We decided to get Mocha an Easy Brush for his dental needs. And along with some Petrodex Enzymatic Toothpaste, he seems to love it.

I apply a bit of toothpaste to the bristles of the Easy Brush, then set it down for him. He’ll generally lick most of the toothpaste off before getting down to business. Then it’s about five minutes of quiet chewing. Easy peasy one-two-threesy.

We’ve been using this for a couple of months now. While Mocha still likes to chew the Brush, he seems to be growing bored of it. I used to give it to him once every other day. Now I’m giving it to him once a week, hopefully to maintain some of the novelty of the Easy Brush.

We examined his teeth yesterday and they looked okay. There’s some tartar buildup in his back teeth despite a regime of Easy Brush, rawhide chews, dental chews, and rope bones. So we may need to brush using a dog toothbrush or finger brush one of these days. Otherwise, the Easy Brush seems to be doing a fair job.

P.S. I was dying to write, “And Mocha says, ‘I chew-chew-chews you, Easy Brush!’, but couldn’t find a good place to put it. So here it is. Heh.

A romp at the dog park and a three-mile run didn’t do it. A two-hour uphill hike didn’t do it. So we decided to take drastic measures.

We decided to take Mocha on a Mocha Marathon. Run three miles to the dog park, then the usual fetch, followed by a three-mile run back home. And lots of water in between, of course. That oughta tire him out once and for all!

To be totally honest, the runs and hikes do tire Mocha out. As soon as he gets home, he collapses to the floor and sleeps for a good hour or three. But then he’s up and active again, as if he’s been sleeping for days. I blame it on his damned Jack Russell Terrier half.

We could also be a victim of our own doing. Perhaps we’ve been exercising Mocha so well that he’s a mass of fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscle now. Damn.

So how did Mocha do from his Mocha Marathon today?

He slept pretty much the rest of the evening. Not a peep from him. I had to poke him to make sure he was still alive. Success!

Except… next time, we’ll probably have to do eight miles to tire him out. Greaaat…

Yup, you read that right. We did a two-hour uphill hike today. And with Mocha’s dog backpack on, you’d think he’d get tired, right?

If you thought that, you’re a fool. Like us. The darn little guy didn’t get tired at all. We think he got tired near the end of the two-hour hike, but I think we got so tired that we started to believe, truly believe, that Mocha was tired too.

“I think he’s getting tired.”

“Yea, I think so too.”

“He’s slowing down.”

“Totally.”

“We should stop and turn back now.”

“Yea, you’re right.”

“No sense in tiring the poor boy out.”

“Yea. Let’s go back now.”

Meanwhile, Mocha’s like, “What? we’re going home already? Awww…”

Woof woof woof. Yip yip! Woof woof woof. Yip yip yip yip! Woof woof woof. Woof woof woooooof woof.

Woof woof woof. Woof woof woof. Bark bark bark! Bark bark bark!

Woof woof woof. Woof woof woof. Woof woof woof. Snort.

Translated from Dog:

Mommy and Daddy took me to the dog park this morning. Oh boy! Then they took me for a long run. Oh boy oh boy! I think it was three miles. There was so much activity and exercise that I was pooped when I got back home.

But not as pooped as Mommy and Daddy. I think they were more tired than I was. And I ran more than them today! I was running around playing fetch at the dog park!

I think I need to run Mommy and Daddy more often. They need more exercise. I should take them to the human park and make them fetch the ball for me. Tee hee.

We took Mocha to the vet today to examine a bump on his head. An old tick bite seems to have gotten infected. Thankfully, it wasn’t anything serious. But while at the vet, we asked him about Mocha’s odor too.

Mocha stinks. He stinks more than a normal dog should stink. Whenever he’s playing with Melvin & Cabbie, he’s the stinkiest one of the three. People will walk by and say, “Damn those dogs stink!” And it’s not dogs, it’s dog. It’s Mocha.

The vet asked us if it was a fishy odor. It mostly smelled like ripe dog to us, but there seemed to be a fishy element.

“It’s his anal glands,” he told us.

Anal glands?

“You know how dogs smell another dog’s butt when meeting a new dog? They are smelling the scent from the other dog’s anal glands.”

Ah.

“These glands can become full or impacted if he doesn’t defecate regularly. How regular is Mocha?”

Mocha’s usually goes about twice a day – although lately, he’s been going once a day. Perhaps he has a bout of constipation? The vet seemed to be onto something. He inspected Mocha’s butt. I imagined Mocha squirting his anal gland juices like a skunk onto the vet’s face. Sorry, my mind wanders sometimes.

“I would suggest feeding him some pumpkin every day. From what you’ve told me, his diet isn’t high in fiber and he could use some. Pumpkin is a safe source of fiber for a dog. It’s also nutritious and some dogs love the taste.”

Sounds great!

“The alternative is to express his anal glands.”

Express? His anal glands? Like drawing a picture of them?

“Either I can do it for you, or I can teach you how.” He then proceeded to describe the procedure. And, um, I think we’ll stick to the pumpkin for now.

Hello pumpkin, good bye stink!

Photo via: the_girl

As soon as we found it, we looked online for some ways to remove ticks. Here is the method that we followed:

Removing a Tick from a Dog

What you will need

• Tweezers
• Gloves, like latex dish washing gloves
• Antiseptic ointment or solution
• Tissues
• Scotch tape

What to do

1. Get your dog into a comfortable position where he can’t move or jump around too much. We needed two people to do this – one to hold down & distract Mocha, and the other to pull the tick out. Depending on how jumpy your dog is, I’m not sure if one person could do this as easily.
2. Put on the gloves. Ticks can transmit diseases, so it’s best not to catch some kind of weird tick virus. Unless it’s a radioactive tick that can give you super powers or something. That would be cool.
3. Gently grasp the tick with the tweezers. Try to nab it on the head, or as close to your dog’s skin as possible.
4. Pull the tick out slowly. Pull it straight out. Don’t twist or turn, and don’t pull too hard. Those actions can break the body from the head, leaving it lodged in your dog. If you do accidentally break the tick in two, try to remove the head with the tweezers. (Don’t worry if you can’t remove it all; it’s not life threatening. Your dog’s immune system will react naturally, causing a bump that will recede over time. But if you’re really worried, consult your vet just to be safe.)
5. Put the tick into the tape. Fold the tape in half over the tick. It should be stuck in the tape now.
6. Flush the tick down the toilet bowl (assuming you didn’t roll up a huge drain-clogging wad of tape) or smash the tick between two hard objects, like rocks. Smash it good. That sure felt good, didn’t it?
7. Bath the wound with antiseptic and wipe away any blood, if there is any. And you’re all done! Tick removed.
8. Oh, and don’t forget to wash your hands thoroughly. Then clean the tweezers with isopropyl alcohol or hold them over a flame. This will make sure any of those weird tick viruses are dead dead dead.

We were able to remove the tick from Mocha successfully with these steps. I couldn’t tell if I had all of the tick though. The little bastard was so engorged on Mocha’s blood that I accidentally squished it as I pulled it out. It looked like I had its head, though I couldn’t tell for certain.

I also heard that these tips could work too, though I haven’t tried them yet:

• Cover the tick with some kind of oil or Vaseline. This supposedly suffocates the tick and forces it to let go.
• Apply some nail polish remover onto a cotton ball and rub it gently on the tick. This apparently suffocates or freaks it out enough to let go too.
• Apply some WD40 onto a cotton ball and rub that on the tick. I guess this is a variant of the first two alternatives.

Those alternatives sound easy enough. I’ll give them a shot the next time we find a tick on Mocha. If you try them out, please let me know if they work or not. Thanks!