We’ve had our little rescue mutt, Lilly, for exactly 531 days. That’s just about a year and a half, for those keeping track.
In that time, the lessons have already started pouring in…and just when I thought I had my finger on the pulse of everything “dog”. It’s not that she’s that unique as a dog, but rather that every dog really is so unique. And this dog has a totally different personality (dogality?) than our Sweet Pea had.
In Sweet Pea, we had a total lap dog, who also loved to run trails with me. She was way more into people than dogs, in fact she didn’t really like to play dog-style. Lilly on the other hand, is a dog’s dog all the way. Give her the choice of a human or a dog to play with, and she’ll pick the dog every time. Trail running with Lilly is so frustrating, as she really likes to stop and smell the flowers along the way. Which is fine, I mean after all, she IS a dog!
So in the last 531 days, I’ve had ample time to experiment with what my dog loves to do. I’m putting the pieces together one by one, and there’s plenty more to go before I get the full picture of my Lilly. Here’s what I’ve figured out so far.
- Lilly likes playing with dogs, but in smaller groups. She likes to know where all of the dogs are at any given time, so if we go to the dog park and there are 20 dogs there, she’s not her happiest and will likely “nose” at the fence to leave within about 10 minutes.
- The park near our home is her favorite place. She sees the same dogs most mornings, which have now made up her dog family; her pack. She does like to go other places, but she knows what she’s in for when we hit the park. Her smile and her body language tell me that she is one happy girl.
- Hiking is always a great idea. She has this incredible drive to get to the top of the mountain we’re hiking, which is totally different from her behavior on the running trail. She’ll only pause if I offer a water break, or to stop and exchange tail sniffs with another friendly dog.
- She’s VERY protective of her family. We went camping over the summer with a few other families with dogs – and by the way, I’m going to make the call and say that camping is her very favorite thing to do in the whole wide world! She got along great with the other dogs, but then whenever we were preparing food at our campsite, she took the guard position and wouldn’t allow the other dogs to enter our campsite until the food was eaten and scraps put away. I certainly wasn’t expecting that!
So what’s the point in me rambling on about Lilly and Sweet Pea? Do I really think that you want to learn the quirks of my dogs? Well, yes kind of. But more importantly, it’s to make a point. All dogs are not the same. They don’t all have the same likes and dislikes, they don’t all show love the same way, and they don’t have the same issues to work through.
One of the things I loved most about Natural Paws in the past was that I was helping others by solving Sweet Pea’s issues. It was always so interesting to hear the stories people would tell once they learned that Sweet Pea had had problems with paw licking, and with chronic ear infections, which were the 2 main things we set out to fix for her. Now that we have Lilly, I have a dog with really no health issues (knock wood!). So I reached out and asked our customers (hey that’s you!) what we weren’t solving yet, and I was presented with an opportunity to do something totally new with Natural Paws. You said that you had itchy dogs, and we responded. For the first time in Natural Paws’ 11 year history, we have created a product JUST FOR YOU.
Let me tell you, it really felt great. Still does. The feedback we received from our BETA-test group (since we didn’t have an itchy dog of our own to help) was amazing. We had a few dogs who were able to ditch their daily anti-histamines, and one who started weaning off of steroid injections. We saw dermatitis disappear, scratch and bite wounds heal up, and rough scaly patches become smooth. Stories of sleepless nights listening to chewing, slurping sounds, turned into peaceful, restful ones. We even saw patches of missing fur start to get furry again! So we say thank you, to those of you who reached out to us to let us know the problem, and to the special group who put their trust in us enough to try the new spray out before we knew how wonderfully helpful it would be.
And now everyone can Ditch The Itch. It’s safe, it’s natural, and it really does work. Check it out!