Rawhides: The Things You Might Not Actually Wanna Give To Your Dog

So I was debating for a while if I wanted to post about this, because I saw it only as my opinion and I don't want to seem like it's all around wrong to give your dog rawhides, but this lengthy article has made me change my mind and post about it, because I feel like you can feed your dog whatever you please, but many people don't know about the dangers of rawhide so it's at least worth bringing up.

I used to give Mason rawhides, but my friend Shannon talked about her corgi, Hiro, swallowed one whole once and almost choked. After this I started hearing online about how they have caused intestinal blockage quite a few times. At this point I stopped buying rawhides, and switched to knee bones and bully sticks, or just filling up a Kong.

I don't really like to share or talk about nasty food facts, but this is one worth mentioning from the article;

"Other poisonous residues that may show up in rawhide include arsenic and formaldehyde. Even dog skin is a possibility. An ongoing investigation of the fur trade by Humane Society International, an arm of the HSUS, resulted in this information, as listed on their website: “In a particularly grisly twist, the skins of brutally slaughtered dogs in Thailand are mixed with other bits of skin to produce rawhide chew toys for pet dogs. Manufacturers told investigators that these chew toys are regularly exported to and sold in U.S. stores.” "

And as I stated before, on top of that there's the risk for intestinal blockage. Rawhides don't digest like normal food, and if one has been swallowed whole or in large pieces it can possibly create a cause for surgery.

Obviously they're not an end-all-be-all you're dog's gonna die danger, but it's something I totally wasn't aware of.

Prepping For the Worst

Today someone mentioned on the CorgiPals facebook announcement of the new fundraiser for the several corgis that all need help at once about having CP be a resource for preparing for these kinds of disasters as well as helping out. I thought this was a great idea, and I'm going to work on a pitch for that here, and keep editing it in the future. So...that's what this is.

I think something many people should consider (including myself) is setting up an emergency fund for your dog. One thing I've realized being involved in CorgiPals is the worst CAN and WILL happen, and if a place like CP isn't available to help, it's a good idea to have an amount set aside for things like this. From what I've seen emergency medical expenses can range anywhere from 100-3000 dollars. I think something I'm going to implement in the future gaining of a dog is putting back 15 bucks a month for the first 2 years of owning him. That gives 360 bucks, which is a good start towards a down payment for any large issues that may arise. (Such as eating something, cancer, DM, ANYTHING).

Another option that I'm aware of is CareCredit. If your vet offers it, it's basically a credit card for large vet bills. I need to do a bit more research into it, but I believe there's no interest for the first 6 months. This in combination with a little bit of a fund set back can really make all the difference in being prepared for any shit hitting the fan. And hey...if it doesn't, then you have a little extra cash, so it's a win-win, amirite?

Of course I don't think these are at all necessary to pet ownership, and honestly I don't have the extra funds to set back for Mason, but I am aware of the CareCredit option and plan on using it if anything ever happens to him. I'm hoping to research a few more assistance programs like CareCredit for people like me, who are broke ass college grads who just want to know there are ways to survive a dog getting super ill and not get stressed at the thought and feel unprepared.

Reprimanding Your Pup

I know reprimanding your dog is a controversial subject, and I'm kind of worried about talking about it but I'm going to talk about what works for me.

I will not and do not hit my dog. Don't hit YOUR dog. It's not ok. I spanked Mason ONCE in his whole life, I'll be honest--he ran out the front door and almost got hit by a car. I was so upset and mad at him almost killing himself I whopped him on the bottom like my dad used to do to me when I was little. I immediately felt like a shit head, but needless to say he has yet to run out the door like that ever again. But that is not the way to teach your dog not to do something--he'll associate it with something bad, he often won't understand the connection between the two things, and it can make him afraid. It's just not a good combination, and that was my BIG mistake.

Now fortunately, I was blessed with a puppy that immediately responded to a negative tone of voice. By consistently using that to reprimand him, (a firm "NO MASON.") he quickly developed a shamed look whenever someone told him no. One thing I did subconsciously that I've happily seen develop into his form of reprimanding is the fact that I ALWAYS snapped my fingers whenever he was not listening and he needed to do what I was saying before I whipped out the angry voice.

This leads to the reason why I decided to write this post--as he's 1 year old, I've started to notice things that work for him. When he doesn't listen, I snap my fingers and repeat the command and he does it. When he's out to pee and wants to sniff something and I snap and say "COME" loudly he'll come running. I had never noticed it before, but I guess I accidentally clicker trained my dog with my snaps. I think it's a good method--just as you reward when your dog does something right, it's good to have something associated with when he does something bad, so he knows quickly to correct.

Dog Fur and How to Deal

If you have a dog like mine, you have fur on your everything. Mason has a double coat and is always shedding. His fur isn't sticky like a cats though, so it falls right off of my shirts, but I still make sure to brush him at least once a week. I can't recommend the Furminator enough. I know a lot of people pimp it, but seriously it deserves its hype. They're pricey, but worth it in my opinion. Cara was telling me how she liked the kinda rakey-circle types, and the design is much like that, but with two layers of the rakes, and I believe they're finer and it just works really well.

I do have to say do NOT over Furminate. I've heard of it damaging coats, but I think that's from just going overboard. No matter what you do, you will always pull out fur. Know when to stop, and you're good go! I've found this is the best at getting out the dead fur, preventing a lot of shedding and it's not painful for Mason. Normal wire brushes he hates and I can tell it hurts him, but this just seems to go fine, even if he does get bugeyed every time I brush:



I e-mailed Furminator to see if they'd send me free products to review, since I'm too broke to afford their other new brushes, but I doubt that's gonna happen. A girl can dream though! But I've heard their curry combs are equally as awesome at smoothing out the fur after the initial combin'.