Thanks for ruining my day, Conker

Today was a relatively "nice" day, about 50 degrees with patches of clouds and sunshine here and there. The ground was a bit damp but not soaked like it normally is. Juneau has been off all medications for a short while and her mouth looks good (to me, a non expert, at least) and has been needing some exercise. I took the dogs hiking.
It was almost a disaster.

Blurryface Juneau

The first 3/4's of the hike went well. We didn't run into anyone, saw no critters and the dogs were relatively well behaved. Juneau is still adamant about walking just off the trail which is annoying, but I don't think she's ever going to realize that walking on the trail is what I'd prefer.

As we are nearing the last portion of the hike that is pretty close to the parking lot I hear the sound I'd hoped I wouldn't. Horse hooves, and they appeared to be going at a pretty good clip compared to what I normally encounter. That meant I didn't have as much time as usual to gather up the dogs.
I rapidly grabbed Juneau (the horse-reactive dog) and struggled to get her leash on. I dragged her and Sasha over to the side and... and... where's Conker?

BAROOOO ROO ROO ROO!

Shit.

The stupid dumbass charged the damn horse! He let out the shortest growl I'd ever heard before he went barreling towards the horse, demanding it do whatever the hell he was telling it to. So much for a nice warning. The rider pulled the horse up and stopped as Conker advanced to within one foot of the horse, fur bristled, bellowing out that loud obnoxious bay of his.
Despite my colorful language directed at Conker, the rider seemed amused. The horse just stood there and looked at him with little or no interest whatsoever. Conker continued to bark and bay at the horse as I apologized over and over, unable to retrieve my stupid dog since I didn't want to risk getting Juneau any closer to the horse than she already was.

As I was trying to find a way of getting Conker without scaring the horse or getting Juneau any closer, Conker noticed a terrier who was acompanying the horse about 30 seconds into his vocal attack and split off to pursue the terrier into a game of chase. Again I apologized many times as the rider and horse began to move on. She just smiled and said it was alright (which is wasn't) and that the horse likes dogs.

Lucky me.

She correctly guessed Conker's breed as a Shiba Inu, which I found somewhat amusing, but other than that the whole encounter was really, really bad.

Conker could have been killed if that horse was not a "dog friendly" one, or the rider could have been thrown or something worse. It all would have been my fault, and I feel really stupid for what he did. This doesn't mean he's never going off-leash again, it just means that privilege has been revoked (at Cathedral Hills and other horse trail areas) until I can hammer into his head that horses are to be ignored, not barked at.  The problem with Conker is, if he's done it once, he's going to do it again.

Sasha's Progress: Conclusion

I can officially say that Sasha is no longer a fatass!  Well, she's been a non-fatass for a while but I haven't written about it yet. I haven't posted about Sasha's progress since last September and I figured now was a good time for an update.

Anywho...

When I began to get Sasha to lose weight she weighed 70 pounds. She was a log, and at that time it was very easy to tell her and Juneau apart. The fat dog was Sasha, the skinny dog Juneau.
20 pounds overweight for a 50 pound dog is like, what, 60 pounds for an average human?  Not good.

Fatass

Mom hadn't done anything about it despite a very powerful and intimidating speech from the vet.

Then I moved back in. After switching the Girls off Pedig-crap to Taste of the Wild I did some serious portion control for the both of them.
In the past, the Girls' have both gotten a "cupful" of kibble. This cup is a huge blue drinking cup that holds 3 standard dry measured cups of kibble. Three cups! The fact that Juneau hardly ever finished her food should have been a clue that three cups was too much for her, but Sasha's "clues" were very obvious. Fat dog = too much food. Period. Even if she acted "starving" which is a common dog trait, she was not and was getting twice the amount (and more at times) she should have been getting. And on top of that she would eat Juneau's leftovers.

Pedigree says that a 25-50 pound dog should get 2 1/2 - 3 cups a day.
Taste of the Wild also says to feed a large amount, 2 1/3 - 3 cups for a 40-60 pound dog.
So they were getting the "correct" amount according to the bags. What's not stated is the age, activity level, or intact/altered status of your dog. All three effect how much a dog should eat.  Older dogs need less, inactive dogs need less, and altered dogs need less. That significantly reduced the amount of required food these dogs needed.

Anyways, once the Girls were on Taste of the Wild I began to cut back on both of their food intake. This began around May.
Juneau got as much as she would eat (came out to about 2 - 2 1/2 cups) and Sasha got 1 1/2 cups. Sasha was not allowed more than three snacks each day but was given eggs and raw food a couple times a week.
I also upped Sasha's exercise and took her on short walks at first since anything longer got her winded, then gradually lengthened them until she could go a mile without problems.

Still fat

It took until June to notice any difference in weight. Sasha dropped 5 pounds.  Not too much but you have to be patient with this sort of thing.
In July I began to address Sasha's teeth as well. Clean teeth are good for any animal, including dogs, and keeping them clean is one step in the right direction towards good health.

Sasha's teeth were nasty. Her breath was bad, and she had a lot of gross buildup on her canines, carnassials, and several pre molars and molars.  Until I moved back in the Girls were rarely given chews. A soup bone every few months or so was about it.  Now they got something to chew on once a week.

Nasty teeth

In addition to the weekly beef ribs and turkey backs, I added a bit of PlaqueOff to the Girl's food. The combination began to etch away the buildup on Sasha's and Juneau's teeth.

August rolled around and Sasha had dropped 15 pounds! Her teeth were looking better by the week.  I kept up what I'd been doing and just waited for her to lose a few more pounds and a bit more plaque before I'd call it quits.

The Girls enjoying some raw food

In September I'd reached my goal of getting Sasha down to 50 pounds. She was no longer tired after a short walk and could keep up with and occasionally catch Juneau (but not when she was in Greyhound mode) and seemed to be a lot happier now that she could actually play with her sister.

Better looking teeth

Her teeth were looking a lot better too. The PlaqueOff and weekly bones had scrubbed most of the nasty off, but the large bits on her canines remained.  I later took care of that myself with a tooth scraper thing.

On top of that, Sasha passed the Canine Good Citizen test.

In December, Sasha broke her upper left carnassial on something. I still don't know what did it. I doubt it was a bone since they had not been given any, or hard chews, for two weeks prior.  (Both Sasha and Juneau chew on sticks, and our backyard is largely comprised of rocks. It's easy to get a rock into the mouth while chewing on anything. I think a rock is what did it.)

Chipped

The chip looked as if it had just flaked off. This sort of break is common and normally doesn't need much done, other than watching it to be sure it doesn't break any further. While it has yet to be seen by the vet, I do not think it is as bad as Juneau's busted tooth that needed to be extracted.


It's been several months since the end of Sasha's diet plan. She is taken on hikes and walks, and sometimes to the dog park. She is still at a steady 50 pounds and gets from 1 2/3 - 2 cups of kibble a day.  Sasha can walk/hike several miles and I am working on building up her endurance with a pack.

I often don't talk about it with other dog owners in person, but I feel very strongly about overweight pets. They cannot control the amount of food they get (unless you have a thief, counter surfer or otherwise intelligent dog who can open anything) and you may not want to hear it, but it's your fault your dog is fat. Sometimes it can be attributed to a medical problem like hypothyroidism, but more often than not, you're just feeding them too much food and/or giving them too many treats or scraps.
The type of food you feed can also have a profound impact on their health.  The first thing you noticed when you walked into the house when the Girl's ate Pedigree was "dog".  It was very hard to cover up.  The house still smells a bit doggish but it doesn't smack you in the face like it did before.
Once switched off Pedigree, the Girl's coats lost their horrid grease, grew in lush and soft, and most of that generic dog smell vanished.  And those are only the cosmetic differences.

Sasha now

I hope to keep Sasha at a healthy weight for the rest of her life, even after I move out. It's better for the dog, and your wallet, in the long run to feed them healthy food, care for their teeth, and provide adequate exercise and mental stimulation.

Hump

What is Conker doing?

One thing I find hilarious about the "dominance" mindset is how they think that humping = trying to dominate. Erm... No.  In the above picture, Conker is humping Juneau's butt. If this humping = domination thing were true, I don't think she would be focusing on the toy in my hand but insead on her ass being savaged by a little red gremlin.

Juneau continues to ignore the doofus

Seriously. Humping can be anything from playful to actual mating. But I don't think "dominance" has anything to do with it whatsoever.

BTW, the only time Conker ever humps another dog is during a really really fun game.

A Comparison of the Old vs the New: Ruff Wear Web Master Harness

With the purchase of the Palisades for Juneau (and the mutilation of Sasha's Approach) I have finally acquired another Web Master that I can compare to the old one.  While they are two different sizes, and the newer one doesn't fit Conker, I don't think that is relevant to the comparison.

Needs More

This is what Conker had for foods some days ago. Before he started to boycott.

It consists of: Several large chunks of pork, a piece of turkey neck, beef liver and heart slices, a chicken egg, some plain yogurt and a couple sweet potato fries. He ate the fries first then looked at me as if to say, "Where's more? You only gave me two. I need more."
There were more, but I ate them. Conker watched. He was not happy about that.

The weather was a bit odd today

Dunno what was up with that. It's been odd a lot lately. Forecast for rain, we get sun. Forecast for clouds and light winds, we get drenched. Stuff like that.


Anywho, Conker continued to boycott eating his food for two days before I got fed up with him. See, there's nothing wrong with him. He just didn't want his food. He wanted everyone else's food like he normally does, but his food, no. Not interested. At. All.
Why was he not interested in his food?
I was attempting to get him to eat Coot.  When I'd cooked up the Coot I shot, Conker almost stole it off my plate. Good! I thought, He'll eat the rest of it with no problems. I was wrong.

Conker flat-out refused to eat any of it. Heart (he loves heart), gizzard, kidneys, lungs, neck (also loves necks) frame, liver, feet... all of it. This is the first time since the liver incident that Conker has completly refused to eat something.
And I don't know why.
I somehow got Conker to strip a tiny bit of meat off a neck and crunch a little, but still nothing. So after the first day of boycotting, Sasha got Conker's food. She munched it up, everything, without a hitch. She wanted more, but there was none left that day.

Day two of boycotting got Conker to eat a bit of breast that had some meat attached to it, and the frame, but he still refused everything else. I sat on the kitchen floor at 3:50 in the morning last night shaking the frame and saying, "Good boy Conker! Git it! Git git!" As he licked the frame to death. Took him 30 minutes to eat it. He did not enjoy it.  I made a huge bloody mess on the floor and am glad I decided to attempt to get Conker to eat in the middle of the night. Nobody would have been happy to come down to that.

This morning I offered the rest of the Coot to Conker. Again it got rejected. Juneau happily slurped it up but wasn't sure what to do with a foot, so Sasha stole it and ran off to eat it on the living room carpet.

I've discovered that Conker wants the meat, but nothing else. He tried to strip only the meat off every time he nibbled on something. Didn't want the bones or organs, just the meat. Weirdo.
So any future Coots I shoot will be offered to Conker, and if they are not eaten, give to one of the Girls.  I think that I might be able to get Conker to eat Coot if I grind everything up with the meat (and maybe some other kind of meat to make it... better?) but for now, since I have no meat grinder, he gets to be a stubborn buttface who eats "normal" stuff like chicken.  Which is what he eventually got today and ate it without any problem whatsoever.

Weirdest Breed Guess

Conker is commonly mistaken for a fox, puppy or Basenji, sometimes even a Husky or Akita.  I have gotten used to this, but yesterday I got a really funny one.

"Is that a Vizsla?"

Um... a what? Vizsla? Really?

I don't think this:

Looks ANTYTHING like this:

I politely corrected the mistaken person then went home and laughed my head off.

Updates for the next two weeks

Pictures (new pictures) will be absent on the blog due to the camera being in Hawaii. So, in order to make up for that, happenings will be just text and some postings will be stuff that's occurred in the past (like finishing up the Arizona Adventure series) that will have pictures taken during them. I'm probably going to do a couple more reviews too, since I've got some drafted up and are bored with them sitting around doing nothing.


Conker is spending more and more time out with the Girls at night. He does come in to sleep on the bed with me after a while but I'm starting to think he might decide to spend a full night out there. No worries, I'm not upset about that. Glad, actually. I'll have more room to myself if he does.

I'm going to start re-training him. Not because it's supposedly "train your pet month" or whatever, I'm a bit late to get on that bus. But simply because I think he could use some real obedience training. He's already pretty good about some things but due to his issue with being indoors and strangers, I haven't been able to take him to a class where he doesn't begin to shut down.  He's moderately okay in petshops but as soon as someone looks at him, that's it.
So I'm hoping that training him some more will help with the other problems if I can get him to focus more on me instead of what's bothering him. It will be slow and take a while, but I've decided to quit beating the rug and...
I have no idea where I was going with that.
To quit "dealing with it" and face the actual problem and find a way to remedy it. Like I've stated in the past, I don't want him to love every stranger or building he sees. I just don't want him to flip his shit.

I've had Conker for over a year. He is one and a half years old and I haven't done very much to combat this issue. Issues. I'd rather not just keep him where he is if there's a possibility of getting him more comfortable with strangers and being inside buildings. And I'd especially like for him to not get worse. I have seen that happen, and quite recently too. (Talking at you, siblings of great aggravation. You know who you are.)

I think if I can get him to earn the CGC this September, that will be a really good step for him.


In other news...
The internet continues to crash my computer with increasing frequency. It's not fun browsing the net with a 10 year old machine that can't run the latest updates (for about 3 versions or so) of required software and plugins due to it's ancient-ness. 

No Photos (again)

Mom and her BF are off to Hawaii.  They took the camera with them so there's going to be a lack of pictures unless I can magically find the charger plug for my sister's. Which has a broken screen.
It's raining, a lot, so any pictures of hikes wouldn't come out good anyways.

Juneau is on her last day of painkillers. I wonder how she'll be tomorrow without them.
Speaking of Juneau, the Petco near me is apparently not going to carry any products by Holostic Select (in store) anymore so everything they had was clearanced. I couldn't pass up some cans for .55 cents a piece since the ingredients were mainly good. It does contain chicken so Conker probably won't be getting any, but Juneau sure liked it this morning. Soft and squishy for her wounded mouth.  Sasha was jealous.

Back to Conker.
He is being stupid and refusing to eat. He wanted nothing to do with his food whatsoever this morning. I was wondering when this was going to happen again since he was long overdue for a boycott session. Well, it's here, and I wonder how long it will last this time. Last time it was a half day, but I have a feeling it's going to be longer than that.

Here comes Juneau!

Taken before her tooth extraction

Juneau is doing better. She still rubs her mouth a bit every once in a while and since she is also still on painkillers I guess she doesn't much notice if it hurts or not.  She's due to come off them in a couple days and we'll see how she reacts to that.

I'm hesitant to take her hiking because of that. I'm sure she'd be fine, but you never know. Plus I don't want her to grab something and rip open her mouth stitches or whatever.

The (other) Approachisades Pack

With me being me and liking to modify things, I couldn't keep my hands off the new Approach Pack I'd bought for Sasha. (There are needles in my keyboard that are rattling right now) I wanted to do something a bit different from the Approach II that I'd already modified and now that I knew how to (sorta) use a sewing machine, I felt invincible.
Well, not invincible, but certainly capable.

If you've read the previous post detailing how I made the Approachisades II, this version is somewhat different but I feel it's more badass.  Instead of using fabric as a skin, I completly left that part out and just made the skeleton with strapping. Much, much beefier strapping.

Here's what I used:
1 Ruff Wear Approach Pack (small)
4 3/4" plastic buckles
3 feet of 3/4" strapping (polypropylene heavyweight)
2 feet of 1" strapping (polypropylene lightweight)
2 feet of 2" strapping (polypropylene lightweight)
Many yards of heavy-duty thread
Velcro (optional)
Lots of pins
A tempermental sewing machine

In case you are unsure of where to buy buckles and straps, Strapworks is an excellent site to order from. They have a nice inventory and great prices, plus cheap shipping. Also, you will want to get more strapping than you actually need in case you mess up somewhere or have to repair something down the line.

The Approachisades II Pack

Yes yes, I know, lame combination of names.

A while ago I mentioned that I was going to turn my Approach II pack into a Palisades style pack. I finally got around to doing it. This took forever since I couldn't find any plastic buckles or straps of the correct size locally and I generally don't like to order anything online unless I have to.
I ordered the buckles and straps from Strapworks who has pretty good prices on buckles, really good prices on webbing (straps) and had a nice low shipping rate as well.  I highly reccomend you buy from them if you can't find what you want for whatever your project might be. They have several other things in their inventory as well.

Anyways... For this project you will need:
1 Ruff Wear (or other brand) dog pack with harness
4 Plastic buckles of correct size (for the XS pack I used 1/2" single-adjust buckles)
3 feet or more of strapping (I used 1/2" heavyweight polypropylene)
A couple feet of fabric (I wanted to use heavy-duty mesh but instead went with lightweight canvas)
Several yards of heavy-duty thread
A couple feet of hemming strip (bias tape, 1/2" extra wide doublefold)
A sewing machine and/or hand sewing needles
Lots of pins
Some velcro (optional)

Where's Conker?

In other news...

I changed the banner and made the blog layout slightly wider, and messed with the sidebar a bit.

Juneau is out of it

Juneau laid in my lap for a while and enjoyed some good scratches.

We got Juneau back. Her teeth are quite nice looking, very white and clean. She's a bit loopy though and kinda seems like she's somewhat drunk. We have to restrict her exercise for a bit and soak her kibbles for seven days to give the extraction spot time to heal. She also gets to take some drugs for a while. Pain killers and antibiotics, or something like that.
We had her chipped while at the vet as well.

Edit: Juneau is still quite out of it. She's been sleeping for most of the time she's been home, but I did get her to eat some mushy kibble mixed with a bit of The Honest Kitchen.  While playing with a tennis ball with Conker, Juneau perked up and watched for a bit then went back to sleep.

New Deck!

So I've finally got a way to easily get into my room from the outside. Mom's bf dude is a really good carpenter and he's been building a deckramp thing for the last couple days for the door to my room.

Ignore the trailer and ladder

Before I had some cinder blocks set up like steps but they kinda sucked. This is a lot better. It still needs to be painted but the construction is done.  Neatly enough, Conker can't fit through the bars so if I wanted to put him outside and keep him there, I can block off the ramp and hold my Shiba hostage on my new private entrance deck.


Anyways...
Today Juneau went in for her tooth extraction and cleaning at about 7:30 AM. The vet called not too long ago and said Juneau is doing fine and that we can pick her up at 4.

Sasha has been moping all day so I took her and Conker hiking. Sasha saw me grab her Approach pack and instantly knew we were going somewhere and perked up right away.

The hike wasn't too long today. I kinda cut it short by taking a trail I have never gone on before that slices through the middle of the Cathedral Hills system. It was still a lot of fun.

Haven't taken one of these in a while.

Conker wasn't as much of a dork as he usually is, mainly since Juneau wasn't around. He was still an ass to Sasha, just not as bad as he is with Juneau.

Sasha decided she wanted in on the fun.

The lack of Juneau resulted in something I hadn't really expected. It was a lot less, exciting, without her. When Juneau is around Conker is more wild, annoying, and since Juneau is a high energy dog, she is also going every direction at the same time as well. That didn't happen today. Both dogs were relatively mellow.

Sasha braving the strong winds.

Today is a strange day in regards to the weather. We don't often get a lot of wind but man is it blustery! It was so windy that I had to take my hat off and attach it to my belt or it'd have blown off my head.

Angry clouds and snow in the distance.

But that's not the only strange weather. Though our elevation is quite low, we are surrounded by mountains that reach several thousand feet in height rather quickly. Some of them have snow on them from the past few nights. It's supposed to snow some more for a while.

I ran out of stuff to write about.

The farthest Sasha ever got ahead. She was only about 75 feet away.

Oh yeah. Sasha didn't like to be too far ahead of me and preferred to keep me in sight. Funny, since Conker and Juneau will both take off and only come back when they realize that I'm no longer around or I call them. Though she doesn't quite listen 100% and will often ignore me to dine on horse crap or sniff some grass off the trail (and get ticks in the process), she is much better than Conker and Juneau when it comes to staying nearby.

Will update on the Juneau situation later.

Ruff Wear: Sqwash

One of the items I got in my package from Altrec is a Ruff Wear Sqwash.  Like usual, I got the older discounted type that comes in an orangeish yellow color instead of swirly purple berry goodness.

Older Sqwash looks like a squash.

I thought this toy would be a bit bigger than it actually is, but that works out good since Conker can easily grip it.  Like the other Ruff Wear toys, it's made out of a durable heavy rubber. It's hollow inside and the rubber isn't as thick as some other toys, so it is easier to squish.

Conker immediately claimed the Sqwash as his.

Conker began to play with it right away, then he settled down to chew on it. After a while Juneau got a hold of it and chewed as well, and while Ruff Wear says it's not a chew toy, so far neither of them have done any damage to it.

Juneau being harassed by Conker.

Juneau took to retrieving the Sqwash instantly. She loves it, almost more than a ball. The Sqwash, being lighter and thinner than some other Ruff Wear toys, can get some pretty neat air when it hits the ground, or shoot of at strange angles when it hits something. The dogs have to be paying attention when they play with it or they might lose sight.

Juneau patiently but excitedly waits for me to throw the Squash.

I decided to be stupid and took the Sqwash hiking on Dollar Hill (Mountain).  I figured I would only use it where the trail was flattish, but I did not do that. I began to toss the thing down the trail and watching the dogs chase after it as it ricocheted off the trees and down the hills was quite entertaining. Then, the inevitable happened.

It bounced down the hill, over the edge of the hill, and down into a ravine-thing that was about 250 feet deep. FFFFFF-CRAP! My brand new, $9 toy that I'd had for less than 4 hours was down there somewhere, and I'd have to go look for it, and it happened to be the exact same color as the leaves covering the ground.  I was not in a good mood.

I watched the dogs run around looking for it, and saw it in Conker's mouth a couple times, but being a Shiba he did not bring it back when I told him to. He bugged off and did other things more important than listening to me.
As I prepared to climb down into the ravine to find it...

Juneau returns.

I saw Juneau approaching, with the Sqwash in her mouth!  Good girl Juneau!  She got much praise, treats and loving for returning the toy to me, and while for a moment I wanted to chuck it back down there to see if she could do it again, I refrained from doing so.

Juneau brings the Sqwash back.

So, as a word of caution to you, DON'T PLAY WITH THIS NEAR BIGASS RAVINES!  It will inevitably end up at the bottom, and unless you have an obsessive retriever with you, you probably will not find it.

Overall, this is a very good toy. Lots of fun even if your dog (Conker) doesn't retrieve so well, since it gets their chase-and-catch instincts into gear with it's erratic bouncing.  Like Ruff Wear says, I wouldn't recommend it as a chew toy since it's not meant for that, but you can load it with treats or kibble and use it like a Kong if you want.

The Sqwash retails for around $12 on Ruff Wear's site and many other online retailers, but if you are like me, you can find it for cheaper if you look hard enough.

Coot

The other day I went Quail hunting. I found no Quail but stumbled upon a pond full of Coots. I knew what they were (and yes, I can legally shoot them) but they are known amongst duck hunters as a trash bird, "mud hen" and other nasty names since they supposedly don't taste good at all. However, I have also heard from other people that they do taste good, so I was a bit confused as to what the truth about these funky birds was.

I decided to shoot some. I bagged two. I only took two despite the high bag limit of 25 since I was unsure of what these things would taste like and didn't want to kill a bunch if they were nasty.

The two Coot I bagged

After shooting the Coots I realized that the rope I'd brought with me was about 10-15 feet too short. Crap. I had to go get them, there was no way I was going to leave something I killed in a pond.  So I took off my jacket, vest and valuables, left them on the side of the bank and waded in.  The water was freezing, probably something like 40 or colder since it was only about 45 at the Wildlife Area.  At one point the water came up to the middle of my chest but that was only for about three feet or so. After that it was only about knee deep.

I retrieved my Coots and went back to my things. I decided right then and there that I needed a gun dog if I were going to ever shoot a water bird again, unless it was plenty warm out and going for a dip actually sounded like a good idea.

I brought the Coots home and dressed them. During which, Conker and Juneau showed a LOT of interest. Conker wanted to eat it and tried to steal one of the coots. Juneau also tried to take them, but only got a mouthful of feathers.
I saved most of the insides for Conker and will freeze them for a while before I give them to him.

Coot legs and breast meat

The Coots weren't the most amazing smelling bird when opened up. But then again, this was the first time I've ever dressed one so I don't know what I would compare it to. However, they smelled fine after the meat had been chilled in the fridge for a while. Speaking of the meat, it's an odd, deep reddish purple color. Doesn't bother me though.
Later on I took them out and hacked them up a bit. I separated the breasts and legs from the rest and saved the frames for Conker.

I cooked up one of the legs and half a breast as a taste test. I tried it. It was good. Quite good, actually. I don't care what duck hunters say, they are wrong about this bird. If I had to describe it, I'd say Coot tastes something like a mixture of chicken and beef, only better.  It's a very strange taste but I like it enough to want to go out and get more Coots even if it ruins any chance of a reputation I could have with duck hunters.

I think I am going to train Juneau to be a gun dog.  I do not know how far I will get, she is terribly noise shy. But I've got a couple good resources on getting a noise shy dog to be habituated to the sound of gunfire and if I can do that, the rest will be cake. Juneau is already an amazing retriever.


Note: Any comments that bash me or hunting in any way whatsoever will be deleted. I will not tolerate that crap on my own blog. If you have a problem with it, write about it on yours, not mine. This is going to be a recurring subject now and if it bugs you that much, don't read it anymore.

Pack Fun

Not pack as in "wolf pack" (since, you know, that's a load of crap) but pack as in...

Reflective striping stands out due to flash

Pack!
I took all the dogs hiking today. There was an unusually large number of horses at Cathedral Hills so the dogs were on leash for about 75% of the hike. Conker and Sasha couldn't really care less about the horses but Juneau... I'd rather not see what she will do when she meets a horse off-leash. She shows way too much interest in them for me to attempt that.

That was some niiice horse crap!

Sasha was really good and was allowed off-leash in some places Juneau wasn't. Conker was pretty good most of the time and only ignored me on a couple occasions.

Bad pun: Conker shakes things up

But when all the dogs were allowed off-leash they minded me pretty well. Juneau is still getting better but continues to need a bit of work, she's progressing nicely though.  I hope to have her to the point where she'll listen when other people are around sometime soon.

Conker being quite boring.

I got several compliments on the dog packs. Normally they aren't noticed as much, since I usually only had one pack on a dog in the past. But since all three wore packs I guess they stuck out a lot more.

Sasha was usually at the back of the pack.

Conker is increasingly getting on my nerves when he and Juneau are off-leash. He gets up in her face and bites her, makes noise and is an ass, and I know she does not like it. Conker does not listen to me when I tell him to knock it off either. One of these days she's gonna snap.

Juneau did a lot of pulling.

One guy suggested I get a skateboard when the dogs were on-leash. I've thought about it, or maybe a mountain board or beefy scooter since dogs pulling bikes is somewhat freaky, fun but freaky.

Anyways, today was a lot of fun. Conker was really worn out, and Juneau and Sasha somehow got covered with mud.  Conker and I barely got any on us but the girls were soaked.

Outward Hound Urban Adventure DayPack

One of the items I received in the package sent to be my my Shiba Inu Forum secret Santa was a small pack.  I love packs (if you can't tell) so I was psyched to try the little green thing out.

The little pack is made by Outward Hound but I can't find any information on it on their site or much else on the web. Either way, it's a cute little thing and I liked it at first sight.
It weighs only 4.1 ounces (116 grams).

It's made out of water proof/resistant (haven't tested it yet) nylon fabric and is lined with what my guess is, is a waterproof lining of similar material.  There is mesh on the top and wrapped around the chest strap.

There is no padding on this pack but the mesh on the chest strap does protect against rubbing and ensures a more comfortable fit.  It has two points of adjustability.  Since the bags to not attach to the straps any lower, they do flop around and smack the dog's sides somewhat.

There is a small plastic D ring sewn onto the top.  I am a bit hesitant to use this as a leash attachment since it does not connect to the rest of the pack's straps very well.

Green camo accent matches my dog-shit bag dispenser.

The pockets are quire roomy for such a small pack, and each pocket has a smaller outer pouch.  The pockets are closed with velcro and have a small pull-tab on them for easier opening.  The small external pouch with the logo is also closed with velcro, but the other side is not.

Conker immediately knew what the pack was.  He is not fond of having anything put on him, but once it's on, he doesn't show any signs of giving a crap.  We tested the pack out by walking down to MPM and even threw in a couple brisk jogging sessions.  The pack was empty on the way there.
On the trip back Conker carried one small Zuke's Z-Bones in each pocket.  We walked, and jogged, back and the little pack did not shift one bit.  I was somewhat surprised since it has no connector between the two straps to help it stay in place, and also has no belly strap.
I decided it needed a better test run.  I took Conker hiking.

Conker sporting his Web Master II and DayPack.

I was first going to take off the Web Master II that Conker always wears on car rides but due to the presence of another dog and several people on the trail, I left it on.  I think this could have affected the stability of the pack in a small manner, but I have to do more tests to be sure.

Fuji is good at capturing motion blur.

Conker didn't notice the pack which was loaded with his Hydro Bowl and some crap bags.  It was slightly unbalanced but the pack did not shift.  I was starting to really like the little pack.  I encouraged Conker to give it a better test and told him to run, so he did.  The pack did not budge.  He rolled on the trail and scrambled through a bush and even then the pack stayed in place.

This little pack has thoroughly surprised me.  I figured it would slip and slide a bit or come loose but it did not.  It stayed in place and kept it's snug fit the entire hike.  I have taken it on a couple more hikes and it still has yet to totally slip around or do something strange.
I have actually been looking for a smaller pack for Conker since his Ruff Wear pack is a bit big for day hikes. This little pack fits the bill perfectly, and if you can find it, I recommend you buy one.  I cannot give a price since it was a gift and due to not being able to find many places to buy one online.

Note: This pack is made in China. If you aren't into that, don't buy it. Regardless, I still like it a lot.

Arizona Adventure: The White Tank Mountains, Part 1

I totally forgot about this until I started to try to find a place to hike with non-flat trails.

While in Arizona I took Conker to the white tank Mountains located on the far western side of Phoenix. It was a short drive from my grandparent's place and unfortunately, we only went once.  I would have liked to have gotten in more desert hiking but it just didn't happen.

 The trail we took (Ford Canyon and connectors) started out as an easy walk. It was flat, the trail was wide and there were relatively few people around. Conker had to stay leashed (park rules) or he's have been let off to roam the trail at his own pace.

Never complete without a Shiba butt photo or two

Conker didn't seem to notice that the plants on the sides of the trail were sharp. He stuck his nose into many, got stabbed, then stuck it right back in to take a second shot at it. He even tried to bite one. He is not very cactus savvy.

Speaking of cactus...

It has been some years since I'd seen a saguaro.  Like the other cacti, Conker got stabbed by this one too. I also happened to step on one of it's spines that had fallen to the ground (remember, I wear those thin-soled Vibram toe shoes).

So we continued down the nice trail. We didn't see too many animals but every now and then one of those desert jackrabbits would show up and Conker would go bonkers. He wanted to chase them really bad, so I guess it's a good thing he was on a leash.

Conker being adventurous

A small ravine popped up out of nowhere. Conker, being his usual fearless self walked right up to the edge and leaned over.

After the ravine the trail got more interesting. It stopped being flat and well groomed and turned into a jagged, rough and rocky trail. This is what I'd been looking for, something that made you pay attention to where you're going.

Grass!

We came around a large bend in the trail and found something somewhat unexpected. A large flat expanse of grass! It was pretty cool seeing the short grass in the desert, I had never really seen that before despite living there for 19 years.

Conker didn't much care though, so we kept going after I snapped a couple shots of the grass.

Interesting...

Eventually we came up to a sign. A set of signs... warning that the trail was hazardous up ahead. I was quite interested to now what "hazardous" meant, and if it was anything like the trails I'd normally hiked while living in Arizona.

Part 2