DoodyCalls Proudly Launches Its Monthly Newsletter, The Doggy Dish

This has been an amazing year for us!  Today, DoodyCalls’ franchisees  serve over 3,000 clients and operate in Connecticut , the District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon, Texas, and Virginia,  Since July, we have added 5 new locations and we expect to add many more in the coming months as we expand across the country.  We’re busy making America cleaner – for dogs and their people—one yard at a time.  Clean yards, wagging tails, sweet breezes, and smiling faces—these are our goals.

We hope you enjoy this premier edition of The Doggy Dish.  In future issues we will bring you useful information and advice on dog care, fun and inspiring stories, bits of history, activities to enjoy with children, and more.  The Doggy Dish will be accessible on our Web site (http//:www.doodycalls.com).   

If you have comments, suggestions, or story ideas, we would love to hear from you!  You can contact us at DoggyDish@DoodyCalls.com.

— Jacob and Susan D’Aniello

Is Your Ice Melter Harming Your Pet?

“Danger! Keep away from pets and children. Wear rubber gloves and goggles when using. Wash contaminated clothing and call doctor immediately if contact with eyes or ingested.”

In areas where winter temperatures fall below freezing, alarming warnings like this appear on packages of salt-based ice melters!

DoodyCalls is proud to offer an innovative product to its customers this year. Safe Paw™ Ice Melter is 100% safe, and a great alternative to conventional salt-based ice melters, which can harm not only children and pets, but concrete, carpets, wild vegetation, and landscaping plants. Salt-based ice melters can even contaminate ground water and wells.

Most households in cold climates use ice melters to help prevent slips and falls on stairs and walkways, but a national based survey reveals that nearly two thirds of respondents were unaware that salt-based ice melters are toxic and harmful to living creatures and the environment.

Pets are exposed to ice melt pellets while walking or playing in the snow. Exposure to the pellets can cause severe irritations and burns to the paws, mouth, throat, esophagus and stomach. Often pets eat snow or ice treated with de-icer; others ingest the product after they return home and begin to lick their ice encrusted paws.

Safe Paw™ is non-corrosive and it eliminates the health and environmental problems caused by salt-based ice melters. Effective down to two degrees below zero, Safe Paw™ starts melting ice as soon as it is applied, breaking the surface tension and destabilizing the ice. Extra melting power is provided during daylight hours when the endothermic reaction of Safe Paw™ takes advantage of the solar effect. An added benefit of Safe Paw™ is that it helps prevent ice from sticking to surfaces for up to three days, making shoveling much easier.

If you would like to arrange for your DoodyCalls technician to apply Safe Paw™ to your walkways, deck, patio or driveway, please contact your local DoodyCalls franchise or call 1-800-DoodyCalls 366-3922. Your dog and the environment will thank you.

Peanut Butter Yummies

Show Your Dogs You Love ‘em with Cookies from Your Oven!

Does your dog love cookies as much as you do?  Now that the weather is getting cooler, it’s a great time to turn on your oven and bake up some tasty treats for your dog.  Just like human treats, dog treats should be nutritious.  The ingredients in these easy to make “cookies” are natural and healthy, and our canine taste-testers give them an enthusiastic “paws up” rating!  Use your cutout cookie cutters to make treats in doggy favorite shapes like bones or fire hydrants, or fun shapes like snowmen, hearts and bunnies for holidays year round.

This recipe goes together in a jiffy, and the dough is very easy to work with. 

1. Preheat oven to 400° F
2. Whisk together the water, oil, eggs, peanut butter and vanilla.
3. Stir in the flour, cornmeal and oats. 
4. Mix until a dough ball forms.  Add a little more flour if you need it until the dough is no longer sticky.
5. On a lightly floured surface, pat the dough to about ¼” thickness, sprinkling a little flour on top of the dough as needed.  Cut the dough into squares, circles or rectangles, or cut out treats with your favorite cookie cutters.
6. Transfer treats to a lightly greased cookie sheet or for easy clean-up, just line the cookie sheet with aluminum foil sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.
7. Bake about 20 minutes or until lightly browned.  For harder biscuits, leave treats in the oven with door ajar and heat turned off until completely cool.  For safety, keep kids and pets in another room while your oven is cooling.

To keep your treats fresh, store them in a tightly covered container. 

Stuck on You

As the story goes, one day in 1948 a Swiss engineer named Georges de Mestral went bird hunting with his Irish Pointer by his side.  When man and dog emerged from a brushy field with burrs tightly clinging to fabric and fur, de Mestral’s curiosity was piqued.  He popped a burr under a microscope and saw that it had hundreds of tiny hooks, explaining the seedpod’s amazing ability to grab on and not let go.  Perfecting his idea for a man-made hook and loop fastener, de Mestral named his invention Velcro, a combination of the French words velours (velvet) and crochet (hook).  

The next time your own dog returns from a nature expedition covered with “hitchhikers,” try the methods below to remove them without causing her to yelp for help.  It’s important to remove burrs from your dog’s fur as soon as possible to prevent serious matting. 

• With your fingers, work something slippery like baby oil, vegetable oil or hair conditioner into the tangled fur until you can gently slide out the burrs.  Afterwards, a shampoo will be in order!

• For burrs that refuse to budge, crushing them with pliers will cause their grip on your dog’s fur to weaken.  They can then be picked out by hand.
• If all else fails, use a blunt tip scissors to give your dog a little haircut, carefully trimming away the tangled fur without nipping his skin.

Take Your Dog for a Walk

Kids! Click here to download a fun crossword puzzle that you might find handy next time you take your best friend for a walk.

“Them there are Fighting Words”

Do your cat and dog understand one another? Maybe not completely, because “doggish” and “catish” are different languages. This makes for some confusing interactions. Sometimes the same gesture means something quite different in the other’s language. When a dog and a cat have lived together for a long time – or better yet, have been raised together – they come to understand one another reasonably well, but when a citizen of one species meets a stranger from another, the stage is set for distrust and conflict. This situation is explored in detail by University of British Columbia psychologist Stanley Coren in his How to Speak Dog: Mastering the Art of Dog-Human Communication (New York: The Free Press, 2000).

 A cat approaches a dog with her tail raised at a sharp right-angle. She throws in a vigorous head butt for good measure. The dog looks disturbed. The cat senses the dog’s confusion and growing displeasure and rolls on her back. The dog relaxes and approaches the cat to nuzzle her exposed stomach. Instead of acceptance, the dog is greeted by four razor sharp flashing claws.

What has happened? We’ll explain this event and explore dog language in general in future newsletters.