Warning for dog owning gardeners!
May 6, 2010
This warning comes from the USA, but my guess is it will be just a matter of time before this becomes an issue here. We can learn from their mistakes hopefully!
Please tell every dog or cat owner you know. Even if you don’t have a pet, please pass this to those who do.
Over the weekend, the doting owner of two young lab mixes purchased Cocoa Mulch from Target to use in their garden. The dogs loved the way it smelled and it was advertised to keep cats away from their garden. Their dog (Calypso) decided the mulch smelled good enough to eat and devoured a large helping. She vomited a few times which was typical when she eats something new but wasn’t acting lethargic in any way. The next day, Mom woke up and took Calypso out for her morning walk . Half way through the walk, she had a seizure and died instantly.
Although the mulch had NO warnings printed on the label, upon further investigation on the company’s web site,
this product is HIGHLY toxic to dogs and cats.
Cocoa Mulch is manufactured by Hershey’s, and they claim that “It is true that studies have shown that 50% of the dogs that eat Cocoa Mulch can suffer physical harm to a variety of degrees (depending on each individual dog). However, 98% of all dogs won’t eat it.”
*Snopes site gives the following information:http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/cocoamulch.asp *
Cocoa Mulch, which is sold by Home Depot, Foreman’s Garden Supply and other Garden supply stores contains a lethal ingredient called ‘Theobromine’. It is lethal to dogs and cats. It smells li ke chocolate and it really attracts dogs. They will ingest this stuff and die. Several deaths already occurred in the last 2-3 weeks.
Theobromine is in all chocolate, especially dark or baker’s chocolate which is toxic to dogs. Cocoa bean shells contain potentially toxic quantities of theobromine, a xanthine compound similar in effects to caffeine and theophylline. A dog that ingested a lethal quantity of garden mulch made from cacao bean shells developed severe convulsions and died 17 hours later. Analysis of the stomach contents and the ingested cacao bean shells revealed the presence of lethal amounts of theobromine.
A new puppy class!
April 29, 2010
We have started off teaching them to sit and watch, go down, lead work and how to stop them jumping up, as you can
see they are making excellent progress!
- Sue and Nessa giving a great example of the watch exercise!
Herbie being a very good boy!
Cathy and Herbie demonstrating the watch on command!
Pauline and Ben showing small dogs can be obedient too!
Pauline had to get down low to start Ben off on teaching him to watch.
Ben is just too cute! But he is very clever too!
Nessa showing that Staffies can be nice!
Recall training morning at Barbary Cottage!
April 28, 2010
Sarah giving great body language for the recall
Sharon looking great on heelwork!
Sarah looking very pleased with Charlie!
We start by getting the short recall right!
more short recall for Charlie
Jane and Freddy can do the short recall too!
A lovely shot of great lead work!
We all need a tea break, well we had worked hard!
We had a great morning, and the sun shone for us too! The dogs responded well to the strutured training, by the time we felt brave enough to leave the safety of the fenced garden and go into the paddock, the dogs were responding well. Anne and Sharon had been to the training session a month before so were able to advance more, I was thrilled to see the improvement in their dogs and in their handling!
Recall on the long line out in the fields
The long line is our safety net!
Dennis is not the new Toto! :(
April 26, 2010
The whole litter!
A little girl puppy from Gracie's current litter
Cassie (Sister of Dennis
Gracie pups at 4 weeks! It'A boy puppy
Another girl!
But he did make it to the last 10 out of 1000 applicants!! A major achievement for any dog, and he and Maggie looked great on the results show last Sunday night! A big congratulations to them both on a great performance and what a great time they both had at the “Lords” home!
I will chase Maggie for an up to date photo of Dennis, but the moment I do have a lovely one of his sister Cassie, who is just as beautiful and a lovely little person!
If any of you know of a great home out there Dennis’ Mum Gracie gave birth to 6 more babies last week, the Daddy is my Pie so they are set to be very lovely little people too, who need homes as special as they are! They are very loving little dogs with great temperaments and a little poodle in Mum Gracie gives them this shaggy look, though some do end up looking like Dad!
Avril on the Steve Scruton show at BBC Essex Radio
April 23, 2010
Steve hard at work behind the desk
As ever I had a great time with Steve Scruton at the BBC Essex Studio in Chelmsford! We had some great callers with Dog questions and covered dog behaviour subjects like toilet training, separation anxiety, biting, dog to dog aggression and several more, if you missed the show and would like to listen in you can do for the next seven days via i player at the address below:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p007d8bd/The_Afternoon_Show_on_BBC_Essex_23_04_2010/
Avril behind the mike
John came in to tell everyone about his show later in the day!
Steve with the BBC sign!
Me and my good friend Steve!
Could this be Toto?
April 8, 2010
A young Dennis on his skateboard!
I am proud to introduce you to Dennis and his owner Maggie (of Allsorts Dog training),
Dennis was from a litter I bred from Gracie and my Teddy and I am very proud that Maggie has been attending the auditions for Toto, fingers crossed for Maggie and Dennis this week as they wait to hear if they go before the “Lord” next week!
Needless to say I will expect you all to vote for him on TV should he get to the last 5!
Do you want your dog to help with the gardening?
March 31, 2010
Does this look familiar? Have you got a photo of the real thing to share?
Spring is coming and the dogs will be spending more time out there, typically I am sure to be having a lot of questions about how to stop the puppies turning the garden into a bomb site! In anticipation here are some tips for those of you who are keen gardeners and do not want to lose your favourite plants this summer!
The good news first, dogs grow out of gardening by around their second birthday! If they don’t, it is not normal behaviour and you need to come and see me to correct the misunderstanding they have!
While growing it is natural for a puppy to explore their world and the garden is a wonderful place for them to do this, eating dirt, chewing sticks up, eating plants, digging around for insects, or just to see what is there is all normal behaviour, and if you fight this natural need to explore you will create more behaviour problems for yourself.
Management is the answer, by either fencing off an area that you give over to the puppy, or protecting your precious shrubs by fencing them off, to protect them from your puppy will make your life simpler, and allow your puppy to develop without upsetting you!
Ideally create a digging area for your puppy that is more interesting than the rest of the garden, this can be an earth area or you could make a sand pit, to reduce the mud you might get in the house. For a sand pit/digging area to be interesting you will have to dig it over once a day, add toys and objects of interest to the area, preferably bury these bits to make it more fun to find them!
Remember if you have just dug a part of the garden, or even better planted bulbs or plants, your puppy will make a bee line for this spot, your scent will make him think it must be interesting, prevent the puppy having access to this area for a few days until your scent has faded.
I am always delighted to have your queries and comments on any of the articles as it can lead to more clarity! Do you have a photo of your puppy digging in the garden for me to add to this post please?
Dylan the super hero!
March 31, 2010
A handsome and clever standard Poodle!
I thought you might all like to share this email I received from Linda about her Standard Poodle Dylan, we have been working together and this is what happened:
“The main reason I’m emailing is to tell you what happened last evening. I’d started putting the dinner on in the fan oven. It had been on for about 5 minutes and I was just sorting out to put the chips in when Dylan started to bark. I thought he wanted the toilet so told him to hang on a minute while I put the chip packet back in the freezer. He then went to Mum and started barking at her. Then I heard what sounded like a hissing or spitting noise and looked in the oven to find that the fan had stopped working and the wiring inside the oven had started to burn, fortunately with just a small flame. Dylan barked 4 more times when I opened the oven but stopped immediately when I turned the power off and then he went and laid down. We’re convinced he was trying to warn us as he must have smelt something or heard the sparking noise of a fire beginning to start.
So now Dylan is our little superhero and we’ve had to go out and buy a new cooker!
Also, this morning at breakfast we popped Dylan back in his pen but he wouldn’t settle and kept barking at Dad who was making coffee. Dad then had a dizzy turn and we had to sit him down until it passed. As soon he sat down Dylan stopped barking and settled down. Now this could have been coincidence but who knows?”
I found a new product last summer to help with those brown patches on the lawn and bushes, it is called “dog rocks” and is a rock mined in Australia. You put the rocks in the dogs drinking bowl and this naturally occurring rock does the rest. It takes about six weeks to kick in so get some now to get the process working for you!
Visit the site for more information or go to my links page for link.
What is okay for puppies to eat?
March 11, 2010
For first time dog owners the world can seem a dangerous place for their precious puppies! But I have to tell you puppies have remarkable constitutions, this is a born scavenger and nature equipped them with a stomach that can withstand most natural materials and decomposed matter!
If you allow your human squeamishness to interrupt your puppy eating rubbish every time, and this will be frequent while the puppy is young, you will be giving out this message: I want what you have, it is something I am interested in and I am competing with you to have “it” first! Young dogs learn from older dogs in the pack what is valuable in this world, if the other dogs are interested then it must be good! You or the humans in the puppy’s life play this part in a human home.
If you don’t want your puppy to keep showing interest in stuff then you must not either! If you are too disgusted use some tasty food to distract your puppy from the thing, do not let your puppy see you remove “it” or you will be back to encouraging again. By using something tasty to distract you will be actively demonstrating that there is something better to eat as well as demonstrating your lack of interest which over time will teach your puppy not to go for inappropriate things to eat.
Stones are one of the commonest problem that I come across especially in new dog owners, though some more experienced owners do make the same mistake. The reality is that puppies will pass small stones easily, and they are bound to consume a few in discovering that stones are not food, by distracting the puppy over and over with a tasty tit bit you will soon persuade them to leave stones alone! If not this problem can soon escalate to eating larger and larger stones that could block the bowel and endanger your pets life or incur large vet bills.
The other downside of not addressing this issue is that the puppy can become possessive over something as simple as tissue if you constantly remove them from her.
here is a list of stuff that puppies can and should be allowed to explore that are harmless and will if ignored soon be forgotten:
- Tissue, including kitchen roll, toilet paper
- Paper in any form
- Cardboard
- Wood pieces (do not throw or play with sticks)
- Tea towels (leave old ones lying around until they get bored or old bits of cloth)
- Ash, bits of coal
- animal excrement!
Dogs will take food that is left out, if I leave my kitchen with food on the side I don’t expect it to be there when I return! It is the nature of the dog to scavenge, and fighting this natural behaviour will just give you a headache and spoil your relationship with your dog.
If your dog is already possessive about any or all of these items please contact me, this is curable!
What to look for if you think your puppy has eaten something dangerous
- Lethargy
- Sickness
- Diarrhea
- Loss of appetite
call your Vet immediately!
Avril Munson's Blog 
