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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Week 4: 150km June Finale

Did we do it? If you have no idea what 150km June is, I suggest you read our Original Post, Week 1, Week 2 and Week 3 updates then come back to find out if we made it!

This week we have had some technical problems when measuring our walks, but I promise that I didn't exaggerate any of the walks. My phone was having some troubles tracking the route, and therefore the kilometres that we walked on a few of the walks so I went to my trusty friend Google and worked it out from there! Last week we finished on a total of 106.91 kilometres meaning we would have to conquer 43.18kms in seven days.

Friday was the first day of a troublesome phone. For some reason it was tracking me, but not counting it as kilometres walked! Diego, Chico, my sister and I all walked into downtown Whanganui where we meet up with my mother. This one way trip is 4 kilometres, and that was enough to tire out both my sister and Chico so I left them with my mum while Diego and I continued on. We went over the bridge and explored a new area of the river, before returning home. This was approximately another 4 kilometres. It was probably slightly more, but as I wasn't able to track I wanted to keep it basic. That put Friday's kilometres at 8!


Saturday looks like a bad day with only 2.09km but boy it tired Diego out. As you can see, we went along the beach and then back again. The whole time we were throwing a stick for Diego into the water and he was racing around non-stop. I say it again, I still would love to get a tracker for him to know how much he is exercising! It was a great day out with the whole family and even Chico raced around most of the walk. Diego was saturated and covered in sand after that walk so we took both dogs to a DIY dog wash afterwards.

Sunday was a busy day, and unfortunately that meant that there wasn't a lot of time in the day to walk Diego. It was a miserable day with the rain showering for most of it so Diego and I went for a quick walk through a couple of local fields where he ran amuck. 

Monday was another technical error day. I went for an early morning run with Diego, through the local fields I went to yesterday, and then around the river back to home. I am not a runner so this was a big deal for me and I felt accomplished, til I got home and realised it wasn't even tracking! I used Google to have a look at the rough path I took and it has come up as 5.5 kilometres. Not a bad effort but I would have loved to have that on my tracker.

 I enjoyed my run from Monday so much that I decided to go again with Diego. The first walk of 4.79kms was with my mum and Chico. We walked to a local coffee shop, where we enjoyed a coffee and chat before strolling home. It was an enjoyable walk and reminded me to make sure I am enjoying the walks I do go on. Then later in the day I decided to take Diego on another short jog and we went to the park and played fetch.

Wednesday was another two walk day, but this was on accident. I went out early in the morning with Diego as the weather report said it was going to rain that day and wanted to get it out the way. We explored some new streets I hadn't been down before and saw some unusual sites. That day I incorrectly calculated how many more kilometres I had to go before the end of June so had left the walk at that. I then recalculated, realised there was a lot more to go so my sister and I went for a walk with both dogs in the rain as it was going dark. It was a fun walk, and we both felt accomplished afterwards but I wished we had gone earlier in the afternoon.

 The final day. The final day was raining, for all of it! I had tried to go out earlier in the day, got all set up and was about to walk out the front door when it started to pour down. Back inside we went. Finally I decided to do another long walk to my sisters school, and she would then do the return journey with us. It was only lightly raining at this point so that was fine. I got lost on my new directions and went a bit further out than needed but it worked well in the end that we walked the longest distance of 9.44kms!

So did we do it? This week we walked 43.88 kilometres, meaning our month score was 150.79! We done it! I have to admit, I am tired and sore and extremely glad it is now over. It was a good challenge, and it was awesome to have a goal to work towards as a lot of the time I would have preferred to be lazy at home. On the other side though, it did mean that I wasn't enjoying walks as much and was just walking them to say that we had walked a certain length each day. I want to make sure I appreciate the time I have with Diego, and the walks we go on in the future, but also know that we can achieve a lot more than we do and to push ourselves. I can't believe June is over, and that July is upon us tomorrow! This year has flown by, and it was good to have an accomplishment for this last month. It definitely has made me want to do challenges more often.

How did your month of June go?

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Diego's Birthday Weekend

We had a crazy, full on weekend in Wellington to celebrate Diego's second birthday which was on the Saturday. Overall, it was a great weekend and we managed to catch up with some of Diego's doggy friends, and also see his brother, Jagger. I was also checking out a potential flat in Wellington for Diego and I to move into.

Unfortunately, the flat situation didn't work out. The lady had described her partners dog as a 'biter when she gets excited', but it was more just a savage dog. We met at a park and from the get go, this other dog was aggressive. She was wearing a muzzle, but without this I honestly believe she would have ripped Diego to shreds. Diego did meet the other dogs at the flat, and played with one of the other dogs for ages while the flat owner and I had a discussion. Unfortunately, the experience with the more aggressive dog did slightly ruin our weekend as it put Diego on full scared mode whenever he met a larger dog.

After going to that flat viewing we went and visited our favourite Wellington character, Richie McPaw. Diego always gets on so well with Richie, it is great to see. Richie and his wonderful mother even got Diego a present! We did go down to the local fenced dog park, but Diego got overwhelmed and because of his earlier experience with the aggressive dog he was on high alert. He kept doing scared nips at the larger dogs, and one of them didn't appreciate that and they got into a barking/snarling war. After that, Richie McPaw, Melissa, Diego and I went to another local walk where we explored some amazing bush walks. Diego and Richie zoomed around the paths, and had a great time exploring together. This was a great end to the Saturday and Diego's birthday.

On the Sunday, early in the morning Diego and I headed down to another dog park in Upper Hutt to have a walk before starting the days events. Surprisingly for such an early Sunday morning, there was a bunch of people and dogs out and about. Diego met a couple of them, and was quite apprehensive with them all. Thankfully, he didn't display any of his scared nips that he was doing at the dog park.

After that we went to take some photos of a friends rabbit. This was a cool experience and I loved hanging out with a rabbit! I haven't handled, or been near a rabbit since Schmutz passed away so it was pretty special. I love rabbits, they are such unique personalities and Piper was no exception. She was super friendly, and inquisitive. She loved the camera, and Diego and her met through the bars of a cage and she was so infatuated by Diego. 

Time for the real walk of the day, Diego and I met up with Joshua and Willow from Wolves of Wellington. For our walk, we went to one of the fire breaks in Lower Hutt, which is essentially a clay path that separates the forests on the hills so if any catches fire, it doesn't take out the whole hill. This walk is pretty steep, and really showed how unfit I am. Willow and Diego showed us how to do it, Diego didn't even seem to pant, and Willow had a backpack with all her gear! Upon meeting Willow, Diego instantly growled and done his typical scared/nervous attack mode at her. We walked them slightly apart the whole walk, and by the end Diego was leaning towards Willow. Hopefully next time they meet he isn't as nervous and they can be friends. I didn't get any photos of this walk as I was in no shape to take my camera pack up the hill! Maybe next time I do this walk I will be fit enough to take up my camera as well. I did get this Snapchat video of the view though!