Wordless Wednesday

Support your local shelters!!

We are glutons for punishment so we did another float. This time for the Maine Lobster Festival parade. Here are just a few of the photos I took before the parade.

We updated some of our signs. This is cat litter boy.

I love the back!

Check out our new volunteer mobile! Our awesome volunteer co-ordinator Joan Vargas not only thought up the idea but volunteered her own smart car for it. Yay for volunteers!!

It rocks!

A shelter that covers 22 towns needs all the help it can get! Visibility is important!

It is quite the attention getter.

Advertising that helps the shelter too!

Before the parade.

Fenway our superstar! Thanks to Heidi of The Loyal Biscuit for being a good sport and helping show off what shelter dogs can do! (She got to ride in the truck being the star and all.)

Our "pitch in to help" pool.

Yay!!

Side 1.

Side 2.

Our sign maker did an incredible job!!

We had alot of info we wanted to get out to the public.

I think we did a great job. We even have some ideas for next time! Thanks to everyone who helped out. Making signs, walking with the signs, collecting donations during the parade, handing out dog biscuits with wish lists and volunteer help cards to the crowd, driving the car/truck, walking with the banner. SO many hands together can get alot accomplished!!! When it comes to supporting your local shelter remember that every little bit helps.

Itchy dog

Tonight's oatmeal bath was a soak instead of the usual rub down. I have to say I think it worked very well. And for those who think their dog will always respond to verbal cues, try asking for a sit or a down in a tub of oatmeal water. I'm pretty sure she thought I was nuts. I had to bring out the treats and do an in water training session so she understood what I wanted. The good news is that while her skin isn't looking so great she seems to be less itchy. So the oatmeal baths may be time consuming but I think it's working.

On the food front I will be headed to a local butcher tomorrow to pick up some organ meat and the grocery store for some sardines. All I have from the deer is muscle meat and there is a certain method to feeding raw which means making sure there is a balance to what you are feeding. It isn't just throwing some raw ingredients at your dogs and hoping for the best. For those interested in a great how to book on the subject check out Raw Dog Food by Carina Beth MacDonald. I know there are more books on the subject out there but this is the one I have found that takes the stress out of feeding raw. And if that isn't enough information for you there is a great e-mail list called Raw-Lite which is also extremely helpful.

In the vet visit front I have decided to hold off for now. After talking to a few different people it turns out that allergy and itching issues are hard to pin down for ANY vet, holistic or otherwise. What I am looking for, a definitive diagnosis and treatment that will make it all just go away, is like asking for my unicorn to be blue instead of pink. Yeah right. Neither request is very probable. So I'm going to try to relax and go with what tips I have been given and see how it plays out. My biggest worry is just in keeping her comfortable while waiting for the new diet to kick in. (and I hope it works for her because there are sometimes cases of raw not being right for all dogs)

I also think I came up with a better way of storing the meals that is more "earth friendly" so to speak. I'll keep you posted after I give it a try.

A dog trainers version of the age old question

WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE ROAD?

Pavlov: we fed the chicken on the opposite side of the road each day at 4 p.m. until the chicken’s autonomic system actually began causing the chicken to cross the road at 4 p.m. without even questioning the “why.”

B.F. Skinner: on prior occasions when the chicken voluntarily crossed the road, this behavior was followed immediately by a reinforcing consequence.

Cesar Milan: I bullied, chased, poked, and intimidated the chicken until it raced across the road, because I am a strong leader…

Barbara Woodhouse: You just say, “Walkies” with the right accent and place a crumpet on the other side of the road…

Karen Pryor: by associating R+ with road crossing and P+ with standing still, with a VR schedule, and offering a reward in keeping with the Premack principle, we increased the intensity and frequency of the road crossing behavior.

Bill Koehler: a few well-timed pops on the choke chain and the chicken was happy to cross the road.

Ian Dunbar: I lured the chicken across the road with a treat and then gave it the lure/treat as a reward.

Nicholas Dodman: I gave the chicken fluoxetine, sertraline, paroxetine, carbamazepine, and azapirone and then it was happy to cross the road.

Patti Ruzzo: I crossed the road, pausing every step to spit a treat out of my mouth like a human pez dispenser and the chicken followed along catching the treats.

Electric Collar Advocate: whenever the chicken does not cross the road I give it an electric shock. But do not worry, the shock is no more than you would feel if you walked on a carpet wearing socks and it does not bother the chicken at all. The feathers standing up and the smell of burning flesh mean nothing. In fact, they are happier having nice clear communication than they would be otherwise.

Yuppie: chickens are just like little people in feather jackets, and if you love them and give them diamonds and feel sorry for them all the time, they will be happy to cross the road for you.

Paris Hilton: Because I put it in a Gucci bag and carried it.

Shelter director: Any chickens that do not cross the road will be euthanized for their own good, and the others we will “adopt” out tomorrow for only $200 each. Please send us money so we can keep doing more of this important work!

HSUS member: I do not know anything about animals, I have never been around animals and am not really fond of animals, but we passed a law mandating that chickens be kept without cages because animals belong only in the wild and cannot be happy coexisting with man, so now they are walking wherever they want.

PETA member: chickens have the right to live in world without roads. Any chicken that lives within a hundred miles of a road is suffering an inhumane existence and might eventually be hit by a car so we should kill it today to ensure that it does not die tomorrow.

~Unknown author but brilliant! Hat tip to Finnegan's Paw Print. (I may steal that pawprint design as my next tattoo.)

Wordless Wednesday

http://MaineLobsterFestival.com

Jack is "The man"

I was having a conversation the other day about multiple dog households. It was about how some dogs just require more attention than the others. I can identify. Jenny is a dog that NEEDS attention. She is a busy body and has always been our high maintence dog. If we don't keep her busy she will find her own fun and it isn't always what we humans consider acceptable. Throw in her allergies and POOF, she gets alot more of the attention.

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Jack on the other hand is like the muscle at a high end club. He is there to do a job but he isn't obvious about it. He is content with daily belly rubs, some tug play and the occasional run in the woods with his friends. He is a great couch potoato dog. But when someone is in the yard, HIS yard, or at the door stand by. He let's us know. It's what he does.
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When I chose my first akita I specificly wanted a dog that would intimidate people. Not because I thought it would make me seem cooler, but because at the time I was a corrections officer and living alone. Having a guarding breed in the home made me feel more secure. It still does. When my husband works nights I do not worry. While sometimes I find myself becoming a small dog person, I am unsure if there will ever be a day I don't have at least one big dog in the house for that reason.

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Aside from the guarding instinct of the breed I admit that I was also drawn to the look of the akita. I have a thing for huskies and other northern breeds but know I don't have the energy to live with most of them. I loved that the akita was a breed that would adapt to the owners energy level. Plus silly me saw the sentence "Can be a challenge to train." inviting. I had just gotten out of the Marines so challenges were exciting to me. Little did I know THAT would be my introduction to dog training as a long term interest. (It turns out akitas aren't hard to train. You just need to find their motivation and not bore them to death with repetition. Keep it fun is the number 1 rule.)

If you have told me back then that one day I'd have small dogs too I would have called you crazy. I considered myself a big dog person all the way. Funny how things change. He may not grace the blog quite as often but let it be known that Jack is "The Man". He's always here sucking up his share of the love, (and I cannot express just how much I love this big galoof) he's just more of a behind the scenes kinda guy. Thankfully he's ok with that.

To war we go

I hate waiting for anything so I put the plan into play today. Jenny's rash is getting worse so I went at it from both directions.

First I gave her an oatmeal bath to address the outer direction. I finally learned the trick. I kept hearing about using some fancy oatmeal and it turns out the fancy part is to crush it first. I used my daughters blender. (And now I may need to buy her a new one. I kept shaking it and by the end of the session it was making a very unhealthy noise.) Next time I may try the soaking her in the tub with the oatmeal added in the water. (which is how people use it) This time I used the oatmeal as a paste and massaged it into her coat. She found this to be a very tasty bath.

Then I mixed and measured out the thawed deer meat into meals to refreeze. (after feeding both of the dogs some for dinner) I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner. It will be just like the primal patties only they are already in the right size for Jack and Jenny. This will make it easy for everyone in the family to feed if I'm not home at mealtime. Next time I may need to use a different calcium source according to the list I just joined. I also need to add some organ meat. I used to add liver but that was the only food Jenny flagged for in her allergy test. Fortunatly I have total control over my recipe so I can change it each time as needed. Jack is going to do 1 raw meal a day and 1 kibble meal at least to begin with. The last time I jumped him to full raw he had some horrible diarrhea. Not fun in a dog that size.

I got just over 2 weeks worth ready to go. I went with freezer bags because they don't take up to much space. It makes me feel un-eco-friendly though so I will either try washing them to reuse or invest in flat tupperware type storage containers. Maybe I'll check to see what I can scrounge up at the local Goodwill store as a way to recycle some.

She was very excited when I started measuring. Eventually she got tired and relaxed a little. She was very happy to lick the bowl when I finished.

Tomorrow I'll be calling the holistic places to see about an appointment.