Spring Cleaning

Not only has Conker blown his coat, but Juneau has as well. Who knew a Border Collie X Labrador Retriever could blow her coat? A lot of people seem surprised when they learn that Juneau sheds a little year-round and also explodes in the spring. Sasha just sheds year-round, nothing explosive about her.

I noticed some tufts beginning to form on Juneau's back end recently, and that is usually an indicator that her coat is ready to be stripped out. So I armed myself with my flea comb, zoom groom, slicker, and furbuster and set off to de-fluff Juneau's coat.
The flea comb works a lot like a stripping (carding?) blade. It grabs large hunks of loose undercoat and combs them out.
The furbuster does more of less the same thing, but does not work as well on hunks of fur like the flea comb does. It's better for a quick once-over after the flea comb has been used.
The zoom groom grabs both types of coat with it's rubbery tips. It also produces a LOT of dandruff, which gets trapped by thick udercoat and released when it's shed out. (With the Girls, anyways.)
The slicker I use during my twice weekly brushings and for cleanup. It grabs mainly undercoat but gets the overcoat as well and leaves the dog looking nice.

That was yesterday. Today was bath day.
I took all three dogs out into the back and set up my cleaning station. I loop a leash and slip chain on one of the fence posts and tether a dog in place. They can move around but not too much. I used dish soap on the dogs since this was a deep clean, but I usually either just rinse with water or a dash of vinegar (makes them smell nice), or use a mild soap.
The dogs were rinsed, rubbed, soaped, rubbed some more, and rinsed again to remove any remaining loose fur and dandruff. Then released to go shake and run and roll in the dirt. They always do that after I wash them...

Conker whined like a little bitch during his washing. He doesn't like the cold water (but will swim in a cold creek?) so he whines when he gets a hose bath rather than a warm shower. (Yes I take showers with Conker.) I know he's just bullshitting though, his bodylanguage doesn't indicate he's actually stressed or upset.


In other news...

We had a roast chicken last night. I saved the giblets and gave them to Conker today, along with an egg and some yogurt.

The Girls got some kibble with a bit of chicken liver, an egg, and some yogurt.

Don't it just look so fancy all mixed up? Yumm.

Some Dog Food

Here are a few pictures of food for the dogs.

Conker's food. Mince mix with some yogurt.

The Girl's food. Canyon Creek Ranch kibble with ground pork and yogurt.

Conker is not exactly pleased with the boots, but he tolerates them while being fed. I might try a short walk tonight or tomorrow.

Boots

Yesterday I received a box with some dog boots in it. They were lent to me by Lobo's owner (over here at The Buhund Blog) so I can walk Conker while his feet heal. They are blue Ruff Wear Grip Tex Bark N' Boots. They are a size small, which is a tad big for Conker, but they will work for now.

Today he wore the boots while being fed. I hope, through doing this, that he learns to accept the boots since they are paired up with food. That has worked for Conker in the past, and he seems to be mostly okay with the front ones, but doesn't really like them on his hind feet, especially the right hind.
I am going to continue to have him wear the booties when he gets fed for gradually longer periods, then take him for a short walk in a few days.

For those interested...

This is Conker's new mince. It consists of: Chicken Q's, ground pork, beef liver, canned oysters and clams, a whitefish (not sure what kind of whitefish), rice, oats, egg, yogurt, and his supplements.

He thought it was delish!

90!?

What happened? It was like, cold, a few days ago. And now it's 90 degrees? Spring, you need to make up your mind.

Conker wanted to hang out on the porch today.

He thinks 90 is too hot to do much other than relax right now.

In other news...

 I got a t-shirt in the mail today!

I also got something else that I'll post about later.

A not-walk

Where's the Shiba?

Right there.

Conker's pads have gotten worse. He wanted to go for a walk today, so I tried to plan a route that would use the smoothest pavement possible. My hope was that no further damage would happen to his pads. I went barefoot (as I usually do) so I could judge the harshness of the pavement. None of what we walked on was nasty, as some of it can be in this neighborhood.

Anyways, my plan didn't work. About 1/4 mile in Conker began to lag behind. This is very abnormal for him, he never does that. Usually he's forging ahead and testing the strength of his collar and leash. So I stop and check his pads. 

Yep, they are wearing off again.

Instead of turning around and going home, I put Conker on my shoulders and carried him the rest of the 1 3/4 mile walk. He wanted to go out dangit, he was going to finish the walk even if it meant him riding on my shoulders for the vast majority of it.

Only one car stopped to see if my dog was okay. The guy asked if I needed a ride. I was about 1/2 mile from home so I thanked him and declined his offer. One other driver talked to me, but he told me:

"You are supposed to walk them! Not carry them!" Before he blasted through a stop sign.

So, no more pavement walks for Conker. If he wants to go out, he gets carried until we find some grass. This is going to be so fun.

Out and about

Today Conker and I meandered downtown to get some chicory. I have not been successful in finding any wild chicory on my hikes (I've seen it before, last year, but not this year) so I had to get some from the herb shop instead.

Conker did alright when I left him outside the shop. He was not happy about it, but he did not bark or whine while I was inside.

It was warmer than I thought it would be today (yay!) so we stopped at a coffee shop to get a smoothie. Conker waited patiently for a lick of whipped cream.

He got to clean the cup out as well. He thought that was awesome.

While I was deciding what to get, some hobolady came up to us and started talking to me.

"Hey, that's a Dingo. Didn't you know? It's from Australia. It's a Dingo. You gotta watch out for aggression, 'cause it's a wild dog. It's a Dingo from Australia."

She also informed me that because Conker was shy, he was abused. Erm, no, that's not quite right either...

On the way home we found some hot pink trees. I had Conker pose under them.

We took a detour towards the petshop, and I accidentally said "Kitty." and send Conker into a hunting spree.

Conker, like usual, did not exactly enjoy being in the petshop, but he got a few treats from the employees so it was worth it.

And that's about the jist of what happens when Conker and I go out and about in GP.

Badassery

Today I got a package in the mail. It contained pure badassery.

 Sasha's has blue stones, Juneau's red. The Girl's collars also have clear reflectors. Conker's is just Badass.
The Girl's collars are 1.25" black leather with O rings instead of D's.
Conker's collar is 1.5" wide black leather with stainless O rings woven on and an O ring instead of a D.
All three of them are "working style" collars, meaning the D/O ring is on the end of the collar instead of the buckle. It's a stronger design than the traditional collar layout.

I also got a leash with snaps on both ends (instead of a handle) for Conker since I always clip his leash to a ring on my belt, and two normal leashes for the Girls. I am totally in love with their new leather gear!


EDIT

The Girl's collars reflect well! Perfect for black dogs on nighttime walks.

RMB Day

I haven't done one of these in a while (not since the Baby Beef that is) so last night I threw a couple packages of turkey into the fridge to thaw so the dogs could enjoy some meaty boney goodness.

This is what they got.
Conker: Turkey neck, heart, gizzard, and liver, beef meat, egg, supplements.
Juneau and Sasha: Turkey back slices, gizzard, liver, beef meat, egg, a few supplements. 

Tomorrow they will get their grain meal since today's meal was pretty big. I have not yet decided if it will be oats, rice, or both.

In other news...

The Yard Shark's domain has grown some camouflage.

Pads

Conker's pads are wearing off. We walked to the hardware store today (that is only about 1.5 miles away) and Conker was fine. But on the way home I noticed him limping very slightly in the front. One foot, then the other... Conker doesn't limp on his front feet, he limps on the right back foot.
So I stop to check his feet out. All the pads, mostly the toes, have small bits worn off!

The right hind foot has the least amount of wear. He does not put a whole lot of weight on that leg and takes maybe a 3/4 stride.

This is a bit puzzling since his pads were fine last night. The sidewalk and asphalt we walked on was normal, not overly harsh or nothin. And we didn't run, he wasn't pulling, and it wasn't hot.
I am thinking that even though we walk a lot at night, his pads are soft. They did get a bit damaged from the cold in Alaska (which I feel terrible about, and also happened to my hands and feet) and maybe they just finally couldn't hack it, or something.

So I am going to lay off on the pavement walks, stick to grass and whatnot, maybe get him some socks to wear if we do go out on the pavement. I'll probably increase his oysters slightly (for zinc) and apply some vitamin E to help the pads heal.


I saw this sort of thing often at the sleddog kennel. The pads began to wear like this before they got bad and wore or tore down to the flesh underneath. The dogs had vitamin E oil put on and were either rested or wore booties when they were run.

Mince Mix Batch 3

The mince is still a hit! I ran out yesterday so I made another batch today. I offered Conker a chunk of bone-in chicken to see if he'd take it, and like usual, he refused it. But he did like the turkey neck I tried next, so he got to eat that and some liver for today's meal. I am glad he'll still eat those, his teeth are not as pretty as they used to be. I offer him a turkey neck every few days instead of a mince meal for that reason. I do not want to have to get his teeth cleaned when he's older...

I started the mince by chopping up the two chicken quarters I used. I cannot smush the whole thing into my little grinder at once, but it handles 1/3rd of a quarter just fine. I also hacked the steak up into similarly sized pieces.

Once everything was minced, it got put into a large mixing bowl. In the bowl is: 2 chicken Q's, 1 flatiron steak (nice big steak!), 1 large hunk of beef liver, 1 each turkey gizzard and heart, a small handful of clams and oysters, and some canned fish. (Maybe 1/3rd a can?) The seafood does not need to be minced since it breaks apart very easily.

Meanwhile...

I had a pot of oats going while I was cutting and mincing the meaty items. I use more water than you would for regular "people" oats and cook it a bit longer as well. This is about 2 cups of cooked oats, very mushy and creamy. I put the oats into the water before heating since that makes them creamier (more broken up) and easier to digest. I heat the oaty water to a boil then reduce to a simmer with the lid on until they are thick and cooked well.

Once the oats are done cooking and cooled, I add them to the bowl. Everything is mixed thoroughly so that each meal has about the same amount of each item as the next. It doesn't really matter that much since the entire batch is balanced correctly, but Conker digests his food better if it's not haphazardly thrown together. It's not pretty if he gets too much liver or not enough bone...

Next I divide it all up into tupperwares. Each container holds two days worth of food. I do not add in the eggs or supplements until it is fed. If I put 10 eggs into the mix it would be very slurry and harder to store, so I add the eggs in later.

Conker gets roughly 3/4 pound of total food every day after all the extras are added, including snacks and treats. It varies depending on what the snacks are and how many, but in general, that is about how much he gets on a daily basis.
Which is quite a bit for a dog his size.

Purple Hill

I took the dogs to Dollar Hill today. It was very purple! These purple flowers are blooming EVERYWHERE, they took over the whole place. I didn't have the "good' camera with me but I'll try to go back again soon and take some better pictures.

Juneau stayed on-leash for about half of the climbing part of the hike. She still needs a ton of work on her leash (and trail) manners.

Conker's recall is getting lax. I need to work on that as well.

GP

The purple flowers.