My Fire Hydrant

It’s Saturday night in Long Beach California, and all the dog lovers are here at the Long Beach Convention Center to see the first half of the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship.  Tonight, four groups are judged: The Hounds, Non-Sporting, Sporting, and Toy. Also finalists are chosen for the Eukanuba World Challenge. And the ACE Awards! For details/photos, check out the AKC/Eukanuba Facebook page.

I am with four other bloggers and my teammate Jen. We have what is, without argument, some of the best seats in the house!

Jen takes photos for our Facebook page

Blogging/Tweeting the action in the ring

A smile from Dr. V of "Pawcurious"

Our view of the ring

We've got great seats!

Best Twitter commentary for what’s happening in the ring is from our new buddy Susi @KnobKnots. More to come!

Welcome to the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship!

This weekend I’m at the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship in Long Beach, California. Eukanuba has sponsored this show for 10 years, but this is the first time I’ve attended. The stars have just never been in proper alignment to allow me to leave home for a long weekend to go to the dog show until this year.

I’ve been excited about attending. I am not the top social media dog for this event—that honor belongs to my teammate Jen who writes/edits the Eukanuba Unleashed blog. My chief duties will be to provide Twitter support and maybe write a blog post for Eukanuba Unleashed. Jen and I are also meeting up with some other bloggers who will be attending the show (Details here).

This trip has not been without its worries—Tyler decided to have some poopy issues on Wednesday. I’m lucky that he had a wellness exam appointment scheduled for Thursday. I do my best to keep our yard leaf-free, but Tyler seems to have no problem in finding old, dry, crumpled up leaves and other bits and pieces to chew up and swallow. I hope he will soon grow out of this need to taste everything he comes into contact with.

Tuesday night he had some horrendous gas, so I knew he had ingested some enticing tidbit from outdoors. Wednesday morning he woke me at 5:30 when he jumped off the bed—I didn’t even have time for my feet to hit the floor before I could smell the malodorous aroma of nasty loose stool. I am so thankful that I opted for higher-end bathroom mats for my bedroom that I could just toss in the washer.

Ready to Blitz!

I was feeling sorry for my poor boy—obviously he must have been feeling terrible to have made such a mess on the floor when he’s gotten so good about pottying outside. That was until he went into a play bow as I tried to wipe up the mess. Five thirty in the morning, and Tyler wants to blitz around the bedroom he just littered with numerous puddles of very soft wet poo! I had visions of him running through it and tracking it all over the house!

Lucky for me I was able to snag him before he took off!

So Thursday afternoon we saw our favorite Dogtor B who prescribed some anti-diarrhea medicine. And also some antibiotics because it turns out Tyler has an infected anal gland. Dogtor B told us it’s not uncommon that when a dog has a series of soft stool episodes for one or both of the glands to become infected.

Here’s where I made my mistake: When we got home I immediate started Tyler on his meds, forgetting that his tummy was empty because Tyler seems to be on a 48 hour eating cycle instead of a 24 hour cycle (like the rest of the world). I’m kicking myself over this because I know better. Right after the meds, Tyler ate a meal. And 30 minutes later he threw it up. I gave him his meds again right at bedtime—kicking myself again here—and he woke me at 2:45 AM by vomiting on my bed. HELLO??? STUPID MOM????? Antibiotics on an empty stomach??? Tyler, I’m so sorry I caused you to have an upset tummy!!

Since my alarm was set for 3 AM (plane out to California leaving at the crack of dawn), I got up, cleaned up Tyler’s mess, and got ready to drive to the airport. Tyler went back to sleep in my mom’s room. I called them when I changed planes in Denver—Tyler is doing fine, had eaten some food and kept it down, and was listen to my mom talk on the phone as if he knew it was me calling. I also checked in with the Dogtor—we’re going to get Tyler back on track with his food first and start the meds in a couple of days.

Flat Tyler says, "Welcome to the Show!"

So my worries about Tyler eased, here I am in Long Beach at the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship!

There’s more going on here besides confirmation judging. There’s the AKC National Obedience Invitational, and the AKC Agility Invitational. There’s an expo area where I hope to find some breed rescue groups (and do some shopping!). There’s Dock Dogs and detection and criminal apprehension demonstrations by the California Narcotics Canine Association. I can hardly wait to see what trouble I’m going to get into!

One last thing: Since Tyler had to stay home and guard the house, I’ve brought his doppelganger with me–Flat Tyler. You’ll be seeing him popping up in my blog posts this weekend!

Flat Tyler and Fluffy Tyler--which is which?

It is official. I’ve gone ’round the bend.

Tyler has been having some loose/soft stool issues for the past 3 weeks. No other symptoms–his appetite is good; he’s as playful as ever. And it’s not everyday that his stool is overly soft. Just every now and then.

I finally took him to the dogtor this past Saturday. After much discussion and a finger up the butt (the dogtor’s finger up Tyler’s butt!), we came to the conclusion that he’s having these poopy issues because he likes to eat the dead leaves that blow up onto our patio and into the little terrace of grass where he plays and goes potty. It would probably help matters if I would sweep and rake up the few leaves that had collected.

I didn’t have time to get to it over the weekend. So today during lunch I decided I would make a start and at least vacuum the patio rug. That worked out so well that I thought I would try vacuuming the brick border around the patio. Next thing you know, I’m vacuuming the grass. Three vacuum bags later I noticed my neighbor was looking out of her laundry room window, laughing at me.

Yes. The gossip has now been confirmed and I am officially the neighborhood crazy dog lady.

The things we do for love.

Tomorrow our holiday season hits a crescendo with everyone coming to our house for “Family Christmas.” I feel properly smug–got my shopping and wrapping all done.

It snowed overnight.

Before you become enchanted with the scene, remember: Today’s White Christmas is tomorrow’s slush!

Bailey, who is famous for refusing to potty outside if there is even a remote possibility that her feet might get wet, was heard to mumble “Bah! Humbug!” in her native Bichonese.

Not everybody likes the snow.

It’s been raining here for the past 7 hours and Little Miss Prissy Feet refuses to go out to potty. And for some reason she has taken her pee pad in aversion. In her Bichon-stubbornness, she forgot that I’m bigger than she is. I finally simply carried her out to the grass at the end of the driveway where she instinctively copped a squat.

Don’cha wish all your problems could be solved by picking them up and carrying them to the right place?

Yesterday, it snowed. I shoveled snow away from the grass around the patio so that Bailey would have a place to go potty. She flat out refuses to go out through the front of the house because the snow is too high.

One patch of grass.

Another patch of grass.

This worked fine, yesterday.

Last night, we had freezing rain. Today, more snow. The snow has a hard crust, and I can’t shovel it away, so no more grass patches.

Bailey is not amused.

Hurry spring!

Here’s a really cool thing: We are just launching a probiotic to help dogs with diarrhea resolution. The name of the product is Prostora Max (where do we get these names?). It’s just starting to ship to vet clinics.

I think I’ve mentioned before how much Bailey dislikes going for potty walks when it’s raining. She also does not like snow. We’ve had snow for a few weeks, and it’s been impossible to convince her to go outside and potty.

We’ll both get suited up—me in my winter coat, Bailey in her L.L. Bean Hudson Bay blanket coat with the slit in the top so I can fasten her harness to her leash. She’s all wiggly and excited to go out (she has her own blog to attend to, as the photo at the top right corner of this blog will show). I open the front door—she’s impatient for me to open the storm door dancing backing and forth on her front feet. I open the storm door. She starts to cross the threshold and then stops dead sniffing the air and observing what should be her grass-accessable kingdom. Alas! It’s all white–and if I’m not careful I’ll end up sprawled in it because her majesty on the door threshold is as immovable as a rock set to trip me. SHE WILL NOT GO OUT IN THE SNOW. This attitude can cause her to go for as many as three days without pooping.

Frankly, I think this has contributed to her gaseous emissions.

Since she’s not taking her regular walks she’s gotten into the habit of scratching at the back door the minute one of us sits down to read the newspaper or watch TV. I think she’s checking to see if the snow is gone because most times all she does is sniff the air when I open the door for her. Scratching at the back door is a legitimate signal for “mom I need to go potty now,” and it can’t be ignored. The one time I did, she had an accident right there at the door. And then it becomes my fault because I didn’t react in time to her signal. I think she knows this because she still expected a cookie after I’d cleaned up the rug.

This past weekend we had some decent weather, the snow melted and Bailey was pleased to place her dainty paws on grass again. She has hit her blog (OK, if you haven’t yet figured it out I’m talking about the fire hydrant a few doors down-read at the top of the page why I call this my fire hydrant) several times a day leaving “comments” and picking up on other dogs’ “postings.” Her walks and potty times have once again become routine—though we’re still playing this game of scratch on the door in the evenings. I think she’s checking to make sure the grass is still there.

Today, THE GREAT ST. PADDY’S DAY SNOW STORM OF 2008 has hit! OK, so St. Patrick’s is a couple of weeks off–still, my mom and her folk wisdom claims that there’s always one last big snow storm around St. Patrick’s. The ground is again covered in white. We’re expecting 10 inches.

I haven’t told Bailey yet.