Co-Hosted Follow-Up Friday March 8, 2013

March 8, 2013 By Jodi

Welcome to the latest edition of co-hosted Follow-up Friday.

My co-hostess this week has had a pretty eventful last few months. Last year her blog was hi-jacked by one of her dogs, who looks so eerily like Sampson that Hubby upon seeing his photo on her blog said, “Where was that picture of Sampson taken?”

In November she participated and completed NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month.) She scrapped her entire novel on day 17 and started fresh and completed the 50,000 word challenge in 13 DAYS!

As if all of this weren’t enough, in January she signed with an agent who loves her first novel.

I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, yes my co-hostess this week is Donna, from Donna and the Dogs.

Welcome and thank you so much for joining me today Donna.

Rally Reactions – Author’s Note

Thank you all for the strong support and encouragement. I always want to do what’s best for my dogs and try to always think about their need to feel safe.

Pamela left a link to a great post by Suzanne Clothier in the comments about reactive dogs. If you have or know a reactive dog, heck even if you don’t it gives some great insights.

The Heart of Spring – Update

Spring has left the building. It started snowing again Wednesday night and snowed all day yesterday, as of the writing of this post, it is expected to continue throughout Thursday night and into Friday.

Here are some pictures from our walk yesterday. While I still maintain there is beauty in the quiet stillness of the snow, I really am ready for some nicer weather.

: Dogs in the field, just before twilight.

: Delilah in the field.

: Our path to the woods.

: A snow covered pine tree.

: Close up of the pine tree.

: Delilah in the woods.

: Snowy woods.

I’m No Jodi Chick – Update

Sampson had no problems with the inch and a half of bone he ate. You all know how closely I monitor the dog’s poops. 🙂 I did check it and could see little white flecks in it, he kept his meals down and seemed like his happy self.

No harm, no foul. But he will also never have those particular white bones again, at least as long as he’s not supervised.

Longer Days – Author’s Note

I have a beautiful area for hiking. Most of the people who live around us use this area for walking their dogs. Off-leash. I do too. But I always have leashes on me and when I see others approaching I herd my dogs in. That doesn’t make it right, I know.

Let me be clear, we do have a leash law in my town but animal control does not monitor this particular area. It is mostly off the beaten path and known to those who live in the area; with the exception being the La Crosse team who will start using the field in the next couple of weeks.

Most people who walk their dogs in this area are not like me in a number of different ways. Among other reasons, most of them don’t have their dogs under control, many of the dogs do not even have collars never mind leashes, and they don’t clean up after their dogs.

Despite all this, it’s a beautiful area, it’s convenient and my dogs love it there. So I do the best I can.

This ‘N That Thursday – Author’s Note

As I mentioned, I don’t want to change the blog completely but I would like to share certain things we do that I feel help improve my dog’s quality of life.

I’ve been itching (excuse the pun) to do a post on natural flea and tick prevention. Last year I had a pretty decent regime that worked fairly well. It was a combination of a couple of products and a process. I contacted the manufacturer of one of the products and asked about a give-away but never heard back.

I’ve just recently discovered a new product and am in the beginning phases of ordering it. Then I will begin testing it and hope to have a post up about that within the next few months.

In the meantime, I’ll be working a post every week or two that deals with products designed to promote health and well-being without all that extra crap that seems to make its way into our lives and bodies.

In the meantime if there’s anything in particular you’d like to know about, please let me know in the comments or drop me an e-mail at stone.jodi@ymail.com

That’s it for us, remember this is the Follow-Up Friday Blog hop hosted by Donna and the Dogs and Heart Like a Dog. If you don’t know Donna and her dogs, please stop by and say hello. And tell them Heart Like a Dog sent you.

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This ‘N That Thursday – March 7, 2013

March 7, 2013 By Jodi

Today we join our friends at the 2 Brown Dawgs blog for This ‘N That Thursday.

“This ‘N That Thursday is for those times when you want to post about unrelated topics or each topic isn’t quite long enough to make up a whole post. It can be anything you want, so feel free to grab the button and join us!”

Wooded Agility

Ever since Snowtober of 2011, almost every time we have a storm we lose more trees and branches in our little neck of the woods.

Sometimes the trees fall in such a way that they cannot be used as an agility jump.

Technically I COULD clear this if I wanted to, but I don’t.

And then sometimes you think they’re a little too high, but your dog proves otherwise.

She really is that athletic.

One day Hubby and I watched in shock and awe as she cleared a pile of brush about three feet high and six feet wide. Of course I never get THAT on video.

Blog Changes.

Yesterday when I was catching up on my blog reading I came across this, Want to Feed Raw but Don’t Know How to Find Sources for Food, by Dawn over at NEPA Pets. I already feed raw and have a food supplier, but I’m always open to new resources. And let me tell you, this article lists some awesome resources not just for raw food, but websites where you can find organic resources for human consumption.

Over the past couple of years I’ve really begun to look at the things I put on and in my body. I think it really started when I switched the dogs to raw.

Whatever. Why, how or when it started doesn’t matter, the fact is it started.

And since I’m so in tune with my consuming habits, I’ve also begun to be very aware of what I expose my dogs to.

There’s a lot of healthy alternatives I’ve discovered in the last couple of years, both human and canine related. I think I’d like to share some of them here.

Hear me out.

I don’t intend to change this blog in the respect that I won’t post stories about my dogs, because that is just never going to happen, but I would like to share with you some of the things I’m doing to improve the lifestyles for the dogs, the Hubby and I.

For instance, did you know that the best oil to cook with is Coconut oil? Besides giving your food a uniquely tropical flavor, coconut oil has many benefits. It is good for your heart, helps maintain your blood sugar and has great immune boosting and anti-bacterial benefits.

Coconut oil is actually solid until the temperature hits 70° and then it liquefies, the best way to liquify coconut oil is to place it (or the jar) in a cup or bowl of hot water. Melting the coconut oil in the microwave destroys many of its excellent properties. I use the solid to grease pans for baking, and recently substituted coconut oil for vegetable oil in chocolate chip blondies. The result was delicious.

And dogs can have the coconut oil too. Sampson and Delilah get a spoonful of it every night to help keep their immune system strong and healthy.

I like a product that is multi-functional and that can be consumed by both the humans and the canines in my household.

I’d like to know what you think about that. I know there are a lot of blogs/websites out there with all kinds of information that you can readily access when you want it, so my question really is this:

Are you interested to know what I’m doing to help me and my dogs stay healthy and live a long and satisfying life? Would you like to know what kinds of natural/healthy alternatives we are incorporating into our lives?

Many thanks to our friends at the 2 Brown Dawgs Blog for instituting This ‘N That Thursday!!

Longer Days

March 6, 2013 By Jodi

I am loving the longer days! If I hurry home from work we can squeeze a wood walk in before dinner.

Which is exactly what we did last night.

We’re not the only ones taking advantage of the longer days. Last night we ran into a woman and her three dogs. I’ve met this woman before and I actually wrote about her, but I couldn’t find that particular post. She’s one of the people who wander the woods with her dogs and lets them wander wherever they want.

Hubby and I heard the woman before we saw her and her dogs. We turned around to head away from them, but not before her dogs came charging up to Delilah. Of course I dropped the leash and I was super proud of the way Delilah handled herself.

Despite one of the dogs barking in her face.

Yes, it’s true her hackles were up, but she retained her self-control and returned to me when I called her.

We looped around so we’d end up following the same path they took, except Sampson decided at the last-minute to head another way and guess who came running up to us again?

Her dogs were acting like they hadn’t been out all winter. One of the dogs, a large white one really wanted to play, he actually jumped on Sampson’s back. When he tried to play with Delilah she let him know in no uncertain terms that she didn’t want to play.

I was so busy worrying about Delilah and trying to prevent an altercation that I didn’t get any pictures of the other dogs.

But it was another beautiful sunset and I did get some photos of that.

I tried to capture the orange of the sunset and finally got these by using the flash.

This was a zoomed in shot, hence the fuzziness.

Delilah moved (jerking my arm) just as I snapped the photo, I think it looks cool even though it’s a little wonky.

Are you and your furry friends enjoying the longer days? Does your exercise routine change with the seasons?

Heart Like a Dog

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