Dealing with Gratuitous Tummy Rubs and Serious Dog Fights

Dealing with tummy rubs is easy. Just combine them with a massive morning stretch for full effect. The above is Klon this morning, warming up for his morning walk and breakfast.

On a more serious note, found an excellent piece on how to break up a dogfight. If you are around dogs, please read it… it will only take a few minutes.  Here’s a quick summary

1. Learn to recognize the difference between a real fight and play fight. What may look like a fight often, even usually, isn’t.

2. Don’t panic.  Dogs will feed off your panic, and the fight will get worse.

3. Try making a loud noise to startle them into breaking up fight, this is often all it takes. Make sure its loud enough to surprise them. A few very loud claps along with a stern BACK OFF should do the trick. DON’T: Keep yelling if the loud noise doesn’t work.

4. ALWAYS approach the fighting dogs from the rear…stay as far away from their heads as you possibly can. DON’T: Try to grab their collars. In the heat of a dog fight, they will both interpret this as you jumping into the scrum.

5. Grab your dog by his hind legs, near the thighs, and lift his legs into the air like hes a wheelbarrow. If you can, instruct the other dogs owner to do the same with their dog. This puts you in complete control of your dog, while staying far away from their teeth. They will be unable to turn around to bite you in this position, & physically unable to lunge at the other dog without falling on their face.

6. Still grabbing his hind legs, start quickly backing up in a zig zag motion.

7 Keep backing your dog up until you are well away from the other dog, and the other owner has control over them. Don’t stop backing up until the other dog is completely under control by their owners.

スローボウルで緑のドロドロ。

シロクマ通信です。

緑のドロドロです。本日の朝ご飯。ミキサーで粉砕した緑の葉っぱと人参の尻尾に生卵一個と生肉ほんの少々を混ぜたもの。

ローフード移行、続いているわけです。犬の本来の食事に近いところへ戻すのが目的ですから、生の骨、生肉、生卵なんか食べます。それに生の植物もたっぷり。草食動物の胃腸から出てくる植物の状態に近いものを、ということで粉砕しています。

私が考えたわけじゃなくて本読んで勉強したのです。まだ試行錯誤の最中なんでこれが正しいとか言える状態ではありませんが、当面ドライフード食べてるのとどっちがマシか、っていう話なんで気が楽です。

これをスローボウルに入れてシロクマに見せてみたところ、気持ちよく全部食べました。

スローボウルって何かって？

これです。

犬が食べ物を一瞬のうちに吸い込まないようにデザインされた、食べにくい容器です。15秒でたべるか4分で食べるか、くらいの差が出ます。

市民犬クロンダイクには不満はなさそうです。まあ奴はほとんど何でも食べるんですけどね。色々見せてみているのですが、今のところ食べなかったものって柿の皮と大根の尻尾くらいかなあ。

まだ生食実験を始めてから1週間くらいしか経過していませんが、興味深い変化がいくつか出てきました。実際何食べさせてるのかとか、何が変わってきてるのかとか、詳しい話はまた改めて書きます。

では。

前回のエントリです。ローフードを検討したきっかけについて。

Hiking Pet food Express + Sunday Bill Chill

Tummy rub is one of the Klon’s favorite support team assignments.  Notice how he’s captured my left hand, making it hard for me to move without snatching away his pillow.

Speaking of things the Klon likes, I think exploring Pet Food Express with the focus and devotion only a true fan dog can muster is at the top of the list. The light on his collar went out so we stopped by last night. Think he had fun…

It’s not like we are not brushing the beast.

一日おきにセーター一枚脱いでる市民犬。換毛期じゃなくてこうです。

The pile of fur you see on the right is K9 Good Citizen Klondike. Our friend, the Klon.

The pile of fur you see on the left, the less shapely one that’s big enough to knit a sweater from, is what you get brushing the citizen every other day. Free sweater every other day! Yet another unplanned perk of having a Pyrenees in the family.

きれいな車は夢のまた夢。

シロクマ通信です。
前回徹底掃除をしてから一ヶ月でこんなになっちまいました。一応お断りしておきますが、ドッグパークで犬が泳いだ場合には車に乗せる前に必ずタオルで拭いてるわけですし、それとは別にほぼ一日おきに徹底ブラッシングしてますし、それではカバーしきれない汚れはちゃんと犬シャンプーしてるのですよ。

犬用シートカバーの下はこんな感じに汚れています。今年の夏は雨が降らないから泥足が少ないっていうのに。一体どうしてこんなに泥と毛が落ちるのか。

金曜日にまた徹底掃除をしました。シートカバーを人間二人がかりで洗い、車のほうは近所の実に素晴らしい洗車屋さんへ持っていって徹底掃除してもらいました。People’s Car Washいいですよ。イーストベイにお住まいのみなさん、おすすめのお店です。

で、犬が乗り込んだだけで既にこの状態。まだどこへも行ってなくて、犬が乗っただけなのに毛と足跡が。もはやため息も出ません。

シロクマはハーネスをつけて、そのハーネスを車のシートベルトに繋がれています。世の中には運転中に小型犬を膝の上に乗せてたりする人もいますが、市民犬はデカイのでちょっとそれは無理。後部座席にいてもらわないと。

というわけでまた。

Beasting The Car

This is the back of our car one month since it was last carefully cleaned. That the seat cover is covered with dirt and hair is remarkable considering Klondike is toweled off before getting into the car if he’s been swimming, brushed every other day and washed regularly. By the way, the seat cover is by 4Knines and I highly recommend it… unlike the cheaper cover we bought at first, it will stay in place even with nearly 100 pounds of Pyrenees activity on it.

This where it gets trippy. Despite the seat cover (mounted as a hammac) and large plastic sheets under the seat cover, note how much dirt and hair got onto the seats and floor. And this is a month’s use in good weather. And no, I don’t know why there should be so much more fur on the left side floor, thought that is the side he is usually loaded in from.

This is the back of the car as it was for a few minutes Friday evening. Mieko and I scrubbed the seat cover, washed it with soap, and then scrubbed it again to get off some remaining fur (mostly stuck in velcro). The seats and floor, together with the rest of the car, were cleaned to perfection by the amazing People’s Car Wash in Oakland (105 five star Yelp reviews for a reason).

Rear of the car after first post wash Klondike load-in. Not trip, just load-in. Note Klon fur on cover and pawprints.

The contraption he’s wearing is a safety harness attached to the seat belts. I figure 96 pounds of Klondike flying through the cabin in an accident would definitely not improve anyone’s day.

Klondike’s Raw Food Transition – Update & Clarifications

Brief Break in Bone Bashing

Happy to report the Klon is well and absolutely full of energy. Took him Point Isabel today and he absolutely crushed his old record of 3 swims with 5.5 (the half was him just wading in a bit to grab a tennis ball) swims, not to mention various pick-up games tag and lots of ball stealing from other dogs. Of course, that he seems really well doesn’t mean that we have his diet nutritionally dialed in – it’s possible there was something in his old diet that won’t be in his new that we don’t know about. That’s what makes transition so tricky. However, I trust we’ll eventually get it figured out.

Also…two really important clarifications on my last raw food post

I didn’t mean to imply he was only getting meat. We are also rotating in a good amount of fruit and vegetables (what would be in the stomach of prey if he were out earning his own living) to see what likes. So far he’s shown a good interest in apples and nori (Japanese sea weed, and and a good alternative to an iodine supplement), not so much in persimmons or bananas.

When I said chicken bones are considered safe I mean raw bones. Cooked chicken bones are very dangerous and should be avoided. The management regrets the error and will discipline the Bill fully.

Good Citizen Tag arrived!

シロクマの「優良市民」タグ、やっと到着しました。

Klondike’s Raw Food Transition

Yes, the Klon does live in Berkeley. But there’s more to the story than that.

The raw food transition is an experiment,  based on a little on on-line research, a little on our own dietary experiences, and a little on direct Klon observation. Results seem promising but it’s too early to tell.

Our own experiences: Some years ago my wife and I read a book that very much changed our lives, Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. Dr. Fuhrman argues  persuasively that highly processed foods, even those fortified and sold as nutritious, are in fact hugely lacking in essential micronutrients. His recommendation, in a nut shell (literally) is to move to a mostly unprocessed diet of fruits and vegetables, even if that means eating large servings to consume the necessary number of calories. The results I’ve seen in myself following this have been spectacular. But back to Klon.

Obviously, Klon is a dog, and shares ancestry with the carnivorous wolf, and we’re people, and share ancestry with the omnivorous chimp and vegetarian gorrilla. But the principal remains the same – less highly processed food, like kibble (the Captain Crunch of the dog food world) and more real food – for Klondike that means meat.

Our Klon observation: Klon will gobble up kibble and treats immediately when given them, but will take bones and other less processed meat type foods (like his much loved cow ears) to the back yard to savour.

Our “research” (and I use that term lightly): Other dog blogs that rave about the health benefits of raw foods, and learning that, contrary to my childhood training, small bones aren’t necessarily dangerous to dogs.

So… Mieko went to the supermarket and spent $9 on a collection of chicken wings and pork scraps with bones, which she divided into 12 servings. Klon is fed twice a day, and he’s been getting one meal a day of his former dry kibble, and one meal of this raw meat.

The first day seemed to leave him with a stomach ache and some very liquid stool. But the next day we seemed to have a Klon who was more interested in sniffing countertops then he had been previously (probably because they contained better stuff) but was less of a pest between meals, and who Mieko thinks is generally calmer.

We’ll see where we are in a couple of days, and see where we are when we transition entirely over toraw food, but we’re optimistic we’ll get a very well satiated and happy dog out of the deal.

食べ過ぎて新しいお友達を作る。

シロクマ通信です。

シロクマの散歩は市民犬の都合だけで行われるわけではなく、飼い主の都合もあります。たとえば昨日、ビルは昼に食べ過ぎたから夜の散歩も俺がする、と宣言しました。

何をそんなに食べたのさ。

ニューオリンズ料理店です。フライドチキンサンド、フライドナマズサンド、アイスコーヒー、ビール、ハッシュパピー（トウモロコシ粉で作ったコロッケみたいなもの）、ブーダンボール（ソーセージボール）、ピーナツバターとチョコのムースパイ。なるほどね。こりゃあ反省しますね。いくら3人で食べたとはいってもこの種の店ではサンドイッチ一人前だけ頼んでもきっと1500カロリーくらいはあるでしょうから。

シロクマの散歩はこの日3回目。ラッキーなシロクマです。マリーナでいつもと違うコースを歩いたら、新しいお友達もできました。

ドーベルマンのクロエ。きれいな犬ですねえ。ピカピカツヤツヤ。ブログもあります。犬ブログをやってる人に遭遇したのは初めてです。親ばか仲間ができてちょっとうれしいです。（写真はブログから転載させてもらいました。）

最後の写真はクロエとたくさん追いかけっこをして疲れ果てた市民犬です。最近の夜の定位置、玄関で寝ています。

それではまた。