Product Review: Kurgo Tru-Fit Dog Harness

Recently, I was contacted by reps at Kurgo, to see if I wanted to review their Tru-Fit Dog Harness. You see, they'd recently revamped the design and then crash tested it at the University of Michigan (and you can watch the video at the above link). I said YES, because continued improvement on the safety of car harnesses for dogs is always fantastic in my book!

Safety First

I've realized lately that lots of our training, and lots of our equipment, has to do with safety.

Elka is on a collar and leash when we go outside, to make sure she's safe. She can't decide to run into the road, or chase something and get off our property, anything like that. On our walks, she's on a harness and collar, with liberty's attachment to make sure more than one thing will have to fail to put her in danger; not that I'm sure she'd just hare off somewhere the instant she had a chance, but better safe than sorry. See, there it is again.

In the car, she has a harness which hooks to the built-in child seat anchor vehicles have. In the case of an accident, it will hopefully protect her, and also the humans in the car, preventing the 75 pound dog in the back seat from becoming a missile within the vehicle. It also keeps her from just jumping out when a door is opened, so her exit can be controlled to a safe place and situation.

Wordless Wednesday March 25 2015

It's a twofer!

So lately we've had a potty breakthrough. A strange thing to say as the owner of a five year old DOG, not child. But lately, when we let Elka out back, a few things have changed.

For one, we can let her out back and she runs out there and gets to business. Sometimes she'll bark at a squirrel or an imaginary squirrel first, and that's fine. It genuinely seems to be keeping them away. But then she poops or pees, and then she performs the other function as well, so you get what we refer to as a "twofer". 

This was not always the case, but either it's been too cold or Elka is growing up. She also used to, when turned out back without a leash, think it was obviously playtime and just gallop around in big circles. Or, if you stayed inside, she would bark at the house because you clearly had committed a grave error.

Of course, when it's not-winter we'll be taking her outside the fence again for her "business", not just letting her loose to poop willy nilly in the play space. When the thaw happens, we pick it up and rake things over and it rains a bunch besides. But perhaps the twofers will continue, even on leash? 

Miscues (or Missed Cues?)

The other night, Elka asked to go out, so I sent her to the back door. We have a routine, she sits and waits, and I either snap the leash on and have her wait some more, or I let her blast out the back door. I thought maybe I'd seen a deer or something out back, so I wanted her to wait after the leash was on. Typically, we hold up a finger, like "wait a minute", for signal purposes. I held out my palm instead.

(just a picture of Elka sitting, not from "The event")

Black and White Sunday May 25 2014

Yet another instance of "how did my puppy grow into this humongous dog I have"? I always love this picture of her, from one of our early jaunts outside after she came home. I took it with the little flip phone I had at the time.

dogIDs bison leather collar and leash: product review

I was approached by dogIDs.com to do a product review, and after having a look at their offerings, I just had to say yes! I selected a deep red bison leather collar, which was personalized with an engraved nameplate, and a matching deep red bison leather leash. I told Elka what I'd done (she listened, anyway) and we eagerly awaited the delivery.

Reward Calmness

I was at the park today with Elka on the long line, when I saw a person approaching with her dog.  It was a yellow lab puppy, I'm not sure how old, but twenty to thirty ish pounds. They were all over the path as they approached, so I put Elka on her regular short leash to wait them out. The puppy was on a retractable leash, and I heard the mechanism squeal as he pulled out more length, even though it was "locked". Elka put herself in a down, and I stood on the long leash (still attached to her harness). She seemed less than happy with the puppy antics, and since the woman didn't seem to have full control, either due to puppy exuberance or lack of interest in doing so, I didn't think they ought to "say hello".

One leash...how many ways?

Back in August, I posted Etsy Esoteria, and one of the items I discussed was a multifunctional European leash. Well, I asked for one for Christmas, and Aunt Alicia (Toby's mom) was kind enough to get me one! (Thanks Aunt Alicia!).

Of course, now that I have this glorious device, I have to figure out the way to properly use the freaking thing!

Freedom? Or Negligence?

Take a moment and read this article: Hold Tight? Or Unleash?. Don't worry, I'll wait.

Finished? Do you feel kind of ambivalent? Perhaps a little disgusted?

The article, should you decide not to read it, is written by a woman, Lissa Rankin, whose 6 month old puppy was struck and killed on the  road out behind her house, because (to paraphrase), said dog hated her leash and clearly wanted to be a country dog. The property is not fenced, and the author was inside preparing for a teleclass, when the poor man who struck said dog with his car called her, remorseful.

The author continues on, talking about how the dog, Bezoar (which I found to be a strange name, as "A bezoar is a ball of swallowed foreign material (usually hair or fiber) that collects in the stomach and fails to pass through the intestines." [PubMed Health]) could have been kept inside that day, much like how parents of the children at Sandy Hook might have kept their children home from school that day.

WHAT?

Etsy Esoteria

Like many people (you know who you are), I dearly love Etsy. Not that I ever purchase very much on Etsy, mind you, nor will I probably ever sell anything there. I just like browsing, getting ideas, seeing what exists in the world.

Of course, my frequent topic of browsing is "dogs", or "dog training", or "Doberman". It seems no matter how specific you get, somebody has something. It's pretty neat.

So, some things I've found. Elka kept me company on the couch while browsing occurred.