Heart Like a Dog

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

Kefir Madness

By

During Sunday’s post when I wrote about the dog’s diet, I mentioned I would share about their night-time treats.

Every night around 9 PM I make myself a snack, it seemed only fair since I was eating, that the dogs should get a treat too.

Delilah took to 9 PM treat time, like a Labrador takes to food, (or large bodies of water.) Needless to say, it’s not possible for you to forget snack time.

Over the years the treats have evolved.  What started out as raw hide, changed to twisted pork hide and after watching in horror as Delilah lodged a large piece of pork hide in her mouth, I decided we needed to find a kinder treat.

Since we were trying to help the dogs lose weight, I switched to a lower calorie treat.  On occasion I will stuff a Kong with pineapple and yogurt, but lately my go to treat has been the stuffed white bones.

IMG_3763 Once upon a time these bones were stuffed with processed cheese or peanut butter.

Now they are washed out every morning and I frost one end with pumpkin and stick it in the freezer.  When I get home from work, I fill the rest of the bone and freeze it until snack time.

Most nights the bones are filled with either applesauce or yogurt, but as I mentioned in my Sunday post the place where we buy our raw food has a nutritionist, she prefers something called Kefir. (Sounds like reefer.)

IMG_3762 This is like a pre-made smoothy.  It’s filled with probiotics and all of the healthy nutrients that come in yogurt, it’s a low fat, low calorie treat that you can feel good about giving to your dog.

Of course, you can always make yourself a treat as well.

I love things that I can make that I can also share with my dogs, is there any particular food that you make that you share with your furry ones?

This is the Tasty Tuesday Blog Hop,



Monday Mischief

By

My heart was heavy when we left for our walk yesterday and I was looking forward to just enjoying the nice weather with Sampson and Delilah.

We started out in the field and they got some zoomies on, then the other side of the field was calling them so I headed off in the opposite direction.  They quickly joined me.

IMG_3811

I’ve been avoiding the back portion of the trails as some of them are fairly steep on their own and made even more treacherous with snow and ice on them.  It was a nice spring-like day though, so I opted for the steeper trails to give the dogs a change of smellery.

Delilah was doing super well off-leash until we came to the area close to the rail trail (a very popular walking/jogging/biking trail,) at that point she blew off her recall and ran out onto the trail.

I kept calling her and I started to head down when I realized she was going farther away.  She was very close to having access to 8.5 miles of blazed trails and so I turned around and headed back towards the field.  After about a minute or so (it seemed like 10) she ran back to me and then she was leashed for the rest of the walk.

As we got close to one of the two entrances to the trail, I noticed someone walking in with Tia the GSD on leash,  I called Sampson to me and leashed him up as well.

Delilah’s leash is 15 feet and Sampson’s is just a tad shorter, so maybe 13 feet.  I find it extremely difficult to walk two dogs on leash.

One heads this way, the other heads that way and then they switch. They did this just as we entered one of the trails.

I took my eyes off the trail to look at their leashes and in the process I missed seeing a branch that was sticking out.

I face planted.

Not like last year on New Year’s Eve where I lost my footing and scrambled to keep from falling.

Not like that at all.

One second my left foot hit the branch and the next second my face hit the ground.

It happened that fast.

My left knee, my right wrist and my mouth took the brunt of the fall.

Immediately I tasted blood and using my tongue inspected my teeth to insure I hadn’t loosened or broken any.  When my face displaced the snow, some of it splashed up on my glasses, and both gloves were wet so I couldn’t wipe them off.

When I fell I dropped Sampson’s leash.  The uncaring oaf Thankfully he just stood there staring out into the woods.  Delilah rushed to my side and stuck her face in mine.

Needless to say the walk didn’t accomplish what I’d set out to do, I cried all the way home and am now sporting a fat lip and a bruised wrist.

How was YOUR weekend? 🙂

This is the Monday Mischief Blog Hop, hosted by Alfie’s Blog, Snoopys’ Blog and My Brown Newfies and Luna a Dog’s Life.

Waist Not, Want Not

By

Back in July of 2008, Delilah had what we referred to as an episode, it was the first of three.  I won’t write about it here because it’s quite lengthy, but you can read it about on the page titled “Delilah’s Health,” which is nested under the “Cast of Characters” page.  I warn you now, it’s not my best writing, but I haven’t yet had the time to go in to make it presentable.

Eventually with the help of a wonderful Holistic Veterinarian, Dr. Kevin Landau, we determined it was not seizures as our vet suspected, but a pinched nerve due to her excessive weight.

The date was March 31, 2010 and she weighed 96.5 pounds.

after-treatment You can see how heavy she is in this photo, (this was after Dr. Landau’s treatment.)

To help her lose weight Dr. Landau suggested the raw food diet.  Sampson was heavy as well and there was no way I was putting one dog on raw food and not the other.

July 2010 056 This photo of Sampson was taken in July 17, 2010 he weighed 107 pounds.

At first expense was a real issue, so we started out feeding the dogs one raw meal per day, with the second meal being Taste of the Wild, a grain free kibble.

I also set up a rigid schedule of walking at least 30 minutes per day and longer on the weekends.  It helped that the field at the top of the street gives them lots of off-leash running, which helped the weight come off.

When Delilah went for her annual exam in June of 2010, she weighed in at 94.8 pounds.  Sampson’s annual exam was in October and he weighed 103.4.

In April of 2011, we went totally raw and we’ve never looked back.

That June, Delilah weighed in at 77.1 pounds, in October of the same year Sampson weighed in at 86.5 pounds.

We took Sampson with us when Delilah went for her annual in June of 2012 (moral support) Delilah weighed 74 pounds and Sampson weighed 89.  Our vet was over the moon.  She told us what a great job we’d done and said, we’ve probably given them 2 to 3 additional years of life.

Music to my ears and fuzzies for my heart.

They look great, but even better, they FEEL great.  You can see their increased energy and they run like puppies, which is amazing to see in dogs that are 7 and 8 1/2.

We are incredibly lucky in the fact that the distribution facility where we purchase our food has a dog nutritionist. Based upon Sandy’s calculations we feed them for what we want them to weigh, in this manner the weight comes off slowly and is more likely to remain off.

Normally their treats are carrots and a couple of grain free cookies, but I think we’ve been a little indulgent with the cookies, so I’m cutting their food back a teensy bit.

Here’s what we feed them.

Chicken necks with Welactin on them and about 1/8 to 1/4 cup of canned pumpkin for breakfast.

Ground turkey with veggies, a tablespoon of coconut oil, a probiotic and 1/8 to 1/4 cup of yogurt for dinner.

For snacks and training they mostly get baby carrots, but I do have banana chips and some chicken and brown rice sticks that I buy at Trader Joe’s.

At night they get the stuffed white bone (more on that for Tasty Tuesday.)  I did buy a bag of treats at the local warehouse and I think Hubby indulges those a little too much, hence the reason I am cutting back a bit on their food.

It’s hard to get a picture of their waists

Especially Delilah with her dark coloring.  I can see them clearly defined but it doesn’t show well in the pictures.

D-1 Can you see the cut in?  She kept trying to sit down, which is why I’m holding her back-end up.

D-2 Maybe it’s a little bit clearer here.

S1 Sampson was a little bit easier, but that’s only because he is so barrel chested.

S-2 He kept sitting down too, in his case I think it worked to my advantage.

I can’t see their ribs, but I’m working on that!  I love these two like crazy and want them with me and healthy as long as possible.

Show Off Your Dog's Waistline

This is a year-long blog hop hosted by Dawg Business, I will be back when the hop is over with a recap on how well we did losing those last few pounds.

You can see how others are helping their dogs become fit and healthy, as well as getting some awesome tips to help your pups lose weight by clicking on the links below.

Many thanks to Jana for creating and organizing this event.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...