Archive for June, 2009

Cesar Millian, dog expert who has his own “Dog Whisperer” television show, says dogs live in the moment and have no concept of time like we do. Mostly I agree with him. How likely is it that a dog can know what time it is or what day it is? I actually know a few dogs who know what day it is.

How crazy is that?

We have a few dogs who come to Camp the same day every week. Now that they are in the routine of coming to Camp, they KNOW when it’s Camp day, without Mom & Dad even saying anything. I have one client who says that her dog Marley, a German Shorthaired Pointer, KNOWS when it’s Wednesday.

She says she does absolutely nothing different with her morning routine on that day. Marley’s normal routine is when Mom gets up, he will get off the bed and move to the couch and lay back down. On Wednesdays he gets up and goes to where the leashes hang and whines and spins with excitement until Mom is finally ready to go.

So, can a dog know what day it is? Marley knows when it’s Wednesday because he knows he’s going to Camp to play with all of his buddies!

Have a Dog Gone Great Day!
Kari

A couple of years ago before I opened my own Camp Bow Wow location in McHenry, I was at a zoning meeting providing support for a fellow franchisee. The franchisee was presenting to the city to try to convince them to grant a conditional use permit for a proposed Camp Bow Wow location on the south side of Chicago.

The location that they had chosen was in an industrial park but had a residential track of townhouses nearby. At least 50 residents showed up for this zoning hearing to protest the conditional use permit for Camp Bow Wow. Each resident took their turn to stand up and speak out against the idea of putting a doggy daycare and overnight boarding facility in this particular location.

I listened intently to what all the objections were so I would know what to expect at my own zoning hearing coming up for my Camp Bow Wow location in McHenry. I’ll never forget what one woman said about the capacity of the Camp.  She said, “Fifty dogs?  That’s a lotta poop!”

The whole meeting erupted in laughter and it was quite hilarious. Now, when talking about my own Camp, that’s one of my favorite lines. Whenever someone asks me how many dogs we can hold and I answer, “About 100 dogs at any given time.” The response is always, “Wow, 100 dogs!  That’s a lot of dogs!” To that, my response is, “Yes, that’s a lotta poop!”

This year for Spring Break we were so busy with 80 dogs a day. That was our busiest time ever since we opened just over a year ago. It was SO much fun to have that many dogs here. One of the things that we can use to gauge how busy we are is how often we change the poop cans. When we first opened we only changed the poop cans in the evening after we tucked the dogs in for the evening.

As we started to have more and more dogs every day, we started to realize that we needed to also change the poop can at noon so the bag did not get too heavy carrying it out to the dumpster. Over spring break we found we had to change the poop can right away in the morning after we first let the dogs out. They filled that thing right up in just 30 minutes! Now we were changing it THREE times a day to keep up with all the poop.

All I can say to that is “That’s a lotta poop!”

Have a Dog Gone Great Day!
Kari

Mohawk Mable is what we call her because of a cute little mohawk she has on the top of her head. She is a Golden Retriever who is 10 years old.  She is such a sweetheart and really loves to come to Camp Bow Wow.  She enjoys roaming around in the play yard but also loves to lay down right in the middle of the chaos, content just to watch all the activity from a center seat.

Mom says that Mable has never liked to ride in the car. When they ask if she wants to go for a ride, she runs and jumps on the couch and won’t get up. But if Mom says “Do you wanna go to Camp?” Mable RUNS to the car and jumps right in!

Mom even admits that she’s guilty of using Camp just to get Mable in the car, even when she’s not coming to Camp! We absolutely LOVE Mohawk Mable. She is one of our favorite dogs!

Have a Dog Gone Great Day!
Kari

You may have seen this email floating around, but I just had to put it out there again.  Just a little something to bring a tear to your eye.  Doesn’t it make you realize how much you love your dog?

Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolf hound named Belker. The dog’s owners, Ron, his wife Lisa, and their little boy Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle.

I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family we couldn’t do anything for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.

As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.

The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker’s family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away.

The little boy seemed to accept Belker’s transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker’s death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives. Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, “I know why.”

Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I’d never heard a more comforting explanation.

He said, “People are born so that they can learn how to live a good Life — like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?” The six-year-old continued, “Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don’t have to stay as long.”

Have a Dog Gone Great Day!
Kari