Naly Dawg's Blawg / Dog's Blog: March 2012

Saturday, March 31, 2012

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 )

Dog Ramps for Large Breeds

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.

Dogs, Ticks, and Lymes Disease

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!