sardines

Tinned sardines are our stand-by food for Penny when we've accidentally run out of the raw meat diet we obtain from Barking Good in East Ivanhoe.

We did try the raw sardines sold in that shop, but for some reason Penny wouldn't eat the non-tinned variety.

She get sardines about once a week, and I was pleased to read this article on Dogster about the benefits of this food.

We've always aimed to feed her only wild-caught fish, packed in fresh water. It's not always easy to obtain those, so we stock up when we see them, especially if they're on special.

One thing we will NOT buy is a tin of sardines (or any other seafood) from Thailand, because of the likelihood that the fish were caught by enslaved men. Penny's food, as far as we know, is not supporting the modern slave trade in Thailand.

baking treats from canned dog food

Well, so far it's been all good on Penny's (boring) new diet. I'm not sure she thinks it's boring, but I  do, so I'm thinking of ways to make the Royal Canin Gastro Intestinal Low Fat Diet seem interesting.

As I mentioned previously, I've been putting it into a Nina Ottosson dog toy. That's fine, and it slows Penny down so much that she takes more than three minutes to get the food out of the toy. (Only half the recommended serve, because I'm boiling up a half serve of chicken and rice each time.)

Now I've come up with the idea of buying the same food in a can, and stuffing some into a Kong. I think Penny would vote this a good idea.

Also, I've baked some of the can into crunchy treats, which makes it easier to reward good behaviour and practise tricks.

The instructions on this site explain how to cut the top and bottom off a can and use the cut-off lid to push the food out slowly, in order to slice it evenly and thinly.

It's rather mushy food, so without the idea of pushing it out gently, I don't know how I'd have been able to make slices.

Here are the slices ready for baking.

I did them for about thirty minutes at 180°C. And after enduring the smell that humans would consider pretty awful, put them outside the house to cool down.

Today she sampled them, and seemed to love them. (On the other hand, she loves beef, kangaroo, chicken, rice, red peppers, banana, duck poo, possum poo, stinky buried bones, compost, and anything else you can suggest, so maybe it's not altogether surprising she liked my baked treats.)

ZiwiPeak dog foods do not have carrageenan in them

I emailed ZiwiPeak and got this reply about whether they still have carrageenan in their products.

This is the reply:

Thank you for your enquiry about the carrageenan in ZiwiPeak canned food.As from October 2014 all canned food was produced with the new formulation that excluded the use of carrageenan.Of course it takes many months for the new formulation stock to filter through to all retailers in the marketplace but by now I would expect it it be all carrageenan free.

So that's good.

dogs' reactions to humans' cues

A post by PetMD has me waiting for tomorrow's follow up. It's a summary of a study about the effect human actions would have on a dog choosing between a bowl with a big serve of food and one with a small serve of food. The degree of interest the human showed in the food is varied, and so is the type of gesture the human made towards the bowl with less food. I've read part one.

I reckon Penny would go for the big bowl, whatever, but I'll be interested to read part two, tomorrow.

If it looks fairly easy to do, I might run the test by Penny.

the value of keeping a doggy diary

Penny's been eating grass. She has always used grass to settle her stomach, or to settle her gut, and it usually comes out the other end, all neatly folded and looking like it has passed through her digestive system untouched.

I've posted about it previously.

But this time she's had us worried, so much so that we went to the vet. She's been rushing outside not long after her meals, tearing at the grass like a sheep, and it's been coming through inside her faeces, so that at first we didn't realise it was there. (Now you know that we truly love her - who else would be pulling poo to pieces to see what's in it?) And then she vomited up a heap of grass.

So, to the vet...

He checked her thoroughly, asked if she's been well otherwise. Yes, she has. He listened to her gut for long enough that I started to get worried, and said it was noisier than usual. And I learned a new word when I read his notes - ascultation.

I mentioned to the vet that the first time we saw her rush outside, she had just been out in the garden chewing a three-day-old lamb shank she'd previously buried, and he said some dogs react badly to lamb. He then made sure her worming is up to date and suggested we monitor her for another couple of weeks, at the same time increasing the amount of roughage she gets.

I didn't think much of it until I came home and looked at the diary we keep:
Tuesday 24th January: breakfast - lamb, dinner - lamb, snacked on dug-up lamb shank;
Wednesday 25th January: breakfast - lamb and tripe canned food, dinner - not recorded;
Thursday 26th January: breakfast - lamb,dinner - Royal Canin Hypoallergenic dry food (rarely fed but we had some left over);
Friday 27th January: breakfast - beef, dinner - lamb;
Saturday 28th January: breakfast - lamb, dinner - lamb;
Sunday 29th January: breakfast - lamb, dinner - lamb kidneys;
Monday 30th January: breakfast - lamb, dinner - canned lamb and tripe;
Tuesday 1st February: breakfast - lamb kidneys, dinner beef and canned lamb and tripe.

I said to a friend that we might not have twigged about how much lamb we were feeding if we didn't keep a diary, and she said, "What about plain old memory?"

Well, I must admit we feed such a variety usually that I wouldn't be able to recall exactly what Penny's had over the last week. By the way, there have been other ingredients to her meals, such as raw or cooked vegetables, Vets All Natural Complete Mix, Glyde, Melrose Omega-3 oil and healthy treats.

But lamb has accidentally dominated. And why?
Because it was on special in the supermarket and I love a bargain.
Because I happened to buy lamb as the canned food we sometimes feed (high quality ZiwiPeak, by the way).
Because I thought it would be good to mix in some organ meat and didn't stop to think that it was also lamb.

Once we became aware of this, we stopped the lamb, and she has only chewed on a little bit of grass once, that we know of. She's having more roughage than usual, as per the vet's suggestion (cold cooked potato and pumpkin, which she loves), and some rice and cooked chicken for the next couple of days.

Now the question is, should we let her have lamb in future?

My thought is that we overfed one food type, not that lamb per se is the problem. But we'll wait for a few weeks before reintroducing it.

However, I did come across this interesting snippet at K9Web in looking for information for this post:

Dogs are not allergic to a dog food per se, rather they react to one or more of the ingredients in the food. Some of the most common culprits are beef, pork, chicken, milk, whey, eggs, fish, corn, soy, wheat and preservatives. Many animals are now developing allergies to lamb as well. This was once thought to be very hypo-allergenic, but the more it is used, the more sensitivities are springing up.

It's been a lesson for us.

And I'm glad we keep a diary, even though our friends think we're weirdly obsessive.

frozen food and tricks

Now that the hot weather has finally hit, it's time to think of some entertainment in the house.

For one thing, I've frozen half a can of food for Penny to eat tonight. (My favorite brand is ZiwiPeak, from New Zealand.

And I made a discovery. I just can't throw anything out, and those little tinfoil patty pans that Christmas mince pies come in looked as if they might be useful. I was planning to try putting them around seedlings because I've heard that snails don't like sliding over the metallic feel of aluminium foil. But in the present heat I think the reflected heat would cook the little plants.

But the foil pans are just the right size to cover a half-used can of dog food.





And I think it might be just the weather to practise some tricks in the house instead of being outside in the heat. I don't know if we could conquer such a demanding one as Johann's 'suitcase trick', though.

Penny scavenges her own meal

It seems Penny's tired of the Hills z/d ultra low-allergen diet. It's been as boring as can be ever since we started it, but we followed it to try to get a handle on her allergic response to something unknown.

Today I took her with me when I visited a friend's garden. I was talking to my friend and noticed a strange silence from Penny. "Where's Penny?' I said.

'Oh, no doubt exploring the garden,' my innocent friend replied.

'No, where's Penny?' I repeated. Penny is usually relaxing nearby - unless she's discovered something to eat.

A look around and there she was, nose in a nice bowl of leftover rice salad set out for the birds, scoffing the meal as fast as she could.

Well, it was time to start adding something to her diet to see if the allergy returns. I just hadn't counted on it happening today.

waiting to have Penny's leg checked thorougly

We have to wait till Friday to have penny sedated so the vet can check the movement in her knee and, if necessary, x-ray her joints. I'm not at all happy about having to wait so long, but I'm hoping another four days of rest won't do too much harm.

It's not easy waiting, though, and we're trying to keep life interesting for Penny without too much activity. We are trying also to make sure she doesn't gain weight with the inactivity - it's all too easy to use food as a form of entertainment.

So tonight Penny had to work hard for the smallest reward imaginable - nine measly little pieces of kibble in the Nina Ottosson Dog Fighter toy. We haven't used it for ages, but she certainly remembered how to do it.



After watching her for a while I felt a little worried about her weight being on her back leg, but realistically we can't expect her to lie still for four days, so I guess we have to just be careful she doesn't overdo it. It was great that she remembered the toy so well after months of not seeing it, but I had inserted the two big pegs that stop the little ones moving in their slots, and that was too hard for her, so we helped her.



By the way, she did get some proper dinner afterwards!

is tuna safe for dogs?

I was told recently that I shouldn't feed Penny tuna as often as salmon, because tuna has a high level of mercury. I don't know much about that, but I do know salmon is certainly a bit expensive to be a regualr part of her diet.

So I was interested to read this article on PhysOrg.com (a science and technology news site) that some species of tuna have less mercury than others.

Penny has her meal from the Amazing Treat Machine

Penny has quickly conquered The Amazing Treat Machine and I think it's great value for the price. (I forget what it was, but if I remember right, it was well under $20.)

Here she is having her dinner from it. I've had to compromise on my ideal of all raw feeding, but I think I've chosen a suitable premium brand of dry food for the occasions when we'll use this toy. It turns out to be quite an energetic activity because she's so enthusiastic to get the food. Apologies in advance for the terribly boring sound of me saying, 'Get the ball. Pick it up. In the box.' It's only when I listen to myself I realise I do that silly thing humans do, of repeating ourselves to our dogs unnecessarily.

making a game out of meal times for a dog

Having been reminded by Johann about how important it is to keep a dog's life interesting, I thought we'd make a game of mealtime yesterday morning, so I kept back some of her meal (minced turkey, Omega3 oil and Glyde) and hid small portions in the house and then in the garden.

The last time was the hardest. I'm fairly sure she was hunting by tracking my trail, but probably she was also scenting the food itself. (I don't know how I accidentally duplicated the first part of the video. Sorry about that!)

using food as rewards in training

I've just read a very useful summary of the pros and cons of using food as the reward in training dogs. I followed a link that Honey the Great Dane sent me. (Well, her human, Hsin-Yi actually sent it to me, but I'm sure Honey was behind it all.)

It's one of the best summaries of the issue I've ever seen.

What I particularly liked was the point that the human has to follow up with the teaching throughout the dog's life. So, if you like jerking on a chain and releasing it, you'll be doing it right through the dog's life. (Definitely not my choice.)

Or, if you reward with food, you are committed to doing that indefinitely. Not all the time, but indefinitely.

And you have to remember that the more treats you give, the less food there will be at mealtimes, or you'll end up with an overfed dog.

food motivation for dog training

Penny always checks out any bags I bring into the house - I think she reckons I'm a wonderful hunter-gatherer, because I so often come in with dog-friendly goodies. Today she was especially interested in the big bag of dog biscuits I had bought at Murphy Brothers in Hawthorn. They were in a sealed plastic bag, but that didn't seem to interfere with the wonderful smell.

When I took a biscuit out, Penny began offering all sorts of behaviours in an attempt to coax me into giving it to her.



It's not like her to be so quick in her behaviours, so we couldn't resist making a short video clip. First she stood up on her hind legs and then she tried some backing, but when I didn't react she figured out she should wait for a hand signal.

I've never seen her so quick! These biscuits must taste wonderful.

visiting other dog blogs

I just responded to a visit by Teddy in the US. When I was reading his blog I saw that he made a resolution on Blog Action Day to click on The Hunger Site each day, because sponsors give food to the hungry each time people click. There are some interesting items for sale on that site - though I haven't seen any dog-related ones yet.

And that reminded me of something I read in the Oxfam shop the other day. They are a wonderful charity, in my opinion, and I like the way they help people to help themselves rather than just giving handouts. In a leaflet they say one way we can help the environment is by feeding our dogs dried food because it contains all a dog needs.

I'm not willing to do that. They say dried food is preferable because canned food contains too much water but I think they aren't taking into account the fact that many of us feed dogs food that otherwise wouldn't be used. For instance, I recently bought a pack of turkey wings that were on sale in the supermarket because they were going out of date, and I'm also thinking of Noah and his canine family who eat fish heads.

I must admit that we haven't had much success with fish heads yet!