So you want to be a dogwalker, huh? Pt 2: Stay on your feet

I have a thing with Tuesdays. I call them Terrible Tuesdays. This started years ago when I had an office job - my reasoning was that on Monday you were fresh from the weekend and ready for the week, Wednesday you were half way there, Thursday is like the new Friday, and then there is Friday! Tuesday was nothing to look forward to and the weekend was nowhere in sight. Well, I have maintained the idea of "TT", and I am pretty sure these days I cause bad things to happen on Tuesdays just to fulfill the expectation that it will be a terrible day. This Tuesday lived up to that expectation. 

I got to the park this morning with a great crew of spunky energetic pups. One of my favorite things is watching the dogs run in circles and chase each other for no reason - not chasing a toy or trying to hump another dog, just simply running for the fun of it. While the dogs were doing just that this morning, I was tromping around the extremely muddy field picking up after the dogs, or in this case, "bobbing for poops", as a dogwalker friend would call it. Just as I was thinking I should probably go back to the car and put on my rain pants since they dogs were getting so muddy and I would have a lot of hosing off to do, I got a big surprise. I started to turn and walk towards the truck, and the dogs ran right behind me, hitting me right behind my knees, causing me to fall backwards. It was all in slow motion, I felt myself going down, I tried to unsuccessfully grab onto a dog to break my fall and save myself from the inevitable mud bath, yelling out some sort of profanity as I went. Before I knew it, my butt was submerged in cold, wet, mud and "water". If you are familiar at all with the dog park, you know that the mud isn't exactly a typical water + dirt combo, ya know what I mean?! As I'm on the ground, I look around to see who witnessed my graceful landing. Nobody. Seriously!? This had to have been one of the highlights of my dogwalking career. Not something to be proud of, but you have to laugh it off, right? 

In that we had just arrived at the park, I had at least an hour left to walk around the park with my freezing cold, wet, disgusting self. At least I wasn't concerned about the dogs getting me dirty! As time went on, I started to think in more and more detail how incredibly disgusting what I had just experienced really was.... and the fact that "it" was still on my skin. I've experienced a lot of nasty things working with dogs, but not many of them have actually made contact with my skin. 

On the way home from the park, I took my dogs home as quickly as possible. When I was at Milkshake's house and taking him out of the truck, I noticed that one of the dogs smelled like they had been freshly bathed. I was envious of how clean they smelled, even after the park. I realized how wrong it was for me to be envious of how a dog smelled. So incredibly wrong. I did not see this coming when I was a girly-girl cocktail waitress...  I stopped by the store on the way home, bought a 3-pack of dial bar soap, and instead having lunch, took a mid-day shower when I stopped by my house. Then took another after the 2nd park trip. Contemplating another before I go to bed. 

I always tell myself, and the dogs, that I always win. No dog can out-stubborn me or out-smart me. At the end of the day, I am the human, I will win. Except today. Today, I have to give it to the dogs, they definitely won. It's like they hit the target and dropped their teacher in the dunk tank. Locked the babysitter out of the house. Knocked down the dogwalker. 

Moral of the story? Don't stand in the mud. I have braced myself from dogs on a daily basis and prevented many falls, but the 3-4 inches of mud was just more than I could handle. Oh, and keep a change of clothes in the car. And a lof of anti-bacterial products. 

Preventing Bloat in dogs

I came across this great article today and had to share. Bloat is a potentially life-threatening condition which can affect active, healthy dogs in the prime of their life. It can be deadly within hours and is a very serious condition which all dog owners should be aware of . You can read more about bloat here.

While I have read a lot about bloat, I have never read about how to prevent it, which is why this article was so interesting to me. It has some really great tips, some of which ar

• avoid grain based kibble, or ideally, any kibble.
• poultry, lamb or other small to medium size raw bones may be one of the best steps towards prevention of bloat, and also make for a happy pup.
• don't feed your pup fruit and protein at the same time; they digest very differently
• avoid vigorous exercise for 3-4 hours after eating

Read the whole article here. 

Valentine's day heartbreak

I have a new rule here at ballwalkpark. My clients are not allowed to move away. It's a condition upon signing your pup up for service. It should be added to the contract. I have lost Oliver (Vizsla) to San Francisco, Mr. Cooper (Vizsla) to Chicago, Stella (Golden Retriever) to Boston, Walker (Vizsla) to Madison Valley (Ok, it's just out of my service area, but I still get to see him at the park all the time!), and now Violet (Frenchie) to Boston. Did I mention this is all since August? 

Sure losing the business isn't great, especially when they are such great dogs as all of these guys happen to be, but what's worse it the heartbreak. I know, don't get your heart too involved in business, but it's pretty hard in this line of work. Most of these dogs I have known since they were puppies, I've watched them discover the world, go through teenage terror days, and come out to be wonderful adult dogs. I spend my days with these dogs, they see me more often than my fiance. They are the reason I am excited to go to work every day and what puts a smile on my face while covered in mud and braving sideways rain. The last time Cooper walked out of my house I burst into tears like I just got dumped by the love of my life. Michael, the actual love of my life, looked at me like I had lost my mind... Not getting attached is not possible, and to be honest, i would be cautious of any dogwalker who didn't get attached! 

Today was Violet's last day with ballwalkpark and she is getting on a plane for Boston tomorrow morning. It was especially fitting that her last day was Valentine's day, as she is Bam's most loving best friend. These two met when Violet was just three months old, and Bam was six months old. We met when Violet was walking down the block in front of our house. We let the dogs run around in the front yard, and as they were playing we saw the first snow fall of the year. Over the past year and some months, these two have grown up together and been best friends, neighbors and almost sisters. They play with each other in a way they don't play with any other dog. See their final goodbye playdate here. We are going to miss Violet and her family so very much. Poor little Frenchies have no idea what heartbreak this Valentine's day is for them. Have fun in Boston Violet, and look up Stella if you ever need a ballwalkpark buddy ;) 

While it is so sad to see my beloved (client) dogs move out of state, I learned today the downfall of having them move out of my service area and still seeing them at the park. As I was bending over to pick up after a dog, I saw Walker out of the corner of my eye starting to lift his leg on me! He was trying to mark me as his territory, something that I suppose could be taken as a sign of affection.... 

Hope you all had a Happy Valentine's Day! 

The dog park is not a cafeteria

It's that time of year again... The sun is out and more and more people are coming to the dog park. Not only for their dogs, to enjoy their lunches as well. To many of you, lunch and dog park don't belong in the same sentence, but apparently not all... Here are the top three reasons I beg you, your coworkers, and anyone you know to NOT eat your lunch at the dog park!!! 1. There are parks and picnic benches all over this city, but only a few dog parks. The dog park is one of the only places in the city where a dog can be a dog and run, play, sniff and smell. Basically, they want to eat your food and this is the one place they think they can get away with it!

2. Dogs crawl all over that table all day every day. Not to mention it probably has the highest concentration of dog pee covering it in the whole city.

3. There are two garbage cans full of dog poop three feet away from you. Pounds and pounds of dog poop. I can't imagine how one can have an appetite with that smell.

There are some great picnic tables and benches a few hundred yards down by the lifeguard station and I promise my dogs will be on leash while you enjoy your lunch :)

So you want to be a dogwalker, huh?

{note: if you are offended by the word "shit" or do not like reading about or thinking about the topic, then please, read no further} You know those (rare) days in July/August when it is 80 degrees out on a Tuesday morning and you are heading to the office thinking you wish you could trade jobs with me and get to go play with dogs all day? Well days like today makeup for days like that.

Basically what happened was, Harley was riding in the back of the truck with the big dogs and he took a protest poop. He, and all the other dogs, proceeded to walk through this poop tracking it through the rest of the truck and getting it stuck into the rubber mats, while somehow managing to smear it on the sides and windows of the truck. All the other dogs were staying as far to the opposite corner as possible. Ok Harley, I get it, you don't have to ride in the back ever again.

I started putting Bam back there as a suggestion from a trainer, Jeff Tinsley, to help with her little bulldog attitude and thinking she is queen of the pack. Harley was starting to do some of the same "I"m better then you because I'm French" behaviors, so I figured I would give him the same treatment. backfire. Any other dog and I may feel bad thinking they didn't get enough of a chance to use the bathroom before I put them in the truck, but not this little man. He knows exactly what he is doing. One morning, his dad was dropping him off at my house, put him in his crate and before he was all the way up the stairs heard Harley peeing in his crate, just to make a point.

Of course I make this discovery while I am picking up Milkshake, and run into his dad and very overdue pregnant mom, in the driveway. Like a lot of my clients, they like to say hi to all of the dogs in the back while I load Milkshake in, and as I opened the tailgate we were all in for a surprise. Harley and Bam were dancing around in it, the other dogs were huddled away from it, Bonita was in her crate staring at it wishing she could eat it. I was disgusted and humiliated, and while I couldn't do much about the ground-in-grate-shit at the moment, I opted to put Milkshake in the backseat to at least save myself from cleaner 4 less paws and saving his poor sensitive sense of smell.

Soo.... what to do now. I have 6 dogs in my truck, on my way from Eastlake to Phinney Ridge, nowhere near home-base to clean up. How am I going to get all the dogs out? How am I going to clean "it"... Ugh! The problem solver in me comes out and texts my client closest to the park and asked to use her back yard as a 5 min dog park while I hose out the truck. So very grateful she quickly replied and didn't mind! I pulled up to the house, grabbed as many leashes as I could find, strapped on my handy bright orange gloves, and tackled the truck. I leashed the dogs and unloaded them one at a time, Bam and Harley jumping up on my legs with their shitty paws. Once all 6 dogs were out of the truck, we "walked" to the backyard, i.e. I was extremely close to going face first on the pavement (pre-dog park excitment doesn't make walking 6 big dogs any easier!), but safely got them in the backyard. Well, almost safely. I wasn't confident that I would make it up the 2 steps without going face first as the rate they were pulling me, so I had to let go. The dogs went in the back and ran around and drug the leashes through poop in the yard. Great, like I needed more poop in my day! I hosed out the truck very thoroughly, every little hole in that rubber mat. Now I had to go back and get all the dogs, plus Chesa, and load them back in the truck. Of course these poor guys (minus bulldogs, they are gross and don't care) aren't exactly thrilled about getting back in the truck after this experience so it took some coaxing, all the while strategically dodging the now shit-caked leashes. Ahhh... loaded and ready for the park.

The park started out great. We didn't take the Chuck-it today (rare, but a nice change of pace once in a while) and the dogs played really well with each other and the one frisbee Coco and Chesa were trading back and forth. We walked down to the water and back, and on the way back I was so impressed with how clean everyone was. I should have known better than to jinx my day like that. Coco rolled in not one muddle puddle, but three, each one grosser than the last. As we are almost to the water bowls for our last drink before we load back up, the whole crew decides to run the laps by the mounds - it's their departing tradition that has apparently been on hiatus for the past few months. I love the mounds, the dogs love it and run their hearts out and play, play, play... The only problem is the mounds during the winter is that all of the "valleys" between the mounds are giant mud pits. In a matter of minutes I went from a perfectly clean pack to a bunch of mud-caked mutts. Everyone got washed off very well before they went home today.

Having learned my lesson on the way to the park, I put Harley in the back seat, on top of Porter's dog bed I was bringing home, and wrapped in a towel. He's a hard guy to please, but I finally did it. Either that or he was feeling a little guilty for the shit-show earlier. Judging by the pouty lip in this picture, I think he felt a little bit guilty...

One of the funny things about working with dogs, is that they totally feed off your energy and play on your weaknesses. If I am in a good mood, things are going well, then we will have a great day and they will be angels. If I am sick, tired, stressed, irritated, or anything they can take advantage of, they will! I have never been given such a look by dogs before, but clearly they were not pleased with the condition of the truck because they are giving me the stink eye if I have ever seen it!

By the end of the day, I had really let this poop incident get to my head and I started thinking about tall the potential things that have been contaminated. I had the dogs taken care of but that was only the beginning! So, like any normal person (....?) I proceeded to put all of the leashes, towels and seat cover in the laundry. I took the truck to Brown bear give the back a good deep clean. I washed and scrubbed all of the toys with hot water and soap. I cleaned my gloves, my phone, even my keys... I am now home and have cleaned myself up, changed clothes, washed my hands 10,000x and am finally feeling better about life. Thanks Harley-man, spring cleaning came early for ballwalkpark!

On a positive note, everything is clean, clean, clean and I am loving it! That is one of my downfalls as a dogwalker, I am secretly a neat freak. I seriously streamlined my Brown Bear truck hosing procedure. Ten time as efficient in half the time, that's something to be excited about.

Before the cleaning frenzy, I took a short afternoon trip to Woodland Park with the pups staying with me, as well as Miss Bonita. I ran into a good friend of mine there and had to tell him what was on my mind. How come dogs have such amazing senses - they can sense cancer, earthquakes, what dog walked down the block that day, etc... How can they not sense stepping in their own shit!?!? How is it possible that they can step in their own shit, mid-shitting, as they awkwardly shift around in circles. It shocks and disgusts me every day. My friends answer was disappointing, but very true, they just don't care. As a self-proclaimed neat freak, I wonder how I can watch a dog step in it's own shit and cuddle with him on the couch hours later (true fact, happening right now, after I cleaned!). I guess this is just another example of how love is blind...

At the end of the day, whether it's this day or that wonderful summer day, I wouldn't trade jobs for anything in the world. And to be honest, this isn't the first time this has happened (not quite on this scale), and this isn't uncommon in this line of work.... any dog walker you talk to will tell you at least one similar story of their own. Among all of my shittier thoughts of the day, I realized I have yet another trait in common with Bailey, my neurotic retrieving lab. Like Bailey, every time I throw the ball, I can't wait to do it again. I can't wait to see how far I can throw it, who will get it, if it will bounce and they will jump and crash into each other, or if they will lose it and I have to help them find it.... I don't know what it is about it, but I just can't ever get enough of these dogs. Michael laughs at me every night when I go through my pictures of the day and  can't hold my laughter in, he rolls his eyes every time we play with Bailey and I beg to throw the ball just one more time....  All this poop talk may have altered your perception of the glamorous life of a dogwalker, but I'm already looking forward to tomorrow. Sans poop.