Naly's Early June Travels : Roadtrips with Dogs

Naly and I just got back from a short road trip that covered almost 3500 miles in 8 states in 21 days.  We had a lot of fun, saw a lot of old friends and family, and left a few hotel rooms smelling like wet dog in our wake.  :)

Things to Remember:

1 - plan for extra time. Enjoy yourself and don't be too concerned about a time schedule.  Things take longer with a dog.  A dog in a rest area is a very curious animal.  So many smells to smell.  A dog's understanding of time is a bit different then a humans, but it still needs to be relaxed to pee, etc.

2 - exercise.  We get busy with our vacation fun.  Remember that the dog's normal exercise/eating/drinking, etc. schedule is all out of whack.  Take time to give your dog a few extra short walks, etc.  A long day in the car is a long day for your dog too.

3 - remember things like monthly meds, etc.  The first of the month is a bit easier to let go unremembered while on the road than it is at home with your fridge calendar.

4 - air conditioning.  I love to drive with the windows open and don't need much air conditioning.  On the other hand, it is a entirely different temp down on the floorboards.  Run a little a/c to the floor vents if your dog is sleeping down there.  Let's not forget the dogs keen sense of hearing.  Cranking that stereo to listen to over the wind noise of the open windows may sound fine to you.... but to the dog laying on the floor right next to that speaker, it is very LOUD!

5 - where to stay. Staying with friends is fun. Are they really dog people? Do they have a dog? Is their dog friendly with your dog? There are lots of pet friendly motels out there.  Don't expect your dog understands why they are in a hotel room.   I like to ask for a scope the place out, ask for a room near a rear entrance ( out of way with grass near the entrance).  This makes dragging all the extra dog stuff in easier ( dog bowls, food, etc) and late night and early morning bathroom walks so much easier. I use the a/c fan to create white noise.  A dog barking in a hotel room is a BAD thing.

Dogs vs Ticks ...

Years ago, when I first moved from the Midwest to Colorado, I was amused by the number of animals that could harm you.  In the Midwest, we didn't live with rattle snakes, scorpions, black widow or brown recluse spiders.  We didn't have a bear or mountain lion population to speak of, etc.  Colorado had all these.

Now, close to 10 years later, I am getting ready to head back to central Wisconsin on vacation with the dog and can't believe how many conversations I have had about ticks.  Sure, I remember we had wood ticks, and a few people had Lyme disease.  Now, there are four major diseases carried by ticks and / or mosquitoes, all in the Lyme disease family.  It seems it is not the larger, more well known wood ticks that are such the problem, as much as the very small deer ticks.

The dog goes everywhere with me almost every day. I had NEVER considered leaving her at home in a kennel before.  All my usual dog sitters are out of state this week as well.  Well, after a little research, we opted to still take the dog with us.  We made sure all the normal annual vaccinations were current and got some Merial Frontline Plus Flea and Tick Control for Dogs .  We decided that you can't hide from life or the adventures and memories that it creates.  The best you can do is take your reasonable precautions and go live life!

English Mastiff Dog Sitting with GoPro Camera

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Here is a photograph of Naly sitting with her new Hero2 GoPro Camera.  The harness came from Ray Allen.  Ray Allen specializes in K-9 dog products.  The GoPro Hero2 Camera is an amazing unit.  I can not say enough good things about this little camera.  This may not be Naly's favorite dog toy, but Pete sure has fun looking at the interesting photos of dogs we get form our dog park outings.  I am quite sure we have some of the weirdest photos of close up shots of the dog's water bowl and other such stuff.  Yes, dog park trips with the GoPro tend to have their fair share of dog butt sniffing photos.  We jokingly refer to these dog butt shots as "doggy porn".

An Aluminum Dog Ramp for Large Breed Dogs

As most of you know I have been shopping for a solid dog ramp that would work for my small English Mastiff dog. Yes, a small Mastiff. At 140 pounds, my 4 year old mastiff is considered small for the breed. She was the runt of the litter.

Anyway, the local Petsmart and Petco stores had several plastic ramps rated at 200+ pounds.  I tried a few of these, but ended up returning them.  It would only be a matter of weeks after purchase and the plastic would start to bend or bow.  The new ramp is aluminum.  Very nice.  The bad news is... I can't tell you where to get it.  I have no clue.  My brother came across it somewhere used.  It has no name or marking on it of any kind. No numbers, nothing!

I like it because it is a single fold, instead of a bi-fold.  Let's face it, hinges are weak points. There is no sense in having twice as many weak points as we need.  This ramp is longer than most, fold to fit easily across my tailgate, is solid for the dog to walk on, and has rubber on top for traction.  Perfect!

Here is a close up of the hinge.  You can see how solid it is built and how nicely it is welded.  The dog actually likes to use it.

Dog Ramp : Rated at 200 pounds? Not So Much.

Note: The picture included here is from PetGear's literature.

About a month ago, I noticed Naly had a slight limp in her stride. I checked her paws and legs and watched her closely to see if she paid any special attention any of her feet or legs. It seemed like she had maybe just caught herself wrong jumping out of the back of the Toyota Tacoma pickup truck. The truck is not unusually tall for a 4x4 truck, but does have a slight ( less then 2 inch ) lift due to some off-road suspension. Naly was about to turn 4 years and at 140 or so pounds, I knew it was time to having her start using a pet ramp to get in and out of the truck. I know that front joints and shoulders take too much abuse from such jumping in these larger breeds. I went to my local Petco store to see what they had. The selection was ok, but not great for larger dogs. There were several options for small dogs to get on and off the sofa, or in and out of a vehicle, but for dogs over 100 pounds there were only two choices. One was a bi-fold ramp about 60 inches long rated for dogs up to 150 pounds. The other ramp was a PetGear TL9371CH trifold ramp rated for 200 pounds. The ramp was priced right around $109 and I was out the door for right around $120 with sales tax.

One of the biggest issues with using a dog ramp is to have it easily available so the dog gets used to using it every time they enter and exit the vehicle.  I would have preferred a bi-fold ramp because I knew if we were going to have strength issues it would be at the hinges, and I had plenty of room for a longer stored ramp.  The storage of the ramp was pretty easy. I simply folded it up, placed it inside the tailgate of the pickup truck and used a bungee cord from one back corner to another to hold it in place.  Naly quickly got used to the ramp concept and would patiently wait for me to setup the ramp for her ingress and egress.  We were all pretty happy with how the use of this pet ramp was working out until a few days ago when it seemed to be getting a bit spongier under her weight.  This morning when Naly loaded up, I noticed that the plastic near the upper hinge point was beginning to flex.  Upon further examination I could see and feel that the ramp's surface was caving down while the sides were flexing out.  It was obviously only going to be a short matter of time until the ramp would be junk.  I dug out the box and receipt and headed back to Petco.  Petco's return policy is 30 days and I fortunately was on day 29.  They took the defective ramp back without issue, but admitted that it was the sturdiest ramp they carried.

I am now in the process of shopping online to find a better fit for our use.  Because we are using the ramp with a pickup instead of a lower SUV or van, we would like to find one a bit longer.  The width of the 2000 Toyota Tacoma's tailgate is 52 inches.  I would love a really strong, fairly light wight ramp that was 90 to 100 inches in length with a bi-fold length of 45 to 50 inches.  The height of the tailgate is approximately 34 inches from the ground.  The 71 inch ramp was just a bit too steep for comfortable strolling up the ramp.  This encouraged the dog to take a slight jog at it, which I am sure is part of what made it fail.  Naly's petite 140 pounds is well under the ramp's weight rating of 200 pounds, but the resultant force of 140 pounds in motion, even a slow trot is a bit higher.

In summary, if you are working with a "stand size" dog such as a 80 or 90 pound Labrador or Retriever, I am sure this ramp would perform very well.  If you have a older, slower moving dog, I am sure the ramp is capable of supporting the stated 200 pound limit. Most of my mastiffs in the past have well exceeded 225 pounds and this ramp would not have worked for them, no matter how slow we approached the ramp.  I will be contacting PetGear directly on Monday to see if they offer a sturdier product that they might recommend.

I really like what I see from Rage Powersports dog ramp line. It looks like a great length and fold size for my Toyota Tacoma pickup. My problem thus far is finding a dealer that actually handles their dog ramp products. I use Summit Racing for other things, but Summit doesn't seem to carry Rage's dog ramps. I really would like a local vendor where I could get a little hands on time before plunking down close to $200. - Pete

Welcome to the new Naly Dawg Blawg

Welcome to the new online home for Naly Dawg's Blog. Naly's blog will usually focus on pet accessories for XL Large dogs. Naly is a "small" English Mastiff. She just turned 4 years old and I believe she was the runt of her litter. While Naly is my 5th mastiff, she is possibly the sweetest one yet. She comes in at her adult weight of 140 pounds, making her look more like a large rott, and less like a mastiff. Everyone knows her as Naly, which is pronounced like "Sally" ... so "Nally". Her full name is Nalikutemwa, which is Bemba (a major Bantu language spoken primarily in north-eastern Zambia) for "I love you". Yeah, I know...it is pretty hard to be a real tough dog with a name like that. I am sure the other dogs made fun of her at puppy training class, as well as the dog park. Even at a petite 140 pounds, it can be a struggle to find high quality pet accessories for these X-Large dogs. In this blog, we will discuss what we have used, what we liked, what we didn't, and in some cases how me made or modified something to work better. We look forward to learning as much from you, the readers, as well. Please share your great finds and even your frustrations with different products and vendors. - Pete ( and Naly )