Go home, puppy... (Read 3433 times)

Addie - It's not too hot down there in Misery Missouri for your Sibe? We have a Malamute and anything over 40 degrees and she will run but she gets really hot. I won't take her running in anything over 50 degrees because they aren't smart enough to stop running and will overheat. We have a skijor belt and harness that I use with her to run. It gives me a little pull and leaves me hands free. They aren't cheap but we skijor in the winter so it is a necessity for that. And I haven't heard the words Siberian Husky and good dog in the same sentence....I always follow it up with...she's a good dog, for her breed. Too independent sometimes and free thinking. It gets them in trouble.

Is that you and your Malamute in the picture?? What a gorgeous dog!! Aren't these breeds just wonderful? Such great personalities. Sorry for the novel...I just love talking about my dogs!

Yes that is Izzy and I in our first skijor race this March. It was a blast and I am hooked now. So much so that we are getting another Mal this summer. We will probably pick him up late July or August. We haven't heard yet if she has whelped or not yet but we are waiting anxiously. We plan to name our new pup George...so we will have Izzy and George from Greys Anatomy. Don't worry about the novel..I haven't met a person yet that wouldn't talk all day long about their pets. I used to work at a pet store and could talk with one customer for hours about their pets. I myself do it as well and anytime someone tells me they have a dog I still find the urge to ask what kind of food they are feeding them. And then I try to explain why they should feed something else, what the ingredients mean and it just makes me look like a total dog food nerd. I wish I could get up that early to take Izzy out for a run but I just can't seem to manage to move before 6:30 and have to be to work by 7:30 so she remains pretty idle in the summer...minus her spaz outs in the back yard and the laps she makes around the house. My wife grew up with sled dogs (her dad and brother raced Alaskan Huskies) so she is used to the breed and they have a Sibe at her parents house. I told her that I would never get a northern breed for a dog because of their independent nature, but how can you resist the little fuzz balls that they start out as? The first time I saw Izzy I just melted and that was pretty much the end of it. Now I love the skijoring enough to get past the glazed over you talking to me? look I get when I am trying to tell Izzy to do something. They are definitely not a breed for just anybody. You really need the patience and will power to work with them...but you gotta love em.

Ok....now you did it.....I'll try to keep it short... Well Izzy will walk away from food sometimes....she has lately been skipping her morning food and then eating in the afternoon. But she isn't doing much now because we aren't skijoring so she doesn't need as much. So I don't worry about her and she is a healthy weight so as long as she doesn't get too skinny I am fine with her skipping a meal. Well I am not sure what they have available down in your area but we feed Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed. It's a great food and does not contain byproducts or lots of fillers. It is human grade food and is good for sensitive stomachs because of it's digestibility. I don't know what Suka weighs but he looks pretty decent sized. Izzy is right on the line of needing the large breed at about 60lbs but if Suka is 60lbs or under or needs a little extra nutrition then you could just feed the Natural Choice adult food. There isn't too much difference between the Large breed and the regular adult. If he has allergies to his foods (vomiting, constant scratching) then you might want to try a Lamb and Rice food. Easier to digest than the Chicken and corn that comes in most adult dog foods. If Nutro isn't available you could try a couple of others. Eagle pack, Innova (expensive and kind of a specialty food but great for sensitive stomached dogs), Precise, Solid Gold. Those are just a few to check out. I like the Nutro because it is easily found and it gives the dogs a good coat and reduces shedding (although with a Mal/Sibe you really wouldn't notice a reduction because of their sheer amount of fur). We get our Nutro from Petco and I believe Petsmart have it as well. Nutro did have a food scare last year I believe but that was in their wet foods but I don't feed the wet food because it is so bad for their teeth. From the sounds of it you have an idea of what to look for in a food so that is a good start. The best thing to do is read the label and be able to understand it. http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04/Perhach/PetFood/Ingredients.htm This is a site that has the definitions of the ingredients of pet foods. It could be helpful in figuring out what exactly is in the food. The one ingredient that is a little decieving is Chicken. Chicken is basically the whole chicken which is good but unfortunately is also the water that is in the meat. Since the ingredients are listed in order of volume in the food before baking some dog food companies will list Chicken as their first ingredient which looks really good. But once the water is removed from the chicken it reduces the volume quite a bit. We were told that it actually would move that ingredient down about 6 spots on the ingredient list, so generally the next ingredient would usually be a grain which means filler for the most part. So when you are looking at labels you want to look for Chicken meal as the first ingredient and then Chicken would be good as a second ingredient or a rice/corn. So there it is in a nut shell. I could definitely talk a ton more about it but I think you already have a pretty decent understanding of foods so that is just a little bit of what I know to point you in a direction. Hopefully that helps. I know how frustrating it can be with a finicky dog or one that can only eat certain foods.

Had to be a male dog.

Heh, almost lost a chunk out of the back of my newest running skirt, today. Cute little pup (probably some sort of shepherd...looked about 6 months old) decided he/she wanted to run with me, then when he/she was called back decided that I should stop and go back to his/her house with him/her...made sad eyes and the whole bit. When I didn't stop the little hairball ran up behind me and grabbed my skirt in his/her teeth. Somehow I managed to break loose without any holes in my skirt. Had the puppy damaged my skirt I think I would have gone back and asked the owner to reimburse me. Even on clearance this thing was $30 and is almost brand new.

Big ears is an understatement....wow...if he/she sticks their head out the window of the car they would drastically reduce your gas mileage.

Big ears is an understatement....wow...if he/she sticks their head out the window of the car they would drastically reduce your gas mileage.

Isn't she adorable. She's not mine. But, her name is Sasha. I fell in love with her the moment I saw her.

If this posts right... UConn is on the left, Suka is on the right. Suka - he always has this goofy look on his face. This is why we can never use our sofa:

will scarf the entire bowl in five seconds - we finally bought her a "Slow Down Bowl" that has grooves in it - she has to work to get all the food out.

Do they make a cat version of this? We could use it for our Thor. He INHALES his food, then pushes the other cats aside to eat theirs...then he frequently pukes because he ate too fast...for a while we fed him on a plate so that his food wouldn't be "funneled" into his mouth as easily.