Tips for your pug's stay at the Dog Boarding Kennel

Spanky acts like a tough guy

Tomorrow we head off on vacation. Spanky, well, he gets to go what we lovingly call "Doggy Overnight Camp." But he knows better. While sending Spanky off to the dog boarding kennel is never a fun experience, I’ve learned that a little preparation makes it easier.

--Send your dog’s own food

Even if the dog boarding kennels provides food, it’s better to send Fido’s own food. Kennel stays are often stressful for dogs and it’s no time to fool around with what he eats. Spanky is on a grain free diet and I always send his own food, along with measuring cup.

--Consider putting your dog on a probiotic

Spanky got giardia frequently as a puppy so I was already in the habit of giving him a probiotic pill. I continued this at his kennel stays as probiotics may help stave off diarrhea that sometimes afflicts stressed animals. One time I didn’t include his probiotic and I noticed his poop was a little loose when we picked him. So from then on I have always included it. I send a bag of pill pockets along with the bottle. At home I just smear peanut butter on, but it’s easier at the dog boarding kennel to use a pill pocket. It’s like a treat for Spanky, too. I’d recommend starting your dog about a week before you go on vacation so their system starts to build up resistence.

--Send along doggy’s favorite bed or blanket

If your dog has a doggy bed, by all means, send it along. If they don’t have one, consider sending a favorite blanket.  I don’t recommend, however, sending a plush toy. As dog owners know, dogs are great at destroying their toys and there’s a good chance it will get destroyed at the kennel. At home I can snatch it out of Spanky’s mouth if I see that he’s got into the filling. At a dog boarding kennel they may not be able to do so. One stay Spanky actually chewed a hole in his bed (it was a cheaper one and not his better one) but fortunately they took it away as he was digging out the filling. So make sure your bed is in good condition and not one of the cheapo ones.

Which brings me to the next point . . .

Spanky's fave: rawhide rings

--Send plenty of rawhide or Nyla bones (whatever you may use). 

 Spanky doesn’t chew on rawhide much anymore, but in the kennel, he does tend to chew more, so having something sturdy to chew on is a good idea. It’s good stress relief.

--Lastly, make sure you pooch is up to date on his shots --

 Especially bordatella (kennel cough.) Most dog boarding facilities require it, so if they don’t request it, then I’d question them why they don’t.

Finding the perfect dog boarding kennel for your pug

The first time I dropped off our pug Spanky in a dog boarding kennel was quite traumatic for me. It was a bit like when I dropped off my oldest son at daycare for the first time when he was a baby. Spanky was still a puppy (about 10 months old) and gave me this confused sad look, before being taking back to his kennel. As I drove away, I saw what him standing against the fence in his dog run wondering what the hell mommy had just done to him. Yeah, it was not a happy feeling. But despite this, I knew he was in good hands. And three years later, we still take him there every time we go on vacation.

So let me tell you how we came about this decision and what we looked for in a dog boardering kennel . . .

I had considered leaving Spanky at a neighbor’s house. Our neighbors down the street have a pug but at the time Spanky was still a high energy puppy and I think he annoyed this older pug a bit from time to time. Plus, Spanky had had a few accidents there on our visits, so I wasn’t sure it was the best idea.  Our neighbors on the other side were new puppy owners themselves. The problem here was that their puppy was a free-feeder. Spanky was not. Every time Spanky went to visit them he literally finished off their puppy’s food. Plus the two of them thought it great fun to chase through each other through the house. No, this was not a good idea either.

So I decided to look into dog boarding kennels. Here again, it was much like looking for daycare. The first place was conveniently located, near our home, but the conditions inside horrified me. The small dog kennels were stacked on top of each other and the big dog kennels were just a few feet away. They did have an indoor and outdoor play area that seemed okay, but I just couldn’t get over the kennel room.  Even though Spanky is used to sleeping in a small kennel, it just seem overcrowded. They also did daycare, and just didn’t seem focused on the boarders. I left that place quickly and crossed them off my list.

I found another dog boarding kennel in a nearby town. Like the first place, it had a lot of dogs there in daycare. But they did have nice large kennels for the dogs. The indoor play area was not too inviting, however. Large dogs were in one “corral” and smaller, timid dogs in another. I noticed a lot of urine puddles on the floor. Uh, not good. While they did have an outdoor play area, it was not being used on that early summer day. Too hot, they said. Well, it gets even hotter as the summer progresses so that told me that Spanky wouldn’t be getting much outdoor time. Plus the hygiene of the facility left something to be desired. Time to move on!

(note: if you live in the Boulder/Broomfield area and are interested in which facilities I looked at, please drop me a note. I do not want to publish their name directly on my blog.)

From Grateful Dog website: inside view

From Grateful Dog website: outside dog runs

Getting a little desperate, I decided to expand my search for a dog boarding kennel to the countryside. Living in Colorado, we are blessed with lots of land and I thought perhaps a facility further away might be better anyhow. I came across the Grateful Dog outside the town of Brighton, about 45 minutes away from where I live.  After setting up an appointment, I made the long drive there. But I finally hit gold! What first caught my eye were the large kennels.  A standard kennel, four feet by five feet, good for small dogs like Spanky, were as large as “large” kennels, in some of the other facilities. These standard kennels each had their own four foot by 12 foot dog run. Medium and large kennels were also available. In addition they had several play areas, but only allowed dogs from the same family to play. Spanky’s good at playing with other dogs now, but at the time, he was still quite timid, so this gave me peace of mind.  I also liked that the owners lived right there on site, in a house adjacent to the kennel, and were directly involved the care of the dogs. They seemed to keep the place smelling clean and tidy, so that made me happy too. In addition, they also have a cat and small pet room, but fortunately our cats do fine at home, with the visit every other day of a cat sitter.

One note about kennel facilities: our kennel used to be a part of the PCSA (Pet Care Services Association.) I noticed on their web page that they no longer mentioned that. Well, the reason is the PCSA filed for bankruptcy in November of 2011. So if any boarding facility mentions that they’re a member, I would immediately question the integrity of that facility.

Tomorrow: tips to make your pug's or doggy’s boarding experience more tolerable.

Spanky the Snow Pug

Having fun in the snow!

My one concern when I first got a pug was how he would manage in the snow and cold of Colorado. Well, the answer is fabulously. Despite some of the stories out there that pugs aren’t suited for extreme weather, either hot or cold, I do find that Spanky does do quite well in the winter months. In fact, if given the chance he’d probably go for snow over rain. If I ever move back to rainy Oregon, he probably won’t be too happy.  But once the first snow of the season arrives, he does seem to get adjusted to cold wet paws and gets along just fine.

So what about doggy shoes/boots? (you can order these particular ones here.)

We’ve never used them. I have seen dogs in the neighborhood with them and I also have a Flickr friend over in Europe who has a pug that wears them. Check our his picture right here – it’s pretty darn cute. I do notice that if it gets in the teens or lower (or -8 C), Spanky doesn’t particularly like it.  I may have to push him back out the door a few times to go do his business. The lowest the temp has been here was about -7 (-21 C) and he wasn’t pleased at all and literally hopped around the yard. In situations like that, doggy boots probably would come in handy, but fortunately we don’t have too many days like that.  If de-icer is heavily used in your community then doggy boots might be worthwhile. I have noticed that Spanky’s feet can get irritated sometimes, but for the most of the time his paws do okay, as we try to avoid those areas where de-icer is used.

The one thing we do do for him is dig a path for him in the back yard. Today we just got an inch of snow so there was no need. But a few weeks back we had over a foot. Spanky has no issue with going pee on snow, but when it comes to #2, he just prefers the feel of grass underneath his feet.

hunting for the grass

What's the deal with dog parks?

Spanky at the Great Bark Dog Park, Lafayette, CO

I’ll admit I never understood the need for dog parks prior to becoming a dog owner. What’s the big deal? Dogs just run around, sniff each others butts, maybe run after a few balls, while owners just stand around and brag about how smart their dog is. In a way, it didn’t seem much different than parents taking their kids to a playground (except for the butt sniffing part.) But once Spanky came into our lives, I realized what the fuss was about. Dog parks are like Disneyland for dogs. Running off leash is total freedom. Sure, Spanky can run around in our rather small backyard, but running around in a dog park is an entirely different experience. It reminds me of when I used to take my kids to Chuck E. Cheese. They came home feeling wiped out and happy. Same way with dogs, except they don't come with bunch of junky prizes, just a feeling of contentment and maybe some muddy feet.

We started taking Spanky when he was about 8 months old to a local dog park about 10 minutes away in a nearby town since our little town didn’t have one at the time. I was a bit nervous because so many people had warned me that dog parks were bad places for little dogs. Well, we didn’t have any issues, other than me nearly getting peed on by dogs a couple of times (I have since learned that dogs love to pee on the picnic table at this particular park and if you get hit by their pee, well, that’s your own damn fault.) But this dog park didn’t turn out to be a good choice. You see, pugs aren’t typically run and fetch type dogs, and that’s all people really did with their dogs at this park. So we tried out a few other parks. We found one out near where we took our youngest son for his weekly sax lesson every Saturday. It’s a bit of a drive, but since we were in the area every week, it worked out fine.

I swear Spanky must have a little mental calendar. He knows exactly what day is dog park day from the moment he gets up. Perhaps it’s because I’m not getting up at the God-awful hour of 5:45 to drag my boys out of bed. But even so, he seems charged up and ready to go. I was in my closet getting dressed last weekend and he was in the other room. All I said was, “Spanky, time to go to the dog park” and he came tearing out of the other room, and started pumping my leg with a big goofy pug grin. Okay, sometimes I think Spanky is a little bit dumb, but he proved me wrong in this case.

The sniffing game

One thing you should know is that Colorado, although known for its mountains, is also pretty brown and ugly for a good part of the year. We live just north of Denver, east of the Rockies, and everything here is pretty flat and,well, almost like living in the Midwest. It’s a lot different from my native perpetually green Pacific Northwest. This particular dog park is basically just a couple of acres located in a flat, grassy field. Nothing spectacular. It does have an awesome view of Long’s Peak (the prominent 14,000 foot peak in Rocky Mountain National Park.) For Spanky, it’s the perfect park. A trail loops around and he just trots along, coming up behind unsuspecting people and sniffing their legs (he’s rather skittish and likes to sniff people first, especially the ladies in areas he shouldn't be sniffing,  before letting them pet him.) My husband and I hit up Starbucks before we come, so we just take a leisurely stroll, enjoying the view and drinking our coffee. Spanky gets his off-leash time and he seems perfectly content to stay a few paces ahead of us. Some dogs race around checking each other out and playing, but Spanky generally prefers to hang out with us, and have dogs come up to him, rather than seeking them out. While he has barked at a few dogs (check out the pic of him below with the Great Dane) he’s never had one altercation. Nor have I ever seen a dog fight here. Dogs seem to know the rules and have a great time.

"Who's your mamma?"

I now get the deal with dog parks. Getting a daily walk is great, but running free is much better. If you’ve got a dog, and you haven’t taken it to a dog park, you owe to both of you to get out and visit one.

P.S. Don't wear your $100 jeans or designer sweats though. I am always getting slobbered on by big dogs and the other weekend one dog thought I was a tree. I guess that's what I get for being tall.

Tebowmania

Today I'm going to divert from my usual topic of pugs and talk about Tebowmania. If you don't follow NFL football or don't live in the Denver area, let me briefly fill you in.  Tim Tebow (quarterback) won the Heisman Trophy as a sophomore at Florida. He was drafted in 2010 by the Broncos in the first round (25th pick) but didn't start a game until the very end of the season last year. This season he didn't start until the sixth game. Things were a bit shaky at first, with one win in Miami and a loss against Detroit. But things turned around the next week in Oakland and Tim led the Broncos on a 6-game winning streak. Tebowmania hit Denver. Didn't matter if you didn't follow football - everyone knew about Tim, the golden boy with good morals and equally good looks to match. However, Tebowmania started to wain when the Broncos posted 3 consecutive losses. No fear, though. It has returned, at least for a while, as the Broncos managed to get into the playoffs and score a win against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

 

My contribution to Tebowmania has been these two pictures of my neighbor's twin grandbabies. The first one I did on my own -- just a spur of the moment thing -- adding a few speech bubbles. The second was actually requested by the mom of the babies.

Shower Day for Spanky

 Another one of the reasons we were attracted to the pug breed was their relatively low maintenance grooming routine. We once had a very shaggy long-haired cat – probably with a bit of Maine Coon in it – that was an absolute pain to keep groomed. Huge chunks of matted fur, puked-up hair balls, not to mention hair everywhere. Well, we dodged the matted fur issue and the middle-of-the-night wake up calls of a vomiting cat, but the shedding issue we did not. I was aware that pugs shed, but until you own one, you may not realize the extent of that shedding.

Of course, we could brush him on a daily basis, but we weren’t very good at that.  So early on we decided we’d try to get Spanky used to a monthly bath. Not only did it help rid him of a lot of loose hair, but it also made him smell nicer. Not that pugs smell bad – I don’t think they do. But my husband thinks he starts to smell too “doggy” after a few weeks. He prefers the scent of our neighbor’s Malti-poo that has longer curly locks, which although pretty, are not water resistant like Spanky’s.  But it’s this water resistance that results in that sometimes musky smell.

Spanky's first bath

When Spanky was a little guy bathing was a fairly simple task that was easily managed in our large master bathroom tub. But as he got bigger, he jumped around more and resisted a bit. So one day my husband took Spanky in the shower with him. This proved to be the perfect solution. We tried some dog shampoos, but we found that one of my “moisturizing” shampoos (because it’s soooo dry here in Colorado) worked better. He just sort of walks around in the stall while my husband showers, and then when he’s done, he shampoos Spanky. A whole load of hair comes off and even more when we towel dry him. I then follow up with a combing, using a rubber-type brush to get even more hair and finish by putting ear drops in his ears. Having floppy ears, Spanky is susceptible to ear infections, so doing this as a preventative measure is an important step.

Must haves! Comb, Ear Drops

The shower is also a good place to give his wrinkles a really good cleaning. Some pugs have more wrinkles than others. Spanky happens to be a pug with very deep wrinkles below his eyes which can get  filled with crud. I do try to wipe his wrinkles out on a daily basis since he gets lots of eye boogers. I usually manage to wipe off these guys, but sometimes Spanky “washes” his face with his paws (I swear he learned this from our cats) and his deep wrinkles can have some pretty nasty junk in them.

Waiting for his turn

Of course, your pug won’t smell good right away. It takes about an hour for the fur to dry completely and until then, the musky wet-dog smell will prevail.

yum!

Now, does Spanky like to shower? Hard to say. His tail flops down when we shampoo him, which is always the sign of an unhappy pug. And we know he hates his ear drops. But after that, he seems to go crazy, zipping around the house and acting very playful. Of course, our long-haired cat did that too every time he pooped, so maybe it’s an animal’s way of releasing cathartic energy.

To crate or not to crate?

Lil Spanky

Bringing Spanky home from the breeder was a bit like bringing a baby home from the hospital. Being first time dog owners, there were so many unknowns, including the best way to transport him. We had a cat carrier that we put a blanket in, but he must have got car sick or was just plain scared to death.  The poor little guy vomited a few times in the 3-hour ride back from Burlington, so by the time we got home, both the carrier and Spanky needed a bit of cleaning.

Fortunately, he seemed excited to explore his new surroundings and quickly did his business in the backyard. That made us happy, but we soon learned that puppies don’t always remember to hold it and so over the coming months we had to deal with many accidents in the house. In that regard, I think cats are easier. I’ve seen little teeny tiny kittens at Humane Society learn to use the litter box faster than Spanky learned to hold his little bladder. But I’ll save the joys of house breaking for another blog posting.

The big question in our mind that first day was how would Spanky do sleeping in a crate. We had decided ahead of time that we wanted to crate train Spanky as we had two cats in the house and we had visions of the three of them chasing each other in the middle of the night. At the time we only had a queen bed and there certainly was no room in it for even a small dog. And did I mention that pugs snore and can be gassy?  Plus we had steep stairs that Spanky couldn’t even initially climb up. So with all these considerations in mind, having him sleep in a crate seemed to be the logical choice.

Getting him in the crate was certainly easy enough (we started off with the cat carrier, as Spanky was only maybe four pounds at the time) and we didn’t end up with battle wounds like we did when we had to stick the cats in there. However, Spanky started whimpering and “crying” – what the heck had I signed myself up for? I had already dealt with the trials and tribulations of raising two kids, so why did I want to put myself through this again? I gave in and brought the crate up to our room the first night. He did eventually fall asleep, and even better, didn’t even need to be taken out in the middle of the night to go potty. But we didn’t like him sleeping in the room and wanted to break him of this habit quickly.

So on night #2, I left the crate in the kitchen. Once again, he started to whimper. But it was a bit better than the night before, and so like a mom trying to teach her toddler to get to sleep without a binky or in his own crib, I left Spanky in the kitchen until his whimpers died out and he went to sleep.

By night #3, Spanky happily trotted to his crate and seemed content to cozy up with his blanket. I quickly learned, too, that having some sort of chew toy made it easier in the beginning. Even better, he learned to love his crate as a safe retreat. When he was a puppy he was even fine staying in it while I went out on errands. It kept him out of trouble and from chewing up furniture and other things.

Spanky & Bubba

Eventually, I did have to get him a larger crate – it measures 21 inches high, 18 inches deep, and 24 inches wide. It’s the perfect size for him (he’s now about 23-24 lbs.) and even slides neatly under the counter desk in our kitchen, which we never used anyhow. We put a small dog bed in it so he can snuggle up and feel comfy. And here’s the funny part – Spanky is perfectly content to share it with one of our cats, Bubba, who takes the day shift in the crate, while Spanky sleeps on the couch.

Bubba in "his" crate

So in the end, crate training worked out well for us. While some folks may think it might be cruel to put a cute little dog in a cage, Spanky seems happy to go to bed there and has never caused a ruckus during the night. After all, many animals in the wild sleep in dens, so I see it as no more different than that. Besides, the few times Spanky has snuggled into bed with my husband in the morning, he has turned out to be quite the bed hog!

Welcome to my blog!

My one goal for 2012 was to start a blog. But about what?  Well, I live in Colorado, known for its great scenery. Sure, we do a lot of hiking and traveling, and I probably will include posts on our travel adventures at some point. However, there are a ton of great Colorado travel blogs already. So what else could I talk about? I know a couple fantastic food bloggers and  I've got a 20-something niece who blogs about her exciting single life. Just when I was about to give up, it became clear to me very quickly. My pug. Yup, anyone who knows me knows I'm a little bit nuts about my pug.


So why not? I decided to make a stab at it. My goal is to not only include useful information about pugs for potential and current owners, but to just have fun and give you a peak into our day to day life with this silly dog we call Spanky.

Today I'll keep my post short and sweet, with just a quick introduction to Spanky. He was born in the little itty-bitty town  of Burlington on the Colorado-Kansas border on August 4, 2008. He came into our lives about nine weeks later. My husband knew I had a thing for pugs. I had fallen in love with a pug down the street named Bella. Sweet as apple pie, good natured, and always made the cutest little grunts when I scratched her throat. I had to have one of these dogs!

Now I didn't really know a thing about pugs, let alone dogs. I'm a cat person. Got my first cat in my 20's and we've always had cats in our household since then. But things weren't the best in 2008 -- that's when the stock market was tanking and the housing market was crashing down. We needed something new in our life. And that new thing was Spanky.

Spanky as a little puppy - about 10 weeks old

So, in answer to the next question . . . how did you come up with the name Spanky? I have absolutely no idea. I was playing "Pet Pupz" on Facebook and named my virtual pug Spanky. The breeder in Burlington had two male pugs that we were looking at, Nick and Ned. We decided that we liked Nick, or rather, he decided he liked us. He actually came up and sat in my son Nicholas' lap. But we couldn't have two Nicks in our house. So I immediately christened him Spanky. And somehow the name fits him perfectly - cute, wrinkly, mischievous, and a little trouble maker. Welcome to Spanky's world!