First, a note: I fully support the efforts to bring awareness about the dangers of SOPA. And if you happen to have no idea what I’m talking about, or why Wikipedia and reddit don’t work, well, the info is all out there. SOPA/PIPA stinks, and as a small potates blogger, the implications horrify me.
That being said, I decided not to black out the site for two reasons:
I doubt this site going dark is going to be the tipping point for anyone to say, “well, I thought SOPA was a good idea, but the thought of life without pawcurious is just too much, so I’m changing my mind.” I’ll leave the hand wrangling to all the high school kids freaking out over a day without Wikipedia.
Most importantly, I couldn’t figure out how to make the blackout plugin work. Seriously. So here we are. Happy Wednesday.
Monday, I got to go on our local Fox station to talk about ways to keep healthy with your pet. It was a perfect opportunity: I have Brody, who is action central, and Koa, who is a couch potato. There’s something for everyone and dogs of all fitness levels out there.
I brought both of them, unsure of which dog I was going to end up using in the segment. Both Brody and Koa had gotten a turn on the GoPet treadmill that we would be using in the piece (which is entirely deserving of its own post, by the way); I was leaning towards Brody, since he had just gotten his feathers crimped and was looking especially fluffy that morning. Plus he runs faster on the treadmill than Koa does. (more…)
I always get intimidated when I read exercise tips from exercise pros. Invariably it’s some triathlon veteran with incredible abs who promises to get you ready to do your first ironman in six months’ time or less. And for me, as someone with a busy schedule and kids and knees that shudder at the thought of a 15 mile run, I want something a little more realistic.
And it can be done. Anything is better than nothing, and a moderate approach is a little more accessible than a marathon training schedule, at least for the average dog owner out there. A 5K, for example, is a fun and reasonable goal even for people who wouldn’t consider themselves elite athletes. In that vein, Brody and I are going to participate in the Puppy Love 5K in February with a group of friends.
For those who want to embark on an exercise goal with their pets without committing to an intense schedule, let’s keep in mind some common sense tips and endpoints:
1. Go slow. If you have a dog who is older or has a condition that predisposes them to sensitivities when it comes to a cardiovascular regime, follow their lead. Arthritic pets are going to be slower in the morning while it’s cold out and their joints are a bit stiffer; brachycephalic breeds such as bulldogs, and pets who are overweight, are going to accumulate heat more quickly than other breeds and may need to start with shorter distances.
2. Keep hydrated. A travel bowl such as the TazLab AquaFur is a necessity especially if your dog doesn’t like to drink out of a water bottle.
3. Have the right gear: Retractable leads make pets much more difficult to control. I use a standard 6 foot lead or a sports lead such as the EZY Dog shock absorber leash in conjunction with a no-pull head harness or chest harness like the Easy Walk.
4. Have fun! Pick an activity that is enjoyable for you and for your dog. If it’s a drag for you or for them, there’s no way you’re going to stick with it. There are tons of Meetup groups if you like to share your activity with friends.
And as always, don’t forget the poop bags. One, it’s against the law in most locales NOT to pick up after your dog. And two, it’s gross and gives non-pet people just one more reason to try and prohibit dogs from public places, which we don’t want.
Any other tips for the non-elite athletes that make exercise fun and accessible? Share em here!
Chicken jerky is one of those things I had never even thought of trying to make until recently. I know my dogs love it, and until the FDA put out multiple warnings about how imported jerky was making pets ill it was something I included in their treat regimen.
About a year ago I got a dehydrator, in one of my occasional crunchy fits of health (it never lasts.) I used it a handful of times and then let it sit on the counter. A few weeks ago, I thought I would try and figure out how to make my own chicken jerky with some chicken that had been languishing in the freezer, and guess what: it is, like, the easiest thing in the world to do. (more…)
OK, so we haven’t tried canicross yet, though the concept that “your dog is actually supposed to be pulling you” is quite compelling since that is kind of how it goes now anyway. The thought of tying Brody to a bicycle seat, scooter, or anything with wheels fills me with a deep sense of dread. I think for now, in order to keep it simple, I have two main goals for us in the next few months:
1. Learn to paddleboard (me first, then I’ll throw him on and see what happens.)
2. Get back into running. He’s fine, I’m the one who needs to ease back into things. Maybe I should get those sneakers the kids wear with the wheels on the back so I can run, but then when we hit a big hill, flip down the wheels and let him drag me along.
I’m dying to doga and do all the other crazy stuff too like skijoring, but I have to rein in my enthusiasm until I get some of the basics out of the way, like, you know, running technique. Boring stuff. But I’m always up for something new and exciting instead.
And then I saw this: I’d thought I’d seen it all in terms of crazy dog exercises, but somehow Canine Freestyle eluded me until just this very week. Why didn’t anyone tell me?
I got all excited when I heard the word “freestyle” because I thought it meant you got out there and did your thing, and your dog did their own thing, and I thought to myself, “We could totally do that.” I can do the running man in the middle while Brody runs around in circles and barks. It would be epic. But no, you actually do have some serious choreography in the freestyle event. All right, we’re out for now. But just wait- I think Brody could do the Cabbage Patch with a little practice.
As fun as this was to watch, the thing that mesmerized me the most was the happy attitude displayed by the dog. That is joy, right there. And that’s what it’s all about, right?
Or is it about the costumes? I really can’t tell.
I’ll be honest, I know Brody loves it but I find running kind of a slog. I want to come up with something we both love to do. We need to find our freestyle. Preferably one that does not involve coin belts or purple lycra.
But for now- running! Training! Endurance building! I hope with enough exclamation points I will actually begin to believe my own enthusiasm! That’s OK, Brody is enthusiastic enough for the both of us. Well worth every blister to keep the house from another Jimmy Poo incident.
This has been a banner couple of weeks for pet misbehavior. Brody really brought his A game this month. It’s a miracle he didn’t need some sort of ER visit, truly.
Now, I know this is my fault for not making him tired enough. He’s been off because of all the changes in his routine, and I’ve been travelling, sick, and doing all sorts of things that don’t include giving him enough exercise, so that the smallest insults such as leaving the house for half an hour leave him with no choice except to wreak havoc.
So this year, the New Year’s Resolution is easy: give him more outlets to burn off his extreme Golden energy. It’s actually a great opportunity for me to try out all the things I’ve been wanting to do with him anyway, such as:
a couch to 5K
paddleboarding
refine our surfing technique. We could definitely use a few more lessons.
If I can find the right people to help me out, I’d like to dabble in some other things as well:
agility (we have so many trainers in our area- should be easy)
doga
urban mushing
The last one is a little iffy. I can see that turning into a news headline: “Golden and veterinarian plucked from ocean after plunging off seaside cliff in tragic scooter/harness contraption upon spotting a seagull”, that sort of thing. Maybe we should stick to the couch to 5K.
Either way, health and wellness are on the 2012 agenda for sure. What about you? Any New Year’s resolutions or just fun things you want to give a go in the new year?
Thanksgiving is one of the busiest days in the veterinary ER, which should surprise none of you. The very first Thanksgiving I had Emmett, he dug the turkey carcass out of the trash and settled down for a little leftovers. Luckily he left a disgusting trail of grease from the kitchen, across the living room and up the (carpeted) stairs so I managed to find him before he did too much damage, but Thanksgiving is a time of excess and gluttony for all of us, and for pets unaccustomed to the traditional rich foods of the holiday, it can lead to trouble.
Not to say you can’t give your pet some judiciously chosen Thanksgiving treats, as long as your pet is otherwise in good health. Choose wisely.
Foods to Avoid
1. Bones. Cooked poultry bones are exceptionally brittle and can easily splinter in your pet’s stomach, leading to a painful bellyache, a blockage, or even an emergency surgery.
2. Turkey skin. The fat is the problem here- most pets on commercial diets just aren’t accustomed to sudden high levels of fat in the GI system, which can lead to the pancreas essentially overreacting and the very painful, dangerous condition known as pancreatitis.
3. Cheeses and sausages. The same reasoning as above, with fat being the culprit. Keep that Hickory Farms gift box up high.
4. Alcohol. Not that I think any of you would actually do this, but yes, people try to get their pet drunk on purpose sometimes, and it’s not nice. Have you ever seen a hungover Yorkie? It’s awful. If you see your dopey uncle trying to give some microbrew to the family pet, you have my permission to pour the beer on his head.
5. Toxic foods. The following commonly used food items are specifically toxic to dogs and cats and shouldn’t be used in any food item they might ingest:
There are plenty of things that your pet can enjoy with you on Thanksgiving. The number one key to remember is fat is not your friend. The best way to deal with this is to set aside a small portion for your pet before you toss in the butter, cheese, or whatever Miracle Whip concoction your Great Aunt Edna insists is vital for the perfect mashed potato. So assume all these items are butter and gravy-less.
sweet potato
turkey meat sans skin
mashed potato
steamed green beans
stuffing (no onions)
corn
canned pumpkin (before you add in sugar and cream and turn it into a pie)
butternut squash
low sodium broth, which can be used in place of butter for a bit of flavor
The best thing to do is plan ahead, make sure your pet is full, and, um, in my case, get a covered trashcan. Make some pet-friendly treats ahead of time so that when you see Grandma plucking forkfuls of fat-laden cheeseball out to give to Sparky, you can cut her off and tell her, “Why not give him a nice Brody ball instead?”
Lots of people like to cook for their pets, but most people don’t do it every single day. Of those who do, most do so because they have to, a pet with kidney disease who also has food allergies and diabetes, that sort of thing. Occasionally there is the person who just likes to do it, like the chef who makes seared sea bass for his two incredibly spoiled schnauzers every day. I admire that dedication, which is significant.
More common are people like me, those who do it every once in a while for giggles at times like Thanksgiving- and yes, I’ll be coming up with something for the dogs because why not, it’s a holiday. And then they will go back to their regular food until Christmas, when I make them gingerbread. Because cooking is a show of love, even if you only do it twice a year.
(Yes, I made those both last year in a peppermint induced fit of insanity.)
For those sorts of occasional treats, balance isn’t a big deal. But when you are making a maintenance diet, a complete and balanced diet is vital.
I recently wrote an article on the topic of home cooking for Good Dog Magazine, and rather than re-invent the wheel I’ll just give you the link because I worked on it for quite a while, and I’m very proud of it, and it has tons of information about how to go about the process if home cooking is something you’re interested in. I had to interview a bunch of people for it, which as you know is a show of journalistic effort I don’t undertake on a regular basis, so you know it’s something special.
For the article, I interviewed Dr. Sean Delaney of BalanceIt.com. Dr. Delaney is a board certified veterinary nutritionist who just happened to be a resident in training when I was a senior student at Davis, and he remains just as friendly and knowledgable and excited about nutrition as he was that day one hundred million years ago when we were in a cramped room in the hospital annex with some Flintstone-era nutrition software doing nutrition consults.
We talked about food. We talked about online recipe sites and books. We talked about kabocha squash (did you know it caused neurologic signs in a group of labradors? Brand new info here, guys. You heard it here first.) I kept the poor doc on the phone for an hour but it was so interesting, and I love nutrition topics, and I know you do too.
Dr. Delaney has since developed newer web-based versions of nutrition software that creates custom recipes for veterinarians as well as for consumers. BalanceIt has about 500 recipes to choose from, all designed by a board certified veterinary nutritionist and best of all, balanced. When clients tell me they want to cook for their pets, this is where I send them because I know they’re getting information from a trusted source. After the melamine fiasco, I’ve been mentioning this site more times than I can count.
It’s a neat site because, as you can see above, you can really customize your options. You select the protein source and the carbohydrate source, enter your pet’s age and weight, and out comes a list of choices that fit your criteria. If your pet has a medical condition, you can ask your vet to create an appropriate recipe on the section of the site that is just for veterinarians.
So here’s their gift to you all: with the holidays bearing down, perhaps you are looking for a little something special for your dog or cat’s festivus plate. Dr. Delaney is offering all pawcurious readersone free recipe from the Pet Lovers BalanceIt site- a $20 value! The diets can be made using BalanceIt supplements or human supplements- you’ll get options for both.
Just enter the code “pawcurious” at checkout. And don’t forget to give them a like over on Facebook and tell them I said hi!
Will you get the English dinner? The Surf and Turf? Which recipe are you going to try? Have you ever cooked for your pet?
Even though we ended up having to be out of town for the Surf Dog competition, Eukanuba was fantastic enough to send Brody and I our very own surfboard. And what a board it is! It’s not just any old surfboard, but one custom made for dog surfing competitions. By far the flyest piece of sporting equipment I own. Thank you, Eukanuba. It is spectacular.
You know what this means, though, right? Now we have to use it. Ricochet, I know we’ll be competitors next summer, but I’m hoping you’ll still give us some pointers.
I learned something when Brody and I had our surf dog lessons earlier this summer. (If you missed the videos of Brody learning how to surf, they’re here, and here.) Lots of things, really, like how you need 2 people to lift a Golden onto a surfboard, and how I don’t care for the feeling of seaweed up my nose so I’d best keep my eye on the upcoming sets.
But more importantly I learned this: Attention has an additive effect. (more…)
Yesterday, Brody and I had our rescheduled surf lesson with Evan the Surf Instructor. It went great. Brody is a natural. His handler, on the other hand, needs a lot of practice. I had no idea how much work it was to push a dog into a wave.
I would have had a fuller recap for you by today, but as you may have heard, some doofus in Yuma managed to power down the entire county of San Diego for the day.
As we were leaving the beach, I remarked that there sure was a lot of traffic, even for 4 o’clock. An awful lot.
I peered up at the sky. Planes were still landing. That is good. But the traffic lights were out. That was bad.
My husband punched angrily at the radio buttons, getting nothing but static. One lone AM station was still on the air, and all they could say was this: “There is a major energy outage across Southern California. We have no other news at this time.”
We looked at each other. This could only mean one thing.
With our surf lesson postponed until today, I didn’t want to waste this week doing no preparation at all with Brody. So we practiced getting acclimated to the board at home and in the pool.
I’m not a surfer myself, so I got on the board to get a feel for the balance involved. It’s quite a lot of work. With practice, I’m sure we’ll both improve, but in the meantime, I got him to sit on it for a few minutes and that alone is pretty cool.
I am a competitive person. I am the first person to admit this. Although we are doing the Helen Woodward Surf Dog Surf a thon to have fun, there is admittedly some small part of me that is whispering, “But next year we’re taking this thing.”
This year we are just trying to stay on the board for a full set. That being said, I’m not one to turn down a surf lesson, so on Sunday Brody and I headed down to the World’s Best Dog Beach (aka Coronado) for our lesson with Evan the Surf Instructor. I had heard mutterings on the news that there was particularly high surf this weekend in San Diego, but the Coronado beach is usually pretty protected.
After about 5 minutes of waiting by the entrance, letting Brody soak in the glory and attention that only comes with being a gorgeous Golden in a hot pink rashguard, we were approached by a person who was clearly Evan the Surf Instructor. (Surf instructors have a certain aura about them.)
“The waves are a little gnarly today,” was how he started.
I’m not fluent in surfer, but I get the gist. This was bad gnarly, not good gnarly.
“We could go out but I think you’d get a little mashed and smashed,” he continued.
I nodded.
It continued for a few more minutes like this, with a few “epics” and “rips” and “hard breaks” thrown in for good measure. Long story short, Evan had determined that the most likely outcome of a surf lesson on this beautiful but treacherous day would be a broken bone or two.
I went out to the beach a little later, to see what Evan was talking about. It was pretty major. The waves were rising out of the shallows in solid 8-10 foot walls and collapsing straight down on the shoreline. I’ve never seen anything like it. Even the dogs running around were hanging back saying, “nuh uh.”
We postponed the lesson to later this week, when the surf dies down. I really appreciated Evan’s caution with us noobs. I probably wouldn’t have known the difference had we headed out there, at least not until someone died. It would have sucked and Brody would have ended up terrified of the water. So to Evan the Surf Instructor, I salute you. Thank you for not drowning my dog in the name of good fun. We still had a great time making a scene on shore.
