Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

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This ‘N That Thursday – March 7, 2013

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Today we join our friends at the 2 Brown Dawgs blog for This ‘N That Thursday.

“This ‘N That Thursday is for those times when you want to post about unrelated topics or each topic isn’t quite long enough to make up a whole post.  It can be anything you want, so feel free to grab the button and join us!”

Wooded Agility

Ever since Snowtober of 2011, almost every time we have a storm we lose more trees and branches in our little neck of the woods.

Sometimes the trees fall in such a way that they cannot be used as an agility jump.

IMG_4160 Technically I COULD clear this if I wanted to, but I don’t.

And then sometimes you think they’re a little too high, but your dog proves otherwise.

She really is that athletic.

One day Hubby and I watched in shock and awe as she cleared a pile of brush about three feet high and six feet wide.  Of course I never get THAT on video.

Blog Changes.

Yesterday when I was catching up on my blog reading I came across this, Want to Feed Raw but Don’t Know How to Find Sources for Food, by Dawn over at NEPA Pets.  I already feed raw and have a food supplier, but I’m always open to new resources.  And let me tell you, this article lists some awesome resources not just for raw food, but websites where you can find organic resources for human consumption.

Over the past couple of years I’ve really begun to look at the things I put on and in my body.  I think it really started when I switched the dogs to raw.

Whatever. Why, how or when it started doesn’t matter, the fact is it started.

And since I’m so in tune with my consuming habits, I’ve also begun to be very aware of what I expose my dogs to.

There’s a lot of healthy alternatives I’ve discovered in the last couple of years, both human and canine related. I think I’d like to share some of them here.

Hear me out.

I don’t intend to change this blog in the respect that I won’t post stories about my dogs, because that is just never going to happen, but I would like to share with you some of the things I’m doing to improve the lifestyles for the dogs, the Hubby and I.

For instance, did you know that the best oil to cook with is Coconut oil?  Besides giving your food a uniquely tropical flavor, coconut oil has many benefits. It is good for your heart, helps maintain your blood sugar and has great immune boosting and anti-bacterial benefits.

Coconut oil is actually solid until the temperature hits 70° and then it liquefies, the best way to liquify coconut oil is to place it (or the jar) in a cup or bowl of hot water. Melting the coconut oil in the microwave destroys many of its excellent properties.  I use the solid to grease pans for baking, and recently substituted coconut oil for vegetable oil in chocolate chip blondies.  The result was delicious.

And dogs can have the coconut oil too.  Sampson and Delilah get a spoonful of it every night to help keep their immune system strong and healthy.

I like a product that is multi-functional and that can be consumed by both the humans and the canines in my household.

I’d like to know what you think about that.  I know there are a lot of blogs/websites out there with all kinds of information that you can readily access when you want it, so my question really is this:

Are you interested to know what I’m doing to help me and my dogs stay healthy and live a long and satisfying life?  Would you like to know what kinds of natural/healthy alternatives we are incorporating into our lives?

Many thanks to our friends at the 2 Brown Dawgs Blog for instituting This ‘N That Thursday!!

Longer Days

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I am loving the longer days!  If I hurry home from work we can squeeze a wood walk in before dinner.

Which is exactly what we did last night.

We’re not the only ones taking advantage of the longer days.  Last night we ran into a woman and her three dogs.  I’ve met this woman before and I actually wrote about her, but I couldn’t find that particular post.  She’s one of the people who wander the woods with her dogs and lets them wander wherever they want.

Hubby and I heard the woman before we saw her and her dogs.  We turned around to head away from them, but not before her dogs came charging up to Delilah.  Of course I dropped the leash and I was super proud of the way Delilah handled herself.

Despite one of the dogs barking in her face.

Yes, it’s true her hackles were up, but she retained her self-control and returned to me when I called her.

We looped around so we’d end up following the same path they took, except Sampson decided at the last-minute to head another way and guess who came running up to us again?

Her dogs were acting like they hadn’t been out all winter.  One of the dogs, a large white one really wanted to play, he actually jumped on Sampson’s back.  When he tried to play with Delilah she let him know in no uncertain terms that she didn’t want to play.

I was so busy worrying about Delilah and trying to prevent an altercation that I didn’t get any pictures of the other dogs.

But it was another beautiful sunset and I did get some photos of that.

IMG_4243 I tried to capture the orange of the sunset and finally got these by using the flash.

IMG_4242

 

 

IMG_4236

IMG_4238 This was a zoomed in shot, hence the fuzziness.

  IMG_4234 Delilah moved (jerking my arm)  just as I snapped the photo, I think it looks cool even though it’s a little wonky.

 Are you and your furry friends enjoying the longer days?  Does your exercise routine change with the seasons?

I’m No Jodi Chick

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No it’s true, despite my best efforts, I just don’t have the drive to bake for my dogs.  I want to, really I do, because I love baking, but when I bake I want to bake for me.

As I’ve mentioned before, when it comes to the dog treats, I’m all about the easy.  Which is why a few months back I recommended filling some white bones with Keifer.

Our bones were looking a little worn, so Sunday I popped over to my neighborhood retail store and picked up a couple of new ones.

They were stuffed with something that was referred to as ‘peanut butter’ but the very first ingredient was corn syrup.  I took a little plastic knife and scrapped that crap stuff out, soaked the bones in some soapy water and filled them with pumpkin and applesauce.

Nine o’clock rolls around and it’s time for snack.  Delilah gets her treat in the living room while Sampson gets his in the bedroom.  Normally I watch TV in the bedroom, but as it happens the living room TV was mine.

I was catching up on some DVR’d shows and doing the great facebook time suck when I realized Delilah was still working on her bone.  I glanced at the clock and she’d been going at it for about 45 minutes.

I figured there was probably a little bit of that ‘peanut butter’ left in the bone and wondered if Sampson was enjoying his as much as Delilah was.

Imagine my surprise when I walked into the bedroom and half of Sampson’s bone was gone.

Not half of the filling.

Half of the bone.

Oh there were little bits and pieces of it left on the bed, but the bone was half its original size.

Big It started out like this.

Little And ended up like this.

As you can imagine, I freaked out.

Just. A. Little. Bit.

Granted the white bone says it is beef, and we feed raw so a bit of bone should be okay, but there was a LOT of that bone missing.

Yesterday, first thing I called my vet. I thought maybe Sampson should go in and have an x-ray.

She thought that might be a little premature.

She told me to keep an eye on him, to watch for vomiting or straining when he poops, or just signs that he’s not feeling well.

She also feels that if he did swallow a larger piece, it should be able to be passed by giving him an enema.  (I figure that’s the last time Sampson happily goes to the vet.)

So here we sit in a holding pattern, keeping a sharp eye on Sampson.

It’s been about 36 hours and so far, he’s happily eating his food, hasn’t vomited and has done a normal poop.

The vet said about 48 hours, so we are in the home stretch.  Please keep your fingers crossed for us.

And remember, when giving your pets anything that has the potential to break or be chewed apart, please monitor them.

My worry could have been prevented had I only paid attention.

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