His name is Indie

Unfortunately, he is not mine.

And he makes funny faces while scratching.

Indie is my neighbor's new Siberian Husky Puppy.  He was born on the fourth of July, and is named Independence, or Indie for short.  He is the most chill puppy I have ever met.  I ran into his owners, and Pepper, on a walk and while Pepper was whining and snorting like normal, Indie just lay on the grass and watched Conker make nasty faces at him.  He didn't even care, that's how chill he is.

I am currently watching Indie (at the neighbor's house) and man, I love puppy fluff!  Indie is so soft and squishy, I love holding him and thankfully he doesn't object.  He likes to follow people around and isn't shy at all.  Funny thing too.  He's something between 9-10 weeks old and is as big as Conker was when I got him, and Conker was four months old!
His owners are kinda wondering how big he'll be, since his father was supposedly 70 pounds?  Too big for a Husky according to the standard.  But they met another Husky on a walk who barely tops out at 30 so who knows, but I have a feeling that Indie will be on the larger side rather than smaller.

CGC Training: Week 3

So!  Today's class went well.  We did the 3 minute separation thing, some distractions and brushed up on anything the trainers noticed we were lagging at.

Sasha, as usual, did great again.  One of the trainers, during the meet thing said to me:  "I really like this dog, I really do."   That made me feel better about Sasha's less-than-perfect downstay which she'll break at random times. She's getting better but still needs some work. 
She is pretty good with other dogs walking by, even sniffing at her.  There was a playfight between to dogs beside us and she ignored them the whole time.
So as long as you don't go waving a steak in her face she's great with distractions.  In a class setting that is, I still need to take her out a bit more and work on real-world distractions.
Sasha has also almost gotten heel down.  She will still stray or stop to sniff things but she's at about 80% right now, and that's very good.


I still would have liked to have done this with Conker instead but I know the friendly stranger and supervised separations parts are what would really get him. Unless it's a calm, quiet woman he don't want nothing to do with them.  And even then it normally includes touching, which is also required.  In the separation part I know he'd flat-out fail, and I don't want to stress him with that sort of stuff right now.
I'm hoping that I can find an actual class for this to take with him, one where there are less dogs so the trainers can focus on the problems of each dog instead of just go with a general survey of everybody.  I'd be even better if the class were for shy or fearful dogs, but I still haven't found one yet.

More Boredom

You know those long stretches where there's nothing interesting to do?  Yeah, I'm in one of those right now.  I've watched all the good documentaries on Netflix, I'm not interested in moves or TV shows, it's too hot during the day to do anything fun outside... Boring.
So here's a picture of a wet Conker on a log.

One thing I don't quite get is B Vitamins.  Most notably, niacin, B6 and B12.  Why in the crapping crap are there so many of those in meat?  And what is the safe upper limit?  I cannot feed Conker 4 ounces of pork without there being two times as much B's in it than he needs, and for the grain meals, there's about a level amount so he's still getting twice as much as he should. 
However, there almost always isn't enough of some other B's, like thiamin and especially riboflavin.  There's a lot of riboflavin in kidney but there's also a lot of the other B's I don't need more of.

I am wondering if the NRC numbers are wrong, or if it's safe to feed up to three times as needed of some B Vitamins without a problem, all the friggin time.  Some of them are linked to other nutrients, so that comes into play too.  My concern right now is niacin, since it can be toxic in large doses.  Same with B6 but less so than niacin.  And while Conker isn't getting immense amounts of these B's, he's still getting a hella lot more than the minimal amount and I'm not sure if they will affect him over time, or if it's only bigass single-dose numbers I need to worry about.

I really really want that 2006 NRC nutrition book for dogs and cats but I can't afford to buy a $270+ book with money I don't have. 

The Honest Kitchen: Keen Taste Test

I mentioned yesterday that I'd gotten a couple free samples of The Honest Kitchen food to try.  I wrote about the Preference already so today is about Keen.

Keen has blue packaging

Lets get right to the point on this one.

Ingredients: 
Cage-free turkey, organic oats, potatoes, organic flax, carrots, cabbage, alfalfa, organic kelp, apples, honey, garlic, rosemary, tricalcium phosphate, choline chloride, zinc amino acid chelate, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, potassium iodide, potassium chloride, iron amino acid chelate, copper amino acid chelate.

Guaranteed Analysis:
Protein, 21% min
Fat, 14.5% min
Fiber, 4.5% max
Moisture, 8.5% max
Calcium, 1.8% min 1.90% max
Phosphorus, 0.8% min 1.00% max
Sodium, 0.18% min 0.2% max
Magnesium, 0.15%min 0.17% max
Calories per cup, 470
Calories per kg, 4140

Already the ingredients look better than Preference.
Turkey, oats, potatoes, flax, carrots and cabbage as the top five.  I kinda question the use of so much flax but the others look okay.  Again that odd alfalfa is in this food but some of the other varieties don't have it.

This and the other varieties (other than Preference) are formulated to AAFCO numbers so it's okay to feed as the sole diet, I guess.
What appealed most to me about Keen was the price.  It's the least expensive of the varieties and while it does contains potatoes, which I am still on the fence about, it looked okay enough for a taste test.  I'm glad I was given two bags of this since I used the first one as lunch on our backpacking trip.

Keen is very powdery with small chunks.

That taste test went awesome. Conker got really exited when I opened the bag and poured the powder into his bowl, added some water then let it hydrate.  He kept wanting to eat it right away and when I finally allowed him, the bowl was completely spotless when he was done.

Keen looks like tan mush when hydrated

The second reaction to the Keen being prepared was similar, but he was more excited than before.  He whined quite loudly, savaged the Girls' faces when they got too close and patrolled the walkway before the kitchen as the food sat hydrating on the counter.
When I finally let him have the food he performed a perfect sit without being asked and waited, quite impatiently but still nicely, for me to give him the food.

This was the real test for Mister suddenly-so-picky, and this is how it went.

I did let him try a few spoonfuls first, all of which he slurped up in no time at all.  I then added an egg since I knew he liked the food and wanted to round it out a bit.

I like the Keen much more than the Preference.  I hope to be able to get some soon to give it a real try, but the closest store that carries it is 60 miles (as the crow flies) away from me.  The Honest kitchen does sell stuff on their site but I'm not a fan of online purchasing, or shipping costs.

The Honest Kicthen: Prefrence Taste Test

This is not an actual review since I have not fed this food for longer than a day.


The Honest Kitchen looked appealing to me since it was made with ingredients Conker can handle and is easily brought along on hiking trips due to it's low weight.  The food is "lightly dehydrated" and on the food's site, is claimed to be raw but the dehydration process of the meat brings the temperature up to 165 degrees Fahrenheit which in my book, counts as cooking. 
I shot an e-mail off to The Honest Kitchen requesting a couple samples and they were more than happy to oblige.  I received two bags of Keen and one bag of Preference, each with about 1 ounce of the food inside.  I also got some paper handouts talking about their food and the process of dehydration.
(They were incredibly nice and first sent only the Keen, the the Preference a couple days later, and finally a hand-written letter thanking me for my interest in their company along with a $3.00 off coupon.)

Lets start with the Preference, since this was the one I was pretty interested in initially.
According to the website:  "Preference is suggested for use with added raw meat, meaty bones or cooked meat of your preference (never cooked bones), as a base for a home made diet."  Meaning that you HAVE to add meat to this food to have it be of any use.
The site also states:  "...Preference is intended for supplemental feeding only, and has not been developed to meet AAFCO nutrient profiles or provide a complete and balanced diet when fed alone..."  So if you feed just Preference and use say, only one meat source like chicken, then you'll seriously be lacking in many things like copper and zinc amongst others. If you were to only feed Preference then I suggest you really get a variety going and use like, five or more meats but I don't recommend that.

Preference has yellow packaging.

Ingredients: Alfalfa, sweet potatoes, cabbage, celery, apples, spinach, organic kelp, coconut, bananas, zucchini, honey, tricalcium phosphate, choline chloride, zinc amino acid chelate, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, potassium iodide, potassium chloride, iron amino acid chelate, copper amino acid chelate.

Guaranteed Analysis:
Protein, min 12%
Fat, min 5%
Fiber, max 10%
Moisture, max 8%
Calcium, min 1.51%  max 1.60%
Phosphorus,  min .64%  max .68%
Sodium,  .min 62% max .66%
Magnesium, min .20% max .26%
Calories per cup, 398
Calories per kg, 3510

Up until I'd received the Preference sample, I'd never really actually looked at the ingredients.   I'd scanned them over for things Conker was reactive to and decided that since it had none, it was one of the possible test choices.  Plus I liked the idea of adding whatever meats I wanted to the food.
So lets actually look at these ingredients.  First one is alfalfa.  Wait, alfalfa? In dog food?  Yep.  Second is sweet potatoes, a common ingredient in grain free dog foods.  Next up is cabbage then celery, both veggies that I've never considered adding to Conker's diet.  Apples and spinach, maybe, and the rest aren't really that important since they're numbers are so low. 

With the addition of a meat source, the ingredients still look out of whack.  Most grain free dog foods have at least two or three meat sources, and a lot of them are before the carbs.  I don't even know what alfalfa is, except that it belongs in rabbit food.



Remember that Preference is NOT supposed to be used as the only food, it's for occasional feeding.  Even then it doesn't look that good on paper, so lets go with the taste test to see how it fares.

When opened and poured into a bowl (1 once is a little less than half a cup) it looks like some sort of herb seasoning.  It's very green and smells like... herbs.  It had longish pieces of what I was guessing were the alfalfa and seemed to resemble some sort of loose rabbit feed.  I re-hydrateed it and added in some pork and turkey, about a cup of meat, and gave it to Conker.

Terrible picture, but you can see still see the "rabbit feed"

He sniffed it, picked at a piece of pork then left.  Keep in mind that Conker is in a picky state right now and has turned down even his most favorite foods, so this reaction was kinda expected.  But I didn't think he wouldn't even try it.  He always at least tries the food then decided to leave it, so this Preference stuff must really not appeal to Conker at all.

I didn't want to waste the food and was hoping that by starving Conker for a day he'd reconsider his intital thought of the Preference so I packaged it up, stuck it in the fridge and ignored Conker for a day.

Pulled it out the following early afternoon.  Conker looked somewhat excited at the sight of his bowl but that instantly vanished when he realized that the stuff from yesterday was still in it.  He again picked at the meat, ate a couple pieces but nosed all the Preference off and didn't seem to enjoy the greenish tinted meat.
I didn't want Conker to only eat the meat so I divided the rest of the meal in half and gave one portion to Juneau and one to Sasha.  Sasha, like usual, scarfed the food down.  Juneau nosed it around, picked at the meat, took her time deciding if it was good or not but did eat her full share.  She wasn't too thrilled about the green stuff though.


So when it comes down to it, Preference was not a hit in this house.  I might try it again later but I doubt the dogs will change their opinions.

Congee!

I had to post this now because it's exciting!  I got Conker to eat some rice congee (first time ever making it) and he kept whining for more.  I guess in order to get him to eat rice I've got to really overcook it and add in some chicken flavor.  Now to get him to eat it as a complete meal...

Premier Busy Buddy: Twist N' Treat

When Conker was younger I got him this treat dispensing toy made by Premier.  It's in the Busy Buddy line and the toy itself is a Twist N' Treat.

I got Conker the puppy model in size small or medium, I can't remember right now which one it is.

Basically this toy has two pieces.  You unscrew it, fill it with treats or kibble, screw it back together then give to your dog.  You can adjust the difficulty by leaving it more or less open (there are two notches on the sides for the treats to fall through) and the smaller the holes the more the dog has to work to get the stuff out.

Here is a video of Conker playing with the toy:

He is kinda dumb in the video since it had been a long while since the last time he'd played with this toy.  I also used treats that were a bit too big and were hard to get out.  But he seemed to remember the jist of how it worked, though this was the first time I'd seen him use his paws to work the toy.

Anyways, when he was done with it Conker really wanted me to put more treats in so he could play again.  I'd forgotten how much he used to love this toy when he was younger.  He liked it so much that when he was on kibble it's how I fed him a lot of the time.
This particular Twist N' Treat is a little small for Conker now, if he were eating kibble, but since he doesn't it's fine for treats only.

I can't remember the exact price I paid for this, but I think it was around $7-8 bucks.  The bigger models go for closer to $10-12. It's a bit steep for a toy that has basically one purpose but Conker really likes it and it's still alive so I guess it was worth it.  This one is the puppy version, and there are others for adults but since Conker isn't much of a chewer I cannot really state how durable it is.
It is built pretty well.  It's made of thick rubber stuff and is hard for a dog to unscrew.

My computer is old

It has some serious lag when it comes to sites with a ton of flash on them.  Even photobucket gives it trouble.

So, like, I totally forgot what I was going to write.  Wait... Yeah, totally forgotten.  So lets write about something else!
Sasha's CGC class went well.  We learned down, stay and some more heeling.  They are really focusing on heeling since a lot of people's dogs are still spazmoids.  Namely Penny the mix that I see at the dog park, a bigass chocolate Lab, a Boxer, some other mutt and a Cardigan Corgi (who's owner is convinced he's a Pembroke.) Sasha has done very well with sitting since she automatically sits now whenever I stop.  She is slowly getting better with down but still needs a lot of work, that and staying in whatever position I told her to (down or sit)
I took her to the Grange yesterday.  The first time I've ever taken her into a building other than a house or vets office.  She did very well but was incredibly distracted by everything.  I also took her to Mini Pet Mart where she tried to steal some treats from a bin while I was talking to the owner of an adorable little Pom-thing.  I am going to take her to a lot more places and work on her sitting and staying in a sit in distracting enviroments.

Conker is still afraid of people on walks. Two little kids really wanted to pet him but he was all "NOOO!  GETAWAY FROM ME!"  Not cool since I was walking him on his collar, which is a choke chain for those of you who don't know.  Yes, I walk my Shiba on a choke chain.  Why?  Because he can escape everything else, even properly adjusted martingales, and I'm too lazy to put a harness on him 80% of the time.
Anyways, I'd really like to find some sort of scaredy dog class that will get Conker to the point where he won't get all RUNAWAY! at certain people.  I don't want him to love everyone or want to be pet, I just don't want him freaking out when some little kid sprays his sister with a hose.  He is good for the most part and stays beside me but with some people, no, he still tries to run. 

Mom wants me to reorganize the garage.  Like, the entire thing.

I gave the Girls a quarter turkey back today.  They were equal to about a whole chicken back, and even then they were still huge.  See, I've got a shitload of turkey backs since Rays sells them so cheaply and I always feel like I have to buy them.  Those and turkey necks which come with a gizzard, heart and liver. Speaking of turkey liver, I have no idea what to do with all the ones I've got since they have so much vitamin A I can't use them regularly.  They have like, 400% more vitamin A than Conker needs... per ounce!  That's a friggin lot, so if you know of something to do with turkey livers, for dogs and even people, let me know.

But the Girls really liked their turkey backs.  I'm going to give them more.  Conker got a turkey tail and some pork meat which he did eat.  He has also suddenly learned how to chew, and he took such a long time chewing the turkey tail I was wondering if he was actually going to eat it or not. 

Call me mean, but I find this hilarious.

You know those logs on the Babyfoot hike?  Heh, well, this is what happened when Conker found a slippery one.

Why didn't I help him up?  I had a camera in one hand, a cup of tea in the other, and I knew he wasn't in any immediate danger and was fully capable of getting back up on his own.

Pedigree Adult

My Mom's dogs were fed Pedigree from when we first got them just under 6 years ago.  At the time we didn't know anything about dog food or nutrition and figured it was one of the better brands. 

Ingredients:  GROUND WHOLE CORN, MEAT AND BONE MEAL, CORN GLUTEN MEAL, ANIMAL FAT (PRESERVED WITH BHA AND CITRIC ACID), GROUND WHOLE WHEAT, CHICKEN BY-PRODUCT MEAL, BREWER'S RICE, DRIED PLAIN BEET PULP, NATURAL FLAVOR, SALT, POTASSIUM CHLORIDE, VEGETABLE OIL (SOURCE OF LINOLEIC ACID), VITAMINS (dl-ALPHA TOCOPHEROL ACETATE [SOURCE OF VITAMIN E], L-ASCORBYL-2-POLYPHOSPHATE [SOURCE OF VITAMIN C*] VITAMIN A SUPPLEMENT, THIAMINE MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], BIOTIN, d-CALCIUM PANTOTHENATE, RIBOFLAVIN SUPPLEMENT [VITAMIN B2], VITAMIN D3 SUPPLEMENT, VITAMIN B12 SUPPLEMENT), CHOLINE CHLORIDE, MINERALS (ZINC SULFATE, ZINC PROTEINATE, COPPER SULFATE, COPPER PROTEINATE, MANGANESE PROTEINATE, POTASSIUM IODIDE), ADDED FD&C COLORS (RED 40, YELLOW 5, BLUE 2)

Guaranteed Analysis

Crude Protein  Min 21.0%

Crude Fat  Min 10.0%

Crude Fiber  Max 4.0%

Moisture  Max 12.0%

Linoleic Acid (omega 6 Fatty Acid)  Min 3%

Copper  Min 10 mg/kg

Zinc Min 200 mg/kg

Vitamin E  Min 300 IU/kg

Ascorbic Acid (Vit. C*)  Min 70 Mg/kg

There is no mention on Pedigree's website or the bag on how many calories there are per cup. 

First off, sorry for the all caps.  It's like that on Pegidree's website.
Anyways, the first ingredient is corn.  This is a controversial ingredient for dogs and I personally feel is not a good one so high on the totem pole.  Next up we have meat and bone meal, but from what animal?  Corn gluten meal is third, a low-quality source of protein.  Animal fat (again unspecified source) that is preserved with controversial chemical preservatives.  Ground whole wheat isn't too bad, neither is ground whole corn but many dogs have sensitivities to both grains. 

Generally the ingredients flat-out suck.


Juneau and Sasha did "okay" on this food.  Their poops were huge and super smelly but that is to be expected with a food compromised of mainly fillers.  Their coats were very shiny but it wasn't a good shine.  They were slick, greasy and smelled bad. I did not enjoy petting them and if you got them wet... run for cover, the smell wouldn't go away for days.
Sasha licked and chewed her front feet while on Pedigree, a common sign of allergies in dogs.
One of the varieties we fed was the "teeth cleaning" kind.  According to Pedigree's site, 

...our PEDIGREE® kibble helps clean teeth down to the gum line. Look for the patented X-shaped kibble.

Juneau and Sasha were on this food for almost six years, they had substantial buildup of plaque/tartar.  They ate the "special" Pedigree teeth cleaning kibbles for a while as well.  Their teeth did not show any signs of being cleaned, so in my opinion, Pedigree is guilty of false advertising here.  (But honestly, what kibble company isn't?)

Plus, though she was overfed, Sasha was very overweight on this food.  Before I switched them to a different brand I could not get Sasha to drop weight even after I cut her portion to under a cup a day.  She was getting that amount for over a month with no significant weight loss.  According to Pedigree's feeding instructions, she should have been getting 3 1/2 - 4 1/2 cups a day based on weight.
Juneau and Sasha weren't very excited to eat this.  They looked forwards to dinnertime but Juneau hardly ever finished her portion, which again according to the bag was the "correct" amount for a dog her weight.  When I began to switch them to a different brand they ate all the new stuff first and didn't want to finish the old.

In my opinion, Pedigree is not a good choice.  I am not trying to be biased against it but after feeding it to Juneau and Sasha for nearly 6 years and seeing the drastic changes in their health after switching brands, I can honestly say it barely classifies as food, and I cannot recommend it.