Omega 3 Benefits for Pets and Their Humans with OmegaBrite

I'm not the best at taking my vitamins, but I seem to do better with giving supplements to The Ginger Sisters. We've tried fish oil, coconut oil, and several different calming supplements. The research seems like it is always changing, but the benefits of omega fatty acids for both pets and humans are consistently backed by science. That's why I was excited to partner with OmegaBrite and incorporate their Omega-3 supplement that Ruby, Boca and I could all take together!

After obtaining proper dosage instructions for Boca's 32 pounds and Ruby's 18 pounds, I started giving the girls two capusles and one capsule, respectively, with their evening meal. This was an easy reminder for me to also take my two capsules each night! I've since discovered that Boca will happily eat her capsules plain and whole.

Here are some of the benefits for dogs:

EPA, one of the two omega-3 fatty acids in OmegaBrite, acts as an anti-inflammatory. This will help with any condition that causes inflammation of the heart, kidneys, skin, and joints—such as arthritis etc

OmegaBrite will ease inflammation due to allergies, and reduce itchy skin and dandruff. This can also be an effective way to potentially decrease the incidence of hot spots on your pet.

OmegaBrite promotes a shiny, healthy coat, and reduces shedding. (For cats, this may also mean fewer hairballs, since your cat won't pick up as many loose hairs while grooming.)

DHA, the other omega-3 fatty acid in OmegaBrite, is important in brain and eye development in puppies and kittens. Giving OmegaBrite to pregnant or nursing pets can benefit the babies once they're born.

In some studies, fish oil has slowed the growth of cancer. Though more studies are needed to reach conclusive results, some veterinarians recommend it for any pets with cancer.

Prepare for Holiday Stress with our PL360 Anxiety Relief Giveaway

It seems like the moment the Halloween costumes and candy are put away, the festivity frenzy of November and December begins. My head spins as I try to form gift lists and juggle party invitations, putting on a smiling face during what has become a difficult time of year for me. It's no secret that along with wonder and joy, the season can mean stress and tension for people and their pets. 

Life with an anxious dog has made me more sensitive to changes in her environment, with my focus always on keeping her safe and comfortable. The holidays bring with them the potential for travel, house-guests, strange hours that disrupt our routine and unusual sights and sounds around the neighborhood.

I think having a calming supplement on hand is a great way to prepare for the situational stress that our preparation and celebration of the holidays can trigger. PL360, a company focused on safe and natural solutions for pets, offers an Anxiety Relief supplement with chamomile (which Boca has been compared to with her soothing presence) and tryptophan (found in Thanksgiving turkey). We'll be traveling to my aunt's house for Thanksgiving and I am hoping it will help Ruby relax in the car, as well as make the New Year's Eve fireworks a little easier for Boca. 

We are giving away a bottle of PL360 Anxiety Relief to five lucky winners. The giveaway is open to U.S. residents and winners have 72 hours to respond to email notification. Please read the product information and check with a veterinarian if you have any questions or concerns before giving this or any supplement to your pet.

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Disclaimer: PL360 provided the giveaway prizes and a sample product in exchange for spreading the word about their supplements. PL360 is not responsible for the content of this post. All opinions expressed are my own and I only publish reviews for products I feel comfortable using in the day to day life of my pets.

When Fostering Doesn't Work Out

 

Keemo went to a new foster home last weekend, after making the difficult determination that he was not a good fit - even temporarily - when prioritizing the resident animals. I'm a huge advocate for fostering, adoption and rescue, but first and foremost an advocate for my own pets. So many shelters around the world are overwhelmed and so many rescues could not operate without a network of phenomenal foster homes. I frequently implore people to foster through social media by posting dogs in need. I have now fostered four dogs over the last ten years. It's not a lot - it's nothing like those admirable career fosters that have a constant stream of rescue dogs through their home. That was actually my intention before "foster failing" with Boca. I know how rewarding it is to see a foster dog through to their perfect home, and I'm disappointed that I won't be doing so for Keemo.

As the days went by with Keemo, Boca exhibited some pretty severe resource guarding - something she doesn't do with Ruby. She will grumble once in a while when she has settled down with a toy, but at both dog and human mealtimes she was charging vehemently at our visitor on the other side of the dog gate. This in itself was manageable, but as I saw Ruby becoming more and more shut-down, nervous about Boca's blustering, refusing to eat even in another room, hiding under the dining room table, and cowering when Keemo was near, I knew that I couldn't risk her hard-won confidence being shaken any more in her own home. It was no fault of Keemo's - he just needed a playmate his own size and a lot more space to play in. Keeping all of the dogs separated long-term was not tenable, either. My 19 year old cat was also expressing her displeasure with the situation - another surprise since she's lived boldly with dogs for most of her life. It was impossible to ignore the signs of stress in every member of the household.

Fostering is a hard job, and each personality involved complicates it that much more. Sometimes I think the ideal foster home has no pets of their own, but that's unlikely since we foster because we love animals. Neither of my dogs reacted as I expected to our house guest, and I saw previously unrealized sides of them and learned more about myself, for better or for worse. These past few years have been a time of self-reflection for me as I navigated some of the most difficult changes of my life. I think part of being an adult is knowing what you want and don't want, what you can and can't handle. I'm an anxious person. Lao Tzu said "If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future." I am a well-versed worrier - it runs in the family. I am perpetually nervous about what could happen or what might happen. This isn't the greatest state of mind for managing new dog introductions and disruption in routine, and for that reason if I do foster again, it would be short term/relief fostering and smaller/older dogs.

I spent one whole afternoon with Keemo, taking him to my vet's office to refill my cat's medications, a big box pet store to get him some chew things, a crate mat and a harness, and Kriser's for some raw goat's milk. He was absolutely charming everywhere we went - obviously overwhelmed at the wonderland of sights of smells, bins of dehydrated delicacies within muzzle's reach. He approached strangers soliciting affection and wagging his tail, and I told the story of his journey and extolled the virtues of the potcake. In just a few days' time I was able to teach him "sit" and "down" with clicker training, and he was especially lovely to walk by himself. My dad was instrumental in being able to keep him as long as we did - there's no way I could have done it on my own with a full time job. I think it even brought my dad and I closer together and I know he was sad to see Keemo go as well. It didn't take long to become attached to his big silly face, and I felt heartsick as I drove him across town and handed him off to someone else. 

  
Even though I know I made the right decision, I still feel awful about letting Keemo and the rescue down. I thought about how confused he must have felt being shuffled from one house to another, and hope he is successful in his new foster home and matched with that special someone soon. I know he will be an awesome dog with nothing but love to give. I am a fiercely loyal person who honors her commitments so this felt like a different kind of foster failure. I was looking forward to attending adoption events and becoming more involved with this rescue group. I dream of having a ranch someday with a conscientiously designed foster dog suite, and of having the time to devote to such a passion. In the meantime I will continue volunteering where I can, but more likely in a capacity other than fostering. I have a renewed appreciation for the tireless work of rescue, and for my own perfectly imperfect incredible dogs.

Boca Rocks a Thundershirt and Ruby Rolls in Her Travel Crate

Ready to rock thunderstorms and silly human holidays.

The Fourth of July was rough for us. I live just five minutes from the light rail station, and its large, empty parking lot is the ideal place for people to set off (illegal) fireworks. When we walk over there, the asphalt is littered with the remnants of things that go bang in the night. This has been going on since about the first of July, and even last night we heard some more pops and crackles. It's getting old. Ruby isn't as bothered by them, and in fact her thunderstorm phobia has been improving as well, but Boca is terrified of fireworks. I'm not sure if she has bad memories of them from her life on the street (I recently watched a video in which a camera is attached to a street dog in Mumbai, and children chase the dog with firecrackers) or just thinks the end of the world is coming, but she has grown increasingly worse and developed some unfortunate associations. Since some of the loudest explosions happened just after we went to bed several nights in a row, even after trying to stay up late watching loud TV, Boca is now afraid to sleep on the bed when the window is open (which is a necessity when you don't have AC on a 90 degree day).

Now that the fireworks should be winding down (except for a local display scheduled for the 25th celebrating the city's anniversary when we plan to skip town), I decided to purchase a Thundershirt for Boca, and I sure wish I had done so sooner. We were able to try it out on Thursday night when I arrived home from dinner with a friend in an impressive lightening storm, complete with sub-woofer thunder. There was a noticeable change in Boca as soon as she was swaddled in her pink polo. Rather than quaking and panting, she simply curled up in the bathroom with the fan running and seemed almost comfortable. She was able to fall asleep next to the bedroom door within minutes of going upstairs to bed. Last night I put it on again after we heard those firecrackers, and she curled up next to me on the sofa instead of hiding in corners. She even seemed to recognize that it helped her, because as soon as she saw me unfold it and say "Do you want your shirt?" she came over to be wrapped up. Ruby has a Thundershirt, too, but the difference it makes for Boca is much more dramatic. I am so glad to have it on hand now.

Ready to roll in calm, quiet style.

Boca wasn't the only one to try out something new this weekend. For a while now I've been looking at travel crates for Ruby. Her reactivity in the car is stressful for everyone, and not exactly safe if she sees a bike, motorcycle or dog before I can steel myself for her shrill and frantic barking. Counter-conditioning while driving isn't an option. Early on, I did transport Ruby in her crate, but she would get carsick and throw up every time. I related this to riding in a crate, but I now think that it was carsickness in general which she has outgrown. With an upcoming trip to the vet during rush hour for her annual wellness check, I decided it was time to implement a more peaceful commute. I ended up choosing this crate because it was inexpensive, I liked the size options and it had good reviews. It's lightweight, a cinch to assemble, and has adorable bone-shaped mesh windows. It has zip doors on the top and the front. I would not consider this crate for daily, unsupervised use, but for car travel I think it's perfect.

After setting it up with a comfy crate mat, I coaxed Ruby in with yellow cheese and set it up in the car. I can't tell you how wonderful it was not to hold my breath whenever I saw something Ruby would react to, or dread hitting a red light at an intersection where cyclists waited at the crosswalk. Ruby was a little nervous in the crate, but nothing like the overstimulated state she is in if we have the misfortune of being passed by a Harley tour or a dog barking in the back of a truck. Talk about a game-changer! I'll be much more apt to take Ruby more places now that the getting there isn't such an ordeal. It was poor planning to make her first trip in her travel den one to the vet, but she did great at her appointment and even did some of her tricks for the vet. Yesterday I improved the association by taking The Ginger Sisters to my barn for a hike on the property, and by the time I snapped the above photo she was loading up happily on her own. Another win for management of the reactive dog!

Have you ever had a dog product change your life?

Five Things I Learned About My Fearful Dog During a Thunderstorm

I was in the middle of grocery shopping after work Wednesday night when I heard the first ominous rumble of thunder. I hurried as much as possible, knowing poor noise-sensitive Ruby was probably frightened at home, and got absolutely soaked running to my car with my cart. As I unlocked the door I didn't see Ruby in her bed and found that she was hiding under the table. She came right over to me, and practically crawled into my arms. The worst of it was over, but I learned some things as the storm passed us by.

The Thundershirt really does work! 

I noticed an almost immediate difference when I swaddled Ruby up in her Kelly green Thundershirt.  She stopped trembling and followed me around while I put the groceries away. I've used it a few times to help Ruby's anxiousness in the car, but never during an actual thunderstorm. The day I adopted Ruby we drove home in a a downpour and deafening claps of thunder. She didn't seem to mind it,  but as I'll talk about in the next point, she was not quite herself at first. Our thunderstorm season in Colorado is generally in the late summer, so yesterday's weather was unexpected. I'm glad to know the Thundershirt helps and we'll be prepared when the next one rolls in.

I completely misread Ruby when I first adopted her. 

I knew this already but the thunderstorm experience only proved to strengthen the realization. Ruby curled up in my lap for close to an hour when I got home, a time she is normally bouncing off the walls bringing me one toy after another and begging for a walk. She didn't whine, but she did press close against me and yawn a lot, a classic sign of stress. What I thought was calm and cuddly when I took her to a sidewalk cafe, farmers market and the Warrior Dash shortly after adopting her was actually intimidated and afraid. I couldn't understand the sudden change when her reactivity began to surface, but now believe she was actually in a defensive, shut-down state those first few weeks. She was so overwhelmed by everything that she couldn't react to any one thing. I have a hard time forgiving myself for this.

There is no such thing as rewarding fear.

As I held Ruby in my lap and spoke softly to her, stroking her ears back against her head to possibly muffle some of the sound, I didn't think for a moment that I was reinforcing her fear. That notion always sounded suspicious to me, and it never stopped me from comforting my dogs when they needed it. The attention in combination with the Thundershirt seemed to relax Ruby, it certainly did not cause her to shake or worry more. As always, Patricia McConnell says it better.

Being afraid is exhausting.

Ruby and I were both ready to go to bed early last night. She finally did eat her dinner and shared some veggies with me while I watched TV, but wasn't up to her usual shenanigans. I could tell that the storm wore her out. Keep this in mind if you have an anxious or fearful dog, and don't ask too much of them after they've had a trying experience. Sometimes those behaviors that happen "out of nowhere" are the trickle-down effect of compounded distress.

Storms pass. 

I could tell that Ruby was starting to feel better as the loudest part of the storm was over, although it continued pouring all through the night, preventing us from taking our evening walk.  She started rolling around on the carpet and so I took her Thundershirt off.  Her tail began wagging again and while she was more subdued than normal I could tell that she was feeling better. Fear can paralyze us in the moment and send us running for cover, but I'll take this opportunity to be dangerously corny, give a nod to one of my favorite movies, The Crow, and say "it can't rain all the time."

Five Things I've Learned About the Relaxation Protocol

If you've been following along you know that Ruby and I have been working through Dr. Karen Overall's Relaxation Protocol.  The Relaxation Protocol is a series of increasingly difficult tasks that you and your dog complete. More correctly, you complete the tasks while your dog sits or lays on the mat. The idea is that the dog will a) gain impulse control in a variety of situations and b) associate the mat with a place for calm, relaxed behavior. In Ruby's case, this is very much an example of "fake it until you make it," since relaxation does not come naturally to her. The tasks range from walking around the dog to ringing the doorbell. A more detailed post about it is here, and today I thought I'd share a few things that I've learned so far: