Cottage Doodles

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Comment by Nugget's Family on March 15, 2010 at 6:05pm

This group is a great idea! Your pics of the doods and homes are stunning!

OK so we don't have a cottage but we have a "camp" in the Adirondack Mountains of NY State. In our case, our "camp" is a modern home on a lake.....labradoodle heaven, as long as we keep the ears dry! This pic is of Nugget on our party barge on the lake as we take her to "blow dry" after a swim.

As for boundary training....we have installed an electric fence at both of our homes. Now, we are electric fence wimps which means that we don't leave Nug out on the property either at home or at camp without one of her people on guard. At home we have coyotes and at camp we have bears, so we are always with her. At camp, we are afraid she will break through the fence to chase a deer or something, decide to go for a swim and start swimming after a duck, take off across the lake and get too tired to swim back. So, we are with her at all times when she is outside.

Nugget is three and has loved every summer that she has spent with us at camp. She swims like a fish! So enthusiastically that we bought her a life jacket (I would love to post pics of her in it but DH is at a meeting and he's my techie guy...when he gets home....I'll ask him for help) and we tie a 30 foot line to it so that we can pull her back to the dock when she has gotten out too far. She loves to go for boat rides in the "slow" boat, but doesn't like riding in the ski boat. I think the speed bothers her ears.

Ears....now there's a challenge. Her first summer at camp since I was such a doodle novice she was on an antibiotic cream for about 3 weeks since her ears got infected. This was kind of a big deal because I had to drive her home the 6 hours to get her diagnosed and get the meds. Now, I use Otifoam once a week and towel dry her ears after each swim. I also use the blow dryer on her ears each night for a couple of minutes. Last summer, she didn't get an ear infection. BUT I made sure I got a tube of the cream from the vet before I went to camp just in case. Last summer our big medical deal for Nugget was that she developed seasonal allergies and her skin was a mess. Swimming seemed to make it worse and the black fly bites made her crazy. So after another 6 hours home to the vet, some prescription antihistamine, prednisone and antibiotics (she had some open scratches on her head) she made a quick and full recovery. She is now on Evening Primrose Oil which has really helped. She is also starting with a Vet dermatologist this month so that we can hopefully ward off the seasonal scratching this summer.

I think one of the most important pointers I could give any new camp/cottage pup's family is that, just like at home, the dog needs a place at camp that is all hers/his just like at home. They need to be able to get away from the hub-bub to sleep....esp if they're swimming/hiking a lot. They get TIRED! Nugget has taken over a couch on the screened porch there which is out of way but she can still see all of the comings and goings of the place. When we leave her at camp, we leave her in the kitchen with gates at each door, her water and a blanket. For hot days (No AC there...no need usually) we have a large crate in the cool, cement floor basement for her which she loves to go to. At night, she has her own bed in our room that stays at camp.

Another tip that we've learned is that as soon as it gets pretty obvious that we're moving to camp for the summer (or just going for an "open-up" weekend) Nugget starts going a little batty, so put her in the car first. She will stay happily in the car while we pack up rather than be tethered nearby and BARK like crazy until it's time to go. She sees the boxes with the stuff that's been collected all winter move to the foyer to be put in the car and she wants to live in the garage, near the car or better yet, sleep IN the car so that we won't leave without her. (Which we have never done, of course.) So, we've started to get her in the car first, pack-up, then take her out right before we go to potty one more time, before hitting the road.

One more Nugget and camp thing....Nugget is on a raw diet....BRAVO Raw DIet... which we buy frozen in five pound tubes. We bought a small chest freezer for camp that I stock up with her food when we first get there for the summer (bring it with me) because getting it shipped up there costs a fortune!!

As I said, I think this group is a great idea and it was fun thinking about the summer! :-)

Comment by Debbie and Thomas on February 9, 2010 at 2:42pm

Wow! Your cottage is fantastic! Where is Nicola Lake? Our winter/summer cottage is on Georgian Bay. Unfortunately, I don't seem to have any good pictures of it on my computer. We havn't been up there since New Years but I will be sure to take lots of pictures the next time we go with the doodle Thomas in them.

Comment by Jessica on February 7, 2010 at 3:33pm

Hello Bruce Girl. Now I'm clear about cottaging. Yeah, our doggies love it. Fion McCumhaill (left) discovered chipmonks at Nicola Lake last summer. Mabel (right) having arrived with us a couple of weeks before, discovered herself.

Comment by Jessica on February 7, 2010 at 3:28pm

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