To eat or not to eat...

Everyone needs food, and feeding a dog should be reasonably easy. I think consumers have a right to expect dog food to be safe and nutritional. Right? As a doggy-mom, I want to be able to go to the grocery store and pick up food for both me and my pets that is safe and healthy.

Unfortunately, the truth is much more complicated. Dogs, for example, can't really digest corn and wheat. What's the number one ingredients in many brands of dog food? Corn and wheat. Even worse; they contain byproducts of chicken and cows, and those byproducts could be anything.

Many dog foods contain dyes. It's smart; we humans think the food contains more high quality meat if it looks red. The food can be of low quality, but if it looks healthy, we tend to think it is. Some people say dogs can't see colors at all. It's not entirely truthful - they see some colors but not all of them. Either way, I don't think my dogs care what color their food has. They care about the smell and the taste.

Some dyes seem harmless, but others are closely linked to diseases. Examples: Red #40 is linked to lymphomas, Blue #2 to brain tumors, and Yellow #5 to allergies, thyroid tumors and lymphomas. Yummie!

I've been really ambiguous about what to feed my dogs. Every time I've thought I've given them really good food something there has been a big recall or other scare that convinced me I was killing them. (I'm sure you've heard all the reports about chicken treats leading to kidney failure, salmonella in foods, and so on.) I gave them Taste of the Wild for a while and thought I was home free, but then they had a huge recall of contaminated pet food.

After the Taste of the Wild fiasco I gave up and went back to buying pet food from the grocery store. I figured Beneful might not be good for them, but they have to eat something, and at that point in time, all the major food manufacturers were wrestling with quality problems. Look at this pet food recall list and you'll see what I mean. There is also this list of recent recalls.

They've been chewing Beneful for quite a while, until we got a new foster dog. This food didn't sit well with her at all. She ate it and thought it was yummie, and threw it all up after about half an hour. Nothing else was wrong with the dog - it had to be the food. I moseyed off to the pet store, determined to find something better to feed her.

There are too many types of pet food to choose from. I poked some bags and pulled a couple out of the shelf to read the backside text. Fortunately, someone saw my confusion and came over to help. We talked about pet food for a little while, and I was about to leave with a bag. Then, he asked, "What kind of dog is it?"

I said, "It's a Border Collie. Or, well, a Border Collie mix."

The young man's face brightened. "Oh, a dog like that deserves real food."

I thought, "Don't all dogs deserve real food?" but nodded and agreed. I wanted to know what the real food might be. He recommended a brand called Orijen. Compared to the other brands it's expensive, but the table of contents doesn't have any of the weird stuff. Also, since it's a high quality food, the doggies need less of it than they do of the cheaper brands.

I've been feeding it for about a week and a half now. Thus far, the dogs love it, and all of them seem to feel great. I read a review of it. It said: "...a kibble containing a notable amount of meat.What’s more, this dog food is grain-free. There’s no corn, wheat or soy. And no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives. Bottom line? Orijen Adult is a meat-based dry dog food using an abundance of meat and fish meals as its main sources of animal protein, thus earning the brand 5 stars.Enthusiastically recommended."

Compared to feeding them corn meal, wheat, and meat byproducts... I don't care if the bag costs five or even ten dollars more than the other foods.

If you want to read more about pet food, I strongly recommend that you visit dogfoodadvisor.com.

Doggie ears

None of my dogs have ears this big, but they all have ears. LOL. Two of them groom each other and don't need much maintenance. I wondered how their ears could always be so clean, and then I saw them clean each other. It's really really cute.

The American Eskimo I mentioned a couple of days ago gets really dirty ears though.It's kinda icky.

I clean them when I wash him, but it doesn't seem to be enough. Apart from it looking bad when his otherwise white coat gets dark, it's bad for his health too. They can get all kinds of bacteria and yeast and stuff in the ears. He's never shown any problems, but I don't want to gamble with his health. Thus, the weekly dance goes around the house. Doggie first and mommy right behind him, trying, "C'mon boy, I'm just gonna clean your ears, it's not THAT bad!" (Like he would believe me when there's a safe spot somewhere under the bed. Yeah, right...)

After my success with the Deidre's K9 shampoo, I decided to try the ear cleaner. He doesn't love it - mommy comes to pour something cold and strange into his ears - but it works pretty well. It's cheap - about $4 for a bottle that lasts forever - it smells good, and it's easy to apply from the bottle. The struggle is mercifully short. We haven't quite gotten the routine in yet, but it's getting there. :-)

Fetch it, you silly human!

Most dogs I've known have liked to play fetch. I never had to teach them - I tossed something, they ran after it, and brought it back. One dog in my past loved when I tossed pine cones. If it landed in a big pile of other pine cones, he'd sniff them until he found the one I threw, and he wouldn't give up until he had the one that smelled of me.

Right now, I have four dogs in the house. If I throw anything they all look at me like I'm an idiot. "What? You threw it, you pick it up." What are the odds of four dogs not wanting to play?

Someone said to put something the doggies want on a frisbee, like a little peanut butter on the edge. Thus far, they're not impressed. They want the peanut butter, sure, but is it really worth the effort of running? Naaah. They'll just sit in the grass and watch me make a fool of myself instead.

Dangers for doggies

I wrote about foods dangerous for dogs the other days. Since then, I found a great article about it on the ASPCA website. They have some dangers listed that I missed in my blog, like Avocado, Yeast Dough, and Xylitol. Check out their page for the full list!

Plexidor in glass?

Remember I talked about the Plexidor the other day, and my reluctance to make a hole in the wall? I've been thinking about putting it in the laundry room. That's the one room in the house made of wood, and going through the wall there seems much easier than breaking through a stone wall.

My hubby said, "There's nothing but air in this wall, you know that, right?" I'm not too worried about that. My door isn't a wall kit, but there's a wall tunnel available, that covers the edges.It would look something like this from the outside... (The door is on the inside, so one can lock it. It took me a while to figure that out, LOL!)

We still haven't installed it, but we're getting there. Turns out one can put a Plexidor in a glass door, or even a window. Looks kinda cool, but I still think I'll go for the laundry room... (One can put them through a door too, probably easier than through the wall, but our house doesn't have a back door, and installing one seems like a lot of work.)

I know at least one of my dogs are used to dog doors from the rescue, and if she'll go through it the others will probably follow.

I'll keep you updated on my  progress!

Tooth-brush time

It's funny how bright and white a puppy's teeth are, and how quickly they get all yellow when the puppy isn't a puppy anymore. Have you tried brushing a dog's teeth? Fun, isn't it? Best case scenario, the tooth brush is immediately transformed into a chewie toy... LOL!!!

One of my dogs is really good about it. She doesn't exactly pull her lips up and help, but she sits still and lets me handle her teeth. The American Eskimo I keep mentioning here on the blog doesn't love it, but he accepts it. My youngest dog runs for his life and hides.

I used to have some doggy tooth-gel that worked really well. I've had the same bottle for about two years, and by now, I have no idea where I got it. I think it's a product sample from work. With this well of puppy tooth health running dry, it was time to try something else.

Tooth spray sounded good in theory. The container says, "Gently pull back the lips and spray directly on the largest area of tartar." I tried it on my good girl, and she waited patiently while I pulled her lip up and fumbled with the bottle. Then, a spray of strange, cold, minty fluid hit her teeth and gums, and she didn't want to play anymore. The spray smells great, if I put it on my fingers and let them lick it up they love it, but there's a surprise factor with it that doesn't work well on my dogs.

Over to tooth wipes. Again, the good girl got to be test subject, just because she's the easiest to handle. The wipes look like a little sheet of fabric or cotton wool or something, and they smell nice and minty. I held her lip up and rubbed the wipe against her teeth. She didn't mind at all. Over to the American Eskimo. He didn't love it, but he didn't run away, so that was kind of a success. Youngest dog hid, of course.

There is also a dental chew I haven't tried yet. My favorite dog supplement store has been out of stock for ages, but as soon as they get it in, I'll give it a try. I bet that'll work on all of them.

When it comes to the results, thus far, the gel has been superior. The wipes come in as a good second place. They make the teeth really nice and white, but it needs to be applied more often than the gel. I can't wait to try the chews, see how they do.

Plexidor Dog Doors

I've been thinking about putting in a dog door. Actually, I already have the door, I just haven't gotten over the step of making a hole in the wall yet. Looks kinda good though, don't you think? It's a Plexidor.

Mine is an old model, it's blue, and they don't make blue doors anymore, but it will look fabulous on the house. (Once I get over the mental glitch of making a hole in the wall, that is.)

The frame is made from aluminium, it has a lock and key, and a steel plate that can be screwed on to make sure no racoons or thieves or anything enters the house. I like that the door halves are see through. I don't like black rubber flaps - this looks much better. It is the only door I know of that is APA Approved.

I'll show photos and say something about how the doggies like it once it's installed.

Doggie-wash

Do you think bathing dogs is fun? Me neither. It usually ends up with water everywhere, and I'm as soaked as the dogs. I've tried doing it outside. That works really well until the doggie-washing is over, and then they run off to roll themselves in some grass and dirt. Time to start over. LOL.

I also wonder how they always manage to find something really icky to roll around in. I mean, I know the theory behind it - hide your own scent, yadda yadda - but anyway! I found this photo somewhere online, says it pretty well, don't you think?

One of our dogs is an American Eskimo. I always wondered how his coat could be so thick, until a groomer told me they have not just one or two, but three layers of coat. That's a lot of hair.

He's white, and he loves to dig, so after a few days the dog is more gray than white. Yay... I've tried all sorts of whitening shampoos to keep him clean, and rinsing out that fur is a royal pain in the behind. If you look at the photo below he looks really fat, but it's mostly hair. Busted digging a hole in the back yard! I love how you see the sand make a cloud behind him...

This will sound like a commercial, but it's actually true. I got a sample bottle of shampoo from Deidre's K9 Naturals just before Christmas. I thought, "Suuuure it's the best shampoo ever. Shampoo is shampoo, big difference." It smelled good though, and I hauled doggie into the shower. It made him clean and white, he smelled like Pina Colada, and it rinsed out in no time.

The next time I wanted to wash the doggie, I didn't have any Deidre's shampoo. I raced down to the store and picked up a bottle of some whitening something. It lathered well and smelled good, and I thought I was all set. Then, I rinsed, and rinsed, and rinsed... It took 20 minutes of loud cursing to get it out of his undercoat. Back to Deidre's shampoo!

At the time, they only carried the Working Dog Wash and that's the one I've been using. Now, there are more kinds, and I have a bottle of  Grooming shampoo waiting for doggie to get dirty. I'll write about it when I've tested it, and let you know if it's as good as the Working one. The former has Aloe and Oatmeal and Coconut Oil, and I think it might be superior, but I haven't tried yet. They also have a Whitening shampoo that might be great for this guy. I'll try it soon...

Doggie driver's license

Do your dogs like to go for a ride? Mine sure do. They haven't quite learned to drive yet, but if they could, they'd take the car down to McDonalds daily, I'm sure. Not to mention the pet store... Wouldn't it be cute if a doggie trotted up to the counter with a couple of dollar bills, wanting to get a new chewie?

Anyway, when I first saw My Pet DMV I thought it was the dumbest thing ever. Driver's licenses for dogs?!? A couple of website visits later, I started to think it was pretty cool. I still hesitated - but a doggy driver's license sounded better and better. Not to mention they get a collar tag too, with the pet's photo, name, and contact information.

When hubby suggested we should get name tags for the dogs, just in case something would ever happen, I folded and ordered one to try it out. They are really cool. The collar tags aren't the most durable things ever, but for special occasions, they're awesome. The driver's licenses look so real it's fun to try to fool people with them. Imagine when people want to card my husband and he pulls out a driver's license with a photo of an American Eskimo... That prank alone is worth the money!

A Barking Deal!

I have four pretty large dogs in the house. As you can imagine, they go through a lot of stuff. Not just food, but stuff. Toys, chewies, treats, vitamins, shampoo... Luckily, Barking Deals discounts something new every day, usually at about half the normal retail price. It's real products too - like Kong toys. Definitely worth signing up to!

Avoid a trip to the emergency room!

Most people know not to give their dogs chocolate, but many other common household things that we eat are also poisonous to dogs. Some things to look out for are:

• Chocolate
  Chocolate is oh so good and tempting, even for your canine friends, but it contains a substance called theobromine. It's a cardiac stimulant that doesn't really affect humans, but can be lethal to dogs. The dog can seem perfectly fine up to several hours after eating a larger amount of chocolate, and death can still ensue within 24 hours.
  
  A dog that has eaten chocolate can exhibit symptoms that include: staggering, problems breathing, vomiting, diarrhea, tummy pains, tremmors, fever, seizures, and coma. Milk chocolate contains the least cocoa and is the least dangerous. Dark chocolate is really bad. If your dog ate chocolate, or if you suspect your dog ate chocolate, don't gamble with their life. Go see a vet. Most cities have pet emergency rooms open even during nights and holidays.



• Cocoa Powder
  Well, cocoa powder and cooking chocolate are chocolate. They don't taste as good to us, but that's just because it's more concentrated without the sugar of normal munching chocolate. Thus, these forms are even more toxic, and contain ten times more theobromine than milk chocolate. A 22 pound dog can be seriously ill or die from as little as two ounces of cocoa powder. A small dog can get really sick from just licking chocolate icing.



• Onions
  Most people understand that they shouldn't give a dog an onion. Onions can be difficult to watch out for though; they're in all sorts of food, and all sorts are dangerous. Onions and garlic contain a substance called thiosulphate. Garlic has less and is thus less dangerous, but you still shouldn't feed it to your dogs. Thiosulphate cause haemolytic anaemia, which means that the pet's red blood cells burst while circulating through the body. Symtomps are labored breathing, liver damage, vomiting, diarrhea, and discolored urine.
  
  The poisoning might not show until days after the pet ate onion. Watch out for onion dip, left over pizza, commercial baby food with onions, chinese food, gravys... You get the idea.



• Mushrooms
  Some dogs react very badly to certain species of mushrooms. Symptoms include tummy aches, drooling, liver damage, kidney damage, vomiting, diarrhea, convusions, coma and... death.



• Grapes and Raisins
  Most dogs love grapes and raisins, but they're bad, bad, bad. Some dogs don't seem to react at all, others get violently ill from just a handful. Don't gamble, give your dog something else. Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pains, and lethargy. (Grapeseed oil, used in many paw revitalizers, is poisonous to many other animals, but dogs don't seem to react to it.)



• Macadamia nuts
  These might not kill your dog, but they do have high levels of phosphorous and can lead to bladder stones. Dogs get muscle problems, and weakness and even paralysis of their hind legs. Affected dogs are often unable to rise up.

 Other things to watch out for are:

• Baby foods - often contain onion powder
• Bones from fish, birds, and pork
• Pointsettias - are poisonous
• Tulips, Hyacinths, Daffodils, Lilies, Azaleas, Crocus, Rhododendrons, and many other common garden plants. They're beautiful to look at, but shouldn't be eaten by neither people nor pets.