Spring is here, the weather is warming up and we are surrounded by nature’s canvas of fresh green spring grass, purple lupins, and bright orange California poppies. This is a perfect time to get outside, increase our fitness and lower stress enjoying time outdoors with our dogs. What did you do to celebrate the human-animal bond this weekend? Were you able to enjoy some time outside? Patches and Jack enjoyed a lovely morning outside in the yard, while I cleaned the house and baked them dog treats. I love to cook, and baking dog treats is another way I enjoy relaxing. While it does not directly include the dogs, it is because of them that I bake, and they prevent me from baking human treats that I will be tempted to eat! One of my favorite recipes comes from Teal, the owner of Sierra Rizing Bakery in Coloma. Teal provides us with the human treats we serve at the Café, but she is also well-known for her delicious dog treats. Check out her Facebook page 'Sierra Rizing Bakery' for her #ThrowbackThursday post (October 16, 2020), where she shared her dog treat recipe for ‘Peanut, Pumpkin and Oat Dog Biscuits’, published in Style Magazine in 2016. These are a favorite in my house, and although the recipe makes a lot of small cookies, they don’t last long! When the dogs are happy, I am happy. Interestingly, The American Kennel Club website shares an article on the benefits of having a dog, including that they make us happier by increasing our levels of oxytocin when we stare into their eyes. Oxytocin is the “love hormone”, and our interactions with dogs help to boost our mood.
One of our recent alumni, a Chihuahua-Terrier mix, named Snoekie, has done just that, providing companionship, and boosting the mood of her retired owners. She celebrated her Gotcha Day last month. Snoekie was found as a stray on the streets of Fresno, and while in foster care, delivered 5 healthy puppies. All five puppies found forever homes, including one, a male named Chunk, that was a foster failure. Snoekie needed a home with someone she could be around all day. She was quite shy, was afraid of larger dogs, and did not do well in the shelter environment, so she came to the Café to meet her forever family. Her perfect home was with someone who was home all day, making her a perfect match for a retired couple in Roseville, who met her on their first visit to the Café. She is now living her best life as an only dog and loves all the attention she gets. According to her owners “There is never a dull moment with Snoekie around. She is a constant and devoted companion. She gets us out on a walk each day, keeping us active and moving.” Check out the adorable photos of Snoekie in her new home, below. If you are ready to meet your new forever friend, or if you just want to hang out with dogs, with no strings attached, come, and visit the Café. We are celebrating our Open House on April 24-25 where you will have the opportunity to meet adoptable dogs while you sample our menu items. Buy a beverage and get a free baked treat. We look forward to meeting you. Tail wags from your friends at the Café
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Have you experienced the joy of coming home to a loyal canine companion? There is nothing like the excited welcome of a devoted dog who has missed you, to leave you feeling loved and needed. It’s hard not to laugh at the welcome wiggles and boundless enthusiasm they have for their humans. This love of the small things is also evident at dinner time with what I call ‘the happy dinner dance’. Perhaps your dog has a special meal dance routine? Please share their dance routine details in the comments.
Not only are they wonderful companions, but dogs get us up and moving and provide structure and routine to the day. My dogs give me regular reminders that I have spent far too long staring at a computer while working from home during the pandemic, and have me out on walks, breathing fresh air, enjoying the scenery, and reducing my stress. Yes, there are usually treats involved too, but they are well deserved! In the last year they have motivated me to keep up healthy habits. Studies have shown that the levels of our “happy hormones”, serotonin and dopamine, can increase when we spend time playing with dogs (and cats). These hormones promote feelings of happiness and positivity, much needed in the last year with the stress caused by the pandemic! There is also evidence that blood pressure, triglycerides and cholesterol can be reduced when we share our lives with pets. If you would like to learn more about the health benefits of pets, check out this article from HelpGuide. Our vision at Tail Wags & Treats Café is to reduce stress for dogs and for people while celebrating this mutually beneficial relationship. Speaking of celebrating, we have reason to celebrate a forever connection… Happy Gotcha Day Pippa! Pippa didn’t make it to the ‘available dogs’ page! We learned about her from a local shelter partner, Deserving Pets Rescue (DPR). Pippa lived with a single mom and her kids who had to move from a house to an apartment, a difficult transition for a large dog used to a backyard. Unfortunately, apartment living was not for Pippa, and her family made the tough decision to find her a new home with the help of our friends at DPR. Pippa is a social butterfly and loves human and animal interaction. She does not do well left alone, as she is not crate trained and will bark and howl incessantly until her company returns. The Café offered a social environment for Pippa to shine, and so she did! Her new human Mom, Paula, is a regular supporter and volunteer at the Café, and the two made an instant forever connection. Per Paula: “Pippa has the missing piece of my heart that I didn’t know I was missing.” Pippa is now thriving in her new home, with two canine siblings, three cats and a devoted pet parent and a large yard. Congratulations Pippa and Paula! Checkout the photos of this gorgeous girl living her best life below. If you are ready to meet your new forever friend, come and visit the Café, and remember we are celebrating our Open House on April 24-25. Tail wags from your friends at the Café From as far back as I can remember, animals have played an important role in the happiest memories of my childhood. I remember sitting quietly on the floor, so the skittish farm cat would sleep on my lap, and being followed by a vocal lamb, demanding its bottle feeding. I spent hours leaning over the edge of the pen counting new chicks as they scurried about under the warmth of the heat lamp. The happiness I gained from their companionship while living on my grandparents’ farm, and the James Herriot stories read to me by my maternal Grandmother, paved the way for me to choose veterinary medicine as a career.
Over the years, I have seen the impact that the Human-Animal Bond has played in the lives of my clients and their families. I have cared for service animals and for pets that were the last link to a loved one who had passed away. I have seen pets relieve stress and others that have connected their person to a community of fellow animal lovers. I have received cards and photographs signed with paw prints, and I have witnessed the heart wrenching pain that comes with the loss of a beloved pet. According to the AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association): “ The Human-Animal bond is a mutually beneficial and dynamic relationship between people and animals that is influenced by behaviors essential to the health and wellbeing of both.” My personal pets have played an essential role in my wellbeing and my quality of life over the years, and most notably during the pandemic. If you have visited the Café website you may have seen that I recently adopted Jack, a Border Collie mix. I now share my home with two dogs and a cat. My dogs need to be walked regularly, keeping me physically active and exploring trails I would not hike alone, and bringing comfort over the last year with all the challenges the pandemic has brought to our world. Over the years, I have made new friends and tried different activities, such as dog agility with my more athletic dogs. I have made vehicle purchases and home location decisions, based upon what my animals need. I too have been devastated by the loss of two special dogs, both at 14 years of age. The time we have with them is never enough, and yet I cannot image imagine a life without them. One of my favorite quotes is by Roger Caras, who says it best: “Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole”. Perhaps you are curious how time with animals adds quality to our lives? The Human Animal Bond Research Institute has recently created an infographic to depict the top 5 ways pets enrich our lives. Please visit their site and share the infographic. If you are looking for a new canine family member, or if you are not able to adopt a dog at this time but would value an opportunity to interact with them and enjoy this mutually beneficial relationship, then consider this your personal invitation to the Tail Wags & Treats Café Open House celebration, April 24-25. Local dog experts will be available to answer your questions about adoption, training, and activities you can enjoy with your dogs. There will be agility and working dog demonstrations, and information about our local shelter partners, and the opportunity to meet adoptable dogs while you sample our menu items. Buy a beverage and get a free baked treat. Perhaps a Café is not the first venue that comes to mind when you are looking for a forever friend, or for the opportunity to spend one-on-one time with dogs. My vision is to celebrate the human-animal bond by creating a new adoption environment where people and dogs meet and interact. This safe and relaxed social setting allows prospective dog adopters to meet dogs in the care of local animal shelter staff, while enjoying a cup of coffee and baked treats, in the hope that they form a forever connection. This setting also benefits dogs that do not do well in the loud shelter environment, allowing them to become more socialized, while giving adopters more insight into their individual personalities. My goal is to partner with local shelters to help increase the rate of successful dog adoptions into forever homes. What type of dogs can you hope to meet? Each week both adoptable dogs and ‘gotcha’ stories will be featured on the Dog Blog, on the website and on our social media channels. Please comment here for additional information and follow us on Instagram (@tailwagtreats) and Facebook (Tail Wags & Treats Café). Most importantly, drop by and sample our menu while you meet the dogs in person at the open house event. Tail wags from your friends at the Café My semester-long project involves setting up a mock business for my course COMSTRAT563 at WSU. My animals are the center of my world, so it made sense to make them central to this project too. I developed Tail Wags & Treats Café, with the logo on the left, as a business that provides a safe, relaxed alternative venue for dog adoption. Some dogs cannot handle the stress of the shelter environment and shut down or develop behaviors that mask their personalities or deem then unadoptable. The dog that an adopter chooses at the shelter may not demonstrate his true personality, making it hard to know if it is a good match for the individual or family. My plan is to partner with local animal shelters to provide adoptable dogs and offer both the dogs and potential adopters a space for unhurried time together to connect, so that the adoption decision is successful for all. This business model has been used successfully with cat cafés, and I feel there is a need for a similar business focused on dogs. As a veterinarian, I am passionate about education, so my mock business will sponsor regular educational events including workshops on dog behavior, training, health, and nutrition by local dog experts, including trainers, veterinarians in private practice, and veterinarians from the University of California Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Lectures topics will be chosen to educate dog owners on how best to care for their canine companions. Historically the pet industry has been recession-proof, and we have seen unprecedented increases in pet adoption during the pandemic. The value of the human-animal bond is recognized as providing health and wellbeing benefits to both people and animals. I will take advantage of this valued relationship to build a mock café business around a cause that is valued by society. I hope you will join my virtual community, and share feedback and suggestions for my mock business. Cheers and tail wags, Joanne and the four legged crew My inspiration for the mock company, Patches and Jack. Both are Border-Collie mixes adopted from Deserving Pets Rescue in Red Bluff, California. Patches survived burns and being thrown from a vehicle, Jack survived parvovirus. They now live their best lives, and I am fortunate to share my home with them. |
AuthorThe Dog Blog is authored by our founder, Joanne. She loves to celebrate and highlight the human-animal bond in our blog. We share Gotcha Day stories, adventures shared by dogs and their families who found each other at our Café, and educational events with local dog experts to foster your forever connection. ArchivesCategories |