Dog References & Sources

• ActiveDogtoys.com — the place Da Guy heads to when he’s looking for something new that you probably won’t yet find other places
• American Kennel Club
• American Veterinary Identification Devices (AVID) RFID Microchip Identification — Did you know this important technology for our pets was invented in Norco, California? Find out about the technology behind it here.
• The Animal Keeper (Encinitas) — When Da Guy is away from home and needs to board his girl, this is the place she goes in Encinitas California
• Breeders.Net — start your search for a purebred breeder near you, just like Da Guy did
• Canine Covers — combine these custom covers with an appropriate harness to protect your dog and vehicle on your travels. Shop around the Net for best pricing, as many sites resell these made-to-order items from Covercraft.
• Cesar Millan Center — you’ve seen the Dog Whisperer on NGC, haven’t you? Cesar is Da Man, without question.
• Clean Go Pet Waste Bag Holder — a simple thing you can find from various sellers on the web to hold empty bags on your leash or belt, should your pal do their duty away from home. Da Guy prefers the soft polyester version available in different colors vs. the harder “bone shaped” and designer ones you see everywhere, as a whole roll of BioBags from PoopBags.com fits perfectly and there is no additional rattle or something to jingle as you go along your way.
• Clean Run — supplies, training, trial and show gear – with fast shipping!
• Companion Pet Care of Encinitas – Dr. Nancy Bushnell — if you’re near the Encinitas California area, Da Guy and his girl can’t recommend this veterinarian enough. A small and personal practice, with a knowledgeable, caring and professional staff.
• Dog Channel.com — all kinds of info
• Dog Doors USA, Inc — it’s all about the Plexidor Units for Da Guy and his pets
• Dogsindepth.com – The Online Dog Encyclopedia – breeds, sizes, facts & figures; a super facts and figures resource
• earthbath   – natural pet care products; find a limited selection at Petco (25% less on their website!), and discounted even further at other online retailers like Animal World Network
  • Oatmeal & Aloe Shampoo and Cream Rinse & Conditioner for the bath. Vanilla and Almond Spritz for in-between coat brush downs. They have a pleasant subtle smell without the girly-girly perfume others do, or ingredients that don’t contribute to skin irritation problems.
  • Don’t want to use a smelly baby wipe for quick clean-ups? Try the Hypo-Allergenic & Fragrance Free Grooming Wipes.
• Hogan Custom Leather — for special custom collars and leads, just like Belle has
• The Kennel Club (UK)
• Lucky Pet Tag Store — with an emergency locator service
• Muttropolis — super specialty store (looking for a great collar?) with fast shipping, online and stores in the San Diego and Newport Beach areas
• Pet First Aid — if you’re looking for a pre-packaged kit for the back of your car or home, take a look at the Active Dog First Aid Kit
• PoopBags.com — you can manage it in a biodegradable way. Be informed and check out the details. You’ll find not all “biodegradable” bags are the same — many still taking tens, hundreds or thousands of years to go back into the earth, vs. these. Da Guy likes the thicker and larger green bags made in the USA for daily use around his place, and BioBag Rolled Bags when on-the-road.
• Premier Pet Gentle Leader Headcollar — amazing collar to be used on walks to correct hard pulling with gentle ones like Da Guy’s Belle, as well as more challenging beasts with much more difficult problems! Served it’s purpose very well over a several month period, but now replaced with a SENSE-sation harness.
• San Diego Pet.com — pet friendly places all around the county
• Softouch Concepts SENSE-sation — this is the present harness of choice for Da Girl. Does not control pulling as well as the Gentle Leader, but keeps a bigger dog under control without the challenges of a neck collar.
• VetInfo — encyclopedia of canine veterinary medical information
• Yahoo! Dogs — hoards of information can be found on the Net from here
• Your Fairy Dog Mother — If you’re in the Carlsbad to Del Mar Heights area in California, and are looking for a mobile groomer that comes to your place, Cathy does a great job.

General Pet References & Sources

• Allsigns — Breed-specific signs, magnets, and more including signs to let those rude neighbors know to scoop the you-know-what left by their dog in your front yard
• American Veterinary Identification Devices (AVID) RFID Microchip Identification – Did you know this important technology for our pets was invented in Norco, California? Find out about the technology behind it here.
• Animal World Network — supplies for all your pets over the Net, located in Southern California
• Doctors Foster and Smith – supplies for all your pets
• Petco — supplies and more, online and at a store near you. Be sure to sign up for a PetPals card!
• Pets 911 — info in your local community
• PetSmart — supplies and more, online and at a store near you. Be sure to sign up for a PetPerks card!

Enjoy!  …and yes, it’s in reverse chronological order just to keep you on your toes. 

• Bunnies. It’s all about looking for those bunnies on her walk each morning. Scamper, scamper. Freeze. Run, run. …and a girl that then would just love to set in for the chase if she could.
• Snorkeling. A bunch of ice cubes in a big bowl of water is a special adventure. Watch this girl blow bubbles over and over and over, until she has crunched the last ice cube.
• Happy Girl. It’s all about that smile!
• It’s not the food. We went through a multi-month effort to migrate Da Girl from the food she had been raised on to a hypoallergic version available from the Vet. At the end of a 3-month process, there was no change in the allergy symptoms, so we’re back to Life’s Abundance where we began, and keeping things pretty well under control with 2 antihistamines per day, and another 1/2 when it’s “that time of year”.
• Softouch Concepts SENSE-sation. This is the present harness of choice for Da Guy and Da Girl. It does not control pulling as well as the Gentle Leader, but allows more freedom of head movement that’s OK a better trained dog, yet still keeps a bigger dog under control without the challenges occasionally created using only a neck collar. Another great find.
• What’s dat? What is she staring at for minutes on end, sitting inches away from a 3-foot retaining wall in the back yard? Oh no, not some new strange anxiety problem! No, that isn’t it. There’s a series of ants walking on the wall, and it’s just really interesting! Ohhhh. What next?
• Where’s that water coming from? Guess who was amazed this morning watching the sprinklers running in the backyard when she went outside? Standing still like a pointer, she was mesmerized for minutes. Then, to her amazement, the sprinklers went off, and the other side of the yard came on. Belle switched sides and stood with her head near one of the sprinklers watching the water until it eventually went off, at which time and investigation went on of all the others… It was apparent how sad she was when the water went away. Ahhhhh.
• Catching the light. There is light streaming through the window, and guess who is intently, yet only periodically, snapping at the sunlight for minutes on end? Yes, it’s specks of dust coming through the window screen. How funny is that? Not as tasty as a peach bubble or a fly (oh my!), I’m sure!
• TV. She loves watching bright commercials, many cartoons, dog training shows, and has a thing for blonde women on TV, like Bonnie Hunt!
• It’s raining. It’s pouring, and guess who wants to go back out in the rain within minutes of coming in to check on her Guy? — yup, this girl thinks the rain is a whole new experience and Da Guy is running out of towels trying to dry her off between escapades. The rain does not phase the otherwise normal sniffing and checking out the yard activities. In fact, Da Girl seems to like this cold rainy weather better than a sunny day. Oh my. This must be what it’s like to be a parent with kids that can’t go out to play when it rains for hours on end. I think I have some crayons and tiddlywinks somewhere. I wonder if Da Girl would be up for drawing some pictures or a game of tiddlywinks. On second thought, no way with either of those — they would both be consumed along the way and add another failure in Belle’s Toy and Chew Testing.
• Premier Pet Gentle Leader Headcollar — amazing collar that looks so simple, helping eliminate pulling of Da Guy’s arm out of it’s socket on most walks. After having tried nearly every recommendation from books, friends, and trainers to correct Da Girl’s head down, ears back, and pull ahead approach, after less than 5 minutes of acclimation, and one attempt of “sit down, I’m not moving” part way into the first walk, with a few treats along the way, an amazing thing occurred. There are now only very minor tugs when there is something super interesting to check out (like a bird or other people on the other side of the road). This smart girl quickly adjusts herself nearly every time without any additional correction, allowing constant slack in her lead. Belle is really happy when that extra strap comes off her muzzle after the walk, but it does not hurt her, and she’s a trooper that aims to please. On every walk, her head is now up, confidence is up, and we’re seeing the Golden wiggle-wiggle tail around the neighborhood as it also should be beyond Bert’s Place where it’s a constant thing. Da Guy is hopeful this collar is not a permanent solution, but to get us both on longer walks that are happier experiences for us both every day, it appears to be a SUPER tool we’ll try to ween ourselves away from as we get into our stride.
• Allergies — I’m still convinced it’s the grass that does a number on this girl. After a battery of tests and medications to prove it’s not something else, we’re getting in a groove at last with antihistamines. 1 pill at 4AM, 1/2 at noon-1PM, and another full dose at 6PM do a pretty good job. We’ll see if we can back-off as peak allergy season subsides.
• PetSmart / Petco — Belle knows these are fun places now, and it’s a bit of a challenge with her pulling on the slippery linoleum floors with all those smells, toys, and people paying attention. …but it’s still fun for both Da Girl and his Guy, and is becoming a weekly outing.
• The first rain — after 164 days of drought, nearly as long as Da Girl has been in this world, a downpour started while Belle was in the backyard. It was likely the first rainstorm she had ever seen in her life. What was Belle’s initial response? A quick jump and look around (scared), then she stood there letting it rain on her until you-know-who called her inside for a dry off. On the very slow walk in, it was loads of fun purposely splashing in the puddles. Oh my, just wait until it’s raining and Da Guy is on a conference call when a big soppy girl comes back into the house. Towels. Towels. We need more towels!
• Catching bubbles — a new favorite pastime for us both
• Improving not having to always be with Da Guy — when it’s cooler in another room, she’ll sometimes sleep there for a while, and has been known to stay outside on her own for 30-45 minutes just watching the trees sway in the wind and birds tweet, but still “check’s in” and is quick to check out where her guy is if she hears any unusual movement.
• Birds — definitely interesting, especially flocks flying overhead
• Hiccups — dogs get ‘um too. Guess Belle is just a growing girl.
• Other dogs — always submissive and does not get excited (just interested, sometimes) when others bark. Puppy mode will pop in after a while and she just wants to play. If it’s a big and scary dog, Belle is quick to come back to the side of her Guy for protection. Ahhh…
• Nail clipping — Da Guy hasn’t gotten up the courage yet to do it with the multi-colored nails on his girl, so had the vet take care of this on one of the last visits. …not sure I’m ever going to do this myself. We’ll see.
• Pulling on her lead — We’re working on it, but she’s getting stronger and Da Guy’s arm is getting more tired. A new harness is ordered to give a try. Belle isn’t as scared now with the little things on her walks. She was raised at a home and kennel in a rural orange grove setting, so the burbs bring new sounds and things to interact with. The challenge is really when she sees something, or someone, of interest and she wants to get moving — head down and ahead she goes.
• Bath time — We’ve been preparing for this day for several weeks now, sleeping in the bathroom during Da Guy’s morning rituals, and being coaxed to see what’s happening in the walk-in shower upon occasion. Today was the day … She got a little scared, but it wasn’t too bad for her first bath. Now, if Da Guy would just have remembered about the big shake that was inevitably going to happen, no matter that she was already partially dry… all over his Master Bathroom. Ah well, we all have to learn, don’t we? She really hates the doggie hair dryer, but keeps coming back when coaxed and will work through it, I’m sure. The earthbath shampoo and rinse didn’t seem to add to the itch problem — phewww.
• Laps — when this girl is in the spirit, she goes out into the back yard herself and runs laps as hard and fast as she can around the yard until she drops. Smiling all the way, then inside for a drink and always off to see if Da Guy will then play with some toy of hers. Ahhhh...
• A love — to everyone. Let’s pray the burglars don’t come to Bert’s Place, as this girl would be happy to see them arrive. Perhaps the bad guys will first read the sign over the doggie door.
• Riding in the car — laid down and was a bit scared the first couple of days, but now rides like a champ in the backseat. Looks out the front and side windows when it’s interesting and lays down if it gets too boring like on the freeway, or when there are too many turns or quick stops. She has never made a sound waiting for Da Guy to come back, or ever tried to come into the front seat. What a girl.
• Doorbell — Never a bark (thank goodness!). She comes to get Da Guy when it rings if he does not go out to answer it. Cute. She knows to sit on the hallway rug before the door is opened, but has a tough time staying there when she knows the person at the door or they acknowledge her.
• Bark (as in the sound) — perhaps 3 times in the first month, and corrected every time she does; She does have a cute little whine sound that only comes out when her toy is stuck and she needs help extracting it from some place.
• Blowing bubbles — a new thing shoving her muzzle into her water dish and blowing bubbles, 3-4 times and dribbling water all over the place. Pretty fun it seems, as this has been repeated a couple of times since. Put an ice cube in her bowl, and watch the show begin to catch the cube and dribble that all over the floor while it’s consumed as well.
• Wiggle-wiggle tail — didn’t happen until a couple weeks after she was home, but now her whole back half wiggles when she struts around with one of her toys or tries to get attention while I’m working by walking around my chair under the desk, over-and-over-and-over
• Those ears — what a personality. Forward and floppy: Inquisitive and happy. Back to the side of her head: Scared or focused on the task at hand.
• Trips to the vet — she loves going and seeing her friends. Always a new set of sniffs to explore. Generally falls asleep in the waiting room when boredom sets in.
• The lawn — glad to have it for Da Girl, but wasn’t as smart having the new sod put in so close to bringing this large puppy home. Since the roots have not gone too deep yet, hard running and turning can pull out plugs of grass down beyond root level. Also, those brown spots are a problem with little girls going potty … found some new yucca tabs to try (and they are working pretty good – See Supplements on Food & Treats tab.)
• Gorgeous. Period.
• Pills — big mouth, big tongue, and wow, there are lots of places for those pills to hide in there, even after eating a treat. My girl could be in a side show!
• Go outside / Go potty
  • Middle of the night: She gets up from her bed and silently stares at her Guy until she has his attention
  • After nearly 4 weeks of work, she now goes in and out her doggie-door by herself, EXCEPT if the adjacent curtains are open on the sliding door, when she’ll almost always stand in front of the doggie-door until Da Guy tells her to “go outside”. She’s either overly polite or hates the doors bumping on her nose or rump. Either way, we’ve got to work on that some more…
• Teenagers — she is maturing fast. She knows what they mean, but loves to test me still on certain commands. Repetition works, as well as deep breathing exercises for Da Guy’s own sanity.
• Landscaping materials — what a hobby to pick up the bark and rocks to give them all a chew, or try out pieces of the plants (alive or dead) she’s not seen before. 90K red pepper sprinkled on the plants, bark and rocks is doing the trick. We now have only rare occurrences of the challenge after only 2 treatments. Who says she’s not smart? …but Da Guy has almost 4 pounds of pepper left for future use, just in case!
• Separation anxiety– boy does she hate being locked up in her kennel when Da Guy has to leave for short whiles without her
  • It does not appear even 2 generic Xanax help the situation. We must work on it A LOT more…
• Cone of shame — had to put one on this girl to stop the licking at her stitches when Da Guy wasn’t watching. Used a newer padded version that seemed to be a little better as there was no damage to his walls, doors and furniture as the poor girl had tunnel vision and ran into things around the house. She hates it, but was soon resigned to it. What Da Guy didn’t realize until after it was off, was Belle used it in the backyard to her advantage — head down in the grass sniffing, but also eating plugs of grass that Da Guy couldn’t correct her about. Smart!
• Sharp adult teeth — amazingly sharp molars and little front teeth that allow this girl to chomp nearly anything she decides to go after
• She’s fixed — Spaying and neutering pets is the only way to go. I don’t get why some people don’t do this…
  • Have to admit it was a challenging first night home — Da Girl was sick from meds a couple of times and definitely uncomfortable even with the pain pills, as a couple of moans were heard. Da Guy couldn’t take it, put on his robe, and slept the night on the floor with her in the family room and office where she moved to. All was better the day after. Good thing Da Guy preplanned to take that day off from work just-in-case!
• The lick — after a sniff, one little lick of whatever it is seems to be important. It still does not stop Da Guy from saying “no lick” when she’s caught at it.
• Big feet — she won’t grow into a monster will she?
• Grass & Plants — what is it with Belle wanting to taste them all? Good thing there isn’t anything poisonous in the yard, but still, how much does this add to “the itch”?
• The itch– the allergies – ARGHHHH — a nightmare for us both
  • Da Guy believes it’s related to Belle now living and playing so much on his new grass lawn that she only did on occasion at the breeder. We’re working through pills and how to deal with it. Unfortunately allergies are one of the big challenges with these beauties and most dogs these days.
• Halloween. The first big test. Scared of the first little girl with floppy bumble bee antenna, but after that, had so much fun being the puppy everyone wanted to say hello to.
• It’s all about those eyes… so black and look into your soul
• She’s so quiet
• Cute
• October 23, 2009. We’re home after weeks of waiting.