I'm a liar...and updates on other unimportant stuffs...

Remember that last post? The one where I said we were going to start going to the state park? Yeah, well, that was a lie. Haven't been there yet, though I did buy mace, that has to count for something right? I tend to do this a lot though, promise the dogs something and then not follow through. They don't seem too upset about it. Maybe they've come to expect it from me, or maybe it's because they don't speak or comprehend the majority of the English language aside from "walk" "hungry?" and "treats." They know others when it benefits them.
It's a good thing I don't ever plan on having children, I'd be that horrible parent who promises their kid everything and delivers on nothing. At least I'd be consistent.

In other news, I picked up another job. That's three, count them, three jobs now! It's at Panera Bread.

I had planned on moving into my own apartment, one of the reasons I got another job, but it seems nobody wants to rent to a college student with two dogs. Go figure! So for now I'm stuck at home and not very happy about it. If I can somehow make the upstairs tenant's lives so miserable that they cannot live there anymore, I get to move up there. Which means my mom will be my landlord and I would be able to get another dog or at the very least foster some.
It's probably sad that I'm already planning a corgi themed room for the dogs. I don't care.

I'm presenting one of my stories to the Creative Writing Guild next week. If it doesn't turn out to be complete crap I might post a link for all of you non-existent blog followers to read.

Izzy and Frodo both had a teeny, tiny piece of liver this morning. I'm expecting assplosions for walks tonight.

Frodo ate the squirrels, Izzy turned them down. *cues screeching brakes sound effect* That's right, Izzy the garbage disposal actually turned down edible material. Frodo thought it was great. They're both getting sick of so much chicken, pork is still good. I have to wait for my paycheck next Friday to start adding a new protein, probably beef since turkey is expensive this time of year.

My bike was stolen so there will be no more bikerides for Izzy and I. We are both very upset.

I want a collie.

The End.

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...

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

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!

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...