Blog!

OFA scores back!

I am thrilled to announce that Bess' elbows have been rated normal and her hips have been rated EXCELLENT by the OFA!!! We just got the results back today!!

I took Bess in for her OFA x-rays on April 30th. The vet and her assistant were able to get both her hips and her elbows done without sedation. With a dog Bess' size, that's no real small feat considering that for the hip x-rays she has to be flipped onto her back, laid down in a foam support thingy, and have her hind legs stretched out behind her. Not to mention, these x-rays weren't taken by our regular vet (she's not certified through the OFA for these x-rays), so she's in a totally different setting with total strangers. She really did great though! If I had really thought about it more ahead of time and realized how they needed to position her, I would have done some work with her well in advance to get her more used to that scenario.

Some people might be wondering why I even felt these x-rays were necessary. I show Bess in conformation, the traditional dog show. The whole purpose of dog shows is to prove, through competition, that your dog is an excellent specimen of the breed and worthy of potentially being bred. Conformation is how the dog is put together and how they should be built based upon a breed standard. On the flip side, some things are hard to tell from just looking at a dog and watching them gait around a small ring. For instance, a dog could have mild hip dysplasia, but still gait just fine around the ring if they have good supportive musculature. Only x-rays will be able to tell how that dogs hips are doing. Since we know that certain deficiences like hip dysplasia are genetic, you most likely will want to remove that animal from a breeding program. That is a lot of the reasoning behind health testing.

For great danes there are four primary tests that it is highly recommended you do on any animal you may breed. There's the CERF eye exam, the OFA heart exam, the OFA hip x-rays, and the OFA thyroid panel (this is a LOT different than the in house testing that a lot of vets do at annual exams). Currently, Bess only needs her thyroid tested and has had a clean bill of health with everything else. I'm planning on having the blood drawn at her annual exam so that it's easier for me to remember to do it each year. Thankfully my vet can ship the sample out from there.

Health testing is pretty important to me. I really want to know how my dogs are doing and what I need to plan for in the future. With Bess, if we would like to breed her in the future there are several requirements that have to be met before this can happen. We co-own her with her wonderful breeder Georgia Hymmen of Daynakin Great Danes. Bess needs to have all of her health testing done and pass it before it's a consideration. We would also like her to be at least an AKC champion and hopefully a Canadian champion as well. It's not something to be taken lightly and I could go on and on about backyard breeders and what I think of them, but I'll save that for another post.;O)

You might be thinking, "but if it's important to you, then what about Heffner?" Heffner as of yet hasn't had any of his health testing done. He's already neutered and obviously not going to be part of a breeding program, however it is still important to me and he will start getting the testing done as clinics happen. The only thing that's currently holding me back is that my husbadn doesn't quite see the point since Heffner is neutered and his breeder wouldn't care about the results any how. But I care, and it will get done!

Oh Poop!

Why is it that I have to have a dog who manages to always find something HORRIBLE to roll in when we're out hiking/running around???? I took the dogs out this afternoon after work to a big hay field to run around. There happen to be deer that like to frequent this field as well. Deer equals deer poop. Bess managed to find a FRESH pile of deer poop and roll in it. She didn't do just a little dainty roll either. She smeared the stuff all over her shoulder and side and onto her opposite shoulder. She also managed to work it into her collar and coat her name tag and clip in it. Yeah, she was disgusting. She managed to get a bit of it off on the way back to the truck thankfully. So the picture above doesn't quite do the Queen of Nastiness justice! I did feel a little guilty loading her up in the back of the truck with Heffner, but then again, he occasionally rolls in nastiness too (just not NEARLY as often as she does) and I was kind of hoping that the smell would teach them both a lesson. I really doubt it, but here's hoping!

Once we got home, it was straight to the back yard with the nasty girl. She didn't even get the benefit of a warm bath either. She got to stand there while I took the hose to her. Mean while I was thinking "it smears the deer poop on it's skin and gets the hose again!" That did put a little smile on my face. And to make me feel a littl guilty, Bess totally just stood there (which was a good thing becaus it wasn't like I could actually hang onto her colllar since it was coated) and took her medicine. And now she's nice a clean and having fun licking herself even cleaner.

While I'm talking about poop, does anyone else with multiple dogs notice that their dogs tend to synchronize their pooping? I know that it can't just be my dogs. When we're out hiking or even in the backyard, they have a very high tendency to start pooping at EXACTLY the same time! It's uncanny! They don't even have to be looking at each other! They can be really far apart, and still the pooping is synchronized! Oh the things that I ponder.:O)

I feed raw

I feed both of my dogs a raw diet. Both originally were on kibble, but I wasn't happy with what I was getting out of kibble as far as performance. It was while we still only had Heffner that I finally got fed up and made the switch. I do a lot of different things with my dogs. As such, they burn a lot of calories depending on what we're doing. For a tough skijoring race weekend, not only are they out there running on a surface that requires a lot of muscle control, but they're also pulling me along as well as maintaining body heat in cold weather conditions. Because of this, I felt that Heffner (he's the only one who has raced so far) really needed to have a breakfast before heading up to the mountain for the race. I would have to add things to his kibble to get him to eat it all. Because of the additives and the length of time it takes to fully digest kibble, he would end up with diarrhea when we were up there (he had almost three hours to digest, so I wasn't worried about him bloating). A dog with diarrhea is not competing at it's best. Not only that, but when we would get home, he'd be tired and most times didn't want to eat. But to keep him performing at his best he NEEDED those calories for all the work that he did that day and was going to be doing again the next day. So we switched to raw and have not looked back since!

The main advantage for me is that raw food is more caloried dense than the majority of kibbles without the intestinal upset that you can get with "hot" kibbles. There are soooo many other benefits that we have enjoyed as well. It's great for the coat. It's really great for the teeth. Even though both of my dogs are still young, they're teeth are so much cleaner than a lot of other dogs I've seen at similar ages. The amount of poop is about half. While neither one has loose poop, they weren't quite as firm as I would like. Now they only have looser poop if they get into something that they shouldn't have. It's a pretty good deal.

The vast majority of the time you will hear me say that I'm very happy that I feed raw. However, there's usually one week every three months that I'm seriously not that thrilled about it!LOL That happens to coincide with my big meat pick up. Every three months I go to the butchers and pick up my meat load. I usually get close to 400 lbs. of a variety of products. Our main stays are chicken backs, chicken leg quarters, and chicken necks. After that I mix things up a little bit with turkey tails, beef heart, K-9 grind (a ground up mixture of green tripe, heart, and other things that I use for their organ meat), and chicken gizzards. This past week was such a week! The only reason I don't like is because I let the meat thaw just enough that I can pull it apart and put it into individual meal sized bags and then into our meat freezer. It's a long process and I'm usually sore by the end of it. But it's now done and I've posted the pictures of all my hard work!

I also thought that I should include some links for anyone interested, that I found helpful when I was getting started. These aren't links that I came up with on my own, but were posted on the great dane forum Leans N Slobbers. I have also been fortunate enough to have many friends who feed their danes raw as well who have given me pointers!

http://leerburg.com/diet2.htm

http://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm#calcium

http://www.4loveofdog.com/menu.htm

http://k9rawdiet.com/How-2-p-6.html

http://www.rawlearning.com/

http://www.b-naturals.com/newsletter/mixing-fresh-food-with-kibble/?main_page=Jan2005.php

http://www.onlynaturalpet.com/KnowledgeBase/knowledgebasedetail.aspx?articleid=5

http://www.greatdanelady.com/articles/feed_program_for_balanced_raw_diet.htm

http://www.eastwooddanes.com/SampleMenu.html

http://www.rawmeatybones.com/

http://www.skylarzack.com/rawfeeding.htm

http://www.switchingtoraw.com/

http://www.thehealthyhound.com/whyraw_shortstory.html

http://www.rawfed.com/myths/index.html

http://www.newcastleboxers.com/diet.shtml

When I started both of mine on raw, I did end up doing a 24 hour fast for both of them. This wasn't intentional. Neither one was a consistent eater on kibble. If they didn't eat their meal, then I would put it up and offer it again at the next meal time. So that's how the fasting sort of came about. I started both out on chicken drums and they took to it differently. For Heffner, I held up the piece and he started munching on it and caught on pretty quickly. After that, he never had a problem with any of the meat pieces I gave him. Bess wouldn't eat the drums until I first cut off the majority of the meat and gave her the meat chunks and the bone. Then she would eat it. After about a week she was finally eating the drums whole without me doing anything to them. Since then, when I'm introducing a new meat source/portion to her, I do usually have to cut it up into smaller pieces and then she'll eat it. After a day or two of that she'll eat the piece whole. It's kind of funny. When I started giving them beef heart chunks, hers had to be cut into bite size pieces before she would eat them. The same with beef kidney. She's just quirky like that! And of course, I indulge her.:O) I also have to mention that neither of my dogs had any digestive issues when switching over to raw.

Zoom Groom

Today I'm doing my first product review! It's a product that I've been using for some time. It's the Zoom Groom by Kong. It's a very inexpensive grooming tool at $6.99, that for a while I could only find at PetSmart. I think that Petco has started carying them now though. I was amazed when a friend of mine told me that she used it on her dane and was able to get so much hair off. I originally tried it out on Heffner (we didn't have Bess yet) as a bathing brush. I ended up getting so much hair off of him that I had to stop or else clog the drain! I've been able to get a TON of hair off of both dogs since.

I think the only thing comparable on the market is the Furminator, but there's just no way that I'm willing to spend $45 + on a grooming tool. I've seen other people use it on short haired dogs and I think the Zoom Groom does pretty much the same job for a LOT less money! If you have a long haired dog, the Furminator is definitely more appropriate.

The picture I've included of the hair that I got off of the dogs today is only a small amount of what I got off. It was a little breezy in the back yard and a bunch of it blew away. However, I think you get the idea. The dogs totally LOVE getting brushed with the Zoom Groom too! Once I'm finished currying them I go over them with a finishing brush to get the excess loose hairs off and voila! Starting about now and through the summer I do this once a week and it REALLY helps with the shedding. As a matter of fact, there's hardly any dog hair in the house at all when I keep up with the weekly routine. When I get really neurotic about grooming I do the currying and brushing once a week and then on another day once a week I do what's called stoning. You take a pumice stone and go over the whole dog like you would with a regular brush. This gets rid of any hairs that might be sticking out and keeping the coat from looking sleek and flat. After that you go over the whole dog with a warm shammy to finish them. It REALLY brings a healthy sheen to the coat. I'll probably start doing that again this summer as well.

Brushing your dog regularly regardless of coat length and type is also really good for the hair and skin. The currying and brushing helps to distribute the natural oils throughout the hair and improve the health and look of it. Brushing also helps to clean the hair and skin by removing dirt particles that may not be visible to the naked eye. It can also be seen as a form of massaging with the benefit of stimulating the release of sebum, which is a beneficial skin and coat oil that gets released from the hair follicle. There's also the added benefit of physically inspecting your dogs entire body for any abnormalities or sensitive spots that may indicate a problem. It's little things like this that can help to keep you more in tune with your dogs health and well being!

Mount Defiance Hike

Today I decided to try a hike in the Columbia River gorge that I haven't done before. I like going out into the gorge because the further out you go, usually the less travelled the trails are, especially during the week. The works very well for me because I like to let my dogs run amok off leash. The trail that I decided on was Mount Defiance. Nice name, don't you think? There are some nice little waterfalls along the way and some nice spots to take pictures at. The whole big loop for the trail is 12.1 miles long and rated very difficult. I didn't intend to do all of that, but a good chunk. So my INTENTION was to take the route that is labelled as easier because the climb isn't as bad that way. Somehow, I managed to get that mixed up and I took the less nice way up. OMG! But I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

When you start out on the trail, it runs along I-84. Initially there's a 7 ft. fence between you and the highway. Then it goes down to a 3 ft. cement barrrier and finally nothing. Needless to say, the dogs remained on leash. Which is always fun when they're raring to go! Once we got to the little bridge, I turned them loose. We started climbing a little ways and I figured this was the climbing part that I had read about. Not so much! After we got past the first few waterfalls, the REAL climbing started! OMG! I started off soaked in rain water and ended up soaked in sweat! We spent a little over 2 hours climbing. The switchbacks were brutal and the climbing was relentless! You would think that because there are switchbacks, it would make the climb a little gentler. Not so much! I guess that it's gentler than it could be, but gad zooks! Talk about a work out. I had been mentally preparing for some climbing, but not to this extent! This is definitely the hardest climb that I have done to date. The dogs had a blast. Since I was so freaking slow, they got to run off into the woods every so often to sniff something out and do lots of exploring. Normally I don't stop on climbs unless I'm taking a picture. I'll slow my pace down, but I'd rather keep on moving. I had to actually stop several times along the route to recharge a bit. It was pretty brutal and DEFINITELY earns the ranking of very difficult. So after a little over two hours of that, I decided that it was time to head home. I've got a whole lot of meat that needs to be bagged and wasn't quite prepared to be hiking what would turn into a for sure all day hike.

The way back down was a relief at first, but then it started really working those butt muscles! The dogs were still running all over the place and not really acting like they were feeling it at all. Bess is notorious on our hikes for finding a sent and just darting off into the forest. She used to be really bad about coming back and would be gone for like 5 min. Which, when you're freaking out that your dog is lost, is an eternity. Now she just darts off and then comes back. Sometimes in a direction you were not expecting. Which is also a little startling when you're out there by yourself!LOL I'm pretty sure that Bess easily does about three times the mileage that I do. Heffner probably does about twice because he doesn't stray as far. But Bess was pretty much this little fawn blur all over the place. It's pretty amusing!

All told we did 5.39 miles in 3 hours and 56 minutes and a little over 2,000 feet gain in elevation. And somehow, the dogs aren't as tired as I am!! I want to try this hike again, only I seriously want to take the easier climbing route! What the heck is wrong with me!!

Right now I'm trying to figure out how to get the pictures that I include to show up in the post where I actually want them to be. At the moment they're always popping up at the top of the post no matter what I do. Hopefully I can figure out how to fix that soon! And now I'm off to bag up some meat!

Funny Story!

Let me just start off by saying I'm not usually one of those people who gets really irritated and then acts out on total strangers. Yes I tend to get a little road ragy and ranty about things that bother me, but I don't usually take action against them. Well, I took action today!LOL A group of three middle schoolers were walking down our street acting sort of obnoxious and just generally what's normal for that age. Heffner likes to bark at most things that walk in front of his house, but especially noisy things like kids just out of school (I got home early today because I went to pick up my meat order, but more on that later). So he starts barking and one of the kids decides to sort of egg him on a little. He picks up our garbage can (it was garbage day today), waves it over his head, and then throws it onto our front lawn. I happened to be right by the window and saw him do it. So I opened the window and told him to pick the garbage can back up. He just sort of mumbled and kept moving on with his friends and wouldn't even look towards the house. I told him that if he didn't pick the garbage can back up, I was going to let the dogs loose on him. No response. Alrighty then! For whatever reason I decided to follow through on my threat! Well, not EXACTLY!

I opened the door, took Heffner by the collar and chased after them. Unfortunately for them, they took off down a dead end road. The girl in the group just stood off to the side and obviously didn't want to really be associated with the whole thing. The two boys were hiding behind some garbage cans of this random house. Seriously??? So I pulled the garbage cans out and let Heffner get face-to-face with them. Needless to say, they were a little awed and I think just scared enough to not be too macho. I told the one kid that I would appreciate him coming back and picking up the garbage can that he threw. He tried lying to me, but TOTALLY couldn't even maintain eye contact with me. He then tried blaming it on his buddy who was definitely NOT about to take the blame for his friend!LOL So we sllllloooooowwwwwllllllyyyyy walked back to the house where he actually very politely picked up the garbage can for me. I thanked him and told his friends that I was sorry that they had to put up with the whole charade. Now, I'm just paranoid that our house is going to get egged or something.:O/ Oh well, I guess I'll just unleash the hounds!

And the reason I happened to be home early today was because I made the treck into Portland (I'm definitely not a fan of driving my truck around in the city) to pick up my meat order for the dogs. I feed raw and about every three months I go and pick up their food. I'll take some pictures along the way to show the whole "fun" process!