Maxie's Near Death Experience



Beware!  These bags can suffocate your dog!

 One of the first stories I heard when joining my dog club was from another member who tragically lost her Papillon one night when he didn't come to bed when called.  She found him dead in the kitchen with his head stuck in a doggie treat bag  -- suffocated!  Ever since, my husband and I have diligently cut the bottoms out of every potato chip, pretzel, treat or ziplock bag before we throw it in the trash.  We carefully secure every chip or cookie bag closed before sitting it down anywhere, push in every chair around every table and desk so the dogs can't get up there, plus I moved my kitchen trash can behind a closed door, and don't allow food trash to go in any other can.  I make sure there are no treats left in the pockets of my pants and jackets, turning them inside out if possible, and throwing them straight into the washing machine where the dogs can't smell the residue and stick their noses in there searching for crumbs.

I check on Maxie and Willow's whereabouts every minute or two.  It's pretty easy as they follow me everywhere, but even if they didn't I would do frequent checks.  I'm less worried about the big dogs, but I lay eyeballs on them too, very frequently.

Nevertheless . . . . . . .

I can't control every situation or other people's actions, and Maxie had a close brush with that same horrible suffocation death last night.  Were it not for somebody else noticing his predicament, I would have lost my dog.  Here's what happened:

On Wednesday nights, I bring Lucky Lucy as my demo dog, and Maxie to run the course after the class I teach is over.  I attach Maxie's 4' leash to the foot of my camp chair so he can jump on and off the chair, reach water, etc.  I can't leave him in the car because it's too hot in summer, and he whines relentlessly to be with me, but he is content to be on the sidelines and no trouble at all.  It's just me and my students on the field.

Unbeknownst to me, one of them tossed her duffle bag right next to my chair, unzipped, with an open bag of Bil-Jak Liver Treats inside.  I'm out on the field teaching, another of my students starts laughing saying "Aw, isn't that cute."  I say what, and she points to Maxie.  I'm far enough away, it's night,  I can't tell what I'm looking at, but as I approach closer I realize he's standing there, like a statue, with his head stuck all the way into the bag, confused and suffocating!  I race over and remove the bag.  Maxie stares ahead.  I find out later the bag was about 1/4 full of liver treats, and Maxie had his head in there long enough to eat them all.

People!  It only takes a minute for a 7 lb dog to suffocate!  What if Nicole hadn't noticed him? I doubt I would have gotten to him in time, though I check on him every few minutes.

Later, I called all my students together and told them, AS I'M TELLING EVERYONE WHO LANDS ON THIS PAGE, PLEASE keep your treats safely away from all other dogs, close all treat bags, zip up training bags, close your coolers, cars, trunks, etc.  Not every dog is crated or leashed every single second.  We all know dogs love food and toys and will grab whatever they can reach.  In fact, our Agility Director came over and commented that she started keeping all the treats in her car locked up in a crate after finding a little terrier rooting around in her open SUV, munching on a bag of treats.  But I know most people aren't that diligent.   People leave their SUV's open all the time. I see open treat bags laying on chairs and blankets, in class and at trials.  I recently witnessed a little potato chip bag being blown off the top of a large crate onto the ground, open and half full.  The owner was nowhere in sight, probably thought it was out of reach of most dogs. Instructors should take on the extra responsibility to teach this.

For my part, last year I began using a red Igloo Playmate after training with Charlie, a pesky little Boston Terrier, who could not resist snatching toys and treats out of my duffle bag.  The Playmate has hard sides, keeps things cold, holds everything, and is the easiest thing I've found to open and close.   No zipping and unzipping.  Just push a button/slide the top to one side.  I like that the lid stays attached. 

Still, despite this due diligence, one day Charlie managed to snatch a tube of string cheese that was sticking slightly out of my pants pocket while I was sitting in my chair, and while we chased him around the field trying to get it back, he gulped the whole thing down.  Miracle of miracles, he passed the plastic a few days later, with all the cheese gone, but he could just as easily have choked to death or sufffocated, as these stories illustrate:

•  At a recent trial, we were sad to hear of one competitor's dog who killed himself rooting around under the seat of her van for a fallen treat, got his head or collar stuck, and broke his neck struggling to get out.  She had gone inside for "just a minute".
•  An agility competitor with Rhodesians (big dogs), was unpacking her car into her motel room.  The dogs went in first, then the food box, then she went out for her luggage.  When she returned she found one of her dogs dead on the floor, choked on a piece of plastic out of the food box.  Can you imagine her horror?????

This morning I awoke to Maxie vomiting on our bed.  We later discovered he had vomited on both couch cushions in the night, on my knitted afghan, and my yellow sweatshirt was stained with bloody vomit.  I had to wash diarrhea off of Maxie's culottes this morning.  I'm still cleaning up the mess, and hope to god his digestive system isn't screwed up by too many rich liver treats.  I'll be watching him all day, and I'm very heavy hearted over our close call.  Too close.

Maxie posing as"Walnut Brain"

Let's face it.  Our dogs are basically dumb about lots of things.  We sometimes refer to Maxie as "Walnut Brain", not because he's stupid (no, he's really smart), but because of the size of his little skull.  I mean, how much brains can there be in there? No way can he comprehend all the dangers lurking about him.  Like a child, his safety is in my hands, and now I realize just how much I must rely on everyone else's due diligence to help me protect him.

The only way we can prevent more dog tragedies from happening, in public especially, is for each of us to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY.  We each have to project, and predict, and work together, and vow to be responsible pet owners, including looking out for each other's pets.

So please, when you take your dog to a class, trial, or any public place, accept it as part of YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to make sure nothing you do jeopardizes any other dog's safety.  Store your treats safely away.  Secure all bags.  And don't hesitate to correct other handlers when they do something that jeopardizes another dog's safety.  It really does take a village . . . . .

Upwards and onward!

Meatball - Animal Control

"Meatball" is a 50 lb black pit bull that runs loose in the woods almost every day for the past 3 weeks or so. He loves visiting the back fences of all the yards in our subdivision, especially mine, which sets off a huge ruckus with all the dogs in the neighborhood.  When he comes by, Max and Willow go crazy with their high shrill barking, Fooh Fooh growls and barks like mad, and Lucky just sails over our 5 foot cow fence and runs off in the woods to chase Meatball away.  Whatever I'm doing at the moment, I have to quit immediately and go deal with "the Meatball issue".

How did I learn Meatball's name, you might wonder. Well, two days ago a young man sachets by looking for his dog -- about 24 years old, living with his grandmother about 5 houses down, with his girlfriend and baby, and of course, no job.  A seemingly intelligent young man, well spoken and mild mannered.  I had just put treats in my pocket, boots on my feet, gotten Fooh Fooh's slip leash, and was headed to the woods with Lucky at my side, to catch Meatball.  The man joined me, and we finally got control of his dog.  I asked him why he didn't bring a leash, and why Meatball wasn't wearing a collar.  He said he had a collar but leaves it attached to the chain around the tree, doesn't have a leash, doesn't have a fence, the dog is not neutered, doesn't have his rabies shots "because I can't afford it".  He chains the dog up, but either he keeps getting tangled up in the chain or he slips out of the collar, so he "doesn't like to use that".

I gave him my schpeal about "Responsible Pet Ownership" and sent him on his way, with the warning that if I saw Meatball roaming free again I would have to call Animal Control.

I had a one day reprieve.  Then today, the ruckus started again and before I knew it, Lucky was over the fence again and disappeared into the woods.  On with my boots, out the gate, into the woods, calling "Lucky, come".  She was already far, far off but she came to my call.  We've been practicing that. I couldn't fuss her for coming when called but I brought her in the yard and put her on her 10' wire.  About 10 minutes later the ruckus starts again, Lucky takes a running leap off the porch towards the fence without realizing she is tethered, gets caught by her collar and her whole body flips up about 3 feet in the air and around in a big circle.  I saw it happen and was afraid her neck would snap.  I bet she is bruised.  Then I saw Meatball along the fence line, still with no collar, and I was instantly furious.  Didn't I just warn that idiot what I would do?   I called Animal Control for directions.  They want me to find out the guy's address, they will send someone out to "talk to him". Or, I can capture the dog and they will come pick him up.

A few hours later, visiting with a neighbor on my front porch while pottying my dogs, here comes Meatball and all hell breaks loose again.  Had to crate Lucky in a hurry, and by the time I came back out with the slip leash Meatball was gone. But I learned from Laura that he had her and her kids pinned in their car a few nights while "a big black dog" without a collar circled around them.  Not knowing his demeanor, they played it safe.

I just want to slap this guy.  I hope Animal Control slaps a huge fine on him, and if he doesn't conform immediately, takes the dog away.  He said he had "rescued" Meatball from the pound about 3 weeks ago.  Some rescue, eh?  It doesn't tally. Doesn't the pound give shots and neuter all their dogs before letting them go?  Don't they screen prospective owners and charge them a fee?  My hunch is Meatball was found on the side of the road, like Lucky, and passed from owner to owner, and has not yet seen a vet, a clinic, or a pound.  He is probably full of worms.

People think they can just "have a dog".  First, a dog is an intelligent being. Second, there is a social responsibility.  Animal care has such a pivotal effect on civilized society, I think "responsible pet ownership" should be taught in grade school.  Isn't "civilization" what we teach in school?  You are taught to read, write and cipher so you can support yourself, vote, and serve your community?  We are taught how to sing, play an instrument, manage our computers, manage our tempers, calculate.  We learn about human rights.  What about animal rights? If they put me in charge, this course would not be "optional" or left to the private sector to teach.

This was not how I intended to spend my day.  But it has got me to thinking about the importance of Animal Control's job in a civilized society.  How nowadays we don't see packs of hungry dogs running the streets like in India, or individual mangy ones like I used to see when I was a child growing up in rural Slidell.  I bet the Romans had some version of Animal Control, though I've never read a thing about it.  Why not?