Life with a sick dog... Part 4

Update:
It has been about 7 weeks since Odette had her liver shunt operated, and her stomach barely shows any sign of this.

About a week ago we did some more tests, blood levels and a gallbladder-acid-stimulation-test, I just wanted to share these results with you (including my interpretation of them) and what will happen in the next few weeks. If any of you know what these tests tell us, feel free to share this in the comments, I would love to hear different inputs.

Basically, the important blood test results I am focusing on are ALT and ALKP as those two indicate how the liver is doing. First time these were tested at our vet was on September 9th, the second time was November 4th. So two months and one expensive operation later...

ALT is normal from 10-100 U/L, first she had 684 on her second test it was down to 318.
ALKP is normal from 23-212 U/L, first was 328 and the second test showed 253.

These results are (according to the vets) quite good. The liver takes a while to regenerate and it is good that we are seeing this progress. When I first saw it I was shocked because it still seemed so high and I was no longer sure "are these results so good because of the surgery or because of all the medicine and special food she has been getting ?". Anyways, doctors say they are good, so let's just believe that for now.

For her Gallbladder-acid-stimulation-test she had to have blood taken twice. Once on an empty stomach and then again two hours after having eaten, in order to see how her gallbladder would react to the stimulation. The base reading was 12.6 umol/l which is normal (anything below 20 is). After stimulation it was up to 354.4, which seems very high. I could not find what the "normal" range is after stimulation, but 354.4 is definitely above it. However the vet at the university clinic said it was no reason to worry (yet), so we are trying not to.

Our next vet-steps continue on November 26th at which point my father is taking her to Vienna for another eye-checkup. If everything is all right concerning her eyes, they will be operated on the next day and she will no longer be blind. Basically what happens is that they destroy her cloudy lens, suck it out of the eye and insert an artificial lens instead. These cannot get cloudy (so even as she gets old, she will never have this problem again). Update on how this went will follow soon, wish us luck for yet another surgery !

At this point, I would like to give a shout-out to my amazingly supportive parents. When we got this dog, I was telling them (and myself) how I had saved up enough money to support my dog, pay for food and vet costs, ship her over to Europe and buy her toys and treats for about 2 years, without needing a job. I did not take into account that she may have bigger medical issues that might need attention and might  need to be taken care of. My parents stepped in and have paid for all these vet costs ever since they started arising and until these issues are dealt with. Without them the only option I would have had at the time would have been to wait until she starts suffering from her liver shunt or glaucoma, or to put her down when she was just an 8 month old puppy. Considering how much money my parents have spent on a dog that isn't even their own, I cannot express my gratitude enough. Vielen, vielen Dank, ich und Odette haben euch lieb !!

Life with a sick dog... Part 3

Update:
The surgery was about 3 weeks ago. Since then she has been behaving like her complete self.

She got her stitches out last week and even though it couldn't actually hurt her, she definitely made it appear like she was getting slaughtered. Man, that little puppy has a lot of power. Last time I checked her weight was about a week ago, and she was still at around 10.3 kg, so no more weight gain, but I will check it again soon.

In 3 weeks we are going to the uni clinic for a checkup to see how her blood results are looking now.

If you ask anyone that has met her about her general behavior, they would all tell you that she is behaving as if nothing happened.

Pictures and Videos of Odette below. These were all taken from October 9th to the 12th so you can see how well she is doing, especially in the videos.

Odette at the Thanksgiving dinner

This is how I wake up every morning...

Life with a sick dog... Part 2

Update:
The surgery was a week ago. I got to pick Odette up the date after the surgery. There was a big shunt, which they closed off slowly with cellophane, but since they also found a few small shunts, they cannot say how her liver will recover.

Since I got her back, she was very whiny and tired for about a day. After that she was her normal self. She got a cone of shame with the words "don't take it off"... Having fostered so many dogs I know that I can take it off as long as I watch her, don't let her lick or chew on her stitches.

She's on antibiotics, lactulose, painmeds, meds to help her stomach cope and eye drops. Some of these once a day, others 4 times a day... It's a real hassle to keep up with it, but having done it before it's all right. She is still on a low-protein diet and will need to stay on it for 6-8 weeks.

In a week she will get her stitches out. And in 5 weeks we are going back to the clinic for a checkup. There is a possibility that her liver will grow to proper/normal size, but since there were some small shunts we wont know until we do another blood test in 5 weeks.

On a more positive note, I've only had her back for a week and she's already gained a kilo. She now weighs 10.6 kilos ! Crazy considering the vets from the Toronto Humane Society guessed her final weight to be around 5 kilos.

All together she is doing really well. I am very proud of her, she did really well during surgery and her scar is already completely healed. Once we know how her liver is doing we are going to look into the eye surgery again to make her see once again.

Her stomach.

The entire thing was cut open...

She wants to lay down on the chair,
but is having some trouble...

So I moved the second chair closer.

Poor baby is missing Sam...

Life with a sick dog... Part 1

After not posting for a very long time, I want to write a post on our dog, Odette. She is the puppy, formerly Rose, which we adopted on February 13th. Since then we have moved her half way across the planet, to Austria where she will live with us for the next (rough estimation) 3-5 years. A post on travelling with a dog will be made soon, to share our experiences on this, for anyone who might need it.

In this post, however, I want to talk about a more serious issue we've been facing with Odette and what we are doing to solve it.

What happened:
Just about 2 months ago, during a bike ride, Odette jumped out of the basket at the front of my bike, did a bit of a flip, but seemed fine apart from a little cut on her lip. About two days later I noticed that her left eye looked a little cloudy and that the lens looked like it was broken into three parts. Over the next few days her eye would look completely normal, and then very cloudy so we took her to the vet. He said that she might have a cataract, but decided to send us to the animal clinic in Hollabrunn with an eye specialist for animals. The morning of the appointment her right eye looked exactly the same like the left one did just 3 weeks prior. A cloudy and "broken" lens. On the one hand I was shocked because now both eyes were affected, on the other hand it gave me something to properly show the vet instead of "just" describing it.

Once there the vet looked at her eyes we knew that she does have a cataract and on both eyes. It is hereditary and had nothing to do with the fall she took. At this point we are about 4 weeks in, since we noticed the change in her eye and we were told that she could only see out of her right eye about half of her normal vision. In order to restore her sight we would need eye surgery where they break up the clouded lens with ultrasound and insert a new, "fake" lens that also cannot get cloudy. Her vision would then be near-perfect. Since the vet was going to be away and wanted this to get operated on as soon as possible, she sent us to another clinic, the University Clinic for Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, which has some of the best doctors in all of Europe, if not even the world.

Once there we did the same examinations as before and it turns out that Odette is a perfect candidate for eye surgery and has very high chances of a perfect recovery. However something bothered the vets, the results of her blood test. Her ALT and ALKP results were unusually high so we did another blood test to rule out any false results. Same happened again, all pointing to a faulty liver, most likely due to a "liver shunt". With these results the doctors did not want to operate on her eyes because the anaesthesia would be too hard on her body.

The quick facts on liver shunts:
- A liver shunt is basically a blood vessel that develops either before or after birth, inside or outside the liver. It's a blood vessel that is not supposed to exist and that transfers blood around the liver instead of through it. The liver cannot do its job and cannot remove any toxins that are in the blood. They end up going straight to the brain causing neurological issues (such as seizures).
- Shunts outside the liver can be easily operated on, shunts inside the liver not so much. If the shunt can be operated on, there is a survival rate of over 95% (Stats taken from U of Tennessee).
- Shunts that are present before birth can cause symptoms such as underweight dogs, diarrhea, occasional vomiting, but also seizures, weird behavior... These shunts can be operated as the liver can develop to its proper size after surgery.
- Shunts that develop after birth normally develop because the liver has a defect in general and can generally not be operated because they would re-appear.
- Shunts that cannot be operated on can be managed medically with a low-protein diet, antibiotics and lactulose for the rest of their life, however 50% of all dogs treated medically die within 10 months of diagnosis (Stats taken from U of Tennessee).

Story continues:
Another week later we did an ultrasound to try to figure out if her shunt is inside or outside the liver. Everything points to a shunt outside the liver that developed while she was still in her mothers body, as she has always been a tiny dog (though her brother was twice her size), has had diarrhea on and off (which we always found reasons for such as "she just got new meds", "she needs to get used to Austrian food and water"...), etc...

And now: 
Tomorrow, on September 23, she will have a laparoscopic surgery to look at her liver in more detail. If it is only a shunt outside the liver, she will have surgery right away, most likely restoring her liver to a normal within the next 2-4 months and letting us operate on her eyes within the next 6-8 weeks.

The only thing we are waiting for tomorrow is a call after the laparoscopic surgery: Is the shunt inside or outside the liver, is it one big shunt or many small vessels. If the shunt is outside and just one big one, she should be completely fine and I will get her back after about 3 days. However if the shunt is inside the liver and/or if it is a lot of small vessels rather than one big one, we will not be able to operate. If we cannot operate we are not sure if we can get her eyes fixed either and then her life span would probably be drastically shortened.

Please wish us luck and/or pray for her. I hope that the call tomorrow comes and tells me that they were able to operate and that she is doing well in recovery. I will keep you all posted.

Pretty, Dog n.6 - UPDATE

Finally, nearly a year after we fostered the amazing Pit Bull Pretty (formerly Pitty) she has been adopted. I hope that she has an amazing time in her forever home and that nothing goes wrong. She deserves only the best, nothing else.

Recipe 4: Chicken with mashed Vegetables

Now this recipe my dog loves ! She even eats the thing frozen. When she's full, she leaves it, but this is one of the only recipes, that she will consider finishing it up in the morning ! Once again, this recipe is basically taken from "Frisst night - gibt's nicht"by Ingeborg Pils. Yes, I may love this book considering every single recipe so far comes from it. I can only encourage everyone to buy it, as there are so many more good recipes in here !

What will you need:

• Butter or olive oil
• 2 zucchini
• 4 carrots
• 6-8 potatoes
• 500g chicken meat
• 2 apples
• 300ml water
• Optional: 4 garlic cloves
• Deep pot
• Mixer to puree everything
• Pan for frying
• Bags to store leftovers 
• Pen to label

The process:

• Cut the potatoes and zucchini into small cubes
• Peel the garlic and mince it
• Peel the carrots and also cut them into cubes

• Put potatoes, zucchinis, garlic and carrots into a big pot, add in the water
• Let it boil slightly for 20 minutes, then use the mixer to puree everything
• Cut the chicken and apples into small cubes 
• Fry the chicken and apples in a pan with a little bit of oil or butter
• Cook the chicken and apples for about 10 minutes in the pan
• Mix it all together (I just used the big pot), feed it cold or warm immediately
• Store leftovers in tupperware or bags in fridge or freezer

Serving it:

• Can be served just thawed
• Warm (if you keep it frozen, slowly thaw and possibly re-heat in microwave or on stove, or heat it up by mixing it with some boiling water)
• Serve with kibble or by itself

Again I packaged the leftovers in bags of about 125g each as she gets about a cup of (puppy) kibble with it. We have started giving her home-made food every day. She just loves it so much, after each meal she comes up, jumps on my lap and licks my hands - it feels as if she is grateful for the meal (especially as she only does this on day when she actually gets the home-made stuff). 

The entire cost of this dish was probably around $15 and yield about 30 servings. As for the time I spent to cook this up, it took me about 40-50 minutes in total. However because this is one of the bigger things I have cooked so far, the packaging and labelling took a bit longer. However it was really rewarding and I wont have to make any dog food for a while now. Once again, about labelling, it is important to write on the bag: ingredients, how to prepare it, the weight and date. You can keep it in the freezer for about 3-6 months, in the fridge no longer than a week.

Cheap, fast, healthy and your dog will love it.

P.S.: Potatoes should never be given to a dog raw ! Make sure they are properly cooked.

Recipe 3: Beef Treats

In my first post "What to feed your dog" I quickly touched upon treats, and how one of the most bought treats (rawhide) can be quite bad for your dog. Odette's treats consist of bull wrinkle, raw bones, peanut butter and home-made treats.

This first recipe is very easy. Once again, it is from the book "Frisst night - gibt's nicht"by Ingeborg Pils.

What you need:

• Raw beef (any beef will do)
• Oven

The process is quite time consuming but simple:

• Cut the beef into pieces that are about 1cm x 1cm
• Put them on baking paper, apart so that they do not touch
• Put them in the cold oven and turn the temperature to 150 degrees Celsius 
• Leave them at 150C for 1 hour
• Turn the temperature to 100 degrees Celsius
• Put a wooden spoon into the oven door and leave it at 100C for 2 hours
• Take them out and let the pieces dry over night 
• Store them in an airtight container

We bought 2kg of meat for about $17 and it rendered about 500g of treats. However it is a very time consuming process, overall I was cutting away for at least 5 hours and then putting them in the oven, tray after tray, and that took me three cycles of putting them in at 150, etc...

Since I cut the treats into quite small pieces, they will probably last for about 3-4 months. This is why overall the treat is (in my opinion) cheaper than most others because I give Odette a couple of treats a day and they'll still last a while. On top of that do I know that they are completely natural and every dog I have given these to has absolutely loved them, my dog even stopped eating commercial treats because she prefers these so much.

Tip: If you put the treats in an airtight container, they will last for up to a year.

Recipe 2: Sloppy Rover

Sloppy Rover ? Are we cooking dogs now ? No. I called this second recipe Sloppy Rover because it is very similar to the Sloppy Joe's that I have come to love - it's just the dog rendition of it, therefore Sloppy Rover. To start with, let me explain to you, that this recipe is basically taken from "Frisst night - gibt's nicht"by Ingeborg Pils (I love her book) just with a small change, so let me tell you how to make this !

Home-made Sloppy Rover with kibble that soaked up the added water

So what do you need:

• Butter or olive oil
• Optional: 4 onion (this is optional as there are some people that believe onion are bad for dogs)
• Tomatos or Tomato Paste
• 500g ground beef
• 8-10 carrots
• 1 Liter Low Sodium (or home made) Vegetable broth
• 300g corn
• Deep pan or better a wok
• Bags or tupperware for leftovers
• Pen to label

The process is not as fast as the first dish, but it's easy

• Peel onion and carrots
• Cut onion into cubes
• Melt butter/heat olive oil in a pan 
• Add onion and fry until they turn a bit see through
• Add beef
• Cut carrots into cubes
• If you are using tomatos, cut those into small cubes too
• Add carrots once beef is thoroughly cooked
• Add in tomato paste or cubed tomatos
• Add in the vegetable broth
• Let it cook for 20 minutes (or possibly more), until most of the water is gone
• Add in corn (without the water if you are using canned corn)
• Bring to a boil and take off the stove
• Let it cool 
• Feed/Bag and store it

Serving it:

• It can be served by itself
• With rice or pasta
• With dry or wet kibble

As Odette is gaining more weight and is starting to need more food, I have packaged these in bags of about 125g each. My favorite way of serving it to her is to add one bag to 1 cup of kibble, pour hot water on it, so that kibble water reaches the same height as kibble, let the water cool down and mix it all together. The kibble soaks up the water, and with it the taste of the home-made food, coaxing her into eating more kibble, which is important as it has all the puppy nutrition she needs. 

The entire cost of this dish was about $7 and I was able to get about 17 servings out of it (packaging them in bigger quantities than before). I have been feeding her bagged food nearly every night because she loves it so much, and as mentioned, it's cheaper than any decent quality wet food you can buy. 

The time this dish took out of my day was about a total of 1 1/2 hours. The main time consuming part was the labelling and packaging of all the bags. I had to let my dish boil for about 40 minutes because I did not have access to my stove, so it took longer on this heating plate than it would on the stove. 

As for labelling, it is important to write on the bag: ingredients, how to prepare it, the weight and date. If I ever want to give food away I want to remember what is in it in case a dog is allergic to certain things, by putting the weight I also know how many bags the dog should eat (or how much kibble is needed to make up for it). Secondly, Sam has asked me endless times how to prepare dog-food, but no more, now that it is written on the bag. And thirdly, do not keep this food in your fridge for longer than about a week and in your freezer for no longer than 3-6 months. 

Cheap, fast, healthy and your dog will love it.

P.S.: Since there are a lot of people, who are against feeding onions to dogs, I want to stress that firstly, the onion in this recipe is cooked and not raw, secondly vets opinions on feeding onions to dog differ greatly around the world. If you are not sure whether you should feed your dog onion or not, ask your vet, some say yes, others no. 

Please refrain from commenting things such as "do not give your dogs onion, they can kill them" etc. - I am well aware of both sides of the story and have made my own educated decision that I want to add onions to my recipes and feed them to my dog.

Recipe 1: Beef, Pea and Carrot Stew

Second post in the category of "Recipes"

Ever since we got Odette I have been cooking things for her, or giving her raw items. I am quite ashamed to say that we used to give her Hill's Science Diet (as that was what was given to us when we were fostering her), but now that she is ours, those days are definitely over !

This post marks the first recipe for home-made dog food I am posting on here. This one is a sort-of stew that I prepared and froze. The reason I am cooking Odette's food is because good quality, wet/canned dog food can be quite expensive. Theoretically your dog doesn't even need it, you can feed your dog kibble only, but I always feel bad, so I try to give Odette something more every second day for dinner. So instead of buying expensive canned food, I cook for her. It saves me money and I love to cook - also by cooking I actually know what is in her food and I can control what she gets. Most importantly, don't just buy cheaper dog food for the convenience, learn about what nutritious items your dog needs and keep them in mind. See my past post on these issues.

This recipe is very similar to one in the book "Frisst night - gibt's nicht"by Ingeborg Pils, which I received from my aunt for my birthday. The recipes in this book, and the ones I will be posting here, are all human-grade food. Basically you can eat them yourselves (after adding a bit of salt) and I would. I make a point of trying every recipe before I feed it to my dog, just to know what it is like.

This beef stew recipe ended up yielding about 14 servings for Odette. She gets 1 1/2 cups of kibble a day. When I add in the cooked things, she gets 1 cup kibble 1/2 cup cooked food. 1/2 cup is about 125g, I end up just using 100g for packaging. If you have a bigger dog use bigger measurements, or if you use the same, you will end up with fewer portions.

Let's start with what you need:

• 300g beef (we used stewing beef)
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• Optional: 1 garlic bulb (some people believe garlic is bad for your dog, talk to your vet)
• 100g Peas
• 100g carrots
• 1 cup water
• Optional: Some shredded cheese (mozzarella)
• Optional: Rice
• Wok or Pan
• Bags or tupperware to store leftovers in
• Pen to label (by using a water-soluble pen, you can even write on your tupperware !)

The process is simple and fast:

• Put oil into pan and heat.
• Add in beef and garlic and fry it for about 2 minutes.
• Add in water.
• Add in carrots (can be shredded).
• Add in peas.
• Boil until most of the water (but not all) is gone.
• Take off stove and let it cool down, package and/or serve with rice and cheese.

Refrain from adding any salt or pepper. Dogs do not crave salt the way we do. 

Serving it:

• Serve either with kibble, rice or pasta.
• Serve on top of kibble or on a separate plate.
• Add stew to kibble, add hot water just so that it is covered, mix, let it cool down, top with some shredded cheese and serve it to your pooch.
• Package it and put it in the fridge/freezer for other times.

As mentioned, I packaged the cooked things into ziplock bags, each containing about 100g of this stew mix. 

The entire cost of this recipe was about $4 and it yield 14 servings, lasting us for about a month, which makes this a lot cheaper than any good-quality, wet/canned dog food you could buy. 

Cooking and packaging probably took me a total of 20 minutes. In the freezer this also takes up very little space as it is just on the side in the door, rolled up. 

Odette loves it and it also gets her to eat her kibble when we mix it in. 

Tip: Make sure to write a date on the packages. You should not keep them in the fridge for longer than a week after cooking, and in the freezer no more than 3-6 months.

Cheap, fast, healthy and your dog will love it.

What to feed your dog?

"Cooking for your dog? Those people must be crazy and have a lot of time on their hands." Is actually something I used to say whenever I heard of people that prepared meals for their dogs. Apparently now I am one of them. But I am one of them for a very good reason !

I want to start the category "Recipes" off with a post on general dog nutrition and where you can find very valuable information.

Food brands:
Ever since working with dogs and people that own dogs, I have figured out more and more how crappy most commercial dog food brands really are. It appears that the rule is: the more you see it on TV, the more you want to stay away from it. Brands such as Eukanuba, Science Diet and Pedigree (especially Pedigree) are basically rated average, below average and crappiest food you can give your dog, you might as well feed him/her dirt, respectively... Forget them all. If your vet recommends them, it is probably because they are getting paid to do so. Seriously, if your vet actually recommends Hill's Science Diet, grab your dog and run. I cannot believe how much this crappy food is being recommended and sold here, considering what is in it. And a word on Pedigree, I am sad how downhill this company has gone. It used to be one of the better brands but in the last 10 years they have become one of the crappiest dog foods out there.

If you are currently wondering about your brand of dog food, here is a very good website where you can check: Dog Food Advisors - they bring out very detailed and unbiased data sheets of ingredients in dog food brands and give them a rating depending on these ingredients. AWESOME !

If you are trying to find a food brand for your dog, think of these things: Lots of meat, few grains (dogs aren't supposed to eat grains after all), NO Corn (dogs cannot digest it and corn has been linked to joint swellings, bloat, allergies - however you will see it a lot as it is a very cheap filler...). And a big tip for meat: if it just says "meat" but doesn't specify which, stay away from it.

Just look at the ingredients and think "would I eat this" - if the answer is no, you should not buy the food (or consider asking someone that isn't as picky with food as you may be). I have tried dog food and dog treats. They just taste bland, but I would never try something from Pedigree as it is not even considered human-grade food... You want to give your dog human-grade food and nothing less. Here are some good tips on pet nutrition.

One thing I want to touch upon is the new fab of a pure raw diet. I am personally not a fan of it because I do not believe that dogs are supposed to be carnivores, they are omnivores and considering how long they have been living with us and eating basically anything we give them I do not believe it to be a good idea to suddenly switch their diet to complete raw again. According to some vets I have talked to there have also been a rise in diseases and ailments that can come up due to a raw diet.

In any case, my tip is just go through that list of dog foods and see which ones are graded better and get that kibble. You can always cook up tings on the side. For example our current dog, Odette, is just about 6 months old and weighs about 6kg. This means that she should be eating give or take 1 1/2 cups a day. She is currently getting kibble, Acana for puppies to be exact. It is very important to give your puppy special kibble as it has all the nutrients your puppy needs to grow - you can also cook it yourself, but finding all nutrients and combining them can be a whole lot of work. Along with the kibble Odette only gets raw meat or the occasional "mommy-cooked-for-me" food; recipes will follow on this blog with the special label "Recipes".

Treats
What treats to give your dog... This might turn into a bit of a rant... Let's consider one of the most often bought and treated things that exists: Rawhide. Rawhide is made from cow or horse hide and sold, basically everywhere.

• First problem: Some rawhide is bleached. Just consider what rawhide looks like, I have seen some very white and some quite yellow if not even brown ones. Would you eat bleached items (well, we do in the case of white flour and such), but seriously ask yourself the question, because I would prefer not to eat bleached food. 
• Second problem: Rawhide is not actually considered a food item ! That is why you may often not find a label with ingredients on it, and they can be quite ugly ! Toxins (such as arsenic and mercury) have been found in rawhide and also salmonella bacteria. Again, would you want to eat something you know contains arsenic ? I definitely would not. 
• Third problem: Dogs cannot actually digest rawhide. This can lead to bloating, diarrhea and blockages that can even lead to death. In a lot of cases the vet has to end up removing it from the dogs stomach. 
• Fourth problem: Dogs can rip off big pieces that can lead to chocking. 
• Fifth problem: Because rawhide gets all soggy and wet after getting chewed on for a while, it is the perfect breeding ground for other bacteria. 

DO I NEED TO SAY MORE ?! I would never eat rawhide, nor am I ever going to buy this again for my dogs. I never knew about all these problems myself, until I did the research on it, and that is (in my opinion) very effed up - that there are no warning labels about this on rawhide items.

Now, what can you give your dog ? Some of the problems mentioned above can also be seen with natural treats (such as pig ears), but very good treats for your dog include raw, meaty bones, even though a lot of people will tell you never to give your dog bones... What do you think they ate in the wild ? As long as the bones are not cooked, you should be fine - if you are not sure, talk to your vet instead of listening to people that pretend as if they know what they are talking about (which includes me...). Other than that my dog loves bull wrinkle which is just dried flesh if you don't like giving your dog bones (it's a bull's penis, in case you were wondering,... smells awful, but the pup loves it). Deer antlers which are very durable and will last you a while. Kongs with peanut butter - peanut butter is completely natural, so it is something you can give your dog without wondering if they'll have any issues with it. Just smear some inside a kong and your dog will be at it, possibly for hours.


I hope this post cleared up some issues about certain dog food and treats and that I was able to help you make a more informed decision on what to get your dog. Please feel free to post any comments, especially if you disagree with something I have said, I would love to read your opinion.

Thinking of getting a dog? Tip 1

Tip 1: Age of your future dog

Depending on what dog you get, you can count on it being with you for the next 6-20 years, all depending on the breed and of course medical and external circumstances. The oldest dog ever, Bella, lived for 29 1/2 years!! I bet no one expected that one... She was a Labrador mix, their average age is 10-12 years, well she just three-folded that, no big deal, right?

Except, it is a big deal. Watson, dog n.8 was given up by his family at the age of 9, because the "kids are off to college and no one is taking care of him any more". He's 9. That's below the average age of a Labrador. Are you telling me you didn't look into how old this type of dog can get, when you first got him? Did you not consider "What will we do when little Jill and John Doe go off to college?" Because you should have.

Of course, anything could happen and you may have to surrender your dog for different reasons. I guess Watson is better off with us and a possibly new home later on, than with a family where no one will walk him all day. However, I believe that it shouldn't get to this point in the first place.

Even if you decide to keep your dog, but it is alone all day (10 or more hours), this is not ideal. This can cause separation anxiety and with it destructive behaviour (not as much of an issue with small dogs). More than that, separation anxiety stresses your dog out. When your dog has separation anxiety, it is actually suffering, it is anxious and in distress - I will make a post about that another time.

Possible Solutions:
If you rely on someone's help to walk the dog (be it your kids or parents), you need to keep in mind that they wont live with you forever. You need to start looking into future solutions, what are you going to do when those people can no longer help out?

There are dog-walkers that can walk your dog (in Toronto those charge up to $25/dog/day) and some even watch them all day long - kind of like an after school play date for dogs.

If you know that you will be gone 10 or more hours because of work, there are different ways to deal with that. Of course a dog walker/sitter, you could take the dog with you, if your job allows that. You could try to come home during breaks, you could get a doggie door so the dog can go outside, or you could keep him outside in a dog house in general. Some people do this, it makes the dog more used to being alone for some time, but others don't like keeping their dog outside all the time. One thing you definitely need to do (the earlier the better) is train being gone and your dog being alone. In a post on separation anxiety I will explain good ways of doing so.

I am not saying that if you are gone 10 hours a day you cannot have a dog. I am saying that a dog has needs too and you need to keep those in mind, you can't walk out the door and not be back for 10 hours or more. Especially if you are getting a puppy or young dog, you need to keep this in mind.

When you decide to get a dog, remember that it will live with you, it will love you for its whole life and surrendering it for the reason that Watson was surrendered, should be considered way beforehand and avoided.

Be fair to your dog.

Wheels, Dog n. 10 - Full Story

Everybody, meet Wheels !
No, she doesn't have a wheel, that's her name !
Wheels is a

• 10 year old
• 6 kg heavy
• Jack Russel Terrier Mix

We picked her up from the Humane Society on April 5th, 2013. I think I have been annoying the THS staff for so long (about getting another foster, no matter what animal) that one of them emailed me about this sad little girl. 

How did we get the dog:

Ever since the guinea pigs were gone a few dogs showed up on the THS website as foster dogs, and with every dog I emailed them asking "can we foster, can we foster, are there any dogs good with other dogs..." Just yesterday I got an email about this little girl. A Jack Russel Terrier that only has 3 legs, mammary cancer and will need a palliative foster home. Duration - unknown. Until her quality of life is so far declined that she will be euthanized. Sad story, ask me how I am doing, emotionally, in a few weeks, the answer will probably be "not good". The reason why Sam and I decided to take her was that even though she is a palliative foster dog, we get the chance to give her a nice few weeks or months before she gets put down, and we wanted to do that for her. She is probably going to be our last foster dog in Toronto, so it is nice to know we are fostering a dog, that, through us, gets to live the last few weeks/months of her life in a good place. 

The daily life: 

Well, so far I cannot tell you too much yet as we just got home with her an hour ago. She appears to be a quiet dog, which is good, because Odette has been barking a bit recently. We did a bit of a meet and greet between Odette and Wheels at the THS. Seems that as long as Odette doesn't annoy her, they are fine together. Now in the apartment they are even better than before. Wheels keeps hopping after Odette to sniff her bum and if Odette gets too close she starts growling, she keeps the puppy in her place and Odette is respectful enough to stay away, so I think we have a pretty good mix here. In a week we are also getting Darcy, Sam's parents dog, so we'll have 2 humans and 3 dogs ! 

However we might have a problem, because it appears that Odette is "jealous" - of course this is just a human term to an animal behaviour  but after walking inside, Odette immediately peed inside (we haven't had any accidents for over a month now). Odette also keeps taking over Wheels' bed as soon as Wheels gets up, which is mean because Wheels wont lie in Odette's bed. That was easily fixed as I just put Odette's bed right next to my table as well, now both are next to me and happy. It can be quite a battle with a puppy that is displaying jealous behaviour  but we'll deal with it - and it's a good learning tool, because who knows, with kids we might see the same... This will probably also inspire a great post of dealing with jealous behaviour in my "thinking of getting a dog" journal posts.

The dog:

Wheels is quite the gentle dog. At the THS she just seemed scared and same in the cab ride home. Once home she just started moving about, "running" through the apartment, watching me play with Odette. She doesn't touch Odette's stuff, nor does she touch her bones (even though I know she likes them). She has her own water bowl and her own food bowl close to her bed. She is a very sweet dog, now that we've had her for a bit. Too bad I don't know more about her history (or maybe that's actually good because I might just get pissed off again).

The end:
We brought Wheels back on April 13th because we started seeing things that we were told to look out for. Breathing issues, wheezing, coughing, more issues walking and a very strong change in demeanour as she started being more aggressive towards Odette but also towards us (she snapped at me when I tried to give her the medication,...). We brought her back, they did some tests, upped her medication and she is now waiting for another foster home, possibly a home with a garden as she loves the outside.
  

And now for some closure:

Oh Wheels, I'm sorry Sam kept making bad jokes about the fact that you only had three legs. Knowing that you might die soon really makes me sad. I hope you had a good life, but I know I gave you at least a good week. I hope you find a good home for the rest of your life, I know you love outside so maybe you can get a nice spot in a garden. It always made my day when you came up to me, ran around the hallway with Odette and the few times I saw you wag your tail. Hope you're okay sweetheart.

Hera, Charly & Squirmy, Other 1, 2 & 3 - Full Story

I will introduce you to the guinea pig Hera and the two babies that she had ! I call her "other" because she is not a dog, so she and some other animals that we may or may not get, will be classified as "other".

Hera is a

• Guinea pig
• No idea how old
• Pregnant when she was brought to us
• Expected to have 4 babies

One of the Humane Society Volunteers brought her (and her massive cage) to us on March 3rd, 2013 and man, was she ever huge ! 

How did we get her:

Well, we got an email about a pregnant guinea pig and after discussing it, we though "why not". So we emailed them and told her we'd be available for foster if they needed us. First we weren't sure if we could foster her as they requested we had a room dedicated to the guinea pig(s) where Odette wont be in. We ended up putting them in the bedroom because that door is closed throughout the day and Odette is only in there at night in her little kennel.

The daily life:

She's a guinea pig? Not sure what to say about her. 

The guinea pig:

Hera is an awesome guinea pig. She would come to the cage when you stick your finger in and she lets you pet her nose. After we got her, I started seeing the babies move inside her more and more. Like a bag of worms and man, she is huge. That is why she was expected to have 4 babies ! 

Then one evening (March 5th), while I was working out and Sam was cooking dinner, she gave birth to her first baby. I went to the bedroom to change and I saw there was a baby in there. I said "oh my god she had a baby !"Sam thought I was joking because I pulled the prank on him a few times. But she had given birth to her first baby. A black and brown little one, with a tiny white dot between the shoulders - we named him Charly. The second one came rather quickly (guinea pig birth actually seems like fun) it's white and brown and we named it Squirmy. While Charly was really tired after birth, Squirmy immediately started getting up, walking around, making guinea pig sounds... I also wanted to name one Hercules, but since there are only two we couldn't and also we thought Hera and Hercules was just asking for trouble. Don't want to upset the gods !

Now that they are a few days old, they are running around and making noise so much. They also started eating vegetables today. It is crazy how self-sustainable guinea pig babies are ! They are so cute though - Squirmy especially looks like a hamster and they both are about the size of a fully grown hamster.

The end: The three little guys were picked on March 29th, 2013. After they got picked up I found out that Charly and Squirmy are actually two males !

Squirmy and Charly

And now for some closure:

I know I wont miss these guys as much as I miss all of my foster dogs, but I am glad that the birthing process went over well, without the birthing of any dead babies - that would have broken my heart. Too bad there were only 2, I was looking forward to naming 4 little guys. I wish these 3 guinea pigs all the best, and I hope that they find a new forever home soon.

Charly!

Hera

Squirmy

Charly and Squirmy

Hera

Rose (Odette), Dog n.9 - Full story

Let me introduce to our last foster dog: Rose or as we have renamed her: Odette

Odette is a

• (when we got her) 9 week old 
• 2.365 kg light
• Collie mix (whose face also looks like she may be a Cocker Spaniel, her coat reminds me a bit of a German Shepherd and the vet said she might be a Beagle too...)

Sam and I picked her up on January 7th right after we got back from Europe - Odette just needed a home for some TLC (tender loving care)  to fatten up before she got spayed. She came from a shelter in  Quinte along with her brother (who was double her size) and before she could go out to adoption she had to be spayed, but for that she had to gain some more weight. 

How did we get her:

Before Sam and I left we brought back Watson, we also told the THS people, that if they ever had a dog with behavioural issues I would love to try it out - or of course puppies are always welcome as an easy break. I got an email a few days before we left that there was a puppy in need of a foster home for 1-2 weeks (which in the end turned out to be 5-6 weeks), we immediately agreed and picked her up the day after we got back from Europe. 

Cuddling at 9 weeks

The reason she is our last foster is because we are going to adopt her. When we re-named her from Rose to Odette on the second day we kind of realized she wasn't going back. 

The daily life:

I know with our last puppy (Anook) I deemed them all as stupid. This puppy is crazy smart ! She knows to go outside and after 2 weeks of us properly trying to teach her not to pee inside, she only has an accident when we forget to take her out. She first only ate food that had cat food in it, now we got her on the healthy stuff, which is awesome. I've also been doing clicker-training with her and she already knows how to sit on command (and to stay and she does it REALLY well) and we are working on "heel" and "down" - oh and she's bilingual because I can't decide on a language I want to use with her.

The dog:

Odette is crazy smart. She learns very quickly and she is very obedient. She loves to play with her toys and when she's done she always brings one after the other back to her little bed. In the morning and at night she wants to come into the bed (not to cuddle but to destroy you). The moments when you want to cuddle most, she wants to play and bites your hand... During the night and when we leave her alone she's in her little kennel and it is locked. She is not anxious when we leave and she is completely quiet. She loves absolutely every person and every animal (especially cats !!).

As for second and third name, we don't really have one yet so I'll update it once we do.

As for the last 2 sections, they will not happen here as we are not giving her back. It has been an amazing time to foster and we have met the most amazing and good-hearted dogs. We have also met dogs that weren't as good-hearted and that had attitude issues (Polly) but they showed us that any dog can be dealt with and that every dog will find a home (speaking of, Pretty is still waiting for adoption !!). 

This blog will now be turned into a blog about Odette, her adventures, especially if I end up turning her into a SAR - search and rescue - dog as I have planned. I will also continue the series of "thinking of getting a dog" - now with even more personal experience ! It will include more sections on money, how to deal with behavioural issues, how to train your dog, what it takes to travel with your dog to other countries, etc... 

I hope that everyone who has visited this blog regularly will continue to do so. The ads are on here for a reason - I get money for them. When I reach $100 I get a cheque and that money will go towards the Toronto Humane Society, so please keep reading !

A little update, we officially adopted her on February 13th !

9 weeks old and already knows when
she did something bad...

Sophia and Sam (and Odette)

This was on the first day, after bringing her home.