs stand there and are watching all this as if it is a three ring circus.  They move close to me and begin to tangle as the loose dog circles them trying to get a sniff and stay out of arms reach of his frantic owners.

The scene was becoming so loud and crazy, the neighbors were coming out to see what was going on.  One man stood right in front of me as I was becoming wrapped up May-pole style and bid me “good morning”.

INSANITY!!!

Finally the dog got his sniff and his owners chased him off toward home.  As we began to move off, I heard more swearing, telling the poor dog that he was never going to go walk again, and finally a yelp.  I can only assume that they were hitting him.

Okay folks here’s the deal…

If your dog gets loose, the thing you need to do is attract him back with what ever it is he loves.

If you are chasing him, he thinks it is a game.  If you are angry or frustrated he is going to be frightened and not come to you.  But if you are the best thing in the world, he will want to come to you and be guided by you.

Okay lets back up a step as well.  In the first place it is your responsibility as the human to not let your dog get loose.  If you are walking and you know your dog can get out of the collar he has on then get a different collar.

I use a choke chain.

A choke chain is a chain that tightens up when pulled, and if you use it correctly, it will loosen just as easily.

That was this ladies problem today.  She had a standard leather collar on the dog that he could slip his head out of.  Had she had a choke chain on him, he would not have escaped her and the leash.

I know that a lot of people don’t like choke chains but if your dog is a threat to get loose, you need something he can not get out of, and choke chains work.

And if he gets loose, don’t scream, don’t swear, just be the person who he would want to come to.  And if all else fails, keep a pocket full of his favorite treats handy.

For those of you who have a dog park you go to, train your dog to come with a whistle.  let him loose in your back yard and blow the whistle and call him, when he comes give him a treat.  Do this a couple of times a day for a week or so.  Finally he will come with just the whistle and no treat.  But I’m a big softy, I give them the treat in the car after the park.

And please walk your dog. it is good for both of you.

Check me out at www.dailydogwalk.com or tweet me at kathryn223

I walk my dogs twice a day, in the morning and in the evening.  I have big dogs and when I round the corner, people often gasp and back away or they stand and stare.  It is only little kids that recognize that my dogs are not something to be afraid of.  Kids love dogs, they have to be taught to be afraid of a dog and that is another blog.

Today’s blog is about people who just open the front door and let the dog go out instead of putting on a leash and taking them for a walk.

Okay everybody knows that dogs like to go on walks.  My son who has walked dogs and knows that dogs like to walk contends that his tea cup dashund doesn’t need to walk because she is so small.  WRONG!!!  It is funny that he will take her out to do her business and when she is through, she doesn’t want to come in so here is my son running after this little dog who won’t come in.  In mom fashion, I suggested he get a leash and put it on her when she needs to go out but that is too much like taking a walk.  What ever.

My problem is with dogs that people let go to “walk” themselves.

This morning we picked up a cute little dog that someone had just let out.  He followed us, he led us, he became a part of our pack.  It was cute, my Mastiff, and my Rottweiller, and this little Corgie.  By the time we got home, we named him Shortie.

Now most of the time when a dog is loose, last night is the perfect example, the loose dog will shoot out from somewhere and bark and bite at us.  Last night we ran into 4 loose dogs just in our neighborhood.

The first one wanted to walk but because he also wanted to mate with my female, he was very disruptive.  His owner tried to catch him but because she was only going to lock him up again, he ran from her.  Finally we went to far and he turned around.

The second was a very small poodle that escaped out an open door.  He was aggressive and tried to bite my Mastiff’s heals.  My Mastiff is pretty laid back, if the dog had tried to attack me, that poodle would have been in trouble.  He disappeared as quickly as he came.

The third one was out side with his family and wanted to bark at us and chase us off.  His humans didn’t move or do anything to stop their dog from attacking us.  Fortunately the attack didn’t last long, only a couple of houses distance.

The fourth dog was outside with his owner as well but he was a big dog.  He focused in on my Mastiff immediately.  I was really afraid that there was going to be a fight but the other owner came out and retrieved his dog.  Only a quick bit of butt smelling and they were gone.

It makes me so angry that people don’t leash their animals.  I know in a perfect world, all dogs would get along.  All dogs would stay by your side or stay calm and not chase or charge other animals.  In a perfect world…

People with little dogs see their dogs as cute or funny when they attack a big dog but if that big dog turned and bit at their little darling, the big dog would be the bad one.

Please people, love your dog, put him on a leash when he is outside and please take him for a walk.

The little Corgie that followed us home, had a microchip in his skin so we were able to get him back to his owner.

Check me out at http://www.dailydogwalk.com  or tweet me at kathryn223