October 29, 2018

How I've Learned to Cope with Worrying about My Dog with Atypical Addison's Disease

October 29, 2018/ Irene McHugh

Two years ago our Labradoodle Bernie was diagnosed with atypical Addison’s Disease. Since then Matthew and I have been learning strategies to effectively manage his symptoms. More recently, we’ve decided that managing our anxiety about his condition is equally important for the whole pack.

Our Bernie is such an emphatic pup that he senses our stress. He knows when we’re happy. He knows when we’re depressed. He knows when we’re stressed. The last thing we want to do is transfer any uneasiness to him.

October 22, 2018

Pack Field Trip to the Most Dog-Friendly Winery in Southern Arizona

October 22, 2018/ Irene McHugh

Enticing October weather in Southern Arizona encourages people to explore a little farther from home. I discovered a socially conscious dog-friendly winery that Matthew and I knew we had to visit with our dogs.

Bernie and Lizzie were excited too since they’ve never been to a winery, but they anticipated bountiful sniffs on this adventure.

October 18, 2018

Trick or Treat Giveaway! Train Your Dog to Back Up

October 18, 2018/ Irene McHugh

Halloween is almost here! We don’t dress up the pups in the McSquare household, but we do like tricks AND treats, so we’re pretty excited to be part of this year’s Trick or Treat Giveaway Hop! We’ve teamed up with several blogger friends to create training tutorials for a variety of dog tricks AND give away almost $1500 in prizes.

Pssst…if you visit all 19 blogs, you can enter 19 different times!

October 15, 2018

Book Review: 101 Dog Tricks by Kyra Sundance and Chalcy

October 15, 2018/ Irene McHugh

Early in 2017, Matthew, Bernie, and I took a tricks class with our Labradoodle Bernie. We missed a few classes and did not focus on practicing the dog tricks at home consistently. Since then, I’ve tried to reinforce the few tricks that we did learn together, but I haven’t added anything truly new.

Our trainer is a Certified Trick Dog Instructor, so she’s shared information about the various trick dog titles offered through Kyra Sundance’s Do More With Your Dog! If you haven’t checked out her website, give it a click. The rainbow ribbons and certificates are definitely motivating!

Since we’re training Bernie to be a therapy dog, we decided to add in more tricks training. Who wouldn’t want to see a few fun tricks during a therapy dog visit? 101 Dog Tricks is a handy reference for our continuing therapy dog journey.