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Today I saw the year's first Hummingbird.... I sat and just thought of all of the miracles that we get to experience. His presence made me think of all of the beautiful flowers that will show their little faces in my garden this year. I can't wait to eat the year's first garden tomato, and to smell fresh green peppers smoking on the grill. This spring we will stay busy canning and drying everything our little garden throws at us. We will harvest and store cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, eggplant, garlic, potatoes, onions and more if the growing season is good. If you're just starting out growing your own garden, or preserving your own food, don't ever become discouraged. The rewards are well worth the work. We are always here to support our clients in any way we can. Join us in growing food the old-fashioned way. We are happy to help in any way we can to guide you to success!

Several years ago, I purchased a beautiful, loving dog from a breeder. At the time, I had several other female dogs and they all went out together for playtime. Within one week, two puppies, and three adult dogs began eating their own poo after being housed with the new dog. I was in shock. In almost 30 years of breeding dogs, I didn't even know this condition existed. Gross!! After talking to my vet, doing a TON of online research, and doing my own "Coprophagia" experiment, this is what I've learned..... First, it is NOT a nutritional deficiency that causes this condition. I feed a professional dog food topped with dehydrated raw, supplements, salmon oil, dehydrated veggies and more. It is not going to be cured by topping a dog's food with some sort of a deterrent. It is nothing more than a bad habit. This condition occurs in three stages. Puppies can begin the behavior by playing with poo, and then graduating to eating it. At this stage it is SUPER easy to correct. Second stage is in dogs over a year, Your starting to get into troubled waters at this point, but it can still be corrected if your extremely diligent. Older dogs are much harder to break of the habit, but its not impossible. This behavior can also be learned from other dogs (happened to me) so if you have a multi-dog household, you will have to treat/train all members of your fur family. This is the method we use to correct the condition...... 1. Start topping your dog's food with a digestive enzyme/probiotic. We want to make sure their food is fully digested, and less palatable. We recommend Legitpet Probiotics with Enzymes, or Purina Pro Plan FortiFlora. Both can be found on Chewy or Amazon. Make sure you are feeding an EXCELLENT quality dog food. We have recommendations if you need help picking the perfect food for your baby. 2. NO UNSUPERVISED INDOOR PEE PADS OR LITTER BOXES. I cannot emphasize this enough. If you leave your dog alone with his own feces at any time, you are creating the opportunity to eat poo. The dog/puppy must have supervised (on leash) potty time to begin correcting the behavior. If the dog attempts to eat poo while on leash, clap your hands loudly and say "leave it." If they potty without attempting to eat it, make sure you have treats on hand to celebrate their good behavior. Treat if they leave it on command as well. If you have a special needs pet, or the weather is too cold in your area, you may set up a playpen, or x-pen indoors with a gate and take your dog to this area to potty. This way you can supervise/train them without exposing them to the elements. However, i cannot stress this enough, no potty unsupervised. 3. Make sure your dog is getting PLENTY of exercise. We do daily walks, supervised play time and treadmill work here at Bayberry Chihuahuas. Tired dogs are well behaved dogs. It is their natural instinct to be in constant motion, foraging, and searching for food. 4. If you must leave the dog for a while, we recommend putting them in an area that they will not potty in such as a crate with a soft bed, if you can take them with you that's even better. Also make sure that your dog's outdoor environment is 100% poo free. Dogs in nasty conditions, surrounded by feces almost guarantees that they will continue the behavior. This training takes a few weeks of VERY diligent supervision, and control over potty time but the reward is many years of not stressing over sickness, and the possibility of parasite from eating poo. The happy ending happened for me and it can happen for you as well. With two months of constant supervision I am happy to say that this problem is a thing of the past. Don't become discouraged if your dog has a slip up, and by all means don't do the crazy thing of rubbing your dog's nose in it! Just ignore the slip up and continue training. Dog's want nothing more than to please you, and if they realize that not eating poo makes you happy and earns them a treat you've got it in the bag! If you have questions, feel free to drop me a message, and if you have time, fill our our Coprophagia survey to help us continue our research. The link is below. https://form.jotform.com/203532647250046

Every animal owner and lover supports rescuing, and it is absolutely a vital solution to the overpopulation problem in our country. I am a huge supporter of rescue groups personally and support it by fosterng when possible. However, it may not always be the right option for everyone, especially in the search for a purebred dog. The down side to rescuing is that the overwhelming majority of purebred dogs in shelters and rescues originate from irresponsible, unethical breeders, and therefore have no known pedigree, genetic history, temperament history, etc. These are what are referred to as “backyard breeders”. Some may be AKC registered, but as you’ll see further down, this means practically nothing and is not indicative of quality. This statistic means they often potentially come with health problems linked to their breed and/or behavioral problems caused by poor breeding or poor socialization/training growing up. There can be gems found in rescues that came from good stock (or just got lucky) and are healthy/stable, but these are few and far between. So if you would like to obtain a specific breed of dog from a shelter or rescue, please make sure you are fully prepared and ready to spend money on a professional trainer and potential extended Veterinary costs beyond the norm if it ends up being necessary. Questions to ask your potential breeder Have the parents been DNA/health tested against congenial defects & diseases? This is SO IMPORTANT. Some people may say, papers and health testing is not important to me because i'm not going to show or breed.... Unfortunately, this is the mindset that allows heart murmurs, bad teeth, bad patellas, blindness, and more to continue to travel in the gene pool of this lovely little breed. DONT BUY from people who breed for money, and don't care about the genetics of their dogs. If you do, you are inadvertently causing dogs to suffer in the future from these problems. Could we facetime? (you can confirm you are dealing with a real person, and your can see your potential puppy live) This allows you also to the see the different temperaments of the puppies. If your are a couch potato, you may want the timid, calm puppy in the corner. If your love to power walk, or would like to show in agility classes, your may want a puppy with a more outgoing, energetic personality. Could i have your vets number? (Call the vet and find out if the parents have been properly cared for and if your health certificate is legitimate) With today's technology, it is quite easy for people to falsify documents. If your puppy is flying, it should have a health certificate, wormed/fecal exam and age appropriate shots. If your puppy is traveling across state lines, it should have a CIV certificate. Do you offer a health guarantee? Any reputable breeder will stand behind their puppies 100% because they know they are only breeding healthy parents. The health guarantee should be dated, and signed by both yourself and the breeder. Do not purchase a puppy from anyone who offers to let your take it any earlier than 8 weeks. One, it is against state law, and two leaving the mother too early affects a puppies mental & physical health. Credit: Some of the information included in this post were the opinions of Pink Noses & Pink Scrubs (licensed Veterinary Technician)