Last hike at Cathedral Hills

Today Conker and I went on our last hike at Cathedral Hills. We took along my two youngest siblings.

 Conker and my youngest brother rode in the back, and made dumb boy faces.

 My siblings and Conker explored a lot of old logs and trees.

My sister kept climbing into trees and I took pictures of her (attempting to get a good one for her Senior picture) so Conker did his own thing most of the time.

Occasionally he'd come visit us when we made enough noise.

The hike was a lot of fun. My sister wants to start hiking regularly now, and since I allowed him to climb the trees my brother had more fun than he thought he would.

Next update will be from Alaska!

Travel day looms near

I gave almost all of my meat away today. It's kinda sad, I have no more meat for my dogs (sparing some treats I'd made and a couple meals for the Girls) and thus feeding the dogs has suddenly become really boring. But those people I gave the meat to looked like they really could have used some free meat, so it's all good. (Everything they got was human-grade stuff.)

Conker still hates the crate, I don't think he'll ever actually like it.

I am just about packed for Alaska and only have a few things left to do. The freezer is defrosting, the trailer is almost cleaned out (needs a good vacuuming), I cleaned my stuff out of Leo (my Jeep), and I am just about packed. Only a few odd things left to do here and there.

Oh, I found something out recently.
If you are a regular reader of this blog, you might know about something Conker creates I call Deathfarts. Well, I have found a culprit! Raw lamb. I have been adding lamb to his food for the past few days and the Deathfarts have been about overwhelming. When I remove the lamb, the Deathfarts go away. So, no more raw lamb for Conker.

Anyways, I am excited to go to Alaska, but not looking forwards to traveling. I really hate airports, they ruin the fun of flying (if there aren't a million people in the plane) and stress the crap out of me. The fact that I'm going to have a dog, my dog, with me on this trip is even worse. I already stress enough about him, so this should be oh so interesting.


I'm probably not going to have internet access (actually I will, but I most likely won't be blogging) for a short while after I get to Alaska, so the blog won't update for a little bit after Thursday.

It's Monday!

Nothing special really.

Today I gave the Girls some raw turkey yumms, since I am attempting to clear out my freezer before I leave.

Necks, gizzards, hearts, livers, and some pork meat. I took this hasty picture then promptly smashed the everloving shit out of those necks.

Then I took Conker to the vet to get a health certificate so he can fly.

He was NOT happy to be there. He was weighed (25.3 pounds! The heaviest he's ever been.) and examined. I also picked up some Frontline since the racing kennel is concerned about me bringing fleas up on Conker, so I got the preventive just to be sure. The vet also advised me to give him a really good and soapy bath before I put on the Frontline. But I really doubt there are any fleas, I've been flea-combing him every day since I landed this gig and haven't found any yet.
He's already been wormed with Panacur and got a heartworm pill today so he's good on those too.

Then, we walked home (since we walked there) and I fed Conker some Honest Kitchen (not sure what it was, I think Keen and Verve) with some random assortment of ground meats, which he loved.

I've been feeding him in this plastic kennel so he'll get used to being in one, but of course he hates it and if I close the door he starts to bitch about it. And instead of standing normally like any other dog, he curls himself up in the doorway so he's in the least amount of the kennel as possible.
He's such a dork.

Chicken, it's eeevil

Conker has decided that most chicken is EVIL. I don't know why, but for many months now he just will not eat bone-in chicken happily, or at all in most cases. So I have decided to only feed him chicken that is both bone-free and skin-free, since chicken skin is eeevil too. Flat yellow things are eeevil as well. Strange dog.
Oh, he also isn't very fond of the crate. Which he needs to get used to, because the both of us are going to Alaska.

Yep, Conker and I are going to Alaska. Soon. On Thursday.

WHY, you might be wondering, are Conker and I going to Alaska, of all places, right before winter? Well, I got a job as a dog handler for a sprint racing kennel. That's right! A sprint racing kennel! How random is that?

Best search term so far

So what IS Losech? I'll leave that up to you to decide.

Broth puck treats

I made some strange treats for the dogs the other week. I made some beef bone broth with a couple ribs in the slow cooker (overnight), then added a bit of ground beef to the rib meat and pulverized it all in the cuisinart. I poured the meaty broth mixture into cupcake pans then stuck them into the freezer. I made enough for two dozen 1 inch thick pucks. The dogs think they are great!

Look at how leggy my Shiba is.

Conker, like usual, takes the longest, and Sasha the shortest, to eat their pucks. The pucks are good since they offer some resistance so they do aid in cleaning the teeth, but they are soft enough that the dogs can easily break them up. (No broken teeth!) They don't have a ton of calories either so I can feed them often without the dogs getting fat.


In other news...

I am taking care of the neighbor's dogs again. Indie is still as handsome as ever.

Those joints

As you may or may not know, Conker has Luxating Patella. I've known about it since he was about 8 months old or so, and I have tried a couple joint things and was generally pleased with them.
Well, the joint slippage has been just an occasional thing for a while, but when I started testing out various kibbles I stopped giving Conker "therapeutic" doses of fish oil (sometimes completely cutting it out) and instead just giving a "maintenance" dose, and I cut any joint things I was giving him at the time as well. With the exception of when he was being stupid about food, Conker has remained a pretty active dog.
So, what's the purpose of this writing?
I have noticed an increase in Conker's knee slippage, especially the right knee. It's bugging me with how frequently they slip, and how they don't go back in right away on their own. I have also noticed him biting at his knees, usually after one of them has slipped. I'm not exactly glad to see this, and I asked around about it, so I am going to restart the joint supplements and increase his fish oil. I will also be doing a few back leg strengthening exercise things to build the muscles up a bit more.

A trend I have noticed is that when Conker is on lower protein foods, he loses muscle mass and gains fat. So, I will either cut out all lower protein (below 30%) foods from the trials or mix meats and eggs into them to boost the protein. I am less concerned about how Conker does on the food (without mixins) and more concerned about his joint health, so I will be "sacrificing" some results because of that.
Which is a bit funny, since I'd feed the food with mixins if he were on it long-term anyways so... Yeah.

Like usual, nothing of interest is going on

So I have a video of Conker derping around in the yard for you to enjoy.

We do this 2 or 3 or 5 or 20 times a day, depending on what else we might have done/will be doing that day.

Money spent in September

August's total is over here.

I once again misplaced my list of stuff I bought (it's on the computer, you'd think I can't lose something on the computer but yes, it's possible) but I've got a pretty good idea of what I spent this month.


September 2012

• Food: $84.60
• Vet/Medical: $10
• Treats/Chews: $2.50
• Etc.: $50

Total: $147.10


So... Here goes the breakdown.

Food.
I bought several things, most of which were completely unexpected. I got a bag of EVO Red Meat for cheaper than normal, a can of EVO Beef, some trials (Taste of the Wild Southwest Canyon and some Canidae canned fish thing), and some samples of various things like The Honest Kitchen stuff, Zuke's, and Fromm.
I also got some ground beef, beef ribs (Which Sasha broke another tooth on, so no more beef ribs for the dogs), some turkey misc, and a lamb neck.

Vet/Medical.
Conker hasn't been "properly" wormed since I got him, if you don't count heartworm meds, and I wanted to do that just to be sure he wasn't carrying anything that Heartguard doesn't kill.

Treats/Chews.
Conker got a small bully stick for passing the CGC and some treats from the Farmer's Market.

Etc.
I bought a freezer, and a timer thing for it.