FairPlay Dog Services

22/08/2024

What a beautiful walk! A nice little state park just 3 miles from home, along the sparkling Nashua River. Stash and I had such a nice time together~

21/08/2024

Excellent.

20/08/2024

I came into the living room this morning to find the usual pupper chaos, +
Huck had pulled his bandage off. And there was a tiny dead mouse in his pen.
Ok, then!
Bandaging a 6-week-old puppy is NOT a single human activity (not without drugs – for both pupper and human)! So, off to the vet we went to get the boy passed around amongst the staff, and rebandaged.

20/08/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/NgTQFan2BYHNYhso/?mibextid=WC7FNe

We are living our worst nightmare right now. Yesterday as we were unloading Caleb and Joey to get them settled into their new life at Sowa, Caleb got spooked and escaped from us. In coordination with the local police and fire department we searched until dark including using a thermal drone. We’ve posted on all our local FB groups, NextDoor and have contacted the local news. PLEASE SHARE THIS POST! We are absolutely shattered and sick to our stomachs. We are offering a $5000 reward to anyone who is able to bring Caleb to safety. He was last seen going into the woods near the junction of Littleton County Road and Old Schoolhouse Road in Harvard MA. We just need him to come home 💔

19/08/2024

😳😱

18/08/2024

I was driving home after teaching my class today, and encountered this sight along the way. I had to turn around a couple of times to get photos…


17/08/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/XcvojBGoTQ7fsjem/?mibextid=WC7FNe

16/08/2024

Here’s a nice explanation of the genes affecting copper absorption, by GenSol. Anyone can easily submit their dog’s DNA sample for analysis. My kits arrived a couple days after I ordered them, and the turnaround for results was equally quick~

Maintaining normal levels of copper is important for growth, body function, and a healthy liver in dogs. Typically, copper is acquired through a dog’s diet and maintained at the correct...

16/08/2024

So you’re at an outing, standing next to your spouse or friend. Someone approaches you with a tray filled with hors d’oeuvres, and offers one to you. You look at the tray, but then say “no, thank you.” The waiter moves away.

Now, imagine if after saying “no, thank you” the waiter didn’t go away. Imagine if the waiter continued to push you to take one, and even your spouse started saying “come on, take one!” So you uncomfortably took and ate one, even though it wasn’t what you wanted. You’d probably be pretty aggravated with your spouse too. But you think it’s a one off and you carry on with the evening.

A few minutes later another waiter approaches with another tray, and the same thing happens. This time you feel yourself get more upset, especially after saying “no” multiple times. But your spouse insists also, even going so far as to take the snack off the tray and try to put it in your mouth. By the end of the interaction, you’re really on edge.

The third or fourth time you see a waiter approach you, you’re feeling either stressed, angry, or both. The waiter hasn’t even gotten all the way over to you yet and you’re ready to yell “no!” You look around for a place to escape to but your spouse/friend has their arm around you and you can’t back away. You end up physically snatching the tray from the waiter and throwing it on the ground, yelling obscenities and getting as quickly out of the room as possible. The guests look at you while your spouse simply says “I don’t know why she’s being so aggressive! They were just wanted to give her a snack!” I’m guessing you would be pretty angry at your spouse/friend by this point too. They aren’t helping support you at all. You can’t trust them OR the waiter.

You see where I’m going with this don’t you?
Try to imagine if your “no thank yous” were ignored. How many times would it take being ignored for you to get angry, get physical, or try to escape, or worse, just shut down completely. Everyone would handle it differently, but we’d all hate it.

Dogs deal with this EVERY DAY. They say “no, thank you” all the time. And we often times are guilty of ignoring that request and trying to convince them otherwise, sometimes even going so far as to force them through something because WE don’t understand. And then we wonder why dogs reach a point of aggressing or avoiding. Whether we are the waiter; trying to push something onto the dog like an interaction, or the spouse/friend not supporting the dog and backing up their request of “no, thank you” we are doing serious harm to the dogs confidence and even more harm to our relationship with them.

Your dog can only use his body language to tell you what he wants, so pay attention. If your dog says no thank you, listen. If they don’t want a stranger to touch them, support them. If they don’t want to meet a strange dog, let it go. If they want to take their time trying something different, let them take their time. I can tell you the more choice they feel they have the more likely they are to actually decide to try when they are ready. Just like you may finally get hungry enough to want a snack from the tray, but on your terms, and one that you get to pick.

Choice and consent matters in ALL species. Respect your dogs “no, thank you” and you’ll get a lot of respect back.

- Helen St. Pierre, No Monkey Business Dog Training. Please if you share give credit.

15/08/2024

Well, here we are again, but with different drama.

One of the puppers sustained an injury to his RF leg late last night. My best guess is that when Radish jumped into the pen, she accidentally landed on it. He screamed , and she cried right along with him…
So he slept in a box on the bed next to me, with his mama next to him as well. (Funcle Stash lost the ‘F’ for the night; he laid on the floor next to the dog gate and alternated between just looking pathetic, and whining. Between him and being super-aware of my tiny charge, I slept for about 30 minutes.)

My amazing vet’s office got us in at 9:30 this morning. Physical exam and X-rays revealed a mid-radial fracture. He’s in a giant soft bandage, on painkillers, and needs to be kept separate from his brothers. I’ll set up a hospital ward for him next to their pen (which only takes up 1/3 of the living room, after all!)

I’m a very, very good animal nurse (former vet tech) so I’m sure he’ll heal completely. And one of the xray views looks like the fx is only partial, and may not go all the way through the bone. But he’ll be such a spoiled pupper after all this!

11/08/2024

😂😂
Sometimes you just don’t know what you’ve caught on camera!

11/08/2024

Sunday, day 36
World Alteration Day

Auntie Andrea Miville Cooper came to visit her grandpuppies this morning. While she watched over them in their outdoor pen, I broke down and cleaned the whelping box (I had my first climb-out this morning!) and set up the puppers’ new digs. I hope they’re happy in them, because they occupy 1/3 of my living room space…

11/08/2024

CNN https://www.facebook.com/share/p/hG2FCb3j3ySPHJWK/?mibextid=WC7FNe

03/08/2024

And Part 2! 😂

03/08/2024

Part 1

03/08/2024

😂😂😂😂

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/4dNf1KSsQxGugBt4/?

03/08/2024

Well, this appears to be darned useful!

Getting sap out of dog fur does more than prevent matting. It can prevent hot spot development and skin irritation due to allergic reaction.