Tilda Tuesday: Woofstock 2014

Last week, Tilda Tuesday was a post to let you know about the upcoming Woofstock festival. The festival is now behind us, but I thought you might enjoy some pictures from that adorable event!

Woofstock was held in downtown Linden Hills at 43rd and Upton. That block was shut down to traffic for the day. All the local businesses are involved in the event, as well as a dozen different dog related business and charities there with booths set up.

We walked over right at 10 am when it started.

Here's a schedule of the events for your reference. I wish we could have gone later in the day to see the fashion show and the dog trick competition, but we only had so much time.

We met a couple of our friends there who have a rescue Chinese Crested (hairless) dog. She was so stylish in her classic toggle coat for playing in the bubbles!

There was a craft table set up on the store Heartfelt for people to make hats for their dogs.

Bubbly Paws was there with "Woof Wash" baths for non-profits. 

Pampered Pooch Playground was also there doing "tattoos" (i.e. a dog-safe washable spray paint with stencils.)

Here are some of the other dogs of Woofstock 2014:

 You could donate $1 to "rescue" a little puppy (I think this was for the Humane Society). Mason's rescued pup is resting in his pocket.

Iced teas, lemonades, and dog treats were for sale outside of Zumbro's- a Puppie Lover Pit Stop!

Matilda isn't the perfect festival dog. Vizslas are a little high strung for the over-stimulation of so many dogs and so many things going on. I ran her 5.5 miles beforehand, but she still had too much pent up energy.  Too much spunk and...well, she's naughty, and she jumped up on tables looking for treats (which most tables had treats...). The festival would be ideal for kids and families and well-behaved dogs. We still had a good time and it was so fun to see all the different dog breeds.  If you're in Minneapolis the first weekend of September and you love dogs, I definitely suggest swinging by Woofstock for some smiles and doggy love.

Tilda Tuesdays: Tips for Running in the Heat With Your Dog

It's Tuesday, which means it's time for another installment of Tilda Tuesdays!

Today, I am sharing a few tips for running in the heat with your dog.

Part of why we selected the vizsla breed for our first dog because we knew they are supposed to be great running companions. It's true- Matilda loves to run, and she's a great running companion. However, in the heat of summer, I do have to be careful not to push her too hard. 

Running in the high temps is hard enough on humans. I know that I really struggle on the hot and humid days.

But can you imagine running in that same heat, while wearing a fur coat? What if you were unable to sweat, but only able to cool off through panting? What if you loved to run, but didn't understand the concept of slowing down in the heat??

Heat stroke is a real risk for dogs, and as the mercury rises, we should be on the look-out for any of these symptoms:

• Heavy panting
• Dark red gums
• Tacky or dry mucus membranes (specifically the gums)
• Lying down and unwilling or unable to get up
• Thick saliva
• Dizziness or disorientation

If you do suspect heat stroke, follow these tips:

• Move your dog to a cool or shaded area and place cool, wet rags around the head and feet
• Don't spray your dog with a hose or pour ice water on it as the extremes in temperature can cause additional problems with hypothermia.
• Try to get your dog to drink water but don't force it to drink.
• Get your dog to a veterinarian right away. Even if your dog seems better there could be internal damage that isn't visible

Here are some of my tips for preventing heat issues with your dog, based on my experience with Matilda:

1. Cut back on the distance/time in the heat.When the temperatures are chilly, Matilda could run 8-10 miles and still have the energy to head to the dog park. But on really hot days, she'll wear out a lot faster and it's just too risky to take her on too long of runs. I cut back on the distance with her and I try to pay close attention to how she's doing. Is she dragging behind? Appearing to pull towards the water or shade? I take plenty of walk breaks if she seems to want them.
2. Access to water: I always run on trails that have access to water. Fortunately, running around the Chain of Lakes offers us several water fountains and easy access to the lakes for a quick swim to cool down.  But if you don't have access to water, I recommend bringing it along with you.
3. Adjust the time of day of your run: Run your dogs early in the morning before the sun gets high in the sky and the temperatures begin to rise. Early morning is preferable to evening as the asphalt and sidewalks won't be as hot.
4. Summer hairstyle: If your dog has a thick coat or longer hair, consider shaving its coat once cooler night time temperatures have passed. Matilda is a vizsla, which is a very short haired breed, so we don't have to worry about this, but I'm sure it could help with other breeds.

Running with your dog can be a year round enjoyable experience, as long as you're careful.

(Stay tuned for another post when it gets colder about running with your dog in the COLD!)

Do you run with your dog? Any other tips for running in the heat? 

Previous Tilda Tuesdays:
Tilda Tuesdays: Grooming Your Vizsla

Tilda Tuesdays: Training Your Vizsla

Tilda Tuesdays: Flashback to the Early Days

Tilda Tuesdays: Training Your Vizsla

Welcome back to Tilda Tuesdays!

After last week’s puppy pics, this week I thought I'd share a little bit about the training we have done with Matilda over the years.

As soon as we could, we signed her up for “Puppy Training”  through The Canine Coach. We selected the Canine Coach because of all the awesome reviews on Angie’s List. They also have multiple locations (Minneapolis, St. Louis Park, and St. Paul) with a lot of options for class times, which made finding a class that worked for our schedules a lot easier. 

The initial puppy class was 4 weeks long (1 hour per week) and cost $80.

What to expect at puppy class:

• puppy obedience
• self control
• building parent play relationship
• leadership
• chewing
• biting
• jumping
• socialization

This puppy class was SO much fun. Of course, we learned some important skills. But to be completely honest, a lot of what we learned was stuff that I had already read about in a few puppy training books. The true value of the puppy class was in the socialization that Matilda experienced with the other puppies. 

Is anything more fun than an hour of hanging out with a bunch of adorable puppies? 

Next Matilda took Obedience Level 1, which covered the following topics:

• Getting a more reliable Sit and Down (or teaching it for the first time if required)
• Stand
• Developing hand signals
• Stay for 1 minute under distractions of class room
• Getting and keeping attention on you, despite distractions
• Come from distractions (temptation of food and play with human)
• Boundary training (stay out of dining room while eating or front entry while answering door)
• Leave It (do not eat/pick up item dog is showing interest in)
• Drop It (let go of object already in dog's mouth)
• Preventing jumping and sitting politely for a greeting
• Learning how to fade food for all your obedience

After level 1, why not just keep going onto Level 2? 

After Matilda passed Level 2 Obedience, we also took the Canine Coach’s leash training, door greeting/no jumping, and the agility for fun class.

The obedience classes were probably the most practical. The leash training class really focused on good walking behavior. It taught us some useful skills, and though she's not perfect on the leash, I would say that Matilda has decent leash behavior. She doesn’t pull too much and she generally walks pretty well, but she is by no means perfect.

The door greeting/no jumping was all about keeping your dog calm when someone rings the doorbell and enters your house. The primary thing that we took from this class was teaching Matilda to “go to her bed” (one of her dog beds is in the living room) when the doorbell rings. She will zip to her bed quickly with the hope that she might get a treat afterwards. 

She "goes to the bed" pretty well, but staying in the bed after someone comes in? Not so much…Again, it was nothing against the instructors or the class, but all about the fact that we did not practice this enough.  She loves to bark at strangers and will only stay in her bed for a treat if she sees that it is Dustin or me entering the house. Anyone else who comes to the door is way more exciting that a potential treat.

The agility for fun class was a BLAST.  There were tunnels, see-saws, planks, hoops, and more.  

The best part of the class was the variety of dogs that participated. There were some tiny Pomeranians and other small breeds running the agility course, which was so adorable. Vizslas are naturally pretty agile, so Matilda never really had any trouble with the course, but it was entertaining to watch the smaller dogs try out the obstacles.

We took a lot of classes, yet some people might think that Matilda still has some naughty habits. So does that mean that the classes didn't work? Not at all. Yes, she still has some bad behaviors, like licking people's faces or sneaking food off the table when no one is watching. Yet the Canine Coach gave us the tools we needed to train an obedient dog. Any shortfalls are only because we weren’t the best at enforcing these rules consistently.  

Had we been more diligent after the classes, I am sure that Matilda would be perfect…Well, she’s still perfect in our eyes.

One other option that we occasionally tried for a new puppy is puppy play time. We attended a few of these at the Bone Adventure store in Wayzata, and they were great.  More information HERE.

What kind of training did you do with your dog?  Did it work? Did you do all your training on your own? From a book? Please share!

Tilda Tuesday: 8/5 HERE

Tilda Tuesdays: Flashback to the Early Days

Hi! Welcome to the first installment of Tilda Tuesdays, where you can stop by for plenty of vizsla pictures. I thought I'd start at the beginning, with a few puppy pictures from the really early days.

Matilda was born in Brookings, South Dakota, at a breeder named "HR Vizsla." We went down to the farm once when she was just 4 weeks old to pick her out (out of a litter of about 8 puppies I think). We knew we wanted a female dog, so I think there were four to pick from.

Then we went back to Brookings again when she was 8 weeks old to bring her home for good. She was so tiny then! Vizsla puppies also have light gray/blue eyes, which eventually change to the same red/brown as their coats.

Brookings, South Dakota is over a 4 hour drive from Minneapolis, so it was a long day of driving for us, but such an exciting one!

I remember being worried that she would get nauseated on the drive, but she slept most of the way back to Minneapolis. Of course, we stopped occasionally to let her go to the bathroom.

We were so excited to have a puppy, though a little nervous too. We had never had a dog before! Of course, I read lots of books ahead of time, but it was still crazy to actually bring her home.

From all my reading, I knew that we needed to crate train her, but man, oh man..the first few nights of crate training were tough...Yes, Dustin did sleep on the floor by her, trying to comfort her and keep her from crying. It was so hard not to take her out of the kennel and cuddle her, but we had to stick with it!

After a few nights of crying, she was "sleeping through the night," and she grew to love her kennel and it was her "safe place," or her refuge when she was tired.

Matilda had stolen our hearts and our lives would never be the same!