Halloween is the worst time for your pets. For a dog and a cat. They often get so scared that they just runaway from the house and sometimes never return. During that time you have to keep your pets safe at all times with these 7 easy ways you can do so.

1.  Nice and long walks

In the morning of Halloween day bring your dogs for a long walks before all the fireworks will began. Try to do the same thing with a cat on your bag garden.

2. Calming sprays and tablets

Remedy de-stressing and calming spray can be bought at any vet clinic and pet shop. It will calm your dog/cat and make it less stressed during the firework time.

3. Keep your dogs indoor

When the fireworks begin never take your dog out for any walks as he might get scared and run away from you. This time is very stressful for our pets, so keep them indoor nice and cosy.

4. Close all windows and doors

Keep all the doors and windows closed to minimise the firework noise and reduce the stress in your pets. Especially if you have cats at home. People can be cruel and throw them into bonfires just for fun. IT’S NOT FUNNY.

5. Make sure your pets are microchipped and have collars on

All your pets should be microchipped that’s the law in Ireland. Make sure your pets are microchipped and are wearing collars during Halloween just in case they manage to escape the house or someone leaves the doors open. That way you can find your pet easier.

6. Try to keep your pets busy during Halloween

By keeping your pets entertained you are reducing their stress as they are not concentrating on the noise. You can play with them use their favourite toys or try teaching them new tricks using treats.

7. Keep your pets away from the sweets

The last thing is to keep your pets away from all the sweets that your kids bring home especially chocolate. Chocolate is very toxic to dogs in large quantities. If you want to read about toxic food check out my blog Poisonous food .

So hopefully with those 6 easy ways you can keep your pet safe and sound during Halloween time.

 

Love Gina

I got so angry today while walking Gina. I went for our usual small walk around the house before the bed. The weather was nice and warm. Gina was enjoying herself smelling everything.

Then suddenly two small dogs ran up to us, barking at me and Gina, trying to smell her so much that Gina got annoying and started defending herself as they were really annoying little things. I had to put the muzzle on her just in case she would snap them.

Because if she did, it would be my entire fault not theirs just because she’s a German shepherd.
No one would say that the other two dogs were running all alone on the road and to everybody, pooping everywhere. I even walked into one poop myself because there was no one with those dogs to clean after them.

Gina doesn’t like dogs like that, dogs that are really annoying and super hyper. She has only two dogs that she likes which are neutral, they’re not annoying or excited and that’s why Gina likes them.

I don’t get how people can be so lazy to just let your dog’s run around alone and to everyone, if you’re that lazy just don’t get a dog then, if you can’t take proper care of them.

Since its very nice weather in Dublin this week, I decided to give my car a break and start walking with Gina. Instead of driving to the park playing with Gina for 30 minutes then back at home it’s not a nice way to spend time with your doggie is it? Gina then usually rests in the car on the way home and is all hyper again. It does not make sense at all.

So today we walked 30 minutes to the park play around 30/40 minutes and then we have to walk back come as well which takes us along time again, that way Gina is tired, satisfied and eats the whole bowl of food at once. A full belly means a happy doggie 😉

Then in the afternoon we walked to other field a bit closer to our house around 20 minutes. On the way there was a field with horses, I told my mum to bring some bread and feed them.
They ate the whole bread at once. My sister was a bit scared of them at first, but I assured her that they won’t do anything to her if she’s not going to scare them.

When we got home she drank some water and came up to my mum so she could scratch her. It started with the back and bum area, Gina was patiently standing enjoying the scratch. Then she turned around and wanted my mum to scratch her ears. Oh she loves her ears being scratched.
It looked like Gina was in a scratching service 😉

You can see that happen on two videos posted on our Facebook Page

Love Gina

 

I woke up this morning and didn’t know what we are going to do today. It’s Sunday and we didn’t want to stay in the bed all day as it was a really warm day.

We didn’t want to waste it.
We had breakfast, we watched some movies in the morning, then at around 11 am I got an idea and I was about to tell my mum.
Why don’t we walk to the Malahide Park? She said WHAT? It’s way too far.
I said come on mum. We will take Gina and have a little adventure time walking towards the park as we have never done that. It’s around 3 kilometers from the house to the park.

So finally she said yes. I took my sisters back pack and packed water and bowl, some treats, tennis balls and one big ball all for Gina, oh yeah and poop bag of course.
We began walking it took us only 30 minutes to walk to the park which wasn’t that bad. Gina loved it, smelling all the new smells all around the area.
When we got to the park I let Gina of the lead and she was so happy playing with the balls and we were running all around.
However, she was getting tired very easily as it was extremely warm today, so we stayed in the shaded area for most of the time.
After around 30 minutes we left the park and my mum decided that she wants to visit her friend that lives in the Malahide. I didn’t mind as it was on the way home. We had some tea and coffee and Gina got a lot of water.

When we got home Gina ran straight to her food bowl and ate everything, she was that hungry. My poor girl.
Gina loved the walk, after eating and drinking she just died, fell asleep for around good two hours.

Over all we did 10 kilometers of walking today, it wasn’t even that hard when you have the perfect company to do it with. I loved the walk, my mum and Gina did too. It was a really good day, well spend.

Hopefully if it’s going to be a nice weather tomorrow we could repeat that. It would be really nice as I’m staying in Dublin for another week. So we will have a lot of fun with Gina.
Oh yeah and Gina was also eating a watermelon today just like a human, it was really funny and tasty for her. ;D You can view the video on Gina on our Facebook Page.
Love Gina

 

Gina is feeling a lot better since last night. Her diarrhoea is nearly gone, she’s full of energy and wants to play all the time. She’s drinking a lot of water which I’m happy about, keeping herself hydrated, especially when it’s so hot outside.




However, she lost a bit of weight when she wasn’t eating but hopefully she’ll gain more weight during  the week.
We order special food for Gina,  Hills Z/D allergies and food intolerance. The vet advised us to get this dog food which will hopefully help Gina’s itching skin.

Thank you to all the people that left all the nice words for Gina, She feeling all better now.

Hey guys sorry I haven’t posted any blogs in a very long time. I was busy with my driving lessons that I still have loads to do, annoying. Then preparation for my cousins wedding and loads of more stuff…

So Gina wasn’t feeling well for the past few days. She was feeling sick and had runny diarrhoea. It all happened when she took out something from the bin. Chris and I went to the shop when we came back the brown bin was on the ground open with all the rubbish all around, of course Gina was guilty. I didn’t know if she ate something or not.

Then the next day Gina met Chris’s dad and we all went for a walk to Dublin Mountains for a day. It was fun and extremely warm.




When we came back home I gave her some food as she didn’t eat anything all day. We went for a small walk after that so she can get familiar with the area and all. She was all happy and well then.

We came back home Chris and I had dinner, then we went to the park with Gina she didn’t want to run at all and was feeling dull, and then she began pooping and a very liquidy diarrhoea started coming out. Then I decided to not give her any food for the day, because food would make her even worse. I could hear her belly going crazy with all different kind of noises and even Gina didn’t know what is happening.  My poor baby.

However, today Gina got a small breakfast. Turkey and lamp can mixed with dry nuts. So far she’s feeling good, no diarrhoea, she’s full of energy and most important she’s drinking a lot of water all the time keeping her self-hydrated. So I’m hoping that my baby girl will get better today.

In today’s blog i’m going to talk about First Aid, the basic aims of first aid, ABC procedure and the signs of life and death.

So first aid is very important if you or somebody else accidentally hit or injure a dog in a car accident, during that time you can call for help to the nearest vet clinic and while you’re waiting for the vet, you can check if the dog is alive, does it have pulse. However, if the dog is awake and aggressive do not touch him just make sure he’s safe and no car is going to hit him.

What is first aid?
First aid is the immediate treatment of injured animals or those suffering from illness.

The aims of first aid is to preserve life.
To reduce pain and discomfort
To prevent further damage e.g. if a dog is lying on the middle of the road unconscious, very carefully with someone’s help put a blanket underneath the dog to move him away from the road to prevent further damage or even death.
Promote recovery

So when you are present with an injured dog and you’re waiting for help. You can perform three easy ABC procedures. ABC procedure help to check if the animal is alive and breathing.
A – Airways
When checking the airways always make sure the mouth is empty that there’s no foreign objects, which would make the animal difficult to breath, then push the tongue to the side and extend head and neck upwards.
B – Breathing
If the animal is not breathing for over 1 minutes, you have to take action. During that time the mucous membrane (gums in your mouth) will turn blue from lack of oxygen in the body.
You can perform CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) it’s similar to humans.
Chest compression – put pressure on the chest
Mouth to mouth in humans but in animals you would blow the air through the nose as the air in the mouth could easily escape on the sides. Do not do that with wild animals.
C – Circulation
Check pulse in the inner side of the thigh (femoral vein). To check the pulse you have to put pressure on the vein to feel it. Then you can count the beats for 15 seconds and then multiply it by 4, this will give you the pulse.




Signs that the animal is alive
If the animal is alive you could feel the heartbeat as well as the pulse. The obvious thing it would be breathing the chest moving up and down. You can also check the mucous membrane if it’s pink that’s perfect it means there’s good circulation.
The capillary refill time should be normal 1-2 seconds.
Capillary refill time is when you put pressure on the gums you can see a white mark appearing and if the animal is healthy that mark should be gone in 1-2 seconds.
Dog’s body temperature is between 38.2 – 39.3 C

Signs that the animal is dead
You can observe that there’s no breathing and no pulse. The dog is not moving the reflexes are not working. The pupils are dilated. The body temperature would drop.

So there you go a short introduction to what first aid is. Hopefully no one will have to do it in the future, and always keep your dogs on lead when walking near a busy road, because they might jump out on to the road anytime.
Be safe out there my furry friends.

Love Gina

I went to the shop to get some stuff for breakfast, outside the shop there was a small dog I think it was a Maltese . I was in the queue when some lady asked the staff member ‘’how long is this dog been sitting here’’ and the staff member said over an hour now.
The lady and I looked at each other shocked.

The dog was aggressive didn’t want to be touched by anyone, however she managed to take down the number form his tag.

She rang the number but it was not working. Everybody thought the dog was just left there alone. That no one wanted him.

I then took a picture of the dog and decided to put it on Facebook and told everybody to share it, but as always people don’t really care about post like this because it’s not their dog. At least there was two kind people  that shared the post to which I’m really grateful.

When I came back from a walk with Gina about an hour later, I have seen that this dog is still sitting outside the shop.

I decided to go up to him one more time, but he didn’t let me touch him, he was too scared.

I asked the staff in the shop if they can ring anyone, any dog shelters or something similar. But the only answer that I got from them ‘’Oh it’s not my problem, I would kick him in the ass and he’d be gone’’ When I heard that everything in my body started boiling I was so mad thinking how people are so selfish and not caring about other living creatures. Then I replied what would you do if there was a kid sitting there instead of a dog. Obviously the reply was different.

I hate when some people think that kids are better than dogs, I don’t think that, I’m not a kid person. And I don’t think they should be treated differently.

To some other people a dog mean a world to them, a dog is their furry kid. In my personal opinion dogs are better than kids, they will never leave you, scream at you, take your money. All they want is your love that’s all. Did you ever seen a kid that said to their parent I don’t want any money from you I just want your love? No? Me neither.

I decided to ring dogs trust, DSPCA but of course all of them were closed. No help from them. Then I rang Dog’s Aid at least someone picked up, but they only said to bring the dog to the vet to get scanned. I thought I would love to do that but I can’t as the dog can’t be touched. And even if I brought him home Gina wouldn’t like him.

So I kept calling different dog shelters but all of them were closed.

But suddenly a woman came to the shop and the dog went crazy as in crazy happy, and the lady was the owner. So happily a doggie found his owner and he’s all safe and sound. I don’t know what she said as I had to go home, but she looked happy too.

Another happily saved dog. Some people should learn from dogs to be more caring and loving towards other living creatures around them not just themselves.

Love Gina  

Yesterday morning was fun, warm and amazing.

Gina, my mum and I got up at 5:45 in the morning and drove to the beach for a little jog as the weather was beautiful.

We arrived at the beach at 6 in the morning, there was only few people, we only heard the sound of the sea. It was so calming. I think everybody should try that. Getting up early in the morning and going to the beach it’s like a therapy.

We took few toys with us for Gina and ran to the beach. The sea was extremely far away so we were running for a some time to get to the water.

Even though it was so early I could feel the sun burning my skin. It was really warm, but nothing will beat the midday sun which went up to 30 degrees.

When Gina didn’t want to play anymore she took all the balls and went to the water to cool down. She didn’t want to leave.

At home it was so hot that Gina didn’t know where to hide from all that heat. We had all the fans on, all the windows and doors open and it still felt like we were in sauna. I’m not complaining, I love sun but yesterday was too hot.

When we came back from the beach, I made breakfast for myself and Gina, then we had small power snooze. Because my head was killing me and still is.

We got up around 10/11 am and went for a quick walk around the estate as it was already 25 degrees outside. Gina didn’t even want to play as she always does. All she wanted to do is to hide in a shade and drink cold water. Poor Gina.

I have seen people walking their dogs during the highest temperature and I just felt sorry for the dogs as I could see that they are struggling to catch a breath. Not only that their little feet were probably burning as the path would heat up to crazy temperatures. Humans don’t feel that as we are wearing shoes that protects us from the heat but dogs don’t. So next time when you decide to take your doggie for a walk in a hot weather think twice.

Love Gina

 

So today was a really fun day as the whole family went on a road trip to Phoenix park.
We left the house at 10 in the morning and everybody was so excited.

When we arrived to the park there was so many people they were all running, cycling and doing various exercises. There were huge fields that I wanted to go with Gina and have a little jog but I noticed that there was a signs that dogs are not allowed to go beyond that point as there were deers protecting their fawns.
I was disappointed a little bit, but then my mum and sister found a road going towards a lake, so we went there Gina was so excited, sniffing everything around.
She didn’t want to get into the water and I didn’t force her to do so. I’ve noticed there was a wild duck swimming in the lake with her two babies, and when Gina saw them she was fascinated by them.

Then we decided to go to the woods and to be honest we got lost a little bit. We didn’t know where to go but we heard some people talking and just followed the sounds and we found a main road and just kept walking down.

We went back to the car where my dad was sitting as his leg was sore, and gave Gina some water as she was extremely thirsty, I had some water too. We jumped into the car and drove to a different part of the park. It was nice as there was not much people there and we could freely run around and have some fun.
However, after around 20 minutes a large group of people came to the field and started playing football on the whole grass area, we got pissed off a little bit, but what can you do.
We went for a small walk just before going home.

We got home at 12 o’clock and it was way too hot for Gina to go for a walk, so we decided to stay home and play with her in the back garden where she always has access to fresh water and shade.

I hope you all keep your dogs in shade during those warm days and NEVER leave your dog in a car alone.

Love Gina