Blue Ribbon Pets

Springtime in Cincinnati

Fri, 18 May 2012 11:44:13 EST

This season has been extremely difficult on our canine companions. There has been a large rise in the number of dogs that have allergies this season. If that is not difficult enough - this is proving to be tough to avoid ticks this season as well.

Many pet owners are putting their pets on grain free foods. There is an increased number of brands and flavors available as this market has exploded in the past few years. There are several local establishments that carry these brands.

Is your dog scratching, biting and/or licking more than a month or two ago? Is your dogs coat thinning or are there hot spots on the skin? There are many pieces to the solution. My Sophie has serious issues and it has taken us two years and we finally have a beautiful coat and no open skin. Her diet has several components as well as medication, special shampoo and topicals as needed. It sounds like a lot of work and it was during the process of figuring it all out. Today - we just stay on our daily regimen and all is well.

Contact me if you would like more information.

tags: Dogs with allergies

Camp Labor Day Weekend!

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 16:14:19 EST

I am not very experienced at this but as I recently stated I am working to become more proficient at sharing with the viewers of our website...we also have facebook page which I just figured out how and finally did publish my first photo album...I am not able to post the album here at least to my current level of knowledge - I will attempt to put in the gallery? Please go to our facebook page for easier viewing...

There are a couple of short videos posted on the YouTube account - you can get there from the home page of the website...I have also uploaded them to the Blue Ribbon Pets Facebook page.

tags: Dogs swimming at camp day care over holiday in Cinncinnati

Kitucho

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 18:08:13 EST

Kitucho is a very young puppy and full of energy that's for sure!

I was fortunate enough to have Kitucho visit our camp a couple of times last month...Kitucho loves to swim and unfortunately all of my swimming pictures were erased off my phone...

One of the nicest sweetest Labradoodles I have ever met...I would recommend Kitucho's breeder to anyone based on his personality and presentation!

tags: Guest

Canine Training

Sun, 24 Apr 2011 12:50:33 EST

I am so happy to be writing this...I have to tell you my lower back is not hurting at the moment and it has hurt for about 9 months...I carry a lot of stress there! Sophie has been a cause of great stress - speaking almost exclusively of twice a day (meal times) due to her anxieties etc. especially around food.

3 days ago I had a new trainer come to the house...I have tried all of the traditional training methods and to be very honest with you it has gotten to the place that I know the correction, if it exist at first, will not be sustained. Patrick Drake came to the house and spent several hours sharing his training platform with me...We then proceeded to work Sophie including a meal...I must say I saw about 30% improvement almost right away. The next morning when I went to prepare the breakfast I was ready to give her timely corrections...The first couple hardly register so I gave it a third (much more intense - probably looked like a crazy lady to others) try and I saw 100% change instantly...

I have given Sophie 2 more meals since then and the one time there was no correction needed at all and at breakfast this am when she started to fuss - I gave her the look and she turned to putty...It is amazing how much anxiety she has dropped in such a short period of time!!! I am very excited and mostly because I know it could not have been good for her physical health to get herself so worked up on a consistent bases...She has enough medical issues that and I am so grateful to have been able to reduce her stress so her body can function more efficiently and effectively!!!

tags: Canine Training

Sophie's Medical Issues

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 13:59:40 EST

So, Sophie continued to have problems...Special shampoo & conditioner, special food, medications etc.. One morning she was having an acute skin flare so I called the vet, dropped her off and went on about my day. Dr. Hendricks and I have a special relationship - when I drop my dog off and you figure out what is wrong - please by all means start the medication, don't wait for me!

Thankfully we have this arrangement because when the doc gave her her first dosage of medication - Sophie immediately (within a minute) went into anaphylactic shock. When the vet called and I picked up the message (about an hour later) to call her back, I knew something was not right. When I placed the return call, Sophie was still on oxygen. I was about 45 minutes from the office so I headed right over. When I arrived Sophie looked near death. If Dr. Hendricks had not been there to tell me how much better Sophie looked I would have thought she was on death's doorstep (still kinda thought so but realized she was on an upswing).

Sophie stayed at the office for the rest of the day. When I went back to pick her up she was looking like herself again. As it turned out we ended up deciding to do nothing for a few days until her body had fully recovered from the shock. Exactly 7 days later we decided to put her on an antibiotic. I picked up the pills (antibiotic and antihistamine), went home, fed her dinner and gave her her first dosages. I then left for the evening. Bad move. When I returned about 4 hours later Sophie had literally almost died.

She had thrown up and loose stool from one end of my house to the other. She was in a corner in a room just shivering. I took her to the emergency clinic. Yes, she was in anaphylactic shock again! Probably the only thing that saved her that night was the antihistamine she received with the antibiotic. They needed to keep her on fluids throughout the night so she stayed with them at the emergency clinic - they are really nice there.

The next morning I picked Sophie up and took her to Dr. Hendricks. She remained there the rest of the day receiving fluids and TLC. The conclusion - nothing is ever simple with Sophie. At this moment I realized that I really did not have a healthy dog in the sense that we would be able to avoid the vet's office for months on end. Don't get me wrong, I love the vet's office and so do my dogs. I don't like taking sick pets there.

We now all have an understanding with Sophie. We give her nothing new in the way of medications and to some degree foods without her being at the vet's office. Her reaction is so unpredicatable and severe that it is just not worth taking the risk. I gave up my thoughts about adopting a healthy younger dog. I guess at the end of the day, we get what we are suppose to get sometimes. I have never had a dog that has made me laugh and I mean out loud lots of times, as hard as this dog does. She is the cutest sweetest thing and is loyal to a fault (95% of the time - meals times bring out another personality). It amazes me how pets are so residual.

It is clear to me that Sophie was loved by her previous owners. She knows all of her commands etc. I could tell right away that she knew alot of what she liked already. For example: In the car she is not a "head out the window" kinda gal, she thinks she is suppose to sit in the passenger seat with the airvent on her face. She loves the airvent. Why someone gave her up/walked away from her we will probably never know. Did she cost too much money, was there a death, nursing home or some other human situation?

What I know is that Sophie still has so much love in her and she is willing to enjoy life. You wonder how they can be so willing to just go on after such a huge change in their lives. She had to have loved someone else so much and they had to have really disappointed her when they lost contact but here she is laying very close to my feet looking out the sliding screen and watching and listening to the rain. She is as content as one could ever be. Oh the secrets that they have, if only we could learn more from them.

tags: Snickers and Sophie