• Ruffwear Approach Pack –link

• Kong K9 water bottle –link

• Chillydogs Trail Blazer and Great White North Jackets

One of our favorite jackets! Whiskey has an amazing nose that we have trained even further with sniff training but unfortunately that means she finds poop or smelly things to roll in much more than the regular dog. That means her jackets must stand countless washes while also fitting perfectly and looking great for photos. The fleece is extra thick in the brand and the shape is just wonderful. The Trail Blazer is warm and water proof and the Great White North has been through the deepest snow and trails where Whiskey is practically swimming. The price is high, but it’s worth it!

• Voyagers k9 Apparel Winter Coats and Raincoats

This breed-specific brand is great for those long and skinny dogs where nothing “regular” fits! The winter jacket is similar to the chillydogs brand (if you are in Canada, order the chillydogs, if you’re in the US order Voyagers for cheaper shipping) but the rainjacket is unique and super cute!

• Hurtta Jackets

This Finnish line is sort of like the “North Face” of dog clothing. They use reflective materials to trap in bodyheat in their Extreme Warmer and their leash is our favorite for hiking with woven reflectivity. Because their jackets are on the larger side, we can layer in a fleece if we are winter camping and everything has gone through the wash numerous times and have come out great. However, they don’t make breed specific clothes so if your V is extra lean or long I would go with one of the other brands. If you have a long-haired dog, I would check out the rest of their line, there’s so many amazing options!

• Bowser Beds

The best dog beds we have tried. When we got a new puppy, we were told to buy a cheap bed until she grew older but I couldn’t help it. Our doughnut bed has been washed countless times, been peed on, dug in, vomited in, ever since she was a puppy and most of it looks brand new. We have gone through several other cheaper dog beds but she’s made it abundantly clear this one is the best one. We’ve since gotten another for travel and love it just the same! Again, the beds are really expensive, but I found it’s totally worth it.

• Gundog Collars

 

We’ve had many collars and these are the ones we keep going back to. I hate tags jingling for a long hike (imagine how much they must annoy the dogs with their hearing!) and any cloth/strap/rope collar has not stood the test of rolling in bbq grease and poop. This one has the extra loop at the back for another place to connect a leash and the reflector is great in the rain and the short winter days. We did try a really expensive rope collar for a bit but after standing at the sink for ages scrubbing poop off, we decided to keep this one on for any long trips. The fancy collars are wonderful but if we are going on a long backcountry trip, we’re most likely going to bring one of these.

• Emu Shampoo

We love this Shampoo! It works triple duty as it repels fleas and it also smells amazing. We only ever need to give Whiskey a shower when she rolls in something extra foul so its’ great that it’s very gentle and she comes out smelling wonderful for a couple days. Since Whiskey is self-cleaning, we are still working on our first bottle.

• Antlers, Cheese, and bullysticks

Whiskey’s chew treats. Antlers are always avaliable and she still has the one from when she was a puppy. Since our little girl isn’t much of a chewer compared to other dogs, she takes a very long time to wear these down and we can afford to buy Himalayan Chews. The extra large pieces will last her a month, whereas it can last other Vizslas an hour or so. Bullysticks are only used when we absolutely need her to leave us alone for 20-30mins and we only let her work through a couple inches each time. We buy Bullysticks in packs of 25 or 50 extra extra large ones.

• Bumper

A really great alternative to a chuck-it ball. It’s large so you won’t lose it as easy and it floats. The string lets you throw it extra far and the texture is softer yet durable. I tend to bring several toys to the dog park in case one of her toys gets “stolen”, I can switch to a different shape while someone tracks down the “culprit”.

• Balls and chuckit, glow in the dark

A staple! I don’t use tennis balls as the material can wear down a dog’s teeth. I don’t like to play fetch too much as the back and forth isnt’ good for a dog’s joints over time but Whiskey will become obsessed with another dog’s ball so I do bring them sometimes. In the winter when it’s dark and rainy, I resort to playing fetch as the only way to get her to run instead of shivering miserably and hating me. We use a glow in the dark ball that I “charge up” at an outdoor light (hold it right next to the light for 30 seconds) and it lasts about 20 mins.

• Magical Green Frog

This thing is magical. There’s something about the way it bounces, or the texture but this is Whiskey’s ultimate prize. The squeaky and the bottom section is long gone but it’s still amazing. It’s the first thing she’s ever consistently fetched with intense focus and it only comes out on special occasions or as a reward for a good search-and-find. All the dogs want it at the park. It comes in small or large (we need large).

Lunch break views from Mt Unnecessary

If the Grouse Grind is not your cup of tea… because it’s too busy, too short, too easy, and the views aren’t very good, then this one is a splendid alternative. Just a warning though, this is not a good hike for beginners or those not inclined to climb 1250m over 3kms for fun (or as the graffiti on the sign  says “hard as fucking hell and not for beginners”. Mt Unnecessary is one of those beautiful peaks on the Howe Sound trail between the Lions and St Marks. I’ve previously conquered it on the way to the Lions from St Marks years ago, but never from it’s own dedicated trail starting at Lions Bay.

The divide to Erin Moore Trail (dedicated to a 7 year old who died on the trail in 2014)

Happy in her element

mini breaks on the relentless climb

Steep! Steep!

kisses on a fallen log

This way!

We weren’t able to finish the beast (about 250m higher to go) because of snow but we still got some beautiful views, a wonderful lunch spot, and the perfect workout all the while having the entire trail to ourselves.

Views halfway up

Looking down you can’t even see the trail

beautiful and quiet here

Little ginger watchdog

Whiskey had no problems with the rocks

watch your steps up and down

Waiting for us slow humans

This hike is very to-the-point and unrelenting but also has enough variation and interesting scrambly sections to keep you interested going up. Because it’s so steep, you climb altitude really fast and start seeing promising views within an hour. I’d like to think I’ve done quite a few steep hikes and this one is pretty up there on the list, for a dog-friendly one.

More little breaks

Lots of fun!

A beautiful long-weekend hike

not a bad spot to eat

The view NorthWest of Lions Bay

Coming down was harder and longer than expected and I was really tired of falling on my butt. The steepness, loose ground, and my knee injuries were a bad mix but we still made it down in one piece (Whiskey was wondering what the big deal was and why we were so slow). In all we finished in less than 6 hours and were happily sore the next day!

Getting to need snowshoes/crampons

Whiskey loves running up and down with sticks

I slid on my bum down, while Whiskey ran her but off

Heading back down

We all had a couple small tumbles heading down

A couple bumps on her ears

Over the past year Whiskey has been getting bumps that appear pretty quickly and disappear just as fast. The bumps never stuck around long enough to get to a vet and so we put on our detective hats to find out what the problem was.

small ear bumps

Her bumps were concentrated on her upper head, ears, and the front of her legs and were raised but not red. They would get better within 15- 30 mins once we took her away from the environment she started showing symptoms in, and would rarely show for more than 1 hour. At the least, they were a couple round bumps on her ears, at the worst her whole face was swollen to the point she couldn’t even see, but even then, her bumps would fully vanish within 2 hours (so no time for vet). When the bumps were at their worst, (as happened about 3 times) she would be very quiet, tired, and sad looking. They didn’t seem itchy, and she would be back to normal as soon as they went away. They were like bee stings and we did try some Benadryl but it was hard to tell if it helped because the bumps always went away so fast either way. We also tried a holistic Allergy Supplement, as well as local raw honey but neither seemed to show much improvement over several months.

a medium-bad example

It was pretty clear from the get go that these were allergic bumps and since I feed home made raw, it was pretty easy to eliminate food as her allergy source. We noticed a pattern after a couple months that was interesting; if we took her to a park several times a day, only sometimes she would come back with bumps (even if we took her to the same place on the same day). Most of the times if we went into forests or mountains she would be fine, so in general she had more bumps in the city, or close to the city. I have to emphasis that although these pictures look absolutely terrible, the bumps at their worst only stuck around for about 20 mins and in 2 hours, they were gone. I hate seeing Whiskey like this and I’m only posting this as I hope this may help another Vizsla or puppy.

the worst it got with us (about 3x ever)

the worst case only happened when it rained

Something else that was interesting was the worst cases were when it was raining and if she wore a jacket, she would have no bumps where the jacket covered (a strong case for environmental allergies). Also, she had more bumps on the front of her legs, not the back of her legs where she was more exposed to water spray, or where she would have a higher chance of touching allergens. From my research, I found out that tree pollen becomes more concentrated when it rains, and comes down from the air in rain droplets. People that have tree pollen allergies react more in rain as well. Also, in the city, we plant mostly male trees so when pollen is released from male trees, there aren’t enough female trees to capture pollen so there is more pollen in the air causing allergy issues in humans (says Scientific America and Vancouver Sun).

Anyways, since we’ve both been working a crazy amount of overtime, we finally had a chance to book Whiskey in with a pet dermatologist (yes that’s a thing!) about a month ago. I find when visiting vets, I’ve learned I need to really stand up for my beliefs. Vets love to prescribe loads of tests and medications “just in case” and many times these are not needed, and not only will cost more, but you are also giving your pet unneeded chemicals. Now, I’m not expert but I do know my dog so we opted to test Whiskey only for environmental allergies (I had to insist it wasn’t food related) and I opted out of flea control (twice) since I was absolutely sure these were not fleas. We did both a skin test and a blood test. The skin test unfortunately, called for her side to be shaven, a grid to be drawn, and 40 plus tiny allergen injections to compare reactions to a placebo.

Poor girl is also on her heat

Her side is shaven and a grid is tested

Whiskey was given a reversible sedation and I was able to watch the whole procedure. Afterwards we needed to wait 3-5 more weeks for blood test results, and then depending on the results we would have to order either drops or injections to give Whiskey to help her allergies. We ended up with drops and the ordering took another 3 weeks, so a month and a half later, we picked up the drops. At the moment we are just giving her a little drop a day in her mouth and that’s it. We are supposed to see noticeable results from 3 months to 1 year and this is all covered by insurance 80% (I really recommend insurance). Whiskey’s highest reactions seem to be to a mold and some tree and weed pollen. Without insurance this would have cost about $1400 (for all tests and 5 months of drops).

she was half sedated and I was there every minute

For the past 3 months though we’ve not seen seen much allergy reactions at all so we are wondering if this is more a fall/winter thing (or wet season thing) but we are trying the drops (one set lasts 5-6 months) for at least a year to see if this improves. For the time being, we are taking one sided photos while we wait or Whiskey’s hair to grow back!

little square on her side

still my beautiful princess