Holiday Related Safety!

Dog Safety Tips For Christmas And The Holidays Brought to you by *Pup Life*

Dog Safety Tips For Christmas And The Holidays

Be sure to make this holiday season safe and enjoyable for everyone in your family by observing the following dog safety tips:

Dogs and Christmas Trees
If you have a live Christmas tree, keep the water stand covered. Pine sap mixed with water makes a poisonous drink for your pet. The smell of a live or artificial tree may cause your pet to urine-mark it. It may help to bring the tree into an isolated indoor room for a day or two, so that it smells more like "home."

Secure Christmas trees to a wall or ceiling hook with sturdy fishing line. This will help prevent the tree from toppling over should your dog jump on it or accidentally knock it over.

Dogs and Christmas Ornaments
Pick up any ornament hooks, tinsel, or ribbon that fall on the floor. Your pet
could experience serious internal injuries if any of these items are ingested. If you have a dog or cat that is tempted to play with the ornaments on your tree, decorate the bottom third of the tree with non-breakable, plastic, or wooden ornaments, or decorate only the top two-thirds of your tree. Make sure that your dog has plenty of dog toys available, so they do not become bored.

Dogs and Holiday Treats: Be Extra Careful
Keep holiday treats and candies out of your dog's reach. Additionally, remember to move out of reach any wrapped gifts under your tree that may contain food items. People food, especially in excess, can make your dog sick. Chocolate, onions, raisins, and alcohol can be fatal to dogs! Only feed your dog healthy dog treats.

Dogs and Holiday Lights
If you have indoor holiday lights, be sure they don't hang so low that your dog could become entangled in them. Remember to unplug the lights when you're not home to supervise your dog.

Pets and Candles: Safety First
If you have a bird, make sure it is safely in its cage if you're lighting any
candles. Additionally, lit candles should be kept out of any dog's reach.

Dogs and Holiday Flowers and Plants
Poinsettias, mistletoe berries, and other popular holiday flowers can cause serious stomach upset for pets. Check with your veterinarian or local poison control center to find out what holiday plants and flowers you need to keep out of your dog's reach.

The information in this article is courtesy of the Dumb Friends League. All rights reserved.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, in celebration of Thanksgiving I thought i'd post Winston's holiday photo for 2005! There are a lot more, but the rest will have to wait until closer to Christmas!



Winston's favorite Leader Dog, Willow had a wonderful idea of posting what she was thankful for this Thanksgiving. I'm pretty sure that Winnie would be thankful for a lot more than I can think of, but here is my best attempt. :)

*His foster mom, Laura!
*His original trainers (Betsy, Roseanne and Julie)
*His job
*Not being stuck in the house all winter like last year while I recovered from surgery.
*Clicker Games
*His favorite Aunt, Megan.
*The Hilbert-Hess family (including Delta Therapy Dog Molly!)
*His well trained best friends in the entire world!! CPL Ivy, SSD Ross and SSD Sequoia!
*His little brother, Liberty
*Food!!!
*Zeth and Dierdre and the entire Phila Pet's gang!!!

And so much more, i'm sure.

Oh, and I almost forgot. Winston and I started a new task this week! Something i've wanted to do for years, teach Winston to throw things into the trash for me! I'm free shaping the entire behavior, and it's been too much fun. He has definitely not gotten it yet, but he will. :) I'll try to post a more in depth entry about the training if anyone wants me to.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

It seems as though Winston either has full days of working, or days full of lounging! Last Wednesday we did our first children's demo since, g's, probably a few weeks before my surgery!! It was a low key demo for a friend of the family's sons, show and tell!



We went straight from there out to lunch, and then stopped by Tammy's to let Winston play w/ her dog, Kody.





It was a good thing we did that because I didn't have another chance to let him relax until 10pm! I had an hours worth of copies/faxes to make at Staples and then went home to get my mom for the Keystone Human Services 33rd Anual Dinner. I wish I would have taken some pictures there, but I was too preoccupied meeting people to take pictures! It was definitely one of the most classyy places Winston has ever been to, and I am proud to say he behaved very gentlemen like.

After we got home, the first thing Winston did was hop up on the couch. He was out in no time!



We had a pretty laid back thursday and friday, but we spent two and a half hours in the car on the way to the airport yesterday to pick up Laurel. We spent the rest of the day at King Of Prussia shopping.

Anyway, that's enough for now! Hope everyone is having a great week! Oh, and I can't wait to post pictures of our chirstmas cards this year, they are amazinggg!

Somewhat Follow Up to Pegging Leash To Wheelchair!

Shortly after teaching Winston to peg himself, I got a new wheelchair. Before I had time to reteach him, I had surgery, and well, then I spent the next seven months in bed. Haha. Although, we have not began working on that again yet (too much else going on!) I did see some need to do a new set of photos for the blog! Here are the photos of the new and improved peg. Hopefully this one is pyscho proof! (a few months ago, Liberty pulled so hard on my peg that the ENTIRE thing ripped off of my wheelchair! He went running w/ all of my hardware attached to his collar. Hahaha)

Photo 1:



Black, 18ft, LEASH Flexi (Not Cord!!) Attached w/ two Hose Clamps. The Flexi is left in the unlocked position. A metal rod is bent to the appropriate shape (length, height, ect) and attached by a third Hose Clamp. Mine, is bent in five 90 degree angles! The first is going INTO a hole drilled into the base of my wheelchair. This is the ONLY modifying done to my actual wheelchair.

In the next side view, you can see that a ring is tied to the leash.



This ring, when hooked onto the peg, keeps the dog at a desired length of space.

Here are two front views, one is unpegged and the other is pegged.





This method for me has been incredibly helpful. The extra space, when safe, allow Winston to go further when pottying, and deliver an object to someone that is further away without ever being taken off of his leash.

The final two photographs show him on his leash pegged, and unpegged!





Please email me with any questions or suggestions!