(189) Dog Happiness

The new Bark magazine is here! It’s always a great day when I arrive home and get to peruse through the newest issue of Bark. I love all of the pictures of dogs. I love the many helpful hints from readers about how to enjoy my dog more. Sometimes I even agree with some of the articles. But I always find inspiration for blog entries. There are some things I don’t like about the magazine. For instance, they are adamantly opposed to anything Cesar Milan says or does. I love Cesar. I think he has brought responsible pet ownership and bonding between dogs and people back to the forefront of conversations. He has empowered ordinary people to have a better relationship with their pets. Go Cesar! But…Bark Magazine takes every chance to dis Cesar because he will sometimes say that owners have to be stronger (discipline wise) than their pets and he believes that the pack mentality works for families with even one or two animals. Enough of this soapbox for now…


In this month’s Bark I read two articles that inspired me. One article suggests that our dogs give us so much happiness and we often forget that we also need to give them some happiness in return. I agree. The article continues by giving 10 things that we can do for our dogs in return. So here are my 10 things to do to make my dog happy.

1.) Beeks often reminds me that I forget to play. So I should play with him more. Dance even!

2.) Beeks loves to chew and he has only ever chewed his toys. So I should give him stimulating toys to chew for his enjoyment and novelty.

3.) Beeks loves to go outside with me in the morning on our walkabouts. Dog’s love to smell the roses and any other thing. So I should continue to allow Beeks to be all that he can be and remember that an essential part of any dog is his nose. He needs to explore with his gorgeous nose including smelling as an adventure and stimulate his brain.

4.) Beeker is a well behaved dog and sometimes I forget that he needs reinforcement for his good behavior. I expect him to follow my commands but now rarely reward him for doing so. So I need to give him the rewards he loves and remember to appreciate how well he responds when I ask him to do things.

5.) Beeks loves my attention and sometimes I neglect him because a quiet and well behaved dog is easy to neglect when I am busy. So I need to focus on him each night for a little while at least, giving him my undivided attention with a good petting or brushing.

6.) All dogs need good clean bowls of water and it is easy to walk by the water bucket without changing it if it still has water in it. So I need to change out the water bucket at least twice a day. We have a well so water is cheap here.

7.) Dogs love to go naked. All dogs want to live sans clothing. Beeks loves to go without his collar. So I need to take his collar off him at night. I would hate to hear a restrictive collar while I tried to sleep (especially with metal tags hanging on it). Some people would say dogs should only wear their collar and tags when they go outside…

8.) Beeker loves to be outside and loves to go on walks even more. He needs exercise and is happier when I take him on regular walks. So I need to get back to regular walks for both of our health. ( A tired dog is a happy dog and walking tires out Beeker).

9.) Beeker loves other dogs. He loves Maxie and he loves his cusogs too. So I should try to get him together with other dogs as much as possible. He’s always happy when he gets to play with his friends.

And # 10…

Beeker loves to go for rides in the car… and his favorite car destination? Of Course… Ice Cream. So I need to take him to Micky D’s all of the time (Okay every so often).

That’s my top ten things to do for Beeker to let him know that his happiness is important to me. I don’t think they are very difficult to follow. What are your top ten ways to show your dog his happiness is important to you?

(188) Smart Dog Intelligence Ranking

While talking to my father the other night he mentioned that he saw a report on AOL that stated there was now research ranking the smartness of different dog breeds. I say smartness instead of intelligence because whereas many breeds may be intelligent, only those who use their smarts or an outward expression of their intelligence are ranked. I didn’t read the article that my dad was talking about, but I did look up smart dogs and found a ranking system by a professor of psychology and Neuropsychology at the University of British Colombia. The Author, Dr. S. Coren, wrote a book called the Intelligence of Dogs, suggesting that there are three types of intelligence in dogs.


• Adaptive Intelligence (learning and problem-solving ability). This is specific to the individual animal and is measured by canine IQ tests.

• Instinctive Intelligence. This is specific to the individual animal and is measured by canine IQ tests.

• Working/Obedience Intelligence. This is breed dependent.

The Working/Obedience Intelligence is the ranked system that I wanted to view. There were six categories for dog breeds. Brightest Dogs, Excellent working dogs, Above Average working dogs, Average working /Obedience Intelligence , Fair working dogs /Obedience Intelligence, and Lowest degree of working dogs/ Obedience Intelligence.

Of course I wanted to know where Beeker and Max would fall. I also wanted to know where my favorite other dogs would fall. Keeping in mind that not all dogs are “working” dogs, I figured that Beeker (cattle dog mix) would be somewhere in the above average group and Maxie (Newfoundland) would be in the average range. I also kept in mind that we were talking about breed intelligence and not individual intelligence. I know Max and Beeker are extremely smart dogs (called parental pride). Turns out that Beeker’s breed (cattle dog) comes in at #10. So he is in the Brightest Dog group and Maxie’s breed (Newfoundland) comes in at a tie at # 34. Now the criteria that was used is that a Bright dog breed will understand new commands in less than 5 repetitions and will obey the new command 95% of the time. I think Beeker obeys them a little less than 95 % of the time. For above average breed they understand a new command in 15-25 repetitions and obey in 70% of the time. I think this is a fair claim on Maxie. You could say he stands for his breed. Belle our female Newfie was probably atypical and obeyed commands 95 % or better. The website that I looked at to read about this research and book was:

http://petrix.com/dogint/index.html

or

http://www.petmedsonline.org/top-10-smartest-dogs-in-the-world.html
You are able to see where most breeds fall. Its fun to see if your own dog matches up to its breed intelligence standard.

I also read on a simular site that a smart dog will learn everything you want it to know, but a super pet will also learn everything it can get away with. Just something for you to think about when you are working with your smart dog. I’d say Beeker fits into this category. He is always trying to find something and someone to “work” or to do a job on.

(187) Pets Chinese Style

When my oldest son was living in China for a year we decided to visit him during the Christmas holidays. We had a fantastic three weeks of traveling through five cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Xi’an, Wuhan (the city where Ash was living), and Hong Kong. This was the year before China hosted the Olympics. China was changing from a third world country to a formidable world power. What we noticed were the number of affluent people now living in China. Sure the majority of people still were poor and a dinner for nine people still cost a years’ salary of $40, but we also saw people in Hong Kong who after only a number of years as an independent autonomous trade zone, was doing quite well. One thing that stuck in all of our minds was the number of people we saw with pets. True that there have always been pets in china but on this trip to china we noticed the increase of pet stores. When people have extra money to spend and little room or in the case of china a limit on children they will put their extra money on their pets. I was reminded of this fact when I saw tonight’s CNN report of the increased number of owners in China who are dyeing their pets. You can read this report at:


http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/27/china.dyeing.dogs.pandas/index.html?hpt=C2

Do you remember when The Animal Planet tried to get on the contestant bandwagon with the TV show Groomer Has It? On that show they often dyed animals to increase the beauty of the animals they were asked to groom. I thought they all looked incredibly ugly. Who would dye a dog blue or like dye it to look like the owner’s favorite wild animal or athletic team mascot? Now China is finding that they like the colorful look of their dogs all dyed up to look like other animals (animate and inanimate). If I asked my oldest son about this latest Chinese fad he would say that it is sooooo Chinese. I agree with that.

For example, during our Christmas trip, we stayed in a Wuhan hotel that was having a holiday celebration on Christmas Eve. This was the strangest conglomeration of East meets West that I have ever witnessed. They had about twelve Santas parading down a neon lighted runway who were met by angels coming down ropes from the ceiling with pictures of beer. When the Angels met the Santas they had a beer chugging contest. Then came a parade of Disney characters including Mickey and Minnie Mouse. They had little Chinese children dressed up in Halloween costumes like Batman and ballerinas. They played loud rock music until two in the morning and all the alcohol was gone. Now that is Chinese.

I am not surprised that the Chinese like to dye their pets. They like to have colorful reminders of what makes them happy. Why not? They live in relatively small places and have relatively small numbers of “extras” in their life. Their pets get lots of attention when they are dyed. This is also socially interacting behavior simular to the Germans who take their little Dachshunds to all the pubs and out for walks. The attention surrounds the dogs and owners gets them engaged with others. It’s a social phenomenon that works for the Germans and is now working for the Chinese. They take their little dyed dogs out on walks and they meet other people who socially engage with them in conversations about how cute their dogs look and about their own little dogs. It’s getting people to talk to each other. How wonderful our dogs are?

(186) Saturday with the Dogs

I didn’t have to work today but Brad did so I got to do what I love doing on Saturday’s. Beeks and I went to garage sales. Beeks knew the minute I woke up that something was up because he followed me around the house waiting for me to pot my shoes on. When I went into the kitchen he followed me even though I was just getting another cup of coffee. When the time actually came for us to venture out he was ecstatic. He twirled around like a ballerina (Okay a male ballet dancer). He was excited. I was focused on one particular sub division that was having a sale but I also knew that I was getting there late as far as garage sales go. That is not the point. It’s the thrill of the hunt. Unfortunately there were no bargains by the time I got into town. I was able to drive through and only stopped at a few garages. I actually didn’t buy anything. So with garage sale money in my pocket we headed to my favorite paper store to see if they had any new papers to buy. They didn’t have anything new but they did have a sale on paper so I stocked up with my garage sale money. Having “new” paper motivated me to get busy making cards this afternoon and soon I realized that I needed a straw for one of the projects that I am working on. Unfortunately, I couldn’t locate even one straw. Not one, so I did what any logical thoughtful, creative person would do. I got Beekster and we went to McDonald’s for an ice cream cone and straws. Worked perfectly. I got the straws I needed for my art and Beeks and I got ice cream. Wonderful and tasty.


Now we have a guest staying with us for the night. A nephew is in town overnight until his parents come to pick him up and take him back to college tomorrow. Like most college students he was at a concert last night and didn’t get much sleep. We happen to be the “between” stop so it works out perfectly. I picked him up at the McDonalds (no not another ice cream) and we headed home. I gave him the option of sleep or food first and he chose food first, then sleep. I had forgotten how much college boys eat. I made spaghetti and meatballs and all of it is gone! After he sleeps we will make dinner and I am sure he will again eat something.

Max was so excited and ramped up when we got home after I picked up our nephew. I had prepared for his initial meeting by putting the dogs in the laundry room behind the gate. After we had been home for a while, we let the dogs out with surprisingly little excitement. I had shared that it is best to ignore Max so with that Maxie was calmer and only needed a little sniff to realize that this was a friend and not a foe. He just keeps getting better and better about correct behavior with initial meetings. We also keep getting better and better with Max meeting new people. I think that the initial meet and greet will always be his “issue” and the more we can assist him with making it a calm low stress situation the better he will do. Now tomorrow when the rest of the family comes to pick up our nephew will be another story. OMG, hope for the best for us. We will just do this same routine and all will be well. (I hope). Beeks will be the steady one with greetings, he will also be the one that will alert Maxie of approaching visitors. He’s good at that. It seems to be a lazy Saturday now. Chez and Beeker are on the bed sleeping, and Maxie’s on the floor next to us sleeping as well. The house is quiet for now.

(185) I Toad You So...

Houston we have a problem. I don’t know if it is with Maxie or with the toads but somebody is obsessed with somebody. Maxie has become proficient with finding the toads that come into the dog run and he has decided that they are his occupation and for his enjoyment. To be honest we haven’t figured out if the toads are coming or going but that doesn’t really matter since when we open the door Max usually has one between his front paws and is jostling it back and forth like a ping pong ball. If you remember a previous blog or if you have known any dogs that try to catch toads you may remember they excrete a mild poison that makes dog’s mouths froth. We are now on Toad catch number 7. Most dogs (the smart ones) only need to try this one time before they get the lesson that toads are good to leave alone. Well, Max not only doesn’t leave these toads alone, he seeks them out each time we open the back door. The last time Brad took one away from Maxie, he put it outside the gate. Now, if Max cannot find one in the dog run, he sits by the gate and fixates on the place he last saw Brad out the toad. What’s with that? He started to claw a little trench between the gate and the fence just so the little toad can get inside easier. Is that considered baiting? I would love to know what it is that Maxie loves so much about these toads. Is it a mild form of hunting? Does he get excited to catch something? Why does he keep putting it inside his mouth and getting all foamy? Has he acquired a “taste” for toad? Is he addicted? We actually discussed this morning if the toad issue might be significant to his output issues. I guess it could happen that the slime from the toad is affecting him.


Beeker doesn’t seem to be as interested in the hunt as Maxie. Max looks like he is playing with the toads.

I remember my family pet, Gretel. Gretel was a runner dog. We lived outside Carbondale at the time and our house had a large yard that then bordered a cornfield. One day Gretel came home with a soaking wet duckling. Gretsie kept that soaking wet duckling between her paws and would let it wander out just so far and then she would go and get it ever so gentle and bring it back to keep it again between her paws. My mom still can recall the details of Gretel’s playful obsession with the duckling. Maybe this is just like that. Maybe the toads are like playmates to Maxie. A playmate that doesn’t nip at his tail or heels.

Now the next question is how to stop this madness. The toads refuse to get smart and keep out of the dog run. Maybe they are instinctually heading for the window covering, like the salmon that swim up steam or the geese that fly north every winter. Maybe they are trying to “go home”? We can’t keep Maxie out of the dog run. He needs some place to go out. Although we have other places to leash Max, he is just as likely to find “critters’ and eat more grass in those places. It will be interesting to see how this plays out as we go from Fall and into Winter. I wonder if Toads hibernate or if they just go deeper underground. I bet Maxie will like toadcicles!

(184) Meet Your Match for a Forever Home

Every year thousands of wonderfully adorable dogs and cats are euthanized because there are not enough homes for them and they are unloved and uncared for. I’ve written before about the many reasons to adopt from the humane society as well as the reasons to have your pets altered. I think it’s a great way to help stop the over population of unwanted animals in our country.

Having said that, my sister told me about a program she saw on PBS last night that told about the many dogs and cats that are serial returnees to humane societies. These are the dogs and cats that do get adopted from rescues and humane societies but soon get returned because they were not the “right” match for the family that initially adopted them. In the program on PBS, they talked about a new research based matching program that some Humane Societies are now using. that tests cats and dogs for certain personality and energy traits so that the person/family wanting to adopt a new pet can match their own personality and energy level desires with that of the animal they want to adopt. This program hopes to lower the number or returned pets so that the dog or cat can find their Forever Home like Max and Beeker have. The name of the program is called “Meet Your Match”. After the animal is tested in three categories it is then color coded so that the adopters can “match” not only the cuteness of the animal but its natural energy/personality levels as well.

The three categories for dogs are Socially motivated, Internally motivated and Externally motivated. However, under each of these categories dogs are tested/looked at for energy or personality for that motivation. For instance, under Socially motivated a dog could be “Life of the Party” (Green), “Goof ball” (Yellow), or “Constant Companion”(Purple). Under Internal Motivation the traits are “Free Spirit” (Green), “Wall Flower” (Yellow), or Couch Potato (Purple). For the external motivation the traits are “Go Getter” (Green), “Busy Bee” (Yellow), or “Teacher’s Pet” (Purple). Of course descriptions are given for each color and trait which are too lengthy to go into here. However I think this is a splendid way to assist families to make more informed choices about pet adoption. Matching your own needs and personality with that of the pet you are going to adopt. When going to adopt a pet the perspective owner also fills out paperwork that then leads to a “color pass”. Then you know that the dogs and cats with the same color code are a better fit with your wants and needs. How cool is that? I have to admit that I knew immediately that Beeks was the dog for me but it would have been reassuring that I had found a match right from the start. So what color code would I have been looking for if I were looking for Beeker today? I think Beeks would have been a Socially motivated dog mostly a Green color or maybe some Yellow. Max would definitely be an Externally Motivated dog and probably a Purple color.

This whole program was developed by a researcher for the ASPCA.

(183) Stylin Dog Collars

My sister just sewed a two inch wide dog collar for her granddog Squiggles. Squiggles is the cute Italian Greyhound owned by her son Eric and Chelsey. The reason Juli sewed a dog collar for Squiggles is that Greyhounds need a collar with a wide band due to their small and sensitive necks. It needs to be soft and gentle. For the most part, dogs’ necks are the strongest part of their bodies. They can pull on their collars even to the point that they can hurt themselves, straining to keep pulling. That is also why many trainers suggest the gentle leader type of lead. It goes around the dog’s nose and so when the walker pulls on the leash, the dog’s nose turns and they aren’t using their necks. With some breeds like the Italian greyhound, whose neck is traditionally larger than their head and so if they get pulled at the neck they can choke, or the collar can slip off their head.


We now use a martingale type of collar for both Max and Beeker. This is a collar that has a double loop that makes a sort of loop at the top for tightening if needed but also is loose around the neck at other times. I say we “now” use this type of collar because we haven’t always. When we first got Maxie, we had a chain collar and then got a pinch collar when he would strain in the chain collar. Then When I tried to walk him down our lane (Before Beeker) he would still pull me and even pulled me down when he got excited about approaching people. After that episode we took him to a dog trainer where Max immediately broke the pinch collar trying to get to the trainer to smell her. Now I have to say, there never was and still is not a single mean bone in Max’s body, he was just highly excitable. But we learned quickly that the martingale type of collar and gentle leader really helped Max’s brain stay engaged.

Truth is that there are many different types of collars for dogs. The type and style of collar say as much about the owner as it does about the dog type/breed. Max has a black collar to go with his black fur/hair. Beeker sports a blue collar with dog bones sewn all over it. Fitting for a colorful chewer don’t you think? Some dogs have multiple collars for multiple activities such as a dress collar of leather or a pink elastic collar for a small poodle. What type of collar does your dog wear and how did you come by choosing it? A collar is like an accessory and reflects the dog’s and owner’s personality. Bling it up I say! Male or female dogs need to walk with confidence in their stylin collars.

(182) My Cute Alarm Clock

Have I told you that Beeker is my morning alarm clock? When its time for Brad to wake me and he has to get me up (Brad wakes up early so he can get his coffee intake in peace and quiet) he lets Beeker out of the laundry room (Beeks is in the laundry room because he and Max would rough house) and tells him to wake me up. At this point Beeks goes right to it. He runs so fast into the bedroom. Like the bullet we know he can be, and jumps up on the bed. Then he rubs his face in my hand and then he puts his cold little nose in my face so that I can’t ignore him any longer. He knows his job, to “wake momma up” and he does it exceptionally well. As soon as I am awake and can acknowledge him I say, “OK I’m awake Beeker” or “Alright All done” he’s off. To do what he really loves to do, to play with Maxie. As the ruckus begins, he and Maxie rough house, rolling around the bedroom floor nipping, and barking and growling (playfully) so loud that I can not do anything but wake up.


Sometimes if I beg for a few more minutes of sleep, if Brad will agree then Beeker will be brought up on the bed and he will quietly lay there until I am again awaken by Brad telling Beeker to “Wake Mamma”. Beeks is such a great dog. I love waking each morning to his smiling face and cold nose. His tail goes in a circle which means he is a very happy dog.

Brad woke me this morning telling me that the score between Max and the neighborhood frogs is Max 1 and Frogs 5. Late last night when Brad let the dogs out Max went directly into the center of the dog run and started digging frantically. When Brad got there and realized that a frog was afoot he flashed the light and found the frog before Maxie. He pulled Maxie inside and left the frog for the night. This AM he looked and noticed the frog was not longer there. He says that this from was a different frog because this one had four working legs (remember the Max vs Frog previous episode?).

(181) Walkabout Nature Lessons From Beeker

I’ve figured out that if I pay attention to what Beeker is doing when we are outside, I can sometimes discover some really interesting natural phenomena. This morning when I went outside with Beeker, we did our usual walkabout. Beeks ran like the wind around the house as I walked looking to see what is left of my flowers and plants. The heat has really done a job on my garden and yard. The nice rain we had last weekend didn’t really make a difference in the moisture content of the soil and so everything still looks dry. As we walked from the front to the back I noticed Beeker with his nose down spending a long time smelling something on the wood slices around the fire pit.


As I got closer, Beeker moved on, content with his exploration of the situation and ready for something else. What I noticed was a snout of some rodent, mandible and all. The jaw with teeth was still intact. Further on laying on another slice, was the other half of the snout and jawbone. I also observed some scat of what I believe is our resident fox. I love this cycle of life stuff. What animal has that large of a snout? Thinking this through, it must be an opossum. That is the only rodent that has that large and pointy of a nose. Where is the rest of this rather large rodent? I found no trace of a tail or other inedible parts around. Why two halves of a jaw?

Then I thought about Beeker. He wasn’t skittish about this encounter at all. His curiosity was in high mode. Does he instinctively know that this is a natural occurrence and so he just takes note of it? This evening when I returned to the fire pit, I noticed the remnants were still there and the smaller insects were utilizing what nourishment was left.

The bones were in an area not too far from where we found the squirrel carcass in the early summer. Maybe this is what the fox uses for dinner platters. Most early evenings, Max and Beeker will start barking for no apparent reason, and when I look out the front or back doors I can’t see anything. Maybe they hear the fox and I am not able to see or hear it when it is right under my nose, not 10 feet from my back door. I wish I could see them in action and I will have to pay more attention to Beeks and Max’s barking. They certainly act like they hear something outside. They go from a calm laying position to a full barking at the door in about 5 seconds flat. This seems reasonable that they would be able to hear the fox moving along the side yard and I would not hear it. My ears are picking up the ceiling fan, the TV, and the air conditioner instead of the quiet rustling of the plants and weeds outside.

My dogs teach me so much if I am able to quiet myself, learning to be more observant. Dog lessons are more than just for the dogs.

(180) Skittish or Cautious?

Yesterday I shared Beeker’s aversion to the vacuum and how he hid in the hallway in order to stay away from the noise, while Max embraced it. Today it was the ironing board. When I pulled the board from the closet, Beeks backed up, ears back and turned tail leaving the hallway. Then when I began setting it up, the noise really freaked him out. He’s ears went back and again he backed away. At this point, I stopped. I called him to me, but he didn’t come, he instead tried to go around me to his comfort spot beyond where I was standing. As he was passing me I grabbed his collar and held on to him at the same time that I was holding the ironing board. He hunkered down and I couldn’t budge him. There was no way I was going to encourage him to approach the ironing board. So at this point I didn’t want to let him go and I was afraid to let the ironing board go since it would make an even louder noise hitting the ground. I began petting the board and then letting Beeker sniff my hand. I did this a few times while I talked quietly to him, wanting to alleviate his anxiety. When I let go of his collar he come forward on his own, made a quick sniff of the board and ran off to his sleeping area by my bed. Enough of that for him.


I’m thinking this is a larger issue than just a dog that is apprehensive with unfamiliar objects. I do use the ironing board and the vacuum often enough if not every day. He sees these objects and he hears them as well but continues to shy away from them. For a cattle dog he doesn’t go much out of his comfort zone. I would think that Maxie would have more issues than Beeker but that isn’t the case. Beeks really doesn’t like the rain, the loud noises of the house or small children. His comfort with “new” takes so much longer than the Newfies. I wonder if it is a common trait for Cattle dogs or if it is just a Beeker issue?

So far when I do introduce a new object to Beeker and when we take it slow he does a good job at trusting me, and once he does get the smell of the new person or object he is able to relax and accept the newness of the situation.

This is why I believe that Beeker doesn’t know the difference between animate and inanimate objects. If he knew the difference I believe he would approach them differently. I can’t imagine that his nose, which is so powerful he is able to smell time distances and other incremental variations of odors that he could not be able to smell that the inanimate objects are flat or have a different quality then the animate objects.

On the other hand I know that animals like dogs are object specific. They have a difficult if not impossible time generalizing. That is, they aren’t able to understand that one noisy household machine that doesn’t harm them, means that all household noise making machines will be harmless.

So thinking about all this and decide that Beeker is as smart as any other dog, he just needs to have new objects introduced to him a little more slowly than the Newfies do, that by his nature he needs to be wary. I mean those Cattle can really kick hard, so to error on the side of caution with everything seems to make sense.

(179) Vacuum Love or Who Doesn't Love a Little Vacuuming Now and Then?

Who doesn’t love a good vacuuming now and then? Well, Beeks for one. Today when I got off work, I actually had time to run some of my errands.  I put gas in my car, I went to the grocery store. Stocked up on necessities for next week, and even got home early enough to take a much loved afternoon nap. I took my nap after I decided that the carpet in our bedroom had been dog haired and dirty long enough. I got out the all house vacuum and plugged it in and started working on our bedroom. Max went dog nuts. He loves the vacuum. He sidles up to me, unabashedly and moves his side and rear end so close to me that I can’t help but to get the message that he wants me to vacuum him! Yep my dog loves the vacuum! I don’t want to stop what I am doing, so I continue to ignore him only to have him weave back and forth in front of me so that I can hardly move forward. When I have to stop to clean out the nozzle he moves in for the big push. He stands over the power head and won’t move until I accidently use the open end to pull his upper lip out. This makes a loud sucking noise which doesn’t scare him only encourages him on. He pulls his head away, turning away to encourage me to vacuum his long hair alongside his body. I give up. I vacuum his side, his back, his hocks, and his belly. Now he’s happy. He wants me to continue but I have a room to vacuum and think about all the hair getting clogged in the vacuum canister down stairs in the basement. As I manage to finish my chore and am ready to pull the hose from the wall vent, I look for Beeker thinking he might also like a little vacuuming. He’s nowhere to be found. He’s not easily enamored with a vacuum. He wants his love from a real hands-on brushing. I find him, curled up in a little space next to the front door, away from the bedroom and the noise. He doesn’t want to be attacked by the big loud sucking machine.

(178) Summer Pool Party

Its so hot out again today. We had temperatures into the mid 90’s with a heat index into the 100’s. I had to work so that meant that Max and Beeker were housed in the laundry room until I got home. When I did let them out into the yard they were quickly ready to get back into the house. Its still too hot for me to take them on a walk although they need one desperately. It will be two more weeks before we are able to have time to take the long walks that we (Beeker and I )both really need.

When I talked to my sister this afternoon, she told me about an event that her local swimming pool holds every year at the end of the swimming season. The pool is holding the Doggie Dip this evening. This is the time when owners can bring their dogs to the pool for a swim along. Although it is only for an hour it only costs $3.00. How cool would that be to swim in a swimming pool with your dog? Can you imagine the number of little and big dogs all in one pool? I would love to go and just watch the event. I wonder if there are a number of dog water fights? The dogs have to have proof of rabies vaccinations and the dogs have to be leashed when not in the water. How crazy would that be? Donations for the local humane society are also accepted. I love the idea of this. Another local area pool is also having a Bow Wow Luau in which pet owners and dogs can swim in the pool and also receive a gift bag from Purina. At this Luau the donations are going to an organization that provides low cost spay and neuter services. I think communities can really get innovative and motivate citizens if they collaborate with other community agencies. Here’s two cheers for the Quad Cities! But Wait… I just looked on the web under dogs in community pools and it turns out that many communities across the Midwest are hosting dogs this weekend. Milwaukee, Kansas City, Greenville North Carolina. So Check out your community and see if they are hosting a dog swim party. Alas, Champaign isn’t. Boo Hoo!

Max Update…

It has been almost two weeks since Brad took Max to the Veterinarian clinic and for the most part he hasn’t changed. He still is a happy dog, and he now eats every meal. This seems to be his diet of chicken, rice, green beans, and sweet potatoes. Still his back end is not outputting the necessary requirements so we think something is still amiss. Hopefully Brad will be able to talk to Max’s regular Vet next week and some resolution can be found.

(177) Young Desires and Pet Death

I’ve written in this blog about how much I love my dogs and love my cat. I guess it is pretty well understood that I love animals and have for most (all?) of my life. When I was young, I really, really, REALLY wanted a horse. I would ask my parents most every day if they would get me a horse. This is pretty typical for a girl growing up in the Midwest. Lots of my farm friends had horses and I would go to their houses and we would ride their horses and I would just have to have one. Finally my father could not take my asking any longer and sat me down with paper and pencil. He asked me questions that would last a life time. It went something like this:

Please can I have a horse?
How much does a horse cost?
I don’t know.
Okay, lets just say you could get an old nag for $200. How would you pay for a horse?
With my allowance.
How much do you currently get for your allowance?
50 cents a week.
Do the math. How long would it take you to just pay for the horse?
Scribble, scribble, scribble, So dad, it would take me 400.
400 what?
400 weeks. How many weeks in a year?
52
Okay so how many years?
Scribble, scribble, scribble, About 8 years
And where would you keep this horse?
At my friends farm.
Yes, but you have to feed it. What would you feed it?
Straw, oats, apples
What would that cost for just one year?
I don’t know
Okay lets just say a horse could eat for a thousand dollars a year
Forget it! (Picture a thrown pencil and paper)

Anyway, I love my pets and don’t mind that they cost me to keep them, they are a part of our family. When our previous pets died we were incredibly sad and mourned them like a family member.

So when our son, Ben contacted us a day ago to let us know that one of their rabbits had died and that his wife, Jessica was devastated I understood her loss. She loves her bunnies like I love my dogs, and cat. Ben said that Jessica so sad because the bunny that died was one that she had had for a long time. Since she was 14 or 15 years old. As she said, the bunny, Bo has been there for her through many events in her life, and has loved her unconditionally for a long time. I am deeply sad for Jessica and know that she will miss her companion. Only time can aid a loss like the death of a cherished pet.

I wanted to show you the beautiful plant that is growing up the eastern side of the corn stocks. I have been passing these each morning as I travel to work and at first couldn’t make out what was catching my eye. Then I stopped and looked and noticed that it seems to be a morning glory plant that opens in the AM and closes by evening. Aren’t they beautiful?

(176) Heartitude and WWBD

In the Time magazine this week there was a huge article about how animals think. However,in the same magazine was a small opinion piece that also resonated with me. This article suggested that although we say we love our dogs because of their intelligence, what we really love about them is that they have heart. This argument goes back to the often deliberated and discussed philosophical argument of the superior nature of mind over heart.

I have often written that I love how smart Beeker is, how he is able to understand when I want him to come when I call, how he is able to jump through a hoop, learn new tricks. I love that he wags his tail in a circle whn he is happy to see me. I love that he is able to understand my spoken words and follow verbal commands. I think he is smart because he can figure puzzles out to get to the prize inside. I think he is very smart and I am so glad he is MY dog.

On the other hand, as the article suggests, the real reason that I love him and want him to stay in our family is that he represents all that is selfless, and caring, and nurturing. He teaches me that heart matters most. Dogs bring out the need to nurture, to care for someone else. They need to be fed, watered, let outside. They need our assistance. As well, they are loyal. They know they are needed, they stay by our side, and come when we call them because they are loyal to us. They forgive us when we are not always thoughtful to their needs over our own. Like when I leave him in the house for long extended hours when I work late and he can’t get outside. When I choose my own needs over his. Beeks teaches me forgiveness.

Sometimes we humans get too much in our own brains, thinking things through and through. We struggle to make just the right decision, the correct choice, the perfect answer. Dogs teach us to live in the present, the moment, to choose the path with heart. When I tell him to sit, to stay, he does, he trusts me. Trust is a heart filled attitude. He teaches trust. When I remember this, I am always happier, can feel my soul warming to the connection between me and the rest of the universe. Because although Beeker is an opportunistic carnivore, he does shower me with heartitude, and reminds me that I am loved and it’s easy to love as well. So maybe I can now go through life with a new mantra… WWBD…What Would Beeker Do? And see what happens.

(175) Intelegent Animals and Smart Dogs

I just finished reading the August 16th edition of TIME magazine. This is the edition with the cover story of animal intelligence, titled, “What Animals Think”. The cover story was written by veteran Times writer Jeffery Kluger. An interview with Kluger can be seen on the Charlie Rose Show or on line at: http://www.charlierose.com/guest/view/1671

I read the article and I watched the video interview and was impressed by three aspects of this article. I encourage you to read the article as well as watch the video because it is certainly thought provoking to think about what intelligence means as related to a continuum of animals other than humans. I certainly believe that my dog, Beeker is intelligent. Others would say that only human beings exhibit intelligence, and other animals are void of thought and consciousness, therefore not feeling of pain or suffering. This article and interview make a distinction between Animals ability to abstract thought and skills such as same and different. The primates showcased in this article are the Bonobos living in the Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa (who knew that the corn state could be famous for something other than corn?). A special Ape, Kanzi has learned not only to communicate using a language of 384 words, but is also able to formulate additional thoughts and words by combining and expressing himself with a large touch board of learned expressions and words. The interesting thing to me is that Kanzi was raised from birth being taught language like a mother teaches her baby language by talking to him although the baby will not respond but is learning by listening and forming relationships between spoken words and visual cues.

Also interesting is the Theory of Mind. Human children believe that they have universal knowledge until they are about three years old. For instance, A child who witnesses a person coming into a room and hiding a toy will believe that anyone else coming into the room will know where that toy is hiden since the child knows where it is hidden. The research has shown that Great apes as well as blue Jays also have this understanding. Research has also shown that many species are conscious of past, present, and future. Some animals have the ability to think on a higher level. Take dogs for instance. They have the ability to think in the abstract when they look to their caretakers and follow the pointed finger not just look at the finger that is pointing. This thinking developed from dogs’ historical life with humans over time, but still shows that dogs are able to think with forethought. Blue Jays will hide food and if the Blue Jay sees that it is being watched it will rebury the food when the watcher leaves. This takes thought and knowledge of “other” and presence in time.

What I believe is evident from just this article is that our human language superiority has missed the true complex ability of the animal world to communicate. Just suppose that all other animals were able to “speak"(communicate)to each other and it were just us humans who spoke another language. Suppose that we were just missing the boat by not being able to “speak”(communicate)the same language of animals. Therefore, the Great Ape Trust experiments are really bridging the language gap for humans more than for animals. Doctor Dolittle keeps coming to mind. In the end the understanding that most animals have consciousness, thoughts, feelings, language, and presence in the world really came home to me. Our human superiority is sometimes detrimental to the clear understanding of other beings.

(174) Volunteering for the Humane Society

This evening Brad and I went to the monthly orientation for people interested in volunteering at the Champaign County Humane Society. Some time ago, I decided that because I write this blog and express my views on supporting local animal humane societies as well as volunteering for animal groups, I proclaimed that I would be volunteering at our local humane society. Brad was totally on board and so I looked up information about doing so on line. I have shared that our society requires that all interested adult persons attend this orientation which is held once a month. Tonight was the August meeting. I met Brad at our county Library (which is new and absolutely beautiful) and attended the meeting. I worked today so met Brad there. I was extremely early so I was able to peruse the new library, and then about fifteen minutes before the meeting was to start, I went to the posted area and wait until the doors to the auditorium opened. While I waited, I noted that there I was among about 10 other women waiting for the doors to open. I saw a variety of types waiting, older moms, college students, working women, and so I too waited to get the scoop on volunteering for our shelter. I thought, OK, I’ll be able to offer something to this great agency. As time of the meeting came closer, I noted that more Brad still hadn’t arrived and yet more volunteers were arriving. At about 5:55 the doors opened and so we lined up to enter, being handed a pamphlet and an application to fill out. I took two and found a seat in the second row to wait for Brad. Soon, my partner arrived as others also came into the room. When the presentation began there were 7 rows filled with wanting volunteers, I counted about 50 people in all. Then we began with explanations of volunteer projects including adoption counselors, Kennel assistants, Art department needs, Humane Educators, Socializers for small animals, cats, and dogs, Training & Behaviorist assistants, Medical Lab assistants, Fostering, and Special Events. After a PowerPoint presentation about areas for volunteering, the process was explained. This included the necessary hour requirements and prerequisites for walking animals and interacting with them. For all interactions with the animals, volunteers must first sign up for a tour and training then for 6 weeks work as a kennel assistant which means kennel cleaning. After 6 weeks, volunteers are promoted to socializers or training or behaviorists. The Medical Lab program seemed interesting to me however, it was evident that vet tech students were their focal interest. In order to volunteer in the medical lab I would need to email the humane society to request an interview and then be interviewed to see if I would qualify for their program. In the end, we got the strong understanding that our county humane society has many volunteers (wouldn’t most agencies love that issue?) but uses this orientation to vet people from volunteering. I feel this is a shame. Brad and I would love to have a connection with the group that gave us some of the best animals we have ever had. We would love to give back to our community as well. I still believe that working with local animal group is a good thing, that volunteering aids in education of the community to the needs of our domesticated pets, but it is extremely difficult to fit my wish to volunteer into their small parameter of need.

(173) A Closet Cat

Chez is a closet cat. He loves (among other things) to get into my closet when it is open, even a little bit. Sometimes I open it just a tad to put something away and he darts in and I don’t even see him slip through. Once inside, he slinks in behind the hanging clothes, where he sits or lies until I leave and close the door behind me. If I have a feeling that he might be in the closet and I call to him I usually get a “meow” back, from somewhere up between my sweaters on the upper shelves. I think he goes into the closet for a number of reasons. Sometimes he retreats there to hide away from the commotion of the dogs. Sometimes he goes into the closet because it has a warm cozy feeling with all of the folded clothes he loves to sleep on and in between. I also think he likes go into the closet because it’s a challenge and what cat doesn’t like a challenge. The challenge is to get into the closet without me seeing him in the short time I have the door open. Then again, maybe he is practicing getting through the closet door without being seen so that he will be able to get through the outside doors undetected and more proficiently than he has previously (sneaky cat!).

In the end, Chez is a closet cat because he wants to get in and find a comfy place to do what a cat does best, sleep and hide. Soon he’s ready to come out and face the challenges of play with his buddy, Beeker, who is always looking for a party. If it has been a while since I have seen Chez (he’s usually on the bed or in a chair, or getting Beeker to play) I go looking for him and sooner or later I head to my closet looking for him. I can call him, look for him and still not see that he is right there before me, hidden, not wanting to be brought out, found. A true Closet Cat.

(172) NATGO's Documentary is Raining Newfs

Last night we were switching through channels and came across National Geographic’s newest documentary “And Man Created Dog”. This was a great documentation of the journey of dogs from wolf to domesticated dog through the last 100,000 years. Doing what only National Geographic can, the film brought historical events of man and genetic facts of the dog together to show how man’s (and women’s ) need for companionship, hunting assistant, herder, and warrior have brought the dog to our side. The film also addressed man’s need to have a protector and his ability to systematically select dogs that fit his needs by keeping those dogs that were more docile and also had those characteristics valuable for the needs of man. Two sequences that were fun and exciting to watch were the clips of the dog herders (Great Pyrenees and Border Collies) that enjoyed living with the livestock even more than living with the ranch hands. It was wonderful to see them doing the jobs they were bread to do and to learn of their genetic relationship to the wolf. Likewise the film highlighted man’s need for working dogs that assisted in water rescue. The relationship of the wolf in its tenacious ability to pursue its prey into the water has been selected into the hunter dogs like the retrievers and the Newfoundland (oh yea!). The film showed an Italian water rescue group that used owners and their Newfs to rescue people in the water, but the best part was the clip of the training and the testing of the rescue pairs (owners and Newfs). They showed the sequence of training all the way to the final test of jumping out of helicopters. Yes, the Newfs jumped out of helicopters after their owners into water to assist in the rescue of water victims! It was raining Newfs. If you get a chance to see this documentary do see it. It was fun and well done with clips of many breeds and very informative. As you can see by the picture, Beeks loved it as well. Next showing is on NATGO at 10:00 AM on the 15th (tomorrow).

(171) Party Animal

I'm so tired my brain and my feet hurt. I've worked a 40+ hour week and so am looking forward to taking it VERY easy for a few days. I thought I would just show you some more of my favorite Beeker pictures from the past. As you can see Beeker is quite the party animal. He loves having a good time! He is constantly looking for a playmate in Chez, Max or Brad and Me. I 'm so glad he's in our lives!

(170) Eating and Heating

Maxie is ravenous! He is eating like never before. Its hard for me to believe that he is the same dog that would not eat anything in his bowl and had to be hand fed. Maybe it’s the new diet he’s on (chicken, rice sweet potato, and green beans) but it could also be the Panacur sprinkles (a dewormer that must taste really good). We were called and told he didn’t test positive for any parasites. Then again maybe he feels a lot better and is finally hungry. We are still working on his back end but we feel like we are making progress. I have taken to feeding the dogs inside on these hot days. Just seems wrong to feed them out in the hot garage. I wouldn’t feel like eating in 100 degree heat if it were me so I can’t feed the dogs in that hot weather.

Speaking of hot weather, it is taking its toll on the dog’s coats. They are both shedding like there is no tomorrow. I asked some coworkers if their dogs were shedding a lot right now and they all said yes, that it seemed like they were, more than last year. Most dogs shed two times a year but wow if they aren’t really leaving a trail for me to clean up. It also seems to me that since they live in an air conditioned environment they wouldn’t be shedding like dogs that live outside. So tonight during our movie time, I will be brushing Beeker AGAIN.

On my short walk about this morning I realized that our garden is looking pretty bad. We have had two weeks of 90+ heat and even though the humidity is also high the plants need some reprieve and are looking wilted. The few flowers that we had earlier in the summer are now looking droopy or have dropped their petals. The blackeyed susans and the cone flowers are crying for a swifter death. Soon it will be winter and I will be complaining that I need the warmth of the sun in my bones. When I was a little girl and complained that I was too hot, my father told me to close my eyes and imagine the coldest day possible and I would feel better. He would verbally lead me with some descriptions of cold things to imagine and soon I would believe I was cooler. Still works on me to this day. Mind over matter, my father was so progressive. Or maybe he just wanted me to stop complaining about something that couldn’t be changed. It works well for cold in the winter also.

This has been a long week and we will be happy to have the weekend to recover. College Fall Rush is always so busy and then for three weeks it will be go, go, go…

(169) Max the Great Black Hunter

Max is the Great Black Hunter! A back yard hunter that is. This morning when Brad put the dogs out after he fed them, he looked out to see Beeker standing on the back step and Maxie nowhere to be seen. Turns out he was on the hunt. By the time Brad got the flashlight and stepped outside, he saw Maxie, drool and all, hunched over the upturned utility barrier that we have placed around the electrical and gas pipes in the dog run. For the most part this barrier works to keep the dogs from backing up into the pipes and tubes that are attached to the outside of our house. Not so, when there is a hunt to be had. Max could smell the fear, the presence of a challenge and he’s the hunter in the family. Sometimes defensive fear doesn’t register with him, which adds to his problems (but that is another story). This morning he was Thor the brave, the challenger, Max the Super Newf! What Brad discovered when he ventured out into the dark was a large half mutilated Toad. Max had smelled it, hunted it, and captured his prey, with the swiftness of a gazelle (okay if you believe that one I have a bridge to sell you). I wish I could have witnessed Max’s approach, I bet it would have been more like a three ring circus.

When Brad relayed this story to me it made me start thinking. Maybe some of his tummy troubles were caused by interactions with toads. I don’t think he would have eaten one because their spray causes a really horrible taste to dogs and if they ingest a toad I believe it can kill them but maybe Max caught one and held onto it a little too long and ingested more than his share of the toad spray. There are just so many variables and the vets approach to diagnosing him is expensive and may never identify the root cause if the issues are chronic with episodes of greater irritation. Who knows, maybe this is just our Maxie. One thing is clear. He’s feeling better on the rice, chicken, green bean, and sweet potato diet. He eats his meals without hesitation and he is having “more” normal output. Lab tests are back and there is no evidence of parasites so that is also a positive. I didn’t think that max could have a communicable parasite because he and Beeker are so bonded and Beeker doesn’t have the same symptoms.

I feel like we are slowly moving forward. Now if we could only get a reprieve from the heat and get some much needed rain. My yard and garden are looking deader than normal for August.

(168) Another Day and Tired Dogs

My dogs are tired! I don’t mean Beeker and Maxie. I mean my dogs…my feet. I’ve been working 8 hour days on my feet and moving all of the time, so I am tired tonight I want to go to sleep right now. College book rush is difficult work as difficult as any working dog knows. Brad came home two times today to check on Maxie and to see if he is feeling Okay. He was and by the time I got home at 6:30 he was quite happy and even bouncy. He and Beeker wrestled around and now are lying on my bed as I type this blog. Good thing they are happy to lie around since I have to get his finished. Brad is working late so its just me and my boys.

This morning I let Beeks out with me early to walkabout because it has been so hot (102 today)lately that I don’t have the energy to be out in the heat and know that it isn’t so good for anyone to be out in it too long. Anyway, as we were walking around we heard our neighbor’s garage door open and out came one of the girls and her mother Sandy. We love visiting with them and don’t get to visit with them as much as we’d like so whenever we hear them and we’re outside we…Beeker likes t run to the edge of the property line to wait until they invite him to some play. They did and he did. As I was getting caught up with all of the family news, Beeker was running around their yard like he does in our yard only in the neighbor’s yard he was keeping his eye on little Morgan. She was cruising around on her scooter and as fast as she was going, Beeker was keeping his eye on all of her actions. Morgan and her family have a huge swing that hangs from their front oak tree and the girls love to swing and twist as the swing. Beeker is fascinated by their ability to fly. He watches them and then runs around in front of them. Today he was interested in all of the little acorns that have fallen from the trees. He first tried eating them and then when he figured out they were not as tasty as he would have liked, he started flipping them out his mouth and then watching it roll down their drive way. He would flip it and then pounce on it and then run to chase after it then eat it and then spit it out again in a different direction. Too funny and we all watched him create his own version of fetch. Juli has told me of her dog JesseJames’ creative games. Jesse takes a ball or toy and drops it from a top step and then chases it down the stairs to see if he can beat it to the bottom. Then up he goes to try again. I love to see dogs and their creative abilities in problem solving.

This reminds me that I’m looking for a copy of Time Magazine’s cover story about how animals think. Have you read it? I didn’t get a copy and since it is a weekly magazine I missed it by the time I heard about the article. If you have seen/read it, it should be an interesting discussion of the development of language.

Well, more work tomorrow and Max is still convalescing. We haven’t heard yet about the sample Brad took in for tests today. As I said he was excited to see me and has nudged me twice to go outside without results so I have no clue what is going on but he is eating again and seems happy. I’ll take that!

(167) Maxie's Goin to the Vet Today

My dog has a security knot. Beeks has taken to carrying around the knots that use to be attached to ropes that he has long since chewed. We’ve been calling them his security knots because he looks for them when he needs something in his mouth. Silly dogs.

Maxie’s going to the Veterinarian for “observation”. Saturday evening we started noticing that Maxie was not pooping anymore but just having blood laced diarrhea Brad made the decision to take him today to see what was going on. I convinced Brad that Max should be put on a bland diet so we opted for the traditional BRAT’s diet. At first Max liked it, then within a few meals he wasn’t eating at all. HE continued to drink lots of water and his energy was(and is) still normal for a Newfie.

So here’s the Maxie update… The Veterinarian that we usually go to was (of course) on vacation. The second vet that we like was (of course) on vacation so we got Dr. Chernok. Besides the fact that Dr. Chernok looked like he was 12 years old, he was knowledgeable enough to take on Maxie. He must have been a first year Veterinarian because Brad said he painfully explained every detail that he also typed out for us to take home with Max. Here I will only give the long story short. Maxie has Clostridial Colitis. Or Colitis for short. Duh! Colitis is the technical term for irritated or infected colon. Max has too much bacteria in his colon and it is irritated to the point of bleeding. The real question is why? There are probably a million reasons that his colon could be irritated but the chances of it being a couple of things are better than others. It could be stress, or worms, or other microbes or parasites, or infection. Further down the line of possibilities is an obstruction which tore the lining and created an infection. Maxie’s physical exam didn’t show anything so basically he’s in good shape. It’s just his colon. Beeker and Chez aren’t ill so I don’t really suspect its something communicable.

Here’s what Dr. Chernok did and what the next steps will be… He took stool samples which came back with the high bacteria levels. He looked for Girardia and it was negative. We are taking in a stool sample tomorrow for the worm check. For now we are to feed Maxie a bland diet (right on Juli!) of rice and chicken and sweet potato. And we are to give Maxie a antibiotic two times a day to protect him against an infection. If the worm sample comes back negative he will then have to do a blood panel to see if its Max’s pancreas or an obstruction (ultrasound). Oh Joy! As you may have already guessed this whole process is not cheap and well, there goes any vacation we had thought about going on in the near future! As Brad left this morning I kiddingly told him just to take his checkbook and hand it to the clinic.

When Brad fed Maxie his antibiotic pill this evening, Max took it in his mouth like a dutiful dog and then spit it out about 6 feet. Brad said he laughed so hard then jammed it down his throat so it would stay down. He's still got his sense of humor.

(166) You Just Never Know

Nothing is as easily as it seems when it comes to pets and dogs in particular. Max has gone from not hungry to …well not good. Brad is going to call the Veterinarian’s office tomorrow. We thought that we could just wait it out, in fact, my sister who has been mentoring us in this challenge sent us an article that says that diarrhea is common to dog and that dogs often have diarrhea to purge their system when they eat things that aren’t good for them . Think sticks, and rocks and bark. That seems more like Beeker’s dietary cuisine than Max’s. Max seems like he wants to eat and he has enough energy to play with Beeker but he still is not processing his food. Newfoundlands’ are notorious for their high threshold of pain so we can’t really tell if he is in pain or not. We will hopefully find out what is going on with his system. After a day of fasting we will add chicken to his rice. I have to say that we are feeling so sad about Max’s situation. He has some blood in his stool that can be a result of stress, or any one of the other conditions that we have discussed earlier. Heat, diet, ulcer, or disease. We don’t want to jump the gun about what is going on with him but also want to be prepared for whatever is coming our way. Max’s heredity is not really known to us and if you look at him you know that his breeding was not a priority, but he is now a great loyal pet and housemate to Beeker. So for now I can say that we don’t really know what is going on with Max but hopefully by tomorrow night we will have talked to the Veterinarian and have some idea what our options are. We love this dog and hope that we will be able to get through this challenge as well.
The picture is of Max and Beeker this evening waiting for their favorite snack, an ice cube.

(165) Another Day with the Dogs and Grillin's the Best

It’s been a really comfortable day today and we have tried to get outside somewhat with the temperatures in the low 80’s.
This has also been a dog weekend. We can tell the dogs are happy to have us both home and staying here with them. When we got up this morning Beeker was so excited he jumped around in circles. During our breakfast of cinnamon coffee cake, the dogs lay at our feet, happy that we were near. Later after household chores, we took the dogs with us on town errands. They love riding in the car with us. They love being where ever we are. This evening we decided to grill out and one of our favorite things to do is to set up the grill and then as the food is cooking we like to play with the dogs out in front of the house with them off leash. Beeks has always been good at staying in the yard and just curzin around with us. I like to toss the ball to him and try to get him to return to me with it. He loves to run after it but not very good at bringing it back. Max’s mission is always to try to find grass to chew. Tonight was no different. I had some plants to plant up in the front yard by the circle and both Max and Beeker went with me. Maxis listened very well and both were super obedient with their recalls when I was finished and ready to return to the grilling area.

The Maxie End report. So far not so good with Maxie’s new bland diet. We are continuing to feed him a modified BRAT’s diet, which now consists of Bananas, apples, peanut butter, rice, and green beans. He is now eating about 7/8th of what we give him and yet he isn’t processing it very well. I’m concerned about it. Truth is his only symptom is his output. In a few days we will add tuna to his diet. Hopefully that will help. Something’s gotta give. He has good energy for a Newfie and so it’s just the processing that isn’t working so well.
We don’t really have any big plans for tomorrow. We have talked about taking the dogs for a walk which will be good for all of us. The weather report is that the heat should be coming back as soon as Monday so we should take advantage of the decent weather while we have it. Our plan is to go out in the morning so that it isn’t too hot for Max. We don’t want to make it worse that it is already.

(164) Newfie Diet

I’m exhausted! I’m overwhelmed and I’m tired of poor Maxie’s digestive issues. And how come sister’s know the right ways to do things and always have good questions that make you think more that you really wanted to in the first place. Kudo’s to my sister who has been leading me in a thoughtful way to understand that Max’s digestive issues may not be breed specific but individual dog specific. All last night and most of today I have spent on the computer reading review of different dog foods and the specific needs of Newfoundland dogs. Although Max is our third Newfoundland he is the first one to have a sensitive digestive system. When I read on a Newfie website that Newfoundland had special breed specific dietary needs I jumped on board. I read that because they historically lived in an Icelandic environment and lived on Seal meat, they need a diet rich in seafood. Seafood has high concentrations of Taurine which is an amino acid. Newfies have a higher risk of developing a Taurine deficiency than other breeds and Taurine is important for protection of the muscles including the heart. Nefoundland’s also need a higher amount of Omega 3’s where other breeds need equal amounts of Omega 3’s and Omega 6’s. Guess what a good source of Omega 3 is? You guessed it. Fish Oil, commonly found in Fish! The list goes on and on including higher levels of Iodine and other ingredients. A good Newfie website is:

http://newf-friends.blogspot.com/2010/01/nutrition-and-your-newfoundland.html

You can imagine that when I was through reading this site I started looking on line at the dog food that Max and Beeker are currently on and trying to compare it to the Newfie’s nutritional needs. First thing I discovered was that the dog food of choice is one that is made in Canada, and is a no grain Salmon food. Also the closest available retailer is in Bloomington. I have no idea what it costs but I imagine that it is expensive due to its high Salmon, low filler content.
Second, I talked to my sister (who, I remind you went through this exact problem with JJ), and she taught me that it is not only important to look at the ingredients in the dog food but to look at the ingredients that come before the fat content. A dog food may have 50 ingredients but only the ones that are listed before the fat content are significant. Anything after the fat (or oil), which is used for binding ingredients will be in the food in a significant quantity. So the main ingredients are the ones that come before the fat or oil.

Thirdly, meal is better or higher concentrated than just meat. For instance, chicken is less concentrated than chicken meal because the water has been extracted out and so is more concentrated. So if the label says meal you are getting a higher amount than just meat.

After all of this information I was ready to compare dog foods and to look for a better food for Maxie. I compared our current dog food, with the same brand but different mix (ie: salmon), and Juli’s dog food which had a number of the ingredients that were recommended by the Newfie website. Having figured this much out, I again talked with Juli about then challenges of obtaining a good food and about the cost of a specific need dog food. THEN she asked me the question that turned me around in circles. She asked me if our previous dogs, Belle and Beau had ever had digestive issues and what type of dog food we fed them. I had to admit that they had not had issues AND we had always fed them on a dog food that I had viewed on the “bad” dog food list. So she said quietly, “maybe Max’s issue is not a breed issue but a personal individual dog issue. Maybe Max just has a sensitive stomach and you need to just find out what he can tolerate and then supplement an average dog food with his specific needs.” Darn sisters! She is of course right. So we are back to square one. She also noted that Max is a picky eater on top of it so he is capable of picking the green beans out of the rice. That’s what he did this morning for Brad. So tonight, we’re back to the BRAT’s diet in a way. I’m giving Max only a few items to see if he can tolerate those items then we will get him a dog kibble and supplement it with those items that he likes and like him back. Tonight he ate all of his dinner which consisted of rice, beans, sweet potato and peanut butter. He was licking his lips like the Old Maxie! Yea!

(163) Dog O'Meter

Brad usually feeds the dogs in the AM and so feeding Max his new diet this morning was his gig. He said he prepared Max’s bowl with some kibble on the bottom, then left over rice, then some more kibble and green beans. This wasn’t what we talked about last night but in the end it may do what we wanted and bulk up his diet with more fiber. I will make him some rice this morning so he can eat it for his dinner tonight. In the end, Max did eat what Brad gave him for Breakfast so I guess that is a good thing.

For Dinner this evening Max had green beans and rice. I made the rice before I went to work so it was all made and ready to eat when it was his dinner time. I decided to give him green beans in addition to the rice because the beans are just fiber content and innocuous. Max needed no prodding to eat and he left only a little rice, maybe two tablespoons full. As I was letting the dogs back into the house, I noticed that Max came from Beeker’s bowl. If I didn’t know Beeker so well I might have thought that Max had eaten some of Beeker’s food, however I know Beeker eats two times as fast as Max does so there was not chance that even one crumb was left for Max to find.

We were just visited by our teenage neighbors. I was sitting here typing away and Max started barking (nothing new if Brad isn’t home from work yet) and I tried to get Max and then Beeker to quiet down, come into the room, without success. Then the barking got louder and more serious,(read more excited). I finally realized that someone was coming to our door. As both dogs were getting more excited and Max was lunging at the door, I realized that I was going to have to answer the door and so got up and headed out to try to calm the masses and kennel the dogs. One look and I saw that it was the two girls from across the street, one of whom watches and feeds the dogs when we are out of town. Max knows these girls but he always gets freaked out when someone comes to the door. He’s not so polite at first but if I tell him to “kennel up”, he will go without any problem. Then I can answer the door.
So after kenneling up the dogs in the laundry room, I invited my guests in and was introduced to Amy’s new beau who was fairly wigged out by the bear at the front door when they arrived. They asked to see Max and Beeker so I gave them my regular routine about meeting Max initially. That is, no looking at him, no talking directly to him and being calm in his presence. This really helps lower Max’s anxiety and he calms down so much quicker. Max came calmly back with me and then went straight for smelling all three of them, remembering Amy and her sister Becca. However he was really interested in the new beau because, as it turned out he has a dog himself. Max is quick! After a few minutes of remembering smells he was ready to be petted and wormed his way to each of their hands. Even Becca who is somewhat anxious about big dogs, especially Max, petted him (when he wasn’t looking of course)! Beeks knows how to work a crowd. He can get his nose into anyone’s hand or up anyone’s shorts (thanks Amy). I think Amy likes to tell her friends that she is Max’s dog sitter because he is so big and can be so intimidating if you don’t know him or not confident around him. She just loves him and it impresses her friends (especially boyfriends) when she introduces them to Max. Max so wanted the new boyfriend to pet him and kept leaning up against him. He did finally pet Max with caution but I think in the end, Max won him over. Maybe I should loan out Max for a Boyfriend Meter (or Meeter). Hummm…this could be profitable!!!!!

(162) Changing Menus

Max has issues. His diet is off and he’s not eating very much. Since we got back from our last trip he really has been holding back from eating. He has always had loose stools but now its bad. Maybe it is worse now because he got warn out swimming and maybe its because its been too hot out and maybe its because we just put his flee medicine on him. It could be anything. His energy level seems alright but we’re talking pudding. Having said that, we’ve decided to address this by altering his diet.

On the advice of my sister, who has gone through this with JesseJames, we are going to take Maxie off his regular dog food and start feeding him by one food at a time for two days. We will start by feeding him rice. Remember the old BRATs diet? Bananas, Rice, Apples, Tea? Well this is what I used to give the boys when they were sick. Anyway, two days of rice, to see if this will be digested, then if it is we will give him chicken, a protein. After the chicken we will give him sweet potato or green beans. Hopefully we will see an improvement. Then if everything so far is going good and Max is tolerating everything with good results we will take into consideration his protein and vegetable tolerance and choose a new dog food that will reflect those needs. We believe Beeker can tolerate anything that Maxie can tolerate. The food that Max and Beeker have been eating was recommended by their trainer. It is heavy on proteins and lower on grains. On line, I looked up what was in their dog food and along with that I read some real concern written by owners with sick dogs because of the use of their dog food. That certainly makes me think. I’m thinking that their current dog food may not be the correct food for him any longer. Maxie needs more grains. We will see, hopefully with positive results. I’ll let you know.

(161) Strange Dog Eating Habits are Hard to Change

Sometimes dogs are so strange and the human mind has a difficult time trying to make sense out of their behaviors. Take dogs eating habits for example. Beeker will chow down on any thing he can get into his mouth. He will not only eat his dinner he looks for sticks, bark and leaves to supplement his diet. When he was younger he would eat all of his chew toys as well. But for the most part he goes directly to his food bowl and eats it all down in a matter of minutes. Not so with Maxie. When Max first came to live with us he ate extremely fast just like Beeker. He was somewhat under weight and he needed to gain in the weight to fit his Newfie profile. However, once he did gain the weight and once he got a little older he started being a fuss budget. We first started noticing that he had strange eating habits when we traveled with him to Montana a few years ago. To be honest it was not the ideal situation for the dogs but like most dogs we figured they would adapt. Beeker did adapt and didn’t miss a meal. Max started refusing to eat, turning away from his food and we let him, then we worried that he wasn’t eating so we tried putting a little something enticing into his food. That worked for a while but soon Brad was hand feeding him just to get him to eat a little something. At some point he just stopped eating every meal and only ate every other meal. When we returned home he started eating again and now whenever we travel he usually only eats if Brad hand feeds him and about every other meal. Tonight Max refused to eat his dinner and we are home. So I’m wondering what’s up with him. At first I thought that he was refusing to eat because it is so hot here today and the garage (where they eat) is even hotter. I know I’m not interested in eating when it is hot outside. Then I thought that maybe Max is not feeling well. Since we got home from out travels to Indiana, he has been a little lethargic. I thought it was because he was extremely exhausted. But yesterday he sneezed a few times and so now I’m thinking he might have a dog cold. He still wrestles with Beeks but doesn’t move around a lot. Okay, he doesn’t move around a lot anyway.

My sister is dog sitting for a King Charles Cavalier dog this week and she called me yesterday to ask about the strange eating behavior of this tiny dog. Turns out that this dog started out eating normally but quickly decided that it could/would not eat unless Juli was standing right next to her while she ate. If Juli walks away the dog will stop eating. If Juli just walks by it will eat a few bites. What’s up with that? It’s true that Max is more likely to start eating if someone stands right next to him while he eats but I just fill his bowl and put green beans in under the food. This sort of primes him and then he will start eating. Except for tonight when he plain refused to eat even with green beans hiding in the bowl. When I took the bowl inside the house into the laundry room he did eat some of his food but not all. So what’s going on?

Here’s my best guess, and it is a guess because I have no idea how a dog thinks. Temple Grandin (Hallelujah) suggests that dogs are action and vision specific. This means that they see things differently in every direction. For instance, remember my issue with Beeker and the “bed up” command? He did fine if I stood next to him and gave him the command but wouldn’t follow my verbal command if I was sitting on the bed. Dogs can’t generalize from one behavior to the next. Long story short, if a dog gets something in its mind it is difficult to undo that behavior. Overriding a behavior is easier than undoing it. It might be as specific as feeding Max his dinner in a different bowl in a different location to get him to eat. Who knows why Maxie or Trudy(Juli’s dog guest) have strange eating behaviors but I would wager that there once was something that made it feel uncomfortable (strange environment, a thunderstorm, another dog) and the only way it feels comfortable in some instances is to have someone around when it’s time to eat, or to eat in a certain way. I’m sure we humans behave strangely to the dog world too.

(160) Missing Me or Individuality at Its Best

I think my cat missed me. While we were gone on our weekend trip to Indiana, we left Chez on his own in the house with his water and food filled to the brim. In fact when we got home and checked his food and water supply, both were still half full. However, he must have really missed having us around and me in particular because he won’t leave me alone. He met me at the door when we returned last night with his usual loud meow. Since he has some Siamese in him he talks/meows to us often. From that point on, he followed me where ever I went in the house, weaving in and out between my legs, which had the desired effect of tripping me up so that I have to recognize his presence. Soon, Chez starts rubbing up against my arms when I try to sleep, against my legs when I try to go to the bathroom, and even as I stepped into the shower. Funny thing is that he wants to be near us and independent at the same time. He’s like a walking fur muff. He’s shedding so much that I get a hand full of white puffed out hair every time I pet him or he rubs up against me. So I fixed him! I decided to groom him, to brush him so good that he couldn’t wait to get out of my way. Believe it or not, between Chez and Beeker I combed a half bag of hair.

Here’s a little something that I learned about dogs the other day. A dog’s nose has little crevices and creases and little lines that make it as individual as a person’s finger tips. That was a new one on me. I did a comparison of Max and Beeker’s noses. They are both black so that isn’t different. But… They are completely different.

(159) Everything a Dog Could Ask For and More

What’s the definition of a door? It’s what dogs always want to be on the other side of!

We just left southern Indiana where we spent the whole day playing in the sun. From swimming to boating to walking and even shopping we did it all. Brad and I got up early this morning to take the dogs out swimming at the beach. This was only the second time both dogs have gone swimming in Lake Lemon and we were curious as to the extent of their abilities at lake swimming. Swimming in the ocean is quite different than lake swimming. In the ocean, the dogs mostly ran into the wake and then back out. They loved running up and down the ocean shore when we were in South Carolina but swimming at the beach in southern Indiana was a different kind of swimming. This amounted to actual swimming ability. Max was a natural. Although we don’t know his lineage, he must have swimmer genes in him. Newfoundland’s are known for their swimming ability and most take to the water as second nature. However not all Newfoundland dogs like or are able in the water. One of our past Newfies, Beau didn’t like the water and was not comfortable at all when we tried to get him to swim. Max is completely different. He is as graceful as any swimming dog. His long hair floated out as he paddled along. Newfies don’t actually dog paddle like other dogs. They do more of a breast stroke. Watching Maxie swim was like watching canoe or a duck in the water. Hardly any water was churning as he moved out and around in the water. He glided around us. Beautiful!

Beeker was a completely different kettle of fish. First of all, Beeker came readily out to me in the water, but having said that, he panicked as he swam towards me and splashed water up with every stoke. As the water splashed in front of him he tried to bite it. After alming down he relaxed into swimming strokes and looked more like an Otter with his long sleek body. As he reached the place where I was standing (chest deep in lake water) he again started splashing with large strokes, grabbing towards me where I was positioned. He grabbed at me like a monkey with his front paws. But he was swimming! Beeks uses a good dog paddle when he is relaxed and calm.

I'm sure you can imagine the whole scene at the beach… Beeker swimming out to me and back to shore with somewhat frantic strokes, happily back on the beach to swim back out again to me, as Maxie slowly cruised around so light in the water. I loved it and so did the dogs! What a great way to wear them out. Later when Brad’s sister and crew (kids and dogs) arrived Brad and his dad (just recovering from a knee replacement) took the younger boys out in the pontoon boat around the lake while Sis and I took the dogs (4 in all) back down to the beach for another swim. Beeker and Max got a great work out!

After realizing I was in the water with my phone in my pocket we left the beach and returned to the house. After settling the dogs we decided to drive to Nashville, Indiana, an artist colony now a shopper’s paradise of trendy artsy shops to die for! I love looking around and hardly ever buy but hey, what’s not to love about shopping! Back home we helped Brad’s mom (still recovering from a femer reconstruction) fix a great summer meal of sweat corn, tomatoes with mozzarella and basil, and a grilled pork roast! It was a fantastic ending to a great weekend with our pups! Both dogs are now down for the count and sleeping like dogs on a hot afternoon (at 7pm its still 86 degrees). I bet they won’t wake until we’re home. Perfect!