Natural Tick Repellent

A friend of mine forwarded a CBC news story about ticks arriving early in our part of the world this year.  Thankfully, Gabe has only ever gotten two ticks in his six years on this planet; and Archie has never gotten any.  Still, time to break out the tick repellent!

I have been buying Hartz UltraGuard Plus for a long time, even though it makes me uneasy.  Have you ever gotten that stuff on your own skin?  It feels cold and tingly for hours, not a comfortable feeling.  And, since I wash my hands much more often than my boys get washed, I have no idea how long the cold, tingly feeling lasts for them.  And what if they accidentally get some in their mouths when they're wrestling with each other or something?  Although I'm generally not keen on chemicals, my stance is that some are a necessary evil.  In this case, it's not so much that I was against applying chemicals to their skin as knowing what it felt like to have it on my own skin.

So, I googled, and I found a recipe for a natural tick repellent that has been amended and reposted to a few different sites:

2 tablespoons nut oil (I used almond oil)

10-25 drops rose geranium or palmarosa essential oil (I used palmarosa)

Pour into a glass jar or bottle and shake well.  Re-apply a couple drops to your dog's collar about once a week.  I'll let you know how it works out!

Book Review ~ The Stanley Picture Books

I'm nearing the end of my journey to read and review 13 Canadian books about dogs within a year, for John Mutford's Great Canadian Book Challenge. I've been saving these books in case I needed help crossing the finish line. The help was not needed, but I can't resist reviewing these two, coming in together at lucky number 13.

I first heard about Linda Bailey and Bill Slavin's children's book, Stanley's Party, from my friend Colin. He remarked that Archie seemed a lot like Stanley, so I set out to find out just who Stanley was. Along the way, I also heard about Stanley from my friend Heather, who lent me her copy of the book for a looksee. By time I've gotten to this review, Stanley has become a bit of a franchise, the hero of 4 books, including Stanley's Wild Ride, which I'm also reviewing here.

First published in 2003, Stanley's Party is a lavishly-illustrated ode to Stanley, who looks very much like a Lab (albeit a rotund one with short legs). Stanley is a bit of a monkey, knowing very well what he is not supposed to do, but finding temptation too hard to resist. The end result is a packed canine house party while his people are out. Predictably, he gets caught, but not so predictably he gets the last laugh, and there is a lesson here for us dog guardians: keep your poochies busy and tuckered out so that they don't get into mischief; failing that, take them everywhere with yourself (which is really what they most want anyway, or so I would assume from Archie's mournful howling each time I pull out of the driveway).

Stanley's Wild Ride is the second book in the Stanley franchise, published in 2006. Bill Slavin continues with his detailed and expansive watercolour illustrations. Once again, Stanley is up to something he is not supposed to be doing - leaving his fenced yard (something Archie used to be keen to do as well). Escaping his yard, Stanley meets up with his usual sidekicks and they stay out until all hours. The night culminates with a wild ride when Stanley discovers a skateboard at the top of the hill. Once again, Stanley gets in trouble, but also once again, he has the last laugh.

The books are aimed at children ages 4-8. The stories are actually quite long for picture books but should keep most children, even those on the younger side, engaged. Bill Slavin is highly regarded for his illustrations in this series and they are certainly imaginative and they perfectly capture Stanley's spirit. Either or both of these would make an excellent gift for the children in your life - or for those dog guardians who live with and love an irrepressible spirit.  

Book Review ~ Coren's The Modern Dog

Stanley Coren's The Modern Dog is my twelfth read in John Mutford's Great Canadian Book Challenge. I have been a Stanley Coren fan for years - I remember watching his Good Dog! program on Canada' Slice TV network when Gabe was just a puppy. The program was on then at 7:30am on Saturdays, so Gabe and I (and sometimes my mom) would greet the day by watching Dr. Coren and playing fetch in the living room. (Gabe is still an early bird; Arch could sleep till noon, though, if I didn't drag him out from under the covers.)

I think I started with Coren's How Dogs Think and sort of went from there, reading most of his dog books. Coren is an engaging writer; a great researcher; and he clearly knows what he's talking about. One thing I'm not crazy about is how he reuses material from book to book. This is understandable - I mean if you're going to spend a chapter talking about the history of dogs in three or four different books, there's only so much you can say. Still, I was somewhat hesitant to shell out my $19.99 at McNally Robinson's for another look at the same topics. What sucked me in was the chapter on the fate of dogs (and pets in general) during Hurricane Katrina, something that interests me greatly. I'm really glad I decided to use my gift card on this one (thanks Marissa, Dan, and Mary!).

The Modern Dog is easily Coren's most accessible book. Coren is a psychologist, a professor emeritus at UBC. This academic background shows in his writing, which doesn't shy away from explaining things in depth. Sometimes it can be a little dry. Not so in The Modern Dog. This whole book shines. Each chapter is short and engaging and I believe most people who like dogs would find this an enjoyable read. In the preface, Coren encourages us to read the chapters in any order we wish, as each is meant to stand alone. The chapters cover everything from why people look like their dogs, to dogs who watch tv, to dogs who fly is space, and finally, to whether dogs go to heaven.

Highly recommended by all of us here at Gabe n Arch, the boys give this one 8 paws up! This would be a great gift for the dog lover in your life.

Book Review ~ The Dog by the Cradle

Erika Ritter's non-fiction tome The Dog by the Cradle, the Serpent Beneath: Some Paradoxes of Human-Animal Relationships is Book 11 in my goal to read and review 13 Canadian books about dogs for the Great Canadian Book Challenge. It is one of the most difficult books I've ever read. The topic is a tough one to chew on, and Ritter's style leaves much to be desired. In the first chapter, she set my teeth on edge by making fun of Dr. Temple Grandin's beliefs and autistic behaviours. It set the wrong note for the entire book.

Central to the book, and the basis of the title, is the story about Guinefort, a greyhound in medieval France, who was killed by his master for a crime he didn't commit. Ritter comes back to this story repeatedly - introducing it multiple times in most chapters. By the end of the first chapter, I was annoyed; by the end of the book, I was gnashing my teeth as I reread the basic premise of the story for the umpteenth time. Ritter goes off topic repeatedly - not surprisingly, given how many times she goes back to the old Guinefort tale. Frequently, I lost my place, not understanding how I had arrived at the point I was reading. The book has a lot of promise, especially since it is clear that Ritter's research was exhaustive. With a strong editorial hand guiding her, Ritter could have produced something much more powerful. However, she has missed the mark.

My bottom line: If the topic really interests you, try checking it out of the library. That way you don't have to feel guilty if you can't finish it.

The light is at the end of the tunnel for the Challenge, whew. Two Stanleys to go to meet my goal of 13: Stanley Coren's The Modern Dog and Linda Bailey's and Bill Slavin's Stanley picture books.

Book Review ~ Lonesome

When I joined John Mutford's Great Canadian Book Challenge last summer, I pledged to read and review 13 Canadian books about dogs over the course of a year. John himself made some book suggestions, but it's always a pleasure when I just stumble across a suitable book. I found Chris Czajkowski's Lonesome: Memoirs of a Wilderness Dog at a used bookstore. Serendipitously - or not - I was on a trip to a specific pet store, and decided on a whim to pop into the used bookstore next door. I had never heard of Czajkowski before.

Czajkowski has lived in the B.C. wilderness for more than 2 decades and has published other books about her experiences. Lonesome is unique because it's creative non-fiction, a memoir told from a dog's point of view. The dog in question is Lonesome herself, named after B.C.'s Lonesome Lake. Lonesome the dog is smart and polite; and I'm not sure if it's that persona that inspired Czajkowski's narrative voice or if Czajkowski always writes like this, but I often felt like I was reading a 19th-century tome. Some of the writing is a little formal, interspersed with words like "perforce;" and the descriptions tend towards the flowery.

Flowery, however, is not the way Czajkowski treats Lonesome. When I was growing up on a farm (30ish years ago), attitudes towards dogs were much like the ones Czajkowski has. Granted, Lonesome is a working dog in a harsh climate, and Czajkowski has few luxuries herself. I have to give Czajkowski props for admitting her own flaws, such as being quick to anger; but I question whether it is "tmi" to share that she smacked Lonesome so hard that the dog flew off the table the first (and last) time she tried to help herself to Czajkowski's food. Like Jack London's Call of the Wild, I really wouldn't recommend this for younger readers.

The book offers a unique perspective on living in B.C.'s interior - the harsh climates, the beautiful but punishing landscapes, the frequent meetings with wildlife, and the isolation. Lonesome has a beautiful voice; Czajkowski has done a bang-up job of portraying a dog's point of view. All in all, a worthy read; and one that should appeal to several different types of readers.

This is my tenth (yay!) book for the Challenge. Just three to go; and I'm saving Linda Bailey's and Bill Slavin's Stanley's Party and Stanley's Wild Ride for the home stretch.

Games Dogs Play

Wrestling, keep-away, and fetch are games my dogs love to play outside. But what do you do when it's -35C (-31F) outside and you've got two frisky dogs on your hands?

Gabe n Arch n I have a few ball games we play indoors. I will stick the ball under a blanket or quilt, and they have to figure out how to get it out. Or, I will march around the house, waving the ball around, and then suddenly, through a nifty slight of hand, the ball is gone, tucked into a laundry basket or an open drawer. The second game has two purposes, really - entertainment and confidence building. I try to put the ball places Arch is scared to go, hoping he learns as he bravely retrieves it that that place (under the ironing board, on the chair) isn't going to fall down on his head or trap him after all.

We also have a few games that are a little more sophisticated. One, I got the idea from youtube. I have an extra-large muffin tin with just 6 cups. I put a small treat (a piece of kibble or a part of cookie) into each cup and then cover each treat with a ball. It's more difficult than it at first appears, as the dogs cannot simply pick up the ball with their mouths. Gabe has learned that the fuzzy balls can be carefully picked up by grasping the fuzz; but overall the ball have to be nosed out or pawed out. This takes each dog perhaps a minute or two.

Last winter, I splurged on a couple Nina Ottenson games. We have the DogBox. This one perplexes Gabe n Arch a little bit. The basic premise is that the dog has to drop something into the top of the box, in order to eject a treat from the bottom. Two wooden "spools" are included; but because Arch is a ball guy, he uses a ball. Any object that fits in the top would work. Both dogs seem to understand that getting the object into the box will eject the treat BUT they are confused about how to get the object into the box in the first place (or, more likely, too excited about the treat to think straight). I keep hoping for an eureka moment, but for the time being, I let Gabe knock the wooden spools off the top of the box with his nose; and I bounce the ball towards Archie, and then steer the box towards him so that he can deposit it as needed. This is the game that takes us the longest. Depending on how many treats you use and how well your dogs "get" the concept of the game, this one can easily last 5 minutes or better.

The other Nina Ottenson game we have is the wooden Tornado. This one has four round pieces of MDF stacked on top of each other, and held together with a central bolt. The top three pieces spin. The bottom three pieces have little compartments carved in them, where treats can be hidden. The dogs need to spin the layers around, to try and figure out how to uncover the compartments. Both dogs love this one BUT (1) I have to hold it down or they would just push it all over the place and (2) dogs with small noses will be able to cheat, as Archie demonstrates time and time again. He is able to fish treats out of the bottom compartment without having to line the layers up correctly (you can see him trying this out in the second picture). Like the muffin tin game, this one takes only a minute or two, as well.

I chose the wooden toys because I thought they would last my dogs longer than the plastic ones. My dogs are chewers and they think it's great fun to steal things (like the plastic parts) and then parade around with them. Wood is harder to clean, so it's a bit of a toss up that each dog guardian needs to consider before purchasing.

And then the old standbys - our beloved molecule balls, which are also marketed as "atomic" balls. This is one of many variations of a treat ball - you insert kibble and the dog has to figure out how to get it out. Gabe has had his since he was a puppy. He figured it out lickedty-split with no help from anyone. He has some trouble picking it up, but he can do it, and he carries it around a bit. It's indestructable. Archie had no idea what to do with his when he was introduced to it at the age of one. I pushed it around for him, and when a kibble fell out, I cheered raucously. He still tends to simply push it with his nose, not really sure how (or not comfortable) to bat it hard enough with the old noz to make it tumble. He is pretty fair at using his paws for that purpose though. I do think these are their favourites. These probably take 3-5 minutes, depending on the amount of kibble, and how often the balls get stuck and need to be retrieved by moi. One caveat - these are noisy.

So that's us in the wintertime. What do you do to keep your dogs busy, and, more importantly, out of trouble in inclement weather?

Book Review ~ Wally's World

Wally's World by Marsha Boulton is book #9 in my quest to read and review 13 Canadian books about dogs in a year, as part of John Mutford's Great Canadian Book Challenge. I've been struggling to finish Erika Ritter's The Dog by the Cradle, the Serpent Beneath for about 6 weeks. I decided to take a break with Wally.

Wally is a lovable bull terrier that Boulton and her husband - author Stephen Williams - purchase as a puppy. Wally is always up to something and his antics are sprinkled throughout the book. Carrying pails loaded with balls, undergoing surgery to remove ingested underpants, wrecking a hotel room by humping a feather pillow, and hogging the covers, Wally is clearly a rascal, and one who is likely loved all the more for his rascally behaviour. However, Boulton herself sums up her approach to the book about three pages from the end: "How could I have managed through [the problems of the past 10 years] without having [Wally's] mug to smile at every morning?" While the stories about Wally are fun to read, the book's focus is the legal wrangles that Boulton and Willimas went through following the publication of his two books about Paul Bernardo and Karla Holmolka. Some Wally stories - such as the underpants - stand on their own; but many others are only tangential to the main plot.

Boulton previously won the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour for Letters from the Country. While Wally's World didn't elicit any guffaws from me, I did have to smile a lot at that Wally Boy. Boulton is an engaging writer and this read was definitely easier than Ritter's. Some things made me uncomfortable - I wearied of reading how nasty the police were to Boulton and Williams (I get it already!); and some comments Boulton made about her mother seemed cutting rather than funny. The book's cover boasts snippets of several glowing reviews, including one from The Globe and Mail on the front: "A gripping memoir." If you're in the market for a light memoir, this is it. If you're looking for a "dog book" you might find the main plot a disappointment. For me, it's not a keeper. If you want my copy, shoot me an email; otherwise I will release it as part of the bookcrossing program.