Heart Like a Dog

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

Happy Halloween!!

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Today we are joining the 2 Brown Dawgs and Ruckus the Eskie for This ‘N That Thursday, the Halloween Edition. Many thanks to our hosts.

Before I share our Halloween contribution, I’d like to share some extremely good news.  If you are my friend on Facebook you probably already know this.

Remember this girl?

Urgent

Last Tuesday I was bawling my eyes out because her photo was removed from Petfinder.  This Tuesday I was bawling my eyes out because I found out that she did indeed have a name and that name was Arista.  I’m not sure what she’s being called now, but I am beyond thrilled to share that she was saved!

While I’m certain that my blogging about her really had no bearing on her fate, I’m also almost certain that social media played a very large part and for that I am extremely grateful.

Halloween Fun

I have to commend those of you with the foresight to plan for holiday shoots and the patience it takes to work with one or multiple dogs.  I have trouble getting both of my dogs looking in the same direction, never mind at the camera.

None-the-less here for your viewing pleasure is our contribution to the Halloween edition of This ‘N That Thursday.

Halloween And for the record, Delilah was not amused.  I believe her exact words were, “Are you woofing kidding me?”

I better watch out the next time there’s a human shaming hop. 😀

Dogs of Blogville Calendars

The calendars arrived yesterday!!  Yay!!  It will take me a few days to get them out.  I hope to really work on them tomorrow, but having to ship to so many people may take a little bit of time.

Plus I will probably have to raid a couple of Post Offices in order to get all the supplies I need. 🙂  (Note to self, if I do this again, it might be a wise idea to order the postal supplies.)

Follow-Up Friday

I wanted to respond to a comment posed in last week’s blog hop.

Earl Lover said, “I think I should know a bit more about blog hops before hosting/co-hosting, as I don’t want to volunteer then not know what I’m doing! But if its free, then I would be quite happy to co-host.”

First, it is definitely free!  If someone is charging you to co-host or join their blog hop that is not cool.

Second, I really have very few rules for my FUF co-hosts.  I personally like to go to the blogs who are participating and thank them for doing so.  As a co-host if you’d like to do that you are welcome to, but it is certainly not required.

I do ask that you mention you are co-hosting and provide a link to Heart Like a Dog in your post, but other than that, I have no rules.

If you are able to insert link code in your blog to have the hop show up, then you can be a co-host.  If you aren’t able to insert code but are able to add a link to my site and tell people they can get the code here, then you can be a co-host.

I provide the code to you typically sometime on Thursday, although if I’m being very proactive you might get it sooner. 😀 I also add your link to the hop so you don’t have to worry about getting up early and inserting your link.  It’s all part of the service.

It really is that easy.  And hopefully you’ll find some great new blogs to read and make some new friends.

That being said, my co-host for tomorrow’s hop is Jo-Ann from Sand Spring Chesapeakes.  If you are interested in co-hosting next week, please let me know in the comments, or drop me an e-mail at stone.jodi@ymail.com

That’s it for today, I look forward to recapping my week and answering some of your questions in tomorrow’s Follow-Up Friday post.

The Post Where the Mama Learns a New Trick

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K-9 Kamp Kounselor Delilah here letting you know this is the last week of this session of K-9 Kamp and that makes me sad.  I’ve had a lot of fun, writing these posts.

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K-9 Kamp is designed to help folks get fit with their pups.  Hosted by our friends Koly and Felix at Kol’s Notes, Kelly and Ike at Peggy’s Pet Place and Gretel and Chester at You Did What With Your Weiner, it’s a blog hop that pulls us together to share ideas in how to get fit and healthy.

The Mama has tried super hard to make sure we’ve been doing a little bit extra this session.  Ever since June we’ve been losing a tiny bit of daylight every day.  As it stands now, we are still getting about 40 minutes of walking a day, but it’s definitely getting dark and I know the Mama, despite her bravado, is a little spooked in the woods at dusk.  In fact, the last couple of nights we’ve been spending more time in the field and less time in the woods.

I’m really quite okay with that, you see there are lots of dry leaves on the trails, which make it a bit slippery sometimes for the Mama to walk.  A couple of times I’ve felt her slip (you remember I can’t let her off her leash, because she cannot keep up) Sirius knows I don’t need her slipping and slamming her full weight into me, that could be quite dangerous.

Sampson and I do a little wrestling in the house, but I wanted to share with you a new indoor trick that we taught the Mama.

The key to teaching humans ANYTHING is to let them think they are in charge.  The Mama actually thinks she taught us this trick, but Sampson and I know better.

The trick is Stair Climbers and it works like this.  We stand at the top of the stairs and then we send the Mama down. When the Mama gets to the bottom, she calls us and we dash down the stairs and let the Mama give us a treat.

Then we send the Mama back up the stairs, she calls us and we dash back up the stairs.

As you can see in the video, the Mama still struggles rushing up or down the stairs, it’s probably due to her large, Hobbit feet, or her poor creaky knees.

It’s okay though, as long as she’s putting forth her best effort.  As you can see Sampson isn’t quite as adept at the stairs as I am, but he is a little bit older and not as enthusiastic about food as I am. You may notice my athleticism  as I jump the last step.

To recap the things we’ve done this month in our efforts to help the Mama get into shape and keep us fit and trim.

  • We’ve played Frisbee (although the Mama’s attempts at throwing were feeble at best, we’re still saying she ‘threw’ it.)
  • We chased tree rats, pulled the Mama up and down hills and climbed over and under obstacles on our walks.
  • We taught the Mama how to jump the leash.
  • The Mama learned how to fetch.
  • And last but not least, we gave the Mama a run for her money on the stairs.

I hope you’ve found a few things here that will help you and yours (whether it be canine or human) do a little bit more than you are doing.  As you can see, there are so many ways to exercise, you are only limited by your mind.

This is the K-9 Kamp blog hop, and there are some great prizes for participants, you can find the rafflecopter here.

I’m keeping my paws crossed that the Mama will continue to let me do blog posts every now and again, this was fun!!

Until then, take care and stay fit!

Delilah

I Have a Crap-load of Pumpkin

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Sampson and Delilah are fed a raw diet.  To help keep their tummies full I give them a scoop of pumpkin every morning.  I also use it to frost their treat bones.  Typically we go through a large can of pumpkin about every 5 or 6 days.

I don’t know how much pumpkin is where you live, but here in CT the large can of plain pumpkin is close to $4.  Luckily for me, the local warehouses carry the large cans of pumpkin in a three pack, which saves me over a dollar a can.

The bad news is the pumpkin is only in the warehouses at this time of year.  So I’ve been buying a case (or two) every weekend.

I have a crap-load of pumpkin.

Don’t believe me?  Take a look.

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I knew when I went looking for a recipe for today’s Tasty Tuesday, I wanted to use pumpkin, but I also wanted to use some coconut flour because it’s just so darn tasty!

I searched and searched, but I had trouble finding a decent recipe.  I finally found one that called for two cups of oatmeal and 8 ounces of baby food.  I decided it was something I could work with.  Here’s where it gets impressive.

I invented my own recipe!!  Someone pick Jodi Chick up off the floor please.

Here’s what I used.

1 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup oat flour
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
2 eggs
 

In a medium-sized bowl, mix the dry ingredients together just to incorporate them.  Then add the eggs and pumpkin, bring your muscles cause this dough is stiff.

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Once it was mixed together, I just took small handfuls and formed balls with my hands, pressing them down onto a baking stone.

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Bake in a pre-heated 350° oven.  Mine took about 22 minutes, but yours could take a little less or a little longer.

Cool and store.

So let’s see how the dogs liked the cookies.

Hey Sampson, how did you like the cookies I made for you last night?

Nom, nom Mama, this cookie is pawsome! Nom, nom Mama, this cookie is pawsome!!

Delilah, what did you think of the cookies that The Mama made last night?

WOOOOOOOSHHHH. Cookie? What cookie? Did you give me a cookie? IN…….HALE.   Cookie?  What Cookie?  Did you give me a cookie?  If you did, I didn’t taste it. You may want to give me another a cookie, just to try it like.

I’d say that’s a four paw rating.

So you know my rule right?  It has to be a treat that I can make that I will be able to eat as well.  Since there is no sugar involved, it’s not a sweet treat.  Here’s what I did.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA I added a few M&M’s and a small amount of chopped walnuts to the tops of each cookie.  Still a little on the bland side, but not too bad.  I think this is a recipe I can play with and find the right combination, that will satisfy both the dogs and the humans in our house.

I can’t believe I’m actually typing this right now, but what I love about baking for my dogs is I know exactly what ingredients, as well as the quality of the ingredients in their treats.

Besides, my dogs love them and that makes me happy.  Have you tried baking for your pups yet? If you haven’t, what’s stopping you?

 

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