So Today...

Is sunny, which is odd.

I have been reluctant to give Sasha any bones or hard chews since I found her busted carnassial tooth.  I've been putting off their weekly RMD day for a bit but decided to just get it over with test Sasha's tooth out today.

So the Girls got...

 

Turkey backs, gizzard and liver, chicken heart and egg, ground beef, canned mollusks.   

Conker got a tiny bit of Honest Kitchen, some ZiwiPeak, rices, a chicken heart and egg, turkey tail and some unitenfitied turkey organ that was in one of the backs.  I think it was kidney.

Conker went bonkers for this, I might add.  I think he just ran out the garage... Anyways, he was barking and whining, savaging the Girls faces, and again, like usual, I did not get it on camera.  I wanted to since this was the loudest he's been in a long while.

So Sasha didn't appear to have any problems eating her turkey back.  I watched her carefully and she did not favor the left side of her mouth at all.  I guess she's either a badass and toughed it out through the pain or didn't have any.  I hope it's the latter, since tooth problems in dogs tend to be spendy.

Random Pricture

Babyfoot Lake

Another Lazy Day

It's really cold out.  It was something like 20 degrees last night, there was thick fog, and neither of those have really gone away.  I don't think I'm going to be outside much.  Conker on the other hand, he loves the cold and when he's not outside harassing something, he's doing this:

Yes, that is a Finding Nemo sheet.

When Conker is really tired is one of the few times he will accept my bed not being made as a suitable place to sleep.  Normally he would have gotten up there, seen that it was not made then began to whine and chirp at me until I did something about it.  If I didn't, he would leave and find a better place to nap.

Conker is determined to make me angry

He ripped down the black stuff I put along a part of the fence where he was fence fighting with the neighbor's dogs.  So now he and Juneau are always making a racket out there at the new neighbor dogs, who are nice and DON'T want to fence fight.  Stupid dumbass dog.

So...

Conker got a little bit of Honest Kitchen, some ZiwiPeak and a bit of chopped pork and turkey gizzard, and a small piece of turkey neck.
 

In other news...

Notice something a bit... off... about that upper carnassial tooth?  Yeah, it's broken.  The tip got chipped off by something.  I'm not exactly sure when or by what, but Sasha broke it sometime within the past three days.  This is what it SHOULD look like.

See that bigeass tooth before the molars?  It's got a nice sharp point. Sasha's doesn't. 

Shiba Inu and Nihon Ken forum Christmas exchanges.

So, I kinda jumped the gun a bit and sent out my boxes for the Shiba Inu and Nihon Ken forum secret Santa Christmas exchange things a tad early.  But, since I'm going to AZ soonish, and I have a birthday coming up, I wanted to get that out of the way so I wouldn't be all "OH CRAP I HAVE TO SEND STUFF AND ONE OF THEM IS INTERNATIONAL!" with only two days left or something.

Yep.  Fun.

I tried to pick things I knew Conker, and Juneau and Sasha, all loved so that the recipient dogs wouldn't turn their noses up at anything.  I also accidentally picked all things made in the USA.  I almost never do that intentionally.  (I do avoid things from certain countries and companies though.)
So what ended up getting sent off in the mail today?

To the Shiba recipient:
1 bag of Zuke's Mini Naturals salmon
1 Zuke's Original Z-Ridge (now discontinued)
1 package of Boneys Bonez trachea chews
1 True Chews bully stick

To the Nihon Ken recipient:
1 bag of Zuke's Jerky Naturals salmon
2 Zuke's apple Z-Bonez
1 package of Boneys Bonez trachea chews
2 True Chews bully sticks

I was somehow able to smash all that into two, 8-5/8" x 5-3/8" x 1-5/8" flat-rate boxes.  They were tiny little boxes.  I knew the Shiba items would fit fine but the Nihon items?  I had to rearrange and wiggle them around a bit to make sure they'd all fit into that little box.  I was determined to do so, since going up a box size (or making my own) would tack an additional $30 onto the shipping price and I was not wanting to do that.

I hope the dogs getting this stuff like it all.


Boneys Bonez is a small, local Pacific Northwest company.  They make excellent natural dog chews.

It was a tad chilly today

We headed out on our Tuesday hike and were greeted by 35 degree temperatures.  The front yard's grass was still frozen in a couple places, but thankfully there wasn't any water on the roads so the way over to Cathedral Hills was fine.

The trails themselves though...

Parts had a thin layer of ice that cracked when I stepped on it.  Conker didn't seem to notice.  And today he was being exceptionally obnoxious by pissing on everything every five feet or so. 

Most of the trail had frost where there wasn't ice.  A couple places were clear of both but the ground was pretty solid and mostly frozen.  We only ran into one other person on the trails.  I guess it was a bit too cold for most people today.


In other news...
The crate training is going smoothly.  Yesterday Conker was going in on his own and laying down and not being annoying.  I haven't tested him by closing it and leaving yet, but I'll get around to that sometime soon.

This is what breakfast looked like.

Honest Kitchen Keen, cooked quinoa, ground beef and regular stuffs.  Conker liked it a lot.

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.

Sleepover went well

I watched TV the entire time.  There was a marathon of Fatal Attractions (I really don't understand those kinds of people) that I watched, along with The Weather Channel.

Star wanted to sleep on top of me but I was mean and didn't allow them inside the room.

Lucky didn't want me to leave.

I did take them to the dog park for a couple hours though.


In other news...

Delivery!

I'll write about this in a few days.

Going to have another sleepover

Yep.  I'm going to sleep over at my Mom's friend's house with her dogs again.  Then tomorrow I'm going to take them to the dog park for a couple hours before I return them to their house.  (I'm kinda dog-sitting them) Anyways... Should be fun?

Here's what Conker had for food today.

Honest Kitchen Keen, chicken breast, egg, a bit of quinoa, etc.

It's really cold out right now. 

The Honest Kitchen: Verve Taste Test

In my first order of The Honest Kitchen products I received a 4 ounce trial of Verve.  My little box was a little outdated, since the ingredients were in a slightly different order but I will go by the updated ones on the website.

Verve comes in a red box.

Ingredients:
Dehydrated beef, organic oats, organic rye, organic flaxseed, potatoes, carrots, organic alfalfa, eggs, apples, parsley, cranberries, spinach, chicory, 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, 22.5% min
Fat, 8.5% min
Fiber, 5.8% max
Moisture, 8.5% max
(I left out the other stuff intentionally)

The ingredients look pretty good.  Like all of The Honest Kitchen's foods, this one is a bit heavy on the grains and other things instead of meat but I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing.  My only problem is with the potatoes, but I have noticed that certain types of potatoes and ways they are cooked don't seem to affect Conker like others.

Verve in dry form (Keen behind, Thrive beside)

Conker has grown accustomed to me preparing his Honest Kitchen but hasn't gotten used to how long it can sometimes take.  He was quite impatient while I was preparing Verve both days he got it.  The initial test went awesome (spoonful) so I allowed him to fully try out the Verve.
Conker LOVED it!  I think more than the Keen but I will have to pit them against each other at a different time.  I've run out of Verve.

At $32.25 for 4 pounds and $60 for 10 pounds (website prices) Verve is the second cheapest of The Honest Kitchen's Formulas.  I am glad since Conker enjoyed it so much and didn't have any adverse reactions to the ingredients, that I know of. 

Verve isn't as "fluffy" as Keen.

Of the four Honest Kitchen varieties I have had Conker try, Verve smelled the least offensive.  They don't smell bad anyways, but Verve's smell wasn't as strong as Zeal or Keen.  Conker didn't much care and liked the Verve so much that he cleaned his bowl better than he normally does when he gets Keen.


Here's a video of Conker trying some Verve.

He knew I was going to give him a beef rib after the Verve, that is why he's eating so quickly and impatiently.