gooeydog

So I should actually about double the amount of the oil I'm giving, and more frequently as well. I've read that you should give vitamin E with the oil if you're going to give more than a couple times a week so it's more easily digested, is that true, and what sort of dose would be needed for them to properly utilize it? I'm going to go ahead and get some fish next time I get out to the store to try and dry out for them, so we'll see how that goes as well (probably like everything else I cook.... charcoaly :lol: ).

[quote]We took the girls to the beach on Monday and Ruby was rolling round in a dead sheep.[/quote] :o None of those around here, but people do occasionally dump off deer remanants(sp?) on the beach after they're done taking the met and antlers... imagine stumbling down onto the beach at 2am to come face to face with 1/2 (more or less, yuck) a deer peering at you.... talk about traumatized :o :lol: . The most used command for a while after one's dumped off there is "no dead animals!" :roll: The lab I used to walk liked to scrape roadkill up off the road and carry it with her down the street.... ewwww. She was quick too, I'd have her walking by it, and she'd dive for it, usually getting it in one swoop. Then I'd spend the next 15 mins or so trying to wrestle dead whatever it happened to be out of her mouth- sick :roll:

I bought a pack of these: [url=http://www.petco.com/product_info.asp?familyid=9954&sku=2357220006&tab=1&dept_id=377&c1=333&c2=377&c3=&ct1=Treats+%26+Chews&ct2=Treats&ct3=]Dried Fish Strips[/url] from Petco last time I was there to get dog food, and the dogs love them. There are only 10 or so strips in a pack for $1.99 though, and between 5 dogs, that doesn't last long. I'm thinking I'll try just buying fish (we live on the water, so I can get the regular "store" types of fish as well as locally caught fish, plenty of variety), cutting it, and drying it out in the oven for the same treats. I was wondering if there are any types that I should avoid... I know this is a bit of a strange question, but just want to be sure I'm not going to make them sick :-? Also, I'm giving Goo and Annie salmon oil as a supplement a once or twice a week, would there be enough omega 3 in something like these that I should stop that, or would it take a large amount of fish to do that? Currently I split a 1000mg capsule at about a 4:1 ratio between Annie and Goo, so Annie (13 lbs) gets approx. 200mg, Goo (55lbs) gets approx. 800mg.

Well, sick as this will sound, I thought it was just duck/goose poo, which is a pretty normal thing for her to roll in... a bit smelly at first, but it doesn't last too long, so I just let her go with that. I should've known when she didn't want to leave it that it was something [i]really[/i] spectacular :lol: . It didn't help my mood either that I stepped in an ankle-deep puddle walking out of the field, so the whole trip home (and it's a cold 40ish degrees tonight) I was squishing around in my sopping wet shoe :roll: . Then to get home and have Goo smelling like [i]that[/i] at 11:00 at night... what a dog. Of course, I had to lift her up into the sink too, then back out when she was done (getting myself soaked in the process and about ending up with a hernia :lol: ). Then afterwards, she decided she was cold, so I had to find a blanket that I wouldn't mind smelling like wet dog... sigh... she's currently bundled up snoring in the seat of my chair, while I perch on one arm of it :roll: . I also had a brief feeling of guilt a bit ago about washing away her "masterpiece".... maybe I'm the one with the issues here, not her :drinking:

Found out today that the field I take the dogs to has been sold (though I still don't now if it's the whole field, or part, or what), so I took Goo over for a little nighttime stroll before it's off-limits. We went down onto the beach and I let her sniff all around, then on the way back out, she slammed on the brakes to roll in something. I figured she probably wouldn't have any/many more chances at it, so let her roll around, made a couple half hearted attempts at getting her moving again, but she was SO into this stuff that she was standing up, and immediately dropping again before I could get her going, so it too a few minutes before we could get going. When we got home, I went and sat at the computer to mess around, and called her up, as is our custom in the evenings. She jumped up into the chair and I was OVERWHELMED by a HORRIBLE odor! It too me a minute to realize what exactly I was smelling.... DEAD FISH.... Ewwwwww! All over her body, her head, her back, her belly, all stunk. I had to take her downstairs and bath her in the utility sink (we just got a new tub in the upstairs that the dogs cant be washed in, and my dad was asleep in the downstairs apt., so couldn't use the tub in there), imagine bathing a 55 lb dog in a utility sink :lol: Her head was hanging out, her butt was scrunched up against the side... I think 1/2 the water ended up on the floor :roll: It took 2 different kinds of shampoo and rinsing her off with a vinegar/water mix to get her smelling normal again, now she smells like a fruit basket :lol: Oh well, at least she's clean now... she sure wasn't sleeping in my bed smelling like that!

We have one of those, the dogs all love it :lol: One word of warning though... don't let them sit down for even a few minutes for a chew, as they seem to aim for the "feet", and it only takes a bit of chewing to have a hole in it, which grows, then the thing that holds the rim inside falls off, leaving you with two little pieces of rubber piping sticking out that your dog will beeline for at every opportunity to pull out :roll: They also like these "squirrel" toys: [url]http://www.fritzsplace.com/tennis_tails.html[/url] (I've seen them in a couple smaller privately owned petstores, but not in petsmart or petco).

We went to the park we volunteer at yesterday to drop some things off, and since it was such a nice day, took Annie along for the ride. We did some running, then when we got to the park, we ended up standing around talking (during this, Annie was in the car, we'd figured we'd just dump the stuff off and leave), so I went and got Annie out of the car and walked her over to where we were talking. The conversation turned to dogs in the park, and apparently there's going to be a new rule in place that does not allow dogs into any of the "developed" areas of the park; the wading beach, piers, trails in that area, etc. From what was said, there were a few problems with off leash dogs, and some complaints about dogs being there in general, so they'll be restricted to the trails at the entrance of the park. While it's not too big of a deal, it is kinda annoying that because of a few people, everyone is going to be punished. A lot of people walk their dogs down there because the park does pretty well making people keep dogs on leash, so I'd imagine there will be a lot of disappointed people. On top of that, in the past few weeks, someone's put out a bunch of surveyor stakes at the field around the block I take the dogs to to run. I haven't had the chance to ask around to see what it's all about, but the property belongs to a steel mill across the water from us, which recently changed hands, so it's possible a sale is in the works. The school field has been overrun with little leaguers (and other kids sports), so I haven't been able to take them up there either. On a more cheerful note, Goo got her head stuck in a chair last night. She was rolling around in it, and started scratching her head underneath the arm of the chair when her head slipped through and she was stuck :roll: . I noticed immediately, but couldn't get her out, it ended up taking two of us to get her free, at which point she jumped down and did zoomies from one end of the house to the other :lol: The things we go through with these dogs...

Thanks, we'll give it a try :lol:

What I found a bit disturbing about that show was when the new owner (I think it was one of the ACOs that adopted him, right?) came out of the house with his and the two other dogs' food and plunked it all down within feet of each other only a few days after they'd gotten him :o I don't care how much work you put in, you can't have a dog pegged like that in 3 days to trust him when he had such issues before, and I sure wouldn't want to break up a fight between two mastiffs and another pretty good size dog :-?

[quote]I sure would have said, "That sure would be a pretty lady if it weren't for her FACE!"[/quote] :lol: :lol: :lol: Very nice, that would have been fun to see. I get a similar version with Annie at the dog training place we go to, on Saturdays it's the group obedience classes, and they have a lot of big dogs there, rotties, GSDs, APBTs, etc. On a couple occasions, one person there has walked by with his dog and commented, "look, dinner on a leash!" or the like to his dog as they go past. The first time it happened, I laughed and jokingly warned, "yeah, dinner that bites back...", but since, just kinda smile, nod, and get on my way, no point in giving the kiddies the attention they so long for :roll: . We've gotten a few other laughing comments about her (which I don't really mind), but for the most part, the rest of the people there are either pretty indifferent to her.

I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago that I was going to look into getting Nupro (other the other that was recommended, dont remember what it was called though now) supplement for the dogs. Nowhere around here sells it (figured as much, but had to try), and I can't swing costs for buying it online and having it shipped on my current pay. The place we go to for training does have some supplements made by OMH, the makers of Wellness food, so that seems to be my best bet, at least for now. I'm just wondering how this compares to the others (Nupro and whatever the other was), here's a site with some info on the supplement, the one I was looking at are the "WellTabs": [url]http://www.oldmotherhubbard.com/dogs/dogs_supplements.html[/url] And here's more on it, including an ingredient list: [url]http://www.chateau-animaux.com/product-product_id/1140[/url] Any input?

This really doesn't have much to do with the subject at hand, but when Annie gets crated while all the other dogs eat on Friday nights (she gets her meal saturday morning at her class instead), her eyes get so big and sad in efforts to bribe food out of us that they actually water, to the point that they run and it looks like tears..... I always tease my mom and say "awwwww, look, Annie's crying because she didn't get any again" :lol:

[quote]If the occasional nibble turns into full fledged grazing, its time for for a walk [/quote] Ehhh... you just described Goo :roll: She'll find a nice patch of "baby" grass (the real tender bright green stuff), and go to town, then when she's had enough of that, moves on until she finds another patch of the same, then eats that, then so on and so forth.... If you try to call her out of it, she gets real "into" it and starts pulling up clumps of the stuff, then does zoomies and rolls around on it :lol: I think in her case, it's part fun, part because she actually likes the taste of that type of grass. She doesn't do it everytime we're outside, just when the mood strikes and she seems a tasty patch of greens. I don't mind too much, aside from the occasions when the grass gets stuck coming out the other end :o

"True american staffs" are descendants of the APBT breed, if you look back far enough in your old dogs' pedigrees, you will find APBTs, probably ones that had been used for fighting as well. And while you may get an idea of a dog's temperament by viewing their parents' temperaments, temperament traits can skip generations, so what you see may not be exactly what you get. In addition, a dog's reaction to other dogs may be entirely different to that towards people, the two are not the same, nor should they be taken as such.

Maskitas.... what next? [url]http://www.maskita.com/[/url]

Actually, that was our Dachsie, so I just plopped her in my lap on her back, grabbed her back feet and snapped the pic :lol: She's used to me playing around with her feet, but I'm sure she was still a bit puzzled at my choice of photo subject :wink:

Here's a picture of a black nailed dog's quicks, they're the grayish spots in the center... [img]http://img2.photobucket.com/albums/v11/gooeydog/january/anniequicks.jpg[/img]

[quote name='Anonymous']but the truth is, animals are so abundant that not all of them can be cared for and loved. a lot of dogs probably die in a foreign country. there is nothing you can do. and there is just too many dogs. [/quote] Lucky us, the government is growing ever closer to stepping and taking over the responsibility of handling all these dog problems. Unfortunately, their ways of handling the problems are not what anyone wants to see. That's what happens when people brush off issues, choosing to believe they're not their problem. [quote]but some comments made i will respond to. no it is not your business just because they're breaking the law. in that case, are you going around to everyone's house making sure they're not doing drugs, stealing...etc.? [/quote] Some people might... some people might not. I sure hope that if my house was broken into and someone saw it happen, they would let the police or I know, if they chose not to, that would be fine, but I'd much rather know. I'd like to think that I'd do the same for someone else if I were put in a situation to do so. That doesn't mean I go out looking for people doing "wrongs". Turning a blind eye to something doesn't make it disappear (however much we wish so at times), and to do so when someone is harming another life, and allow such harm to continue to occur, is in effect, condoning it. [quote]and the next time a person is scared of your pit bull, dont make a topic about it so you can start talking sh*t to him with other people. try to understand their point of view.[/quote] The person I encountered may well have been afraid of my dog, but that was no reason for her to be rude and disrespectful. Her comments not only were insulting towards my dog (who really didn't care either way), but to myself, insinuating that I would endanger children (including two relatives that I was there with) by my having such a dog present. I started that thread so I could gripe about a bad encounter I'd had with my dog.... just as you have started your thread so you could do the same about this forum. Why hello pot, I'm kettle :lol:

Yep, Haley is the tripod (that's actually one of her nicknames with the neighborhood kids :lol: ). I'd love to do therapy work with her as well, but she needs a lot of work on remaining calm even when getting attention and behaving aroudn other dogs (getting better, but still a bit too interested in them, especially in close quarters). before she'll be ready for that. She's a solid dog, hardly anything shakes her up, and she just eats up attention from anyone, so there are a million and one things she could do well, just up to me to put in the work smoothing out the rough edges.

Nea, did the livers smell up the house too? I tried making some for our dogs a while back, but they smelled horrible, and the smell lingered for days afterwards :o A good training treat (used in moderation) is hot dogs cut into small cubes and dried in the oven... not messy, so you can shove a bunch into a pocket, and the dogs love them. I make cookies for ours too, using a modified oatmeal cookie recipe. 1/2 stick margarine, or you can use 1/4 cup cooking oil if you have one you prefer (i use safflower oil) 2 eggs (you can use an extra if you like to make the mix more smooth) 1 1/2 cup flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 3 cups oats 3 or 4 tablespoons of peanut butter parsley flakes You can also add in apple or carrot, diced up. Mix the margarine/oil and eggs. Add in baking soda and flour, mix again. Add oats, peanut butter, parsely (and apples/carrots if used), mix again. You may have to add a bit of water if the mix is too goopy, I usually have to add around a cup. Plop spoonfuls onto baking sheet and cook at 350 until browned. If you want them to be more dried out (crunchy), cook for 5 mins at 350, then turn down to 300 and leave until brown. Take them out and let them cool off, then store. Makes several dozen "normal" sized cookies, and I keep them in the fridge.

I think I'm going to try the Nupro. Another question on that though, would it be worth it to buy the joint support formula rather than just giving joint supps seperately, and are the amounts in the formula enough, or is it like in dog food?

re: preservatives, flavoring, etc..... makes sense to me :) About older dogs... I've read two sides to that. One says that older dogs need less protein because it's harder on their kidneys (or is it liver?) to process the stuff as they get older, so too much will speed up failure of those organs. The other says to feed a higher level of protein, because the dog isn't as efficient at collecting what it needs, so more protein will ensure that they get what they need. Which is right? Or is it a combination of the two somehow? When I switched her over to her current food last summer, I did do some checking into senior formulas, but most had crappy ingredients (lots of filler, which I've since learned is common), and I didn't see any reason to switch to a lower protein/fat diet when she was doing fine with what she was getting. Her current food is 23% Protein, 13% fat for the dry, and 8.5% protein, 7% fat for the cans. I tried to stick with a medium-ish number, figuring it would be safer until I could figure out what is better and why. She has pretty good muscle tone for her age, though she did get a bit "soft" during the winter, she seems to be toning back up again with more regular exercise. I'll look into the supplements, I've heard of Nupro before, and have seen Missing Link in a few stores (though I dont know if that's the same thing or as high quality?). Thanks again for al lthe help :D

Loki and HF, you're probably both right. APBTs aren't too common right in this area (it you get out of our immediate area a bit, there are a few, but not nearly what you'd see in the city), so I don't know how many these kids have seen in person (apparently not too many, given their fascination with Hale, though that could also have been because of her missing leg), what a crappy first impression of the breed that would be :( And yep Loki, I do have hopes of doing something along those lines.... there's a woman a few hrs away who gives dog safety demonstrations at schools and other such, it covers ways to avoid dog bites, some on how to read dogs' body language, and what dogs are more likely to bite (which includes addressing myths about various breeds). She also evaluates dogs for use as demos for this and provides information on starting such programs, so I'm hoping that sometime within the next year, I'll be able to get involved with that, using Haley as a demo dog. She's still quite sloppy in some of her obedience work, and has some problems with "nibbling" shoelaces and long sleeves or pantslegs when she gets real excited (though she's gotten much better and rarely does it except in scenarios like if someone comes in the house and immediately starts making over her), though she hasn't jumped up on people in quite a while (she still sometimes "oozes" over onto their feet, or laps if they're kneeling down :roll: ), so we have some more work to do before she's ready for anything like that, but hopefully we'll get there. I don't think anything is better at dispelling the myths that surround APBTs than for people to see one interacting with people :wink: [quote]It's too bad that the woman was not only ignorant, but refused to acknowledge that the fact that Haley was so well behaved.[/quote] Well we all know that it's always the quiet, well behaved ones... though I suppose that makes Hale pretty safe, because the only time she fits that is when she's completely pooped :lol:

Next time I'd tell her that if she cannot control her dog, you will be forced to take steps to ensure the safety of yourself and your dog, as there's no telling what an offleash, out of control dog may do. I had a little incident myself last Friday, the AB around the block (4 or 5 fights with other neighborhood dogs to his credit, courtesy of his horribly irresponsible and incompetant owner) caught me and Goo on a walk (I rounded a corner, saw him, and turned around to leave, but he saw us), and I ended up having to shut Goo and myself into some stranger's yard to keep him away from her. When I got home, I called AC, got no answer, no answer, then when I did finally get through on Monday, they told me they wouldn't do anything unless there had been damage done, or the dog was still loose. I was hoping that maybe it was a fluke, and the dog just escaped by accident, but last night we had to detour yet again when the dog came flying down the street we were heading towards, off-leash, no owner in sight. Next time I see him and don't have a dog, I'm going to tell him what happened, and suggest he do something about the dog before it hurts someone elses pet or gets hurt itself.

I've heard most of the "dangerous pit bull" lines before, but today heard one I've never gotten before. I'm watching my nephews (ages 8 and 10 yrs) tonight, and after they helped me exercise the other dogs in the yard, we decided to take advantage of the good weather and head up to the local elementary school to play with Haley. First we went off into the field and the kids played and wrestled around with her (she was on a long lead) a bit, then they said they wanted to go play on the playground, so over we went. There was a girl maybe in her early teens there with a boy about my nephews' age, along with a woman with a horde of kids, 4 or 5 of them, sitting towards the far end of the playground. I've had Haley at the playground before with other people there, and just keep her close to me, no problems ever, and most people are relatively friendly towards her or at least neutral. I reeled her in as we approached the playground, and sat on one end, where we wouldn't interfere with anyone else, and where we could avoid a small fursnack min-pin that was barking and growling through the fence of the basketball court everytime someone passed by. The woman stood up and called her children over, but given that I do that frequently when I take kids up there, I didn't think much of it. By then, my nephews (little savages that they are :lol:) had moved to another section of the playground, and I couldn't see them from where I was, so I got up and moved to a bench set between two of the areas, but far enough from each that we wouldn't be in the way still, and Haley plopped down at my feet, tired from the romp in the field. I'd been sitting there for maybe 5 minutes, Haley still sprawled across my feet, when the woman called across, "Miss, I'm concerned about that dog being around these children". I wasn't sure at first what she meant, so called back, "Ma'am, this dog is friendly, and I have her on a leash anyway", to which she responded, "That dog is a pit bull". Talk about stunned.... I didn't even know what to say right then. I managed to gather my witts about me and answered back, "A dog of any breed can be aggressive, this dog is friendly, and not bothering anyone". She then said, "well, I don't think it should be around children". As politely as possible, I replied back that I was there with children that I was watching, and would not make them leave just because she didn't approve of my dog. She then called her kids back over and told them loudly to stay away from "that pit bull", at which point they of course all wanted to gawk at the spectacle, one telling her, "I won't go close, I just want to see it". We stayed around for another 40 minutes or so, as my two charges ran all around (tiring themselves out and making my job easier ). The woman gathered up her kids about 20 minutes after we got there and walked them to a house bordering the field, just what I want to worry about everytime I walk one of the dogs up there. The ironic part of the whole situation was that as she was carrying on about MY pit bull (who was too tired to do much of anything at the moment, nevermind such a task as eating children ), the min pin was carrying on at the fence not 15 ft behind her everytime someone came within 10 ft of him. On a better note, yesterday we brought Hale along to pick up my nephews at their school, and I walked her up to the buidling to meet them. She spent much of our wait mobbed by children who had to see the 3 legged dog and were captivated by her personality, and a few adults as well, we actually had to shoo some people away to get back to the car :)