Thunderstorms are fun!

Conker has always loved storms. I don't know exactly why, but they seem to energize him. The more wild and violent the storm is, the crazier Conker gets. This is way different than the typical dog reaction of fear when they hear thunder.
So what do we do when a storm is on the horizon, threatening to dump it's fury down upon us? We go out and play in it, of course!

Tug is one of Conker's favorite games. When combined with fetch, it is his favorite. I try to find toys that we are able to both tug and play fetch with effectively. This particular toy, around 6 feet of soft rope (formerly a horse lead), is very fun to use.

Here Conker plays with my younger sister.

Slavonic Tail Dance

I was bored.

Antonin Dvorak, Slavonic dance Op. 46, No. 1 - George Szell 1947

Crows in the Park

I took Conker on a short walk to and around the little park down the street from my house. There were crows scattered in the park, picking food and bugs out of the grass. The crows largely ignored us, until I told Conker...

"Get the CROWS!"

I drop the leash (and thus, since he was not "off", avoided breaking the law) and watch as he streaks towards the nearest crow, unaware that a Shiba is barreling down on it. Suddenly, right before he gets to the crow, Conker breaks off his pursuit and makes a tight circle around a large tree, then arcs out into the grass, leash trailing behind him.

Conker takes a few large passes then begins to spin... And makes a loud attempt at catching his own tail. Round and round he goes, snarling viciously, grabbing his tail, dropping it, running for a few yards, then jumping in tight circles once again.

I stood there, a bit confuzzled. Conker chose to chase his tail over catching (and killing) a crow, which I am sure he would have, since the bird hadn't flow off yet and didn't seem concerned about the insane dog running circles in the park a few yards off.

Oh the joys of owning a Shiba Inu.

M-15

Since nothing else of immediate interest is going on, here's a boring soundless video of Conker eating some turkey misc. For some reason Windows 7 thinks I don't need sound in my videos.

Yumm yumm. This is from a short while ago.

Anywho...

Juneau and Sasha found and rolled in some cat piss in the front yard today. So I take them into the backyard and wash them with some lovely smelling handmade lavender soap. As soon as the wash is over and I set her loose, Juneau takes off for the nearest patch of dirt and ROLLS IN THE DIRT. Then, she runs through the brush and COLLECTS A BUNCH OF LEAVES. Then, goes and JUMPS INTO THE POOL. And does it ALL. OVER. AGAIN.
WTF dog...
At least she had fun whole she was doing it.

Down

A funny thing has happened quite a number of times in the past. I will call Conker, he will ignore me, so I call him again. When he looks at me, I will say "Conker, Here!" And point to the ground beside me, like an angry parent does with a disobeying child. I expect him to come to me promptly, and to the side that I am pointing at.

He lays down.

Other times he will he trotting over, and he may look at something or slow to a walk, so I will call him again to be sure he comes over. "Conker, Here!" And point to the ground by my side.

He lays down.

I get annoyed, because he just laid down instead of coming over. I told him to come, not lay down. What part of "Conker, Here!" Sounds like "Conker, Down."?
Then it hits me. I told him to come, but right after, I told him to lay down. By pointing at the ground.

Duh.

The picky monster strikes again

I have mentioned a couple times how Conker has slowly grown picky over the months. Well, it's turned into a full-blown picky epidemic with him. What he wants one second, he want's nothing to do with the next. What is food today is refused tomorrow. Only half (if that) of meals are eaten, or outright refused. It's getting quite obnoxious.
Actually, this has been going on since April of last year. Conker decided to boycott his liver for a while.This happened on and off for the next few months, then disappeared for a good while. The pickyness returned full force about three months ago when Conker began refusing things like turkey, which he's previously gone head-over-heels for.

Conker's always been a lean dog. I have not been able to get much fat on him, ever, no matter how hard I tried. I normally wouldn't have a problem with his leanness, I actually prefer dogs that way, if it weren't for the obnoxious fact that since his refusals of enough meals in the past two weeks, he's lost half a pound of weight. Which, for me, is something like 10 pounds.
Oddly enough, he is showing no signs of anything out of the ordinary. Still annoying, hyper, pesters Juneau, chews on writing utensils, wants to play every waking minute, barks at everything... Still normal Conker. Except for the not eating thing.

As of today, he will eat chicken backs, canned fish, roasted chicken, eggs, and occasionally oatmeal. Or whatever I happen to be eating, no matter how bad it might be for him. (wheat). Sometimes. He might not want the chicken back, but will eat ground meat instead. Or will eat a full bowl of oatmeal, but want nothing whatsiever the next day. Unless it happens to be on my plate.
What I find most curious about this is, his appetite has not gone anywhere, it's just really out of whack. He wants food, my food, the Girl's food, just not his food. Even if it was previously mine and is now his. As soon as it's given to him, he no longer wants it. I do not understand what he is doing at all.

I have tried tough luck (a week straight without eating what's offered is alarming) toppers, mixers, feeding him bits off my plate, letting him eat in the kitchen, all sorts of things. Nothing really works.


I am going to attempt a few things I have not tried before. Hopefully one of them will work. If not? It's off to the vet for him, which I'd rather not do. Since I am not made of money, and testing for unknown conditions tens to be expensive.

Observations

I've noticed that whenever Conker eats a commercial food for longer than two weeks, he gets a bit mushy, then loses weight. The first thing to go is his muscle tone, so I guess that's why he seems a bit squish. Then the squish begins to go away and he has a hard time keeping weight on.
Normally Conker would be getting about 1.5 cups of kibble for maintenance, according to several sources. However, 1.5 cups for maintenance is not enough, so I upped it to two. Still not as good, slightly better, but he still can't quite keep the good weight on. Or eat it all.

I wonder if this is because on his homemade diet he gets around 850 calories a day (both grain and meat meals), compared to an average of 410 (per 1 cup) on kibbles. Or is it that because of the energy ratios? (Or better yet, is it because one is fresh and the other highly processed? But I'll leave this discussion out for now.) I have noticed that the more carbs there are in the food, the worse Conker's condition gets. But if I eliminate carbs completely, he can't keep good weight on either, so carbs are necessary for him, but in what amount?
Conker's homemade diet is roughly 35% protien, 50% fat, and 15% carbs. That seems to work out great for him. Kibbles tend to be higher in carbs, and I wonder if it's that, or the lower caloric content to nutrient content level.

However, when I bump up his kibble ration, he is still in a somewhat mushy condition and in order to match the calories, I'd be overdosing him on almost all nutrients, sometimes up to double his daily needs. Kibble is very nutrient dense, not not energy dense, when compared to his homemade food.
But when I feed him more than a cup and a half, he often won't finish it all, so I've got to split it into two meals. No biggie, since I do that already with his homemade food, but even then he often doesn't want to finish it so he stays in a less-than-ideal condition.


Another thing is that Conker is growing more and more intolerant of other dogs. Usually rude or larger dogs, and it's becoming quite obnoxious. I guess he is maturing into a "true" Shiba now, and his dog-park time will be cut because of it. If he cannot get along with the other dogs, he's not gonna go. But if they are relatively the same size (give or take a few pounds) or polite dogs, he gets along with them fine.

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.

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.

Juneau remodels the garden.

Juneau thought that the garden's current state was in need of some repair, so she took it upon herself to remedy it.  She enlisted the help of Conker and occasionally Sasha, and together they fixed the garden into what they believe is a better state than before.

Juneau added a drainage ditch to the front wall as well as some steps and a slope to make it easier to get into the tomato plants.  She removed some of the tomato vines for better access to the new "den" created by the cleared out tomato plants.

Juneau is still not satisfied with her work and slips out every now and then to add an additional touch here and there to the remodel.


So, you might be wondering WHY Juneau decided to tear up the tomato plants and collapse two and a half feet of the garden wall.  Well, it's simple really.  There was a rat.  That happened to be stupid enough to make it's nest under the garden wall.  I've known about the rat for some time but had never seen it and thought the nest was abandoned, until today when Juneau chased it in and out then back into the tomato plants and it's now demolished nest. 
Mom wasn't too pleased with Juneau's work at first but when she learned that the reason behind this was a rat, she encouraged Juneau to finish the job.

She hasn't caught it.  Yet.

Conker Escapes

I thought I posted this already but I guess I didn't.

I have since remedied the problem with a thick piece of military webbing.

Conker no longer escapes.

Leaves?

All three dogs were just out int he back eating leaves.  Not grass, leaves. Crunchy dead brown leaves.  I don't even know what that's supposed to mean, eating leaves.  Never really heard of it before. Grass yes, there are several theories on that but leaves?  Whatever.

Conker's new habit

First, a picture of Sasha.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Dog Door

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

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


In other news...


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


In other other news...

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

The TABLE has been Conker'd

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

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

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


In other news...

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

Today kinda sucked.

 Today as a whole was lame.  It began with a fight at the dog park (between Hank and his brother Rudy, several fights actually), tons of rain, a fight between Conker and Hank right before Hank's owner gave us a ride home (due to intense rain) and a fight between Conker and Juneau with absolutely NO provocation from Juneau for NO REASON.  He put two holes in her ear while she just stood there and took it... Yeah, super lame.


Okay so, just now Conker tried to steal some of my food.  No big deal, dogs do that, they're dogs.  But this time it was different.
I always put my dishes either on the computer beside me (about 1.5 feet high, the 'puter is on the ground) or on the ground right in front of it.  Dishes are only there for a short period of time, and I only do that so my desk won't be taken up by them since it's very small.  They are almost always completely empty since I lick them clean.

Anyways, what happened?  I was petting Juneau and had put my lasagna on the floor.  Conker growls at Juneau, then dashes to eat my lasagna, I get ticked and pick him up, he gets ticked and tries to attack Juneau and I... Not cool.
I didn't like the way he tried to eat my food.  He did it fast, and with the intent of eating it all right then and there.  He didn't and only got in a lick or two, but he should know better.  I've tried hard to train him to leave people food alone but recently he's been lapsing in that department.

Yes, it was my fault for putting the lasagna on the floor, but I didn't know he would think it was his and then try to eat it and defend.  Today just sucked, and I hope tomorrow is better.
(Probably won't be since it's supposed to rain.. again.)

Shibite.

What do you think is going on ins this picture?  Is Conker biting my hand?  Yes.  Is he doing it aggressively?  No.  Am I grabbing his mouth?  Yes.  Is it a form of punishment?  No.  Both of us are playing.
I roughhouse with my dog to the point where it looks like both of us is going to kill the other but a simple "that's enough" stops the game if I feel Conker is going at it with a bit too much teeth.  If if don't do this every morning he'll sit near my bed and chirp at me until I do.  He'll even chirp if I kick him out of my room.
It's the most annoying sound I've ever heard.

Dog Fights

Are so much fun.  Up until today none of the fights Conker's gotten into have been noteworthy.  I'm surprised the fight was with Sasha instead of Juneau, those two are the norm for scrapping partners.  Anyways, Conker was playing fetch with his penguin toy when Sasha got in his way and he DID NOT like that.  So he jumped up in her face and got all noisy at her. She didn't like that either ans was all OH YEAH?  I BITE YOUR FREAKING EAR!  So she did, and Conker yelped, and continued going after Sasha who was by then standing over him and biting at his face...
I casually yelled at the dogs to stop.  My mouth was full of fresh fried rice and I didn't want to spew it everywhere and I knew the fight wasn't bad so I waited until the fried rice was safely down my throat before telling them quite loudly to knock it off.  They did, though Conker got all snarky at Sasha as he walked over to me to mooch some of my fried rice.

My general rule is: you don't need to stop it right away unless someone starts yelping. And since Conker yelped, I stopped it.  After swallowing my fried rice.  I don't have a problem with the dogs duking it out every now and then, heck, if Conker gets his butt handed to him enough times maybe he'll stop butt-checking Sasha. OR if Juneau gets owned maybe she'll quit being the fun-police.


So I gave each of the dogs a once-over starting with Sasha.  Nothing but spit on her so I went to Conker.

Oops.  He got his ear pierced.  Blood smeared on other parts of his ear and head but that's the only definite wound I could find.  He also rubbed some on his foot then shook his head and sent it flying onto the TV.

I highly doubt he learned anything from this since he tried to start it up again a minute later.  Because of these kind of things I tell everyone that if you're going to be gone for more than an hour, put Conker in my room and close the door.

The bed has been Conker'd!

Yeah, that was uber cheesy.

 Fred and I are avid Goodwillers.  We scour thrift stores for all kinds of useless goods and ocasionally, we stumble upon something useful. 

Conker did not agree.  (Only cost me $12!)

However, he has FINALLY figured out how to jump onto the bed all by himself.  I was dreading the day this would happen since he has a habit of licking the sheets until they are soping wet.  Sometimes, if he is good he doesn't have to sleep in the crate in the closet.  If he's bad, or if we don't want to share the bed, into the crate he goes.  If he's really bad, the door gets closed until it's open about 8 inches or so.  He's usually better after that.