Can you give your dog a pill? More to the point, can you give your dog a pill three times a day without any stress on you or your pooch? A recent online discussion reminded me how difficult it can be to get some dogs to take their medicine, and I thought it might be helpful to go through some strategies that make medicating your dog relatively easy and stress-free. I'll list techniques in order of easiest to most involved: 1. Mix it in with the food. This is a no-brainer, and it works great for some dogs and some pills. It helps to add some soft and gooey food like canned or cooked meat if you usually just feed kibble. Caution: If you use this method and have more than one dog, you have to ensure that Dog A gets the medicine while Dog B does not. However, lots of dogs are picky about Read More
The Animals of Belize
Who said a honeymoon had to be taken immediately after the wedding? Jim and I just took ours, two and a half years after the fact, and it could not have been sweeter. We stayed at the Hamanasi Resort in Belize and loved it. Yes, it's expensive and not all that easy to get to (three planes, the last so small I thought it might be easier to carry it to our destination), but hey: It was our honeymoon, so it was worth it. Hamanasi is committed to eco-tourism and sustainable practices, and that was clear from, for example, the extensive composting (which brought in great birds, including tons of warblers), careful snorkeling guidelines ("Please do not touch the coral or feed the fish.") and wooden, multiple-use containers for shampoo and conditioner. The staff is sincerely friendly and Read More
2015 New Year’s Resolutions?
Ah yes, it's that time of year. Out with the old, in with the new--with all the dreams and hopes and resolutions that come along with the annual ritual of taking down the old wall calendar and putting up a new one. I learned long ago that casually made New Year's resolutions are quickly broken, and, more often than not, lead to feeling badly about yet another thing that we haven't accomplished. You can read more about this in the New Year's blog that I wrote in 2010, explaining that effective resolutions should be thought of as commitments that are best kept if 1) they are focused and specific, 2) they are attainable (just like dog training, right?: set yourself up for success) and 3) they are made public. I do love going back and reading what I've written in year's past. For Read More
Free Ranging Cats, Wildlife & New Studies About Management
I miss the birds. For most of my adult life I have fed wild birds, and watching them has added immeasurably to my life. In some places, like here at the farm, there have been 8 or 10 feeders up, overflowing with creamy, white suet and shiny, black sunflower seeds. They attracted a multitude of species, adding color and life to the grey and brown blahs of winter. In other places, all I could manage was one tubular seed feeder hanging isolated and alone outside of an apartment window. But still, it brought me scarlet red Cardinals and Military Blue Blue Jays. So beautiful! But Jim and I have taken down the feeders at the farm, because farm cats Nellie and Polly were killing the birds they attracted. It seemed profoundly unethical and environmentally wrong to create a situation in which Read More
Your Dogs and the Holidays
Yup, this is the time of year when the rubber hits the road, and the leaping, crotch-sniffing, poop-eating dog that you just rescued from a puppy mill is about to meet Aunt Polly, the only member of the family who is terrified of dogs. Or maybe it's the dog you've had for years, and the leaping and crotch sniffing are in the past, but then... there's that poop eating thing. A friend called me for advice about this very problem (visitors, not poop eating), and I recalled that I had written a post several years ago about how to handle the chaos that is the holiday season, not to mention the reality of owning animals that don't understand why the routine flies out the window during the shortest days of the year. Here is the post again, (with some minor editing,) because dog behavior and Read More
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