Every year a group of us makes a quilt to raffle off to benefit LABMED which is a non-profit that I co-founded 10 years ago to assist Labradors (or Lab mixes) in rescue situations who have beyond the ordinary vet bills.

This year’s quilt is “12 Months of Labradors” and is probably one of the best, if not the best, that we have done. Please consider purchasing a raffle ticket for this quilt. The drawing is next Friday at the Labrador Retriever National Specialty and you don’t have to be there to win it.

You can view more photos of the quilt HERE.
The February block is the one that I contributed to this project.

We had a litter of Labrador Retrievers born on 7/12/09 so they are now 10 weeks old. Today I took one of my Labs to the Retriever Club http://dunnsmarshlabs.com/bbfarmblog/wp-admin/post-new.php#to work on some issues before our next hunt test and also decided to take Jazz and the female pup we are keeping, River. Basically my goal was to introduce River to a new environment in a positive manner. If she went near or into the water, great, but I wasn’t going to force her.

River was very excited to get out and check out this new place and right away went running after her mom. Pretty soon Jazz was back in the water and River was really watching her trying to figure out what her mom was doing. Soon she was testing the water. Of course she had to test it by drinking it. The bank was very slippery clay so she didn’t actually get in and swim today but still it was a good, positive start. We will try a different pond tomorrow since the nice weather is still holding.

The girls are sadly starting to grow their winter coats. They also have managed to get into a few burrs which is problematic when they won’t get you brush them. I worked with Spice today on that and was actually able to brush her face, neck and back with a brush and get a few burrs out of her mane. That is huge considering she’s never felt a brush before. She also let me pick up one foot briefly and I was able to lead her a few steps using the savvy string around her neck.

Sugar comes right up for attention but as soon as you reach for her and hold another object near her she retreats. I just give her a treat and pet her face briefly so at least she allows that bit of human contact. I’ll just keep working with her and hoping that soon we’ll have that breakthrough with her, too.

We have a litter of Labrador puppies here, born on 7/12/09 so thought I would share a couple of photos of them.

Everybody always talks about the sweet smell of “puppy breath”. If you haven’t smelled it I really have no way to describe it to you but any dog breeder knows what I am talking about. So what causes this delightful (to dog lovers anyways) smell that only lasts a short time? The theories I have found say that vets guess that puppy breath is a result of their healthy, mild diet of mother’s milk and then puppy food, and the enzymes that break the food down.

Since puppies don’t eat “big dog” or table food, they don’t have “big dog” mouth bacteria or the plaque problems older dogs develop so their mouths are clean thus no bad breath.

Can’t you just imagine the puppy breath just looking at these sleeping babies?
More information and photos of our sweet pups can be found on our web site.

My post about dogs and heat has been one of the most read posts on my blog. Today I heard about a neat product that goes with that post.

There is a temperature monitor and alarm you can put in your car, truck or motorhome that will cause the horn to blow if temperature is over or under a certain range. It is made by Safe Home Products. It isn’t cheap but in all of these cases it could have saved the dogs involved.

In a further update, yet another dog has died in a hot car — this one belonged to the Richmond, VA SPCA CEO: View article.
My sympathies go out to her as apparently this occurred due to an unfortunate lack of communication between her and her husband, who had put the dog in her car without telling her, but one has to wonder if this had been a CEO of another type of business who left their dog in a car, wouldn’t charges be pressed and the public be up in arms? Instead the head of the HSUS is defending her saying this incident can help raise public awareness.

As promised, I have finally taken a couple of new pictures of Sugar and Spice, our foster mini-horses. They are looking really good, okay slightly fat maybe.
Today Sugar let me touch the side of her neck — a first. Spice let me run over most of her body tonight including touching her hooves.

Two days in a row now I’ve been able to slip a halter on Spice.
I tie it loosely then just let it slip back off. I have not put a rope on the halter yet and I put no pressure on it. I just give her a couple of treats then let it slip off again. I also was able to comb my fingers through her mane yesterday, also a first. Sugar remains very wary although I did touch her face briefly with the halter a couple of times.

A couple of Pat Parelli quotes help me remember that patience is a virtue with these girls and to stick with my slow approach. Pat says “Take the time it takes so it takes less time.” and “prior and proper preparation prevents poor performance particularly if polite and passive persistence is practiced in the proper position.”

Sugar and Spice are progressing well and are looking for the right home(s) that would continue to provide a patient, nurturing atmosphere. In return they have much to offer. I picture them being trained to pull a cart in time. If you are interested in adopting one or both please contact Spirit Horse Equine Rescue. There would be much support available to help you continue working with them.

I Love This Video! As soon as I saw this video I knew I had to post it on my web site.
Fun song and video so enjoy!

The name of the musician is John Shipe.

Sadly this song has some truth in it as these dogs are judged just by looking at them rather than by knowing them. In light of the HSUS supported killing of 147 confiscated pit bulls back in Feb., people are very concerned about what will happen with the large group of pit bulls recently taken from a fighting kennel in MO. For more info view this article on the AR-HR blog. Many of those confiscated are likely dogs who were never fought and will make great pets. They deserve to be evaluated fairly by an unbiased evaluator (as in not the HSUS) before written off as unadoptable.

The mini horse/pony foster girls have been here 2 months now.
Here is a summary of where we are at with them.
To review we are fostering them for Spirit Horse Equine Rescue in WI and when they came to us they were pretty much wild, not used to people, touch, etc. They have slowly come to be more interested not only in us but in other people. When my agility students or neighbor kids are here they now come to the fence to see them and will take treats from them, too. We can touch both of their faces but Sugar is still much more skittish than Spice. With Spice I can now touch her front legs, chest, neck and back, also occasionally I can lightly touch her rear. I wish I could comb out their manes but they aren’t ready for that kind of touching yet, hopefully soon. I can also drape a light weight rope over Spice’s neck and back and scratch her back/rump with a “Carrot Stick”. They whinny or nicker when they see me and they love treats. Their coats are beautiful and shiny, their weight is normal now. I still have not seen Sugar come into heat but hopefully she just doesn’t show it and isn’t pregnant. Spice is a bit more obvious when she is in heat as she teases my gelding, Nick.

Because they weren’t used to pasture I have had to ease them into being out on grass starting with just an hour at a time but now they can be out all day as the pasture is not as rich as 2 months ago. They are able to be out with my mini donkeys or with my two horses. They especially enjoy their time with my horses as they all run and play on and off all day. They are beautiful when they run, Spice especially is well built and is a beautiful mover when she gets going.
I could picture them being trained to pull a cart or small wagon but they still need to find the right home.

It’s rainy and ugly outside today (and horribly cold for July, only 59 degrees!) but on a nicer day I will take new photos and post them.

Last week at least three very sad and preventable incidents occurred due to people leaving dogs in vans/cars during the very hot (90s) weather.

Last Sunday night a “handler” (a person who shows dogs for other people for a living) got home late at night and according to the news stories decided it was too hot in the garage she kept clients’ dogs in so left them in the van they had traveled in. Supposedly there were fans on the dogs with windows, side doors left open.
7 out of 8 dogs in the van died.

Read the latest article about this tragedy.

Also last week a man decided to take in a movie while leaving his Lab in his car with no windows open.

See this article.
I just wish someone had broken the window out as soon as the dog was noticed — his temperature was 111 at the vet clinic where he died. The owner is being prosecuted.

Closer to home I got an e-mail Friday evening that made me ill — an agility student e-mailed me to tell me she would no longer be at classes this summer because she forgot she had left her two dogs in the car when she got home and both dogs died of heat stroke. Knowing these dogs, it made me very upset to think about them suffering and dieing in their own driveway. I don’t know exactly what happened and probably won’t but I do know I would have trouble forgiving myself if this happened to any of my dogs.

PLEASE don’t take your dog with you when it is hot outside. Even when it is 70 degrees outside a car sitting in the sun can heat up quickly and soon be over 100 degrees inside. Since dogs wear fur coats and don’t sweat they can only expel heat through panting and a little bit of sweating through their paws. Their body temperature can heat up to over 108 degrees in 5 minutes in those temperatures then they can have seizures and die. These are deaths that all could have been prevented. Say a prayer for those owners that loved their dogs, hug your dogs and leave them home in the air conditioning unless you can take them inside whereever you are going.

The My Dog is Cool Campaign operated by United Animal Nations lets people know that leaving a dog in a car for even “just a few minutes” may be too long.

To order or download educational fliers and posters, or to enter your zip code and find out if it is too hot to bring your dog in the car, visit:

www.MyDogIsCool.com

There is a temperature monitor and alarm you can put in your car, truck or motorhome that will cause the horn to blow if temperature is over or under a certain range. It is made by Safe Home Products. It isn’t cheap but in all of these cases it could have saved the dogs involved.

Written in memory of Kitzel.