Family Portrait...

This is one of the only pictures I have of them in the same small area, not very good and their eyes drive me insane, but beggars can't be choosers...

Frodo sez: "Iz not corgi, haz looong legz."

I really have no clue what he was trying to accomplish.

And the half-missing floor panel?
You can thank the two puppy demons for that...

Izzy had a wee bit of a meltdown today...

I had a viewing to go to (my great-great-grandfather passed away, he was well into his 90's and it was the most celebratory viewing I've ever been to), so I didn't get a chance to walk the dogs until later in the evening. I also forgot to feed them this morning and didn't have anything thawed for this afternoon so they just ate a little bit ago. Oops. Anywho, so it was probably around 8pm until we got started with our walk. Izzy first, as usual, and since it was late I decided we'd take a new, long route as one of my most favorite things to do is walk in the dark. I know, not safe, but I have a ferocious corgi with me, people will be intimidated, I assure you.

Anyway, we ended up walking by the elementary school where every classroom made a scarecrow and they all set out on the little hill by the school. It looks really freaking creepy at night because it's just a large group of human shaped figures, they always scare me for a second before I remember what they are!

Well, this is the first time Izzy as seen them, and as soon as they came into view she started growling, the low in her throat "I'm scared shitless but I'm gonna act tough" growl. Previously I've only ever heard her do this to other dogs or new scary objects. I wasn't expecting it for these new, human shaped things. But she did. So in all my infinite wisdom I decide that she's only doing it because she can't see/smell them well and if I pick her up and take her over to smell them she'll be fine. Uh...duh? You idiot! So I carry her over, she sniffs them, I put her down and she cowers and starts licking her lips (a clear sign that she's really stressed out and I'm a complete idiot). Izzy is not a dog that cowers, I've never seen her cower from anything before.

I knew at that point that I'd crossed the line and really just needed to get out of there without making it worse than it already was. So we walked back towards the sidewalk, I had to carry her because walking through the rows of scarey scarecrows was just not an option for her. She reached out and sniffed one as we passed, and after we were about 200 yards away she was fine again, but I'm still kicking myself.

Hopefully they'll still be up tomorrow so I can take her down in the daylight and do some work with the clicker around them. It's not like scarecrows are something she's going to have to deal with every day, and I know for a fact she's walked past all kinds of scarecrow decorations this year on people's porches for Halloween, but I don't want to just forget about it. We'll see how it goes tomorrow if they are still up...

I guess this is going to be my Halloween post for the year?

Rollin' with my mixed-breed Lhasa Apso...

While Izzy and I were out bike riding today (well, technically only one of us was riding a bike, lol), we were coming out of an alleyway when a young, college age couple was walking by and this conversation ensued while I was waiting to cross the road...

Girl: *squee* That's so ceyuuute!

Izzy: petmepetmepetmepetme! *wiggles butt*

Girl: What kind of dog is it?

Guy: It's a Lhasa Apso.

Me: O.o Ugh, actually she's a corgi.

Girl: She's ceyuuute!

Izzy: That's right woman, now PET ME!!

Guy: But I've seen this before, they're mixed with two dogs right?

Me: Er...no. *smiles so as not to seem like a bitch*

And then they walked away and we continued our ride.

So this far I've had Yorkie, Shetland Sheepdog, Dachshund, Lhasa Apso, and the ever popular "Queen's dog."

*le sigh*

The new secret weapon...

cat food. Canned cat food. O.o

My trainer decided to try and tempt Izzy last night with Nature's Variety canned cat food. She flipped. It was like crack and she wanted it right now dammit! So her new, only for retrieval work, treat is canned cat food. I am sure that I'll pay for it dearly when her stomach figures out that she is getting something new, but if it gets me a complete retrieve than I am willing to do it short term.

At the beginning of class I loaded the box so my trainer could take pictures of her sheltie on the box. Izzy sat behind me but every time I started calling for Banner (the dog), she would try and pop up between my legs and generally be annoying <.<
At least she didn't care about the noise that the box made...

We did some hurdle work and whoa boy! The bike riding has definitely increased her stamina. I couldn't believe it, she was flying! Before we left we did a bit of passing work and Izzy did well, she doesn't usually have a problem with that kind of stuff...

For getting Izzy used to the box my trainer stood behind the last jump and I stood with my foot on the box so that Izzy had to actually jump onto the box and do pretty much a complete box turn to get off the box. I would call her and get her all excited, my trainer would release her to take the jump and then she would do a box turn and go over the jump again to get treats from my trainer. She doesn't seem to think it's as fun as just running the hurdles, but it's okay because she still gets treats *sigh*

Overall it was a very good night :)

Now I have to go steal some of Inky's cat food to work on retrieves...

Long time no type...

I've been busy!
Had my first taste of midterms, much fun. I highly recommend it.

Not much going on with the dogs, which is probably a good thing, around here excitement usually ends up at the vets with a bunch of bills.

Mollie is now eating half home-cooked food and half kibble to cut down on costs. The kibble is Premium Edge Senior, Mollie's first "senior" food :(
Inky has also started vomiting up his raw food so we're going to see about canned for a while because I don't want him to continue throwing up. My mom is not happy as she knows his poop is going to stink again. *le sigh*

Izzy and I have to go get ready for flyball now...

Busted.

The art of attempted counter-surfing. Brought to you by Frodo.




My name is Lauren C***** and I approved this message.

And let me just say...IZZY HASN'T HAD ANY REACTION FROM THE PORK! *dances*

If you feed it, they will come...

the runny poos that is. :D

Today I gave Izzy half an ounce of pork. I'm thinking there will probably be hell to pay tomorrow. I seriously do not think that she will ever have firm stools. Ever. We have been biking every day though, and she loves it! But she's still never going to have firm stools and that makes me sad.

Inky's also been trying to scare the snot out of me by not eating again (we went through feline hepatic lipidosis once with him, don't EVER plan on doing it again). Last night he decided he didn't want stinky pork, which he's gladly eaten before, and then this morning turned down the tip of a chicken wing. I didn't have anything else thawed so I gave in and he got some cooked chicken that was in the fridge. For dinner he had some chicken gizzard, boy was he happy at their return! Then I gave him a teeny time piece of chicken liver and he scarfed that down too, which makes me very happy as I know a lot of people have trouble getting their animals to eat liver.

I also picked up two whole chickens at the store, one 2 pounder and one 5 pounder. I'm going to leave them whole and feed them in different sittings, like I did with Frodo and the pork. Speaking of which, there were ginormous pork shoulders there at $1.29/lb, it killed me to leave them there! I did get some pretty great deals on pork though, which is good.

And there's those dead squirrels in my freezer yet O.o

Riding on bikes with dogs...

It's like that move, Riding in Cars with Boys, but better.

I don't know what it is, but over the last few weeks there has been a major influx of people at the fairgrounds with dogs. Now, we're really lucky that the fair board lets people take their dogs there to let them run off leash (as long as they don't chase the racehorses when they're being conditioned), but it irks me that most of the people who do bring their dogs have absolutely no control over them. And this isn't a dog park, just a humongous area next to a semi-busy highway. Beyond the fact that it's rude to other people and dogs when you can't call your away from them, it's dangerous around roads! When I take Izzy and Mollie down we stay well away from the road and Izzy has a rock solid recall (Mollie sticks to me like glue there), and even further from other people and their dogs.

/semi off-topic mini rant.

Well, since this massive influx I've decided to stop taking her to the fairgrounds, it makes me nervous when there are a lot of other dogs there, I don't trust anybody in my town with their dogs (except the old man who practices advanced obedience with his bloodhound there *applauds*), and it sets Izzy on edge. So we'll do obedience at the park and stay away from the huge, open spaced, perfect walking distance from my house, fairgrounds. *le sigh*

I thought maybe she'd be fine with two walks a day. Hah! Not!
She has become a real PITA, I don't see how people can live with under exercised dogs for years on end. Just over a week with Izzy and I'm ready to start ripping my hair out. It doesn't help that since she's started eating raw she has a lot more energy than before. Nuisance barking, being pushy for attention, going into a frenzy when dogs are walking by outside. In a week. My dogs are nuts.

So, the solution is...riding a bike! Well, the solution is actually Izzy running along said bike. We went last night for the first time. I had thought she might be scared of going alongside the bike, but she was fine. I stretched her out and away we went, fast. I took her on the long line and stuck the 6 ft. lead in Nike bag, she had her flyball harness on so she was all about laying into the lead. She's part husky, I swear, pulling is one of her favorite pastimes and one of my most hated.

I held the leash in my left hand (she probably had about 10-12 feet of line) and the handlebar/brake in the other. I wasn't pedaling and was riding the brakes and we were still moving at a good pace. She's strong for a 16 lb dog! I wonder if she's the first bikejoring corgi? We only went for about 1/4 of a mile because it was getting dark, but she was still worked up and ready to go when we got home.

This morning we went again and it didn't go as smoothly as last night. I took her around the block first walking so she would go potty, which she did, and then put her in her harness and on her 6 foot lead so she would run beside me instead of in front. She pulled a bit at first but eventually settled in beside me. Our problems came when she decided she had to go to the bathroom again and tried to stop with no warning *rolls eyes* So she stopped and I kept going and she got a good jerk on her harness before my reflexes caught up to my brain and I dropped the leash. She has a good recall and I knew as long as she was taking a crap she wasn't going to be going anywhere :p

She crapped and off we went again. Our next problem was when we were waiting for the walk sign to cross the street and somebody had a dog halfway out the window who was barking like crazy. So my genius dog decides the annoying dog in the car must die and she doesn't have time to run around my bike to get to it, she'll just go through my wheel. Oh, but wait, there's metal spokes there dumbass! Yup, she ran head first into the metal spokes of a stopped bike. *dramatic sigh* For a smart dog she can sure be dumb. She was fine but it's got me worried that she'll act like an idiot if we see a dog that reacts while we're going faster.

Anyway, I'm not sure how far we went today but she was good and tired when we got home. Finally, some peace and quiet around here.

P.S. (like in middle school notes), I just wanted to say that I wouldn't run out and just hook up any dog to a bike like this. I know it's dangerous and I wouldn't do it with Frodo or Mollie or pretty much any dog that I know other than Izzy. She has excellent spacial awareness for when I turn the bike and adjust speeds. We've been going slow, most of the time she's at a quick trot until we're both used to it.

/P.S.

Stoner Cat.

I want to get him a shirt, "Only active when nipped." xD

Nom.

If I hidez it, you can't takes it from meh.
What catnip?

I loves teh mouse, givz hugz.

ZOMG. Wazza?
(Don't you just love my shadow in every pic?)

Opossum cat...

...cannot resist temptationz!

The exotic 3 pawed nom.

Teh. End.

Mollie Models.

Mollie wants to show off her new Fido Fleece jacket. Okay, so she couldn't care less, but I'm freakin' ecstatic because it means I can throw out her old Wal-Mart pink coat that's too small and has a ginormous black bow on the back, into the trash. And maybe she'll stop hogging the covers at night (she wears a coat at night because the heater in my room is broken :/)

What photoshoot? I have to sniff!

Okay, fine!

I looks like Luce naow?
(Luce)

Is we can be done yet?

Is that a dog? Can I say hi?! Plz!

At least get my good side ... mutant.

And one last pic to show off the coat.

I'm really impressed by everything with this coat. It's thick, it's warm, it covers a lot more of her than the other coats I looked at, and she can move freely and comfortably in it. Overall Mollie and I give the Fido Fleece coat two paws up!

I bought the coat online at Doggy Gifts Inc., mainly because they have free shipping to anywhere in the US and the price of the coat was only a dollar above the normal price I found! Woot! The only downside is that they do not have all of the patterns in all of the sizes. I originally wanted the purple Baubles pattern for Mollie, but they did not have it in her size. Other than that, Doggy Gifts Inc. also gets two paws up from me! It also got here in about three days!

Oh Noes!

"He may be small...

...but he sure is aggressive!"

-Lady who scared Frodo with her noisy ass garage door.

:(

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

There are going to be some ch-ch-changes around here (and by here I mean my home) with the dogs over the next few weeks.

1. I've decided to stop feeding Mollie raw as she did not do well on it, at all. Not in the least. So last night I took a crash course on home-cooked pet food as I knew I didn't want to go back to feeding her kibble. I also decided that I'm going to try Izzy on this for a bit as well, just to see if I can't get her stool to firm up a bit. So I searched the internet, talked to some people on a dog forum I belong to, and went to the grocery store last night at 9 o' clock at night. Here's what I'm trying first...

2.5 lb hamburger
.5 lb plain yogurt
12 oz pureed sweet potato

The recipe also called for 4 oz of liver, but I'm going to hold off on the liver until my next batch, mainly because it will almost certainly cause loose stools. It also called for calcium, which the dogs will be getting through raw chicken wings at least once a week to keep their teeth clean, though I'm not sure how may they will be getting yet. Instead of the recommended fish oil capsules they will be getting a squirt of the Grizzly Salmon oil I have for their Omega 3s.

The biggest thing I'm really going to try and work towards is variety, both because it's good for the dogs and because Mollie gets sick of food very quickly. The amount of food that I made with the above recipe I'm thinking may last around 3 to 4 days or so, depending on how much Mollie and Izzy need to have per day.

I am also going to need a meat grinder. Turkey alone here is $5/lb when it's ground O.o I can't afford that! It'll be so much cheaper to grind my own food. They'll be getting stuff like squirrel, deer, etc too. Everything I feed raw that I can get off bone. I found last night at the store that they sell a lamb/veal/beef ground blend, it's only like $3/lb, so they will be getting that for sure too. I also looked at some of the fish they had set out (the actual fish counter was closed), and there was nothing under $8/lb sitting out! Again, O.o I'm hoping they sell cheaper fish at the actual counter.

I really do not think that dogs need vegetables and dairy products, but if they will eat it and are healthy and feel good on it, then so be it.

2. Frodo is driving me insane. He has started to be a real jerk towards Izzy and Mollie. Pushing Mollie around and starting scuffles with Izzy. So Mr. Jerkface is back on a stricter NILIF program, will be on a leash that's attached to my belt when he's awake, and sleeping in his crate at night.

Okay, so that's really all the ch-ch-changes that I have planned for now, but you never know when more will pop up and I will have to add them to tehlistofdoom!

"bigger than his head"

This morning Frodo had his first "bigger than his head" meal. He loved it and was very sad when I took it away. The pork shoulder (I think that's what it is anyway) is 5.12 pounds, and he usually eats somewhere between 7-10 ounces a day, so this puppy is going to last us quite a while. I planned on taking it away when he had consumed roughly that amount of meat, but I found out it's really hard to keep track of how much they are taking off of a piece of meat this size, so I just took it away after a little while.

He stayed away from the skin part for the most part, which made me happy as I'm sure it will give him loose stools. I thought about taking all the skin off, but I really don't want to take the skin away from his diet as I know it is important. I figure tonight he will just get a chicken gizzard and tomorrow morning he can have at the shoulder again. Rise and repeat until it's gone.

I made a video of him eating...


Some pictures from the video...

The Pork.
Waiting to be released.
It haz a heartbeet? :p
Uh...nom?

Mini-Nom.
Renegade Earz.
And my favorite picture of the day...

And last, but certainly not least, a very sad Izzy who had to be sequestered in the living room because she thought she should be able to eat the ginormous pork too.

Dis. bees. abuse.

Hopefully she will one day be able to eat big meals like this, but I'm not holding my breath. Her stomach is just so tempermental. Right now I'd just like to be able to feed her something other than chicken!

Flyball 10/3

Had flyball tonight, woot!
Started of kinda bad as I was running late and then when I got to the non-public parking lot for the training club, it was packed. Because apparently high school football night trumps the fact that it is non-public!! So I ended up parking in about 6 inches of mud, which I had to wade through the get Izzy out of her crate in the back of the car.

Like so...

So I spent the night with muddy shoes and sweatpants, worrying about whether I would be able to get my car out of the ginormous amount of mud it was parked in. Didn't make for a happy owner.

Then my trainer worked on some ball work with Izzy, which of course went...not so well. I've been instructed to go back and begin back-chaining the whole sequence again. My response...

:(

Anywho, after that we did some hurdles and Izzy did decent. I'll just be happy when she has enough ball drive to get the ball off the chute, then we'll be getting somewhere!

Video of Izzy hurdling...

You can't see it all that good on the video, but she goes so fast that she slides when she gets to me and tries to stop. xD
You can also see how food motivated she is in the vid. She doesn't want to leave me (who has food), until she finds out that my trainer has good food too. And if you didn't catch it, Izzy tried to take my trainer's fingers off because she was holding food. *le sigh*

Izzy after hurdles. Being content.

That was pretty much all we did tonight, it was a short practice, which made me a little glad, I'm so tired and I'm definitely going straight to bed after I post this. There's probably a million errors in this post as it is, lol.

On another note, I went to Wal-Mart today to get sidewalk chalk (another post for another day) and a bed for the dogs. I ended up getting them a microfleece comforter, it is soooooooft. I was tempted to just keep it for myself and leave them with their old towels, :p.

The Goods.

Anyway, I thought I had picked up a twin, turns out it is a king sized sheet O.o It's ginormous.

Before I even had a chance to rearrange it for the dogs Izzy claimed it as hers.
Guess Frodo is stuck with Green Chair :/
Then she got an itch.
And looked cute.

Tomorrow on, As the Corgi Turns... Frodo will encounter his first "bigger than their head" meal. A 5 pound pork shoulder to be exact. It will be taped. And photogrpahed. Srsly, it's gonna be huge! :p

Don't wanna.

I don't wanna spend $60 on flea and tick meds for the dogs this month. :/
I could feed the dogs for over a month with that amount of money. I could buy over 30 delicious TAZO drinks from Starbucks. I could pay for the majority of a flyball class. I could buy new collars. I could buy a book for college. I could buy a training book. I could do a lot with that money, but instead I'm stuck buying chemicals to put on my dogs (and cat). Hmph.

I don't understand where the fleas keep coming from?! The dogs get them, I treat the house, and they come back. I hate it! I was hoping the raw food would make it so I didn't need to buy the chemicals, as I know it does for a lot of people, but apparently I am not one of these people. Unfortunately. I'm thinking maybe I pick them up from one of the dogs I dogsit for? Who knows...

And it's not even just the money that irks me about it. I'm trying to do things as naturally as possible with the animals, from their food to shoveling out money for titers instead of vaccines, blah blah blah. I don't like that I'm putting these chemicals on them and it's soaking into their skin, it can't be good for them! But if I don't Izzy and Inky will bite and scratch until they are bald, Frodo and Mollie aren't much better. They are miserable when they have fleas.

Exhibit A:
Miserable Frodo
(okay, so this isn't him with fleas as much as it is him wanting to go for a walk.)

I really need to go pick up some today though.

Le Purpose o' de Blog.

Now that all of you, my (non-existent) readers, have been wooed by my fantabulous picture introduction, I guess it's time to bore you now...

Training - when I originally decided to stop posting Izsheflyingyet? and start this one, it was because there really just wasn't enough information to update regularly when the focus of the blog was solely on Izzy and her flyball training. So although much of this blog will be about Izzy and flyball, I also plan on focusing a lot on Frodo's reactivity issues with people and (to a much lesser extent) other dogs. I'd like to be able to look back once we've gone as far as we can with this issue and see how far we have come. I'll be using a combination of decensitization, having him focus on me, and the Look at That! game from Leslie McDevitt's Control Unleashed (amazing book, I highly suggest it to everybody). In addition to these two main components of the training section of this blog, I will also post regularly on stupid little tricks they learn and eventually, I hope, our Rally practice sessions.

Feeding Raw - As of today Izzy and Frodo have been fed a raw diet for 43 days. I'm trying to feed as close to a prey model raw diet as posssible, with 80% meat, 10% edible bone, and 10% organ meat (with 5% of that being liver), though right now I'm feeding more bone and no organ meat as both Izzy and Frodo have sensative stomachs and enjoy making this hard on me. I've been feeding Inky raw (though it's only been cut up bits of meat for now) for 3 days, and he seems to really like it. I'm gradually going to work him up to chunks of meat and eventually bone. Mollie started her raw diet yesterday and ate like a champ, though all today she turned up her nose at it. We shall see how long this strike lasts...

Pictures - Because all good blogs have pictures! Right now I only have a Canon Powershot S3 IS, and I don't see that changing anytime soon, though I would love a DSLR. I go through phases where I take pictures of everything and then I lose interest and won't pick up the camera for weeks, so that's pretty much how it will go.

Rants - Everybody loves a good rant. I think this is pretty self explanatory.

Misc. - Like the AKC I will have a group where I just throw random stuff.

I think that is all...