Over the last year I’ve been experimenting with baking and trying my hand out at the oven. Some recipes that turned out well I’ve shared like pizzas, sponge cake, … but some I’m still figuring out. Need to get that Rum Rich Plum Cake recipe down to pat.

Anyway, a downside to all that wonderfully smelling baking was the dogs giving me doleful looks and I feeling all guilty for withholding that piece of cake. So I figured I’d make them something that they can eat. Yep, I thought it was that simple.

Online research found me some quick and easy recipes but it also brought up questions like – is flour(maida) good for dogs?, what could I substitute for flour?, how could I make healthy treats?,… This took me more time to figure out. After a fair bit of reading and talking to various people, here’s what I found out.

Plain Flour(maida) is bad for dogs and best not given. It can be substituted with whole wheat flour, however some dogs are allergic to gluten (and it seems the number are rising) so you need to try it out and see how your dogs fair.

Another option is coconut flour. Until recently I had heard only good things about coconut products for dogs (google coconut flour for dogs), however recently I heard of one Vet who said it’s not good for dogs. My vet though says it’s good. So well, you figure.

From what I read though coconut products seem to be working wonders in most dogs. My Cuckoo loves coconut, (you should see her excitement when she hears us breaking them) and she’s not had an issue with it yet. Of course I give it moderate amounts. That said, getting coconut flour wasn’t easy and I’d been hunting for it until Vidya tipped me off about Heather’s Coconut Flour recipe. That one was easy to make at home but I didn’t get much flour out of it.

The last option as of now that I’ve found is oats. Oats come in various forms like rolled oats, quick oats and instant oats. According to the book ‘On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen‘ by Harold McGee the main difference between the types of oats is their texture, thickness and cooking times. They can usually be substituted for each other as all oats have the same nutritional value.

Each type of flour also has it’s own unique properties, oat flour contains an essential fatty acid GLA (gamma linolenic acid) that’s important in the body’s production of favourable eicosanoids (PGE1 – prostaglandins). Oats is also proven to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk for heart disease. Coconut flour on the other hand is a good source of protein, iron, fiber and it is ‘low-carb’. Coconut also contains the fatty acid Lauric acid, which boosts the response of the immune system in the body.

Something to keep in mind for all substitutions is that each flour has different properties and so the quantities you need will vary and cooking times will change. You’ll have to try and test your way to the right proportions. Also some flours don’t work all by themselves, like oats used alone will not hold together and rise well so it’s best to use it in combination with other flours.

If you’d like to read more about flours and dogs, Susan Leisure’s article ‘What Type of Flour Is Good for Dogs?‘ is a good start point.

After all that research and figuring out, I went hunting for recipes that had coconut flour and oats. I decided to start out with The Fonte’s Paleo Dog Biscuits Recipe with Carrots & Coconut,  but I found a few others too that I liked and pinned for later.

I made some changes to the original and added oats, here’s my take on it.

How to Make Carrot, Oats and Coconut Dog Biscuits

Ingredients –
(makes around 200 gms)

225 grams crudely chopped carrots
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup coarsely ground oats
1/4 cup fresh coconut
2 eggs
Coconut oil

Method –

1. Preheat oven to 175 C.

2. Grind the coconut and carrot to a smooth paste.

3. In a bowl mix the paste, oats and coconut flour well.

4. Add eggs to the flour mixture and mix thoroughly.

5. Pour the mix into a piping bag. (I improvised with a washed milk packet)

6. Prepare a tray with greased butter paper. (Best to use coconut oil for this if you have it, else use sesame or olive oil)

7. Pipe little blobs onto the tray keeping enough distance between the biscuits. The size of the biscuit is up to you. I wanted them small as that way I can use more of them while training without giving the dogs too much of it.

8. Bake for about 12-15 minutes or until the tops get golden brown.

9. Remove and allow it to cool on a wire rack.

10. Remove the lil cookies from the paper and store in an air tight jar.

Note: I did try to make them crunchy by drying them out as much as possible but they just got soft again. I think it might have to do with the egg but I’m not sure. Do you know?

My dogs loved the cookies and they are working like a charm while training. They’re depleting fast too, which might not be a bad thing considering that I don’t know how long biscuits with eggs last outside of a fridge.

Update: The biscuits/cookies lasted about a week in an air-tight jar before I started to see fungal growth. Storing them in the fridge is one thing I can do to make them last longer. Anything else you’d suggest?

Have you baked for your dogs? What’s your take on coconut flour and oats? Any favourite recipes I should try?

Both my mothers are voracious readers and it’s most likely where Che and I get our appetite for the printed word. This weekend Che and I went to Kovilpatti to catch up family. I love visiting Mom, Dad and Mamai. Mom is so like my own, it’s almost like hanging out with my own, Mamai like my Nanisaheb hovers around constantly looking for ways to get you to eat something and Dad, well, I don’t have my own any more so I treasure every moment I get with him.

Anyway away from the senti and back to Mom and reading. This weekend I got an insight into Mom’s way of reading. (I devour books, like I’m in a rush and there’s not enough time to read it all; which there truly isn’t.) Mom and I got talking as usual about books and she was saying she had yet to finish Oath of Vayuputras. I expressed surprise, after all I started after her and have finished a few books after that too. So she told me a moral from Harry Potter that I just hadn’t seen.

“The Dementors suck happiness out of the person and the only way to combat them is the Patronus charm. But the Patronus charm needs an extremely happy thought to be powerful. Moral – It takes happiness to beat unhappiness. When your unhappy and down, think of happy memories, think of things that make you happy and you draw in happiness. You beat all the unhappiness in your life.”

I hadn’t seen this in all my readings of Harry Potter, such a simple lesson to be always happy. I had no words, I felt such love for this woman, how did I get so lucky to have her for a Mom. I love you Mom 🙂

In other news, I didn’t get much reading and blogging done last week 🙁 But I did spend a lot of time with family. 🙂

Caught up with Mom, Bro and Nanisaheb after a long time. It had been months since I had done an overnighter. Mom and I chatted about all & sun-dry and the mundane after a long time. Get went out visiting family friends, got wet in the rain and got all messing peeling open and preparing jackfruit. It was fun three days!

The plants have fared well during my absence, the gel seems to be working well and I’m looking forward to more planting after the monsoon. The dogs are doing great at Windward Kennels, I miss them but I’ve learned that I should enjoy our separations too. But I’ve been learning a few tricks and the dogs are in for some fun surprises when they get back 🙂

The book highlight of this week was getting my first ever delivery from Amazon. 😀

Now onto my weekly round-up that I just caught up with. Here’s some stuff you should read from the various universes I live in.

From My Culinary Universe…

Swati shares the recipe of these awesome looking Mango Coconut Cupcakes that are just so tempting to bite into. I’m hoping I can get my hands on some mangoes before they disappear for this year.

My friend Priya who lives on the outskirts of the beautiful Greater Rann of Kutch has started a food blof and she’s been sharing some really cool recipes. Here’s one – Spiced Baby Watermelons.

From My Book Universe…

Chris’s review of Cards On the Table by Agatha Christie reminded me of a to-do I had. I’ve wanted to read all Christie’s books for a while now. Time to start, so I think I’ll aim to read and review one every month.

Oh yes Good Reads does need a locate my book feature 😀 Mella Hopper depicts it well in her cartoon.

From My Crafting Universe…

Stephanie crocheted these lovely potholders/dishcloths that even have loops to hang them up. I should try and make these sometime.

For all my friends who either have newborns or are expecting. Karuna’s made this lovely 1st Year Baby Book for her daughter Anika, that you should make too 🙂

From My Doggie Universe…

From what Jennifer says it seems the ticks situation is bad in Ohio too. There have been quite a few tick fever cases I’ve heard of lately.

Angel has this lovely Grain-free Homemade Carrot and Banana Dog Cookie Recipe that I’d like to make for my dogs but how the hell do I get my hands on coconut flour. Any idea where I can get it?

My friend Sindhoor finished the course on Canine Theriogeniology that I kindof let go in the middle (I know, bad girl me). Here’s her take on to spay or not to spay….

From My Online World…

Shankar’s put up a great list of Advanced Techniques for Search on Google you should bookmark for future use.

I am always on tenter hooks when working for clients on Facebook. It’s so easy to slip and have a face-palm moment. Here’s the goof-up on the Walmart page from last week and 10 tips Infographic from Shortstack to make more meaningful status messages once you’ve avoided the goof-up. 🙂

Whitney had a Pin Party on her blog this weekend that sounds like so much fun. I’m looking forward to participating in the next one.

Phew, that was long and took a while, almost the whole day but the upside is I caught up with most of my reading in Feedly. Now I just need to do it a little everyday. Will let you know how that works out.

What have you been upto last week?

Buddha is my 9 year old wire-hair dachshund. He’s simply adorable, looks cute and has a great temperament. Keeps to himself most of the time. In almost all confrontational situations he walks away and rather than fight. He’s timid and takes a long time to get friendly with most people (both Che and My Mom were exceptions, he took to them right away), so is loved even by non-doggy people. All in all he’s all buddha, saint-like, wise and almost always meditating.

Around New Year’s Buddha broke his front-right-lower canine. He didn’t seem to be in a lot of pain or discomfort at that point in time so we let him be to see how things would progress. Things seemed fine for a while and we left for TfN. In the middle of the tour Preeti who runs Windward Kennels where my dogs board, called to say she was concerned about his tooth and wanted to take him to the vet. He was becoming finicky about his food, not using the right side of his mouth, losing weight and seemed to be in some pain.

So, off Buddha went to the vet. The Doctors at Cessna looked at it and realised Buddha was in a fair bit of discomfort as there was a lot of sensitivity. Also canine’s are important teeth for dogs. Buddha has already lost some of his front teeth due to age so losing this one would make things difficult for him. They decided to try and save the tooth by doing a root canal and restructuring the tooth.

When Preeti called me with this news, I had a mini panic attack. My dog was doing into the OT and I wouldn’t be there for him (also a little bit miffed that I would get to watch a one of a kind procedure 😀 ). There was no question of not doing the procedure; if it would help Buddha, we had to get it done but we’d rather have been there. This is where Preeti comes in, she’s someone I trust, I know her and with her I don’t need to worry. Buddha couldn’t be in better hands.

The guys at Cessna did the procedure and it was a success. Within a few days Buddha got less cranky, started eating on the right side and put on some weight too. And I became the proud Mum of a dog with a root canal and restructured tooth!

Here’s are photos of before and after. Check out more photos taken by the Cessna guys on Buddha’s first of a kind root canal.

Of course it doesn’t all end with the root canal. We now need to take care of the tooth to make sure he doesn’t break it. At his age a repeat procedure is just traumatic and best avoided. The cost of doing it again is also a great deterrent. 😛

Taking care of his tooth isn’t as much work as it sounds. Buddha doesn’t like toys much so there isn’t much random chewing that he does. Most chewing only happens with food. So we have to watch what he eats and while he eats. Chicken bones are just fine and don’t hamper his teeth. It’s beef bones that we have to be careful about. Initially we stopped giving him beef bones completely but Buddha loves bones and not getting any upset him and he started to try an steal bones from the other two.

Over time I also started getting a bit confident so we started with very small pieces of bones. I now give him larger bones but still not big enough to have contact with the canine. He grinds most bones with his molars at the back, so as long as the bone size is such that it doesn’t touch the canine in his chewing, all’s well. This took some time and learning but I think I’ve got a grasp of what bones he likes and what is safe for him so, both he and me are happy.

Buddha also has a heart condition and arthritis which means a controlled diet and exercise to keep the weight down along with medication. But he seems to be dealing with it all in his usual Buddhaisque manner and no one looking at him would know his secrets.

Now why did I make this post? Just. I wanted to tell the world about Buddha and his Root Canal. Also this is a thank you and recommendation of Cessna. The Docs there do such good work! Thanks Doc 🙂

“Cry ‘Havoc,’ and let slip the dogs of war;
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.”

There is a war brewing and I’d like to make my stand.

***Warning: Long and slightly ranty road ahead.***

There are two types of people in the area I live in. The prodoggers wo like stray dogs and the other the despisers who despise them. The first is a minority but even in that small group there are varying degrees of passion towards stay dogs. Some will go all the way in a fight, while others feed and treat the dogs well but avoid confrontation with the despisers.

Now the despisers are a special people but even they have the varying degrees of passion. There are some who are willing to try and live together with the dogs, then there are those who think there should be only three dogs per lane and others who love pedigree dogs but hate mongrels so want a dog free zone.

For the sake of anonymity and saving my ass (and the despicers faces) from lawsuits I’m not going to use names. But let me tell you a little about these people.

Ms.L moved in about a year ago and passionately took up the doggy care. She lives down my street and feeds the dogs twice a day. She started with four and now feeds 8 to 10. She’s got so comfortable with them that the dogs allow her to medicate them and so she can keep them healthy. She has even vaccinated all of them. All the dogs she feeds have been neutered/spayed over time with the last one being done just a few days ago after she had weaned off her pups. Of course Ms.L also takes care of the pups and is actively looking for homes to adopt them.

She is fighting like crazy against the despisers who harass her quite a bit. The harassment is never one-on-one but rather a group of men who corner a women alone on the street. One time it even happened at night and some of the men were already down a few pegs. Drunk men and one woman – watta story!

The despisers is a big group that as a general rule avoids me, so I don’t know all of them or all that’s happening. But there is a Mr.B who is open to looking into ways to live and let live though doesn’t think there is much hope in convincing others about it and hence rather support them than fight them. Then there’s Mr.O, who in a short while will look quite ‘O’. He has been kicking and hitting the dogs for a couple of years now but expects the dogs to treat him well. Mr.C is a professor but his education falls short when it comes to dogs. He is adamant about the dogs being taken away, he just doesn’t want them here. Last but definitely not the least of our problems is Mr.M, who has 30 dalmatians in his home-town and loves them but hates mongrels. He believes as a race they should be exterminated. Sounds Nazi, no? And he’s a full politician, putting his finger into everything, screaming and calling the MLA at the drop of a hat.

Then there’s me. I have dogs of my own and love dogs – simple as that. When I moved to live here about 4 years ago, Che and I started feeding the dogs off and on. There was a dog with mange in the pack outside our apartment and one day we decided that she had to be caught and treated. I made a lot of calls but no one helped. Finally CUPA agreed to come and help as an exception though they don’t have jurisdiction here. We caught a couple of dogs but I can tell you it was a hell of a run around.

Then Che and I put together a plan; we started feeding regularly and spending time with the dogs. Over a couple of months we managed to get the dogs comfortable and put collars on them. At this point Mr.M made entry and helped us contact Sarvodaya (he switches sides like a politician too). We worked out a method to leash the dogs before the van came in and got a big batch of 5-6 dogs neutered in one go. That took care of most of the dogs at my end of the lane outside the apartment.

We continued feeding but over time we started to notice that the dogs were getting too friendly with us and hence assuming everyone who lived in the apartment were friendly too. This led to them getting hit and chased more, people complaining and dogs becoming dependent on us. After speaking to a couple of dog behaviourists we came to the conclusion that we had to get rid of the dependency and stop being over friendly to solve the problem.

We started feeding randomly (not every alternate day) when we got the mood. What happened was that after a few days the dogs went back to hunting rats and scavenging in the dustbins. This meant they weren’t around standing and waiting for food and spread out when hunting. It was easier for non-doggy people as they didn’t have to deal with a pack outside the gate. We also started distancing from the dogs. We stopped excessive play, we’d still give them a rub when going or coming in the gate but not too much. This over time led them to back away from people and their friendly overtures towards people stopped. This meant that they get hit with sticks and stones less as they stay away.

I love the dogs we have on our street and would do almost anything for them. Each one of the dogs here is amazing in behaviour and temperament (My Cuckoo’s mother lives on our street and I see so much of her in Cuckoo). But a balance has to be met when it comes to strays. We doggy eccentrics go overboard in caring for them and forget that nature has meant them to be a certain way. Hunting and scavenging is their way of life. If asked they most probably enjoy it so is it right for us to mollycoddle them or make them dependant on us. We have to help and support them but we shouldn’t be taking away their life skills or way of life on the street. They live full lives as strays, hunting, running and playing in the the little space they have after we have encroached with our fancy houses. We have to find a balance if we want to avoid human-dog conflict. That’s my stand – to find a balance where the humans are not in constant conflict with the dogs and the dogs are healthy and safe.

This of course puts me in a weird place. The doggy party thinks I’m switching sides and the despisers see me as the enemy 😀 So while I belong nowhere, I guess I’ll just continue doing what I can for the dogs as I watch the drama unfold.

And what a drama it is. Here’s the lowdown until now – Earlier I said Ms.L was being harassed so we did some searching and found that we could apply for Govt. Issued cards that authorise us to feed the dogs. We’ve sent in our applications and are currently waiting for the cards. Ms.L filed a harassment complaint at the local police station to keep them posted on the abuse. And we continued our feeding and neutering drive.

A couple of weeks back Mr.M made calls to the MLA and such and pressurised BBMP to take the dogs away. The only ones the Sarvodaya van managed to catch and take were three timid ones (one was a mother with her pups) who were petrified and hence didn’t run away when the van came. Ms.L then made some calls of her own and got to know that BBMP and Sarvodaya had no choice as some big shots had called them. However now that she had called they would observe the dogs for a few days and if they were not aggressive they would be sent back. At the end of the week the dogs were back and all were happy or at least all the of the non-despiser group. 🙂 The dogs and the prodoggers had won round one.

This led to an accidental chat I had with them a few days later on the street. Mr.B I think understood what I was saying however Mr.C refused to budge from his stand that the dogs had to go. After a lot of trying and explaining, I gave up. Didn’t look like they’d understand any time soon that the dogs were a part of our eco-system and can’t be removed just like that. So I told them the process of filing a proper complaint with BBMP and warned them that if they tried anything underhand I’d file a case against them.

Last weekend the colony seem to descend for a meeting as one (this is they only thing I’ve seen the people unite over in the last 5 years) and 200 people signed a petition that was submitted to the BBMP. I didn’t even know 200 families lived here, gawd where are all these people when we call for meetings over the garbage issue.

On Wednesday Mr.M along with two BBMP officials went to meet Ms.L. The officials told Ms.L that she should stop feeding the dogs but if she still wanted to feed them, she should feed them inside her compound and keep the dogs inside. They can’t be put back on the street. Now Ms.L has two dogs of her own, she can’t just adopt 8 dogs into her house. So, of course she told them she would do no such thing and if the dogs were a problem BBMP should take them away to the shelter. The BBMP guys baulked at the suggestion and promptly told her that they can’t do that. However they would send a van the next day to pick up the mother and get her neutered.

Ms.L in the heat of the moment forgot to take names and designations of the BBMP officials but were they really from BBMP and the Canine Care division. I have my doubts because they didn’t know anything about dogs, the Govt. Issued feeding cards and other stuff. Wonder who Mr.M pressurised to get someone from BBMP to turn up.

Anyway the van came yesterday morning and picked up the mother for neutering. In the evening they were back with the mother and a pup we had caught and sent earlier who had mange but had been treated and was now healthy. I was sceptical about the pup getting back as it’s been over three months since she’s been away and when we sent her she was just over 3 months old. But good news, she has settled in just fine. A few skirmishes still but mostly all good though it’ll take a while I guess before she gets all friendly with us.

The despiser group as always are late to react and only came out of their homes as the van was leaving. But I must give credit for their show of fitness in times of their need. They chased the van down and caught up with it a street away. Ms.L and I went to investigate just in case the driver needed help. He had no need for our help; he must deal with people like this all the time. He listened to Mr.M and Mr.O scream and shout about how they weren’t informed that the van was coming, etc. The van driver though calmly asked for their numbers, took them down and told Mr.M and Mr.O that he’d “inform” them next time and left.

The crowd of women onlookers(grudgingly: and a few men) and Mr.M and Mr.O formed a tight circle to discuss further plan of action while Ms.L and I slowly ambled back home. This is the way things stand as of now. No clue on what they’ll do next but looks like round two goes to the prodoggers too – not only did they not take any dogs away but rather brought one back to add to our numbers 😀

Like I said this is a fultu fun drama and I’m looking forward to the next chapter. Will keep you posted.

Have you got such drama in your area? Any suggestions for us on our next steps? Please do leave a comment if you support stay dogs. If not, do comment on that too. I’d love to hear your reasons for their extermination.

This week has been a fun week but has been busy too. We went to see a friend at the farm he staying at and had such a good time that we decided to take the dogs for a day to have a picnic. No prizes for guessing whether the dogs had fun. They went all out running, sniffing, playing and marking areas 😀 They played so much that they came back a slept most of that evening and the next day!

Cuckoo being cuckoo of course tasted all plants in sight so next morning we found her broken out in rashes. It was nothing a good bath and some antihistamines couldn’t sort out, so now she’s all Tide white and cuddly cute.

I’ve been trying out the neem and apple cider vinegar mix on the dogs to keep ticks and fleas away and it seem to be working. I had sprayed the dogs down well before we went to the farm and they haven’t picked up anything. So, either the spray worked or the farm and dogs there didn’t have any fleas or ticks.

After two days out on the farm we were all tired, so yesterday was rest day with us lazing around catching up with friends. We watched a movie too! ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ was just the right movie for yesterday. When I got to know it had Emma Watson in it, I was looking forward to see what I thought of her as not being ‘Hermione’ and I wasn’t disappointed. She is a good actress and the movie is definitely a must watch (not just because of her)! The movie is based on a book of the same name by Stephen Chbosky, should add this book to my to-read list for sure…

Other than that its life as usual 😀 Oh yeah, the one thing I haven’t talked about on the blog (I wanted to avoid it getting jinxed :P) was my attempt at growing a kitchen garden. Since the first few plants I bought were doing well I figured I should try and set up a mini garden. My first attempt at germinating chillies, tomatoes and the like was a disaster. Most plants died and just a couple survived. But I’ve just started out again trying to germinate a new batch and things seem to be looking up 🙂 A big thanks is due to the guys at Garden Guru, a store near home that is run by three guys trying to promote home gardening. They have been helpful guides, answering my many questions and encouraging me to not give up. Do check out the store – Garden Guru – and stop by if you need help 🙂 And you can follow my journey on Greening My Fingers here.

I also spent a lot of time on Feedly yesterday. I’ve been a bit shaken after Google’s news of removing Google Reader. All my feeds are on GR and I was quite upset about how I would move them away without losing out on my RSS feeds. Google seems to be making these crazy announcements, a while back they said they would remove FeedBurner too, and I’m yet to find a replacement. Hrrummph… Wish Google wouldn’t make such crazy-ass announcements. That said maybe it’s a good thing, since all such things will over time reduce my dependency on Google and that in the long run saves me for the dangers of monopoly.

Now Feedly is an excellent app to use when following and reading blogs. It does a good job of layout and also integrates with my various social media channels. That means I can post or mark to read later as I browse. Feedly also works on all platforms and syncs beautifully across all of them. So, I can move between devices without skipping a beat. As of now they are still depended on Google Reader to save RSS feeds but are actively working towards setting something up before GR shuts down so users can move to Feedly from GR seamlessly. This is one move I’m glad to make and looking forward to it too! (Down Google, Bad Boy!)

Ok that was a long update post. Onto some interesting articles I came across yesterday…

Jeff Bullas blog has an infographic on the 9 Reasons Why Facebook needs a ‘I Don’t Care’ Button that I associated with and laughed along as I saw them. There are just so many times I’ve thought ‘who care’s’ when scrolling on Facebook.

For all readers out there, Book Riot has 6 Bookish Cartoons you are sure to enjoy. I did!

Facebook has announced Lookalike Audiences, which sounds great from a marketers perspective as it gives more targeting control but I’m not so sure about how I feel about my facebook profile information becoming a statistic in their data. Also have to wait and see just how well the targeting works considering the spam audiences I’ve seen while promoting posts on pages.

In other Social Media News Pinterest is rolling out a new look to improve user experience. This is something I’m looking to get my hands on, but not sure if it’ll roll out for apps simultaneously. Hope I don’t have to wait to see it on the iPad.

Also found a new cool blog All About Ami through a post on Chris’s blog about a Chinese New Year Snake she made with crochet. All About Ami has some lovely ideas and designs that I’d like to crochet sometime soon 🙂

Wow! That’s a long post! Word says 931 words until now. So I’m gonna wind up here. If you’ve read until now, thank you 🙂 if, you haven’t then guess it doesn’t matter coz you’re not gonna read it anyway 😀

See ya laters…

Thanks to the tick problem I had (or rather the dogs had) and the research I did to find home remedies I came across alot of remedies for fleas too. Actually a lot more on fleas than ticks. I don’t have a flea problem right now and I live in an apartment but we won’t be here forever and with a yard may come problems so I thought I’d put them together here for future reference.

Please note that I haven’t tried any of the below solutions for fleas and don’t vouch for any as of now. If and when I use them, I’ll update the post. All these remedies are not my invention and have been collated from the internet. I don’t take any responsibilty for their correctness or safety.

I have categorised the tips into methods used on dogs, doggy areas, house and yard. Hope you find it helpful.

Tips and Tricks for Fleas

Dogs –

1. Mix approximately 2 tablespoons of neem oil and 4 tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar in 500ml water. Shake well and long to emulsify the oil. Spray dogs with the mix to deter/kill fleas. You can also spray the walls, carpets and curtains with the mixture so there is no place for fleas to hide. There may be a strong smell of neem in the room after use but airing out the room should sort that out.
2. Shampoo your dog with any shampoo (dog or human) and lather well. Let the shampoo stay on the dog for 5 mins. The water and shampoo suffocates the fleas and kills any visible fleas. Repeat 2 times a week if fleas are very bad until they are gone because this method does not kill flea eggs.
3. Alot of people seem to be recommending a dish detergent called Dawn. Not sure what the Indian equivalent is. However if detergent is used you’ll need to use a moisturizer afterwards to replenish the skin.
4. Baby oil is a natural anti-bug application that can also be used on humans for same purpose. Rub LITTLE baby oil all over the coat, mainly center and back. Its great for the skin too if done in small quantities (too much would burn them in the sun).
5. Lavender is a natural insect repellent & killer. You could use a lavender scented spray or lavender oil and water mixture to keep fleas away.
6. You need 8 oz apple cider vinegar, 4 oz warm water, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp baking soda. Mix dry ingredients first, then slowly add to the wet as the vinegar and baking soda will react slightly. Spay on the dog but be careful not to get it in the dogs eyes. You can also spray the dog’s area and bedding.
7. Add as much apple cider vinegar to pets water as you can without them noticing the taste. It makes the dogs body slightly acidic and the fleas don’t like it.
8. In a small spray bottle mix 2 capfuls of tea tree oil, 2 capfuls of lemongrass oil and fill it with water. Spay the dogs with it. The Fleas should die almost immediately.
9. Cut 2 lemons in to 4ths and boil in a pan with about 3 -4 cups of water for 30 min. Let cool, then strain. Use a clean sponge to lightly cover your dog in the lemon juice. Do this every 12 hours.
10. Several lemons boiled in water with a few teaspoons of salt. Once cooled, add vinegar to this and sprayed dogs coats as solidly as they allow, then leave to dry before bathing. Use the peels of the lemons from the presoak to put under their bedding to help keep the fleas out.
11. You can dip(or sponge) your dog in a Permethrin-10 mixture. This is found on Amazon for about $8.00. One application will last about 3-4 weeks. Will keep fleas and ticks off the animal.

Doggy Things –

1. Dog beds can be thrown into the washer with normal soap and in the rinse cycle add in 1 cup of pure white vinegar then dry like normal.
2. A solution of 1/2 cup white vinegar with a 1/2 cup lemon juice can be sprayed on furniture and the dog kennel making sure that you lift up the cushions and get it into the cracks because the fleas hide there. If can make a full bottle if you like just remember to use the same proportions as you fill up the bottle and don’t use water to top it off, as it just dilutes the solution.

In the House –

1. The number one tip is vacuuming. Vacuum consistently and regularly making sure to empty out the bag every time after you are done to get rid of all the fleas you’ve caught. All corners are important as thats where ticks and fleas hide so lift all cushions and beds and go into every corner. Before putting the bag back spray it down with a fipronil spray or apple cider vinegar to kill any fleas or larvae left behind.
2. You can use dry citrus peals, of any kind, break them up and scatter them all over the house and yard over a few day’s time. Take some more citrus peel and put into the blender, filling it with water and making a spray liquid. (You can also boil a pot of water, then turn off heat and put in a whole sliced lemon and cover it. Let sit over night to seep.) Bottle it and spray the dogs, (not good to spray cats directly), the carpet, the dogs’ bedding, and the yard where the dogs hang out. Remember to do a test area first as some dogs are allergic to citrus. The fleas hate citrus and disappear within a week. If done in the beginning of summer if should keep the house in the clear for the year.
3. After vacuuming the house, mop the floors with a gallon warm water, 20 drops of citronella oil, 10 drops of tea tree oil, 10 drops of lemongrass oil and 5 drops of geranium oil. It seems to work on fleas, ticks and mosquitoes too and the house smells amazingly fresh. You can use this solution for mopping once a week.
4. Take fresh sprigs of lavender, add some water and heat to a boil then cool. Put it in a spray bottle with lemon juice and spray everywhere.
5. In a spray bottle make a solution containing 5 teaspoons salt, ¼ cup vinegar and the rest water to spray under sofa cushions. Remember to let the treated area dry before replacing the cushions. Works on fleas and other crawlers like ticks.
6. Put out some night lights and plug them in close to the floor. Then take a bowl with warm water and a bit of dish soap (to break the surface tension of the water) and place it under the lights. The fleas get attracted to the light and jump right in to the water and drown. Plus it is safe to leave out at all times. You can also use cheap solor paneled garden lights that can be immersed in the tray of water or replace the water tray with a sticky pad (not so great with dogs around though).
7. To remove fleas from clothes and bedding, bag the clothes and bedding in storage vacuum bags and take out all the air, then in time submerge the clothes in water and hot wash them, put them back in bags till you are sure all the fleas have gone.
8. For the carpet take regular table salt and sprinkle a good amount all over the floor. Don’t be stingy, for a 15’/15′ bedroom you’ll need about one kg of salt. Leave it there for at least 24 hours for a heavy infestation. Then vacuum it off. Repeat it at least 3 times a month for the first 3 months and then after that once a month works great.
9. Mix 1 cup borax, 1 cup baking soda, and 1 cup table salt. Sprinkle evenly as possible on carpet, area rugs, etc. Leave overnight and vacuum well the next day. Repeat within 30 days, then as needed. Maybe twice in warm/hot months. You can even mix a large equal batch and save in plastic container, large salt shaker, or what is best for you. Its Non toxic and best done early in flea season.
10. Shampoo the carpet with a mix of 1/2 cup salt and 1/2 cup white vinegar in the carpet cleaner. Vinegar will neutralize any accidental urine accidents and the salt dehydrates any creepy crawler including ticks & fleas.
11. Getting rid of fleas is a two step process: vacuuming and spraying. Use a fresh vacuum bag so that air flow will not be restricted by debris collected by earlier vacuuming. Fill a small home & garden sprayer with 1 gallon vinegar, ½ gallon water, 16 oz lemon juice and 8 oz of witch hazel. After vacuuming, spray vinegar mixture using a heavy spray (not a stream however). Spray carpets, sofas, chairs, human and pet bedding, window sills, and bare floors. If you have a bad infestation, repeat every 12 hours for two days. When fleas are barely noticeably, repeat every 3 days. After fleas are gone, repeat once every week until flea season is over. If you start treatment at beginning of flea season, you will probably not need to do this more than once a week for the whole season.
12. Food grade Diatomaceous Earth is what you need for ticks and fleas. It is safe and is used in silos as an insect treatment for food storage. Sprinkle generously on the carpet and let it stay several days since nothing kills fleas in its cocoon and a new hatching occurs only every 3 to 5 days. Vaccum it off and repeat for bad infestations.
13. Another remedy for indoor fleas is borax. Get a box of cheap laundry borax and sprinkle it evenly on carpet and leave for a few days then vacuum. For a bad infestation sprinkle again and leave for a few days then vacuum again, then sprinkle again and leave for a week then vacuum, and repeat until you are satisfied the fleas are gone. Borax dries out the fleas, and there’s no poison involved. It is effective on a lot of other bugs.
14. Spay the house lightly with Ultracide IGR (found on Amazon for about $20) The IGR is a growth inhibitor which will kill fleas instantly and cause mutations in the eggs, so they won’t hatch. It lasts for nearly 120 days. Do it in the spring, once and it’s good for the year. It’s very bad to inhale, so have your family leave for a day when you do this.
15. Boric acid is not poisonous and is mined from the Mojave Desert. It is the most economical and effective pest control on earth. It kills everything from ants to termites and everything in between! It is safe to use around children. It is used for diaper rash, eye wash and salves, etc.

In The Yard –

1. Sprinkle dry washing powders around the yard to deter fleas. The kind of powder does not matter.
2. Spread food grade “Diatomaceous Earth in all different areas of the lawn on a non-windy day, and within 48 hours you have no more ticks or fleas. Wear a mask to prevent breathing the dust while spreading. You can even fill it in an old sock and pat it around the house. You can also mix 1/2 cup of DE, with 1 tablespoon of dish washing soap, into a gallon of water. Use a pump sprayer and spray the lawn.
3. You could use beneficial nematodes that you can get from a garden center, that eat flea larvae. You have to mix the package in water and let that sit for awhile, then pour it out in the yard, and keep wet for awhile. Best done when a large rain is expected, so you don’t have to keep wetting it. It may not show results immediately but the next flea season there should be no fleas.
4. Buy a quart of Permethrin SFR for about $30 on Amazon. Mix 2-3 tablespoons per gallon of water in a yard sprayer and spray the grass and plants around your house. (note that this is the same spray that they use for an ‘eve and perimeter’ spray that usually costs approx. $300) you can also spray the permethrin on your house eves and windows, it will kill wasps, spiders, roaches, and basically anything that crawls. Just keep your kids and animals out of it till it dries.
5. You can use left over tobacco ‘dust’ from a tobacco plant. All you need is a spreader (grass, fertilizer) and a vehicle/trailer to haul the dust home. You’ll have to do it about once a month, but if you start noticing the bugs again, spread more. Don’t spread it too thick, as the tobacco is ‘hot’ and will burn the grass. If you don’t spread it too thick, it fertilizes the grass. The the little creatures disappear, because it ‘burns’ them, it doesn’t necessarily kill them, but it deters them from coming into your yard. Works on most creepy crawlies.

Have you had a problem with fleas? Any recommendations and home remedies I can add to this list?

Photo credit: St. Ives Veterinary Surgery

[I also came across a lot of home remedies on fleas. You can see the list here.]

In the last three years with the dogs I’ve noticed that every time there is a peak in heat there is a sudden spurt in ticks. When they live indoors this isn’t a factor to worry about as they aren’t exposed to the ticks much. They don’t pick them up as the ticks aren’t in their environment. My dogs don’t walk on the roads much, they get most of their exercise on the terrace as we have a large pack of strays outside. But they do pick them up when walked outside as we have a lot of empty grass filled plots around our apartment and that’s where the blaady ticks hangout.

The other place they pick them up is at the boarding where they live outdoors with all the other dogs. In the first week of January this year there was mild heat wave in Bangalore and as always there was the spike in ticks. Only this time it wasn’t the spidery type but the small dot type that is painful to spot and hell to get rid off. Usually they get bathed and treated before they leave the boarding but this time, we couldn’t do the usual and I had a fight on my hands.

The most common ticks found in urban India is the genus Rhipicephalus sanguineus also called brown dog tick followed by the more rural Haemaphysalis. Ticks are very difficult to identify and differentiate with the naked eye. The best method is to see their mandibles (mouths) under a microscope. I did a lot of reading to try and identify the tick we had found but it seems almost impossible with out expert help. So let me just describe them. There are two types of ticks I’ve seen until now. One is a spider looking kind with the legs kindof spread away from the body and then this one which looks like a small mustard seed with the legs almost invisible under it.

This was the first time I had seen these small guys, I usually come across the spider kind and the fipronil spray works just fine to get rid of them. Also I’ve never seen them in large numbers on the dogs. But these small guys are like dots in their larva stage (I guess) and almost impossible to see. Then when they start falling they are just a bit bigger than a mustard seed and still difficult to spot, especially on a dark coat dogs. I’ve saved a few specimens just in case it’s need for reference ever again.

This tick issue happening about the same time as the really bad migraines was a real uphill fight. One sure-shot method to get rid of ticks is neem oil but its a messy business and takes a fair bit of time. And with three dogs its a lot of time, so I was looking for other solutions. Here’s what I did with the dogs and at home and it has helped so far. Its been three weeks and no sign of ticks yet but I guess I’ll have to wait a couple of cycles before I’ll know for sure.

We sprayed them down with Fipronil 0.25% spray as soon as we got home. I then combed them down with a tick/flea comb and checked ears and paws carefully. Senti my 3 year old wire-dach had loads of them on his ears. I then started combing and checking twice a day for the next week, once in the morning and once in the evening, removing as many ticks as I could. We have some lavender beeswax at home and since lavender repels ticks, I rubbed the dogs down with it after combing for two days. The house also got swept twice a day with special attention to corners and cupboards. Garbage was thrown out immediately after cleaning to get rid of any ticks in the dust.

Three days later I was still seeing a fair number of ticks, so we mixed equal proportions of neem oil and coconut oil and soaked the dogs coats with it. Neem oil is quite thick so we thinned it down to ease in application. We did this on the terrace to avoid getting the house all messy and the ticks dropping inside the house. After about 15-30 minutes we took each dog separately and gave them a bath with a mix of mild olive shampoo, ketochlor and savlon lathered well. Usually neem oil is a pain to wash off but I think the mixing helped us get it off their coats easily. Some traces of oil will remain and since the oils are good for the dogs coats, we left it be. In combing it will spread out in the coat and will help in keeping the ticks off. Only after the bath were they allowed to roam the house again.

I also vacuumed the entire house making sure to go into every nook and cranny, doing one room at a time thoroughly. We have tile edging along our walls so I made sure to vacuum the edges all along the house floors too. Ticks love corners so those have to be done carefully to get them out. I then emptied the dust bag immediately, away from the house and sprayed some fipronil spray on it before putting the bag back in.

Two days later I saw a big tick again so we sprayed the dogs well with Fipronil 0.25% spray. Haven’t seen any ticks since then in a week. They are due for a another spraying down in a couple of days to match the two week tick cycle.

I have been very careful about the house too. The bed in the hall got sunned and kept away, we have only bean bags in the hall where the dogs are now. Makes it easier to clean and spot ticks. My maid has clear instructions to clean diligently but to make sure I do some extra sweeping myself. I vacuum once a week. Initially I did a mop of 2 capfuls of synthetic vinegar, 2 tablespoons of crystal salt and a capful of savlon in 3/4 bucket of water regularly. I alternated this with the regular everyday mop I was doing from before. Over time I am now doing a vinegar, salt and savlon mop only once in 5 days. The vinegar and salt is supposed to kill ticks. In the initial days I did find a number of dead ticks on the floor.

All seems good as of now but I’m being vigilant. I’ve seen infestations before and I definitely don’t want one on my dogs or in my house. I’ll keep you posted on how things go.

Here are a few tips I came across on the internet while searching for home remedies. I haven’t tried any of them so am just listing it here for future reference. I can’t vouch of any of them as of now.

1. Mix approximately 2 tablespoons of neem oil and 4 tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar in 500ml water. Shake well and long to emulsify the oil. Spray dogs with the mix to deter/kill ticks and fleas. You can also spray the walls, carpets and curtains with the mixture so there is no place for ticks/fleas to hide. There may be a strong smell of neem in the room after use but airing out the room should sort that out.
2. Use a cedar oil spray. Spray once a day if you go out into tick areas regularly. Spray them directly or on palm to rub around the face and tummy area. They should pick up less ticks.
3. Mix 10 parts witch hazel and 1 part lemon eucalyptus oil in a spray bottle. Spray your pet and you down.It is a deterrant to ticks.
4. Mix 10 drops of rose geranium oil, 15 drops tea tree essential oil, 15 drops lavender essential oil, 10 drops cedarwood essential oil, 10 drops lemon eucalyptus oil and 4 oz. Distilled or filtered water” in a spray bottle and spray the dogs regualrly to avoid ticks.
5. A mix of 1 cup Avon Skin-So-Soft, 1 cup Water, 1 tablespoon Lemon Eucalyptus oil and 2-3 tablespoons Apple cider vinegar sprayed on dogs repelling ticks. It lasts only a couple hours though so you have to keep spraying.
6. You can dip(or sponge) your dog in a Permethrin-10 mixture or a product containing Permethrin. This is found on Amazon for about $8.00. One application will last about 3-4 weeks. Will keep ticks off the animal.
7. For horses and cattle mix 2 oz 10% Permethrin Concentrate ( available at countrysupply.com or any tack store), 1 oz Citronella Oil ( cheap on ebay but can be found at any natural/organic store), 4 oz Apple Cider Vinegar (any grocery store), a few drops of rosemary oil and fill a 1 Quart sprayer the rest of the way up with water along with the above. Be sure to always shake sprayer before applying as this activates the Permethrin.

Do you have any remedies for ticks? Ways and tricks to keep them out of the house and off dogs? Please do let me know in the comments.

I also came across a lot of home remedies on fleas. You can see the list here.

Photo Credit: The Outdoor Type

Yesterday I came across this video by NOVA – ‘Dogs Decoded’ on one of the doggy groups I follow on facebook. Had some time on hand so I sat down to watch. It was a very interesting video and if you have a dog you should watch it.

As I watched the video a lot of things about my three dogs became clearer. A lot of things that I know about my dogs is not unique to me any more. Che and I have always said Cuckoo speaks and she’s not the only one in the world, most dogs do. So as I watched the video I made a list of things I learned about my dogs.

1. The expressions on both sides of our faces in any situation are not identical. We tend to see more of the right of a persons face then left when talking to them (left gaze bias). This is because the right side of our face shows more of the emotion we are feeling than the left. Dogs understand this too and tend to focus more on the emotion on the right of our face. Its helps them read our emotion and respond to it. This explains why I can’t con Cuckoo with fake anger, there’s too many parameters. 🙂

Our dogs understand us. Thats a very simple statement but holds a lot of meaning. Dogs understand our social ques, they understand gesturing – our pointing with fingers or eyes. Combine that with their reading of our facial emotions and you have mans best friend. 😀

2. Out of the three dogs I have, Cuckoo is the most communicative. She almost talks – each bark is different and means different things. You could almost have a conversation with her.
Dogs use barking as a language. Frequency, tonality and interval between barks vary to form a wide variety of meaning. A research facility in Budapest recorded the sounds dogs make in various situations and played the sounds clips to test base of dog owners. Dog owners almost always identified the dogs situation and behaviour correctly. So the bark of a dog is not just noise but a package of information to help us communicate. Then why do we debark dogs? 🙁

3. Spending time with my dogs always is an upper, it makes me feel better. The rottenest day gets better when I’m with them. Senti’s my special in this area. I have a need to nuture and Oh how I enjoy mothering him 😀

In Sweden a doctor has poven that Occitocin is reponsible for the bonding of babies with mothers. When we are petting dogs we release occitocin and so do dogs. This peptide causes a feeling of well being and bonds us to our dogs. Occitocin is good for us – it reduces the heart rate and blood pressure and can lead to lower levels of stress.

4. There’s always been this debate about dogs being decended from wolves. Research finally proves dogs are tamed domesticated wolves.

Soviet scientists over the last 50 years have run an experiment with silver foxes. They took the tamest foxes in each litter and bred them with other tame ones. They also did the same with the most aggressive ones. 8 generations later the tame foxes had started looking forward to human contact. 50 generations later they are starting to show characteristics of dogs. On the other side the agressive ones got more aggressive with each generation. A good reason to always ask to see the mother and father when getting a pup, it’ll say a lot about the dog we get.

And here’s some interesting trivia from the video.

There are more pet dogs in the world than babies, nearly 1/2 a billion.

Research proves that dogs can extend our life. People who have dogs are less likely to have a heart attack. If they have a heart attack they are three or four times more likely to survive it.

A border collie in Austria near Vienne understands over 340 words. That means she can correctly identify 340 items in a pile! She can also recognise new objects from just images shown.

Disclaimer: This piece may be all over the place as I’m a bit emotional. Dogs do that to me – always; humans – sometimes 😛

A friend shared a petition on my Facebook stream today and the title got me interested.

Mayor, BBMP: Stop considering culling of street dogs in Bangalore

So I went to take a look and here are my thoughts on street dogs and culling.

This topic came up in our last building meeting too. Residents wanted the dogs removed from the colony. Really! How in the world do you remove street dogs from the streets of India? You could but they’ll come back: always – others if not the same ones!

We have to understand how dogs work in our environment. They are territorial just like us. We have plots of land all demarcated and registered so we can claim it as OURS. Well, they do the same, just without all the paperwork. Removing them just opens up an unclaimed piece of land that then gets grabbed by someone else.

The dogs got here first. If you ask around you realize that the first guy to buy land in your area saw dogs there when he bought it. They were there first and we claim the land is ours and they need to be removed?

Ok apart from the emotional stuff. Culling isn’t the answer to the street dog menace. Please note I don’t see them as a menace at all. They are helpful in a lot of ways, but the most important – they keep the area they live in free of crime.

I don’t think culling will help at all. The numbers will drop for a bit and then just bounce back. It would be better for people to get more proactive and get the present dogs neutered. That way the numbers can be controlled and watched.

No point in constantly blaming the govt. either. We need to take action, if we don’t do anything how can we expect anything of the govt. It’s like blaming the govt. when you didn’t even take the time to vote.

I have neighbors who have unvaccinated pets at home. These are parents who vaccinated their kids but see no reason to do the same for their cats and dogs. Forget about how it will keep the dog/cat healthy, they don’t even understand the risk they are putting their own kids into by having unvaccinated pets.

I also have seen people in my building go out of their way to kick the dogs. Kids obviously emulate their parents and chase the dogs with sticks into a corner. Then the parents complain that the dogs are a potential threat to their kids. Really? Are the dogs the threat? And all because the poor cornered dog had no other option since there was nowhere to run. Its sad to see how people treat dogs who are really sweet and friendly.

Che and I have spent time getting to know the dogs in our street. With help from another resident we got them neutered. We were sick of seeing dead/dying puppies and are so glad now to see NO puppies and healthier dogs. The number of dogs is in control – to some extent.

Recently there has been some rearrangement of dogs in our street. The aforementioned residents have been beating and chasing the dogs. That has led the pack to move away and new dogs have started to come in. The old pack found more peaceful human neighbours further up the street. It means a new round of neutering soon and more risk until then to aforementioned residents 😛

Remember our constitution – by the people, for the people. BY comes first because WE can and should take action first. It isn’t difficult. Take responsibility. We feed and watch the dogs in our area. Street dogs are friendly by nature. They instinctually know that they need to co-exist with us (even if we don’t). I’m not saying go give them a big hug but you could start by treating them nicely and maybe feeding them regularly. Dogs that eat well tend to stay healthy and healthy dogs are less likely to pick up infections like mange, etc. When the dogs trust you it will be easier to catch them and neuter them. It costs about Rs.300 or less to vaccinate a dog for the year. It’s worth the investment.

Culling isn’t the answer but taking a little time to get to know the dogs in our area and taking care of them may just solve our problems.

If you feel strongly against culling street dogs please stop by and sign the petition. 🙂 Leave your thoughts about my thought too please 😀