Wordless Wednesday November 30, 2011

I discovered on Saturday that this is what Elka does when "pizza" is mentioned in a certain context.

Tasty Tuesday: Human Dinner

I was making dinner, and at the last moment remembered to snap a picture, for Tasty Tuesday!

Though Elka-Friendly, tonight's Chicken BLT Wraps were just for the humans of the household. She got a bit of the chicken, and a tiny bit of the bacon.

Being a shoddy photographer, I did not set the wrap up very picturesquely before wrapping it, but you can see the baby spinach, and the bacon, and there's tomato in there, I swear! Cheddar cheese (of course), a tiny bit of ranch, and chicken that I pan-cooked in olive oil and ginger brandy, with salt and pepper, and a touch of chili powder to make it interesting.

Monday Mischef November 28

Elka is, in general, very good. Maybe not harp and halo good, but when she's "bad", we can typically tell why.

Sometimes, though, she chews things. I mentioned this last week with the wall, and now I'm mentioning it again, with a different example: Chap Stick.

Now, Morgan, one of the dogs on  Tales and Tails, has already been a Chap Stick culprit, and I am in no way trying to steal her thunder. But Elka was, apparently.

We have a coffee table, and the coffee table has stuff on it. That's just a way of life. 99% of the time, Elka leaves that stuff alone. Sometimes, though, she's bored, or something catches her fancy, and she does a thing like take a paper towel and shred it.  This time, though, we were one week into my being mostly down with a flu-cold-unpleasantness. So, I had some Burt's Bees (much like Morgan's "mom" did) and left it on the coffee table, where Elka had never bothered it before. I was upstairs sorting laundry and, on a hunch, called Elka.

She came to the top of the stairs and obviously had something in her mouth. I said "Drop it", and she did immediately. It was the Burt's Bees, medicated with Clove Oil, sans cap. I told her she was good for dropping it, which she was, and ran downstairs, hoping to find the cap. I don't think it would be big enough, really, to cause a problem, but don't want to take that chance. The cap was on the couch, smashed out of recognition, other than being red. So, Elka had gnawed the cap off of the tube, and then my Mischief Sense tingled and I called her before she got any further. The Burt's Bees was, alas, covered in dog hair (and had been in her mouth), so I threw it away.

A different Burt's Bees, not the discarded one. For reference. The clove in this is very understated.

Book Review: Brain Games For Dogs, by Claire Arrowsmith

Since I'm working on Elka's Trick Dog Titles (just 4 new ones left until Intermediate Trick Dog is ours!), and since it sometimes takes a lot to occupy Elka in the house, I frequently check out every book that intimates that it's on tricks and training and other such things.

Brain Games For Dogs, by Claire Arrowsmith, is a slim volume, but it shows basic obedience and tricks that you can do to engage your dog's brain, and have a lot of fun in the process.

Happy Thanksgiving, From the Elka Almanac!

I missed out on Tasty Tuesday, and this is too many words for Wordless Wednesday but, you know? I'm probably taking Thanksgiving off. So there you have it.

Last year, Target had these lovely dog toy "bundles" that mimicked a holiday meal. I had friends in Albany pick one up for Elka, but never gave it to her, for whatever reason (okay, plush + Doberman = short lived, and it's just so cute!) But, today, I'm going to be a nerd and use it to illustrate human holiday meals and what they can mean for our dogs!

So, we have a decent and stereotypical Holiday spread here (Thanksgiving or Christmas, really), sans dessert.

Depending on what you feed your dog, you may already give her quite a lot in the way of grains, as illustrated by the dinner roll. Unless it's supposed to be a hot cross bun, in which case we do have dessert. If baking bread or rolls on Thanksgiving, make sure your dog doesn't ingest any raw yeast dough, which can expand in her stomach and cause pain and gastric distress. The potato isn't so bad, really, depending on quantity (and whether it's loaded with butter). A lot of people who feed their dogs grain free, but still go commercial, end up with a fish and potato brand.

Next we have the veggies: Corn and either broccoli or asparagus. Again, depending on what you feed your dog, she may eat a lot of corn. I mean lots and lots. In fact, if interested, you might hop over to Dog Food Analysis and check out how your dog's kibble measures up. It has its own "star" rating, but also includes why foods receive the scores that they do, and list ingredients. Corn on the cob may or may not be a choking hazard, and if you decide to give it to your dog, do so only with supervision and make sure very large pieces don't get swallowed to cause stomach upset later. Broccoli is all right, as long as it doesn't exceed 10% of your dog's daily diet; apparently there's a thing called "broccoli toxicity", with stomach upset starting at the 10% mark and the 25% mark having a possibility for fatality. That sounds pretty scary, and I'm going to try to find some peer reviewed sources to verify that at another time. Asparagus I'm less familiar with, but my understanding is that in large amounts, it can cause upset stomach (are we sensing a theme?)

And now, the star of dinner, turkey! Turkey itself is a fairly lean meat. The problem here is its "add-ons". NEVER feed your dog cooked bones, poultry or otherwise. NEVER. They have a high chance of splintering and perforating organs and other necessary things. My understanding is that folks who feed raw will give RAW, whole turkey to dogs and those bones are all right, but if you decide to feed raw, make sure to do your research and discuss with an animal nutritionist so that you know about the calcium-phosphorus ratios and all that good stuff. Turkey skin, in excess, can cause pancreatitis, the symptoms of which are things like vomiting, and in extreme severity can require hospitalization. You can read more about that here, as I'm already getting rather wordy, but feel it's important to highlight these things.

Then, dinner's over. Do you run out and play right away? Well, no. Most humans, after gorging themselves on Thanksgiving dinner, roll themselves to a chair or couch and watch football, or engage in long rambling conversations. For a dog, true exertion close to a meal can cause bloat, a swelling of the stomach caused by gas and such, that may involve torsion, and certainly involves an operation to the tune of $1500 or so, and even then, depending on how early it is caught, the chances of survival may not be so great. This is a video of a dog bloating, an Akita, not a Doberman. It's good education, on the sort of things to look for in a dog, but also pretty heartbreaking. The dog lived, so you know ahead of time. The "plate" that Elka's toy pack came on is a Frisbee (well, a Flying Disk), which I thought was very clever!

When confronted with her plate of Holiday Goodies, Elka wasn't really sure what to make of them. She was interested, certainly, but the whole package was a mystery.

Eventually, I took pity on her, and extricated the corn.

Eventually, the turkey followed suit. Elka really dug the turkey; it was interestingly shaped and textured, and the drumsticks are ropes! Elka loves ropes.

She had to make sure she wasn't missing out on anything, of course.

And, because I'm a meanie, I only let her play with them for a little while, so that they last longer than five minutes. The squeakers in them are actually rather hard (perhaps because they've cured for a year?) and don't squeak at the slightest touch, which is optimal for Elka, and poor for the survivability of the toys.

Have a safe and happy holiday, everybody!

Monday Mischief! November 21

A lot of people have truly shocking pictures of their dogs.

Dogs sitting inside an eviscerated frame that was a couch when people left the house an hour before. Dogs who obviously chewed the blinds right off of the windows. Dogs who killed the dragons that lived in their very own innocent dog beds.

I am a bad pet owner. I don't grab the camera when I see things like that (okay, so the bed is the only exampled I really have). I get rid of the evidence, without correction, which is very hard as a person to do, because the dog is obviously looking guilty, right? The dog must know what she did, right? Well, not really.

Vote for the Doberman Assistance Network!

Chase Community Giving, right now on Facebook, has voting for a charity to share in a $3 million grant. The top 100 voted for charities and causes are the ones who get money. There are only a few days left (I wish I'd known sooner)

The link to go vote is here: Chase Community Giving on Facebook

Please vote, and tell others to vote. The Doberman Assistance Network has a lot of dogs relying on it, and has frequent new cases. You can only vote for a charity once, but there are other Doberman charities on the list, if you're willing to go gung-ho!

Please post, and crosspost. I've crossposted this from Doberman Talk, onto Facebook, Twitter, and Livejournal. Want to help? Elka appreciates it.

Service Dogs and You

It is a crime to lie about whether your dog is a Service Dog.

Would I like more public places and businesses to allow "pet" dog access? Yes. But I'm not going to lie about Elka. Elka could technically, at this point, be considered my "in house" service dog. She has prevented numerous full-blown migraines for me. She can pick up items that I've dropped and retrieve items that I name. I taught her to brace when I lean on her, and she can help me up and even walk with me if I'm leaning. But have I trained her for public access? Not to a degree that I'm comfortable doing something like, say, taking her to a grocery store on a busy Saturday afternoon.

Yet, this past Saturday, somebody in my town did just that.

how embarassing

Monday Mischief Pet Blog Hop!

About a week ago, I received an email from Alfie over at Alfie's Blog about a new blog hop! I was very excited to hear about it, and was pleased that he'd taken the time to let me know.

Monday Mischief is the pet blog hop that wraps up the weekend! From Australia, to the UK, California, to Ohio, our dogs all love getting up to something mischievous over the weekend and we are sure yours do as well! This isn't just open to dogs though, because we know that all other animals can get up to lots of mischief too.

 I thought it was a fun and new blog hop idea! Now, you may have noticed, I think Elka's pretty great. She's very very good most of the time, and even when she's "bad", it's not generally her fault. Or not generally that bad. This is one of those stories, but it more or less applies to the "mischief" category. I wasn't sure if I would have an entry, you see, and my good Dobergirl rose to the occasion for me!

The Toby Project: Low Cost Spay and Neuter

I'm not in New York City, but this is a project that definitely deserves attention.

Poking around on Dogster, as one does, I found an article about the Toby Project. The Toby Project is a non profit, low cost spay and neuter van that travels New York City.

The spay or neuter (and rabies vaccines, apparently) are free to New York City residents who are on public assistance. They're also free for "pit bulls and non-purebred and cats". For purebreds and "designer breeds", the spay or neuter is $100 and the rabies vaccine is $10.

The November calendar for the Spay/Neuter van can be found here, and you can call 212-799-1120 for information.

At prices like that, and with the information readily available, cost is no excuse. It's cheaper to go spay or neuter your dog or cat, no matter how awesome that individual may be, than to responsibly breed a litter. It may or may not be healthier for your dog or cat; there are opinions on both sides of this. A female dog who has been spayed cannot get uterine or ovarian cancer; a female dog who was spayed before her first heat has a reduced chance of mammary cancer. A male dog who has been neutered will not roam the neighborhood to find the female in heat that he can smell, will not get testicular cancer, and may or may not be more mellow in general (though dog behavior is frequently a training issue rather than whether the animal is intact).

Spay or neuter your pet. Elka says it's the responsible thing to do. 

Wake Up Call

This morning, my alarm didn't go off.

I genuinely have no idea why, but my alarm not going off on a Saturday, the one day I need to be out of the house and at work by 8:30, is not good. I still got up and got to work in plenty of time, though. Because of Elka.

The alarm didn't go off at 7:00, the time for which it was set. I slumbered on blissfully. At 7:20, Elka stood up, taking the blanket with her. This woke me up, of course, and I looked up at her and said "What?" She stood on the bed with her head craned down, staring at me.

Then I thought "gee, it's awfully bright", and reached up for my phone to check the time, and then jumped right out of bed.

Elka to the rescue!

A Bargain Doberman is Not a Good Deal

Because I like looking at pictures of puppies, I frequently poke around on Craigslist, or Want Ad Digest, sites like that. While there are many many adorable puppies on there, I would never purchase a puppy from such a venue. In fact, more than once, I sent somebody on Craigslist an email that their "Free to a Good Home" Doberman might be better served at Doberman Rescue Unlimited, or that the Doberman Assistance Network might give them some good advice.

A $650 puppy is a tempting prospect, I know. Dobermans are expensive. You can buy a computer for what you'd pay for a Doberman, cropped and docked and hopefully with health testing done. And sometimes you luck out with that $650 dog. And other times, you get what you pay for.

Example: Do you want your Doberman's ears to look like this? Though a painting, this was included in a puppy advertisement, and not representative of a "correct" crop.

Don't Buy From a Puppy Mill, Charlie Brown!

I thought I was really cool and came up with this correlation on my own, but The Examiner did beat me to it: Charlie Brown's Snoopy is from a puppy mill.

Sure, it was called Daisy Hill Puppy Farm, but even such a pastoral-sounding name isn't really all that great once you think about it. Where do puppies come from? The puppy farm. It's suspect to me, especially with the apparent prevalence of Amish puppy mills, ostensibly on their farms.

Wordless Wednesday: November 9 1022, Awkward Family Pet Photos winner!

All right, I know you've waited with bated breath!

(the contestants)

(not as cute as last week's selection. Elka in fact picked up the winner and flung the paper. She had to go out.)

(the winner!)

So, Mahria, email me with your address so I can email Random House!

Tasty Tuesday: Bunnies!

Today's Tasty Tuesday Treats are brought to the Elka Almanac by Mahria, from Cupcakes, Cookies, and Other Baking Adventures! Mahria is a far more dedicated tasty treat baker than I am, you see, and while normally she brings our Saturday gaming group human treats, this past Saturday, she brought Elka treats!

The Elka, she was pleased.

The Park in November? You Betcha!

Today was a beautiful, sunny day. Far too nice to stay inside and work on my novel instead of taking Elka to the park. So out we went!

Currently, I have an EZ Dog Harness, sent to me by the company, to review. It has a seatbelt attachment that I haven't used yet, but that was a primary reason for me wanting a harness for Elka.

Dogs and Writing, redux

Back in July, I did Camp NaNoWriMo, and had a lot of fun with it. I haven't re-read that novel yet, and though I wrote "The End" on the last page, I rather think it has another few chapters to go before I can consider it properly done. I blogged, then, about both writing and keeping the Elka happy.

But, it's November, and time for National Novel Writing Month proper.

Book Review: Awkward Family Pet Photos, by Mike Bender and Doug Chernack (and giveaway!)

Recently, I received an email requesting that I would consider reviewing a new book, Awkward Family Pet Photos.  I was flattered, of course, to receive the attention. And then I glanced at the website and thought "oh yes, I'm definitely in".

Wordless Wednesday, November 2, 2011 & Giveaway winner!

A self-explanatory photo-essay! Congratulations to Susan Audrey, for winning the giveaway of Jill Abramson's The Puppy Diaries on CD! Please email me your address, that I might send it to Macmillan for you to get your prize!