The St. Louis Senior Dog Project

Is Your Dog Fat?

This is Ernie.  Not too long ago he was on the blocks at a puppymill auction.  This past weekend he found a new home.  See our St. Louis Senior Dog Project website for pictures of dogs still waiting for new homes (some are also pictured and described below). And if you like what we’re doing, please consider sending up a donation, so we can keep on doing it.  Just click on the button below.

Ellen’s Notes:

Welcome to the St. Louis Senior Dog Project Blog where today we ask the question, “Is your dog fat?”  Come on.  You know who you are. 

Maybe you’re telling yourself that you just love your dog too much.  Or maybe you’re blaming the dog for the extra weight.  But wait a minute!  Your dog doesn’t go out for pizza or go to bed with a bag of chips and some sour cream.  Your dog doesn’t pick up a bag of donuts in the morning and down every last one of them.  Your dog doesn’t ask you to “supersize it.”  Your dog doesn’t eat anything you don’t give it to eat.  So your dog will only lose weight when you change your habits.  And if you don’t change your ways, your dog will suffer.  That extra weight is hard on the joints, the heart, and the disposition.

So what can you do?  Feed him less and walk him more.  Sound too simple?  Start by picking up that food dish off the floor.  The easiest way to make your dog fat is to leave food out all day and keep filling the dish every time you see it’s empty.  Instead, feed your dog once a day and pick up the dish after 15 minutes. (You can feed twice a day, but only if you divide a day’s rations in half.  Most people end up feeding twice as much).  As for treats, don’t overdo it. Your dog will do tricks for cheerios and carrot strips.  If you must offer dog biscuits, buy those you can break into tiny pieces.

When a grossly overweight dog lands in the Senior Dog Project, I put him on a prescription diet such as Hill’s RD.   Then I mix the small daily portion with canned green beans.  It fools the dog into thinking he’s getting a bigger meal.

And two final suggestions:  No table scraps. And walks.   

Among the foster dogs at my home now is McRuff, a border collie who came back to us 30 pounds heavier that he was 6 months ago.  He grumbles some but overall he’s putting up nicely with his diet.  He’ll be his old, sleek self in no time.  McRuff is about five years old, walks nicely on a leash and knows several commands: sit, down, roll over.

Ginger has the opposite problem.  This girl was skin and bones a month ago.  When I picked her up at the St. Louis City Pound, she’d already put on 10 pound in a few weeks and was still painfully thin. She came into the Pound at 17 pounds, left at 28 pounds and needs to weigh about 35 pounds.  Ginger sleeps in bed with me and loves everyone who comes near her.  She’s a little protective of her food but less so every day as she realizes she’ll be getting more tomorrow.  I feed her puppy food twice a day and add canned food on top of the kibble. Ginger is only a little over a year old and will make someone a fine pet.

Betsy is the quietest beagle I’ve ever known…and the calmest.  She’s a small beagle, very sweet, and extremely tolerant of small children.  We took her from a shelter in St. Charles County after she was picked up running loose.  Right now she’s on one of my living room chairs.  Wendy, a frisky terrier mix with Walt Disney looks, is on another.  My own dog Smokey is on the sofa.  My other dog, Cloud Dancer, is in the sunroom.  McRuff is on the floor next to me.  Ginger is on a dog bed. Leah’s on another.

Ah, Leah.  She’s a little chihuahua/terrier mix.  Her former owners dropped her off at a shelter because they were moving.  On first seeing Leah, one of my volunteers said she had a “sweet” face but he couldn’t really describe her as “pretty.”  Someone else --okay several others --said she looked a  like a piglet.  Well, she’s one very nice little piglet-faced dog. She’s little enough to be a lap dog and big enough to enjoy a walk.  She likes sleeping on the bed under the covers.  At 9 years of age, she’s well-behaved, housebroken, and affectionate.  She makes me smile.

The only worrisome note this week is that Kahuna is missing.  He’s a gold and white shih tzu who slipped through a gate at his new home in the St. Louis City Tower Grove neighborhood.  His family has enlisted an army of neighbors in the search for Kahuna.  I hope next time I’ll have good news to report. 

Ellen Ellick

President/Founder

St. Louis Senior Dog Project

EllenE9466@aol.com

Old Home Week

Welcome to the St. Louis Senior Dog Project.  We’re a not-for-profit organization that rescues homeless dogs of all ages and finds them new homes.  Before we send them to their new homes, we clean them up and take them into a vet for shots, checkup, worming, heartworm tests, spay/neuter, dental care and anything else they may need.  You can see our current dogs in need of homes at STL Senior Dog Project Website.  And we’re always happy to accept your donations….which we can’t do without.  Just click on the button below or email and ask for mailing address. 

Ellen’s Notes:

                I don’t know how dogs feel about carnivals – even dog carnivals, but I was thrilled to see those that did come to the St. Louis Senior Dog Project’s first ever Carnival and Adoption Event.  Our recent event quickly turned into Old Home Week, with people dropping by with dogs they’d adopted from us.

                Scooter arrived with the woman who adopted her and the husband she met because of Scooter. That was the story in a previous blog. Scooter is now 12 years old and will be in our 2008 Calendar.  Other visitors included Belinda, a little schnauzer; T.S. Elliott, a poodle; Sasha, an Elkhound mix; Benjamin, a Pekinese (who now has a Pekinese pal adopted that day); Henrietta, one of the three scared schnauzers I wrote about several months ago; Lemon, a beagle/shepherd mix pictured here…and many more.  But when I saw Merlin through a gap in the crowd, I nearly cried.  Merlin is the Australian Shepherd who’d been shot in the leg.  He looked so gorgeous and was doing beautifully with only three legs.  He sat serenely next to his new owner, who said, “This must be what makes it all worthwhile.”  Indeed.

                We’ll be back next year with another carnival.  So yes, thanks to many of you, it was a big success.

                Even before the carnival and adoption event, we were having a good week. Nikki, who might be an Irish Wolfhound mix, finally found a home after almost a year in foster care.  An email from her new owner said Nikki is “a wonderful addition to our family.”  We also found good homes for Hayden and Max (pictures in last blog.)  Max won the hearts of his foster parents, so Max found a home and I lost a foster.  Oh well.  Hayden is now in a family with two boys who can throw the balls he loves to chase.

                Bo Diddle also has a new home.  He’s the 5-year-old Chihuahua/rat terrier who survived an attack from a bigger dog. Bo suffered eight broken ribs that left him with a dent in his side, which he hides under his many colored t-shirts.  His new owners emailed that he sleeps in their bed every night and plays with their miniature pinscher all day.

                Pirate, the senior Rottweiler, now has a new home, and so does Ice Man, a toothless Maltese from a puppymill.  Ice Man’s new owner says the timid Ice Man “is starting to wag his tail when we talk to him…We are all just in love with him.”

                Trina, the Pound dog who surprised us with five puppies while she was still recovering from pneumonia, is dong “fabulous” in her new home where her name is now Willow.  All five of her puppies are in new homes, including Sarah, whom I wrote about in the last blog as our “ugly duckling” because of hair loss on her ears and a scratch on her face.  She’s becoming more beautiful every day, and she’s delighted with the 12-year-old boy in her new household.

                We heard from the owners of Chloe, another Pound escapee.  “She’s filled a void I didn’t even know we had.”  Another Pound dog, Gum Drop, is doing great in her home.  She loves running with her owner and is great with children, says her owner, who now invites children over to play with her.

                We received a picture of David the Cocker Spaniel who is now named Murray.  Then there’s Trent, now Bobby, a dog who promised to be a challenge. “He is adorable, but he is a puppy and good at it.  He ate the paint off the wall in the kitchen (actually just peeled it back) and two zippers off of two jackets and a backpack.”  But he is housebroken now and is registered in obedience school.

                The sad news this weekis about Fido, who’d been in foster care for two months waiting for the go-ahead for a much needed dental to removed some horribly infected teeth.  Because of his kidney disease, he needed special attention while he was under anesthesia.  He tolerated the anesthesia, but the extraction of 22 teeth was more than his old jaw could handle.  A couple days later his jaw fractured badly and Fido had to be put to sleep. This was the old guy who was found tied to a tree in a park.  For two months he received plenty of love from his foster parents.  We wish we could have given him more.

Ellen Ellick

President/Founder

ST. Lois Senior Dog Project

EllenE9466@aol.com               

                                               

Size, Money and My Ugly Duckling

Coming up soon!  The St. Louis Senior Dog Project Carnival and Adoption Event!  Meet and adopt your new best friend or just join the fun. When? 10 to 4 Sunday, October 14, at the Affton Grooming Salon/U Do it Dog Wash, 5241 Weber Rd, Affton, MO.   Awesome raffle prizes! Yummy brownies, cookies and cakes!  Doggy Nail Trims and Bath Facilities (with donations) and rollicking fun contests for your dogs and ours with prizes for Best Wagging Tail, Biggest Doggie Smile, Best Trick, Best Obedience and Best Costume. Don’t live in Missouri?  Don’t enjoy carnivals?  Don’t worry!  You can still help the St. Louis Senior Dog Project.  Just click on the donate button below and imagine all the fun you’re missing (or avoiding) while you do whatever else you have planned for the day.  And check out our website to see our adoptable dogs.

Ellen’s Notes:

At first I thought I would write a blog titled “Size Matters!”  The pet overpopulation problem we write so much about is primarily a problem of big dogs.  Visit any shelter.  You’ll see cage after cage of big dogs and very few little ones.  While people complain that they can’t find small dogs to adopt, the big dogs die.

And the puppy mills flourish because they're the ones producing most of the small breeds for sale.

Not that I have anything against small dogs.  At the Senior Dog Project, we find homes for a lot of small dogs and know that they’ll be the easy ones to place.  We love small dogs.  But we also know that small dogs are not really easier or less trouble to own than the medium-sized and large dogs.  If you want a housebroken dog, stay away from the toy breeds.  If you want a dog for the children, definitely stay away from the toy breeds.  If you want a good apartment dog, keep your options open. Bigger might be better. 

But people continue to ask for small dogs. And the bigger dogs die.  So what’s the answer?  You tell me. 

I also thought I would write something titled “It’s the Economy, Stupid” because when the economy flounders, more dogs die.  We receive calls from people who have lost their jobs and sometimes their homes and can no longer keep their dogs.  The shelters fill up with newly homeless dogs, and both shelters and rescue organizations find themselves competing for fewer and fewer people willing to take on the financial commitments of a new dog.  And we have more trouble raising the money to pay our vet bills and keep doing what we do.  As one way of staying solvent, we concentrate more on small dogs (many from breeders and puppymill auctions), and we take in more puppies.  It’s the only way we can afford to keep saving the seniors and the larger dogs.  But again, more big dogs die and languish in shelters or rescues for longer and longer periods.

I could say a few things about well-intentioned people who take in a dog with all the best intentions and plenty of love, but then can’t afford vet care, grooming or decent food for their pet.  Yes, “It’s the Economy, Stupid.”

But maybe I’ll write instead about a few dogs still waiting for homes.  Great dogs like Max and Hayden.  These are WONDERFUL dogs!  But neither is a small dog.  Max is the black and tan dobie/hound mix pictured above.  He’s cuddly, friendly, smart, perfectly housebroken, drop-dead gorgeous, and good with other dogs and cats. 

Hayden is the white and black border collie/setter mix.  Everyone who knows him says the same thing: He is such a good dog!   Why hasn’t any one adopted him yet?  And if Max is college material, Hayden is a graduate student.  And although he can play and catch balls in the air, Hayden is still basically a calm, well-behaved lad. 

And then there’s my little Ugly Duckling, Sarah.  Her mother is an elegant black spaniel mix about 30 lbs.  Her litter mates are soft, fluffy, wiggly and all-around adorable.  Sarah’s adorable, too, in her own way, but she’s more scruffy than fluffy.  Her ears are nearly hairless, and she has a bald spot on her forehead where the vet scraped her skin to check for demodectic mange.  Results were negative, but she is now on medicine and food supplements anyway, and we hope this playful pup will grow up to be as beautiful and sweet-tempered as her mother. But like the teenager whose face breaks out just before the prom, little Sarah now also has a scratch on her face from too much play wrestling with her mates.

Think Swan, Sarah.  Think Beautiful.

Ellen Ellick

President/Founder

St. Louis Senior Dog Project

EllenE9466@aol.com