12 Things I Learned From My Dogs

My dogs have taught me many things, but here are the top 12.  I know there are probably hundreds more than that, but it's a good starting point. As I write articles about these the links will be active.

12. Management can be a better solution than training at times.

11. Raw Food is a PITA, but worth every minute, and penny.

10. Vaccination is controversial, but you should know what to vaccinate for, when to vaccinate, and what questions to ask your vet.

9. Know your essential dog stuff: things I always have around to help me, my dogs, and my family enjoy life together.

8. My dog doesn't have to love your dog.  Why would I expect them to?

7.  Having a positive relationship with my dog is more important than a perfect sit.

6. There is always something new to learn.  A new book, a new dvd, a new class, a new workshop, a new sport. 

5. Our dogs aren't always made for the sports we choose.

4. If you don't put the training time in, you won't get the desired behaviors out.  Having a training plan and setting time aside for training is essential.

3. Process Goals vs Performance Goals: sometimes the best goals are not achieving xyz title by this date or taking 1st place at nationals.  The best goals are often small, very achievable, and a great way to find success.

2. Nature vs Nurture Matters.  If you don't have a good building block with genetics, you get what you get.  Know your dogs lines, know your breeder, know your chosen breed.

1. You don't always get the dog you want, but you always get the dog you need.  There aren't perfect dogs in this world, but with the right attitude, you get the perfect dog for you!

So here's to more understanding, thought, and learning for all of us!

Adventures in Raw Feeding Part 2 - Grinders

So what you feed depends on your grinder.  Let me tell you, there are 10,000 options out there.  When picking a grinder, consider the following:

• Number of Dogs to Feed
• Bone In or Bone Out?
• How much do you want to spend

Number of Dogs to Feed 

This is a big one. If you have to make enough food for 3 dogs, think 2-3% of their body weight, that is a long of food.  Especially if you make a couple weeks worth or even a month.  My dogs weigh: 38, 40, and 55 pounds.  This means that with all of them combined I'll need at least 2.6 pounds a day (78 pounds a month.)  That is a lot of food to grind, especially if your grinder only does 1 pound a minute....and you have to chop everything before it goes into the grinder.....get what I mean?

Bone In or Bone Out?

If you are grinding bones with your muscle meat and organs you'll have several things to think about.  The biggest factor is whether the grinder can handle raw bones.  Even simple low end grinders can mangle bones, but this isn't without some frustration, annoyance, and eventual burn out of the grinder.  There are grinders on the market that are warrantied for use in ground bone/muscle meat and designed with raw food in mind.

How much do you want to spend?

Grinders can cost as much or as little as you want them to.  However, I've found that there are some happy mediums you can look at.

For example, if you choose to supplement with bone meal rather than grinding bone you can get a small beginner grinder on sale for about $50 at the local sportsman stores.  This wouldn't handle bones, or win speed awards, but it would get you started with some options.  The model I found was the CHARD #5 at a local sportsman store and it was on sale.  Grand Total: $40.  While you are there grab a couple big meat trays too ($10 a piece).

The next step would be to get a 450+ watt grinder that could handle bones.  You will still need to do some prep.  And you certainly can't just shove a whole chicken quarter down it and hope for the best.  You could also find these at the local sportsmans store or order online.  A good example is the WaringPro 885 models or STX internaltional 3000.  Both range from about $99 to $160 in price and could handle some bone in grinding.

The dream grinder for me is the Weston #32.  This is a 1.5 HP grinder that is warrantied for grinding up rabbit, turkey, and chicken meats with the bone in.  Grand cost?  $700. And the other factor (and I'll get into this in my next post), is that bone in grinding will save you some cash every month.  There is a huge difference in price per pound when bones are included :)  So overall I think what you save by grinding bone in would help you pay for that whopping $700 commercial grinder.

Adventures in Raw Feeding Part 1

A long time ago (read that as 4+ years or more) I adventured into raw feeding.  I didn't have great references and the reading I did do was very ambiguous about raw feeding.  So as I tried it out and did it with my dogs I wasn't happy with the rotation of food.  We did have a 80% muscle, 10% organ, 10-15% bone, and 5% vegetable ration, but I always felt like there was a missing piece, that perhaps they weren't getting balance like they should.

To be quite honest the way I went about it was painful!  I bought 3+ months worth of raw food, thawed it, packaged it all for a couple days meals, and then refroze it all.  It was tedious, difficult, and quite frankly really gross.  Just picture 40 pounds of turkey hearts thawing in a bathtub....that's a lot of blood and waste if you dont' do it right.  And trust me, your neighbors will ask questions if you start hacking up raw meaty bones in the back yard with a clever.

This routine lasted 6 months before I threw my hands up, said never again, and went back to feeding kibble.  I had hated the raw prep process, how difficult traveling was, and the lack of information.  I feed Petcurean Go and have been for the last few years.  I love this food, the high quality ingredients, and how healthy my dogs are...for the most part.  However, I hate the condition of their teeth.  Freya occasionally has eyes that aren't as clear as I would like.  Both the girls seem to get sore quicker and take longer to recover from exercise than they did on raw.  I know some of this is age.  You don't reach 8 years of age as a dog with hip dysplasia or 6 years with back problems without some pain, but, I want to help them be as comfortable and happy as possible.  

So I started diving into raw feeding research again.  I knew if I wanted to do it, I had some pretty high expectations:

• I wouldn't be chopping chickens up or feeding whole raw meaty bones (Freya is missing a couple back molars and gulps bones like candy.)
• It needs to be affordable (I pay roughly $70-80 for dog food every couple weeks, this is a drop in the bucket compared to my personal junk food habits so I don't worry about it too much. And if you've ever looked into commercial raw...holy expensive batman!) 
• I wanted a balanced diet that was complete.  For peace of mind and my dogs health!

Thus entered these books!

I started with Dr. Becker's Real Food for Health Dogs & Cats first, because I knew it had recipes in it that I could follow and hopefully keep my dogs balanced.  In reading it seemed fairly straight forward, but as I finished I knew it would take some brainmatter to fit it all together. Between choosing Omega 3 sources, rotating protein sources, making mineral mix, and choosing Sardines/Salmon....well let's just say I had to mentally process and reread a bit.  So I'm in the process of making notes, shopping around, and seeing what it would take to follow the recipes.  What I've learned thus far:

• Super 1 has hands down the best selection of whole animal organs including: chicken liver, chicken hearts, beef heart, beef tongue, beef liver, and occasionally turkey organs.  Tizer meats worked with me on getting beef organs in the past, so it's great to know they may be another good source too.
• Costco has the best selection and best price of ground turkey (because I can't seem to find individual boneless turkey meat anywhere...)
• Supplements/Mineral Mix ingredients are best found at Real Food Store or Natural Grocers.  They carry a higher quality and the brands I feel like I can trust.
• Grinders are a huge expense. Decide if you can live with bone meal supplements as you save up for a grinder capable of handling chicken/turkey bones....or bite the bullet and buy a mack daddy of grinders with a bone warranty (I'll post on this issue later.)
• Read your meat labels, know your sources, and shop carefully.  Not all Salmon, Sardines, or eggs were created equally.  What they are fed, how they are fed, and how they were harvested matters.

And that's what I've got so far.  This has been a great adventure!  I'm going to ease into raw slowly...for several reasons, but mostly the price tag...and possibly my husband's sanity.  If you have some affordable, local, meat sources I'd love to hear about them so please give me a shout out!

Bree :)

Socialization - What, When, Where, and How

Socialization comes up often with grown dogs and puppies. I've hear everything from "my dog needs socialization" to "my dog had lots of socialization" and it's a really common talking point.  Let's lay out what socialization is, when socialization occurs, where socialization occurs, and how socialization happens.

What: According to the dictionary socialization is "a continuing process whereby an individual acquires a personal identity and learns the norms, values, behavior, and social skills appropriate to his or her social position." Based on this definition, socialization is your puppy learning their personal identity and learning behavioral norms.  Which brings up when a dog or puppy learns this, because surely dogs can be socialized too, right?!

When: Research has shown that puppies have different development phases.  The canine socialization stage occurs from 3-8 weeks of age and the human socialization phase occurs from 8-12 weeks of age.  In addition to these phases, puppies also have a critical sensitive stage which occurs from 10-16 weeks where puppies learn to be resilient, bounce back, and how to handle new things that come into their life.  Essentially, puppies create a giant dictionary and get to refer back to it as adults.

So as an adult, can a dog be socialized?  No, these phases of socialization don't happen later.  You have one shot.  After these development windows close, your dog is at the social skill level they are at. They have the skills that they have.  Moving forward, your options for adult dogs are behavior modification or conditioned emotional response towards different social situations.  Both methods can take several months or even years of work and won't necessarily solve the problem.

Where: Choosing appropriate areas to socialize your puppy is very important.  New places, surfaces, people, kids, toys, objects, and socially appropriate dogs are essential to a well rounded puppy.  Places that are great for puppies:

• Sportsman Warehouse
• Lowes
• Home Depot
• Bob Wards
• Reeder's Alley
• Walking Mall
• The Capitol

How: How you socialize your puppy is just as important socializing your puppy.  Don't put your puppy in scary situations or with socially inappropriate dogs.  Socially inappropriate dogs play too rough with puppies or over correct them. Sometimes the outcome can be injury or worse.  So choose adult friends carefully for your puppy.

Research shows that puppies choose puppies that are the same size and play style.  So seek out appropriate play groups for your puppy, which are split by age/size.  Allow your puppy to approach new dogs and people, rather than having them press into your puppy's space.  If your puppy seems concerned or frightened, allow them to have some space.  After they've adjusted and seem comfortable, let them approach the new object, person, or dog.  Trust their actions, never force them into anything, and always start each outing with a fresh mind.

Socialization should be thoughtful and kind.  Be patient, take your time every day, and be amazed at how far your puppy can come by 16 weeks of age.  Make sure to get your puppy out every day and remember that an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure for socialization.

Expectations Get in the Way of Success

Lisa Schmit is one of my favorite agility handlers and teachers.  She once told me, and I still hold this quote near and dear to my heart, "expectations get in the way of success."  Just let that sentence sink in.  How true for all of us at one time of another.  We have these dreams and expectations for our dogs, ourselves, and as a team.  Most of the time our expectations really don't jive with the training we've done, the dog we have, nor do they set us up for really feeling like we've accomplished something.

So take a deep breath and let your expectations go.  Don't compare yourself or your dog to others.  It's a game you'll never win, and always come out of feeling worse.  Compare yourself and your dog to the team you were a couple months ago, or even a year ago.  Are you making progress?  Have you moved forward together?  What have you successfully accomplished? What successful moments have you had? 

Keep a journal if you have to.  Write down the little stuff that really is big in the grand scheme of things such as: I moved to the other side of the street to give my dog more space; they didn't bark, SUCCESS!  My dog sat on their own at the start line, SUCCESS!  My dog looked to me rather than staring down the child 100 yards away, SUCCESS!  My dog chose to work with me rather than sniff the ground, SUCCESS!  We had a conflict free walk, SUCCESS!

Ribbons, titles, and other shiny accomplishments are fine.  HOWEVER, your real success are the tiny changes you see in yourself and your dog every day.   Once you start to focus on the small things, the little ounces of stuff that make your dog successful....that's when the magic starts to happen.  Little successes lead to a big picture that really is what we want to see.  A big part of our jobs as handlers is capturing a successful moments and celebrating them. 

The moment you let perfection go and enjoying the successful moments you will FEEL the difference.  A weight comes off your shoulders, you feel a little lighter, and you find more joy in working with your dog.  Enjoy your dog for themselves, be kind to yourself, and be proud that you are striving to have the successes that you do everyday.  That is what it is all about, enjoying this crazy life we live with our dogs and cherishing the moments of joy when they come about. 

Now go play with your dog's and enjoy them for who they are.  Embrace success and let the expectations go!