And baby makes three!

[MegF.]

That's great Janine!! I had jackets on my ridgebacks today while my friend and I shoveled manure into his truck to take back home for his garden. Both were shivering even with the jackets on....Ona finally resorted to curling up in old hay at the edge of the manure pile to try to warm up....Akilah just sat there moaning at me and shivering...she wanted the couch, the fireplace and TWO blankets! What wimps!

 

[diamondlil]

Turkey giblets! From my local butcher, about 20 kilos of lovely meat for the dogs at a good price. With a delivery of tripe and mince in theory the filled-up freezer should last the dogs a month. Flash is now on 3lbs a day compared to the 1lb Rosie and Bertie eat.
Flash likes to 'help' when I unload the dryer, running off if he can with my socks. As I was washing the dogs' bedding I let him, and Bertie joined in too. I don't think they are quite ready to be service dogs!

 

[diamondlil]

So where is all that food Flash eats going? Well he was starting to look a bit ribby as he's going through another growth spurt. He's now 22" at the shoulder so I'm guessing he's going to end up about greyhound size if he doesn't slow down soon. Some people on a sighthound group on the devil think he may have a dash of collie in him, especially after I told them about his new habits. He's become an almost obsessive 'fetcher', repeatedly bringing toys or balls for me to kick (if I'm busy cooking or washing up) or throw for him. He'll eye toys intently, can already catch them out of the air, if I won't play he'll throw them up and catch them himself!
Today he's a stinky puppy, because he found some fresh fox-poop....

 

[MegF.]

He's growing that's for sure! Ona would not touch tripe or any other organ meat unless it was somehow hidden in the only two meats she would eat...well three....pork, chicken or turkey...too much trouble! Make sure that Flash doesn't get obsessed with balls and such. I spend a lot of time working with dogs who get toy obsessed. Make sure he watches you and not the ball when it's being thrown. No throwing it until he looks to you. Set boundaries and start and end the game on your rules. When you say enough it should be enough.....

 

[insomniac101]

Rosie and Bertie are going to be in a book about working terriers!

Congrats; that's awesome! I enjoy your photos, as always!

Kathy

 

[diamondlil]

Holy snakes-in-the-poop! Flash has a new hobby of eating cat and fox poop, which of course I've tried to discourage. So this morning out came a runny poop (unusual thanks to their meat and bones diet) with about 6 wriggling horrors. Closer examination showed they were roundworms, so off to the vets.
Flash is now a whopping 16.7kgs, all 3 dogs got treatment for the worms and Flash also got his microchip without so much as a squeak. I'm happy to say Rosie didn't poop in the vets office today, but felt the need to do a little wee in there anyway. As always Bertie was super excited to see the vet and the vet nurses and wanted to stay there visiting his friends

 

[MegF.]

Yick! Glad they got caught in time. I usually walk my dogs for 15 minutes or so outside before going to the vets so that they have time to calm down and to pee/poop before going in.

 

[diamondlil]

We walk there, and also go outside to wait and toilet if it's busy and a long wait. Rosie just seems to have got into the habit of 'going' in the consulting room!

 

[diamondlil]

Well now I'm a bit cross. The new harnesses arrived, and they are far too small despite having measured the dogs and ordered the recommended sizes. I was going to send them back for a refund, but instead I'm donating them to a greyhound rescue for their fund-raising auctions. They'd fit a terrier but no good at all for a deep-chested dog.
So I'll have to take the dogs to somewhere like Petsmart and actually get harnesses fitted.
Today we had a lovely long walk in the winter sunshie, down to the estuary. The tide was out so the dogs are absolutely filthy! They were mostly dried off by the time we got home, so I'll brush out the rest of the mud later

 

[diamondlil]

After the mud dried out it brushed out nicely, so thankfully I didn't have to wrestle the dogs into having a bath! Bertie got a going over with the clippers, it's wet and mild mostly at the moment and this will give time for him to grow his coat a bit if it decides to snow here next month, and means he'll dry out quicker in the meantime. Rosie's coat is blown, so next weekend I'll have to strip her out a bit.

 

[diamondlil]

Amazing progress with Berties recall this week. I've generally spent more time in positive training, lots of little training sessions, indoors teaching all 3 dogs to high 5 and outside short lead sessions working on no pulling, fewer long walks because it's been tipping down with rain. There's a covered car park I've started using as shelter so we could stay out longer without getting soaked through. So when we got a window in the weather where the dogs could run, Bertie actually kept coming back for cuddles and play instead of flying off!

 

[diamondlil]

At the vets with Rosie this morning. She managed to wolf down some nasty old KFC at the park yesterday, vomited a couple of times last night, with the last one being blood-stained. On this morning's walk she was very depressed, not at all her usual cheerful self, then produced 2 loose bloody stools. So off to the vet with a pot of stool sample. He couldn't find any signs of obstruction or perforation and thinks it's colitis or gastroenteritis, so she got some shots and we're back up there again in the morning.
Rosie usually powers up the road to the vets because she loves the fuss she gets there, instead it was like walking an elderly dog and I literally had to drag her in there. She's had snuggle time on the sofa, has roused herself to shout at the boys for disturbing her, then insisted on coming out when I walked them. At snail's pace. Until she caught the whiff of a rat and suddenly discovered the energy to nearly pull my arm off trying to get it! And then had a very lively time out walking, as if nothing is wrong. Back home, and she's taken over the sofa again.....

 

[tsst]

Hope she is ok J9. Get well Rosie!

 

[MegF.]

Hope she feels better soon Janine...I would worry about pancreatitis with a sudden intake of all that fat and such...

 

[diamondlil]

I'm glad to report that Rosie has enjoyed much sympathy and cuddling again on the sofa, finding the strength to beat Bertie up when he tried to sit near her! She's been drinking and peeing fine and is most cross with me over fasting her. No vomiting at all, no more stools passed yet. We'll be up the vets first thing in the morning for another check up and another set of jabs.
As well as the rotten fried chicken, she begged a whole load of dog biscuits off a dog walker, which she promptly vomited up when we got home, the blood stained vomit was later. It doesn't sound like much, but as she's been raw fed all her life I'm wondering if the (large) dog biscuits were part of the problem too. I have asked the man before not to treat my dogs when he was letting them jump all over him, now at least he makes them sit nicely. Looks like I'll have to take some dehydrated liver or similar so he can give that if he wants to treat them.

 

[MegF.]

I give people what I want the dogs to eat. They eat Taste of the Wild which is a wild game based grain free kibble...so they get ONE kibble from someone....When I was taking Akilah with Summer to Petsmart for the adoptions, I would feed smaller breakfast portions because everyone there gave treats...EVERYONE!! My dog became very pushy since all that came up to the pen gave out goodies....especially the petsmart employees...the training there is pure positive so walking around with food 24/7 is true of all the people there or taking classes there...It was good for Summer to help her get to know people but bad for my normal dogs...they learned behaviors they don't have at home...hated that! Akilah would practically walk the pen across the floor if she saw one of the employees! Blue shirt...equals FOOD!!! YAY!

 

[diamondlil]

Rosie picked at raw chicken breast last night, but was perky enough today to come on a long walk down to the river and run around with the boys. Then..........TRIUMPH! a normal poop! She pretty much stayed out of the mud, unlike the boys who got stinky dirty.

 

[MegF.]

Sounds like she's on the road to recovery...

 

[diamondlil]

In between the wild and wet weather here, which means trudging around in wellies getting soaked throug almost daily, there have been some brighter days. Flash seems to be slowing down his growth rate, he's 8 months now so I'm letting him exercise a little bit harder.

 

[diamondlil]

As Flash has been very keen to play 'Fetch', it's had the knock-on effect of meaning that instead of bolting off away, Bertie is joining in the fun and his recall is really improving!