Recent Dog Product Haul

Hey! Recently we have been getting quite a few new products and I thought it would be awesome to show you all what we got. We have been lucky enough to receive some free products to trial from some amazing companies as well as purchasing some of our own stuff. 

Wolves of Wellington

Diego is quite a puller on walks, and has been starting to hurt my one arm I walk him with. I saw Willow from Wolves of Wellington wearing a Linden Harness and was amazed by how well behaved she was. That made me need it in my life, so I purchased one for Diego and mum got one for Chico at the same time. I had been wanting an orange collar for Diego and hadn't found a good one yet, so I made sure to get his harness in orange! He is also a size medium. Chico got his in a Blue Large. We were also given a bowtie to try, and it looks amazing on Diego. It's super cute, and when you purchase you are helping HUHA. 

Hippy Hound

We were super lucky to be given the chance to try out some of Hippy Hounds products. We got sent a collar and leash combo, a shampoo bar and paw balm. The collar and leash are in a matching, denim blue pattern, and half-way up the lead it actually changes material. The materials flow perfectly with each other, and gives the leash something different compared to other leashes. The colour works well against Diego's fur, and is actually really comfortable to hold. The paw balm seems good, although I haven't yet trialled it enough to see the benefits. I also haven't tried the shampoo bar, but will be doing that soon as Diego is due for a bath.

Birthday Dog Treats

Back in June, our wonderful friends Richie McPaw, and his mother, Melissa gave Diego a birthday present when we went to see them in Wellington. I was so surprised, and thankful that Melissa went out of her way to get Diego a present and thought it was only right to share on here the gift and thank her for it. She got him a couple of packets of treats, which Diego has now completely destroyed. 

DowntownDogMd

On Instagram, we entered a competition to be a model for DowntownDogMd and won! We got sent a package all the way from America, and received it today! They sent us two double sided bandanas for each dog, a rope collar each and a material bone each! Unfortunately, I am in Wellington so cannot get a photo until this weekend, but I can't wait to have a photoshoot with both dogs. If you are interested in purchasing anything from this amazing company, enter the code 'daisypets' to receive a 10% discount.

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Weekend in Whanganui

This year has been quite different for us, and a lot of crazy stuff has happened to us in the last seven months. It has meant that we have been very unsettled, and have moved through a couple of houses and situations. What that means, is the current situation is me working in one city during the week, while Diego lives in a city three hours drive away. Each weekend I will be travelling up to see him and my family again. This is not the most perfect situation, but it is what works for us currently until we can settle in the city I am working in. It has been quite a mission to find a suitable accommodation for Diego and I with our current needs, but I am chipping away at it so hopefully this situation won't last for too much longer. It means that any time I spend with Diego, and my family is more important as the time is shortened. This past weekend we got up to a bunch of cool activities, and it was amazing to see everyone again. 

On Saturday morning, Diego and I went for a walk around the Whanganui river which is our usual walk that we would go on, and it was a lovely sunny but cold morning. We met a few woman and their small dogs, which Diego interacted with nicely. Diego got to run around off leash, and it was a chance for us to work on our recall and other tricks that we are currently training on.

In the afternoon, my mother and I took both dogs for a walk to the local park where we played fetch and the dogs ran around like crazies! Chico kept rushing after Diego who was chasing the ball, and afterwards both dogs were exhausted. It was cool to see both dogs having a blast around the field and interacting with each other.

On Sunday, Mum and I took both dogs down to their favourite beach. It was another amazing day and I loved being able to catch up with mum while the dogs had a great time. Diego loves playing fetch with sticks at the beach, and spent most of the time running through the surf trying to find his stick. Chico was doing his Greyhound run across the whole stretch of beach, and played with some random dogs he found along the track. This is definitely one of my favourite walks to do as you can tell how much the dogs love it, and it is quite a peaceful walk for us humans. 

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Book Review: Scent of the Missing

I have always been fascinated by the work that Search and Rescue Dogs do. I am amazed by how they can tell so much just from scent, and how we as humans have learnt to read their body language to tell us what that dog is saying about each scent. So when I saw this book at my local library, I knew I had to read it. The book is Scent of the Missing and was written by Susannah Charleson. The book follows her journey as an assistant to search and rescue (SAR) teams, and then her gaining and training of her own search and rescue dog.

First off, the book is very well written in an easy to read way. It is not a book you would have to think too much about, and could easily enjoy before bed. Susannah has perfectly written it in an order that makes sense, and tells the reader the things they need to know at the right time. It also had a bunch of photographs in the middle pages which always makes a non-fiction a lot better. The book itself is a reasonable length, and if I were being honest, I wish there was more to it! I really got into the book, and the people it contained that I wish it followed more of their story. Hopefully a follow up story comes out soon!

Susannah is a volunteer for the Metro Area Rescue K9 Unit in Dallas, Texas and worked as an assistant in the field when other search and rescue dog teams were working. After doing that for a few years, she adopted a Golden Retriever puppy and named her Puzzle. Together, they trained towards Puzzle getting her own accreditation. The book follows both of these storylines, and it is awesome to see not only Puzzle evolve, but Susannah too.

The book goes into a fair bit of detail on how Puzzle was trained, and what tests they put all new SAR dogs through. It was interesting to learn some of the techniques that Susannah used at home with the then puppy Puzzle, and what could easily be replicated for our pet dogs. From there, the book explores some of the points of struggle in training, as well as highlights as Puzzle is taught to find humans hidden from sight in a range of tests.

What I loved about this book is that Susannah often gave explanations on why certain terrains or search sites would be hard for a dog to pinpoint where a scent was coming from. She explained scent cones, and the way scent can bounce or mingle with certain objects or other scents. This was fascinating and gave me a better insight onto why dogs are not always 100% confident on the scents they pick up. It also helped to explain why a lot of the searches are done slow, and in sweeping motions, to make sure the dog didn't miss a scent that might have lingered differently.

It was also interesting to learn that dogs can be trained to smell human remains. This was interesting as the dogs are taught to only find human remains, and can tell the difference in the scent of a dead animal compared to that of a human. It also is interesting that they can be taught to look for only remains, and will pass by people on their search for remains. An interesting fact inside the book said that when human remains are buried near the root structures of trees, the dog may put their paws and stretch to alert on the tree, which exudes human scent!

This book was definitely insightful, as well as a compassionate read. I was drawn right in, and really enjoyed reading through this book. I have now starting doing some of the basic scent exercises with Diego so that he can learn the basics of scent training. I would recommend this book to dog owners, especially those interested in different types of training. It was also a good read for people interested in working in the broader rescue category as you may end up working alongside canine teams and it would be a great way for you to understand how they work.

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Treat Review: Pooch & Mutt Fresh Breath

Hey! Recently Diego celebrated his second birthday, and for his birthday we had a Treat Haul that contained these Pooch & Mutt Fresh Breath Treats. I had never seen these treats before, and was interested in giving them a go.

Pooch & Mutt is a UK based company that is aiming to make ethical and natural treats for man's best friend. They have a range of products that aim to help with some of the most common problems in dogs, like bad breath or joints. The treats are as ethical as possible, and have PETA behind them as they do not test on animals. The treats are handmade, wheat-free and hypoallergenic so they are enjoyable for most dogs.

The Fresh Breath treats that we picked up contain chicken, parsley, peppermint oil and chicory. Not only do these ingredients help to freshen your dogs breath, they also aid in the dogs digestion. This is because poor digestion can also effect the dogs breath in a bad way. These treats are bite sized treats for Diego, and on the packet they have an actual sized picture of the treats. Due to the size of these treats, Diego can have them full, or broken in half and feel like he had a treat. Chico, however, due to being a bit bigger has to have them full to make a training treat.

We have been using these treats when out and about with Diego as an enticing treat to help train his recall, but also to do some trick training while in public. I have a treat bag that I clip to my pants, and these treats are great to keep in this as they are a crunchy treat that doesn't make a mess. Also, they smell like peppermint, so if you are around other people they are not off putting to pull out.

Diego does enjoy these treats, and will happily eat them when out in public. He also does race back in his recall to gulp down a treat! I can't say that he is over the top about them, like some of the fish treats we have had recently, but he does definitely enjoy them. I do worry a tiny bit about them as a choking hazard, but I make sure he sits and eats his treat before running off again. For a bigger dog, I wouldn't suggest them as a recall treat for that reason.

I can't say I have noticed a difference in Diego's breath since using these treats. Diego doesn't generally have bad breath. I would say that the main time he would have bad breath would be after a red meat bone, but he hasn't had one of them recently. It would be good to try these with a dog that has bad breath to see if they do make a dramatic difference in their breath. I will give an update on our Facebook Page once Diego has had a red meat bone and then given these treats to see if they do make a difference there. A thing to note now though, is that they don't make his breath worse, which could be the case with other treats, so that is a bonus for any dog.

Another pro of these treats is the packaging. They are in a cardboard tube that could either be reused for other treats, or for crafts. If you don't want to reuse, you can recycle! This is a great thing because a lot of treats are in plastic, or have a lot of unnecessary extra packaging that can be damaging to the planet. I always like to find companies that have these thoughts in their mind when creating their product and packaging.

Would I recommend these treats? Yes I would. I can't promise they are going to completely rid your dog of fresh breath, but they don't make it worse. My dogs love them, and will happily perform and recall for these treats no questions asked. The companies ethical stand point, as well as the amazing ingredients make these treats even better and something to support. I would love to try the other treats in that are available in New Zealand to compare them with each other. You can order these from www.pet.co.nz if you are in New Zealand and they ship super fast which is great!

We got other treats in that Birthday Haul so if you would like us to review any of the other treats, let us know!

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