It's a Cats Life

Howl-O-ween Safety

Happy Howl o ween! My Halloween started off with a rather nasty trick - the alarm clock not going off! Did you know I can wake up, get dressed at to Clip Clip Hooray in under 10 minutes? Me neither! Turns out I can. Unfortunately, I still missed most of my drop offs for today. I'm so sorry you guys!!!

Anyway, tonight could be potentially very stressful, dangerous, or even deadly to your pets! Here are a couple things to keep in mind.

Inside dangers. Costumes (both for your pet and for your people) and household decorations offer a whole array of unexpected problems for your pets. Be careful of glitters, sequins, feathers, fringe, ribbons and long strings. Metallics can be deadly but are often irresistible to dogs and cats. Also, don't let your pets chew or play with feathers or strings, since they can (and will) chew and/or swallow them leading to impactions and other internal damage that could require costly surgery. Th

Loose candy. Make sure to place your trick or treat candy high enough that your dog can't jump up and reach it. Most everyone knows that chocolate is dangerous for pets, but things like taffys or hard candy can be a choking hazard as well.

You can avoid any accidental consumption of treats or decorations just by paying attention to wear your pets are and keeping tempting "toys" and treats out of reach. A baby gate or ex pen is the perfect way to keep your pet from harm and is easy for you to climb over without the potential for your dog to bolt past(as opposed to trying to keep him out by closing doors.)

Outside danger. If you take your dog trick or treating with you, be very aware of what he's sniffing at. Kids drop candy that your dog might eat. Since it's dark, you may not notice him trying to get at candy, trash, or other doggie delights. Make sure your dog is on a well fitting collar and leash. His collar should be snug, but not choking him. Don't drop his leash! Tonight is not to night to find out your dog doesn't off lead heel, sit, stay or come when called! Be smart, keep him leashed.

Bring poop bags with you. Don't spoil a child's night by leaving poop laying around.

Also, some people really enjoy leaving poisoned meat out. Don't let your dog eat ANYTHING he finds. Halloween is a bad night to leave your dog loose in the yard, for that same reason. There are people that will poison meat and toss it into your yard! Take your dog for a walk instead of sending him out back to potty. Tomorrow morning carefully check your yard, bushes, and fence line for poison. In addition to poisoning, Halloween is probably the most likely time for people to steal animals and hurt them. Whether it's riled up teens trying to "have fun" at an animals expense, or more sinister, keep your pet close so he doesn't get stolen.

Yelling, screaming, laughing children can be stressful to your dog, so can the constant parade of people ringing doorbells, knocking on doors and walking past your house. If your dog gets over excited or stressed by visistors, you may want to keep him as far away from the door as possible, with a family member or friend and a good distraction. Watch a movie, or play the radio a little louder than usual. Buy a SUPER GOOD bone for chewing, doggie ice cream is a great distraction for Haiku, or a super fun toy. Anything to keep his mind off the strangers dressed up scary and ringing the doorbell!

If your dog tends to go nuts or bark up a storm when the doorbell chimes, consider sitting out on the front step or porch. Dress up for extra fun. That way you can avoid the whole door bell/ knocking problem.

Oh! One more thing, be extra super careful that your dog doesn't get out when you hand out candy! Make sure he is either on a leash ATTACHED to something immovable or at least a person. Barricade your dog behind  a secure baby gate or in his crate. Halloween can be very scary for a pet that doesn't understand what's going on, and even the most friendly, well trained pet can react by biting, growling, or running away and hiding.

Eveyone wants to have a good time and eat lots of treats. Be careful and don't let anyone give your pets something that isn't made for pets! Mrs Barksworth Gourmet Halloween Cookie platters are a great way for your pet to enjoy trick or treating!

I hope you all have a safe and happy Halloween! Just take a few extra minutes to make it safe and stress free for your pets. Corral cats and dogs safely and securely, be mindful of what they're eating and their surroundings. As for me, I'll be handing out candy at home, with Haiku and Crack locked upstairs with my husband, eating pet ice cream and watching movies. Happy Hooowl O Ween!

Howl - OOooOOOooo - Ween Super Sale!

With Halloween just a few days away, I decided that all the Howl o ween goodies here at Clip Clip Hooray are going to go on sale!

All Halloween toys, treats, appareal and gifts are now 20% CCH's already execellent prices.

Sale effective between NOW and whenever I get around to putting Halloween stuff away, probably in two weeks or so.

Just a reminder, the Downtown Westminster Cookie Walk is next Thursday, 5pm - 8pm! Hope to see you there!!

Super Spooky

 

Fun toys can be hard to come by. Everyone knows dogs love bones, but all too often, finding a good skull for your dog to play with can be difficult...or illegal. Until now!!!

The Spooky Kooky skulls are great new super fun dog toy. Haiku loves hers! Coming in 3 sizes, from Small, which is just right for 10 pound Haiku, to Large, which is almost the size of a dinner plate, thereis the perfect size for just about any pet!

Features: Instead of the usual,boring squeaker, the Kooky Skull gives a spooky laugh when squeezed, chewed, impacting on my oven door, etc. Dogs are instantly drawn to the unexpected noise.

The crossbones on the back make this toy very easy for any dog to grab ahold, carry or dig in for a good game of tug. The skull is also shaped for good carrying and grabbing. I really like a toy that is easy for Haiku to grab onto AND easy for me to grab. Haiku loves a good game of tug, and with this toy we both have something to grab onto.

Cons: While this toy is pretty durable, the bones on the back are only attached with a sitch or two. Before long the bones detached from teh skull. Now, you either have 3 toys (YAY!!! MORE TOYS!!!! was Haiku's opinion) or with very little effort you could easily sew them back on.

Just like any plush, stuffed toy, a hard chewing dog will be able to tear this toy open without much effort. Haiku is pretty adept at destroying her toys, but it still took her about 2 weeks of HARD play and chewing before she chewed a hole to the stuffing. This toy does sew up easily though. If you're the kind of person that doesn't mind sewing toys for their dog.

Final verdict? Haiku loves this toy! Like any stuffed toy, use under supervision only and don't allow your dog to tear out and consume the stuffing. It's a great Halloween toy, or a great pirate toy year round! The laughter is fun and unexpected for canine and human alike. Execellent for dogs that like to play fetch and tug.

 

Haiku's Picks

Starting sometime soon (but not today) there will be a brand new category here at It's a Cats Life! It's called Haiku's Picks and will appear at least once a month, but probably more. Haiku is the official tester for all products at Clip Clip Hooray. She tests toys, treats, shampoo...just about everything!

Haiku loves playing with toys. She's pretty rough on them though. That makes her the perfect tester for durability! Looking for a fun toy for your dog? Thanks to Haiku, I can tell you how much abuse a certain toy can take, and how easily it can be sewn back together.

Haiku is fairly sensitive to food and shampoos. While we only use gentle, 100% tried and true safe for pets, some pets may not do as well with a certain type of shampoo. Haiku gets to try them out and help me decide the cleansing strength or how long the fresh scent will last. Plus it gives me an idea of how a certain shampoo with leave the coat - before trying it on someone else's dog.

Plus Haiku helps me decide what treats are yummy, and which ones are only ok. Or if any treats will leave her with an upset tummy. All good things to know in advance.

So, let Haiku help you out. She'll be introducing some fun toys available for sale here at the store, as well as treats, shampoos and other bathing specials, along with whatever else she finds along the way!

on the rack

As one could imagine, sometimes grooming a waggly, leaping, rolling, flouncing, spinning, sitting, or otherwise not-doing-what-I-want-it-to dog can be very difficult. Most of the owners that come to Clip Clip Hooray are good natured and aware AND understanding of their pets bouncy nature and how that can make it difficult to groom. Sometimes a dog that's less than stationary on the table just takes more repositioning, more energy needed from me to keep them safe for their grooming. And sometimes it's an full body workout.

A dog that hasn't learned (or refuses to) stand quietly on the grooming table puts alot of wear and tear on their groomer. Grooming a dog (or cat, especially cats...) can be dangerous. We use extremely sharp clipper blades, scissors, shears, stripping knives and combs. Even a brush can be painful if it's too hard or a pin points the wrong way and scratches. Or under a human finger nail (ow ow ow OW!). It's hard enough on a perfectly motionless animal, but one that is hyperactive or fidgety...it's just an accident waiting to happen. We (groomers) strive to keep grooming as safe as possible. We spend hours learning how to use equipment properly, we upgrade our tools as safer ones are created. We absorbed brush strokes against our own bodies. I dremal my own fingers rather than let it roll of the nail onto the dogs foot.

Why and how are two things I'm not going to go into right now, it would simply take too long and I don't feel like typing that much. There are alot of things a groomer can do to help keep a dog positioned the way they want. Everything from anti sitting "saddles" to shoving a knee under the dogs belly, there's all different methods and equipment to try and keep a pup in place. I had tried on contraption, supposedly the greatest tool EVAR, with a price tag to match. Needless to say, it didn't do much for me, the dogs delighted in squirming out of it, or resisting so hard I couldn't groom them. Some groomers swear by this product, but in my opinion, it's a piece of junk. So, for one fifth the price I got this lovely over the table grooming arm.

 

(Stock photo)

It is WONDERFUL! I now have lots of different options. For a well behaved dog, a simple loop around the neck attached to the side is enough. A spinner might need to be crosstied to the side posts. For sitters or an older dog that has trouble standing, I have a nylon belly band, modeled below by Good Dog Moose, can offer them the support they need.

 

Moose, of course, is far too well behaved to need a sling, but she does like to sit when I comb out her tail. Instead of having to keep asking her to stand up, I just attached the sling to the top, looped under her belly, brushed out her tail and was done! The sling is great for dogs that like to spin, since it hampers their range of motion and confuses them enough that they're thinking about "what's this blue thing?" rather than on how to wear me out trying to catch them. Older and/or overweight dogs do well with the sling too. It just makes it easier on them.

No matter what type of dog, difficult or well behaved, I've used this set up with, it's been much easier. Easier on me, easier on the dog. They don't get upset, feel panicked or trapped. I spend more time grooming and less time repositioning.

I'm really excited about my new grooming table frame!

CCH CLOSED FRIDAY!

Well, my good friend and often partner in crime broke her wrist the other day, so this Friday, the 17th, CCH will be closed so I can take her to get casted.

Poor Andie! I hope you heal up quickly!

Rest assured, we'll still be baking up a storm next month for the Cookie Walk. I've short listed a variety of people cookies. Once I choose those I'll look at dog cookies. I'll be choosing a recipe from Three Dog Bakery. I've made some of their cookies before and most dogs (and some cats, too!) gobbled them up. 

Tomorrow I hope to get some more pictures up on the site, so check out the newly added to photo albums!

Cookie Walk!

So, Westminster has an annual cookie walk. Cookie Walk! Who knew?

 

COOKIES!!!!!

 What is a cookie walk? Not mutant gingerbread men. It's better! Local downtown Westminster business (and some residents too I hear) make homemade cookies and everyone can stop by and get a homemade cookie! You can also get the recipe, if you happen to like a certain cookie.

When is it? November 6th, 5pm - 9pm.

Clip Clip Hooray, being a lover of all things baked goodness-y, will be here and loaded with cookies! Since most of my favorite clients are four legged, I'll be making homemade doggie cookies as well as cookies for their humans.

If you have ever wanted to do anything to help out downtown business, this is a great way! Come on down, stop in a couple shops (I'll get a list later), have some cookies, meet some folks. This is a great way to support our locals and eat some tasty treats. Yum!

Haiku Pictures!

I managed to cut my one of my favorite typing fingers (ok, I sliced off a chunk of it), so today are some pictures of Haiku.

There can never be enough Haiku pics.

 

 

Oh, Haiku is orange. And green on top. She's a pumpkin, get it? The green is her stem...

 

Haiku loves playing fetch and tug. Really loves playing fetch and tug. She can never figure out why I'm not playing fetch or tug with her at all times. This picture is also a perfect example of why groomers often have a hard time getting ears trimmed even. Not only are her ears set differently, but her head is tilted AND one ear is cocked up and forward. This is the head position many dogs give on the grooming table. And believe me! No matter how hard you try, those ears just aren't going to match!

Busy!

Wow! I've been busy here at Clip Clip Hooray. Grooming lots of dog, some easy, some fun, some not so much, but all loved by their owners and that's what really matters.

Izzy, a rescued Wire Fox Terrier came in this weekend. I love the look of a Wire Fox, very sharp and snazzy. Izzy had been hand stripped, a process done to terriers to remove the softer undercoats and preserve the brilliant color and wiry texture of the coat. We're working towards a mix of clipping and stripping. Real hand stripping is a whole thing unto itself and it very time consuming.

   

 

This cutie is Ella, and Australian Shepard. Ella got just a "neaten up", trimming the feet, evening the chest, belly and a nice shaping on the rear pantaloons, as we like to call them. Ella was also the first the try the Blueberry Facials! Like most dogs, she isn't much for having her face messed with, especially getting it wet, but she seemed to enjoy the blueberries and little massage that goes with. And it really does make the hair nice and bright and shiny!

 

Sophie is just a pup, she came in for her first grooming. That bow didn't last long! Crazy little thing, but cute! Of course, just 3 months old, she allowed to be a little silly and excited, she's a puppy!

Just a couple weeks ago I finished cutting bandannas. I have tons of bandannas. So what did I do? Went to the fabric store with my friend Andie of Andie's Doggy Do's. She needed some autumn/Thanksgiving fabric and lots of Christmas too. Well, we had a BLAST. We both got a ton of fabric. But now I have more cutting to do! Everyone is getting Halloween bandannas for the month of October, then for November we switch to leaves and a harvest theme, after that it's candy canes, snow men, snowflakes and holly leaves! Nothing better than a freshly groomed pup wearing a season appropriate bandanna!

No More Tears

Well, no more tear stains, but that doesn't have a song. Today, let's talk about tear stains! What are tear stains? You know them when you see them. Ugly, rusty brown discolored hair underneath the eyes of dogs and cats, mostly on toy breeds and smushy faced cats. Either wet and goopy or crusty, tear stains are the result of clogged or shallow tear ducts, excessive tearing (like Haiku!), improper diet and/or water (either from artifical coloring/additives or high mineral content, high quality foods and filtered water for fido? Yes!), allergies, or cutting teeth. Sometimes combinations of the above. What I see most as a groomer are little dogs like Shih Tzus, Toy Poodles and Poodle Mixes (cockapoo, shihpoo, doodles) and Malteses. Usually this little guys just have too small tear ducts. Spanials tend to have water eyes, like Haiku, who has excessive tearing when she gets excited, plays and runs around like a mad pup. Rarely in Carroll County do I see dogs that have staining because of mineral content in their drinking water. I suspect that much staining IS caused by crap in their food. By crap I mean artifical coloring, perservatives, "allergenic food" like corn, wheat or soy. Allergies can play a huge roll in tear stains. Dogs and cats can be allergic to anything from grass to beef. Some have seasonal reactions and some have them year round. And just like people their eyes water and itch.

So, what's the problem with tear stains anyway? Well, besides the fact that they look ugly, the moisture from tear stains provide a perfect, fertile enviroment for growing bacteria and yeasts. Needless to say, having bacteria and yeast growing on your pets face is not a good thing. (Plus bacteria can contribute to staining.) The hair can also become matted, and coated in "eye goobers" or "eye boggies". Which is bad enough, but when the boogies dry, they crust on the skin, causing sores and irritation. I've done my fair share of soaking matted boogie hair so I can safely slide clippers underneath to minimize the wounds caused by matted hair. Often this matted hair becomes like a scab and trying to pick it off or clip it off can make the sore underneath much worse.

 Open sores underneath my dogs eyeballs?! Yes, it's more common than you think. (I call this ignorance neglect, where either the owner doesn't know that they are causing serious harm to their pet or just ignore the problem. Either way, the pet suffers. Often people are shocked that the crud in their pets eyes hurts them and causes injury, they then learn to take better care of their pet and it never happens again. More often, people are shocked, just SHOCKED every single time it happens and prefer the "I didn't know..." delusion to taking care of their pet. /rant)

So, clearly, there are a lot of really common causes, in a lot of everyday dogs, that cause tear staining and the horrible side effects. There is one other thing I'd like to mention before I share two great cures. That's saliva staining, or 'lick staining'. Mostly I see this on dogs that love to chew. They hold their chewie in their front paws, and chew chew chew. All that chewing causes extra saliva production (as it should) and gets the chewie  all nice and wet and gooey. It also gets saliva all over the paws and ankles, where it can stain or even cause sores, especially if they get bits of their chewie that dry on the coat. Also, dogs that lick excessively, whether it's itchy skin from allergies, hot spots, sore joints or behavorial problems, can cause the same kind of damage as tear stains. Usually on the front paws/legs, hips and rear. These dogs can lick mats into the hair, the excess mositure gets trapped under the hair and creates the perfect place for bacteria to thrive. Mats pull the skin making it tender and itchy, compounding the problem as the dog licks and chews more to try and remove the mats, sometimes ripping hair out. Taking good care of the coat can help avoid this last problem. Often dogs either get saliva stains secondhand from chewing treats held between the paws or licking and chewing from allergies or boredom.

Of course, you do need to get your pet checked out by his vet to rule out serious health concerns such as damage to the eye, arthritis, or any underlying health problems. For obsessive complusive licking your vet may be able to refer you to a specialist or trainer that can help. Once major problems are ruled out or treated, you may still have a dog with unattractive tear stains. First, the product Angel Eyes is added directly to the food and helps eliminate stains by disrupting the compound that causes the discoloration, as well as helping prevent the growth of yeast and bacterial. Angel Eyes takes a little while to be noticable, since the hair has to grow out and the stains trimmed off. The company suggests feeding a small amount (by weight) onto the dogs food every day for 3 months, then tapering down to 4 times a week, then 2. Note: Angle Eyes does work and is great for someone that doesn't want to clean the area everyday. It does contain an antibotic, if you worry about that kind of thing.

The second product, Eye Envy is a topical, two stepper. Very easy to use and effective. I'm trying this one out with Haiku. First, you use the cleaning solution and wipe the area with the staining, getting it good and wet. Then, take a big pinch of the powder and work it in the area. Allow to dry. At first the powder might seem clumpy, but after a few minutes the hair is left dry and shiny. Eye Envy works as a natural antibacterial and 'antibotic', as well as cleaning and drying the area. It is not a bleach or dye. It's safe to use around the eye and even a small amount getting in the eye is ok. The company suggests using once a day for 7 days, or until the staining is gone, and then once a week after. Eye Envy is easy to use and applies quickly. You can also use it on other parts of the body like paws. 

Both Angel Eyes and Eye Envy are available at Clip Clip Hooray. Eye Envy starter kits come in a pretty gingham bag in a variety of colors and make a great gift, and it's even already wrapped! A great way to help take care of an ugly, often overlooked problem, making your pet look better and be healthier.