Happy Holidays!

DogShirtStore.com and Plan-It Promotions, Inc. wishes all of our friends, customers, and Facebook fans Happy Holidays and all the best in the New Year!!
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DogShirtStore Creates New NADAC Designs

We are so pleased to be able to offer products we have created especially for NADAC (North American Dog Agility Council)! Tees, polos, magnets, decals, and window vinyls are available so far. Check them out under "NADAC Stuff" at http://www.dogshirtstore.com/.

For more information about NADAC, go to: http://www.nadac.com/.

Finally Fundraising Again!!

We're so excited! Plan-It Promotions, Inc., the company that owns www.DogShirtStore.com, was initially started with the intent on fundraising for animal rescue organizations.

Throughout past years, we have felt privileged to host fundraising events, as well as raise funds in other ways. Unfortunately, more recently, we have been so busy growing our business and trying to stay alive in this economy (especially with Ilene losing her job of 13 years this past May!), that we almost lost sight of our original mission.

Well, today we had a light-bulb moment! We decided to offer animal rescue groups the opportunity to hold a fundraiser through our webstore! Please feel free to contact us if you know of a non-profit animal advocacy organization that would like us to set up a fundraiser for them. It would be our pleasure!!

No More CafePress Store!

You may have stumbled upon this blog while looking for our CafePress store. Unfortunately, we closed our CafePress shop today. But, never fear - our own live webstore has all of our CafePress designs, plus many, many more!

DogShirtStore / Plan-It Promotions, Inc. had a CafePress store from 7/2/07 through today. Unfortunately, CafePress got very greedy, and greatly slashed shopkeepers' commissions - on the shopkeepers' own designs! Bad move, CafePress!

Please feel free to visit our real webstore at www.DogShirtStore.com!

The Schnauzer and the Servant Bell

A few years ago, we bought an ingenious little product called a Pet Chime. The idea is that you put this oversized doorbell button on the floor by the door, and the dog presses the button to alert you that he needs to go out; you take the dog out, and save on carpet cleaning bills.

It was surprisingly easy to train two of the three Mini Schnauzers who let us live with them to use the bell. The third, our "human" dog, Lili, just didn't understand why she should take the time. Her needs are met in every way, so why bother?

We started with teaching the "touch" trick [see previous post - Teaching a Dog to Touch on Command]. This behavior was then fairly easily transferred to touch the bell - go outside. In a week or so, both Ivie and Trooper had this figured out (Lili did easily learn the touch trick, since she wouldn't pass up a chance to get a yummy treat, but she still can't be bothered to ring the bell to go out).

Fast forward a couple of years, and Trooper seems to have discovered a new use for the bell. Now after ringing the bell, instead of standing by the front door, when we come downstairs we'll find him standing by the food bowl (I'm hungry) or standing at the base of the stairs (please open the gate - I'm lonely and want to be upstairs with you), or even standing in the middle of the living room carpet with his favorite toy in his mouth (I'm bored and want you to play with me).

Lately, he's even started a new trick with the bell. We think he rings it when Lili needs to go out. There have been multiple occasions where he will ring the bell, get taken out, and then ring it again just a few minutes later. Yet, when we go downstairs to see what he wants, he runs from the door and curls up on the sofa, but Lili, the one who never bothers to ring the bell (unless there's a treat involved), is sitting patiently by the door waiting to go out. Our little canine companions never cease to amaze us!

"Jeeves, please have the car brought around."
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Teaching a Dog to Touch on Command

From left to right:

Lili, Trooper, and Ivie

Teaching a pup how to "touch" on command is a fairly easy trick to teach. You can use just about any prop at first - we started with a mouse pad. For best results, train new tricks in short sessions (just a few minutes each session), but often. We teach new tricks in the evenings and on weekends, when we can devote about five minutes out of every hour to the pups, over a four to six hour period.

Here are the basic steps that worked well with our Mini Schnauzers:

1. Decide on your first prop; something like a mouse pad, piece of cardboard, book, etc.

2. Put your prop in front of your pup and when he touches it (with paw or nose), mark it with your clicker or training word (ours is "Yes!") and give him a treat.

3. Pick up your prop and put it back down and again treat him when he touches it. After awhile, start saying "touch" when you put the prop down so he starts associating the word with the action.

4. After your pup shows some touch consistency, switch things up a bit by using different props, and move it around so he doesn't associate "touch" with any particular prop or place.

5. Try putting your pup in a sit/stay, and then put your prop down a few feet away from him and point to the prop, telling him to touch. Our kids really liked this game - once we gave the command "touch", they would run and pounce on the prop! [As evidenced in the composite picture above]

6. Once your pup understands touch, put his paw print bell on the floor by the door you go out to walk him. Every time you take him out, tell him to "touch" the bell before opening the door.

It won't be long before he's ringing the bell to let you know he has to go out, and maybe, like our Trooper, to also tell you he's hungry, wants to play, or his sister has to go out!!

November is Pet Cancer Awareness Month

Pet Cancer Early Warning Signs from the
American Veterinary Medical Association:

• Abnormal swellings that persist or continue to grow
• Sores that do not heal
• Weight loss
• Loss of appetite
• Bleeding or discharge from any body opening
• Offensive odor
• Difficulty eating or swallowing
• Hesitation to exercise or loss of stamina
• Persistent lameness or stiffness
• Difficulty breathing, urinating or defecating

Contact your veterinarian if you notice your dog or cat displaying any of these signs. Early detection is vital for successful treatment and recovery of pet cancer.

[Taken from a VPI pet insurance communication. ]
All of our pets are insured with VPI – check it out at http://www.petinsurance.com/
If you join, please let them know we referred you.
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Dog Poop

We don't often think about dog poop. All right - if you have a dog, you know that's a lie. Our dog's poop can tell us a lot. It can let us know if Fido (pseudonym) isn't feeling well, if he ate something he shouldn't have, or if he's doing just fine.

Having three Mini Schnauzers, we pretty much took for granted the small size of their "output". That is, until we came across some poop that looked like it must have come from an elephant! (Okay, we know it actually came out of a canine, but we can't imagine how big it must have been to have created that biscuit).

So, that prompted us to do our newest design - No Poop Walk. Go to Other Stuff - T-Shirts on the left side of our home page to check it out. http://www.dogshirtstore.com/

Here's our PSA for the day:
If you walk your dog in public, please do your neighbors a favor and PICK UP YOUR POOP!!! Well, your dog's poop, anyway. Besides, it's the law! :-)

Just How Smart is Your Dog?

We all think our dog is the smartest pup around, don't we? But, just how smart is your dog? How does he or she compare to the breed standard?

We have three Mini Schnauzers, and if we equate them to people, we have one who we think is "book smart" - she's analytical, one who is "street smart" - she's intuitive, and one who is just a clown (but yes, he is pretty sharp, too!) - he's extremely observant.

According to S. Coren, author of "The Intelligence of Dogs", there are three types of dog intelligence:

Read more »

Summer SAD - Maybe I'm NOT Going Crazy?

Okay, according to most who know me, I probably already am crazy. But I think this may be different - really. I've made no secret of the fact that I'm going through the dreaded menopausal phase of life, and have pretty much blamed every ache, pain, and negative thought on my hormones. However, this summer things became so much worse. I remember it started during our June flyball tournament. All of a sudden, I couldn't stand to be outside in the heat and sun, even to walk our dogs. If I had to be outside longer than a few minutes, it could bring on a full-blown anxiety attack.

I started calling myself a vampire - I hibernated during the day and only went out in the evenings, after the sun went down. I would hate it when the dogs asked to go out when Del, my husband, wasn't home to walk them. Our air conditioning went out one day, and the panic attack wasn't pretty.

Besides our webstore, we also vendor at dog sport events. Although we rely on that income since I lost my full-time job in May (after 13 years of service), we had to cancel several trips because the thought of traveling in the hot sun was just to much to bear - what if we had car trouble and didn't have a/c?

We stopped going to our flyball practices - it was just too hot. I became reclusive. If I had to go out during the day, I would take a cooler of ice, a battery-powered fan, and lots of cold water with me - "just in case". I didn't communicate much with my friends. Hard to explain why I didn't want to meet them for lunch, or go shopping, etc. In my head, it just sounded silly to say I couldn't go out because it was too hot. I was depressed, I was sad, I was anxious, I was frustrated. I also cried a lot.

After getting my hormones tested, it was confirmed - I was in perimenopause. So, I tried researching menopause related anxiety. Not much helpful information, except to take hormones or go on antidepressants. I didn't like either option. Very small doses of Xanax only when things got very bad helped, but still, I really hate having to take anything.

Then, finally, a cool spell for a whole week - the temperatures went below 90 degrees. It was wonderful! I took the dogs out for walks, I practiced flyball with them in the back yard. I sat soaking in the sun and it felt great!

Then the temperatures went back up, and I am staying in the house once again. At this point, I'm watching the forecast and getting excited that this coming week the temperatures will once again be under 90.

That brings us to tonight. Del is a musician (born in Canada) and belongs to a Canadian classic rock email group. He really does glean a lot of useful (and not so useful) information from that group! Tonight, there was a posting about SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) on the list.

Del hadn't heard of it, so he proceeded to look it up. While reading about SAD, he found out there is actually such a thing as REVERSE SAD - an extremely small group of people are actually affected not by winter, but by summer. There doesn't seem to be a lot of information about it, except that it isn't known if it is caused by the sun or the heat, and there isn't really a treatment for it (winter SAD has a few different treatments, one of which is light therapy). Antidepressants have been found helpful in that they can lower your body temperature so that you don't feel as hot, but again, not crazy about taking meds here.

I don't know why this started affecting me this summer, but I guess I can still blame that on hormonal changes. I do feel validated, at least in a small way, just knowing that there may be an explanation other than I'm going crazy.

I would very much appreciate getting feedback from anyone else who has gone through this, especially if you have found anything that could help.

Ilene.

DogShirtStore on Facebook

We're always trying to think of ways to show our appreciation for the people who support us. Become a fan of DogShirtStore on Facebook, and be the first to find out what's new and receive special sales and promotions, for fans only! You can find us at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/DogShirtStore/108541084788

Second Height Dog Contest Winning Design

At least we didn't wait another two months to complete this one! The newest height dog design is now available - "Size Does Matter". Our thanks to Teresa Y. of Texas for the great idea! To check out the newest design, go to Flyball Stuff - T-Shirts at www.dogshirtstore.com.

Update - Ivie's Hearing Issue

On 9/11/09, we posted about a sound sensitivity issue that our white Mini Schnauzer, Ivie had developed. (Please see previous blog).

We've had many, many suggestions from all over the world about a) what could cause this, and b) what to do about it . . . Suggestions far too numerous to mention in detail, but the top items were:
1) Have her thyroid checked.
2) Have her hearing checked.
3) Have her teeth checked for cracks, decay, etc.
4) Have her checked by a chiropractor / acupuncturist.
5) Work with her on a behavior level, desensitize her to the sound.

Actually, the behavior suggestion was the most commonly received one. Many people said that their dogs developed sensitivity to various sounds, from electronic camera flashes to thunder and they were able to work with them through behavior to help them. However, our concern was that if there was a physical cause, teaching her to not exhibit the pain wouldn't be a good thing.

So, we attempted to look for a physical cause before going the behavior route.

Our first step was to have her thyroid checked. As suggested by several readers, we wanted not just a simple screening, but a full thyroid panel. Blood was taken and sent to Michigan State. A week or so later, the results came back, and although most levels were in the normal range, her free T3 panel was very low. The specialist said that she would not consider Ivie to have hypothyroidism with her particular values, but our regular vet and we decided it was still a good thing to treat it as such since thyroid issues can be a bit "abnormal".

We started her on Thyrosin and were hopeful that we'd see improvement shortly. Unfortunately, after several weeks it seemed that this had no effect at all on her sound sensitivity. (We are still glad we had this done, because it revealed another issue that we would not have known about otherwise). She's due to get her blood retested on 11/11/09 just to be sure all the values are now in the normal range.

Our next step was to have her hearing checked. If, in fact, she was becoming deaf as several readers suggested, certain normal sounds could be very frightening, we supposed. We made an appointment with a veterinary hearing specialist who also happens to be a neurologist for a Baer test.

When we arrived for the Baer test and began speaking with the doctor, she told us that the Baer test only tells if the dog can hear or not; it's commonly used with puppies that are suspected of being deaf to determine if they are truly unable to hear. The test would not tell us if she was having sensitivity to a particular range of frequencies. Since we were already there, she proceeded to do a series of neurological tests on her - lying her on her back and looking in her eyes, poking and prodding her in various places, having me walk and jog with her to see if she had any gait issues. Aside from a general soreness in her shoulders, she detected nothing unusual. She recommended that we may want to try some acupuncture and/or Chinese medicine remedies, which we still may do, but haven't as of this writing.

Our third effort involved finding a vet who could take dental x-rays, as ours does not. At first we thought we would need to drive to Gainesville to the veterinary college, but a little more digging brought us to a clinic in Largo that specializes in canine dentistry. We met with Ashley B. Oakes, DVM, of Tampa Bay Veterinary Specialists in Largo, Florida, and she did a full exam in preparation for the x-rays. Dr. Oakes did not particularly care for the position of Ivie's upper front tooth, which was slightly behind the teeth on either side of it. Although she did not think this tooth could be the cause of the problem, she felt that it could bother Ivie at some point since it was hitting the lower teeth awkwardly when she closed her mouth. So, since Ivie was going to be sedated for the x-rays anyway, we decided to have the tooth extracted and have her teeth cleaned at the same time. No cracks or injured teeth were found.

Surprisingly, after her visit to the dentist, Ivie did seem to be slightly more tolerant of sounds, at least for a little while. Unfortunately, it seems to be getting worse now, which makes us believe it may now be behavioral since she got used to having that reaction.

Our next step will be to work on the behavior itself, having done as much as we can to eliminate physical causes. We've bought a referee's whistle, and plan on practicing flyball in the backyard and lightly whistling and treating her (with baby food, one of her favorite treats) at the same time.

If anyone has any other ideas on how to change this behavior, please feel free to comment. Thanks!!

First Height Dog Contest Winning Design

Well, it took us two months since the contest closed, but we finally finished our first HEIGHT DOG* contest winning design, and it's now available!! It's so good we had to make two! "Seven Inches is Better Than Nine" and "I Like Seven Inches . . ." Many thanks to Jennifer S. of Maryland. To check out the new designs, go to Flyball Stuff at http://www.dogshirtstore.com/.

*A height dog is the smallest dog on a flyball team of four dogs.

What the Heck is Flyball??

All three of our Mini Schnauzers are flyball racers and are considered height dogs, since they are the smallest dogs on their team. They aren't the fastest racers, but they are very consistent (they jump over the jumps, get their ball, and come back over the jumps), and they sure look cute doing it!!

You can watch them practicing at www.youtube.com/dogshirtstore.

Taken directly from the NAFA (North American Flyball Association) website (www.flyball.org), the following is a good explanation of the sport of flyball:

Flyball races match two teams of four dogs each, racing side-by-side over a 51 foot long course. Each dog must run in relay fashion down the jumps, trigger a flyball box, releasing the ball, retrieve the ball, and return over the jumps. The next dog is released to run the course but can't cross the start/finish line until the previous dog has returned over all 4 jumps and reached the start/finish line. The first team to have all 4 dogs finish the course without error wins the heat.

Jump height is determined by the smallest dog on the team – this dog, called the "height dog", is measured at the withers, then that number is rounded down to the nearest inch and another 5" is subtracted to get the jump height (with the minimum jump height being 7"). So a 13 1/4" dog would round down to 13", minus 5", would jump 8". Maximum jump height is 14".

In the early days of flyball, there were no start lights and no passing lights. All of the starts and passes were called by the line judges, who also used hand-held stopwatches to time the races. The race was started by the head judge; the judge would do a basic "ready, set, go" and blow the whistle on the "go". Minimum jump heights were 10", and were determined by measuring the smallest dog on the team at the withers and rounding up or down to the nearest inch (so a 13 1/2" dog would jump 13", while a 13 3/4" dog would jump 14").

With the onset of the Electronic Judging System (EJS), which uses lights and infrared timing sensors [it reminds us of car racing lights], competitors were suddenly able to track their starts, passes, finishes, and individual dogs' times to the thousandth of a second. It's hard to imagine racing without an EJS in this day and age. Many teams run all 4 dogs through the course in less than 20 seconds. The NAFA World Record is now 15.22.

New at DogShirtStore - JEWELRY!

We are always trying to find and offer new products, especially for our fellow flyball competitors, since they see us so often and support us so well (which is truly appreciated!). So, we now have JEWELRY!! 100% Sterling Silver and Swarovski Crystal paw print earrings and bookmark hooks with dog breed charms. They can be found on our Jewelry Stuff page at http://www.dogshirtstore.com/servlet/the-JEWELRY-STUFF/Categories.

Childhood Cancer Awareness Day!

We are pleased to have T-shirts, magnets, and decals available for sale to bring awareness to childhood cancer. A portion of each sale will be donated to CureSearch (http://www.curesearch.org/), in honor of our friend Paula, who is working to bring awareness of childhood cancer to the forefront. To read Paula's blog, please go to: The Prodigal Presbyterian. You can find these products at http://www.dogshirtstore.com/ under "Other Stuff".

White Mini Schnauzer - New Hearing Issue

[Previously posted on our website - 9/2/09]

This is a strange problem that no one we've spoken to has ever heard of, including our trainers and our vet, so I'm throwing it "to the winds" of cyberspace in case someone somewhere has heard of a case like this.

Our white Miniature Schnauzer Ivie, who is 6 years old, has recently developed a sensitivity to higher-pitched sounds that is making it so she will have to stop competing in flyball if we can't find a solution.
It first happened in June at a flyball tournament ... her first race was the fifth race of the day. She was very slow in her first runback warm-up, which was unusual. Then, when it was her turn to run in the race, she wouldn't go. Instead, she looked distressed and like she had to relieve herself. We took her outside, and she had diarrhea (keep in mind that she heard the judge's whistle blowing during the previous four races, although we didn't know at the time that it bothered her. We just naturally thought she was sick, and we didn't even think it could be related to sound. We kept her out of racing for the weekend.

A few weeks later we were at an agility event. Agility competitions are pretty quiet, and she was fine all weekend ... until the awards at the end of the weekend. While we were breaking down our vendor booth at the end of Sunday, the awards were going on, and when our friends were getting awards I was clapping and doing a really loud whistle (the kind where you use your fingers) . . . after awhile, Ivie was scratching at her crate, and shiver-shaking and in total distress. All night long she kept "asking" to go out, so we wound up taking her to the emergency vet, who said although her urine didn't look too bad, maybe she had a slight infection, and put her on antibiotics "just in case".

Over the next few days, different things happened to set Ivie off - a spring on our heat press squeaked, the kitchen faucet squeaked, a tennis shoe squeaked on the tile floor . . . in every case she reacted exactly the same - running around, shiver-shaking, clinging to momma, panting, chest heaving, ringing the doorbell, scratching at the door. At this point, we finally figured out that Ivie's distress seemed to be related to the high-pitched sounds happening around her. So, back to the vet we went to have her ears checked. He did a VERY thorough examination: no wax buildup, no broken ear drum, nothing that he could see. Just in the very small chance it could help, the vet suggested we change her food in case the food she was on was somehow responsible for the new hearing sensitivity (we've only given our dogs premium food, from a raw diet, to cooking them a special "Schnauzer" diet, to finally Orijens, which is a very high protein food). So, finding a different food with very similar ingredients as the Orijens, but with much less protein, we gradually switched her food over the next few weeks.

We decided to "test" and see if she was still having issues, so while watching TV in the living room my wife let out a high-pitched "whoo-hoo", although not very loud (certainly not as loud as a judge's whistle) . . . just to see what would happen. Ivie immediately jumped up, ran around, shivered, and ran to the door to get out. She had just been walked 30 minutes previously, so she should not have needed to relieve herself. We calmed her down and put some soft foam earplugs in her ears to see if they would help. After making sure she was calm and resting, my wife again let out a softer "whoo-hoo". Again, off to the door, and this time she would not be denied. She would have clawed down the door if I did not take her out.

We hate the thought of pulling our most experienced pup from competing in flyball, since she really loves it, so I'm throwing this out there to the collective dog sport world in the hopes we can come up with a solution. Please note that Ivie does NOT react to other types of sounds. She doesn't care about thunder, gunshots on TV, fireworks, vacuum cleaners, or anything else. We've even walked her in the middle of a thunder storm when she insisted, with no bad reaction. Only higher-pitched squeaky sounds and whistles now set her off, and it usually takes her at least a day or two to get over it.

Any ideas would be gratefully considered.

Hello and Welcome to the DogShirtStore.com Blog!

DogShirtStore.com is an online store featuring all-original designs on T-shirts, magnets, window vinyls, and stickers. We sell Easy-Walk harnesses, tugs, Sterling Silver jewelry, and other pet-related items such as treats, interactive toys, pet swabs, and more. We also sell flyball jumps and the Miller Elite Flyball Box.

In addition to dog sport items, we are also expanding our line: already we have added some cat designs and some yoga-related designs, with more categories to come.

The original designs we sell are all of our own creation, or the suggestions of friends and fellow competitors. My wife and I do all of the design and manufacturing ourselves (for now).

We are owned by three Miniature Schnauzers who are active in flyball and agility, and also two cats who aren't particularly active at all.

Located in Land O Lakes, FL, we also sell our products at various dog-related shows and tournaments throughout Florida and beyond, and a select group of resellers also carry our designs.