Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Coffee and Donuts with Peggy Frezon

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We are super excited to be participating in the “Fun & Furry, Fit & Healthy” Blog Tour featuring Ms. Peggy Frezon and her dog Kelly!

Last week over coffee and donuts I sat down to interview Peggy.

Peg & Kelly - Close Up 3 x 2

Full disclosure here.  We didn’t ACTUALLY sit down together, I sent her a list of questions and she answered them.

Come to think of it WE didn’t really have coffee and donuts, that was just me stuffing my face while I read her responses.

But semantics aside, Heart Like a Dog is happy to be the next stop on this fabulous tour!!  So without further ado, here we go.

Congratulations on having your third book published!!  What prompted you to write the follow-up to Dieting with my Dog?

Thank you Jodi! Dieting with my Dog is my personal success story about helping my dog Kelly lose weight, and how Kelly motivated me to get fit along the way! Many people who read it asked me if I could share more tips about losing weight and getting fit with our dogs, so that they could do it too. I think The Dieting with my Dog Guide to Weight Loss and Maintenance contains everything you need to know to help start you and your dog off in the right direction, for you and keep you going strong.

What kind of tips can we find in the book? Tips for losing weight?  Exercising?

How to calculate what you should weigh, how to tell if your dog is overweight, healthy eating habits for both of you, healthy snacks for people and dogs, how much exercise does your dog need, running, hiking, climbing stairs, biking, snowshoeing with your dog and more, how to tell if your dog is fit, tips for maintaining weight loss, and more!

Obviously you and Kelly have had success at losing and keeping your weight off.   What made you decide to undertake this journey together and have you found Kelly’s inclusion to be more motivating than if you’d undertaken this alone?

Initially, I started helping Kelly lose weight for health reasons. Her vet said that she was headed for some serious health issues if she didn’t slim down. Then, along the way, Kelly motivated me to lose weight and get fit. I had the same health risks! We really couldn’t have done it without each other.

I don’t know about you, but one of my biggest weaknesses is snacks.  Will there be any ideas for snacks or meals in this book?  Perhaps a couple of low fat/low cal recipes?

The book includes a list of healthy snack ideas for you, and a list for your dog. Before I started dieting with my dog, I never thought to give Kelly fruits and vegetables. The book tells you which ones are safe for dogs to eat. For people, you probably know it’s healthier to eat a strawberry than a cookie. But if you really want a cookie, it’s all about portion control and just do it once in awhile as a treat. (I have a bit of trouble with that concept!)

Maintaining weight loss is a life time commitment and a lifestyle change, what are your tips for resisting temptation and sticking with the plan?

Keep it interesting.  Surround yourself with supportive people.  Work on eliminating (or at least reducing) stress.

Right now we’re participating in a virtual tour, do you have any plans for a physical book tour?

Not a tour, so much as taking advantage of joining in at great dog-related events as they come up!

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

Be sure to check out the Woof Workouts from K9 Fit Club (a great gym where you get to work out along with your dog!) The book contains step by step instructions with photos from a K9 Fit Club fitness trainer and her dogs!

The Dieting with my Dog Guide to Weight Loss and Maintenance is available on Amazon, where you can also purchase Peggy’s other books, “Dieting with my Dog” and “Heart to Heart, Hand in Paw.”

Peggy Frezon is a freelance writer who specializes in pets.  She is a regular contributor to Guideposts Magazine and Angels on Earth.   She has also contributed many stories to the Chicken Soup for the Soul books as well as numerous magazines.

Peggy lives in New York with her husband, her spaniel-dachshund mix Kelly and newly adopted golden retriever Ike.

You can connect with Peggy on her blog, “Peggy’s Pet Place” where you will find all of her social media links.

I’d like to thank Peggy for including us in her virtual tour and wish her great success with her book!

spaniel-dachshund mix Kelly
spaniel-dachshund mix Kelly

Good Morning Monday!

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You may recall we’ve been treating Sampson for a lick granuloma.

He had one last year in October and then this spring he got another one on the same paw.  We treated it in the spring but I don’t think it really went away.  You can read more about that go round here.

Our vet recommended a 20 day course of antibiotics (Clindamycin 300 mg twice a day,) a 27 day course of nerve blocker (Gabatentin 200 mg twice a day) and 6 cold laser treatments, with a re-check in three weeks.

Meanwhile the holistic vet added some liver detox drops, some skin drops and a Super Probiotic to his diet.  He is still taking all three of these.

Let me tell you, this boy did not mind the cold laser treatments at all!   The first visit the vet techs tag teamed him.

9-15-13 001

One to do the treatment and the other to feed him noms.

9-15-13 002 I don’t mind this as long as this guy keeps feeding me noms.

A close-up of the boo boo while he was being treated.

This photo was taken the very first laser treatment, you can see how he’s licked it raw and it’s gotten infected.

After that first treatment, they discovered what a good boy Sampson is and that he’s perfectly fine with me in the room feeding him noms.

The fact that they allowed me in the room made me super happy.  The first appointment took place the day we went in to have his paw looked at. The day of the 2nd laser treatment I heard on the news of a man who was arrested for abusing animals at the shelter he worked for.  I worked myself into a fine tizzy worried about bringing Sampson in and having to leave him while he was treated out of my sight.

I know, I know.  I trust my Vet’s office, I really do, but there’s always that little wondering voice that makes me doubt.  I can never be too careful when it comes to the care and well-being of my pups.

Anyhoo, Sampson finished the laser treatments about two weeks ago, he finished the antibiotic last Monday and he’s scheduled to finish the nerve blocker tonight.

Our vet checked him out last Tuesday and was so pleased with the way his paw looks.

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 You can see that the fur is growing back and you can tell that he hasn’t been licking at it.  My vet says he may need to remain on the nerve blocker for a while and that it is a perfectly safe drug.

This morning I noticed he was limping. On that paw.

Good morning Monday!

What’s ‘taters’ precious?

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“What’s ‘taters’ precious?” Gollum asked.

What’s ‘taters’, eh?”, Sam responded, “PO-TA-TOES!  Boil em’, mash em’, stick em’ in a stew.” (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers.)

Poor Samwise, his mind is limited.  There are SO many more things you can do with potatoes!

Since Sampson was diagnosed with another lick granuloma, he’s been on a mess of pills.  Two antibiotics twice a day, two nerve blockers twice a day and a pro-biotic twice a day.   Getting him to take the pills in the evening is easy, he gets ground food and the pills get mixed in.  99 out of 100 times he eats them, on the rare occasions that he doesn’t, I put a bit of yogurt or a raw egg in his bowl on top of the pill and problem solved.

His breakfast is another story entirely.

In the mornings he gets chicken necks and no matter how I arrange them, there’s just no way to hide his pills.  Typically I use peanut butter, to shove the pills in, but I ran out.  So I used sun butter instead, but yesterday morning after one set of pills I ran out of that too.  I had quite a dilemma on my hands.

I dug frantically in the refrigerator, but couldn’t find anything to hide some pills in….until my eyes fell upon the left over boiled salt potatoes.

Why not, I thought.

I took about 1/2 a cup and fork mashed them.

I took about 1/2 a cup and fork mashed them.

To that I added about 1 1/2 tablespoons of sour cream.

To that I added about 1 1/2 tablespoons of sour cream.

I mixed it just well enough to incorporate the sour cream.

I mixed it just well enough to incorporate the sour cream.

It was a bit on the thick side, which was exactly how I wanted it.

I placed a small bit on a spoon and added the pills.

I placed a small bit on a spoon and added the pills.

I added a bit more potatoes and rolled it into a ball.

I added a bit more potatoes and rolled it into a ball.

It ended up being about the size of a small cocktail meatball.

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I offered it to Mr. Picky who had been sitting there watching me diligently.

Nom, nom all gone.

Nom, nom all gone.

To sum it up, here’s what I did.

1/2 cup boiled salt potatoes

1 to 2 tablespoons of sour cream

Fork mash the potatoes and add sour cream to the required consistency.  It’s that easy. 🙂

WHAT?  Are you saying you don’t know what boiled salt potatoes are?   Holy snap!  They are so easy and so yummy that I normally want to lick my plate.

Okay, okay here’s how you make boiled salt potatoes.

What you need, red potatoes (leave the skin on) salt, butter.

Quarter the potatoes (unless they’re huge, then cut them into decent sized chunks.  I’d say about an inch if you can manage it.)  Cover with cold water and add about 1/4 cup of salt for every 3 or 4 medium sized potatoes.  Cook until they are tender, but not too much, you don’t want these babies disintegrating.

Once they’re tender, drain the potatoes and place them back in the pan, with about 1/2 a stick of butter for every 3 or 4 medium sized potatoes  (this is key, you will not get the same results if you use margarine or Brummel or any other type of butter replacement.)  Once the butter has melted, give them a stir and then shove those suckers into your mouth as fast as you can.

You may want to wear some loose clothes too, because if they’re anywhere near as popular at your house as they are at mine, you might have to wrestle someone for seconds and that’s hard to do in tight pants.

Have you ever had to be creative in getting pills into your pet?  What are your secrets?

If you’d like some great recipe ideas for dog treats, head on over to Kol’s Notes, Koly’s Mama always has something tasty on the menu, today it’s Autumn Gold Gluten Free Dog Treats.  And this is the Tasty Tuesday blog hop hosted by Kol’s Notes and Sugar the Golden Retriever.

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