Something's missing...

Conker is bummed that the mattress is no longer here.  He loved to lay on that mattress and stink it up with his chews.  Not anymore I say, the mattress is leaning against the side of the house now.  (About five feet away from the "bedroom" door leading outside.)

In case it's not obvious, I'm getting a new bed.  In a week.  I'm just gonna sleep on a squish on the floor (the mattress was on the floor...) until it gets here.  It's going to be a twin instead of a full since the full blocked the door and was generally too big.  Conker is going to have to learn how to share the bed when it arrives.

Chews Part 2

Conker inititally went for the pigs ear then ignored it every time I offered it.  So I tried giving him the trachea.  He ignored it at first, more intent on getting a reaction out of the clicker sitting on my desk, then decided to give chewing on it a try.
He loves the trachea, almost as much as a bully stick!  The pigs ear?  Not really.  He licked it a few times then left it alone.  I let him chew on the trachea until he'd gotten about halfway through.

I went to the petstore and got Juneau and Sasha each a hoof to chew on. Sahsa went right to town on hers but Juneau... not much interest in it.  I tried to get her to chew on it by encouraging her when she licked it but after a while she just laid there with it between her paws.  So I took Conker's rejected pig ear and gave it to Juneau.  She loved that!  So now Sasha gets cow hooves and Juneau pig ears... I guess.
I'd give one to Sasha but she's still fat.  I'm monitoring her food, treats and chews so hopefully she'll begin to slim down by their next bag of kibble.
Which is going to be Taste of the Wild!

Juneau however decided to change her mind and after Sasha got up and left her hoof, she swooped in and took it!  Now she's chewing on it.  Sasha will get Juneau's old one.

So the verdict is as follows, a simple yes or no if they would chew on it or not.
Pig ear: Conker no, Juneau yes, Sasha unknown
Cow hoof: Conker yes, Juneau yes, Sasha yes
Trachea: Conker yes, Juneau unknown, Sasha unknown
Bully Stick:  Conker yes, Juneau yes, Sasha yes


I imagine they'll all chew on the trachea so I'm most likely going to order a bunch from bestbullysticks since they've got amazing prices on them.  Also, I could try stuffing one full of meat for Conker to see if it'll slow his eating down a bit.

Chews Part 1

Conker and I walked to the petstore today.  It's only a few blocks down the street, maybe a ten minute or so walk.  We saw something interesting on the way.  An old lady weed-whacking her grass.  Seriously?  how many old ladies do you see having at their grass with a weed-whacker?  Not many!  That was pretty bad ass.

We picked up some Lamb flavored Zuke's Jerky Naturals (Conker's favorite), a small beef trachea, a pig's ear and a cow hoof.  Then we walked back, and the little old lady was still going at her grass with the weed-whacker.  There were also a LOT of people walking their dogs.  We saw about six other dogs.  Usually it's none or two at most.  I guess the small increase in temperature is to blame.
We also ran to Petco and got a clicker since the ones at the petstore were way overpriced.  More on that later.

I decided to go with the cow hoof first.  I held it out to Conker who sniffed it then tasted it then kinda looked bored.  I'm not sure he knew what to do with it until I tossed it onto the bed and told him to get it.  After he mouthed it a bit more he figured out it was for chewing and went to town on it.  Sasha ended up coming in when he wasn't chewing on it and stole it, he didn't like that, so I had to take it from her and give it back to the Shibrat.  He chewed on it before and after dinner some more.

It's not a complete hit like a bully stick but it's good enough to hold Conker's attention for a while.  Thankfully this hoof gets soft when chewed on and doesn't splinter into incredibly sharp pieces. I don't know if other types/brands of hoof do or what.
We will be trying out the other chews in the next few days and giving reviews on them.  I'm going to go back to the store and pick up a few more hoofs for the Girls since Mom kinda scolded me for only buying one.  I might grab a cow ear if they've got one, or a lamb ear.  Can't remember which it is.  Maybe a small antler too.


I don't know if it's just me, but I don't mind Conker chewing on his nasty smelly things on my bed.  Sheets.  Not the blanket, the sheets.  I don't want him getting that stuff on my nice heating blanket (yes, even though it's about 70 degrees in the house at night I use that and make it a comfy 85.)  I guess I should be a bit more cleanish and put an extra sheet on top of my blanket?  I dunno, being unsmelly and clean isn't a big issue with me.  If you saw the state of my hair you might question my sanity.

Click

Anyone use clickers?  I'm thinking of giving that a shot.  For a while I've been against them no real reason, but now I kinda want to try it.  Conker is already pretty good about coming and sitting but everything else is hit or miss.  He doesn't know down very well, wait he's good with but stay, not-so-much.
I also want to just train him more and better so I think using a clicker might help.  He's recently been getting somewhat problematic with pulling on walks especially if the other dogs are there.
I'm not interested in tricks at all, just obedience.  I might teach one or two tricks if Conker ends up being good with this but for the most part, no.

Tomorrow we're gonna go to the petshop (where I saw the Ridgeback) and pick up some treats and a clicker.  And maybe a few bully sticks or a pigs ear, I dunno.

HOMG

I was at a petstore today to find a bully stick for Conker since he's been going after pencils and garbage due to the lack of chewables.  I turned the corner and nearly had a heart attack when I saw the dog.

Rhodesian Ridgeback.

I about died right there.  I asked the owner if I could PLEASE pet his dog, he let me, and I thanked him.  He probably thought I was nuts!  Her name was Gracie and she was sooo freaking nice.  Everyone loved her, she was gorgeous, and I am very jealous. 


Conker was excited to get a bully stick for the first time since we moved here.   The massive one I bought him for the trip mysteriously vanished a day after we got here... He's only allowed to chew it when I'm around now since the Girls will steal it and eat it in less than five minutes.

Dog Fights

Are so much fun.  Up until today none of the fights Conker's gotten into have been noteworthy.  I'm surprised the fight was with Sasha instead of Juneau, those two are the norm for scrapping partners.  Anyways, Conker was playing fetch with his penguin toy when Sasha got in his way and he DID NOT like that.  So he jumped up in her face and got all noisy at her. She didn't like that either ans was all OH YEAH?  I BITE YOUR FREAKING EAR!  So she did, and Conker yelped, and continued going after Sasha who was by then standing over him and biting at his face...
I casually yelled at the dogs to stop.  My mouth was full of fresh fried rice and I didn't want to spew it everywhere and I knew the fight wasn't bad so I waited until the fried rice was safely down my throat before telling them quite loudly to knock it off.  They did, though Conker got all snarky at Sasha as he walked over to me to mooch some of my fried rice.

My general rule is: you don't need to stop it right away unless someone starts yelping. And since Conker yelped, I stopped it.  After swallowing my fried rice.  I don't have a problem with the dogs duking it out every now and then, heck, if Conker gets his butt handed to him enough times maybe he'll stop butt-checking Sasha. OR if Juneau gets owned maybe she'll quit being the fun-police.


So I gave each of the dogs a once-over starting with Sasha.  Nothing but spit on her so I went to Conker.

Oops.  He got his ear pierced.  Blood smeared on other parts of his ear and head but that's the only definite wound I could find.  He also rubbed some on his foot then shook his head and sent it flying onto the TV.

I highly doubt he learned anything from this since he tried to start it up again a minute later.  Because of these kind of things I tell everyone that if you're going to be gone for more than an hour, put Conker in my room and close the door.

RMB Day!

Today is a nice day and I've been wanting to give the dogs a raw bone to munch on for a while so I said why not?  I whipped a out pair of beef ribs I've had for forever and a pork butt bone out (also had forever), took the dogs into the backyard and gave them their respective bones.  Those beef ribs has a LOT more meat on then then I initially thought.
Conker got tied to a tree since he's a jerk.  He bayed at the Girls for five minutes before realizing they wanted nothing to do with him or his butt bone.

Conker with his butt bone.

Sasha with her beef rib.

Juneau with her beef rib.

Conker stripped the meat off his bone pretty quick.

Sasha decided laying down was easier.

Juneau went behind the planter a moment later.

Conker trying to hide the remains of his butt bone in the grass.

Sasha with her stripped beef rib.

Juneau took her time.

The dogs all enjoyed munching on their bones.  It was nice, having them all in the backyard without them fighting over something!  I guess tying Conker to a tree helped with that though...  I took Conker inside after a while since he ate way more of the butt bone than I wanted him to. Sasha munched up the rest of his bone then went after Juneau's while Juneau went after Sasha's.  Those two will trade bones and not care who has which one, as long as they've both got a bone they are fine.

Much to my surprise, the beef ribs cleaned a TON of the tartar off Juneau and Sasha's teeth!  I should have taken a picture but I forgot.  I'm going to try to make RMB Day a regular thing for them now since it helped clean their teeth and they enjoy it so much.

People going places

It's spring break for the Chillies here in GP.  Mom and my younger sibs are gonna go to Bend and ski/snowboard for a few days.  I'm staying here with the dogs.  When Mom asked me if I wanted to go she immediatly asked about Conker a second later.
I said:  "He's not going to be boarded because he's never getting a kennel cough shot (or any of those other useless things), I don't trust a dog sitter since they won't be around to constantly monitor him and the Girls (He'll fight with Juneau, pester Sasha and find a way to escape our badly constructed backyard fence) so I guess I'm staying here."
Mom was all  "Whatever."  And went on about how I love my dog too much and spoil him, feed him meat, let him sleep in my bed...

So they're heading out sometime tomorrow (today?) and I get to have the house all to my lonesome and take care of the three dogs and the sister's rabbit.  Whoop, I'm totally psyched about sleeping and waking when I want, listening to classical music and German metal as loudly as I want (I like it LOUD!) and not having to deal with this:

I'd go hiking but with the prices of gas well over $3.50 a gallon that's not happening anytime soon.  I've gotten back into writing and drawing but I doubt any of that will ever make it past the draft/sketch stages.  Maybe I'll draw my "interpretation" of Conker's personality and turn it into a comic or something.

Muddy and wet take two

 Conker and Juneau dash off to play, Sasha lumbers behind them.

We went back to the dog park despite the constant rain we got last night and this morning.  The sandy section of the park was... a lake, the marsh was an even bigger marsh and everything else was just really wet.  Despite all this it was still quite fun!  No other dogs showed up in the hour and a half we were there though, but the lack of other dogs isn't why we left.  We left because the clouds steadily got darker and shortly after we got home it began to pour.  Not rain, pour. Pouring in unusual here.

FortunatelyI remembered to bring my camera.  Unfortunately it died at the dog park.  Sasha seemed to get over her fear of the camera for that short while but I wasn't able to get many shots of her.

This one will have to do.

Muddy and wet.

I haven't taken any of the dogs to the dog park for a while so today I mustered up the effort and took them.  All three.  We walked.  Mom was all "Are you crazy?  Can you handle all three of them at once?"  I was like "Pfft, you underestimate my awesomeness."  And off we went.
Sasha and Conker were on the right, Juneau the left.  Juneau always gets her own side since she requires the most work.  She is constantly trying to get ahead of the other dogs, she pulls no matter the leash length and any sort of prey-like critter grabs her unwavering attention.   Sasha and Conker go well together since they both travel at about the same speed, they both respond well to slight tugs on the leash and generally don't pull as ferociously as Juneau will.

We safely made it to the dog park, Juneau heeling most of the way, Sasha and Conker getting a bit more freedom.  Until we reached the fence.  There were two dogs already there, a red Siberian Husky and a Boxer/Great Dane mix named Logan.  I've met Logan before and Conker was excited to see him.  Juneau and Sasha on the other hand, they tried to charge and barked up a storm until I was able to get them back under control.

For the most part all the dogs got along.  Conker did his usual act afraid of the other dogs then run off and try to play thing while Juneau and Sasha went straight to barking at Logan. Poor guy didn't know what to do with them.  Sasha got the general idea that barking equals yelling from me so she stopped.  Juneau though, after another Lab entered she wouldn't quit.  Not until the other Lab had at Juneau with a barking frenzy of her own did Juneau begin to back off.  Sasha was always dogging the people for attention, leaning and resting her head on them.  The Husky loved to be pet too but the other dogs just wanted to run.  The Husky played with Conker for a while and butt-checked him a few times.  Conker always tries to do that to Juneau and Sasha but it never works.  It was funny seeing a bigger dog to it back to him.
The dogs generally played good for a while.  The other three all left around the same time.  As the Husky was leaving Conker decided to scrap with Juneau and made a huge show for Sasha who stood around wagging her tail like nothing was going on.  We stuck around for a little while then headed down to the creek since all three dogs were full of mud from the near-constant rain we've been getting for the past week.  I discovered that Conker WILL go into the water if the other dogs do it first, that was kinda unexpected.  He usually wants nothing to do with it.

Stabbing

Conker had his rabies stabbing today. He was technically supposed to get it at six months but... we had some stuff going on and I kinda forgot.
Petco was having a vaccination clinic today, they have them once a month at that one. A rabies vaccination only cost $12 and since Conker didn't need to go a vet for any reason, I figured I'd have it done there and skip the whole vet experience. I don't much like vets so... the less I see them the better.

 

Little did he know what was in store for him the next day.

 There were several people already there.  We got in line behind an adorable puppy.  When I asked what kind of dog she was the guy holding her said real quietly, "American Pit Bull Terrier."  Almost as if he were afraid to tell anyone what she was.  There were at least four other Bully breeds in line and his was by far the cutest.

I responded by telling him how much I like Pit bulls and how they can be great family dogs.  This made the guy a little happier since he had his daughter with him.
The woman behind me, the Pit Bull puppy guy and I ended up getting into a conversation about nutrition and food while in line.  Raw came up as well as grains and everyone else in the line seemed to be listening to me and the one lady talk about how most comercial pet food is full of crap and whatnot.  The guy with the pit puppy was genuinely interested in finding a good food for the pup so that was nice.

Then came Conker's turn for his stabbing!  I let the ladies know right away he was only there for rabies.  Thankfully they were real nice about it and didn't try to talk me into getting any other vaccines.  Conker did great too.  I was almost expecting him to turn into a true Shiba and go bonkers on them but he sat nicely, let them pet him and didn't move or make any sounds when he was given the shot.


I'm not really wanting to give Conker any dinner just in case he decides that rabies vaccines don't work with him and redecorates my room.  I figure he'll be fine though.  He didn't get breakfast (just in case) and has been giving me dirty looks all day.

It's raining... rain?

We haven't gone to the dog park for a few days.  It was actually a nice day today but Conker was being such an ass to Juneau and Sasha that I wasn't up for taking him anywhere.  Now that it's dark and raining I should take him on a walk.

He has also developed a rather annoying habit.  He follows me, or anyone for that matter, into the kitchen CONSTANTLY and will stand there and stare.  Or he'll sit perfectly still and stare.  He stares so much it's not funny anymore.

Staring Shiba

Smile.