Tips for the upcoming winter season ☕❤️

Hi furiends, it's me Luna again! The last months has been busy here at my home. Pawrents both changed their jobs, we got new neighbors that are a bit noisy when I'm trying to nap (and they don't have a dog unfortunately) and I enjoyed my city dog life to the fullest with sniffaris and restaurant visits. 

How are you? Ready for fall/wintertime? ❄️

Here are some top tips from me and my human to be fully prepared for the upcoming cold season:

• Invest in some heavy duty winter gear for the hooman such as boots, rain jacket, waterproof overpants and a fancy umbrella. I also has her own rainjacket since we live in an apartment and the hoomans get crazy of the wet dog smell. 
• Shorter days means more walkies in the dark. Get a little light to attach to the harness/collar and reflective-safety items. Nowadays you also have leashes/collars/harnesses/ jackets with build in hi-vis. A small detail which can have a big impact if you walk in busy areas. 
• Make sure to do a proper warm up before running like crazy. Rainy days means slippery paths. Make sure to stretch and warmup those legs before going full speed. 
• Have a kit ready at home to get cleaned up. Think of: dog towel, wipes for the paws and a blanket to chill on. 
• Is the weather really too bad or dangerous? Create some indoor fun with food puzzles, hide & seek or sniffari's where the humans hide the cookies. 

And last but not least: Don't forget to have fun! Rainy days might not be your favorite but lets not forget to find joy in the little moments of life. 

First time dogowner musthaves

Hello furiends,

When the hoomans got me in 2015 there was no constant influence of social media yet. Therefore the products they bought for me as a pup where mainly the essentials. Nowadays we are all encouraged to buy more and more stuff.. but do we really need al those things? 

Being a first time dog owner can be overwhelming and confusing. Let me give you some tips what are the absolute no brainers: 

Dog bowls: 

You will definitely need a set of bowls for your dog. Think about it, this piece not only needs to be functionable but also fit in your interior. Here are a few tips what to look at: 

1. Make sure you go for high quality materials, our personal favorite is stainless steel. Easy to clean and maintain and can be found in almost every petshop (or online ofcourse!. Another great material is ceramic. Both of these options are also non toxic. 

2. Go for a minimal design, no weird patterns or rubbers around it. They are a trap for bacteria's and make it harder to keep things hygienic. 

3. Go for the right dept, big dogs can have a deeper bowl then the little ones. If you are unsure bring your dog to the petstore and ask a professional for assistance. 

4. Get some anti slip, whether it's a placemat underneath the bowl or rubber pads that are attached to the base, make sure the bowl is stable and doesn't move around while eating. 

Dog bed: I personally prefer natural materials such as cotton or wool. A big plus with wool is that it regulates the temperature which comes in quite handy here in the Mediterranean. Very impawtent: The bed and/or cover needs to be washable. 

Toys: Don't go for the fancy looking toys but opt for the ones that are safe to withstand lots of chewing and also non toxic. Also don't forget that dogs release stress while chewing so it's an essential part of the day. My personal favorite is the Kong which can be stuffed with yummy snacks. 

Walking gear: 

Collar and leash: Go for natural and durable materials. Important is that your dog feels comfortable at all times. If you are an adventurous outdoor type think of waterproof materials. Always go for collars with stainless steel or hardware, you don't want your favorite piece to catch rust! My go to collar is from Ezydog. I have used it now for about 4 years summer and winter and the hardware hasn't rusted even though I swim in salty waters. 

Harness: While a harness is not essential for puppies (I mean we can learn to go on walkies without it. It definitely can help in activities like hiking, biking, canicross etc. If you know you want to go do some sports with your dog I would suggest to invest in a good canicross harness. The most important of all is to avoid shoulder restrictions and Y-shaped harnesses. See also my blog about dog harnesses: Luna's favorite type of harness and why you could consider it too..

Long leash: Great option to train the recall, we personally prefer a long fabric line and not a rectangle. The reason for this is that rectangle lines encourage pulling and can be sharp when a little leg get wrapped in them. Also consider getting a long line without handle. This way the leash cannot get stuck on branches, etc..  

Dog ID: Must have with the owners identification like phone number and name. You hope it never happens but if your pup runs off you will be reunited much quicker.

Tracker: Back in the days in 2015 a dog tracker wasn't a thing yet. Nowadays they can be found both online and in store and are quite affordable. Can come in pretty handy if you are training recall or go on a crazy adventure in the forest. Better safe then sorry. 

Well friends, this is quite a list already. What do you think? Is this a good list of basics or are we missing something impawtent? 

  

 

 

 

Destinations in Crete: Richtis Gorge

 Hello furiends! 

Excuse me for the silence on the blog but the hooman writers where occupied with life responsibilities.Don't worry, even if they did not had much free time, I am still the queen of the house! They also took me on a pawtastic roadtrip in East Crete. Let me show you where we went for a hike:

Our adventure started with a long drive from our home to Richtis Gorge. If you come from the middle of the island towards the East you will meet Richtis and afterwards the city of Sita.

There is a parking spot on the mainroad (right next to the highway, it has big plates with info about Richtis) but if you have a 4x4 car you can follow the path to the entrance of the gorge. You will recognize the entrance by an old stone bridge and parking spots for busses. If you go off season you will find spots to park near the entrance. If you go in the middle of the summer you might have to stop next to the highway and start your hike from there. 

Richtis gorge is know for it's magnificent waterfall and pleasant walk in the forest. We went in the middle of May when the temperature wasn't too hot for my royal paws and the amount of tourists was handleably. In high season you might stumble upon groups of tourists which makes it a bit less comfortable to hike as some parts of the path are really narrow. 

Now on to the good part! The gorge is about 10 km in total so it takes the average hiker around 2 hours to complete. Now if you love to dive under the waterfall count some extra time to swim in the crystal clear waters and have a snack stop (You can never have enough snacks!!). 

The hike difficulty was easy peasy lemon squeezy for me but ofcourse since I am a dog maybe my opinion doesn't count. If I ask the hoomans they would say "you need to be in a good condition and able to climb some stairs/bridges. There are slippery stones so good shoe wear such as hiking boots are recommended". 

My favorite part: THE WATERFALL! Honestly it isn't the biggest I've ever seen in my life but still it was pretty decent and a unique piece of natural beauty. Be aware that the water is ice cold but oh so refreshing after the long hike! You can even make a little swim. The closer you go to the waterfall the deeper the water is so be careful if you are a cute doggo like me or a small child. 

To conclude: Richtis gorge is an absolutely must if you are in the East side of Crete. The hike is dog friendly (a fit dog can easily follow the trail and there are lots of shady parts). One thing to keep in mind that this hike might give you muddy paws/shoes so make sure to bring a clean pair to enter the car. 

Destinations in Crete: How to book a hotel with your dog?

Hi furiends! It's me Luna again. Long time no see here on the blog side. I hope you're all doing great!! 

Today I want to bark a little bit about hotel howlidays wif the humans. 

In Crete tourism is big business, in 2022 the inbound arrivals were roughly 4.7 million. 

As tourist come in all kinds of styles unfortunately not everyone is happy to see my cute furry paws walking in their hotel. 

If you want to go on holidays in Crete and take your pawrents, I have the following tips for you:

1. Check apps (my personal favorite is booking.com) with petfilter to see which hotels are available and petfriendly.
2. Sent the accomodation a request and ask if they have a calm room with outdoor space/balcony and clarify that your experienced with traveling so the dog is trained in sleeping calmly and not destroying the room
3. Upon arrival in the accomodation clarify what are the rules. Does the owner accept letting a dog alone in the room? Can breakfast be served in the room? Can you exit the hotel early in the morning to let the dog out?
4. If you are not feeling 100% confident call before arrival so there are no surprises. Sometimes smaller hotels also advertise to be not petfriendly but make an exception if you show up with a well behaved dog. We had this experience once in Kalamaki in South Crete and because we had such a nice time we return yearly! 
5. Put on a note on the door "Do not knock dog in the room + telephone so they can call you if needed." In Greek this would be something like: "σκυλί στο δωμάτιο, παρακαλώ μην χτυπήσετε την πόρτα." The receptionist can write the Greek version 😉
6. Take your own dog blanket and bowls as most basic hotels do not have this as a service. Petfood can be found in every minimarket/supermarket. Ofcourse it's the best to take the food your dog is used eating at home. In big cities such as Heraklion, Chania, Agios Nikolaos, Rethymnon you can find petshops with "high end" dry food brands such as Acana, Purina, Orijen, etc..
7. Enjoy the moment! If you don't like to be petted by strangers let your human advocate for you as Greeks tend to pet every single dog without asking haha 😆

Luna in Spili Rethymnon

The impawtence of chewing!

 Helloooo furiends, It's me Luna again. 🐶 New year means new blog posts!

Hope you are all keeping up those wonderful new years resolutions. Mine are simple.. more treatos, more naps and more tennis balls! 

For New years I got a lovely present, a new chewstick. Did you know that besides of annoying the humans with loud smacking noises it also has several other benefits??

• Most impawtently it relieves stress and anxiety. Because I don't like to be left alone at home but sometimes the humans don't have any other choice. In that case once they return home my chewing stick gives me the opportunity to chew the stress off (of course you can also shake it off like Taylor swift used to sing 😁)
• They say it reduces plaque build up, to be quite honest I still have a little plaque build up but ok maybe it would be worse without chewing. 
• Burns excess energy: Well this one is quite impawtent too, as a working doggo I need to have something to do. Cannot sit still all day alrighty!
• It shows we feel good, if we stop chewing maybe their is something wrong with our teefies our general health. 
• Jaw training, because you never know when you need to bite a burglar in his leg 😈

So now you have read the most impawtent benefits it's time to send the hoomans to the petshop! 

In case you are wondering what I am chewing, it's the Kong Chewstix (NO spon!)

Luna chewing her large Kong chewstix

Ps. Thanks for visiting my little dog blog, feel free to follow me on insta or leave your feedback at lunathecretanbordercollie@gmail.com

Happy howlidays! 🎄⛄❄️🦌

 Hi furiends, it's me Luna again! 🐾

I just want to stop by to wish you all pawtastic howlidays! 

Enjoy your time with family & furiends! And I hope santapaws is passing by with lots of gifts. 🎁 

Also I want to send a virtual hug to everyone who is missing a loved one or is feeling lonely ❤️ 

Dogsport in summer, is it possible at all?

Hi furiends, it's me Luna again!🐾 After a little social media break (the humanager was not available due to family visits and work) I am back on social media and on my blog! I hope you're all doing great and having a pawsome Summer. 

Today I would like to bark about a topic that is very essential here in the mediterranean and also in other area's during summer: 

Sporting in Summer!

Just like the humans we can overheat also if we go sport in the middle of the day when the sun is shinning and the outside temperature is very hot but with the correct modification or adaptation all sports can be done. It also strongly depends on the condition of the athlete whether it is possible at all. 

Here are some top sports for summer:

1. Watersports: Kayak, canoe, SUP, dock-diving
2. cani-hiking, you can use the same gear set up as with canicross but you adapt the tempo and distance 
3. the most obvious is swimming ofcourse! whether it is in a river, lake or sea bring a squeaky fetch toy for extra fun. 
4. Scent work, it's one of the newer sports but it requires a lot of focus from your dog so it will definitely make they feel fulfilled.
5. agility/obedience in indoor arena, some dogclubs have airconditioned indoor arena's. If you're a lucky member of one of this clubs you can keep training at an high level even in the hottest august days!

Now that we have seen some good sport ideas for summer we can dive deeper into how to sport and what is the best preparation:

- To begin with the best is to start building your dog's condition before the summer months arrive, the better the condition of the animal the easier it is to cope with summer sporting. Keep in mind that certain breeds such as huskies, pugs, bulldogs, samoyeds, Bernese mountain dogs, etc.. are recommended to avoid intensive activities in summer at all costs.

- If it's your first time you start sporting with your dog or if it's a while ago you have paid a visit to the vet it's highly recommended to do a routine check up and mention you are planning to start sporting. Sometimes the vet gives some extra attention to certain areas that might be extra important if you want to sport with your dog. 

- Learn to observe your dog, how quickly does my dog heat up? How long does it take to cool down and get a normal heartbeat again? Is recovery going good or has the dog problems with walking the next day? etc.. One good way to feel the temperature of your dog is inside the ears, if your dog doesn't accept this you could check the temperature at their chest also. 

- Climate considerations: Keep a close eye to the weather reports and most of all the humidity index and ofcourse the heat. Also observe yourself how you feel in the weather, if it feels warm and humid for you it might be super hot for your dog! 

- Do proper preparations:

Give your dog that summer haircut if possible, make sure they are hydrated before the activity and provide necessary equipment. I personally only use light weight equipment such as our canicross harness and provide a cooling bandana. A vest is also an option but be careful as some vest actually cause overheating if the fabric isn't breathing well. 

- Also don't forget to do a good cooldown aswell this can be done with a brisk cool-down walk or a refreshing swim. If swimming is not a possibility you can cool down your dog also by splashing some water on their chest area. Your dog should always have a cool and wet nose. Does the nose feel dry? Make sure that your furry furiend drinks water as soon as possible. Once home you can provide a cooling mat to relax on, some dogs like this while others like me Luna prefer to lay on the floor. 😁

- Study the signs of heatstrokes and dehydration before you go on adventure so that you are prepared to take immediate action if necessary. Cary your mobile phone with your vets number and another vets emergency number

Last but not least don't forget to have fun! Do you have more tips for summer sporting? Let us know by email or send a DM at @lunathecretanbordercollie on Instagram. 

Paw from me,

Luna 🐶

Luna working out in the park 😜