TraMar Cavalier King Charles Spaniel

Birthdays and Canine Crew update

It’s been busy around here, and technically, I’m still on vacation; but I wanted to share a little bit of an update for you on the canine crew.

I once again, was unable to make it to the Small Dog MeetUp group event.  I would love to go to these, and rotate taking the dogs, they could use the socialization, but alas, none of them are exactly close to me (about an hour or so away for all the events) and time is usually at a premium here (and so are gas prices!), so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to participate in this group any time soon.  Maybe some day.  They do have a new dog park in Washington, and have events there at least one Saturday a month - that might be a better option for me; but none of these events seems to occur on days I’m available.  *sigh*

Update:  everyone is doing exceedingly well.  Henry just celebrated his 1st birthday on July 3rd!  Happy Birthday Henry!!

Georgie is getting big as well - he turned 5 months old on July 5th.  Here he is with my 6 year-old Hannah.

Here’s Charles - peeking over a chair.

And finally, Hope.  What a sweet girl she is!

The Elusive Charles

Here’s Charles, my less than eager photo subject.  He truly does not like to get his photo taken for some odd reason.  But sunning on the deck this morning was the perfect opportunity for me to grab some snapshots of him.  He’s truly beautiful!! 

Waterproof belly band

I love belly bands for the boys. I truly do - the only thing I don’t like, is when they actually pee in them, the band itself gets damp/wet and well - ewwwww.

Of course, there are ways around this, one is to use a feminine napkin inside and to change that to extend the usage time for one belly band. Not a bad option, but in my humble opinion, a sanitary pad is going to act much like a disposable diaper in a human baby: it will wick the moisture away from the skin, so as not to be felt and to keep the skin dry. This is perhaps good for the skin, not so good for training dogs not to mark in the first place. They need to feel the wetness to train them not to mark. The feeling of wetness is the deterrent toward repeating the behavior. Just like cloth diapers and plastic pants are better for the environment, and actually better for skin than disposables with chemicals, so too are belly bands, without a sanitary napkin, better for dogs.

That said, you still have the issue of wetness. Now I’m not at all suggesting that one should leave a wet belly band on a dog for extended periods of time. Anymore than you would think of leaving a wet diaper on a human infant! Use common sense here. But, you do not necessarily go around every 30 seconds changing them either, and anyone with male dogs know they can hike their leg and mark quite often, until trained to stop. So at least once every hour or two, change the belly band, until then - you need to deal with a damp to wet belly band and protect your lap, furniture, etc…

So I came up with the idea to add a waterproof layer to the belly bands I had been making. I thought I was being terribly original and creative when I made this yesterday {see photo } (until I Googled and discovered otherwise), but regardless, the concept is still a good one.

I did learn that many are concerned about heat build-up and chafing with the waterproof layers in place. Again, if you don’t leave the bands on longer than an hour or two, this should not be an issue. However, the type of waterproof material used can also have bearing on this problem. I use PUL (polyurethane laminate) as my waterproof layer, and this particular material does come in a breathable variety! So it is possible to use a waterproof layer within a belly band, without contributing to heat build-up and skin chafing issues.