New Years's eve + Birthday!

The year 2011 is almost over, and the end of the year marks the birthday of somebody I know.  This somebody is turning 50 (which is apparently an embarrassing age) so they will remain unnamed.  Anyways, Happy 50th!

Today I took Conker and Juneau on a quick 3 mile hike at Cathedral Hills.  Both had a lot of fun and both were sporting new gear which will be written about in a few days. In the meantime, here's a sneak peak at Juneau's stuff:

I is excited about it.

Arizona Adventure: Get the Moe*

*When I tell Conker to get something, I normally shorten the name or say it stupidly.  In the ground-critter's case, it was called a moe instead of mole, I don't think it was actually a mole though.

One of the adventures Conker and I had in Buckeye Arizona took place on the portion of undestroyed undeveloped desert between the large complex of neighborhoods and the busy I-10.  The adventure was incredibly fun and stimulating for Conker, because it involved a potential snack.


I spied a small critter sitting atop a hole in the ground not too far from our current position.  I think it was a ground squirrel, but due to the population of moles at the dog park I decided to call it one since Conker understood that a mole meant an opportunity to dig.  I turn, look at Conker and say, "Lets git d' moe!" in a stupid voice. Conker's ears perk at the words, especially the last, and he waits for me to point out the moe's location.  Dead ahead, I motion with my arm.  His gaze follows and Conker spots the moe as it flashes into it's den.

That brief glance was enough.  He was at the end of the leash in a split second, pulling hard to reach the hidden critter.  As we neared it's den I could see Conker grow more and more excited.  He promptly stuck his nose into the den and inhaled deeply when he was close enough so to do.

Conker did not need to be told what to do.  He began to scratch at the entrance to the den, first making smaller gouges in the soft earth then progressively harder and deeper scratches.  Soon he was digging full-force in an attempt to unearth the moe.

"Where's the moe?"  I ask in an excited tone. Conker shoves his muzzle into the hole up to his eyes.  I can hear him sniffing hard, searching in the darkness for the small snack.  "Git dat moe Conker!"  I cheer as he resumes digging.  A small pile of dirt had begun to appear between his legs.

After a short while Conker started to get discouraged.  The moe had not shown itself and he appeared to be getting bored of digging.  "You haven't found the moe yet!"  I say as Conker examines the exterior of the somewhat-collapsed den, his small black nose working hard to find a fresh scent.

That was enough to get him started again.  He attacked the entrance with a newfound fury, digging quickly and sloppily in hopes of finding the critter quick.  "Git it! Git it, Conker!"  I say, egging him on as soft dirt flies in all directions.  Then, as if he willed it, the moe appeared, but it was in the wrong hole!

Conker chagred the ground-thing but didn't seem to notice the rather difficult bush in his way.  No matter, he's a Shiba! That bush will bend to his will if he wishes it so.
And that's what it did. Conker shoved his way through the bush and almost got the moe but it dashed back into the hidden den entrance beneath the bush's roots.

 Conker returned to the first entrance and continued excavation.  He dug faster and harder and began to bury my feet with the interior of the moe's den.  He was determined to catch it now that it had the gall to openly mock him like that. "You gonna let it escape, Conker?  Git d' moe!  Git it!"  I say.

The entrance was no longer a muzzle-sized hole in the ground.  It was a crater big enough for Conker to fit most of his front half into.  He paused to shove his face in deep and inhale many times, his nose searching for the moe that had probably escaped through a different tunnel by now.

Despite his apparent defeat, Conker continued to dig.  He cleared out a hole slightly larger than a cubic foot and made a heap of dirt several inches high and two feet wide.  If he wanted he could have curled up into the hole.
But no moe appeared.  It was lucky, this time, that Conker is not that great of a digger.

Over the course of the rest of the week, every time we would go out into the undeveloped desert, Conker would go back to the hole and snuff around for the moe.  It was never there, and had probably wised up and moved to a new location where Conker could not harass it by destroying it's front door.

Nihon Ken and Shiba Inu secret Santa gifts.

This is what I got for the gift exchanges on the Nihon Ken and Shiba Inu forums!

From the Nihon Ken person:

One of the last pictures taken by the Cannon.

A huge assortment of chews from best bully sticks!  I have been meaning to order something from them but still have yet to get around to it, and this has convinced me that I need to sooner or later, when this stash runs out.  (Not pictured are two twisty things that Conker snatched up and concumed seconds before I snapped this.)

From the Shiba person:

Terrible picture due to stupidity of Fuji.

A squeaky chicken thing, some Greenies, a roll of doggy bags (haha, I loved that) and a daypack!  I really like the little pack since it's not as big as the Ruffwear Approach and lays quite flat against Conker's shoulders.  When I go on hikes in Cathedral Hills I'd like to be able to have Conker carry something without having to take the big red saddle bags along, and this fits the bill perfectly.  Plus I won't have to cart his... goodies... around for him anymore XD

Back in Oregon!

Both drives were uneventful.  Both times we stopped at my Mom's friend's house somewhere in central California (Turlock) and both times I gave the resident dog, Pepper, an adorable Lab-Springer? mix a bully stick in return for letting Conker stay in her house. 

As you may have read, my point-and-shoot died and I have been using Mom's camera which while it is functional, I do not like it's huge lack of options so the picture quality has dropped. The dang thing also rearranged the order of pictures.

Anyways... Here are some pictures of the trip.

Conker being "comfortable" in the car on the ride down.  It's quite hard to get pictures of Conker while in the car since I am normally driving, and I hate the flash so I never use it.

Conker was put in the backyard (much to his displeasure, it was 65 out a lot of the time) due to him being a beggar when food was present.  He also decided to be a douche and boycotted doing his stuff on the rocks so I had to walk him around for an hour or more so he could find a suitable spot to deposit his... goodies... instead of doing it in the yard.

On several of our frequent daily walks we ditched the sidewalks and crushed pebble pathways that twisted through urbania to explore the stretch of unfenced desert between the housing development and the I-10.  These adventures would have been off-leash if it were not for the proximity of the interstate to the development, as you can see in the background of the above image, so I kept Conker leashed in order to prevent him from becoming a Shiba-splat on the asphalt. 
On one of these excursions Conker excavated a ground squirrel or other rodent-type critter's home.

Conker was bored a lot of the time since us humans were often doing other things that did not involve him.  He at one point ignored me completely in favor of laying in the cool shade (since it was, you know, a boiling 70 degrees that day) near the sculpture thing I made for my Grandparent's 50th anniversary. 
And much to my surprise, he only barked at golfers once despite them and their carts being very visible from the backyard.

This post would not be complete without a picture of at least one of Conker's meals.

So here it is. Christmas food was some Honest Kitchen topped off with raw turkey fat, gizzard and heart.  Christmas also marks the day I began raw/home-cooking/alternatives to kibble-feeding Conker.
But that was not enough for the crafty Shiba!   He jumped up onto the table and took a whole turkey leg and made a mess of it on the carpet.  And since he'd touched most of it, he was allowed to keep it after I removed the bone and weird stringy things.

We dinked around in the backyard with Conker's only real Christmas present from me quite a bit.  It's now his new favorite toy since it can do everything. (Kudos if you can guess what it is.)

We met Taro, who is the cutest little dude I have ever seen ever, and his friends Rinji and Mika at a spiffy place called Arizona Dog Sports where the Shibas ignored each other and the humans for most of the time.  Despite Conker being a butthead, it was a lot of fun and I was able to get him to go over a few jumps and through a tunnel which was surprising for me.

We went on a 7 mile hike in the White Tank Mountains the day before we left AZ.  It was a load of fun since it was a real hike with rocks and scrambling and stabbings by cactus (which will be further written about later) and I wish we could have gotten in about three more of these but that just didn't happen.
Conker really enjoyed this and thankfully didn't throw out either of his knees on the rocks.

Conker was not pleased to be in the car again on the way back.  He was good about it though, and slept most of the way and was generally a good dog.

Funny thing.  My Grandparents like Conker so much (despite me telling them that he was not his full self at their house) that they wanted to keep him!  They want to get a dog soon and offered Conker a new home but declined the counter-offer when they heard that he's not only expensive but I am part of the deal if he were to stay.

And that's it for the Arizona trip!  Largely boring with a few good parts. 

Post

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Conker and I!

Due to stupidly slow internet, this is probably going to be the last update for a while.

It's finally dead!

Despite the limited internet access here in Buckeye Arizona, had to write about this since it finally happened.  The inevitable event that I have predicted for many months has finally come to pass.

The Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS digital ELPH is dead.

The lens will no longer open.  It hasn't been able to zoom (in picture mode) for a long long time and recently it began to give me lens errors and it would shut down. Well, the other day I went to take a picture of Conker being cute outside while the wind was blowing his ears and tail everywhere (it was quite intense for a bit there) and it wouldn't open.  So I pulled it open but then it wouldn't turn on, and it wouldn't close. So I closed the lens and that's whan it decided it had had enough.  Keep in mind that I have not been gentle with this camera for a long time so it's my fault that the lens broke after it first began to give me trouble.

It's still dead though.

That does not, however, mean that there will be no pictures on the blog. There will in fact be pictures, but I will be using a a different camera (Mom's camera) that will hopefully be better than mine and actually do what I'd like it to. For what a simple point-and-shoot is capable of.

But...

It's a Fuij.  Mom's camera is a Fujifilm FinePix J10 and if you've read some of my other posts about photography, you will know that I do not like that brand.


Anyways, I will not be getting a new camera for some time since I would like a Canon 20D or 30D and those aren't really something you go to the store and buy on a whim.  And since I have purchased a good amount of dog things here in AZ (that aren't available in GP unless you order online) I have set back my camera purchase by a bit. So even with the passing of the five year-old point-and-shoot, don't expect the picture quality to increase just yet.  They will eventually, but unfortunately not now.

Arizona

We got to AZ late last night.  Conker was good in the car the whole way which was nice.

Anyways, internet access is incredibly limited so updates will probably not happen.  A post detailing the AZ vacation will be up sometime around or after new year. Other updates will be sparse or nonexistant.

Zuke's Z-Ridge and Z-Bones

Back in July I wrote a short post about the chews made by Zuke's which happens to be my favorite dog treat company.
Zuke's has since discontinued the Z-Ridge line in favor of the newer Z-Bones which come in a plastic wrapper instead of cardboard and feature two different flavors than before.  The Z-Ridges came in fresh breath, carrot and cranberry.  The Z-Bones come in apple, carrot and cherry.  Conker's favorite by far is the apple so I can't complain too much about the change.

Anywho, onto the review.

Box of Z-Bones surrounded by Z-Ridges

Apple Z-Bones

Ingredients:
Potato Starch, Tapioca, Vegetable Glycerin, Apple, Alfalfa Concentrate, Cellulose Fiber, Spinach, Lecithin, Turmeric, Natural Flavor, Parsley, Ground Clove, Rosemary Extract, Fennel Seed Powder, Vanilla Extract, Chlorophyll, Calcium Propionate, Zinc Propionate.

Guaranteed Analysis:
Protein:  not less than 1%
Fat:  not less than 1%
Fiber:  not more than 2%
Moisture:  not more than 20%


Original Fresh Breath Z-Ridge

Ingredients:
Potato Starch, Vegetable Glycerin, Cellulose Fiber, Alfalfa Concentrate (a source of chlorophyll), Natural Flavor, Lecithin, Whey, Vanilla Extract, Clove Powder, Parsley Powder, Nutmeg Powder and Fennel Seen Powder.

Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude Protein:  0.4% min
Crude Fat:  1% min
Crude Fiber:  6% max
Moisture:  16% max

Both are grain-free so if you're into that, these should be fine.
The ingredients are not too terribly different but I think a better side-by-side comparison would best be done with the carrot flavors (I'll get around to that soon).
One of the reasons why I like Zuke's is that even though the first ingredient on both of these chews is potato starch, Conker does not react adversely to it.  Potato, in it's whole form, sets him off no matter how it's cooked if he has too much. Fortunately neither of these chew do that.

Reused image from July post

The Z-Bones are, as I suspected they would be, around .50 cents to $1 more for the same size of Z-Ridge.  I don't like this at all, which is why I bought the bigass box of apple chews since it would save me $6 to do that.  But other than the price increase and addition of plastic wrap, I like these chews.
The apple flavor smells quite nice and Conker finishes all he's given.  With the old Z-Ridges he would sometimes leave it and Sasha would sneak in and steal it.

Digestion wise, like with any new item I give Conker, is fine if I gradually increase the amount.  Things do turn a bit green, red or orange respectively, but I find that they digest just fine.  No chunks of the chew come out intact.
Since I bought the box of large sized chews I ended up hacking each one into three pieces that would be about the same size as the mini chews.  The regular size Z-Ridges I would normally buy for Conker I would allow him to chew about half then give the rest later, so it equals to the same amount that way.

Anyways, the Z-Bones are pretty good in my book. While they don't really clean teeth as good as a nice bone or hard bully stick, they do make Conker's breath smell nice which even though it doesn't smell like anything to begin with, is a plus.

We're off to Arizona!

Updates may or may not happen.  I've got something slotted for tomorrow but after that I can't say since I don't know what type of computer and internet connection the relatives have in AZ.
Anyways... We should be leaving within the hour and will hopefully arrive in AZ sometime tomorrow night.

Results of Various Vegetable Oils

I wrote a short while ago a bit about fats and oils and how some of them kindapossibly affect Conker in adverse ways.
Here's a short and to the point analysis of what went down.

Corn oil:  NO.  End of discussion.
Canola oil: Okay in very very very small amounts.
Olive oil: Okay in small amounts.
Coconut oil: AMAZING!

That's the general jist of it.  I haven't tried anything else so far but I'm content with the results of coconut oil to not feel the need to further experiment on this topic.
The coconut oil I got is a brand called Dr. Bronner's Magic "All-One!" Fair Trade & Organic Fresh Pressed Virgin Coconut Oil. Whooooo!

Anyways, Conker loves the coconut oil.  He gets a spoonful(s) when he eats The Honest Kitchen and a bit drizzled over his meat when he gets raw food.  Sometimes it's solid and I just plop it in there, either way, he enjoys it and it gets him to eat things he finds questionable quite easily. 
Since adding coconut oil to his diet his fur has softened, begun to shine more and adds a slightly tropical scent to his coat that I like due to him smashing his back against my face in the middle of the night.  It hasn't seemed to help the deathfarts but I've basically given up trying to remedy that.

Conker's Current Campaign

Remember this?  Well, that is what Conker has been up to lately.  Getting up onto the table and eating whatever is there while I'm still asleep.  But while people are still home.

A week ago is was some spaghetti.
Yesterday it was a plate of lebkuchens.
Today it was leftover teriyaki chicken.

And that's not all.  Conker has been going upstairs where he has in the past, secured another plate of spaghetti, a bowl of salad (wtf dog you are not herbivore) several cups with icecream reminants and other various food items.  He's not allowed in either elevated place.  This is not making me happy. 

Last week Conker had an explosion in the back yard.  I could not figure out why.  I don't know why nobody bothered to tell me that they had SEEN Conker on the table eating the spaghetti until yesterday.  I would have liked to have known that the day it happened.
The only reason why I knew Conker ate the lebkuchens was because Mom came home, saw there were none left and remarked that she remembered there being some when she left and asked who ate them.  Her BF says, oh, there were some there, but Conker got up on the table and ate them.

Thanks for letting me know ahead of time.

And today, Conker got the leftover teriyaki chicken which who knows what kind of effect it's going to have on him since it was probably mostly juice and sauce.  Which is one of the things he CAN NOT have.  Just like wheat, which was in the spaghetti and lebkuchens... which thankfully Conker deposited on the dirt rather than the rocks.

I really cannot understand how people can't follow simple instructions like, if you see Conker on the table, YELL AT HIM TO GET THE FUCK DOWN SO HE'LL LEARN NOT TO DO IT AGAIN!

Taste Test: ZiwiPeak Venison

I haven't been able to find any ZiwiPeak within a 30 minutes drive of my house so I shot an e-mail over to the service center on the site and asked if they could send a sample.  A couple days later, this arrived on my doorstep.

The box was much mcuh larger than I thought a sample would be and was surprised that the "sample" was an 8 ounce bag of the venison Daily-Dog Cuisine!  That was enough for a couple days instead of a single meal.  The sample came with a measuring cup that is equal to 1/2 regular measuring cup.

Sample bag and measuring cup.

Ingredients:
Venison - Meat (min. 65%), Liver, Tripe, Heart and Kidney (min. 19.5%), Chicory Inulin, Green-lipped Mussel (min. 4%), Fish Oil, Lecithin, Kelp, Vitamins and Minerals, Parsley, Naturally preserved with mixed tocopherols, additives: Vit. D3 592 IU/kg, Vit. E 7.4mg/kg, Copper (copper proteinate) 9.8mg/kg. Calories 1794 KJ/100g.

Guaranteed Analysis: 
Protein (min.) 34%
Fat (min.) 26%
Moisture (max.) 15%
Ash (max.) 8%
Fibre (max.) 1.6%
Calcium 2%
Phosphorus P 1.1%

The only ingredient I find to be a problem is the lecithin which is soy-based, but other than that it looks great, especially for an almost completely meat diet.

One scoop of ZiwiPeak.

According to the instructions, Conker should get about 2 scoops a day, or something around 6 ounces.  I gave him one scoop with some extras like Honest Kitchen, ground beef, egg, etc. since this wasn't an actual trial.  Anyways, Conker LOVED the Ziwipeak and didn't have any immediate adverse reactions to it so I hope to pick up a bag sometime soon for an actual trail, possibly while I'm in AZ for the holiday.

I also used the food for treats while re-crate training and it worked out good for that too.

If you want to give ZiwiPeak a try and don't want to buy an expensive bag, sent an e-mail asking for a sample. I was more than satisfied with mine.



On a completly unrelated note...
Today is my birthday.  I'm 23 and still live at home with Mom.  Yippee-ki-yay... not finishing that.

So Today...

Is sunny, which is odd.

I have been reluctant to give Sasha any bones or hard chews since I found her busted carnassial tooth.  I've been putting off their weekly RMD day for a bit but decided to just get it over with test Sasha's tooth out today.

So the Girls got...

 

Turkey backs, gizzard and liver, chicken heart and egg, ground beef, canned mollusks.   

Conker got a tiny bit of Honest Kitchen, some ZiwiPeak, rices, a chicken heart and egg, turkey tail and some unitenfitied turkey organ that was in one of the backs.  I think it was kidney.

Conker went bonkers for this, I might add.  I think he just ran out the garage... Anyways, he was barking and whining, savaging the Girls faces, and again, like usual, I did not get it on camera.  I wanted to since this was the loudest he's been in a long while.

So Sasha didn't appear to have any problems eating her turkey back.  I watched her carefully and she did not favor the left side of her mouth at all.  I guess she's either a badass and toughed it out through the pain or didn't have any.  I hope it's the latter, since tooth problems in dogs tend to be spendy.

Random Pricture

Babyfoot Lake

Another Lazy Day

It's really cold out.  It was something like 20 degrees last night, there was thick fog, and neither of those have really gone away.  I don't think I'm going to be outside much.  Conker on the other hand, he loves the cold and when he's not outside harassing something, he's doing this:

Yes, that is a Finding Nemo sheet.

When Conker is really tired is one of the few times he will accept my bed not being made as a suitable place to sleep.  Normally he would have gotten up there, seen that it was not made then began to whine and chirp at me until I did something about it.  If I didn't, he would leave and find a better place to nap.

Conker is determined to make me angry

He ripped down the black stuff I put along a part of the fence where he was fence fighting with the neighbor's dogs.  So now he and Juneau are always making a racket out there at the new neighbor dogs, who are nice and DON'T want to fence fight.  Stupid dumbass dog.

So...

Conker got a little bit of Honest Kitchen, some ZiwiPeak and a bit of chopped pork and turkey gizzard, and a small piece of turkey neck.
 

In other news...

Notice something a bit... off... about that upper carnassial tooth?  Yeah, it's broken.  The tip got chipped off by something.  I'm not exactly sure when or by what, but Sasha broke it sometime within the past three days.  This is what it SHOULD look like.

See that bigeass tooth before the molars?  It's got a nice sharp point. Sasha's doesn't. 

Shiba Inu and Nihon Ken forum Christmas exchanges.

So, I kinda jumped the gun a bit and sent out my boxes for the Shiba Inu and Nihon Ken forum secret Santa Christmas exchange things a tad early.  But, since I'm going to AZ soonish, and I have a birthday coming up, I wanted to get that out of the way so I wouldn't be all "OH CRAP I HAVE TO SEND STUFF AND ONE OF THEM IS INTERNATIONAL!" with only two days left or something.

Yep.  Fun.

I tried to pick things I knew Conker, and Juneau and Sasha, all loved so that the recipient dogs wouldn't turn their noses up at anything.  I also accidentally picked all things made in the USA.  I almost never do that intentionally.  (I do avoid things from certain countries and companies though.)
So what ended up getting sent off in the mail today?

To the Shiba recipient:
1 bag of Zuke's Mini Naturals salmon
1 Zuke's Original Z-Ridge (now discontinued)
1 package of Boneys Bonez trachea chews
1 True Chews bully stick

To the Nihon Ken recipient:
1 bag of Zuke's Jerky Naturals salmon
2 Zuke's apple Z-Bonez
1 package of Boneys Bonez trachea chews
2 True Chews bully sticks

I was somehow able to smash all that into two, 8-5/8" x 5-3/8" x 1-5/8" flat-rate boxes.  They were tiny little boxes.  I knew the Shiba items would fit fine but the Nihon items?  I had to rearrange and wiggle them around a bit to make sure they'd all fit into that little box.  I was determined to do so, since going up a box size (or making my own) would tack an additional $30 onto the shipping price and I was not wanting to do that.

I hope the dogs getting this stuff like it all.


Boneys Bonez is a small, local Pacific Northwest company.  They make excellent natural dog chews.

It was a tad chilly today

We headed out on our Tuesday hike and were greeted by 35 degree temperatures.  The front yard's grass was still frozen in a couple places, but thankfully there wasn't any water on the roads so the way over to Cathedral Hills was fine.

The trails themselves though...

Parts had a thin layer of ice that cracked when I stepped on it.  Conker didn't seem to notice.  And today he was being exceptionally obnoxious by pissing on everything every five feet or so. 

Most of the trail had frost where there wasn't ice.  A couple places were clear of both but the ground was pretty solid and mostly frozen.  We only ran into one other person on the trails.  I guess it was a bit too cold for most people today.


In other news...
The crate training is going smoothly.  Yesterday Conker was going in on his own and laying down and not being annoying.  I haven't tested him by closing it and leaving yet, but I'll get around to that sometime soon.

This is what breakfast looked like.

Honest Kitchen Keen, cooked quinoa, ground beef and regular stuffs.  Conker liked it a lot.

Re crate-training The Emperor.

I have decided that I would like Conker to put up with being in a crate, just in case the relatives in AZ don't want him out and about all the time. 

Instead of using his a-bit-too-small wire crate I have been using one of the Girl's pop-up crates which has plenty of room for him to move around in.  It's made out of the same materials as those annoying windsheild covers that if you don't close them right they'll explode in your face.  Which means I have to be extra careful about corner digging since I don't want him to ruin it.

So far he's been quite obnoxious about it.
Conker wouldn't go into it at all.  He does that with his normal crate but can usually be coaxed in with a treat.  Not this one.  I stood behind him tossing treats into the crate until there was a large enough amount to practically count as a daily meal before he decided to put one foot into the crate and give an unsure sniff.  Then he backed out and looked at me as if to say, "If this things is so great, why don't you go in there and get them!"
So I did.  I got the treats and he got booted in.

Shiba is contemplating murder.

The first thing he did was try to dig in one of the corners.  He got a quick verbal correction "Hey!" and stopped. As soon as he stopped he was given a treat.  But he tried again a couple seconds later. Another verbal correction, another treat when the digging stopped.
This happened about five more times before he was given a bully stick to work on.

The bully stick lasted five minutes.
But instead of digging when his chew was gone, he began to chirp.  It's the worst sound he can possibly make since it's sharp, high-pitched and just loud enough to drive you up a wall.

More verbal corrections and treats when he's quiet.  This time I hacked the treats into itty bitty bits so I wouldn't waste a ton of them on my thinks-he's-a-bird dog.

Shiba is in ignore mode.

The next day I decided to leave the door open and just toss treats in every few minutes if Conker was quiet, to keep him quiet.  This time he went in okay when offered a correctly sized treat but promptly went into ignore-the-slave mode.
When I tossed him treats for being good, he wouldn't look at me but instead turn his head and avoid my gaze and lap the treats up with an air of snobbery.  He eventually decided that he was done and got up and left the crate.  But he quickly realized that when he left the crate the treats were bagged up and put away.  So what did he do?  He walked into the crate, leaned his head out and grumbled at me as if to say, "Okay, fine.  I'm in the damm crate.  You can give me some more treats now."

So he got treats, and eventually he fell asleep for a few minutes in there.


I did this for a couple days and while he isn't trust-worthy in the pop-up crate yet, he's getting there. Today he was fed in the crate.  Before he gets fed he is usually told to get onto the bed and sit, but instead I pointed to the crate.  He looked at me with a harsh glint in his eyes then jumped down and walked into the crate.  He got his food, and he ate it, then left the crate.  But at least he went in without me having to barricade the escape route and toss a million treats in first.


Conker's meal consisted of some Honest Kitchen Keen, a bit of cooked quinoa, a turkey tail and a chicken heart, as well as his usual supplements.

Food fit for The Emperor.

Sleepover went well

I watched TV the entire time.  There was a marathon of Fatal Attractions (I really don't understand those kinds of people) that I watched, along with The Weather Channel.

Star wanted to sleep on top of me but I was mean and didn't allow them inside the room.

Lucky didn't want me to leave.

I did take them to the dog park for a couple hours though.


In other news...

Delivery!

I'll write about this in a few days.

Going to have another sleepover

Yep.  I'm going to sleep over at my Mom's friend's house with her dogs again.  Then tomorrow I'm going to take them to the dog park for a couple hours before I return them to their house.  (I'm kinda dog-sitting them) Anyways... Should be fun?

Here's what Conker had for food today.

Honest Kitchen Keen, chicken breast, egg, a bit of quinoa, etc.

It's really cold out right now. 

The Honest Kitchen: Verve Taste Test

In my first order of The Honest Kitchen products I received a 4 ounce trial of Verve.  My little box was a little outdated, since the ingredients were in a slightly different order but I will go by the updated ones on the website.

Verve comes in a red box.

Ingredients:
Dehydrated beef, organic oats, organic rye, organic flaxseed, potatoes, carrots, organic alfalfa, eggs, apples, parsley, cranberries, spinach, chicory, rosemary, tricalcium phosphate, choline chloride, zinc amino acid chelate, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, potassium iodide, potassium chloride, iron amino acid chelate, copper amino acid chelate.

Guaranteed Analysis:
Protein, 22.5% min
Fat, 8.5% min
Fiber, 5.8% max
Moisture, 8.5% max
(I left out the other stuff intentionally)

The ingredients look pretty good.  Like all of The Honest Kitchen's foods, this one is a bit heavy on the grains and other things instead of meat but I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing.  My only problem is with the potatoes, but I have noticed that certain types of potatoes and ways they are cooked don't seem to affect Conker like others.

Verve in dry form (Keen behind, Thrive beside)

Conker has grown accustomed to me preparing his Honest Kitchen but hasn't gotten used to how long it can sometimes take.  He was quite impatient while I was preparing Verve both days he got it.  The initial test went awesome (spoonful) so I allowed him to fully try out the Verve.
Conker LOVED it!  I think more than the Keen but I will have to pit them against each other at a different time.  I've run out of Verve.

At $32.25 for 4 pounds and $60 for 10 pounds (website prices) Verve is the second cheapest of The Honest Kitchen's Formulas.  I am glad since Conker enjoyed it so much and didn't have any adverse reactions to the ingredients, that I know of. 

Verve isn't as "fluffy" as Keen.

Of the four Honest Kitchen varieties I have had Conker try, Verve smelled the least offensive.  They don't smell bad anyways, but Verve's smell wasn't as strong as Zeal or Keen.  Conker didn't much care and liked the Verve so much that he cleaned his bowl better than he normally does when he gets Keen.


Here's a video of Conker trying some Verve.

He knew I was going to give him a beef rib after the Verve, that is why he's eating so quickly and impatiently.