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Flashy Friday! Week 2 -  "Spin" Whew! A whole week between posts, sorry guys! Like I've mentioned before we're pr...

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Doggy Nail Care - Dremel vs. Clippers

Dog Nail Care
Cutting, and Filing an Anxious Dog's Nails.

Poor Ziva hates having her toes messed with...she'll shake your hand with her paw but please, "Leave the toes alone!"

When we first adopted Ziva she had terribly long almost talon-like nails, way too long for any dog and they were starting to curl. We know from the rescue that she was a semi-social puppy found abandoned in California at an industrial work site, our guess is that no one ever bothered to cut her nails - not even the rescue.  Ziva's story HERE.

To get Ziva used to having her feet handled, we taught her to "shake" with her paws, and we would massage her feet and play gently with her toes and nails regularly without trying to clip or file when we were all snuggling on the couch during movies, or any other chance we got.

We also began to paint her nails to help desensitize her to having her feet handled.

Pink Nails!
I wish we had a picture of how bad her nails were when we adopted her.

Why You Should Cut Your Dogs Nails:

According to the ASPCA, it's important to maintain and trim your dogs nails regularly because they "can break, which is very painful and sometimes results in infection. Long nails can also cause an irregular gait that can lead to skeletal damage."

Posture/Balance - Normally when a dog stands they are on the pads of their feet and their weight is evenly balanced. But when a dogs nails are too long, they stand a little bit back on their feet because their nails are touching the ground first.

Can Cause Splayed Toes & Interfere with traction.

Long Nails Can Catch, Potentially Snag, and then Break or Rip.


Ziva's broken nail has taken almost a month to heal.
How Did She Break Her Nail? And What To Do When your Dog Breaks a Nail.

The Nails can rub in-between your dog's toes and cause blisters. - This was a major problem that Ziva had when we first got her. If we went on a long walk, she would start limping because she would develop a blister which would then break and bleed. Not only does this hurt but it can take a long time to re-heal due to nail length, and you again have to worry about infection issues.

Sports - When your dog is running up or down an obstacle and their nails are too long it feels like you if you were to wear short shoes with long nails, your nails end up jamming into the end of your toes - same concept with a dog, their nails end up jamming back into their nails beds causing extra sensitivity.

Senior Dog Care - You can fix their bad/hunching posture, and balance by keeping their nails trimmed. This is important for your senior dogs to help prevent stumbling and falling.

Dr. Leslie Woodcock DVM - "Nails should not be touching the ground when your dog is running around. Nails are for when you are in grass, or sand and you are running - their purpose is traction."


According to Dr. Leslie some dogs are very protective of their feet for a couple reasons:
- Protective of their Feet
- Sore Nail Beds
- Owner's excuse of "myself/groomer/vet nicked their quick one time." Your dog can get over it, can you? Being nervous about handling their feet for example - fear of doing it again - makes the dog not want YOU to handle their feet because you are giving off nervous/worried body language/emotions.

If you have a very active dog they many not need much trimming. 
Most dogs can wear down their own nails. For example - my hubby does "Urban Joring" with Dante, this is where Dante using a very specifically designed harness, pulls hubby on roller blades. By running on the pavement he wears down his own nails, and they stay pretty short.

"Mush!!"  Dante loves to jore!
 When doing a dog's nails many people use clippers. Their are many different styles of clippers but they need to be sharp to do a good job.

Picture Attribution:  Jollypuppy.com

If you choose to use a clipper when you cut nails, then you should pick up "Quick Stop" to help quickly stop the bleeding (hence the name) if you accidentally hit the quick.

When we had Tex-Anna, it took some time but she eventually got to the point where it was super easy to cut her nails, and we were quick at it. It helped in her case that she had white nails and we could clearly see the quick.
Dante also has nails that are easy to cut with clippers.

Another option is to use a dremel to essentially shave down the nail.

How Often Do You Trim Down Their Nails?
According to Dr. Leslie, the initial trimming down period takes the longest and should be done about every 2 weeks. As you shave/clip your dogs nails the goal is to get the quick to recede over time. Every time you groom your dog's feet you should be getting as close to the quick as possible without actually hitting it.

As for ideal length? Ideally your dog's nails should be short enough that if they were to walk on a hardwood floor, you would not hear any clicking.
Once your pup's nails are short then they are easy to maintain, and you can trim them about once a month.

When Using a Dremel:

-Dremels become hot if you leave it sitting on the nail for too long. Take you time and do quick swipes as you file their nails, careful to not sit on one spot for too long.

-A bad angle can cause the dremel to "jump" or "chatter" this won't hurt your dog but may make them nervous.

-Do not hit the pads on their feet, their skin, or hair - it'll hurt!

-If your dog has long hair - trim the hair around their toes so that you don't catch it in the dremel.

We started using a dremel because not only does Ziva have very dark nails, but she would also panic when we tried to clip her nails.

Short of sedating her it was too stressful and required us to "man-handle" her which was unsafe because she struggled, panicked once again, and we were worried about cutting her quick. Unfortunately for her, we needed to shorten her nails. So we looked for more solutions.
We tried treats to no avail, calming herbal pills, catching her when she was napping, exercising her hard so that she was tired first...it just wasn't working without causing her tons of stress and making us feel like terrible parents.

So we began to use nail files to slowly work her length down.

Merlot helping Daddy with the file, while Dante offered his emotional support.
After filing her nails slowly for several months....this is a very slow way to do it...
We learned you can use a dremel! Many people prefer a dremel to clippers because their is less risk of clipping the quick, the dremel although noisy, is also a constant noise as opposed to the sound of clippers which in Ziva's case she was anticipating with fear.

Just to be clear. Introducing the dremel was no easy task! It took patience and perseverance.

Dante whose trust we have 100% we started with.

Dante's paws. See the white tips? Those gotta go!
1. Set up your station - in our case a towel for him to lay on, dremel, and hand nail file.

2. Leash Dante - asked him to lay down, business as usual maintaining a calm demeanor and rewarding him for calm behavior.

3. Show Dante the dremel (with it off) - let him sniff it, give him a treat for good behavior.

4. Turn on the dremel, let him get used to the noise for about a minute before doing anything - rewarding calm behavior the whole time. *Dante got a bit nervous at first but then realized it didn't hurt at all.*

5. Start working on his feet. He handled it very well! Just laying their calmly the whole time. I didn't need any help and was able to get through all his toes in about 10 min.

Using the dremel - we file in the order of: Under, side, side, top, and then round out any sharp edges.
The dew claw can be kind of tricky to reach: using your non dremel hand hold it away from the paw and then shave it.
You want to get as close to the quick as you can, without hitting it.
So bored...
Back feet too!
Dante napping while daddy dremeled his back nails.
6. Lots of treats and praise when done.

When we dremel our dogs feet, we find that it is easiest to ask the dog to lay down on their tummy and work our way around their body. Dante seems to prefer to lay on his side and take a nap, this makes for an odd angle on your part, but i'm not going to argue with a dog who is giving me complete compliance!

Ziva - took a little bit more time, lots more treats, and two people. With Ziva, daddy held her in his arms while I worked on her feet. 

Anxiety:
- If your dog is anxious, take your time, give lots of rewards and be calm. Any anxiety on your behalf will make your dog more anxious.
- If your pups is starting to become overwhelmed, or you are feeling frusterated - take a break.
- It took us almost an hour the first time we used a dremel on Ziva's toes. We took lots of breaks, which involved walking her around (on leash) and then asking her to lay down again, giving her treats for calm behavior, and telling her she was a "good girl".

*Be Careful What Behavior You Are Rewarding!*

- If your dog is becoming panicked - don't tell him/her that she is a "good girl", if you do then you are rewarding her anxious behavior. Instead; try to see your dogs' individual signs that they are becoming panicked. If you see panic building up then stop. Take a break, walk around, and reward calm behavior once again. Panic will destroy the trust you have built with your dog.

- If your dog is being calm while laying down - offer praise/rewards.

- If your dog is being calm: not struggling while you hold their feet - offer praise/rewards.

- If your dog is allowing you to dremel their feet - offer praise/rewards.

However do not reward/praise to your pup if they are struggling. It's also important that you be the one who calls the breaks, and that you finish their toes. If you stop every time your pups struggles, then you are teaching them that the behavior of struggling = dremel monster goes away.

Ziva struggles to show she is uncomfortable, and a bit anxious. This is different from her panicking which is something we want to avoid.

In a situation such as this - Your pup is struggling: take the dremel off of their toe, however leave the dremel on. We found that massaging Ziva's shoulder joints and legs helped her to relax her feet, then take hold of the foot, and once she is not struggling, begin filing again. Constantly praising good behavior.

With Ziva the third time with the dremel was a charm!
On our third dremel session, it only took us about 15 min to do Ziva's nails.
We asked her to lay down, and her calm behavior meant that she was rewarded with treats and praise. *Click, Treat. *Click, Treat. I spaced out my clicks/treats so that she was being rewarded for holding still for longer periods of time. As you can see, she had her leash on but we didn't need to hold it. It still took two people, dad to dremel, mom to offer rewards for good behavior. If she started to get up, we would "reset": have her lay back down, reward: *Click, Treat.
And then continue on.

Daddy used the dremel, mommy spent the whole time giving treats. Laying still = *click, Treat *click, Treat *click, Treat
Way to go Ziva!! Almost done!
She is still a bit nervous - see the wrinkles in her forehead? But she's much more trusting of us & the process.
All Done!

Ta da! She still has long quicks/nails, but they have become much shorter compared to how they used to be!

Another Fun Post About Paws:
What Type of Paws Does your Dog Have?  Dante and Ziva both have cat paws!!




This post is part of the Adventure Dog blog hop, hosted by DOGthusiast and Tiffany's Diamond Dogs every Tuesday.

Friday, September 26, 2014

Oregonians Are Crazy

Oregon at Heart.

You know you are a true Oregonian when:
  • You get Cabin Fever from being stuck indoors due to wet, nasty weather!
"Oh no!! The dreaded lemon!!"
  • It's raining and you say, "Awww, screw it! I'm going outside anyways."
    So you call up your bestfriend, throw coats on the kids, and everyone gets their walk in.  
Well almost everyone got their walk in...
  • However when you go outside you realize; it was a WAY less than glamorous decision on your part.
Tex-Anna dogs do not like water...
  • But since you're already wet - you may as well get muddy right?
  • Really, Really Muddy...
Yes, that is mud in her eye...silly girl!
  • And so you head back home, only to realize mom requires messy pups be bathed..

  • But then you realize it's not soo bad because then you can take a nice snuggly nap.


  • Besides what's a little rain? Dogs have to play!







Grab button for Pet Parade Blog Hop

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Obedience Training

Class #1 - Clicker & Treat Training

I have a confession to make....I have always hated clickers..
now hear me out! It's the clicking, it just drives me crazy!
Crazy in the cartoony nails on a chalkboard way kind of crazy.

That's it, that's my problem with them. Shhh....don't tell my trainer!


Why are we taking this class? Click HERE to learn about "My Reactive Dog."

I understand their function however, and their place in the dog training world. 
As my instructor put it..,"How long does it take for you to reach and give treats, or get one from a bag? 15-30 sec? What can happen with your dog in that amount of time? A lot."

The point of clicker training is to immediately, and more quickly than your hands can move - "mark" a good behavior, and then immediately reward that specific behavior with a treat.

Bring on the Clicker!
We are in a small obedience class which makes me very happy - only 5 dogs. In the training room their are colored rectangles for each human/dog team, you stay in your rectangle and the dogs get to see each other but not meet. Class is a working time, not a social time.
The colors just help us silly humans remember where our spot is. If a dog is too excited their are blinds that can go up between rectangles so that they can't see each other, which is a brilliant idea. Only one pup ended up needing the blinds - and it wasn't us!

Exercise #1:
I know how to use a clicker even though I have never personally used one, and Ziva already knows obedience. So class #1 was mostly introducing her to the clicker concept. 
We started off class just associating the *click with a treat. *Click, treat. *Click, treat.
Now walking: *Click, treat. *Click, treat. 

Exercise #2:
Next we worked on "Focus", or as my pups are familiar with it, "Look".

Great Eye Contact!
"Look" When she holds eye contact and doesn't look at the ball it gets thrown!

"Look" is eye contact, and not just a glance and look away again. "Look" is constant eye contact, something that Ziva is naturally extremely good at. At home we have worked on "Look" a lot with our dogs as a way of teaching them to give us back their attention that might have strayed. It's hard with squirrels or cats but we've been working on it.

"Squirrel" I see it face. "Let me chase it mom!" See her tight mouth, wrinkled forehead and forward ears?

Well in class it was the perfect setting to practice because of the distraction of all the other dogs being around.

So in our colored square we began walking, I would stop and wait.
Without giving her a command just wait, when she would "look" on her own: *Click, treat.
Walk and find a new spot in our colored area, "Look", *Click, treat. 
"Look" *Click, treat. 
If she maintained prolonged eye contact it was *Click*Click, treat.
The instructor then upped the challenge and had everyone moving around the room, rotating one colored rectangle at a time, every time she "looked"; *Click, treat. 
"Look" *Click, treat. 
Stronger eye contact and prolonged eye contact resulted in *Click*Click, treat. Or a jackpot!

Jackpot! One great way to keep your dogs engaged is the jackpot concept, every so often giving them more than one treat! But you have to be careful to not make a pattern that they can follow or else they will wait for just the jackpot.

Exercise #3:
Automatic Sit - this one is where you stop walking and wait for the dog to sit.
No verbal commands given. Eventually the dog will sit.
In Ziva's case she knows that when I stop she is to "Look" at me. This is something we do at home, however I don't always ask for a sit.
Well now I'm asking. 
So when I stopped, Ziva "Looked" at me and waited expecting her tasty reward. 
I could just see it in her eyes...,"Come on mom, I'm looking, what more do you want?" Hmmmm....
Not talking to your dog is a great way to make them problem solve and use their brain.
*Sit. *Click, treat.  
"Oh! Now I get it!" ~ Ziva

*Sit. *Click, treat. Walk around...
*Sit. *Click, treat. Walk around...
*Sit. *Click, treat. 
"Look" *Click, treat. 
"Look" *Click, treat..
"Look" *Click *Click, treat.

And thus went our first day of class.

I am also proud to say she did not get snarky with any of the other dogs. Their was one reactive dog in our class and she was in the rectangle next to us, they had to put up the walls so that she could get used to the sounds and smells of everything and slowly throughout class began to open up the blinds. At one point she lunged and barked her head off right at Ziva and me! Thankfully Ziva didn't react at all! I was shocked in a very good way, she didn't like it but usually that kind of aggression results in her getting aggressive and lunging back. But nope! She didn't.



I'm happy to say we were the most advanced team in the class! It helps that she already knows obedience, the safe controlled environment of class however is the perfect way to help us grow!
Very proud of our little girl!

As for Dante, he had a blast with his puppy play date. He wasn't even interested in me when I showed up to take him home!
On a side note, everything Ziva and I are learning in class I am taking home, 
teaching the hubby, and we are working Dante through the exercises as well.

B&B3b_Fotor

www.PepiSmartDog.com, Thankful Thursday Weekly Blog Hop, pet centric

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Giardia in Dogs

Caring for Critters 
Round Robin
After doing battle with this nasty parasite on two different occasions I have now become extremely paranoid about the water sources my dogs drink from.
Please learn from our mistake!
giardia-1

What is Giardia?
Giardia is an intestinal parasite to put it the most simply. This particular nasty critter can infect both humans and animals. A dog becomes infected by swallowing the cyst stage of the parasite - which then hatches once the cyst passes to your dogs intestines.



How Do You Get Giardia?
Giardia is passed when you ingest or come into contact with a contaminated item such as food, dirt, or water. Hikers have been known to get Giardia through drinking bad water when they didn't use a filter - it's often referred to as "Beaver Fever" in this instance.
Items become contaminated through the feces of an infected carrier such as a wild animal. Giardia is usually associated with poor hygiene and lack of sanitation.

The most common way you get Giardia is after swallowing infected water, the parasites may be found in lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams, as well as in municipal water supplies.

Dogs can get Giardia from sniffing the cysts from contaminated ground, eating contaminated grass, or drinking contaminated water.

How Long Can Giardia Live?
According to the CDC:
In the soil - in cold temperatures 4*C/39.2*F : Giardia can survive for about 7 weeks (49 days).
In hot temperatures 25*C/77*F : Giardia can survive for about 1 week (7 days)
Dry environments with direct sunlight - Giardia can only survive a few days.
Moist and cool environments - Giardia can survive several weeks.
Water - In temperatures below 10*C/50*F Giardia can live for 1-3 months, higher temperatures result in shorter life spans.

Symptoms:
Symptoms typically appear 2 days after the initial infection occurs, and may include violent/projectile diarrhea, mucous/watery stools (they look nasty and slimey), excessive gas, fatigue, stomach/abdominal cramps, bloat, and nausea. This can result in dehydration and in extreme cases death.
Photo Attribution: Joan Valencia


In some mild cases Giardia infections in humans can clear up within a few weeks - however the intestinal problems may remain long after the parasite is gone. However you do not want to put your pet through this, if you notice symptoms get your beloved pet into the veterinarian right away.





Tests:
In order to diagnose Giardia your doctor or veterinarian will need to do a stool sample.



How Do You Treat Giardia?
The most commonly veterinarian prescribed drug used to kill Giardia is metronidazole, an antibiotic that is given to your dog for 5-7 days.
Most healthy dogs will heal up just fine, however senior or animals with weak immune systems are at risk for health complications including death.

Can Your Dog Give Giardia To You?
Yes. Your dog can also give the Giardia to other animals within your home. It's important that if your dog has Giardia that you immediately pick up after them every time they poo, preferably wearing gloves and always wash your hands.
A good prevention tip is also to wipe your dogs feet and butt before allowing them back into your house.

It's also important that you treat your environment, if your dog is diagnosed you need to thoroughly clean your pet's living and sleeping area as well as any toys. For treating toys - they must be cleaned daily so long as your pet is infected.

According to the CDC:
Dishwasher safe toys can be disinfected in a dishwasher that has a dry cycle or final rinse cycle that exceeds one of the following:
113* for 20 min
122* for 5 min
162* for 1 min
Or place items in boiling water for at least 1 min.

 Preferably use a bleach/water mixture (Lysol and Ammonium compounds are also known to kill the cysts) to treat surfaces that you suspect may be affected. If you have carpet or upholstered furniture that your pet may have been on remove any feces if you see them, and clean with a detergent or carpet cleaning agent. You can also steam clean affected areas.

Make sure you bathe your pet to ensure all fecal matter is not hiding in your pets coat to be spread around the house.


Our 1st Experience - Dante 
Giardia is terrible. My first exposure to it was with Dante before we had adopted Ziva. I left home and he was fine, I returned home a couple hours later to a terrible awful stench that filled my entire house...Dante was sitting by the back door signalling me that he needed out now!
Right next to the door was the first pile...no not even pile...

First things first I put him outside where he immediately ran to the grass and took the familiar squat position.
Next I gloved up, grabbed the Lysol and paper towels and cleaned up the first pile...but their was more...thank goodness I have hardwood floors but even then it was awful! His biggest mess was in the upstairs hallway (not sure why he picked that spot). It took me awhile with all my gagging and running to a window for fresh air to get it cleaned up. I then opened all the windows and got the fans going.

The next step call the vet - thankfully they were open. When I described the symptoms our vet said it was most likely Giardia and he'd need a stool sample. So I grabbed a sample, left Dante at home and took off. Yep Giardia.
I had to bathe my poor boy, and during the whole treatment time he had to deal with us wiping his feet and butt before he was allowed back inside.

A few days later I started to have symptoms - yep, he gave it to me! So I called my doctor and was quick to let her know that Dante had been positively diagnosed, I described my symptoms, and she sent a prescription to our pharmacy without needing me to come in. YAY!
Thankfully Dante didn't have any other symptoms except for the diarrhea, no one else was infected, and he recovered just fine with the antibiotics.

2nd Experience - Ziva
Same as before, I left home and all was well in the world with both pups. I came back thankfully only 3 hours later to discover my poor puppy had a massive explosion of diarrhea inside her crate! This was way worse than Dante's case, she had managed to cover her crate, her bed, Dante's bed, the walls, floor outside the crate, and my nearby drapes!  ACK!!
What do you do!? First problem - how do I get her outside? She had to walk...I rushed her outside and she still had diarrhea. I then put Dante out, gloved up and began to clean. I tossed the crates outside (deal with them later), threw the drapes in the wash, and cleaned my walls and floors. I then called the vet and took stock of Ziva - unfortunately our vet's office was closed so I had to call the Emergency vet.


Poor Ziva who was just under a year was doing terrible, her whole mouth was dry, and she was acting sick on top of the diarrhea. The doctor on duty said bring her in, next step how do I get her there? I have a small car - and I really didn't want poo inside it..So I ended up getting my neighbor to help me, we wrapped him in garbage bags, and wrapped Ziva in a towel so that he could hold her for the ride.

Thus began our nightmare.
Our vet closed at 5, about the time I got home. We were at the Emergency Clinic by 6 pm, when we got their I expressed that I thought it was Giardia the nurse however was concerned that Ziva might have Parvo (even though she was fully vaccinated) which meant she couldn't go inside until they could test her. In order to test for Parvo they had to take a stool sample using a cotton swab and insert it where the sun don't shine...I told the nurse I would hold Ziva. I also said, "She's not ready". Unfortunately the nurse went too soon, and my poor puppy had a major panic attack and of course it hurt! She was raw!
This resulted in her biting my face (just a quick strike) she drew blood but it was shallow, on a good note the nurse didn't see what had happened so I just said, "she scratched me" that's my story and I stuck to it! My neighbor ran and grabbed tissues - he saw but kept quiet, she didn't mean to and I didn't need Ziva in trouble over a bite they provoked.

The test results took about 20 min, during this time Ziva was a nervous wreck - the diarrhea had stopped but she was shaking and stress breathing. The results came back negative and they ushered us into a tiny room. "The doctor will be right in." Ya right..

Next we saw a nurse who needed to take Ziva's temperature. Great! Can't they come up with a less invasive way to take a dog's temperature!?

This time I held her down, and thankfully the nurse waited until I gave the the "go ahead". No bites but more panic.

Another half hour went by, no one. A doctor came in, and explained that he wanted to give Ziva a subcutaneous injection of fluids because she was extremely dehydrated. I said ok to the procedure and he left. Another 45 minutes went by, no one.
At this point my poor puppy had wet herself, I had covered her in the towel for warmth because the office was air-conditioned, and I was sitting on the floor cradling her head because she was going into shock.

I was also getting angry - I understand that my emotions affect my dogs so up until this point I had been really calm and held it all together to try and help my puppy know that mommy was in control of the situation.

I then went out of the room and asked if we could just leave, the nurse said she'd need to talk to the doctor. She then came back and said, "not a good idea". So I explained how long we had been waiting and the condition my dog was in, I just wanted to get her home and cleaned up so could they please hurry it up? At this point she proceeded to tell me that I needed to calm down and it must be me affecting my dog.

I about lost my temper, I told her we're leaving if they don't hurry up. Next thing I know a nurse comes in and says they are ready to start but Ziva would have to leave the room. This did not sit well with me. How long? "Just a couple minutes." Right...
It went pretty quick, my poor pup looked like a hunchback - when they do a subcutaneous injection the liquid is given under the skin and on top of the muscle, it's supposed to slowly absorb into the body. But thankfully this meant she could go home after being there for over 3 hours.

We left in a hurry and as soon as I got home I threw both dogs in the shower and worked on warming up my little girl.

Thankfully she made a nice recovery with the meds and injection to get her body re-hydrated. However now i'm really paranoid about water sources for my dogs, I always bring water and a dish for them now wherever we go.


Ziva Happy the nightmare is over.


We're participating in Caring Critters Round Robin hosted by Heart Like a Dog. Tune in tomorrow for Fetch For Me Human's next installment of the Round Robin.

**Disclaimer: I am not a veterinarian and have no medical training. If you think your pet has giardia please contact your veterinarian immediately, it could mean saving his life.**

Other Sources:
VCA Hospitals
Pet MD
CDC




Tuesday, September 23, 2014

The Best Dog Day Ever!

Our First Family Trip
 to the Oregon Coast!



I've been dying all summer to take the dogs to the coast, I could have gone earlier but I wanted to make sure we went as a family and my poor hubby has had a busy summer due to work.
This was the first weekend we were able to go and not feel guilty about not staying home to do yard work or other "important" adult chores.

First stop, coffee and donuts!!
Our favorite donut shop is on the opposite end of town, probably a good thing...they make the best apple fritters ever! They are thin, crispy, and appliscious!

Photo Attribution: Arnold Gatilao
Then we drove through Florence, Oregon and stopped at Thor's Well which is located off of Cape Perpetua.
The weather was perfect! Normally when we go to the coast we expect to either freeze, or be blown away by the strong winds, but not this trip! It was sunny and 70 with no wind in sight!

Beautiful picture of Thor's Well. Photo Attribution: John Fowler
The tide was all the way in when we arrived at Thor's Well so we couldn't get very close (hence the borrowed picture). We could see it, and hear it gushing and growling as the water flowed in and spouted back out again but I couldn't get a good picture of the actual Well.

*On a separate trip however the hubby got in super close and captured this gorgeous video!**

Thor's Well!


This photo however shows a natural spout located at Thor's Well, it was awesome! The water would crash in, and if it crashed hard enough a hole filled with water and spouted out of the top of a small cavern!

The dogs did great with all the noise, and were very excited about the whole adventure. We hiked our way around the well to look at some more of the natural lava rock formations and all the sea foam that was collecting.



And of course, just like a silly little boy Dante had to go and jump right into the sea foam!



After Thors Well we made our way further north up the coast line, with the weather being so beautiful it seemed like everyone had decided to go to the beach and it was super busy!

But by super busy I don't mean California or Florida Coast line busy, 
I mean Oregon busy where you say, 
"Awww man! I have to share the beach with someone else?!"

After driving a bit longer than we wanted...we found the perfect spot! With almost no people around anywhere!

It was awesome, the dogs could hardly contain themselves for our walk down to the water but we wanted to make sure they were dialed in and listening to us before we cut them loose off leash.

This was Dante's reaction to the beach:

"Freedom!!!"
One of the cutest parts of the day was Dante, he loved the water! First thing hubby did was to teach Dante a game...chase the waves away, and then run like crazy before they catch you!
Dante caught on real quick and proceeded to play this game all day.
But he also just liked to scamper around in the waves.


Ziva on the other hand when she wasn't chasing her brother was playing with us and her tennis ball.

"Run before it gets us!!"



The dogs had a great doggy day, and if you were to ask them they would say it was the best dog day ever!

Dante also made a friend! A couple nice girls were walking their bully mix (border collie bully?) super cute pup and we asked if they could play and sure enough the pup was friendly so Dante got some nice roughhousing in with a new dog. Always a plus!
Ziva was polite but preferred to stay out of the mix and just play ball with me.

"Air Ball!"

"Chomp!"

We also did some more formal style training with my newly acquired treat bag, it was a great new place to have them practice their listening skills and recall.



Ziva giving me some great eyes as she waited for her ball.
And you may notice my husbands genius way of carrying shoes and a leash? String on your shoes, clip the leash to the handle, twist into a figure 8, and wear like a backpack!
Genius!

"Whatcha doin dad?"

After a long day of playing the pups were totally wore out, and happy to sleep for the long car ride home. Normally car rides consist of Dante standing and looking out the window the whole time, but not this trip! He was a tired boy!

But they will agree, it was
The Best Dog Day Ever!




AdventureDog-250




This post is part of the Adventure Dog blog hop, hosted by DOGthusiast and Tiffany's Diamond Dogs every Tuesday.

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