Camp Bow Wow!

Today we took the littles (Dj and Dexter, our two miniature dachshunds) to Camp Bow Wow for the day.
We are planning a few long weekends away this summer and just have not been comfortable with the idea of leaving them with friends or having them home alone while someone came over to check on them. There are too many things to worry about (them escaping between someones legs when they come in the door, the lawn guy not shutting the fence all the way and the dogs running out into the busy street, the bigs stepping on the littles, and the list goes on and on)

We asked a few of our friends for suggestions and the name Camp Bow Wow came up a few times so we checked them out. They have locations all over so check your area for one near you ...I promise you'll love them just as much as we did! The nearest one to us was in Sarasota (about a 40 minute drive from home according to mapquest) Since we work in Sarasota this was fine. Today we filled out all the camp applications and got copies of our vet records and headed up for the day.

First impressions were awesome. The place smelled so good and looked so neat and tidy. The girl at the front desk was very patient with DJ as he sat and barked at her while she tried to take his picture. For their first time you have to leave them a minimum of 3 hours so they can observe them with the other dogs. We dropped them off and rushed right to the office so we could watch them on the camper cam and see how they were doing. Vic paid close attention to their tails and if they were smiling. After about an hour we saw them running outside together and looking very happy.

Camp Bow Wow separates the dogs by size. They  have a small area, a medium area and large dog area. I felt sorry for the big dog today because he was all alone with no one else to play with. The little area and medium dogs were very full of "campers" (that is what they call the dogs in day camp).

We lasted almost four hours before we just had to go pick them back up and see for ourselves that they were not traumatized or anything. When we got there we had the camp counselor show us the "cabins" the dogs will be staying in when they stay over night. Dj and Dexter will share a cabin that is about 4' x 8' , it looked very comfy and I think they will like it almost as much as our king size bed! (and we will actually get some leg room with no worries of rolling over on them)

Within minutes of the drive home both dogs were crashed ! They are very excited about going back to camp next week!

Silence!

A few weeks ago a neighbor that is trying to sell his house came over and told me that our dogs (mainly the dachshunds) were hindering the sale of his house. His realtor told him that at least three times she had shown the house and the constant barking made the people turn away. He was very nice but also pretty direct in that he would like for us to do something.

Of course this was upsetting to us. It's one thing to be annoyed when we are home and they bark at the neighbors or the lawn guy, or each other. But to know that they do it when we are not home made it even worse. We had become "those" neighbors and were not too happy about it at all!.

We had some friends tell us about shock collars but  neither one of us wanted to do that because we just don't think it is the most humane way to train and after googling reviews it just took one story about a little dog that had it's neck get burnt that sealed the deal for us, we would NOT be going that route.

I took the dogs to my friend Tracys one evening and her sister kept saying "you need bark off" but never really explained what it was or what it did. I wasn't even aware that it was a product until I came home and looked it up online. I loved what I was reading, if it worked it was just what we were looking for.

Bark Off is an ultrasonic training aid that is portable, inaudible to humans, and is safe and humane! It says so right on the packaging! lol

So I ordered one online for $10 but wait there was a special buy one get one free offer...only I messed it up and didn't realize if I clicked one more time it would add another device...oops I ordered three...and then the doubting Debbie that I am ordered two more because I wasn't sure my first order really went thru...yes stuff like this happens to me a lot...following directions isn't my strong point (must have gotten that from dad!)

So about a week and a half later two boxes arrived at our door! We went out and bought some 9volt batteries and gave them a whirl. And what a perfect time to experiment, 4th of July!!

The dogs still start to bark but quickly stop after one or two barks! Dexter is a little screamer when it comes to letting the dogs out, he has to be the leader and he has to be loud. We have tried water bottles and scolding him and picking him up...nothing worked..until Bark Off!!!

Today I am going to leave the ustream feed up so I can watch from work and see if the babies continue to behave while we are not home but so far so great with this little gadget!!!

(I have not been paid for this review, in fact I paid much more than I should have by miss-ordering!)

Happy 4th Of July!

I hope that you all are enjoying a relaxing 4th of July doing exactly what you want to do!

We have had a very laid back weekend doing not much of anything around here. I've been glued to the TV watching the Cassie Anthony Trial. Now that the jury has gone off we are going to watch as many of the Harry Potter movies as we can. Vic has never seen them , it's always fun to share beloved movies with someone that has not seen them before in hopes they will enjoy them as much as me!

Firecracker!