Memorial Day Photos and Doggy Dentist

Doggy Dentist: First, the less exciting news: Ecko had to go to the vet yesterday to have a retained puppy tooth extracted. Her adult canines are coming in just fine, and all puppy canines but one had fallen out on their own. Despite our best efforts giving her bones to chew on and even trying to wiggle that stubborn tooth, it wasn't even budging. When I picked Ecko up in the PM, it became apparent that we had made the right decision in having the tooth removed. The root on the tooth was very healthy and long, with no signs of letting loose any time soon. Ecko seems none the worse for wear and will likely be quite happy that we are no longer obsessed with her teeth!

Memorial Day Photos: Jan and I (with Chili, Stoker and Ecko) enjoyed a relaxing Memorial Day weekend in Florence with Dick and Ginny (Reef owners). Jan got some super shots of the PWDs playing on the beach, along with some photos of the surrounding area and Old Town Florence. A slideshow of the photos should appear below.

Old Dummies, New Dummies

Some girls collect shoes or purses, I collect dog "stuff". Since water training is my absolute favorite thing to do with the dogs, it stands to reason that a great deal of the training gear I have is related to retrieving and water training. I have a sizeable collection of retrieving dummies.

Some of my stash of old dummies is in the first photo. The closed cell foam canvas dummies with the orange throwing ropes (Winchester brand) are among Chili and Decker's favorites, but they both like to play tug with them and "pop" the foam with their teeth. The dummies look the worse for wear pretty quickly. A friend died a batch of these purple for me, because this is a color dogs are supposed to be able to see well in most light conditions. The black/white striped dummies have been favorites for years. These are old style Katies Bumpers dummies. Their newer style dummies are riddled with holes after one throw for Decker, but I think you can still request the old style dummies. They hold up well even against Decker's abusive jaws and are heavy enough to throw accurately and far. The striped pattern makes them easy for the dogs to locate. Less enthusiastic retrievers that don't like retrieving hard dummies often don't care for these dummies initially, although they can learn to like them with lots of positive reinforcement.

A friend of mine recently turned me on to a new supplier for dummies and with their amazing prices, I was compelled to place an immediate order! The camo puppy dummy at the left (on sale for $1.99 each) and firehouse dummy in the center (3.95 each) should be perfect smaller dummies for Ecko as she gains confidence in the water and I am hoping the B/W dummies ($3.99 each) may be tough enough to hold up to Decker. The camo dummy came with a throwing rope and I ordered ropes (75 cents each) for the other dummies.

Here is where I placed my recent order (thanks Janet for turning me on to this place!):
Lion Country Supply Inc

And here are some other neat water websites:

Katies Bumpers - Check out the article on canine color vision about half-way down the homepage on the right.

Canine Water Sports - Check out the "splash and learn" section for good articles etc.

Ecko Posing

Shark Teeth and Timid Little Shark

Ecko has been losing some of her baby teeth lately and we actually found two of them in the last few days. I found an informative article that talks about canine teeth/teething/types of bites etc and you can read it HERE.

Two comments on the article:

1. Retained puppy teeth - these are not uncommon in PWDs so keep an eye on your pup's teeth in the next month or so. In my experience, it is usually the canine teeth that are retained and may need to be extracted by your vet. Before you make an appointment to have your vet look at your pups retained canines, try giving him some heavy duty chewing for a few days in a row. Raw beef knuckle bones or other similar bones will often help loosen and knock puppy teeth out. Make sure your pup is always supervised when he is chewing on a bone.
2. In one place in the article it talks about shaking your pup lightly by the scruff if he resists having his teeth looked at. Scruff shaking is never a technique I would recommend.

Ecko's confidence with strangers has fallen off a bit recently and her confidence in general is a bit lower than usual. It seems like this sometimes happens in conjunction with teething.

I took Ecko on a walk around our neighborhood after dusk the other evening and made a note to myself that I need to walk through our neighborhood more. She was out in front of me trotting along on the leash, but her tail was lower than I like (denoting lack of confidence) and she was doing lots of looking from side to side (to check for scary things).

I took her on another walk yesterday during daylight and she was much more confident - about most stuff anyway. We walked behind the school where a track meet and softball game were taking place and she seemed to take the loudspeaker, starter's pistol and other noises in stride. A lady walked past on the sidewalk, looked directly at her, reached out her hand and said "cute puppy" and all "heck" broke loose. Ecko hit the dirt, dove behind me and got as far away from that "scary" lady as possible. "Scary" lady continued on up the sidewalk and I continued on also, hopefully making this little episode almost a non-issue in Ecko's mind. We subsequently passed several people who ignored her and she got treats and "atta girls" for checking them out without panic.

I took Ecko back to work with me later in the evening and asked our admin. person to socialize her with as many new people as possible and she did fine with that. She got lots of tasty treats for every new person she met and was mugging strangers for cookies by the end of the evening.

If your pup acts worried about strangers, Sarah Wilson, nationally known dog trainer and best selling author (Good Owners, Great Dogs and My Smart Puppy) recommends:

* "If your puppy is frightened of someone, tell that person to ignore the puppy. Go stand near that person and act relaxed. Shy puppies are always more comfortable approaching rather than being approached. Chat for a few minutes and allow the puppy to investigate if he wants. If he is hanging way back, try tossing a treat his way. Remember to stay upbeat! When he takes the treat, drop one closer to you, then closer and closer. Ignore the dog. Let him get it if he feels like it. Instruct the person to squat down, sideways to the puppy. Direct eye contact will frighten the pup, so have them look at the floor. Be verbally supportive, "What a dog! Say hello!" and walk over to the person. Don't allow the person to reach for the pup. When the pup finally does approach, have the person reach under his chin and scratch his chest. Reaching over his head will spook him. If he is too frightened to come all the way over, don't press it. Be happy with the success you got and move on."

The Springer

No, not a Springer Spaniel, a Springer bike attachment for exercising the PWDs... I had a chance to try this device out years ago with a friends big male Bouvier, Marc. It was pretty amazing how little you could feel when Marc tried to pull to duck into a driveway or visit with a person on the sidewalk. I've been wanting to get the dogs more exercise, but with three adults and a puppy needing exercise and training, I needed a more efficient way to get the job done.

I took Chili and Stoker out with the bike last week once and tonight, after the temperature cooled down, I took each of the big dogs out one at a home to let them stretch their legs. Chili (the endurance queen) went for 20 minutes and Decker and Stoker each did 15 minutes. When I got finished with that, Ecko and I took a walk around the block to give her a little exercise and entertain ment too.

April Showers bring.....Puppies?

How do you get to enjoy the excitement of a litter of new PWD puppies without breeding a litter of your own? Share the excitement of friends that have litters, of course!

I'm working on getting Mother's Day off so I can do a Sunday/Monday visit to my friend Janet's house to visit her litter of pups. Her babies are around five weeks old this weekend (I think) and should be six weeks old if I go visit Mother's Day weekend. That's a super cute age for a visit, so I hope I get to go. You can see Janet's litter by clicking on the "puppy blog" link on her website. Click HERE for the litter page on her website.

Chili and Stoker are also anticipating the imminent arrival of some little nieces and cousins, as Chili's sister Bella is due to whelp this weekend. Bella is owned by my friend Mandy Ford and Stoker is in the same agility class as Sailor and Rebel, two of the pups from Bella's previous litter. To stay updated on Bella's litter click HERE to check in on Mandy's blog. Click on "Spencer-Bella Litter" to see all blog entries in the category.