Today kinda sucked.

 Today as a whole was lame.  It began with a fight at the dog park (between Hank and his brother Rudy, several fights actually), tons of rain, a fight between Conker and Hank right before Hank's owner gave us a ride home (due to intense rain) and a fight between Conker and Juneau with absolutely NO provocation from Juneau for NO REASON.  He put two holes in her ear while she just stood there and took it... Yeah, super lame.


Okay so, just now Conker tried to steal some of my food.  No big deal, dogs do that, they're dogs.  But this time it was different.
I always put my dishes either on the computer beside me (about 1.5 feet high, the 'puter is on the ground) or on the ground right in front of it.  Dishes are only there for a short period of time, and I only do that so my desk won't be taken up by them since it's very small.  They are almost always completely empty since I lick them clean.

Anyways, what happened?  I was petting Juneau and had put my lasagna on the floor.  Conker growls at Juneau, then dashes to eat my lasagna, I get ticked and pick him up, he gets ticked and tries to attack Juneau and I... Not cool.
I didn't like the way he tried to eat my food.  He did it fast, and with the intent of eating it all right then and there.  He didn't and only got in a lick or two, but he should know better.  I've tried hard to train him to leave people food alone but recently he's been lapsing in that department.

Yes, it was my fault for putting the lasagna on the floor, but I didn't know he would think it was his and then try to eat it and defend.  Today just sucked, and I hope tomorrow is better.
(Probably won't be since it's supposed to rain.. again.)

Dollar Hill

I'm pretty sure it's actually called Dollar Mountain, but it was more like a really big steep hill to me.


Anyways, I FINALLY got myself up before noon (at noon...), grabbed Conker and headed out to Dollar Hill.  It's about a ten minute drive from my house up on some hill thing with lots of turns and whatnot.  Parking is on the side of the road and the trail on the other side.
There was no sign with rules so I grabbed the 30-foot lead and strapped it to my pack, grabbed Conker and began to hike.

It was relatively easy at first with a few inclines that were so-so.  But after a short while we came upon a huge incline that was really steep. (it would do that, be easy then super steep, rinse and repeat)  Conker did just fine but me, being horribly out of shape, had to stop every fifteen feet or so for a break.  Sad really, since back when I was 13 I would be able to run up this little mountain in about ten minutes.  Took me an hour to walk up it slowly today.

Conker wasn't fond of people on the trail.  People on walks he's "okay" with and won't bark at them.  But people on trails... STAY AWAY I DON'T WANT YOU HERE!  We need to work on that.
There was something to look forwards to at the top of the mountain.  I'd somewhat forgotten what it was and figured it might be a rock or an outhouse or something dumb like that.

Nah, it was a radio tower.  The thing hummed loudly and Conker didn't like it at first, but when a kid and his father came up all thoughts of the humming things behind a big chain-link fence with barbed wire at the top vanished.  Grr, people on my mountain, LEAVE!

Conker posed in front of the tower and stuff, then we headed down.  I decided to be weird and took off my somewhat uncomfortable hiking boots and strapped them to my pack and went down barefoot.  No pictures of my hobbit feet, so don't worry about that.
Conker, since he was good on the way up, was allowed to roam on the 30-foot lead.  He was a dork though and decided he wanted to RUN down the hill so I had to keep telling him to slow down, stop or come back.  No off-leash for him.

Conker liked the downhill.  I always do, except for the real steep parts.  I let him range out when it was semi or mostly flat, but on those steep declines I didn't want to risk anything happening to his knees so the lead was kept short and I had him stay beside me.
Overall it was a fun hike.  I got Conker to sit quietly (for the most part) by having him lick at a salmon treat as two high-school girls walked past us on the way down.  I don't know what his beef is about people on trails, but I'm, gonna fix it.


Speaking of beef...

Beef is what Conker got today after our hike.  It was nice, after he ate his food he laid down and took a digestive nap.  I usually have to keep him confined to my room for 30 minutes so he doesn't go rampaging around the house and potentially barf up his freshly consumed meats.  I guess the hike was just enough to make him tired enough to sleep after eating.

Boats and Houses

The sleepover went well.  Took Lucky and Star for a walk, watched TV with them then read a few chapters of Merle's Door and went to bed.  Lucky and Star, I assume by the way they acted, are allowed on the bed.  Since they mobbed me before I had even really gotten settled.  I woke up the next morning with start lying on top of me.  As soon as she saw I was awake, she promptly began to wash my face.  I tried to escape but Lucky was right beside me and joined in.
After a walk and breakfast, I put them in the back and went home.
Conker was overly joyed to see me when I got back.  I heard that he woke up Neil, my sister's friend from Washington, who as camping out on our couch by licking his face. 


Grant's Pass holds this thing called Boatnik during Memorial weekend.  There is a fair and stuff, but the main thing are the speedboats.  The little one or two seater boats are basically good for one thing: going really fast.  They are small and have huge engines that weigh down the back and are very loud.  It's been going on for some fifty years or so.  Here's a bad video of one of the boats.

I was at the very beginning of the "agility" course and couldn't see the rest of it due to the trees.  It was still neat to listen to the boat race through the course. 

They also did times races with those little boats.  One of the drivers (sailors?) at the end of the agility course splashed me and the people beside me by turning real quick, then went after the flaggers on the other bank who waved a green flag when it was time for the boats to hit the throttle.  I got a couple pictures of him doing that.  You can see the pictures I took of the boats here.


In other news...

I was almost on the show that aired on PBS in 2002 called Fronteir House.  A lot of people applied to go on the show and act like a family way back then and go homesteading in Montana.  It was a pretty neat idea, and we were amongst the 100 families narrowed down out of a couple thousand who were called and interviewed for the show.  I think the reason we weren't chosen was because we had Lindsey, who was a VERY young kid at the time, and I don't think PBS wanted to risk anything happening to such a young kid.

Anyways, it was really neat to watch the show that we were almost on when it aired.  Funny to think that this show could have been the inspiration for my current life goal of living on 100 or more acers in a home I built, running off a well and solar and raising and growing my own food.
Either that or I'm just that kind of whack person.

You should watch Frontier House if you can find the DVD's or if it's ever on the air again.  It was fun and very interesting to see modern-day people living like homsteaders in the late 1800's.

Sleepover

,I am going to be watching Lucky and Star tonight.  Their owner is going out of town or something and I'm gonna go over there and spend the night with them.  Some people would find that odd, but I would prefer it if my dog was actually being watched rather than "watched", as in someone comes over, feeds, walks, plays with then leaves. 
My biggest concern is leaving Conker here with... younger-taller brother.  Mom told him to listen to what I say, he's my dog and any rules I make up about him should be followed by everyone and not just me.  So hopefully younger-taller brother will not harass Conker while I'm gone.


In other news, I've been playing around with wordpress.  I still don't know if I'm going to switch over to it yet.  Blogger is certainly MUCH easier to use, but is lacking a few things that wordpress has.  My biggest issue with wordpress is the lack of customizable templates and if you do want to customize, you have to pay first.  Super stupid.
Anyways, if you want to check out my "trial" worpress blog, it's right here.

We went 'splorin

Conker and I went to the dog park earlier than normal today.  And upon our arrival and seeing no other dogs in the park, I opted to go explore the jungle around the creek to give other dog owners a bit of time to arrive.

Conker, who's never been allowed to explore on his own terms, thought this was a great idea.

Conker walked through the tall grass and down the multiple short trails around the most-visited section of the creek.  He stopped to sniff where he pleased and went in whatever direction HE wanted, with me tagging along behind holding the other end of the leash.

Conker discovered that the walkways around the creek don't always lead to the creek and are fun to follow and drink in the various sights and smells.

This was the end of the land-based trails.  I was in an exploratory mood and since there were no more trails to follow, we turned around, walked beside the dog park for a ways and down to the creek where most people don't go.

I didn't want to climb back up the hill we took to get down to the creek, and much to Conker's horror, I stepped into the creek and began to walk upstream.  In my not-waterproof SWAT boots.  At first he didn't want to come, but the second I whipped out a bag of Zuke's salmon treats he was willing to step into the chill water.

 Conker followed me through water up to his chest but wouldn't go in any deeper or swim, even with the salmon treats dangling before his nose.  So when that happened I picked him up and carried him through the deeper water or slick spots until we reached Shiba appropriate areas.

For a first real creek trial, I would say it went pretty well.  Hopefully Conker will grow to like Fording the Creek (as I would chant while carrying him through knee-high water) so his summer experience in Grant's Pass can be a bit cooler.


Sadly after this part of the creek 'splore my camera decided to be a dork and not work.  I still haven't found any film that I'm willing to buy and use, so for now I have to put up with this crappy temperamental point-and-shoot.

Last of the chicken mix

Today Conker got the last of the chicken mix I made a couple weeks ago.  Unlike yesterday, where he swallowed his chicken neck whole without a single crunch, he chewed the thigh bone a bit before gagging and swallowing it.  I'm still unsure of how to get him to chew those things properly, since even if I hold onto it he still tries to get the whole damn thing down in one gulp.

Last night (this morning...) I taught Conker how to jump into my lap.

It's just a dog

That's how younger-taller brother feels about Conker.  Just a dog.

Last night younger-taller brother was in my room harassing Conker, as usual, and he asked me "What would you do if someone stole Conker?"  I glared and said "Anything."  "Even pay a thousand dollars?"  He asked. "I'd go into debt to get him back."  I reply.  "I wouldn't"  He says.  "It's just a dog.  I'd just get another one."

I tried to explain to him how Conker isn't "Just a dog" to me but he is a thickheaded fuck who thinks he's right, always, and wouldn't listen to my reasons.



And today, I caught Conker in the kitchen with Mom.  I don't want him in there since he begs and eats stuff he shouldn't.  I found a grape and some grape vine things on the ground and asked Mom if she saw Conker eat one.  Asshole brother says "So what?"  I told him grapes are poisonous to dogs and again he is a douchebag.  "Sasha eats grapes and hasn't died yet."

The best part?  After telling him that dogs shouldn't eat grapes and why, he has the nerve to say this.
"Well if I'm eating grapes and Conker wants one, I'm going to give it to him."
Enter choise words.
"It's just a dog."  He says.

So if you hear about a murder in Grant's Pass, it was me killing my fucking idiot of a brother.

Probiotics

Conker gets a probiotic with every protein change or when introducing new ones.  I've found that simply giving him new stuff without it can and most likely will result in problems. The addition of a probiotic has made that almost never happen, so I pony up and buy them for him.


The first probiotic I tried is Ark Natural's Gentle Digest and it worked very well.  The bottle cost me roughly $13 from my favorite St. Louis pet store and contained 60 capsules.  It's active ingredients are simple: Bacillus Coagulans (Lactobacillius Sporogenes) and Chicory.  Inactive ingredients are: Dicalcium phosphate, gelatin, magnesium searate and rice flour.
The ANGD contains not only probiotics (spore stuff) but prebiotics as well (chicory). 

The second probiotic, which got it's first test today, is Futurebiotics Longest Living Acidophilus.  This bottle cost under $10 at local grocery R and has 100 capsules.  It's got a few more active ingredients: Lactobacillus acidophilus,  Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Bifidobacterium longum and Lactobacillus sporogenes.  It's inactive ingredients are: Modified celluloce, ride powder, beet fiber, vegetarian stearate and silica.

The FLLA doesn't have a prebiotic and has a couple questionable ingredients.  However, I haven't been able to find ANGD anywhere here in GP yet, and I'm not a fan of ordering stuff online so I went with something I could find that looked okay.  We'll see how well it did with tomorrow's poop, and if it's so-so, I might try adding chicory root and see how that goes, since I hear that chicory root has some amazing affects on a dog's digestive system.

Siblings can be stupid

Younger-taller brother who is visiting for the summer is messing Conker up.  How?  He allows Conker to beg, something I had almost gotten rid of.  He allows Conker to lick, obsessively, another thing I'd almost gotten rid of.  He grabs, picks up and pets Conker, who, DOES NOT want to be touched by younger-taller brother.

Does younger-taller brother listen to me when I tell him no to do these things?  No.
He argues.

Now Conker begs, licks, and shies away from strangers.  He will follow people with food around and sit very close to them and stare.  If he doesn't get food, he'll begin to lick them and not stop.  On walks, when we happen upon strangers he will shy away or run.  The last one is really getting on my nerves.

Conker's got that stranger fear issue I've been working REALLY hard to sort out.  I don't want him to seek out strangers, or want to be pet, I just don't want him to try to escape.  And I'd gotten him about to that point, and now he's slipping back again.  The other day we walked past a woman who he's walked by before without incident and freakin bolted away from her.  She didn't even know he was there.

All because of younger-taller brother.  He's really beginning to piss me off, and he's barely been here a week.

Yumm

Today Conker got: Chunked pork, chopped chicken heart and gizzard, beef liver and kindey and a turkey wing-tip.  Along with his usual glucosamine/chondroitin/MSM, salmon oil and probioitc.  Which I need to get more of, he's got one left.

Guess what this means

What do you think this expression, stance or look means?  What is going on out of the shot to make Conker sit like this with what look on his face?

Clicker = loose leash

So as you may or may not know, I clicker train Conker these days.  He walks at a perfect heel, normally, because of the clicker.  I don't care if he ranges out a bit but he chooses not to, since he knows if he sticks close, he gets treats.


In the past, pre-Conker past, I've tried almost everything to get a dog to heel or even walk with a somewhat loose lead.  This was before I knew better, and here is my summary of these methods.

Stop n' go:  Every dog I've done this with gets phyched up and runs/pulls harder or frustrated.  Doesn't work.
Stop n' direction change: Same as above but more intense. Doesn't work.
Stop n' ignore:  Dog will ignore me as well, range out to sniff and pull.  Doesn't work.
Choke chain:  Just flat out doesn't work.
Flat collar/normal corrections:  Dog doesn't notice light corrections, dog doesn't like normal corrections, dog gets nervous or doesn't understand why they're getting pulled around. Doesn't work.
Clicker:  Holy shit how come I didn't try this first?


So if you can't tell, the clicker is the only method I've gotten to work where a dog will reliably heel and keep a loose leash.  I might have been doing the other methods wrong, I doubt that though, and while I've gotten loose leash before none of it was reliable and the dogs would break it if they wanted or got psyched up. 
I use the loose leash method on this site and thankfully Conker and the Girls are all food motivated.  If they weren't I don't know what I'd do.


Conker LOVES Zuke's treats and will do things he doesn't really want to for one.  I don't even really need to click with him anymore since he just sticks to my side like glue now.

Juneau... She really likes TOTW so I use that.  And while she wants to please, she gets riled up REALLY easily and tends to lock onto things and completly shuts me out.  Very frustrating, but we're working on that.

Sasha... Click + food = I'll do whatever you want just keep the clicky thing working.  I got her to heel on the first try where Juneau still wants to shoot ahead.

The Rabbit Warrior vs The Crafty Shiba: Beginnings

The Rabbit Warrior dons his red Apple Armor as the Crafty Shiba approaches.  He huddles close to the ground to avoid being seen, but alas, his terracotta fur betrays his presence on the lush emerald grass.  This new enemy has a keen eye.

The Crafty Shiba stalks up to the steel fence, slipping into a sphinx-like posture when close.  He studies the Rabbit Warrior, safe behind his movable wall, his thick Apple Armor appears unpenatrable.  The Crafty Shiba rethinks his method of attack, opting to wait instead of act.

The Rabbit Warrior also studies his opponent.  He has met his kind before, the Black Ones, but they are nice and do not try to chase him.  Will this new one be the same?  The Rabbit Warrior sheds his red Apple Armor and greets the curious Crafty Shiba from behind the steel fence.  He knows he is safe in there, but will the Crafty Shiba try to chase him anyway?

Tune in next time for part two of the epic story.



In other news:  I've had it with my digital point-and-shoot.  It doesn't focus correctly, won't zoom, turns off at random times and is generally a pain in the ass. 30+ year old Mintola film SLR, you've got a full-time job now!  (gotta find some film first though...)

Fun dog park day

Today was a nice day, so there were naturally a lot of people at the dog park.  Hank and River were there, and a mix puppy I'd met once before.  The Mini Aussie Rocket (who tried to hump my leg) and Shadow were there, the Westies showed up, a 7 month Siberian Husky was there...
There were 11 dogs at one point.  It was fun.

Conker got along with everybody, as usual.  The owner of the Siberian was knowledgeable on the breed, unlike most people who get Siberians, and was fun to talk to.  I'm hoping she'll come to that park more often than the other dog park she goes to more often.

After most of the people left it was me and Conker, River, Parker the Poodle and his Lab friend, then two people came in with their dogs.  An Australian Shepherd who was a sweetie and a full blooded Catahoula Leopard Dog named Harley.
That was the highlight of my day.  Harley was awesome!  She was so neat to watch, her colors and patterns were amazing and her owners were very nice people who were surprised I even knew what Harley was.  Conker, much to my amazement, actually let them pet him!  A woman and man whom he'd never met before, he let them unleash their love on him.  Full-on scratches and rubs, kisses, everything.  That was something right there, and that made me very happy to see.

Sadly I didn't get any pictures of any of the dogs since I was so busy talking and watching them play.  But I did get this shot of Conker heeling as we walked home.

Kinda hard to tell that he's walking beside me, but if you notice my shadow's legs, he is right between them and the sun was at an angle that made that right beside me.

Lucky and Star want to go for a walk

I took this a couple days ago when I walked Lucky and Star for Mom's friend Jill.

I found something.

It's raining outside and as usual, Conker followed me into the garage.  He didn't go outside though, because it's not lightly raining, it's actually raining, and he doesn't go out in actual rain.

Anyways, this is what I found.

The date stamp on the picture means I was eleven years old.  I had gotten Jake 17 days before the picture was taken on my birthday.  I had Jake for exactly two years and one day.  He was a great dog, very smart, but developed food aggression towards my siblings and eventually began to bite with no provocation.  He gave my brother a scar, and pinned my youngest sibling to the ground when they walked by a bone that was nearby him.  We were not a dog savvy family and didn't know how to handle this and couldn't afford a trainer, so we had to give him up.  I do not like talking about what happened with Jake in person.

I'm now twenty two years old and again have a dog with food aggression.  But it is not directed at people, it's only towards other dogs.  I now know how to work with this aggression aimed at dogs, and people, and wish we could have handled Jake's situation differently.  If we had, I would probably still have him today, but I don't.
I do still have the tag Jake is wearing in this picture, it's sitting on my desk right now.  I play with it all the time and sometimes carry it around with me.
I never really knew why I kept it, but now I use it as a reminder to always give my best and never give up on a dog.

Dog Park Buddies

Conker watches River smell something behind him.

Yesterday was a nice day, so we went to the dog park.  Conker was pretty chill the entire time, and since it was warm outside he overheated easily due to his still present winter coat.  He didn't do too much running around.
Hank the Hound dog was already there, and he and Conker ran around and wrestled a bit.  Ellie the Pit Bull was also there but left soon after.
Then River the Catahoula mix showed up, and that's when things got going.

Hank leads the pack.

Hank is very fast.  For a while River was the fastet, but when Hank began to come he took the lead.  River's owner was shocked to see Hank running faster than River, who she claims has a bit of greyhound in him.  They would run around in a big loop around us (we were sitting on the hill) while Conker tried to cut them off since he can't really keep up.

Conker is getting left behind again.

Then they would come around again.  They would have a brief wrestle on the sand then get going again.  It was fun to watch.

Everybody chillin.

They eventually wore themselves out and took a break behind us.  Every now and then one of them would pop into somebody's lap and demand to be pet.  It was overall a very good visit.

Yummers

So far the Girls LOVE Taste of the Wild!  I think this is great and hope their preferences will help Mom keep them on it after I move out (if I move out?)

The Taste of the Wild is the smaller darker kibbles.  Pedigree the larger kind.  I won't touch the Pedigree since it's so nasty but the Taste of the Wild I will if I have to.  I personally just don't like touching dog food but didn't have a problem with Conker's Orijen when he was on it since it wasn't greasy at all. 

Sasha approoved.  Look at how she ate the Taste of the Wild first.

Juneau approved as well!  She also ate the Taste of the Wild first but when she had picked most of it out she looked up at me then at her bowl and didn't want to eat the Pedigree.  But since it's only day two she has to in order to avoid stomach upsets.  Which I doubt they'll have since you can feed them about anything without problems.  Rock solid stomachs on these dogs... I hope.

I hope this will help Sasha's weight problem.  I've been trying to get her weight down by feeding her less and exercising her more but she's somehow kept it on.  I think she might have dropped... nothing.  She weighed 70 pounds when I first got here and should be topping out at 55, not 70.

Guests Lucky and Star

Today I went over to a friend of my mother's place to walk her two dogs Lucky and Star.  I've met them before, they are fun dogs.  Mom's friend has been super busy lately and hasn't had time to walk the two dogs and I agreed to take them for an hour or so and give them something to do.
They are very jumpy at first, especially Lucky, but I was able to avoid getting my eyes stabbed out with their noses this time.  They sounded like dolphins the entire time I was preparing the leash-thing but when I went to take a video they stopped.  Maybe next time I'll be able to get one.  They were pretty funny sounding.

Lucky, the tan one, also the boy.  He is the super jumper and last time I saw him his nose ended up in my eye and I couldn't see straight for about four hours.  But he didn't mean to do that, he was just super happy to see me.

Star, the blackish greyblue one. She is a bit calmer than Lucky but still tried to lick my face off when I arrived.

I have no idea what kind of dogs they are.  Jill told me they were labeled as Border Collie mixes at the shelter she got them from.  I don't see Border Collie when I first look at them, maybe a bit of Shar Pei and Pit Bull, but not much BC.  Either way, they are neat dogs.

The walk started with me nearly getting yanked off my feet.  I stopped and refused to move for a good five minutes and in that time they figured out that pull=stop.  They pulled a little here and there but nothing worthy of another five minute halt.  Lucky liked to sniff and pee on things and I only let him do that every other bush.  He almost got Star's head a couple times.
We went about two miles there and back.  At the one mile mark we stopped for a water break.  I whipped out my handy dandy HydroBowl that Mom gave me for Christmas last year.  Lucky was glad for the water instantly but Star wouldn't drink right away.  I splashed some water on her head to cool her off since they were panting a lot.  After that she figured out funny bowl=water and drank some.


In other news...

We FINALLY got Taste of the Wild for the Girls!  I put a small mount in their bowls next to their Pedigree garbage to see what they'd do with it instead of mixing it in.  They ate the Taste of the Wild first.
More on this later.

Long Day

Today was a particularly long day.  Got up (as in out of bed) around 1:45 in the afternoon.  Got dressed, chopped up some treats then grabbed my backpack and headed to the dog park.
We were there until 7 something or other.

The best part was the very beginning.  I saw, for the first time, a Basenji named Helios.
The Basenji was very nice and got along great with Conker.  The woman who owned him was fun to talk to and really liked Conker.  She, like me, prefers primitive dogs and was really drawn to Conker's appearance.  I in return loved her Basenji.


After they left we spent a good hour working on recall and other things until some other people showed up.  Of the regulars we know, Ellie the Pit Bull, Hank the Hound dog, the Westies, Midnight the Lab and River the Catahoula mix showed up.
We also saw Cleo the Boxer/Pit mix, a Miniature Australian Shepherd named Rocket, an Australian Shepherd Irish/Wolfhound mix named Shadow, A Pit Bull/Australian Shepherd mix named Jack, a Pomeranian/Jack Russell mix (awesome little dog) and a few others who's breeds I can't remember.

It was overall a fun day.  Much better than lounging around the house all day.

Rollin

Dog Food Part 2

My dog food experiment was mostly a success.  I started by making a small batch of the new food for Conker to test and when he passed better than the old food, I made up a huge batch of the new stuff.

 Pictured here is part of my supply of meat.  We've got sliced beef liver, chicken livers, chicken gizzards, chunked beef kidney and some "old"  already portioned pork meals.

And here is roughly 6-7 pounds of chicken drums and thighs.

 Out of that I got something like 3 1/2 pounds of meat with some skin.  I removed the skin from the thighs for my own reason.  I like to make Schmaltz with it.

A drum, some "de-fleshed" bones and some meat.  And my Mom's inferior chef's knife.  Mine is a much lamer brand but sooo much sharper.
I left some meat on the bones intentionally.

Chicken hearts, beef kidney, chicken bones, chicken meat, beef liver and a piece of pork.  No gizzards pictured though.



Somerwhere around here I stuck the meat back into the freezer to firm up a bit and went to the dog park.

When meeting new dogs, if there's a lot of them, Conker will get snarky and drop his tail for 5-10 minutes and generally act like a brat then spontaneously decide he likes everybody and get along great.  Pictured above is a gorgeous 10 month old red Golden Retriever, Hank the hound dog mix, Conker, Stetson the Siberian and a Pit Bull who's name is either Ellie or Anna.  Can't ever remember.  The Westies were there but they didn't get in the picture.


A couple hours later...

I did this.

And this.

And made this.  Yum.

All with a knife.  I'm going to get a meat grinder sometime soon when I can find one at a decent price since chopping that much meat by hand takes for-blicking-ever.  But Conker doesn't gulp it down and choke so it's worth it.  I also did that to the already-portioned pork meals.  I made eight chicken and two pork days of food.

This is what a completed meal looks like.  Roughly a cup of the meat/organ mix, one chicken bone and some salmon oil, his g/c/MSM stuff and a probiotic and vitamin E that he gets once or so a week.

Conker is good with the bones, for the most part, and will chew them okay but not enough to make my happy.  I still watch him like a hawk when he eats for that just-in-case scenario if it ever rears it's ugly head.

I'd like to grind everything, even the bones, but that depends on the grinder I get.  If I did that, for teeth-cleaning I'd use larger bones he can't get in his mouth and bully sticks so no worries of gunky teeth here.

We went to the dogpark yesterday morning.  Yes, morning, amazing I was awake at that hour.  Of course there was nobody there so we just walked around the played with the frisbee and ball in the park.  It had been recently mowed wich was nice.

Me and at least two other dog owners go to the dogpark every Thurday at 5:30.  Leo the Pug is one of them, the Westie Lady (with three West Highland Whites Terriers) is another one who goes around then.  Lets see what happens today.

Yesterday was shower day

Post shower Shiba expects food.

Yesterday I decided that Conker smelled a little funky and decided to give him a bath.  But when your bathtub looks like this, that's not really possible.  So I gave him a shower instead.
We lack one of those nifty hand-held showerheads that mount up when you're not spraying people who might be in the bathroom while you're showering and after a quick moment of sizing up the 3x3 shower, I decided I smelled a little funky too.

I really wish I'd gotten some pictures 'cause it was really funny.
Imagine me, a 22 year old person holding Conker, the 10 month Shiba, in the shower.  He wasn't all too happy about it but he's not your typical Shiba and the worst he tried to do was climb onto my shoulder so he could bite the showerhead.  His least favorite part was when I had to flip him over so I could rinse off his underbelly.

Conker's first shower was, much to my surprise, a success.  After rubbing some of the water off him he shook several times then got a thorough toweling which he really enjoyed.  Afterwards he got to lay on my bed and chew on his cow hoof.
I'll wear a bathing suit next time so I can get some pictures and not scare nobody with my nekkedness.  Because soaked shower Shibas are hilarious.

Dog Food Part 1.

As I've mentioned before, I make Conker's food in a style called Prey Model Raw.  It's made up of roughly 80% meat, 10% bone and 10% organs and uses raw stuff, hence the raw in the title. No cooking or whatever.
I do supplement a few things.
Salmon oil
VitaminE
Glucosamone/chondroitin/MSM

The omegas in the salmon oil are great for joints, immune health and an amazing coat.  But they can block vitamin E absorption so I give one 200IU capsule a day.  It's generally a good thing to give since it's an antioxidant.  I give Conker Liquid Health g/c/MSM due to his Luxating Patella to help keep the joints in good shape.  It DOES NOT treat LP, it's simply used as a preventive measure against wear and possible future arthritis cause by LP.
Conker also gets at least one raw egg a week, sometimes two.  Shell and all. 


Normally his food looks something like this.

A cut of bone-in pork (that I hacked up with a cleaver... boy was that fun) with beef liver and kidney and the liquid supplements squirted on top.  The white stuff is frost.

Which brings up a subject.  Why is there frost on Conker's meat?  Because it's frozen.  And why do I feed it frozen... because he is what us rawfeeders call a gulper.  Conker will try to swallow that hunk of meat and bone whole or with minimal "chewing".  Dogs don't actually chew their food but Conker fails to break it up so he gets it frozen so he's forced to work on it.  But he'll still try to swallow it whole once he gets it to a certain size so I always need to watch him.  He will chew the meat off the bone if it isn't completely surrounded and try to swallow that but he will crunch the bone up just fine if there's little or no meat on it.


So I'm going to attempt to combat Conker's stupid eating habits that he probably learned from me.  After I find the whetstones, I'm going to sharpen up the old cleaver and a couple other knives that are so dull I can drag them hard against my skin and not cut it, and punish some meat with them.


Tune in soon for Dog Food Part 2 to see what I do next.

Shibite.

What do you think is going on ins this picture?  Is Conker biting my hand?  Yes.  Is he doing it aggressively?  No.  Am I grabbing his mouth?  Yes.  Is it a form of punishment?  No.  Both of us are playing.
I roughhouse with my dog to the point where it looks like both of us is going to kill the other but a simple "that's enough" stops the game if I feel Conker is going at it with a bit too much teeth.  If if don't do this every morning he'll sit near my bed and chirp at me until I do.  He'll even chirp if I kick him out of my room.
It's the most annoying sound I've ever heard.