Pool side Victoria Day with Hazel the Saint Bernese
Wishing you a Happy Victoria Day from Hazel!
Photos: Hiking trip with our Chihuahua friend Yoshi
 |
| All photos by Stacey McIntyre-Gonzalez Copyright© |
 |
Photo by Stacey McIntyre-Gonzalez Copyright©
|
How to prevent fleas and ticks from biting your pet because #NoBiteIsRight
This post is sponsored by No Bite is RIght and the BlogPaws® Pet Influencer NetworkTM. I am being compensated to help create awareness about Summer Safety and Protecting Pets against fleas and ticks but Paws For Reaction only shares information we feel is relevant to our readers. Paws For Reaction is responsible for the contents and not the sponsors mentioned above.
I remember when Keira got her first tick. It was three years ago. I couldn’t believe I had missed it. It was right on the top of her head! I totally freaked out! It was a fully engorged, disgusting Brown Dog Tick. My veterinarian recommended I wait six weeks, and then bring Keira in for her annual Heartworm and Lyme test. It was an agonizing six weeks. I was relieved when she tested negative for Lyme disease, but I couldn’t believe she even had a tick in the first place. Are there really ticks in the Ottawa Valley? How can I prevent ticks from biting my dogs?
 |
All photos by
Stacey McIntyre-Gonzalez Copyright©
|
Happy
Easter from Paws For Reaction!
I hope everyone is having a great Easter weekend! Don’t
forget to check out the Paws For Reaction EasterHeadquarters to read all the fun Easter themed posts and to see pictures of
adorable pets celebrating the holiday. Speaking of pets celebrating the holiday,
check out my Easter Mountain Dogs! Hazel and Keira played dress-up so they
could get their Easter treats- check out the photos below! Have a Happy Easter!
 |
All photos by
Stacey McIntyre-Gonzalez Copyright©
|
Photos: My mountain dogs enjoying first snow
It
finally snowed in Ontario!
It is very
exciting. Climate change couldn’t have been more obvious this Christmas here in
Ontario, Canada- a province that is usually draped in a thick blanket of cold, sparkling
snow by now. Instead we had a grassy-green holiday season- until today.
Hopefully this will be a big enough sign for everyone to change and make more
eco-friendly lifestyle and diet choices.
Both of the
girls were really excited for snow but Hazel was he most excited. She hasn’t
seen snow since she was a little, tiny puppy. Now she is a 97 lb almost one
year old. Saint Bernese dogs are in their element in the winter time and I was disappointed
that they weren’t getting to experience it. Finally today it snowed and we took
the girls on a hike through a winter wonderland. Check out our photo story in the
snowy forest.
Dealing with a doggy disability: X-rays show the progression of Hazel's broken femur
Hazel, my Saint
Bernese puppy, is
four months old now and much has changed for this fluffy little spit-fire of a
mountain dog. When my partner Robert and I brought Hazel home on March 22 we
noticed that she walked with a limp. I brought her to the animal hospital where
I work the next day and received some bad news- Hazel had fractured her femur
bone in her left hind leg at some point early on in her life. It went un-diagnosed and untreated. The first radiograph showed that bone had completely callused over- making the left leg
shorter than the right.
As
I discussed in my letter from the editor Hazel will walk with a limp, is
guaranteed to have arthritis and hip dysplasia early on in life and may need major surgery. At that time I was still waiting for the surgeon’s assessment.
Later that week I received the news- the surgeon said I should leave the leg for
now but take x-rays monthly to monitor the growth and watch for signs of pain.
If we saw signs of soreness we were to put Hazel on a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) to help with pain management.
 |
Photo by
Stacey McIntyre-Gonzalez Copyright©
|
Puppy
play biting: How to teach a teething puppy not to bite
It is a painful problem that every puppy owner faces:
play biting. Puppy owners are far too familiar with the feeling of an adorable
fuzzy puppy clamping on to their sensitive skin with those tiny, deadly and
razor-sharp puppy teeth. But play biting is a natural thing for a puppy- she is
trying to use her mouth to learn about the world around her. It starts with the
other pups in her litter. They bite when they play fight but when one pup bites
too hard the other pup will yelp loudly and stop playing. From the beginning puppies
are learning the boundaries of biting and it is a lesson that needs to continue
when they leave the litter to join their human family.
Biting too hard is a behavior that needs to be corrected
right from the beginning if the puppy is going to be able to have good
relationships with other people and dogs. Founder of The Academy For Dog Trainers Jean
Donaldson published an article in 2007 for the Calgary Humane Society about aggressive behavior in canines. She educates about acquired bite inhibition (ABI) which “is
the degree of pressure a dog exerts with his jaws when he bites, and likely the
most significant prognostic indicator in aggression.” Puppies must be taught
not to put force behind their bite because according to Donaldson “ABI has
proven virtually impossible to modify in an adult dog.”
Posts
