Keeping Your Pets Cool This Summer

Summer is arriving this week so here are a few tips to keep your pet COOL. 

*  Have your pet groomed.  Pets with long hair or 'double  

   coated' hair need to have their undercoats stripped. 

*  Have plenty of clean and cool water available at all

   times. 

*  Ice cubes are a nice cool treat...make it more fun by

   freezing a carrot inside. If you are gone for long periods

   of time and want the water to stay cool, freeze a 'cool

   whip' size cube. 

*  Keep pets inside in cooler temperatures.  

*  Make available a very cool shady place if the pet must

   stay outside.  A dog house is NOT sufficient shade and

   could actually cause more harm to the dog because it

   lacks circulation.

*  Change bedding from flannel or wool-like material to a

   simple cotton bed sheet.   

*  NEVER leave an animal in a car.  The interior of a car

   can quickly reach over a 100 degrees even if the

   outside temperature is in the 80s.  Call 911 if you see

   an animal inside of a hot car.

A dog's normal temperature is 101.5.  Take a dog's temp rectally if you suspect the dog is suffering from heat exhaution.  Place gauze on the pads of a dog that is over-heated and soak the gauze in rubbing alcohol.  Spray cool (not cold) water over their entire body and call the veterinarian immediately to get I.V. fluids administered. 

Please take extra precaution in extreme temperatures and call your local animal control if you know of an animal living in conditions that are dangerous. 

Does Your Dog Chew?!

A guest written blog from two of our Mostly Mutts experts!  

Chewing is a perfectly acceptable and natural behavior for dogs. The problem arises when they chew on inappropriate, dangerous or expensive items.

Just like babies putting everything in their mouth, puppies and young adults will chew on anything.  Your job is to teach them what is appropriate to chew on and what is not.  This is an important job for you to curb your frustrations, the safety of the dog and to prevent a dog from losing their home

Reasons dogs chew: Boredom and frustration, Teething, Attention, Anticipation (some dogs chew just before their owner is due to arrive home), Separation anxiety (occurs if you work long hours)

Make Prevention the Priority:

Temptation: Puppy proof your home.  Pick up the remote controls, your shoes, and hide rechargers and computer wires.

Toy box: Fill a toy box with a variety of toys such as a stuffed animal, a tennis ball, a squeaky toy, a Nylabone, etc.  When you purchase a new toy, instead of giving it directly to the dog, place it in the toy box first.  

Chew toys: Replace an inappropriate item with a dog toy.  Provide your dog with a few tasty chew toys. Make it perfectly clear to your dog that if he/she needs to chew, it must be on the chew toys. It's a good idea to toss a dog toy stuffed with some tasty treats as you leave for work each morning.

Keep your dog in a safe and confined area while you are away from home. This could be a dog crate, kennel run or any secure room in your house. Of course you should provide a few chew toys in this area and ensure that there are no dangerous objects present.

Increase exercise:  For aggressive chewers, increase the amount of exercise (physical and mental), especially prior to your leaving.

Deterents:  Use a foul tasting substance (non toxic) such as bitter apple, cayenne pepper or Tabasco sauce.

Put some tasty treats in the area, the chewing behavior will hopefully shift straight over to these.

Corrections: When you catch your dog in the act of chewing, give a firm "No!" and replace the inappropriate chewing object with a tasty chew toy. Give your dog praise when he starts chewing the toy. Never ever reprimand your dog if you don't actually catch him in the act of chewing.

TWO SECOND RULE:  You wouldn't reward a dog a minute after he/she did something good, so don't correct your dog if you missed your opportunity.  In dog training, you have two seconds to reward or correct a dog.  Supervise the dog better if you keep missing his/her bad behaviors. Leash a dog to you indoors if they 'sneak off to chew'.

Emily Shervin, CPDT

The Gratefull Dog

www.thegratefulldog.com  

Ain't Too Proud to Beg!

It's tax time!  Don't forget your contributions. 

For this year, please consider joining our

Ain't Too Proud to Beg campaign (ATPB).  

Mostly Mutts has developed an impressive reputation  for rescuing homeless pets with extreme orthopedic injuries. If we don't step in to help, the only other choice is euthanasia.  We want to continue to help, but without financial support from the community, we will have to start saying "no" to these unfortunate dogs.  Here are a few special orthopedic cases in just the past few months (all surgically performed by specialists):

Bolo - Rear leg amputation

Joe - Femur fractured - Surgically repaired

  Rocky - Two Ulna and Radial fractures - Surgically repaired (both front legs)

Cassidy - Ulna and Radial fractures - Surgically repaired

Cookie - Femur fracture - Non-surgically repaired (casted)

 Doug - Front leg amputation

Pending:  Puppy with fractured femur at an emergency clinic and a Cocker mix at an animal control with a suspected fractured hip.

Our ATPB campaign allows us to pay for these extremely expensive surgeries.  Join this today and at the end of the year you will have a nice tax-deductible donation.  Every one of you reading this can afford to be a Happy Hound :)

A contribution to this campaign makes a wonderful gift for your animal-loving friends and family member. 

Become a:  

Happy Hound ($10.00 a month),

Furry Friend ($25.00)

Tail Wagger ($50)

Best Friend ($100),

True Companion ($500)

and we know you are out there and we

would love to find you...our

Leader of the Pack ($1000.00 a month)

Thanks to those of you who are already participating. 

We challenge you to find one friend to match you!

Everyone from Mostly Mutts appreciates your support, but special thanks comes from the dogs themselves!  

Contact intownadoptions@mostlymutts.org for more information on the Ain't Too Proud to Beg campaign.

From Puppy Mill to Mostly Mutts to....Your Home?

5 yrs, 15 lbs. If you've heard about me before, I'm going to sound like a completely different dog! I spent my whole young life in a puppy mill.   There is no socialization in puppy mills so I'm a little behind with those skills.  Each day I learn more and get more comfortable being a house dog and a companion.  My teeth look like a 10 year old dogs teeth because they were damaged by years of chewing on metal cages.  My tongue permanently sticks out because of my bad teeth.  But the vets agree that I'm not older than 5 because my eyes are so young looking.  My new home MUST have other dogs because I enjoy the company of other dogs. I know there is someone out there who will provide me with a loving home and allow me to work at my pace. My foster mom is so excited about my improvements and you will be too. 

Dog of the Week-Miss Maddie!

We love our Miss Maddie but are sad for her because she has been looking for her forever home since 2010. Her wonderful foster mom brings her to Petsmart adoptions every weekend but Maddie consistently gets overlooked.  Maddie is such a good girl and she would be great with a family who works during the day and wants to come home to a dog that hasn't destroyed the house.  Or, a retired couple who are home most of the day and would love the companionship of a four legged friend.  Maddie can live with other dogs, cats and older kids.  She has an old break in her tail so she is sensitive in that area (so no young children).  Let's all find her a home by spreading the word.  Mostly Mutts will rejoice!

When Mostly Mutts Loses a Pet

Sadly, not all rescue dogs find loving homes.  Some come to us too late to save, too old to handle the stress of being abandoned, too diseased to survive and some are just taken too soon.  When a Mostly Mutts dog passes away, we have a few options as to what to do with the bodies.  One option is to leave them at the vet clinic for the county to pick up and incinerate.  Mostly Mutts believes this is not how a homeless dog should be treated.  Another choice is to take them to a place where they cremate the bodies, however the cost is too expensive for a rescue group.  This is where we feel extremely blessed to have the love and support of Dreamland Pet Memorial and Cremation Services.  Dreamland has allowed MM to forever keep our dog’s spirit with us.   

Kevin Marcy and family started Dream Land Pet Memorial and Cremation Services five years ago because of a passion Kevin’s family had for pets.  Being a licensed funeral director, he wanted a business that duplicated the human death care services for pets.  “After some research, I found out that there wasn’t a pet crematory in the state of Georgia that cared for pet parents after the loss of a pet nor was there a pet crematory in the State that cared for pets like they were human.   Every pet crematory requires the vet clinics to place the pets into a freezer until their driver comes around to pick up all the pets.   Dreamland tries hard to arrive the same day as called to pick up a pet, so they do not have to be placed in a freezer.  We saw the need for compassionate, same day service, where the families are cared for like they have lost a child, Because that is what it is like”. 

Mostly Mutts founder, Paige O’Neill, called Kevin a few years ago to ask if they would handle the cremation of one of the rescue dogs.   Because MM is local and Dreamland wanted to help as much as possible, Kevin graciously agreed to handle all the MM cremations then and in the future as a way of giving back and helping our cause.  “After meeting with Paige, Dreamland has been passionately supporting MM, due primarily to Paige’s fresh energy and a passion I hadn’t seen duplicated in many rescue group founders and that’s what it takes to make any rescue effort successful.”  Dreamland has taken care of over 50 dogs to date.  

Dreamland Pet Cremations and Mostly Mutts have one huge thing in common.  They love and support the homeless animals in the community and when it’s time to say good bye, they deserve the same care and respect as dog’s in loving homes.  Paige states:  “It’s a great feeling to know that when we lose a dog in our program we have Dreamland to take care of their bodies, while we take care of their souls.  Their ashes are spread on to our scatter garden that was designed by a Girl Scout a few years ago.  Our dogs can now rest in peace in a beautiful area near the shelter and are visited by deer, rabbits and lots of squirrels. “

We want to give a special thanks to Kevin Marcy for taking time to answer our questions about his work with Mostly Mutts as well as the services his company offers to pet owners when they lose a beloved pet. 

   

Mostly Mutts lovingly remembers all the animals who have passed through our shelter and spent their last days being loved by our volunteers.  We wish them peace and joy as the play on the other side. 

Volunteer of the Week-Tammy Turley

The Turley family is deeply involved with Mostly Mutts.  They foster dogs in their homes (including our special needs dogs), they close the shelter every Tuesday night and Tammy comes to adoptions to approve applications, etc.  Tammy also helps with interviewing applicants during the week, she runs our BFF (best friend finder) program and she coordinates the shelter committee. Without volunteers like Tammy and her family, Mostly Mutts would just be an average rescue group. She makes MM exceptional.