Naly Dawg's Blawg / Dog's Blog: kennel

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

English Mastiff Dog Sitting with GoPro Camera

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English Mastiff Pet Dog with new Hero2 GoPro Camera and dog harness

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".

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!