Doggy Dundee

Adopt Gentle, Beautiful, Trained Ginny 

G’day Mates! Many of you know how much I’d loved Ginny, the 4 year old homeless dog who had spent just-shy of 12 months at the Jackson County Animal Shelter before being adopted. We were thrilled when she’d left, yet now she is back at the animal shelter - Has she returned to make you a happy dog owner, perhaps? 

Why Returned? Too Calm and Friendly

Ginny, a female pitbull who the shelter had put through dog training classes long ago, wasn’t the protective watch dog the fellow, who lives in a mobile

Claire & Ginny

 home park, had hoped she’d be, so the man returned Ginny after three months. When someone knocked at the door, instead of barking as the fellow had hoped, Ginny would run over to the door, sit and wait for the visitor to be let inside, then lick the person’s hands, and wiggle to be pet. The man said Ginny was too laid back, and though a gentle companion – enjoying going for car rides and laying around the backyard or house – she just wasn’t the protector/dissuader he’d hoped she would be. She was nice to everyone on their walks.

It’s A “Pit-ty” You Can’t Please All the People

Sigh…Here’s a well-trained, friendly, quiet, beautiful dog that loves to love and be loving, and who defies the stereotype people hold of pitbulls, yet the man wasn’t happy. So, I know Ginny must have returned coz there’s someone else needing to adopt her, much as Chase was returned to the animal shelter just minutes before I walked in 5-1/2 years ago inquiring about puppies.

Read Ginny’s full background story on this site’s “Shelter Dog” page (you may have to scroll down on that page), from the days Ginny was found running down the highway all skin & bones and very pregnant as a stray, homeless dog. If you’re interested, check her out at the Jackson County Animal Shelter in Phoenix, Oregon. Natch, I’ve gone to the shelter everyday to play with Ginny. All the staff and volunteers want the very best for this special girl (except cats!)

Homeless Dog Owner & Stray Dog

G’Day Mates! There’s lots of kindness to go around from shelter staff and residents for a homeless dogs owner and his stray dog. Here’s an example:

It was dark at 9:45 on Monday night 8-24-09 when Chase and I met Reena, a female Doberman-X, roaming near Tark’s Market in Talent. Doggy Dundee was (drat!) without her spare leash as Reena and Chase started playing and chasing each other around in circles in the middle of the street. Sigh… Obviously, a stray dog night. “Alright, buddy, ready to follow us?” I asked the brown and black and very exuberant Dobie-X.

Reena did follow us - all the way unleashed. As with most lost dogs, she was a gem of a gentle stray. At home, while I tried calling her tag’s 503 area code phone number (“No calls are being taken at this phone number. Please try again later.”), Chase and Reena raced around the livingroom, and chowed down on kibble. Early a.m. appointments would leave me no time to take care of the stray dog in the morning, though, so I called the Talent Police Department, explaining I’d found a lost dog. They (more…)

Doggies – Don’t Get a Whiff of This

In answer to the question “Can skunks and doggies be friends?,” the answer is apparently not , based on the adventures of a couple local doggies. Pew!  Skunks ward off attackers by releasing a wondrous aroma that leaves meddlers unhappy – and the unlucky doggy owners having a fit trying to wash the smell off their pet. FYI, a tomato juice bath is a useless myth. Try either of the following two “shampoos” instead.

Pepe le Pew

Here’s two “recipes” that have worked for various people; Stock up on the ingredients now:

(a) Nature’s Miracle Skunk Odor Remover — I’ll be adding it to the Doggy Dundee Amazon store, under “Grooming Supplies.” We missed this important item when building the Doggy Dundee store pages. Follow bottle instructions, and keep away/out of the doggy’s eyes.

or

(b) A popular, homemade skunk odor remover recipe,  described by Terrie Martin is:  Baking soda paste first (I guess that means you mix baking soda with water and lather it well on the pooch and rinse), which is then followed by a pre-mixed “shampoo” consisting of a combination of: 1 bottle peroxide, a half cup baking soda and a tablespoon of dishwashing detergent. Lather on, wash the entire dog, including between toes, under the tail, etc. and rinse off completely. CAUTION: Do not let any of this mixture to come in contact with the eyes! Gentle, gentle…

NOTE: If your dog came running back from the attack, and the dog’s eyes are red or swollen, he/she may have taken a direct spray in the face. That can require a trip to the vet for eyedrops to ease those symptoms and discomfort.

(Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind you all that the danger of having a run-in with a skunk is about nil if you keep your dog on a short six to eight foot leash rather than letting the pooch run loose.)

Caution Hot Doggies

G’Day Mates – It’s that time of year again – blistering high temps combined with lower water levels has, as usual, resulted in unsafe bacteria levels (E-coli, etc.), and notices to stay out of the contaminated creek water. That includes hot doggies!

UNsafe Creek

  All doggy owners, no matter where you live, should be aware of this during the hottest parts of the summer. No city or county can put signage up along the entire shoreline of meandering creeks, and not all cities may test area creeks on a daily or almost daily/frequent schedule. Letting your hot doggy romp or drink in a contaminated creek isn’t a healthy/safe thing to do. So, break out the mini-pools or drive up to a lake or ocean with your hot doggies — just avoid any potentially unsafe creeks or other waterways. 

Sigh…Now Chase can’t rush and dive into the creek behind the dog park. Question is, “Who’s gonna tell Chase?” Gosh, it tears me up to have to break this news to her every year!

(Post photo is from The Asland Daily Tidings, accompanying their article entitled Ashland Creek Has Unsafe Bacterial Levels, dated August 6, 2009)

Leaving Paw Prints on Our Hearts

G’day Mates!  Two of Chase’s neighborhood dog buddies passed on in the last week or so. Love, licks, and tail wags to Rudy and to Muttley. Both pooches were black, one small, one large, one short hair, one long hair, and both had hearts of gold — So do their owners.

Doggy Dundee has been hoping to get some photos and background info on these two pals so we can share it with you, and we still may, but we sure didn’t want to put off this initial tribute any longer. 

Give a hug to your doggy, and please say prayers for our two pals – Rudy and Muttley – and for their owners who are missing them mightily.
.

G’day Mates! It sure is easier finding stray dogs when the stray dog comes to us, especially on hot days.

We’ve had record setting temps of up to 108 degrees in Southern Oregon, so on this cool 97 degree day I was on the front porch balancing on a step ladder to replenish a hummingbird feeder bottle. Taking the last step down and turning, there was a large dalmation standing right behind me, tongue long and panting.  Chase had started a bark alert from her post in the house.

The dalmation was friendly, though tired. Had a license, but no ID tag.  Doltish doggy owners - An ID tag is the easiest way to get stray dogs returned quickly by anyone finding the pooch. So, Doggy Dundee gave her a bucket of water to drink, hosed her down, and leashed her, then decided to take the stray dog for a (hot) walk in hopes the owner would spot us.

We didn’t have to go more than two dozen steps when a neighbor couple told me they thought it was the same dog they’d found wandering a couple weeks earlier; that time, the dog’s owner had posted a note at the local market and the couple had been able to return the dog to its home.  Today, my neighbors were heading to a barbecue and offered to drive the pooch back to its home, and, if the owners weren’t home, leave a note and keep the stray dog till the owners called back. They also said that two weeks before they’d told the dog’s owner to add an ID tag to the dog’s collar – advice that had obviously been ignored.

Doltish doggy owners – Why wouldn’t you ID tag your dog?  Isn’t it interesting that the stray dog stopped for a rest right at Doggy Dundee’s front porch, though?