December 2: Dog Food Research

Now that I am the owner of my first puppy, there are a lot of things I find myself thinking of that I haven't been able to have the option of doing with the PITS. One of those is food choice; With GDF we have been feeding the dogs IAMS but are now allowed to use Purina One;

According to the food lady at one of our local pet stores, those are the two WORST brands on earth! Of course the one she was promoting wasn't much better....but I digress.

After some research, I have come to this conclusion; The good stuff is EXPENSIVE!!!!

And here a few tips that I found useful in my search.

CRITERIA #1
Things Your Pet Food Should NOT Contain

1. Chemical Preservatives - BHA, BHT, Ethoxyquin
2. Corn - known allergen, poor source of protein, highly indigestible, recent source of fatal fungal infections caused by Diamond Pet Products.
3. Wheat - same as above, Soy - same as above,
4.By-Products - indigestible beaks, feathers, feet, heads, etc. Does not have to contain meat, 5.Animal Fat (non-specific) or Beef Tallow - hard, indigestible fat source,
6.Flour - of any kind, used as a filler,
7.Pentobarbital - from tainted meat sources. Same chemical used in euthanizing animals

CRITERIA #2
Things Your Pet Food SHOULD Contain:

1. Whole Foods - Apples, carrots, spinach, etc.Live Probiotics - micro encapsulated friendly bacteria, supports intestinal health,Chelated Minerals - scientifically proven to be 40% better absorbed
2. Natural Preservative €œvitamin E, not just“mixed tocopherols- a source of vitamin E
3. Grape Seed Extract - very potent anitoxidant source
4. Hormone and Steroid Free Meat - Your pet is eating the same food day in and day out. A little exposure every day adds up to a lot!
5. Chicken MEAL - not just chicken. Chicken MEAL is the best cut of the meat

Click Here for more information. Further on down the page it gives the list of dog foods and there ingredients

The three that are on the radar screen are: Blue Buffalo, Nutro, , Royal Cain for Dachshunds, Life's Abundance, and Wellness. None of these contain any of the "bad" stuff. So now its research time.

What I personally am looking for is: 1. Price, 2. Ingredients 3. Is it available at a local place

First up is:

Blue Buffalo: Love the website, almost all its ingredients have links to definition so you know exactly what you are giving your pup. They also offer a coupon for $5 off your first purchase so defiantly a plus in my book! Their food includes: Real Meat, Fruits and Veggies, Cold Formed Nutrients and Antioxidents, NO animal by-products, NO artificial coloring and NO corn, wheat or soy. (don't tell them that corn is a veggie..but once again that is O/T)
I"m checking out the:

• Lamb and Brown Rice Formula for Puppies,

Ingredient/Nutrient	Benefit
High-Quality Protein	Muscle Growth
Calcium & Phosphorus	Bone Development
DHA	Cognitive Development
Vitamins & Chelated Minerals	Immune Strength
Omega 3 & 6 Fatty Acids	Healthy Skin & Shiny Coat
Fruits & Veggies	Free Radical Fighters

• Weight Control

Ingredient/Nutrient	Benefit
Natural Vegetable Fiber	Helps Maintain Ideal Weight
L-Carnitine	Lean Muscle Maintenance
Omega 3 & 6 Fatty Acids	Healthy Skin & Shiny Coat
Green Tea, Fruits & Veggies	Free Radical Fighters
Vitamins & Chelated Minerals	Immune Strength

This food is defiantly in the running, on to the next. A+

Royal Cain for Dachshunds: Not much impressed, they don't have a puppy food for the dachshund variety. It does have L-Carnitine in it which helps burn fat, so that is a plus for this food. Also not much information about what the food will do for your dog. B-

Life's Abundance: First down factor is the price, a 40lbs bag cost almost $60!!!!!! That price is way out of my range so I'm on the next brand.C

Wellness: I appreciate the sites that are willing to define their ingredients!! They use USDA grade foods that are Fit for Human consumption. They have foods for all steps of life as well.
Their Healthy Weight and Just for Puppy foods are what I'm interested in; A big plus is that their HW food is high in Fiber, which helps the dog feel fuller as well as reduced calorie and fats, Definatly what Bubsy needs;
Just for Puppy food, high amounts of protein and carbohydrates to help that high energy and muscle growth, and Smaller Kibble Size for Smaller Mouths A+

Congrats if you got through all of that!!!!!

So from my search, its seems that for what I'm looking for, Wellness and Blue Buffalo are coming out on top; we'll see what the prices run locally and go from there!

December 1 {by Texas}

Happy December 1st everyone!! I've been in my new house one week today, and already I am loving it! My mom is the best ever, and I want to be with her ALLL The time! I don't like it when I can't be with her, and have to tell everyone how unhappy I am, sometimes people are worried that I may be hurt, but mom always goes, "He's fine just doesn't like not being with me".
I'm also learning a bunch of things, like "get busy", and "sit" and am learning "quiet" and "down". Mom says its hard to see if I have done "down" because I am already so low to the ground. The "Quiet" command is the hardest to learn cause I really, really, really like to bark.
I'm also learning how to walk on a leash, and that's super hard, cause I really want to run as FAST as possible, but its super hard with that thing pulling me back.... *sigh* Mom says I'm a either a 0 or 100 dog. Is that good? I don't know. Anyways I'm going to bed. Got a day full of barking tomorrow!!

TTYL!

About Texas

Name: Walker "Texas" Ranger
Breed: Miniature Dachshund
Color: Black and Tan
Sex: Male
Birthdate: July 5, 2009
Adopted: November 18, 2008

Its Official!!!!

Please join me in welcoming

TEXAS!!

To our family!

Birthdate: July 5, 2008

Adopted: November 29, 2008

I'm so excited I don't know what to do with myself.

LOL!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We Hope you all had a great day!
I know we did!
An awesome day with my family and puppies!

We started our day with a late brunch,

{Any food for me?}

{How about me? I'm cuter!?}

then I spent the rest of the day alternating between cooking, taking the dogs out and keeping Captain Squeaky Pants quiet. LOL.

{Man is he loud!}

Dinner was great, no turkey (mom's a vegan) and then our family (and Sue of course) went to the Grove Park Inn, which is one of the fanciest Hotels in our city, as well as being one of the oldest. Every year they hold the National Gingerbread House Competition and display the houses all over the Hotel, so we went a browsed around there.

{Ok so we had some meat! :-) Thankfully!}

{These houses have to be made COMPLETELY from edible items}

As a puppy walker you meet many many many characters; from day to day, but sometimes there are those you can relate too. For instance this one couple chased us across the hotel when they saw Sue. Apparently they were Lab breeders who donated their pups to an assistance dog school in Virgina: St Francis of Assisi Service Dogs. So that was pretty cool!

Miss Sue was cool-calm and collected through out the whole trip. She's still into going her own way, its like she forgets there is someone at the other end of the leash; but we're working on that.
I'm going to have to adjust my thinking as she is not a dog to do anything in a hurry. And after having two high-energy labs, this is really different for me!

I'm sure you all are wondering why I am speaking of keeping Sue....
Sometimes when you start raising a guide dog puppy, life gets in your way, and its hard to give the dog the attention it needs. This is a basic overview of whats going on in Sue's family.
So my leader has asked me if I would finish raising Sue. While I'm honored that she would have that confidence in my dog handling skills, I'm also just as nervous that I won't be able to help her like she needs.

So I told my A/C that she would have to talk to my father about this situation. Sue has a lot to work on and having Texas as well would make things a little more hectic for me since he's so young; as well as our family preparing for a move to Tennessee....so we'll see.

P.S.(I've just installed ClickComments on my blog. It is the new and fun way for you to comment. Simply click on an icon to tell me what you think.)

Sunday - Tuesday

Sunday:
Another work day for me; this would be Sue's first time being socialized with a large group of dogs; so i was eager to see how she would do. Her first reaction was submission, but after a few minutes, she was ready to play! And play she did. When we got home after the second shift, she came into my room, went to sleep, and slept for about three hours straight, before I woke her up to potty, and put her back to bed.

4:00AM- I was rudely awakened to these words: "Erin, I think the dog went in her crate."
So for the next hour and a half, I spent cleaning the crate, Sue, and the carpet.
Fun times I tell you.

The rest of day was, not as "good", but it was a little better. Around 4:00PM Mr. Texas and his foster mom arrived! We got his food, and medical records, and were all set to go!
He and Sue were able to meet, and despite hes recent trauma with big dogs...(which he doesn't remember, because we are not keeping him in that state,) they got along great!
I had choir practice at 7:10PM, so I had to send the dogs with my mom until that was over, but once home...This is pretty much what the rest of the evening looked like:







I think hes going to be a keeper! :-)))
Now if only we could decide on a name.
And please don't tell him he's a little dog, I don't think he could handle it!!

P.S.(One of these days I'll be able to get a face shot of the little guy, but as you can see its really hard to do! lol)

MidDate No. 2

A big shout out to my Area Coordintor for taking pictures of Midnights trip to GDF!!!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing




Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing
{This is Midnights sister, her name is Grant}


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Puppy Meetings, and Sue

My morning started to the pitiful little cry of a lab puppy waking up; after about fifteen or so minutes, and frequent little cries, I waited until she was quiet, before leashing her up, and taking her out to "busy".

Since I still had 15 minutes before I HAD to get up, I brought her in my room, and tied her down to my bed leg, with some toys. She climbed on the dog beds and happily chewed on a bone, while I attempted to sleep some.

10 minutes later, I decided to go ahead and get up; busy lazy Bubbles, and feed both dogs, then another trip outside...and time for me to get dressed. After a few minutes of making sure I had space on me camera, Penny and I were out the door, and on our way to the parade!!

{Neil 8-months-old and his raiser}

The dogs handled the parade and all the noises very well, I was most impressed with Ms.Sue; there was one point, when some.....guy started shooting off his gun right in front of us..which thoroughly freaked out Sue; so we moved away and I walked her around some and did some obedience with her to try and get her mind off of it.

{Working Dog with Canine Companions for Independence}

And throughout the rest of the parade we stood a little ways off; so as to make a hasty retreat whenever she freaked; then we would regroup and come back. After we made it too the end, I got all of her things from Penny's raiser, and were on our way.

To....somewhere.....

We wound up at my favorite place on earth. (NOT) WALLY WORLD!!
I don't know what it is about that place, but EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. WE GO IN THAT PLACE.
{Insert Puppy Name Here (except midnights)} has an accident! And despite my efforts to get a "busy" outside...which could have been harder...but it was cold and I had to visit the ladies room as well. So inside we went!

And about a minute later, I was cleaning up the floor.

I totally deserved that.

Oh well, we made it through the rest of the trip well and purchased some things for Tex's visit....small dog toys etc.. lol. I refrained from buying a coat for him.

I decided to visit PetsMart, and get some treats for training. While she was very well behaved...I do not appreciate people, who think they can tell me, how my school wants me to train my dogs.

But I digress.

Once home, I let Sue explore some, busied her then put her on tie-down, while I swept the floor and did other various things around the house; I gave her carrots and a Kong Wubba, to keep her occupied, and she had lots of fun, making a mess with the carrots. ::big grin::


After that, she snoozed on her bed, while I was on the computer. Once she woke up we went back outside, and I started working on getting her to focus on me, and not pull on the leash. This technique works very well:

Sue is a little goofy, and it took about five times for her to realize...Oooh yeah....follow Erin!
After that we worked on her name, "Come" and "Down". She's picking it up very quickly.

Her house manners have been pretty much perfect, and she's a pro about controlled retrieve.
Which, I'm ashamed to admit, Midnight was horrid at.
So this next week should be a breeze!

:-))

Puppy Sitting: Penny

Meet Penny:

She is a 7-month-old Female black being raised in our group! She is also the half-sister, of my puppy Rei! In just the few hours I have had with her, I am very impressed with her demeanor.
Very Midnight like...of course she's still young, and has things that could be worked on..who doesn't; no accidents, very good about busying aka pottying on command, and Bubbles even played with her for a little bit!!She's defiantly a people oriented dog and has followed me all over the house. She's very happy to let me be the pack leader, with little to no fight!

She really enjoys the dog beds, the bones and kongs I have laying around, but is not at all pleased with being crated. Oh well. She'll survive.

Tomorrows Agenda:

• Puppy Meeting
  
• Christmas Parade
• Pick Up Sue
  

Puppies! {by Erin}

Two days since my baby left, and I'm already refilling my house with dogs. Much to my dads horror. After two hours of negotiating, I will be bringing home....a 7-month-old, Female Black lab named Penny, tomorrow night, get up the next morning and go to a puppy meeting, and switch Penny for Sue, who is a 7-month-old Golden Retriever.

Sue will be with me over the Thanksgiving holiday.

On Monday........Mr.Tex will come home to spend the week as well!!! He is here on trial basis....just to see how he works with our family, (more likely just to give my dad a longer time to say no.) But as long as I can keep the accident level to a minimum (like NONE), things will be great!

No matter, I'm really excited to have a challenge again!!