Dog Park Etiquette

Yesterday, Sadie woke up with the devil in her eyes. You could see that she just wanted to get herself into trouble. Mid day yesterday we put Sadie in the backyard, as we do everyday. She normally does laps around the pool, chases squirrels, and scratches her back on a tall bush. We don’t have a lot of property, but it’s enough for her to have decent exercise and still have the kids toys/houses all over. Most days she entertains herself for an hour or so.

The dog pushed through a gate on the steps and jumped into the pool. Maybe a half hour later, we heard the dog barking, a lot! My wife and I both went to the back door, expecting to see her cornering a cat or squirrel. Instead to our surprise, we found Sadie sitting on the cover of our pool. My guess is she ripped the cover trying to get out, which is what caused all the water to get on the cover. Weather.com shows yesterday (11/23) to be 41 degrees. That water was not warm! My initial concern of course was for the dog, but then quickly went to me having to jump into the water, to get her out.

We were able to slide her on the cover to an area that had more (not torn) “fabric”. Once in that area, I was able to reach in and grab her.

Sadie was fine. She was very cold, wet and had that look on her face, that she knew she did something bad. We quickly brough her in the house and toweled her (and me) off, as much as possible. I then brought her into the bathroom and turned on the heat light, while I used 2 more towels to dry her off. As I was doing this, I started thinking that we are not prepared with any type of medical supplies for Sadie. Not that we could have done more in this situation, but what if she cut herself or broke something.

I have a vanity full of every Dora the explorer and Backyardigans bandaids, but nothing for the dog. Come to think of it, I don’t even know that I or my wife would be comfortable in a situation that the dog hurt herself.

So what goes into a dog’s first aid kit? Well, I did some searching and here is what I came up with:

I was able to find many of these items in our local Rite Aid, today. I also found most of the dog items at Dr’s Fosters & Smith

Sorry for the ad, but I love doc fosters!

Another thing I realized is that we have the dog’s vet on speed dial, but what about the local animal hospitals. I’m not even confident that my wife knows where any of local animal hospitals are. So now in the front page of our phone book, I’ve stapled a page with the vet and, the two closest animal hospitals.

My goal this week is to setup a forum on with this site. Since I’ve posted the “Dog Park Etiquette” page, I’ve received emails about line items I’ve left out. My thoughts are to let people post their own line items in a forum. I will also make an additional entry for things every dog owner should keep in his or her canine first aid kit.

On a closing note, Sadie and my children sprawled out on the futon mattress last night. It was a great pic that I wanted to share.

11/23/2007

Tags: Canine First Aid Kit, Dog Health, Puppies