Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! May 2013 bring peace and happiness, and may all your dreams come true!

I claim the holiday is still here.

Do your pets get a lot of stuff for the holidays? Mine do, spoiled little brats as they are, hahaha. Usually, they ignore the toys for the time being, and play with the wrapping paper or someone's sock instead. Chewies and toys aren't really good until someone else has them.

This picture is not from my house, but it could have been. In my house, all the toys would have chew marks, of course, and at least one dog would sleep on top of it all. LOL! :-)

Happy Holidays!

Regardless of what you celebrate this holiday - winter solstice, birth of Christ, festivus, something else - I want  to wish you a wonderful holiday! 

Thank you for visiting the DoggieBlog in 2012. Hope to see you again in 2013!

The holiday is almost here!

It's so close I can almost feel it. Taste it. Smell it...? I found this lovely recipe for dog cookies at stampingwithsandi.com

Bacon Cheese Dog Cookies:

1/4 cup of water

2 eggs – mix together in a bowl.

in a food processor add:

2 cups all purpose flour

1-1/3 cups sharp cheddar (shredded)

4 pieces cooked bacon cubed

blend until the texture of coarse meal and slowly add

1/2 cup vegetable oil, blend again,

then slowly add the egg mixture.

Place on floured surface and roll out to about 1/4 thickness, use your "bone" cookie cutter to cut cookies, place on cookie sheet covered in parchment paper.

Cook 400 degrees (Fahrenheit, I assume) for 9 minutes, turn cookies, cook for 9 minutes more.

Let cool – then treat your dog.

Great present for dog lovers

It can be hard to find that perfect gift for a dog lover. I have a great idea, though. The book Christmas is Good, Trixies guide to a happy holiday by Dean Koontz is amazing. It's so cute and funny, and Koontz has a talent for transporting readers into the mind of a dog.

Cute face of the day

What a cutie pie. Found on the Deidre's K9 Facebook page.

Guns, BSL, and male role models.

Is it just me, or have there been a lot of school shootings and violence lately? I'm thinking the world really might be ending; it's drowning in people's hatred and mental instability. Here's the deal: no matter what your problem is, killing or abusing animals and children is not the solution.

If you even touch on the thought that abusing and murdering those who are completely defenseless will make you feel better, validate you, make you more of a man, solve your problems, or whatever it might be, you need help. Right now.

I recently took a class in mass media and its effect on people, and the teacher had one very important point. School shootings are not about children shooting other children, or about people shooting other people. It's generally about boys shooting children. The class hypothesized the male role model has become so distorted through media, boys/men have nothing left to resort to other than weapons.

Do I have point? Not really, but it's a subject that needs to be lifted up in society. We have to start talking about these things or the tragedies will keep coming.

Most of my days are spent thinking about dogs -- surrounded by dogs -- and the immediate thought that comes to mind when tragedies like this happen is: People spend incredible amounts of time rounding up animals they think might be dangerous, but humans are much more dangerous than any animal could ever be. Show me a pitbull walking into a school with an assault rifle, killing 27 people and I'll get right behind the legislation against that happening.

Seriously, this isn't a joking matter. It's not funny at all, but I think BSL has come to be because our society is so volatile and dangerous, and this is one danger -- imagined or real -- people think they can control. We can't solve the real problem, so people happily make one up and find a solution. It doesn't matter how many people and pets have to suffer; the problem was solved and one group of people can sleep better at night.

Again, I don't really have a point. I'm still stunned by the idea of an adult going into a school to kill eight year olds.

More doggie baking

If you read my blog regularly, you know I've been into doggie baking lately. Hey, it's the holiday season and they want yummie stuff too. :-)

I found this recipe on the Plexidor Pet Doors Facebook page. I haven't tried it yet, but it's high on my to-do list.

Pumpkin Peanut Butter Dog Cookies

Ingredients:

2.5 cups whole wheat flour
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
2 tablespoons peanut butter
0.5 teaspoon salt
0.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Whisk together flour, eggs, pumpkin, peanut butter, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl. Add water as needed to help make the dough workable. The dough should be dry and stiff.

Roll dough into a 0.5 inch thick roll. Cut into 0.5 inch thick pieces. Bake in preheated oven until hard, about 40 mintues.

Off the Leash

Lately, the Facebook page Off the Leash has provided me with great joy. Or, rather, laugh out loud moments. Dog lovers will recognize themselves in their daily cartoons.

These two are my favorites. Usually my husband goes to bed before me, and this is the face the dogs put up when I enter the bedroom...

Christmas baking for the pooches

Everyone else gets special treats all month long, so I want to give something to the doggies too. I don't have any other kids, so the dogs have their own stockings and get plenty of presents on Christmas day, but nothing wrong with treating them through the month, right?

I was googling Christmas recipes for dogs, and found these "Dog Christmas Delights-." I wouldn't eat them, but I'm sure the pooches will love them.

The recipe comes from the page k9puppydogs.com, and if you're into fixing stuff for your pets, it's well worth a visit!

Ingredients: 
1 cup of whole-wheat flour
½ cup of unbleached all purpose flour½ cup of graham flour½ cup of soy flour1/3 lb of raw chicken livers (eeewww)
2 tablespoons of chicken broth, or as much as needed2 tablespoons canola oil1 egg

Preparation:

Place the oven rack in the center of the oven and pre heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place 1 slightly greased baking pan on the side.

Use a large bowl and a wire whisk to mix the whole-wheat flour, all purpose flour, graham flour, and soy flour together.

Put the chicken livers inside a blender or food processor and blend them down to a paste. Then beat in the broth, oil and egg and blend it together until it is smooth.

Next, blend both the dry and wet preparation together with a spoon or use your hand until it becomes a soft dough and starts to pull away from the bowl it is in. If it is too dry add a teensy bit more broth to it.

Slightly flour a flat surface and turn the dough onto it. Use a rolling pin to roll it out to ½ inch of thickness. Use a cookie cutter to cut out the cookies shapes (whatever shape your dog likes) and make sure to reuse the scraps as you go. You will notice that the dough will become stiffer as you work it.

Put the cookies on the set aside prepared baking pan and place them in the oven. Bake for around 15 to 20 minutes or until the cookies have acquired a light golden brown color and look dry. Then remove them from the oven and place the tray over a rack and allow the cookies to cool completely. Turn the oven off.

Once the cookies have cooled, put them back inside the warm oven in a baking tray and allow them to sit in there undisturbed without opening the oven door for 10 to 15 hours straight.

Again, I didn't make the recipe up. I found it at k9puppydogs.com :-) 

Tummy problems?

I saw a new product the other day. The Deidre's K9 catalog has a product called Tummywell. It allegedly contains enzymes to help pets digest their food. The website says: "When taken with a meal, these supplemental digestive enzymes are completely dedicated to the digestive process, and help the body effectively break down food into nutrients the body can use. When taken on an empty stomach, the same enzymes help restore and maintain healthy blood and tissue functions, and can have a beneficial effect on immune and inflammatory processes." The chews also contain vitamins and minerals.

I'm curious. If anyone has a dog with problem tummy and has tried the product, I'd love to hear from you.