Today Conker Got...

The rest of my brown rice.  Goshdangit I wanted some of that.

I have been messing around with Conker's meals for the past week or so.  Punching ingredient values and numbers into spreadsheets and whatnot to try to find a better way of getting Conker the stuff he needs.  I feel that even though the prey-model diet is great, it's not 100% in terms of optimal nutrition and is greatly lacking in some things you don't get from meat-based objects.
Yes, I am not feeding only meat, bones and organs anymore.  I never was going to stick to just that anyways, but his meals are still mainly meat and the meat don't get cooked unless it smells like funky.


So!  What did Conker get today?

1/2 cup of overcooked brown rice
1 large egg
4 ounces of beef
2 ounces of canned fish
1-2 ounces of turkey neck (meat and bone)
1 ounce canned pumpkin
A dash of olive oil

And his regular supplements for joints and teeth, that kinda crap.


Something I have noticed, since adding grains to Conker's diet. 
Increased digestion.
That's right.  The grain meals, even those that include meat, digest better and come out smaller than the meat-only meals.  If I cook the grains right that is.  I tend to like my grains undercooked, so it's incredibly hard for me to cook them "just right" for most people, especially slightly overcooked like how Conker likes them.  It drives me nuts having to do that since I don't want to eat any leftovers from Conker's meals (isn't it usually the other way around?) and I don't like to freeze them.

Anywho, I need to go to Rays and get some more stuff, mainly rices and oats.  And some barley, I wanna make some beef n' barley soup for me.  I love that stuff, so delicious.

River Day!

Me, Mom and her friend Jill went down to the Rouge River today.  We brought the dogs... all five dogs.

Here we have Conker, Sasha and Juneau in the foreground and Lucky and Star in the background.  All the dogs got along great, with the exception of one minor scuffle between Juneau and Star.

I didn't bring any balls for Juneau so she had to settle for sticks.  Which was fine with her since she can chew on those.

Except when Sasha steals them.

Conker didn't do much, other than try to intercept the stick before Juneau got to it.  He was usually beaten to that by Sasha.

When not playing fetch Conker was the only dog out of the five who reliably listened to what I said.  Juneau was better than Sasha who were better than Lucky who was better than Star.  Figures, the Shiba is the best behaved of the bunch.

Ah, now I remember why I don't use sticks to fetch with anymore.  Sasha doesn't bring them back, just takes them.

Eventually Juneau'd had enough of Sasha's stupid and got after her. 

We were there for at least five hours.  Mom and Jill had a bottle of wine... three bottles of wine, and I broke my soda rule and had a Diet Coke.  It was really fun, especially when the Hellgate tour boats came down the river and sent huge waves crashing down on everybody.  The dogs all ran for cover when they noticed but sometimes they were caught off guard. The boat driver dudes were fun too, since they would come in real close then swerve quickly and make the waves even bigger than if they'd just stayed in the middle of the river.

Well, that's it for now.  I'm off to grill up some shark steaks for Younger-taller brother and I.

Pet Botanics: Omega Treats

Back when I lived in Missouri I bought these for Conker.  They are made by a company called Cardinal Pet, or something like that.  You can see the page for these treats here.  I don't know anything else about the company so I don't have much of an opinion on it.


Ingredients: salmon, sweet potatoes, cod, cane sugar, glycerin, salt, potassium sorbate, mixed tocopherols (vitamin e).

Simple, not too many, good ingredients for the most part.  Cane sugar isn't really needed but other than that, I can't find much wrong here.



Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude Protein...10% (min)
Crude Fat......3.0% (min)
Crude Fiber....1.0% (max)
Moisture......16.0% (max)
Omega 3*......0.15% (min)
Omega 6*......0.40% (min)

Pretty typical of this sort of treat.


The salmon variety sure smell strong when first opened.  The smell gets on everything too, so if you stash treats in your pocket like me you might want to put these in a small bag first.  They are able to be cut into smaller pieces, about 6 or so for training and smaller dogs.  They do get mushy when warm and stick to stuff so again put them in a bag if you stick them in your pocket.  They will dry out if they are left out though, so if you let them dry for a bit they won't stick anymore.

Conker really liked these.  These are what taught him how to wait and sit.  My biggest issue with these treats are that they are made in China.  Yes, I'm one of those people who tries to avoid stuff from China BUT they have limited, good ingredients and were loved by every dog I gave one to. 

Sasha's Progress

Sasha is down to 55 pounds!  She is looking very good now compared to when I moved back in.  She was at about 70 so she's dropped 15 pounds on her new diet!

Here are some "before" shots of Sasha.

Hardish to see but she has no waist in this shot.

Almost no tuck.

Still almost no waist, and this was a month into the diet.

And this is Sasha now!

Taken a couple weeks ago.

Taken a couple days ago.

It's somewhat hard in these photos but you can see Sasha's waist and can differentiate her chest from it.  When I first moved in she was a big thick log.  Not now, she's got a nice hourglass figure coming round.  She could stand to lose a couple more pounds to be at a completely ideal weight.  She's still got a bit much fat on her ribs and chest. 
It's funny, people who haven't come over in a while notice Sasha's weight loss.  I'm glad she's at a much heather weight now.  I'll have to try to get some better pictures of her.

Hydro Bowl

I was given a Hydro Bowl for Christmas last year.  I've used it quite a bit since then and find it to be a good thing to have when out and about with a dog.

It can hold up to 5 cups of water so it can be used with large dogs.  It folds up when not in use and is easy to carry around.  Since I wear cargo shorts often I can put it in a pocket if I don't have a pack with me.  It will also easily fit into any standard pocket on men's shorts and pants.
The bowl closes with a snap that can he hooked around a strap but I don't do this since I tend to rub against things and I don't want it to open and drop off my pack.  But the snap on mine is pretty strong so I don't think that would happen with normal use.

The bowl is made of thick plastic so you don't need to worry about it springing a leak if you set it on the ground.  It does tend to not want to stay open but since it's soft it can be molded in place.  The more water in it the better it stays up.
It dries quickly after the water is used or dumped out so you won't get water all over everything in your pack when you put it away.

So far mine has held up to being used like a fetch toy, a game of tug, being put into and taken out of a pack or pocket countless times and has yet to show any signs of wear.  It seems to be built pretty well for what it is and can be used for food as well as water.

Dollar Hill Hike

Haven't been to the Hill in a while and today was unusually cloudy so I grabbed Conker and went hiking.  The poison oak rash is just a mass of flaky itch now and doesn't bug me enough to prevent me from hiking anymore.
I am again out of shape and have decided I'm going to kick myself if I don't get out and hike or walk for at least five miles every day.

Anyways, we ran into something I haven't seen on Dollar hill before.  Mountain bikers!  The trail strikes me as immensely steep and gouged for that (very washed out in a lot of places) but these guys looked like they knew what they were doing.
The first one was on the rockstop just below the top of the hill.  Conker saw him first and went all beserk on him, standing stiffly and baying at him.  Since I didn't know he was up there Conker was unleashed but he didn't move after he saw the guy so I was able to get him and leash up as we passed.  The second biker passed us on the way down.  He was polite enough to announce his presence so I could grab Conker and step off the trail for him.  I've had a lot of bikers just blast by without a warning.  Conker didn't bark at this guy but wanted to chase him so I had to leash him for a couple minutes until he didn't want to chase anymore.

It was supposedly 84 degrees when we went hiking but the slight cloud cover and wind dropped it down enough that it wasn't too hot for either of us.  


Conker is turning out to be very reliable off-leash.  Sometimes he will stop to sniff and I'll keep going and he will catch right up again.  He is also learning to stop and look back to see where I am or wait for me to catch up.  I am also starting to feel more comfortable with letting him get out of sight since every time he has stopped and waited or come back to find me.  He hasn't run off after any of the critters we've seen and when there are people he barks instead of running.

Chuckit! High Bounce Ball

I finally got around to getting a non-tennis ball for Juneau to fetch.  I got two Chuckit balls for $7.99 at the Grange, not an excellent price but better than everywhere else I've seen.

They come in dark blue light blue, orange or a combo of colors.  I picked out dark blue. I wanted a dark and light blue and could have easily switched one of the light blues out of the light blue/orange pack but I don't like doing that so I just left it as is.

This thing is very simple, it's a ball.  Take it out of the package and throw it.  Or use it with a Chuckit like I did.  It does this to your dog.

Juneau thinks this new Chuckit ball is the best. ball. ever.

It's much heavier than a normal tennis ball and takes a bit more power to throw but goes much farther and bounces like a sonofagun.  I saw Juneau jump the highest I've ever seen today, nearly six feet in the air.  Unfortunately she didn't catch the ball and it bounced off her teeth another twenty feet or so.  I'm just glad it landed inside the dog park fence, not outside where the evil blackberry bushes are.

This ball does not float so don't use it around water.  It's hollow and has a hole through it, probably to make it bounce like mad.  So be careful around water if you are near it.  The orange or light blue ball you may be able to retrieve but the dark blue, good luck finding that in a river.

Price-wise it's okay.  It makes up for that with it's durability.  So far it's held up quite well to Juneau's chewing.  I'll update this if she ever destroys it.

EDIT:  I've had the Chuckit! High Bounce Balls for more than seven months and I have yet to see any wear on them.  Juneau knoshes down on them pretty hard but so far they have held up wonderfully.

Sasha's Teeth 2

Sasha's teeth look ever so slightly better.  It's been two weeks since I started the PlaqueOff and it may or may not be helping.  I brush the dog's teeth every couple days (should be every day but I'm a lazy person) and today they all got beef ribs to munch on.  That might have scraped some of the nasty off.


I've begun to go back to the dog park regularly now.  I can finally walk normally, the stupid poison oak rash is just an annoyance now.   Some of the dog park regulars were wondering where I went and if something had happened to me.  One of them was ready to drop a note off on my door asking why I hadn't shown up in a week and a half.

Zuke's Mini Bakes: Chicken N' Cherryz

I have been trying to find treats that Conker can eat that he won't react to, and since other products made by  Zuke's have worked in the past I decided to pick up a box of these.

These normally sell for $6.29 at my local pet store.  I haven't found them in big box stores.
Edit:  I have found these for $5.50 at a small feedstore but most other stores have them at the first price, so the price rating is not affected.

Ingredients:  Ground Oats, Rice Bran, Chicken, Cherries, Potatoes, Oat Fiber, Blackstrap Molasses, Oil Blend (sunflower, olive and canola), Natural Vegetable Flavors.

Guaranteed Analysis
Protein	not less than 12%
Fat	not less than 7%
Fiber	not more than 10%
Moisture	not more than 30%
Calories	Approximately 5 per piece

The ingredients are decent.  There aren't many common allergy grains but there is chicken, something Conker has reacted to in the past.  He also has issues with potatoes but the content is low enough that I figured I'd try them anyways. 
I gave Conker only one at first, then two.  He does fine with up to three treats a day but anymore and he begins to get loose poop.  So for reactive Shibas and dogs this particular flavor combo might not work out.  There are two other flavors of Mini Bakes to try.

Despite this these treats are still quite good. The ingredients are better than many treats, there are a lot of treats per box and they can easily be broken in half.  For similar kinds of treats these are a good price.  You get one pound per box.

Helping Koda Heal

One of the members of the Nihon Ken forum has a Kai Ken named Koda who went through surgery today.  His ordeal at the vets doesn't sound like it went all to well.  The surgery was fine but Koda freaked out afterwards.  You can read about him here:  Helping Koda Heal

I don't really know what else to say, other than I really hope Koda gets well fast with no further injuries, and that I would have a really tough time going through something like that.