Follow Me Dog Training

Happy Bunny Day!!!

Follow Me Dog Training LLC wishes everyone a safe and happy Easter!

Easter for us is full of chocolate, bunnies, snoozes in the sun and good food with friends. We hope everyone is able to celebrate Easter the way they love and don’t forget to celebrate with your dogs as well.

• Remember that Chocolate is toxic to dogs. Especially large quantities for the little dogs and baker’s chocolate is the worst. The drug that is in chocolate (theobromine) is a similar compound to caffeine. If your dog ingests chocolate (especially baker’s chocolate) call the vet.
• Eggs aren’t a bad supplement for your dog…but not the kind they find in your garden left over from an Easter Egg Hunt! Make sure you draw a map so you know where all the eggs are and you can “find” the ones that your children do not.
• That fake grass many people put in their Easter baskets is a huge choking hazard for all pets. It isn’t digestible and can cause a perforation of the intestines and other ugly stuff if swallowed.
• Leinie and Pepper wanted me to point out for all their cat friends (here’s a shout out to Bonny, Benny, Rory, Teirnan, Gracie, Midnight, Go’Jaun) that eating a single leaf of an Easter Lilly can cause kidney failure in a matter of days. Dogs aren’t usually affected as horribly, but keep an eye out anyway!
• Don’t let your dog chase bunnies…it isn’t nice, fun or fair! As prey animals they have to watch out for their lives daily without your dog chasing them down. I do not let Pepper or Leinie chase any wild animals!
• Make your dog an Easter basket with treats, toys, a promise to train them with Follow Me Dog Training LLC and lots of love….and make your dog search for it!

Have a Happy Easter! Contact Follow Me Dog Training LLC for a FREE demonstration and evalutation if you have a problem keeping your dog out of the Easter goodies, and away from the bunnies!

Irish Dogs to celebrate

This St. Patrick’s Day, raise a pint of Guinness with Follow Me Dog Training LLC and honor the dogs of Ireland!

Pepper is a proud Irish girl with fiery red fur and an attitude to match. In 1998 we met while walking in the Washington DC St. Patrick’s Day Parade. For many years it was tradition to walk in the parade with a large group of Irish Terriers, including some of Pepper’s relatives and my mother and her Irish Terrier, Maggie. Unfortunately we have had to miss out recently but we still find a way to commemorate the day. An Irish Terrier has been part of my life since I was in the third grade (I’m not even going to mention how long that has been, let’s just say a long time). Their passion for life, their feisty-ness and their ability to love unconditionally makes me think I will always have an Irish dog in my life. When my family lived in Nairobi, Kenya we had our first Irish Terrier, with us. I remember going to a local dog show and taking Carrie with us. At the show a grizzled old white Kenyan couple came up to us and jokingly said “We haven’t seen an Irish Terrier in Kenya in ages, we’re in for trouble now”. They told us some tall tales including one very much like the one below. I believe them all, I’ve lived with an Irish Dog, I understand! 

The Irish Terrier is “a fiery, spirited dog, sometimes referred to as the ‘daredevil’ of terriers, it is said to be reckless in its fearlessness when attacking prey or enemy, but tender and affectionate with its owners. Its extraordinary bravery is epitomised by an anecdote from Africa, where an Irish Terrier was accompanying big-game hunters and was seen to bolt a lion by hanging on to the great cat’s tail with its teeth” (from Dogs by Desmond Morris) .

The Irish Wolfhound is the tallest dog in the world. These are dogs of mythic proportions. A curious old twelfth century manuscript mentions a certain Mesrodia, King of Leinsternien, who had a wolfhound named Ailbe, whose fame filled all Ireland. For this hound, six thousand cows - roughly, $300,000 to-day - and other things of value were offered by the King of Connacht. At the same time the King of Ulster offered, approximately, the same sum. Feeling ran so high that the kings and their retainers betook themselves to their swords, and a mighty battle was fought. History does not state who won the dog. (http://www.irishwolfhounds.org/erin.htm)

The Kerry Blue Terrier is known to be a good swimmer and one of the few breeds used for hunting otter in deep water. They are well known for their stubbornness. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerry_Blue_Terrier)

The Glen of Imaal Terrierwas developed to go to earth for badgers. “When out and about in the wild countryside, it became what was described as a typical ‘devil-may-care Irishman’ full of mischief and lively curiosity.” (Dogs by Desmond Morris)

The Irish Setter , the Irish Red and White Setter are considered two different dogs. Although they both serve the same purpose, originally developed to work with falcons, the Red and White Setter is the traditional ‘Falconer Dog’. The Irish Red and White Setter also has a higher-set ear, a shorter wider body and less feathering. Hunters preferred the Red and White in the field because they felt with its white patches it was easier to see when in the tall grass. The Irish (Red) setter is now the more popular and very few of the Red and White setters exist today. (Dogs by Desmond Morris)

The Irish Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier was not even recognized as a breed by the Irish Kennel Club until 1937. One of three of the long legged terriers of Ireland (the Kerry and the Irish are the other two) the Wheaten is a high maintenance terrier requiring heavy grooming to keep the coat soft and neat. They protected people and property, worked cattle, kept down vermin, hunted badgers and foxes, and were even used as gun dogs. (http://www.scwtca.org/breed/history.htm)

The  Irish Water Spaniel, despite it’s name, is classed as a retriever. This dog was developed to rush headlong into the cold waters of Ireland and bring back dead or wounded wild fowl. It can be told apart from all other water dogs because of its distinct ‘rat tail’ (Dogs by Desmond Morris)

Follow Me Dog Training LLC wishes you a safe and happy St. Patrick’s Day. Oh and Leinie wanted me to mention that on St. Patrick’s day, everyone is Irish!

Little dog lost.

Our morning at Follow Me Dog Training LLC didn’t quite turn out as we had planned. We were supposed to spend all day with a client friend Charlie (a puggle). So we were up early for our hour walk around the neighborhood. Most of the walk was rather uneventful as our walks usually are. We said hello to the dogs behind fences, jumped in the ditch a few times to avoid the school buses, I picked up after my dogs and a few random piles that had been left by other dogs (I always carry extra bags), and generally just made our way around waking up and enjoying the site of the Dogwoods blooming.

About a mile and a half from home we were chased down by a young hound mix wearing a blue collar. I stopped her from getting close to Leinie and Pepper (safety first) but she wouldn’t come back from whence she came. I kept her at a distance and started walking, well wouldn’t you know she kept following us….all the way home. I’m very proud of Pepper and Leinie for not taking offense to this strange dog creeping around us. When we returned to the house I figured she would stay outside, I would put my dogs up real quick and then grab some food, a leash and snag her to check for identification. Surprisingly, this little girl wanted to follow us right in the house…not smart, ok and kinda broke my heart a bit!

I can’t really claim that we are new to the area anymore as Follow Me Dog Training LLC  has built a clientele base all over the area from Glen Allen to Chesterfield and out to Williamsburg. However, I didn’t know what to so with a stray. So I put the dog in the back of my car which has a barricade up, and drove out to the Hanover County Pound. I had heard of the dog park up there and knew it was next to the pound. Well go figure it didn’t open until 9am, so that gave me a chance to clean up the dog vomit from the back of my car, yep poor thing gets car sick. Honestly I’m not even sure this dog had a clue what the car was. The doors opened and a very nice Animal Control Officer informed me that since I had captured the dog in Henrico county, I couldn’t drop it off in Hanover, even though I was only 10 miles from where I had found her. He was kind enough to give me a phone number for the Henrico Animal Control and we got back in the car.

I stopped by Charlie’s house and rescheduled our expedition because by the time I cleaned up my car (guess who was still emptying her stomach contents) and got the lost girl to somewhere safe, the day would be mostly over. Charlie’s owners were nice enough to give me directions to the Henrico Animal Shelter and off we went…windows down.

By the time we arrived at the Henrico Animal Shelter, I think they could have smelled my car coming…where ever this dog had eaten last, it wasn’t such a great meal. A special thank you to the Animal Protection Officers who gave this dog a bowl of water, a comfy bed and a kennel to rest in. I hope she finds a warm safe place to live and they teach her not to follow strangers into their house.

So now the car is clean, I suppose it needed it anyway. Leinie and Pepper were happy to see me. I am happy to know where to take a stray if found. The dog has safe place to stay while she waits to be claimed, and if that doesn’t happen then she will be put up for adoption. I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of her. She is a 30-45lbs hound mix, one blue and one brown eye, I would say under a year old. She was wearing a blue collar but no tags, she was friendly towards my dogs although I wasn’t about to let them play. She showed no signs of aggression or attitude toward myself or the other people we came in contact with. She definitely gets pretty darn car sick!!! I hope she finds a good home.

What do you do if you find a stray:

• Think of your safety first….not all strays or lost dogs are as nice as this one. I was very lucky the outcome of this story isn’t different.
• Check for ID tags. Heads up people, more dogs find their homes because they have good ID tags attached to their collars, microchips alone don’t cut it.
• Make sure you consider the safety of the stray, consider how much they have been running or the direction they might be going in, you don’t want to chase them into traffic.
• Create a leash to contain the dog with..remember safety!
• In most cases I would encourage people to not let a stray dog move around in their car. If you capture a stray, contain it somehow before you drive anywhere. This dog would not have gone anywhere with me loose or without the barricade I have blocking off the back of my car.
• Be kind and speak softly, avoid direct eye contact and be careful!

Sadly, dogs get loose from yards or tie outs, are dumped at the side of the road, left in the woods, bolt out doors or get loose off their leash. These things happen, know where your local pound is and be careful as you walk you never know what you might run into.

Follow Me Dog Training LLC wants to help you have the best dog for your family. We don’t want to find your family pet on the side of the road. Please consider adoption from your local animal shelter and Please train your dog when you bring them home! Contact us for a FREE demonstration and evaluation with your dog.