Zuke's Chews

While in Tahoe City I found a small dog store that sold Zuke's  Z-Ridge and Z-Bones chews.  I bought a bunch since I haven't found them in GP until today.  At the little store they sold the Cranberry and Carrot flavored Z-Ridges in medium and large and the new Z-Bones Apple and Cherry flavors in regular.

Zuke's just updated their site today and I guess they are discontinuing the old Z-Ridge since that's what it seems like on the site.  I'm a bit miffed since I'm one of those people who's normally a stickler for originals.

Above we have the Original Fresh Breath flavor Z-Ridge in it's neat-o fire-starting mostly-recycled cardboard thingy.  Below we've got the new Z-Bone in it's hazardous-if-set-on-fire plastic wrapper.  I'm guessing you can tell how I feel about the new packaging by how I described it.

They also dropped the text telling you that:  "Litter Matters - Stash Your Trash" something that will make Earth Muffins upset by the switch from eco-board to plastic with no reminder to dispose of the wrapper properly.

Moving on, above we've got five flavors of Zuke's chews.  The larger chews on the bottom are the old Z-Ridges and the top are the new Z-Bones.  Old chews from left to right:  Fresh Breath, Carrot and Cranberry flavors.  New chews same order:  Cherry and Apple.

Again I'm miffed that Zuke's is probably discontinuing the original line of Z-Ridge chews.  However, there is one point that makes me not mind so much.  I laid out all five chews and let Conker decide which one he wanted.

Apple.  So I took the apple away and let him pick again.
Cherry.  Okay, so he likes the new chews.  But which one after that? 
Carrot.  Well carrot comes in both new and old so...  Yeah.

Oh well, and when it really comes down to it Conker's taste determines what I get, not how I feel about the new bones.
I did find a place here in GP (the bigger Mini Pet Mart store I hadn't been to before today) that sells Z-Ridge chews and I'm guessing Z-Bones once they run out of those.  If Conker will eat them, I'll keep getting the Z-Ridges until the new Z-Bones come in stock.

Hopefully they won't slap the 2.69 Medium Z-Ridge sticker on the smaller Regular Z-Bones.  I hate it when people do that.


Review pending on how well they actually help clean teeth,

Conker's Teeth

I figured since I had some of Sasha's teeth to compare that I'd post a picture of Conker's.

The only teeth that have any visible plaque are the carnassal teeth and a couple rear molars.  All other teeth look awesome.

Conker is one year and one month old.  His teeth aren't really kept clean by his raw diet (as some people claim) since he does not chew his food.  He gets smallish bones that are crunched one or two times then swallowed so he gets almost none of the cleaning benefits of bones.  I am working on a hunk of pork that's got a good sized bone in it that I'm going to let him gnaw on but I haven't made too many pork meals lately and that hunk is taking a while to get used up.

Other than his food, Conker regularly gets these chews.

Beef trachea:  Little to no cleaning action.
Bully sticks:  Some cleaning action.
Cow hoof: Cleans better than a bully stick.
Zuke's Z-Ridge/Z-Bones:  Still can't tell with this one yet. 

I'm testing the Z-Ridge and Z-Bones right now and will write up something on them later.

PlaqueOff

Yesterday I began adding PlaqueOff to Juneau and Sasha's food and today to Conker's. 

I bought a 60 gram container of it for $18.99 at the Grange.  It should last roughly a month since for Juneau and Sasha I need to use 1-2 scoops and 1/2-1 for Conker.  Each scoop is about 1/2 gram so I use just under 2 and 1/2 grams each day.  Once the Girl's teeth get better I'm going to decrease their usage.  After this container, if their teeth are looking good after the decrease the containers should last longer than just 1 month.

The container comes with a handy 1/2 gram scoop so you don't have to figure out what a scoop is.  Pictured here is about 1 and a half scoops.  It's made from a type of seaweed (Ascophyllum nodosum) that is found in Arctic waters near Scandinavia.  I guess that is why it's green.

None of the dogs noticed it when I added it to their food.  Hopefully they won't decide they don't like it and try to eat around it like Conker sometimes does with certain foodstuffs.  When added to Conker's food it makes a stark contrast to the mainly red colored meal. Pictured above is part of a turkey wing, beef meat chunks and organs, a bit of sardine, a fruit cube (more on that later) some probiotic powder (again, more on that later) and the PlaqueOff.


In other news...

Sasha is a fatass again.  She was apparently stealing food from Juneau while we were gone.  I specifically told the kid who was watching the house while we were in Tahoe to only feed Sasha the amount she gets and NOT to allow her to steal from Juneau.  Who knew that less than a week of me being gone would result in Sasha gaining a few pounds?  Oh well, that happens, I guess.

Lake Tahoe

We left somewhat later than I'd wanted.  Sometime around 12:30, then we stopped at a bunch of places before actually hitting the road. Conker wasn't fond of the car ride, as usual, but managed to sleep most of the way.
We got to our campsite around 9:30, took forever to set up and talked with the relatives.

The next day we did a lot of nothing then went to the lake.  Conker wasn't allowed on the beach but I found a small creek and let him play around in it since it was pretty warm that day.  I walked Conker around a lot while other people swam in the lake.
The lake itself was very pretty but I forgot to take a picture of it.

That afternoon... I can't really remember what we did but talking with the relatives, as long as they stayed away from religion, politics and conspiracy theories was good.

 Conker's favorite activity around the camp was walking down to the creek.  One day my cousin and I went creek sploring with Conker and while walking on some old logs, Conker tried to step onto some floating bark that he thought was solid. 
He did that about six times before I was able to get him away from it and farther down the creek.




The next two days were exiting for Conker.  My siblings and cousin went frisbee golfing and took Conker along.  He really wanted to chase the frisbies so I let him in the wide open areas.  He was good about going after mine instead of the others and dropped it if I told him to when he picked it up.

I ended up finding a dog store and bought Conker a bunch of Zuke's Z-Ridge things since nobody in my town sells them.  They had two new flavors and Conker much prefers the apple over the cranberry.

The next day's exciting part happened in the evening right after dinner.  Conker had been tied to the tree right beside our trailer but I put him inside since he didn't spazz out when I went to the other campsite right across the road if he were in there. 
Anyways, I was sitting beside the fire talking with some lady I'm not related to when I realized that the loud bark-like baying was coming from my campsite.  I looked over and saw something brown behind my great Aunt's car.  Someone's jacket on a chair I suspected. 

Then it moved.

It was a freakin bear.  A hugeass bear, so big that it was definitely over four feet tall on all fours.  And this hugeass bear was looking through the screen door at Conker who was going nuts barking his head off at it.  That bear was only a couple inches away from the trailer and was most likely interested in the chicken smell eminating from inside.
But some loud pesky thing was in the way, and I imagine Conker saved us a couple thousand dollars in damages and fines simply by being present.

I alerted everyone in the campsite that:  "It's going to eat my dog!  That frickin huge bear is going to eat my dog!"  I wasn't aware I said that but anyways...
All the men in the campground went charging across the road but stopped when the curious bear who had picked up some sort of cake dish that Mom forgot to toss in the bear-proof trash containers, stood his forepaws up on our flimsy table.  He was now about seven feet tall and that made everyone rethink their decision of charging said bear.

Then, thankfully, somebody found their keys and remotely set off the alarm on their truck the next campsite over and that startled the bear enough to start heading back to the forest.  All the guys re-charged and made a whole bunch of noise until the bear who had slammed into one of the poles of our tarp-thing and lost his cakepan ran off.  You could hear the other campers as he made the rounds banging on things and yelling until it got dark and I guess he moseyed off.

He is supposedly a well-known bear to the residents.

Conker was able to relax somewhat the next day.  I was going to go hiking with my sisters and a boyfriend of one of them but I was told that the trail was in a California State Park and dogs aren't allowed on the trails in those.  So I didn't bother getting up when they did early in the morning.  I didn't get curious as to if the trail actually was dog-friendly until after they'd left.  I pulled out my list of trails that allowed dogs and found out that the trail they went on did allow dogs.  I was ticked at myself for not checking sooner.

I did find a small dog park that Conker relaxed at while everyone else went mini-golfing.  It was probably only about 1/4th the size of GP's dog park but Conker still had fun running around after two resident dogs left. 



All in all the trip was fun, but activities with Conker were greatly lacking.  I was bummed out that the relatives weren't really open to us doing what we wanted during "scheduled" group activities that were often of no interest to any of my siblings or cousin.  This was also the first time beer was present at the Lake Tahoe gathering thing and thankfully nobody pestered us about it.
I learned a few funny things about my Dad that I didn't know so that was neat.

As per tradition we took a huge group photo which I will not be sharing and Conker was invited to be a part of.  Everyone really liked him and believe him to be a "calm" dog.  Not really, he was just in a completely new environment and had met about 12 new people in one day so it was a bit overwhelming for him.  He did end up warming up to a couple of them but didn't like the two young and rather spoiled fat kids (who I'm thankfully not related to) who kept pestering him to be pet.

The ride home was very uneventful.  Conker had phases of being nervous and panting then sleeping, like the ride out.  He did at one point crawl up into my younger brother's lap who had wanted to hold Conker on both rides and that made him happy.


The Girls were super happy to see me when I walked in through the back door. Sasha was so happy that she was whining, it was kinda sad but cute at the same time.  She's also had some de-progress pertaining to her diet and weight loss that I will write about later.

Off to Tahoe!

Well that's that.  We're leaving within the next 30 minutes hopefully, if Mom ever gets back...
Got some chews for the Girls to keep them busy, packed all Conker's crap up, finally got batteries for the Maxxum 4 and printed out a list of dog-friendly Tahoe places.


Next update will be either late Thursday or Friday. 

See you then!

Tahoe Treats

Conker and I went to the Grange and Mini Pet Mart to pick up some chews to keep him busy for the times when nothing is going on at Lake Tahoe.  The small trachea and chewed up cow hoof are things I already had.  But hopefully this will be enough to satisfy Conker's chewing needs.

The cow ears are new.  MPM hasn't had them before and none of the other stores carry them.  They were .99 cents a piece and are quite huge, bigger than my hand.  (The bully stick is 12 inches long) Conker was psyched when he saw me pick them up then pull them out of the bag at home.  He thought he was going to get one right then and there but sadly he has to wait a couple days.

I also got some sardines for him since I don't want to take the bottle of salmon oil with me.  I've already prepared all his food and toys so now all I've got to do is get his crate and bedding situated.

Video: Dogs in the creek 2

It's been very uneventful here lately.  I mowed the law today but I don't think that counts as an event.  And Juneau's collar came off last night but I found it lying on a table today.  Whoop.

Juneau: Snake Hunter!

She did it again!  Conker and Juneau were out in the backyard and sniffing around in the bushes.  Conker got that look, the "I'm hunting!" look and Juneau joined in.  They were getting closer to the location of their prey when Conker leapt downhill and found the snake.  It was attempting to make it into a hole and right as I got there and saw him try to bite it, Juneau swept in and BAM!  Bit the snake.  Then she did it again, and again, and ended up pulling the snake from the hole it was in.
I could tell from the small glimpses I got of it that the snake was a goner and taking it away now would only have been cruel. So I let Juneau gnaw on it until it was dead.  This snake was bigger than the last, probably two feet long.  Still a Northwest Garter.

After showing the snake to Mom (who congratulated Juneau) we tossed it into the brush on the other side of the fence and sat around the pool talking about coffee.  When all of a sudden...
Juneau was hunting again!  This time she was a lot faster than before and she got the snake and killed it in seconds.  Conker was running around like a dumbass, probably excited yet annoyed that he didn't get it first, while I examined the snake to make sure it was dead.  Remember the first snake Juneau caught?  Well, this second snake was that very same snake.  The stupid thing didn't learn and this time wasn't so lucky.

Scary

You know something really scary is going on when Juneau ends up on my bed.

Juneau herself looks scary when her eyes reflect like that.

I have since discovered that Juneau will come to my room for refuge when things get scary.  Like thunderstorms.  Even though my outside door was open and the thunder was louder in my room she still came to me.  I have also discovered that Rescue Remedy works on Juneau.  That is good to know for future Juneau freak-outs.

Dog Breath

It's often a nasty thing.  But when it comes to Conker, dog breath isn't.  his breath is neutral or slightly meaty, I think it smells nice.  Juneau's breath has a tinge of "dog" to it but it isn't bad either.  Sasha on the other hand... Don't go sticking your nose in her mouth.  It does not smell good.

These are Sasha's teeth.  I don't have any good ones of Juneau's since she is intolerant of people grabbing her mouth like that to compare, but her teeth look almost exactly the same.
While Sasha's teeth don't instantly look nasty, I've seen many dogs with far worse, they are still gross enough for me to want to do something about it.  She has large deposits of tartar on her upper canines and carnassial teeth.  There is a bit on her molars as well but not as much.

Unfortunately Mom is one of those:  "Well I've never had to brush my dog's teeth before so why should I do it now?"  Types.  I attempted to explain why a dog's teeth should be well taken care of but she was still blah blah blah about the brushing thing.  Which by the way, was not what I was talking about.  Even after I dropped the price on how much it might cost to get their teeth cleaned at the vet if we didn't do anything about it she still had the same mentality.

So I've decided that I'm going to get rid of the tartar myself.  I've heard good things about Plaque Off and are probably going to try that first.  As soon as more room opens up in the freezer I'm going to buy a rack of beef ribs for the Girls as well since those ribs I gave them when I got here helped a little.


*whine*  The bed isn't made!  *whine*


Stupid dog.
Anyways, I've found the Plaque Off at the Grange for something like $18.  That's not too bad of a price compared to some online sites and so far it's the only place I've been able to find it.  And if it works, $20 is nothing compared to what might happen if nothing is done about their teeth.

Plus Conker, since he's an idiot and doesn't chew his food, is beginning to get some plaque on his molars and I don't want it there so he can try it out too.  So when I get back from Lake Tahoe I'm going to pick some up and see how well it works.

Gearlist for Tahoe

I figured I'd post this here since it's dog related.

Photodump

I was retarded yesterday and took well over 200 pictures, I need to do something with them so I'm going to spam the blog with some of the better photos.  The brighter colored ones are when I had the manual mode on.  The faded ones are from auto, which still sucks like noneother.

This is probably my favorite.  Of Conker's butt.

Next up we have foamy-mouth Juneau!

Still foamy.

Notice how her expression doesn't change.

My favorite derp dog.

Sasha is hard to take pictures of.

Conker lookin good.

He decided that playing fetch was no longer beneath him.

His expression changes a little more than Juneau's.

Derp.

Juneau's ball. (notice how foamy it is)  And a Sasha nose photo-bomb.

Juneau and her foamy ball.

And that's it!  Oh wait one more.

Conker's new habit

First, a picture of Sasha.

I really wish this turned out better.  But alas, my stupid point-and-shoot fails me again with it's unfunctional focus.

So Conker has taken to whining to get things.  Not only does he continue to chirp but he adds in a whine here and there so it's doubly obnoxious.  His most recent offenses are:  

The door isn't open wide enough, it must be opened further.  Whine! 

The bed isn't made.  I cannot lay on bare sheets, they are not soft enough.  Whine!

The fedora is in my way, is must be moved.  Whine!

Dog, it's my door and I like it in that position. Your muzzle fits though, open it yourself.  It's my bed, if I don't want it make it, too bad.  MY FREAKIN HAT!  Don't you dare touch it.

The Dog Door

Conker has issues with the dog door.  He doesn't like to step on things and if you put something like a towel in front of the dog door he won't come through.  Instead he will poke his head through the flaps, look at you then go back out and bark in annoyance.  I am the only one who can get him to come through when something is on the ground in front of it.

He does the same thing if nothing is on front of the door but Younger-Taller brother is.  Well, not particularly in front of it but down the hall a bit in one of the chairs near the computer.  Conker will spot him and stop and see what he does.  If younger-taller brother moves even the slightest bit Conker will jump back through the door and bark.  Younger-taller brother has turned this into a sort of game, and again I am the only one who can get Conker to come through if younger-taller brother is there.


In other news...


I finally hooked up my old speakers (and sub-woofer!) to my computer.  Right in the middle of a documentary about Beethoven I might add, and man am I glad I did that!  Everything is so much better now, especially the piano music I listen to pretty much constantly.
The only problem is I used a splitter so I could still have the other speakers (for surround sound) since the treble and voice is better with those than the old ones, so in order to control the volume I have to use two separate knobs and getting it just right can take a while.


In other other news...

We going to see the last Potter flick in about 45 minutes.  I really hope it's good.

Random Dog: Mac

I've only met Mac a couple times but he is such a cute, sweet little guy that I can't help but write about him.  Mac is roughly 8 months old?  I can't remember, but he's still very young.  He is a Maltese mix and is very fun to watch.  He will run like mad around and around the other dogs then stop, spin, run and stop and spin again then take off running across the park.  He will dodge under, behind or in front of other dogs and normally gets a pack chasing after him.  Then he will walk over to the tables, hop up and be loved on by all the people at the park.

Mac is a type of small dog that I might be able to pull off owning.  The only "flaw" that I can think of is the barking.  He barks, yaps really, which I can't stand.  He will run up to the fence and yap at people or dogs on the other side.  his owner told me he also yaps at home for no apparent reason.  That's too bad since that is also something I can't stand.

Anyways, he is a very neat little dog.  He's about half Conker's size but can be faster at times.  Conker loves to chase him around and wrestle if he decided he's suddenly in the mood for playing.


In other news...

The girls ran out of their Lamb flavor yesterday.  They haven't tried the Wetlands (duck?) yet so that's what I grabbed at Mini Pet Mart today.  One of the employees dogged me down and demanded to give Conker a treat so I let him.  He is really fascinated with Conker and loves to ask questions about the Shiba Inu breed every time I come in.  He is beginning to seriously conciser getting one despite the negative things I've told him about them.  (I always warn curious people about what Shibas truly are) so one of these days I'm going to get up a list of good Northwest breeders and give it to him so if he does get one it's from a good place.  (If you know of some tell me who they are, I'd like to know as well)

So the Girls like usual were enthusiastic about their kibble.  I'm still not too sure but I believe they've liked the salmon flavor the most but their poops were best on the lamb.  I'll compare it to the duck and see how that goes, but I doubt I'm going to stick to any one formula since rotation is a good thing.

I've calculated out that each 15 pound bag lasts roughly 3 weeks with the girls.  Juneau eats 2 1/2 cups (she's a ton more active now) and Sasha gets about 1 cup.  I've also discovered that the 15 pound bags cost $27.99 at MPM and the 30 pound bags of TOTW cost $40 at the grange.  So after this bag I'm most likely going to be getting the larger bags at the Grange since the smaller ones don't really last too long.

Riverside Park

Today Conker and I went to Riverside Park.  I haven't ever been here for anything other than Boatnik and since we went hiking yesterday I figured today would be a cool down day.

Riverside park is pretty nice.  It's not huge but it's a good size.  The Boatnik fair is held here afterall, complete with rides, food and all that.  Anyways, it was a nice shaded walk with relatively few people so Conker wasn't bothered by anyone.  There was plenty of new smells for keep him busy for the few who did ntotice him.

The Rouge River itself is actually not too easy to get down to.  The bank drops down pretty steeply and there is no actual shoreline on this stretch of the river.  Conker and I found a boat launch and visited the river from there. 

With a little encouragement (me stepping in and showing him it was okay) Conker walked into the Rouge and pawed at the water.  Then he saw the geese.  Oops.

After visiting the river we walked around the park for a short while then headed to the Grange. Conker's never been in there before and he did okay.  He still doesn't really like to go into buildings but the Grange is more open than Mini Pet Mart.
I found a Ruffwear Approach pack for $24.99 though!  It fit Conker PERFECTLY but I lack the money plus with Conker's LP he's not going to be carrying a pack anytime soon.  I might hop in there and get one anyways just in case Conker has surgery or I get another Conker-sized dog in the future. 

On our way home we stopped at the dog park.  There was a Labish dog named Morgan who I've never seen before there then a man with a Cocker Spaniel and some GSD mutt who I have met.  I didn't stay too this time.  On our way out of the park Conker surprised me by taking off into the creek.

Okay not too surprised but instead of his normal splashing in paw-deep water he jumped into the deep end and swam!  He almost never does this on his own nor looks like he's having fun if I make him go in.  But this time it was all him and he was loving it.  Weirdo.

We went hiking today

Conker was like this the whole way up.

I don't wanna climb the stupid hill!

Today is scheduled to have "scattered thunderstorms" but that really means just rain here and there with possibly one thunder boom if that.  It doesn't thunder here, maybe once a year and we already had that.

But it was a nice day, in the mid 70's with a pleasantly cool breeze, so I grabbed conker and headed up to Dollar Hill.  I'm still badly out of shape and it took a short while to get to the cell tower.  We didn't stay there long and instead headed down to some neat-o rocks to take a break.

Conker sniffed around on the rocks for a bit then decided he wanted to keep going.  But I made him get a drink first then told him NO, you CANNOT chase the freakin rabbit that just ran in front of you. He was good and didn't.  So we headed down the hill at a faster clip than last time.  Okay, not fast but really fast.  I was basically running like a dumbass down the hill with my backpack flopping everywhere, my camera threatening to fly down the hill and my shoes (which were attached to the backpack) hitting me in the butt.  My guess was they wanted me to go faster.

Conker thought this was the best part of the hike!  He took off at full speed down the hill when he could, mouth open, tongue hanging out and tail streaked out behind him.  When he's having a lot of fun he runs like that but also throws in a couple bounces every few steps.  He's not running in the picture above since I never had my digital out when he was (too busy trying not to die) but it's close enough.

Oh, also, did you notice something in the two pictures of Conker where you can see his whole body?  Something's missing, I'll give you 100 internet points if you can tell me what it is.

Anyways, it was a fun little hike that went a lot faster than normal since we  RAN down the dang hill.  Except in one spot where it's killer steep.  Conker decided to do a run-by attempt at knocking me on my ass and waited until I was about 10 feet in front of him then bolted down the hill and slammed into my knee.  Luckily for him I've got good balance even on super steep grades and didn't fall backwards onto his stupidness.  The worst he did was send himself spinning into a tree.  

Lookit Grant's Pass.  It's surrounded by awesome mountains.  And rain.

Oh yeah it's my sister's 16th birthday today.  And on our way home from the hike I saw these three girls walking down the street so I freaked them out by honking at them.  They yelled then realized who it was and yelled some more then chased me and demanded a ride home.  I was nice and picked them up.

Conker, since he was such a good boy today, was given one of his birthday trachea chews.  I normally like to cut them up into smaller pieces but he was good enough to have earned 2/3rds of one instead of 1/3rd.  He made a nasty mess on my bed though, but did a okayish job at cleaning it up.

The TABLE has been Conker'd

That's right.  The table.  Conker has figured out that there's FOOD on the table, and that we tend to leave plates of scraps on the table. And that he can get ON TOP of the table by jumping up on a pulled out chair or stool.  Mom said he licked the breakfast plates clean.  So clean that they were shiny.  Thankfully it was just eggs and ham and he's had both before with no problems so I doubt he'll have any digestive upsets.

I was asleep when this happened.  I just found out a couple minutes ago when Mom came home from shopping for my sister's 16th birthday (tomorrow).

This table conquering has opened up a whole new door.  We've got a "bar" that the stools sit near and food is often left on that bar or it's used for preparation.  The bar is attached to the counter by the sink and the main counter food is prepared on.  If Conker generalizes stool + high place = food, I might have a counter surfer on my hands.
I attributed this event to the beginnings of Conker's true Shiba self-awakening.  He is only a year old and has plenty of time to bloom into what a "normal" Shiba is known for.  Dun dun dun...


In other news...

Juneau is a snake hunter!
Yesterday she was onto something in the bushes.  Conker joined in and when I saw his tail wagging I knew the snake was actually there.  About 10-15 minutes later Juneau dashed out of the bush and grabbed the terrified snake and shook it, then dropped it and tried to grab it again.  Janelle (oldest sister, now going back to Phoenix) grabbed the snake before Juneau could then gave it to me.  The snake was relatively unharmed, though quite frightened, and Juneau had no interest in it once we had it.  She was still looking for the "real" snake on the ground. Conker though, he's seen me get four snakes before he did and knows that when it's in my hand the game is over.  He tried and tried to jump and snatch the snake but failed every time. 
I gave the little snake a good examination to make sure it didn't have any gaping wounds.  The end of it's tail was gone, Juneau bit it off (I'm familiar with snake anatomy and it still had the "back end" so it was good) and since it wasn't bleeding profusely I released it on the other side of the fence.  Conker was again pissed that another snake escaped him and Juneau got two eggs instead of one in her kibble that night.

Homemade toys and a slight "redesign"

I made Conker a toy out of a strip of Pac-man fleece and a tennis ball.  I stabbed some holes in the tennis ball then stabbed the fleece through and knotted them on either end.  I made what I now call a Four-Legged Spiderball.

The Spiderball is the perfect toy for Conker.  He can fetch, tug and shake all he wants with just one toy. These are the kinds of toys I need for him since he doesn't do well with single-purpose toys.  The best part about the Spiderball is that it was completely free!  I prefer to make toys I see in the stores (if possible) instead of spending roughly $10 on something that's eventually gonna break and need to be replaced. 

The Spiderball can easily be chewed apart so it's not recommended for heavy chewers.  The Spiderball can be used in water (floats) and is compatible with a Chuckit so dogs who love water or like to retrieve will enjoy this toy.  The Spiderball can also be flung by the fleece legs so even those heavy retrievers without a Chuckit can still get some good distance from it.

I plan on making several more Spiderballs with different types of legs.  I'll be sure to post about them when they arrive.



In other news...

I made the banner image blue instead of plain ol' black and white.  (I know how to do that with real prints HOMG it's so freakin fun) so if you think it looks funky let me know and I'll mess with it a bit more.

Photo Filler

Conker and Juneau in the creek near the dog park.

Stuff going on

The family is going on a "Memorial" trip to Lake Tahoe at the end of the month. It's for my Dad (died in 2005) and his cousin Glenn who was a firefighter in LA. If you heard about that earlier this year, the firefighter who died when the roof of a house collapsed in him, and the resulting huge service for him afterwards... He was a really neat guy and was fun to be around.

Anyways, we'd be going from the 23rd to the 30th. A whole week! Boarding Conker is NOT an option at all, and I am NOT comfortable leaving him here. He WILL destroy something from boredom or get into something he's not supposed to, and honestly? The backyard fence? He chooses to stay inside. That's how crap of a fence it is. If Conker wanted he could easily escape, which I know he would if he were left here, even with a dog-sitter who was here the whole time.
While he doesn't have bad SA he does have it to a point, and me being gone for a whole week... I'm not willing to find out just how long it takes him to decide to come find me.


While dogs are allowed in the campground (6 foot leash) and State Park itself, they are NOT allowed on the trails or the beaches. I can understand the beaches but the trails? What the hell are people who bring dogs going to do the whole time? Sit around at camp and play 6 foot fetch? Unfortunately my relatives (the problematic ones) have this favorite campground that's super far away from EVERYTHING fun to do at Tahoe that's located in the stupid un-dog friendly Sugar Point State Park.
I know there are some dog-friendly places at Tahoe and I'm going to do some research on them since I'm 100% not going to board or leave Conker. That decision is completely up to me, nobody else, and even if the relatives don't want Conker there if I go, he goes. I'm fine with not doing a couple activities with them (since they always tone everything down and somehow make it un-fun) and finding things to do with just me and Conker. Besides, I did just buy 8 rolls of film, and Lake Tahoe is a gorgeous place. I want to photograph it from the places most people don't go.

Fuji

Okay... I finally bought some stinkin Fujifilm. I got two four packs, one 400 speed and one 800 speed. I loaded a roll of 400 into my old Minolta and took 13 shots today at the dog park. I was mainly just messing around, trying to regain the feel of that old camera. I forgot how heavy it is with the 75-205 zoom lens on.

A dog I've never met before came, a little brindle Carin Terrier. She wasn't there long. Then the Westies came, then Snow the Saint Bernard. Snow is fun, she looks like a huge puppy when she plays. The first time Conker met her he wasn't sure about her but this time he played with her. That was fun to watch.

I'm hoping some of the pictures I took end up alright. I can't remember if the built-in light meter is screwy or not. I was using it so hopefully it works fine.

Creek

Sometimes my stupid little camera surprises me.

Gonna try something

Okay so while in the petstore I checked out the bargain section and found some Zuke's Mini Bakes for $3.00.  There was only one box and it was the cherry and chicken flavor.  It was a steal since those treats are normally $6.29 at Mini Pet Mart (where I was) and even if Conker can't eat them Juneau and Sasha can.  So I bought them.  And a squeaky ball.

The box was kinda busted and taped up so I'm guessing that's why they were marked down to $3.  The squeaker ball was $1.49 but that's what I originally went there for so I was expecting that.

Funny thing though, since I kinda go there a lot Conker is pretty much always given a treat of some sort.  They aren't the best treats out there, some sort of beef stick thing, but Conker's never had a bad reaction to them so I allow the employees to give him one if he'll get close enough to them to take it.  Anywho, the cashier, this young guy who really likes Conker didn't give him one right away and Conker just stood there staring at him.  Like he was trying to use his Shiba powers to will the guy to give him a treat.  It apparently worked, cause he came around the counter and crouched down and held pieces of the treat out to Conker.  Conker was being his normal inside self and wouldn't let the guy touch him but got close enough to stretch out and quickly take the treat from him.  This is better than last time where Conker took it and ran.  He stuck around this time.  Hopefully next time Conker will be a bit less skittish.

Anywho, I'm going to attempt to give Conker one or two of the Mini Bakes and see how he reacts, since they contain TWO things that have given him problems in the past. Chicken and potatoes.  You'll know right away if he does have a reaction.

Late night walk

Conker and I went for a walk last night.  I decided to try something and clipped the d-ring near the handle to the snap and let Conker drag the rest of the leash.  He did AWESOME!  He was very responsive when he got a few steps too far ahead or lagged behind, stopped when I did when we came to cross streets and didn't chase after the cat we saw across the street (I grabbed the leash then to be safe).  When crossing streets I held the leash for obvious reasons but once across I let him drag it again.
I hope Conker will continue to be an a-typical Shiba and be reliable off-leash.  The couple times I've taken him off-leash in the creek (where he can't escape) he's done really good as well.  No true off-leash excursions until he's a bit older though, I'm not ready for that.


Since I STILL haven't gotten any film (I'm very reluctant to buy Fuji) I've been relearning how to use my stupid point-and-shoot.  I still hate the bejeebes out of it and want to kill it every time I touch it.  Despite that, I did manage to get a semi-cool shot on our late night walk.

Focus on the sidewalk whoop whoop.  Not my intention but hey, it's an automatic with no manual focus whatsoever, no control over the F stop (only quarters of stops from -2 to +2 in auto setting, hardly useful), very little shutter speed control (you can set it at 1, 1.3 1.6 2, 2.5 3.2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 13 or 15 seconds or full auto)  There is NO ZOOM period and it tends to not focus on the subject.  If it does, it's usually not the part I want it to.  Like a patch of fur instead of a nose.  If for some stupid reason I decide to use the flash I have to wait at least five seconds for it to decide when to go.  It used to be instant but now it takes it's sweet time and when photographing dogs you can't do that.  Because they move.

Pictures from today

Hasn't been much going on lately.  Real boring, even though there are a ton of people here.  The adults went wine tasting today, younger-taller brother and I took the kids to the local "air park" which is a room with a ton of trampolines in it and such.  Us bigger folks didn't jump but the kids had fun.

Conker's been really bored.  Almost to the point of pencil chewing, so I took him and Juneau to the dog park since Sasha already got a walk today.

After a bit of playing with the chuckit I took them to the creek to cool off.  It was a bit warm today and they looked somewhat hot.

Conker gets really excited to go into the creek now.  He's also started swimming in the deeper parts.  If there's another dog he has more fun that he does by himself.

Juneau got about 20 more minutes of fetch in and had nearly dried off when they got to go back into the creek.  The video above was actually from the second trip in.  There is a patch of tall grass next to the fence that Juneau likes to lay in during cool-down periods in between games of fetch.

Conker got really dirty after the second creek trip.  He also played a bit of fetch, then tug with a busted tennis ball.

When we got back it was time to feed the Girls.  They got Lamb flavored TOTW with some tuna in there.  No real reason behind the tuna, I just decided to be nice.  Sasha gets a bit of water in her kibble to slow her down, I just recently found that out.

Conker was his usual self while the Girls ate and put cute Shiba mode in overdrive.  It didn't work.



In other news...

My uncle apparently thinks it's okay to "let" Conker eat a piece of stinkin pizza.  My cousin came in and saw Conker eating it and TOLD my uncle that he was, but uncle didn't even try to take it from Conker since "it was already in his mouth."  Tell him to drop it you moron.  Thanks for letting my dog eat shit that'll make him either barf or have cannon ass tomorrow.  Or tonight, and if he does... I'm gonna fucking blow a fuse.