Want to know THE PLACE TO BE with your dog on the last Friday of the month from 5:00-7:00 p.m? Folks 'in the know' are gathering at Bark 'N Roll on Free Street for Yappy Hour! Yappy Hour was born last summer when I approached Sibyl Murphy, Bark 'n Roll's owner, and asked if I could stop by with my "Around Town Hound" classes. Sibyl jumped at the chance to host Yappy Hour. She had been nurturing the idea of providing a place for dog owners to socialize and bring along their pets for quite some time and she does a great job of putting it all together. Bark 'n Roll graciously provides finger food and liquid refreshment for human guests along with an evolving menu of canine "paw food" for their four-legged counterparts. Fresh water for the dogs is dispensed from a bubbling rock fountain. Regular fare includes complimentary in-store baked biscuits and 'Pup Cakes'. Last Friday night's repast included an assortment of unusual treats including Pupcorn - a big hit with dogs and their owners. Pupcorn are cute little snacks shaped like puffed dogs. (I overheard an owner say they reminded her of Pepperidge Farm's Goldfish.) I did see a lot of dogs feasting on cheese bites as well.

I have missed few of Yappy Hour's gatherings since its debut last July. Each one is interesting and a little different from the previous one. "Pug Night" was conceived three Yappy Hour's ago when at least seven area pug owners attended with their Pug companions. Last night the majority of dogs were Chihuahua's, and again area owners apparently planned it that way. Regrettably, I wasn't able to capture a decent group shot (but it wasn't for my lack of trying!)

If you go, keep in mind that the store's physical space is more intimate in nature and may not be appropriate for all dogs. Please don't bring dogs with 'space issues' who might be bothered by proximity to other dogs and people. Confidentially, I leave my dog at home (since she is happier in her own space) but we will be heading in soon to take advantage of Bark 'n Roll's self-serve dog wash. It's a great deal for only twelve bucks! No fuss, no muss, no aching lower back and the chance to check out new and eclectic doggie products once Charlee's clean and sweet-smelling again.
Ya' gotta love it!

Yappy Hour

When: Last Friday of the month from 5:00-7:00 p.m.
Where: Bark 'n Roll, 13 Free Street, Portland, Maine

Photos
On the couch: Jessica Cameron with Mario, Millie Pelleiter with Harley, Vicky Lannigan with Murfy
Saying 'Hello': Dakota (a rescue from Harvest Hills) and Django
Kirsten holding Jaboo
Django again and Dakota checking out people food
and last, but not least - Rosie, a Miniature English Bulldog

(Did you spot the "fake dog?")

Those of you who have added puppies to your household this past winter have faced an incredibly snowy winter. But then I really didn’t have to tell you that, did I? People have told me stories of having to shovel or snowblow pee-pee runways and paths in the snow covering their lawns so their pups could relieve themselves and play. I’ve listened to their seemingly endless laments about puppies having accidents before they could even get their boots on and middle-of-the-night potty breaks in near-blizzard conditions. As a dog trainer, I am bracing myself for my classes to be filled with the next round of adolescent dogs that didn’t get the best start and haven't seen enough of the world.

Pink pup for Kelly Osbourne

Good thing she doesn't live in Turin Italy

Brings wet dogs and flowers

This add for a Bulldog breeder appeared recently in
Dog Fancy Magazine. Now hold on, it is not what you think! Johnsons are a line of Bulldogs that apparently are unbelievably huge!

On one of the many Yahoo Trainer lists I am on, someone recently posted this link to a great training article by Suzanne Clothier,
author of Bones Would Rain From the Sky . At the very bottom of the article, she mentions
Buck Naked Dog Training.
Basically she tells of how we should all be striving towards improving our relationships with our dogs, not dependant of anything else. Would your dog listen to you if you had no clothes, no collars, no leash and no treats?
I pondered this for a short while and realized it could really give quite a twist to my "in home privates".

Here is the tip of the day:
Do not Google either Huge Johnsons, or Buck naked dog training. I admit to Googling both in the name of research, and now I need to wash my eyeballs out with soap.

Once upon a brain cell, I learned everyone’s name. By the second week of training class, I not only knew all the owners, but all the members of the family including Grandma. I could even remember names they mentioned of friends in the neighborhood, the dog’s parents and their ‘playpals’. “Maggie plays all day with Sherman next door, and my other neighbor Sophie’s dog Bella. When we go to Kalamazoo in the summer to see Vic’s mom Lillie, all the dogs play in the river with Sam, their old hound. Maggie’s parents, Seka and Scout, live there on the farm and when we go back they all have a ball.” (For whatever reason) that is the sort of information that I naturally just remembered.

Well I think I have may have reached saturation overload. Perhaps my brain is suffering from the early onset of Alzheimer’s (gasp!), or maybe a person can only remember so much. I think (hope!) it is the latter of the two. Here is a typical daily scenario:

[Ring, ring, ring, ring!]

“Hello, Gooddogz!”

“Hi Nancy, I’m calling about my dog Jake (also easily insert, Maggie, Abbey, or Max). We took your class a little while ago.”

[O.K. – With just that to go on, how do I recall her or her dog? I have at least ten Jakes (or Maggies, Abbeys and Maxes) swimming in my head and my palms are starting to sweat. I dream about them at night and they’ve become one big, fuzzy, multi-colored Lab.]

I did the math and figured that I’m seeing close to 100 people and 40 new dogs a month and the roster changes every six weeks or so. On top of learning names, I must also note every quirk in the dog’s behavior, the close and extended members of the family and how they all interact with the dog. And then there’s the names of the owners’ neighbors, along with their pets or relatives and their dogs who may also come into the dog’s life.

I have been putting it off for years, but I finally gave in and purchased a box of name badges to give out in class. I’ve had to resign myself to always carrying my clipboard, complete with the current class roster and my notes (‘cheat sheets’) to help me distinguish who is who.

As for Jake’s owner, after playing twenty questions, I finally figured out just which Jake it was. But I didn’t let on that (initially) I couldn’t put a face to their names! But now my shameful secret is out!

If you are searching for names for your
pet (or baby!), try this great link.
Eventually your trainer will thank you and say something like, “What a GREAT name. I can remember that!” (Which is trainer-speak for, “Yes!!!! Not another Jake, Maggie, Abbey or Max!”) Please don’t misunderstand me…I named one of my own children after a grandparent using one of the above names. This is purely a selfish plea to the public to choose something memorable other than the most popular names. It’s just too taxing on my tired old brain!

One more thing about names - be very careful what you choose because it’s likely that your dog will grow into his/her name. Here is short list of dogs I still remember who did grow into their names. Some were clients more than ten years ago, but I still remember them like it was yesterday:

‘Damian’, ‘Beast’, ‘Ding Dong’, ‘Cujo’, ‘Mutton’, ‘Meathead’, ‘Fear’, ‘Felony’ and 'Yapper'.

While visiting my parents in Ma. yesterday the story of Daisy an abandoned pup with a congenital heart defect caught my eye on the 11 o'clock news. The 9 week old puppy had been relinquished to the MSPCA with her siblings, and her initial exam showed she would need heart surgery costing upwards of $4,000. Fifty Thousand dollars worth of donations came into the shelter, helping not only Daisy, but future patients as well. Her surgery was a success and the shelter was then inundated with people wanting to adopt the puppy. From all the letters received they chose a family whose 14 year old daughter was also born with a heart defect and has also undergone 3 heart surgeries. This story really touched me because one of my children has also had several heart surgeries. I would like to take this opportunity to let people know that Congenital Heart Defects are the number one birth defect, affecting one in every 125-150 births. Anyone else out there planning on attending the Little Hearts Picnic this year?
One of my all time favorite dogs, Rusty, a Jack Russell Terrier, has a pacemaker and takes Enalaprill every day. This is the same medicine that my child takes! My Uncle Sumner had his defibrillator replaced with a newer model and he donated his old one to the Angell (MSPCA) to be used in a dog. People surely do love their animals and more and more they are willing to do whatever it takes to help them. Do know that many heart defects in both people and dogs are very treatable!
Don't you just love a happy ending? :)))

There are so many reasons why Portland Maine is a great place to live if you are a dog. My dog truly loves all the off leash areas, and beaches. But if she could speak to us today, she would surely tell of all the treats she got while we did a few errands this morning and how we broke our previous record of 5 biscuits by a whopping four.
It was an eight biscuit - plus one munchkin day.
The first biscuit came from the teller at the drive through Bank. One block later Charlee got three Milk bones from Danny at the Texaco on Forest Ave.. (we love that place-great service and they still pump the gas!). On our walk to get a quick drink, Charlee scored two more biscuits from a mail carrier. Now mail carriers are technically not allowed to give out dog biscuits, but when they break that (silly!) rule, it makes very positive associations for the dog to people in uniforms. If all mail carriers, delivery and service industry people carried and distributed biscuits, it would cut down on dog bites in the long run.
But I digress. A quick trip on the Maine Turnpike yielded biscuits North and South bound. Another quick pit stop at Dunkin’ Donuts yielded Ice coffee for me, chocolate munchkins for the kids and a freebie plain Munchkin for the dog.
Now does this town love dogs or what? When we lived in Boston, a lot of businesses carried biscuits to entice local shoppers, but it has been my observation that people in Portland have biscuits just because they love dogs.
Anyone out there ever beat our 9 treat day? Come to think of it, the dog made out better than the kids. The two kids each got one free lollipop from both the bank and the gas station.
Final score-
Dog 9
Kids 4

The great links just keep on coming today! Check out this intersting article on MSN.com about how dogs like music and how it can help change their behavior.
Those of you who have been reading this blog (there is someone out there right???), already know that my dog has her favorite tunes as well. And if that is not enough, someone now markets tunes just for your dog! And-yes it keeps getting better. It sure looks like my dog has gotten involved in the marketing of music for dogs as well because the dog in the article wearing a headset looks just like my dog Charlee!

It has been an extra long week. My computer has been in the shop, and I had forgotten how totally dependant I am! But on the plus side, it was a great week to get outside and enjoy the spring, and after tomorrow I won’t have to check email at the library and friends homes.
The kids are home for school vacation and they have been hard at work selling Lemonade and Kool-Aid. All the neighborhood kiddies have decided to donate the money to the Westbrook Animal Shelter and should be over there later today with a whopping $40.00 dollars. People were VERY big tippers, and most didn’t want change from their dollar. The going rate is 25. cents per cup. That is quite a profit margin!

You MUST click this link to see the best example of Freestyle on the web today. One viewing is just not enough. Be sure to notice how easy Attila makes the routine look and see if you can catch his subtle cues to Fly. Once on the web site, just click "clips". It may take a little while to load, but it is worth it! His Charlie Chaplin routine is just fantastic!

The World Canine Freestyle Organization is having their annual meeting next month in North Caroline and Attila and Fly will be there, but unfortunately it is not in the cards for me to attend this year. Being a Mom takes precedence over all clinics, and seminars...
Watching this clip again this morning has gotten me motivated to put the finishing touches on a local clinic that I have in the works to get more people interested in Freestyle. Details on this and the recently formed "DownEast Dancin' Dogz" coming soon.

This interesting article " Clever Canines Did Domestication Make Dogs Smarter?" - can be found online at the Chronicle of Learning and will be available to view for no charge for 5 days.

My welcome screen on AOL this morning tells me Swarovski crystal dog tags are the “new thing" and all of Hollywood is scrambling to get their tags and even matching collars.

Here is a tag I had made locally for 7 bucks. My dog is often used as a demo dog and when she visits with people she often flings her derriere right at them, and still they don’t understand that all she wants is for them to:

For all her hard work, it was the least I could do in return!
Which tag would your dog rather have?

With the weatherman calling for rain, and my dog in need of a run it was a great day to stroll Riverton Trolley Park where dogs are allowed off leash. Located on the cross streets of 302 and Riverside in Portland it is fun to explore and wander about thinking about the park in it’s glory days, when people came from all over the country to relax, gamble and enjoy the Presumpcott River. Not much is left of the original site, but with a little imagination you can easily take a step back in time.

Charlee says: I ran, I swam, I got muddy and smelled lots of animals.
Nancy says: Except for the entrance, most of the trails are well away from the busy road. Go down the hill and walk along the river. The hike was easy enough for my three year old daughter, but the mud made things a little slippery!

Charlee stikes a pose at the entrance to the old casino

To a dog owner, spring can mean the return of ‘Skunk Awareness’. Did you know that these usually nocturnal critters are out and about at all hours of the day and night in their quest for love with the arrival of spring? We used to live in Boston, and I swear it has to be the skunk capital of the world! There are so many in fact that it has led to the urban legend which claims that skunks were released in the city to kill and eat the rats living in the tunnels and they have thrived on either side of Boston Harbor ever since. One summer our two dogs were sprayed thirteen times in less than two months – and they were leashed at the time! Seems impossible doesn’t it? The dogs just seemed to surprise the little stinkers, encountering them in alleys, under cars and behind trash cans.

And as you might expect the worst hits occurred at the worst possible times - late at night, when all the stores were closed and nothing at home in the way of de-skunking agents. The most memorable of these occasions happened after my cousin Marci’s wedding when both dogs had yet another ‘encounter’ at 2:00 in the morning. All I had in the house at the time were canned whole tomatoes. We used what we had but for days afterwards it looked like we had murdered someone, chopped up their body and tried to drain it all down the bathtub. For weeks, even with the help of drain cleaners we felt like conspirators in a bad gangster film every time we took a shower!

Don’t be left unprepared (as we were that drunken fateful night!) and stock up on the ingredients for your de-skunking formula BEFORE the awful event! Here is the most widely used “recipe” (which I have never used):

"De-skunk recipe"
1 quart (3 %) hydrogen peroxide
½ cup baking soda
1 teaspoon dishwashing detergent

Be sure to mix and use the concoction right away. Don’t store or cover this product as it can explode from the gases formed. It only works directly on the smell and may discolor clothing.

Another option (which I have used successfully) is feminine douche powder. And having washed ‘eau de skunk’ from my dogs more than thirty times at least, I think this qualifies me as somewhat of an expert! Simply wet the dog, cover in douche then rinse and repeat if the dog still smells. Follow up with a wash using regular dog shampoo, rinse and repeat the shampoo step again. Nothing removes the smell entirely. Some residual odor may still occur and will make itself evident the next time your dog gets wet but will disappear in a month or so. Pay close attention to wash their head becuse this is where most dogs get blasted, and be careful not to get either cleaning formula in eyes or ears. You may need to soak their collar (if they’re cloth or fabric) or purchase a new one. If your dog is sprayed in the face or eyes, you may need to use an eye wash. Be sure to consult your vet if your dog appears to be in any discomfort.

Most pet stores sell one form of skunk shampoo or another. They’re generally effective at reducing the smell but don’t completely eradicate it. Only time (and repeat washes) will take care of that. Launder your skunked clothes and towels as usual with an added cup of vinegar. More than one trip through the wash may be in order.
If you elect to avoid dealing with it yourself, you can always take a trip to the groomer!

Do you have a skunk story to beat my cousin’s wedding tale? Do you know of other effective ways to remove skunk stink? Post a comment!

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