All Raw!!!

We have now been totally raw for 5 days. I am amazed I have made it this far without some sort of nervous breakdown!

The dogs had their first chicken wings on Sunday. What a totally nervewracking experience that was!!! I held onto the wing and they happily crunched their way through them, so far, touch wood, with no ill effect! Since then they have also had a chicken neck each, which they loved! I held my breath until they had finished them. :-)
At the moment they are having chicken mince from Prize Choice as one meal (mixed with a variety of veg/fruit and somewhat controversially, oats.) For the other meal it is more veg and oats and either fish with raw egg, shell included, or some sort of bone, be that chicken wings or neck. Some of their mince has tripe mixed into it. They are also having tumeric (which apparently protects from cancer), garlic (anti flea) and thyme (good for the lungs). Today their heavy duty supplements arrived, some vitamins/minerals and 3:6:9 fish oils, both products from Higher Nature. I have also added Extra Virgin Olive Oil into some of their meals.
Meanwhile I have devoured 2 raw feeding books!!! :-)

So...where do we go from here (apart from more grey every time I hear them crunch on a bone?!! :-) )
Tomorrow I am introducing a different protein source in the shape of turkey. I intend to do one a week until I know what they can and can't tolerate. We also hope to get a knuckle bone from our friendly local butcher , the same place as we have sourced the chicken necks for an amazingly good 50p per kg!! I hope, within the month to not be talking about what they are eating all the time and to not panic whenever I give a bone...fingers crossed.

In the last week I have to say I think that their coat condition has improved, they were always shiny, but I genuinely think they are more shiny and soft. Their poos are less bulky..well just less really, less of them and without a doubt nowhere near as whiffy. Their energy levels are about the same I think, but there is a sparkle in Tango's eye that I have not noticed before.

So far so good.....

A Raw Journey....

Years ago we fed our dogs Eukanuba, we then changed to Burns and noticed an almost immediate improvement in their coats and condition. In recent years we have also fed Arden Grange at points, as well as Naturediet. The dogs also have leftovers and fruit/veg .
I have never been keen on feeding kibble,it seems so far removed from being food that it has never,ever felt right. That said, I didn't want to just feed a 'wet' food as I had concerns about additives and of course the lack of chewing impacting on their dental health. I knew about 'raw' feeding but wasn't convinced that it made sense, I understood the idea of feeding a natural diet...but raw???

Recently I attended a days course with Nick Thompson, a holistic vet.
http://www.holisticvet.co.uk/nutrition.html
It was a fascinating day, whilst I didn't learn a great deal, it made a lot of sense and I found myself nodding in agreement, to the point that my neck ached at the end of it! It was all about psychoneuroendicrinoimmunology (I do hope I got that right!) I won't go into it, let's just say it made a great deal of sense.
Nick came back to the centre last week to do a days seminar about raw feeeding! I went along, thinking that I wouldn't be swayed...but I was wrong!

So...here I am. Ready to raw (I think!!!)
I have upped their intake of raw veg (that was the easy bit) and this morning, they had a raw lambs heart each! To say they loved it would be an understatement! Tomorrow, if all is well with what they produce later,they will be having a raw chicken wing. I think the sooner we do that the better! Let's just get the chicken done! :-)

So..I thought it would be interesting to write about our raw journey, the ups and downs and what goes in and what comes out aspect of it all. I am new to it all and I welcome any ideas and comment.

Ultimately I am aiming to feed a third raw muscle meat, a third meaty bones and a third veg/fruit...we shall see.As I introduce things I am keeping them on their current food but reducing it accordingly.

Wish us luck!!!!!!!!

Juggling With Tango

Before coming to us, it seems that Tango had a break in her elbow, which is now arthritic, thanks to a great deal of new bone that has grown over the site of the injury. She really does suffer with her joint and so is on Metacam daily. We have never been able to reduce the dose, indeed, at the grand old age of just 7, we are aware that the Metacam won't help for much longer.

Long term use of Metacam can create problems in the gut and it seems that this may be happening with her, either that or she has developed an intolerance to part or all of her diet...or perhaps she has giardia or some other bug. This all manifests itself into regular gastrointestinal upsets, we are just slowly coming out of the most recent one, on Monday night she was up every 20 minutes either vomiting or straining to go to the toilet, culminating in her pooing out blood on Tuesday. All her blood work is 'unremarkable.'

So....what to do. Currently she is fed on Naturediet and lamb Arden Grange. First of all we are going to change that as it is a very rich diet and she does tend to put weight on, due to her age and arthritis. After much thought we are popping her onto sensitive Naturediet and chicken and brown rice Burns. We shall see how she goes on that. I thought a complete brand change for the kibble would be best...as would a change in the protein source, the Naturediet is fish and the Burns is chicken (obviously).

We have also been asked to get small amounts of faeces for 3 days to send off and be analysed...what joy. On the plus side at least it isn't a urine sample as that is almost impossible to get from her!!!

If all that fails....then we shall change the metacam to another drug, currently she can't take it anyway as her tummy is so upset.

Tango is eating chicken and rice (well, the rice that is stuck to the chicken at least, she spits the rest out) and is also on Pro-Kolin. She is feeling much better in herself today but produced a blood filled poo again earlier, so we are monitoring her. Poor girl. She is exceptionally stoic.

I just wish we could explain it all to her.

Cosmo proves a point.

I mentioned in my last blog, an experiment that had been done with a wolf, a dog a treat and a known handler. The treat was locked in a box, but was visible, with the known handler beside it. When the wolf entered the room it put all it's energy into tearing the box to bits to get to the reward. The dog came in, tried to get the treat, then went to sit by the handler!!!

Tango was a lucky girl who got a new boredom buster/treat dispenser toy for her birthday a couple of weeks ago. It is shaped a little like a dumbell with holes in either end in which you place the rewards. Simple idea, but it is actually almost impossible to get the treats out. :-) A friend of mine was round yesterday and I gave said toy to Cosmo, (Tango was upside down and snoring).
Well, muppet boy lay down and licked either end. Fail.
He then decided it must be a kong and spent ten minutes picking it up and bouncing it around the kitchen. Fail.
More licking/chewing. Fail.
More bouncing. Fail.

Sit by me with it in his mouth and look very handsome...almost but not quite. :)
Sit by my friend....result.

Who trains who exactly...did we really domesticate dogs??!!! :-)

Stress

I haven't blogged for a while, I have been busy and I never seemed quite motivated enough to do it. My life doesn't seem interesting enough to write about a lot of the time nor do I seem to have the time.

I went on an interesting course at Dogs Trust a couple of weeks ago, it was taken by Nick Thompson, a holistic vet and was all about PNEI (psycho-neuro-endocrino-immunology!!!) I hope I got that right. Basically it means every system in the body is linked...not rocket science but it's a relatively 'new' idea. I stupidly thought that medics and vets and the science bods already thought this but apparently not and the 'proof' (which of course all scientists love), is only just emerging.

The course/seminar was exceptionally interesting, some engaging tales were told about animal behaviour and I learned a lot. I was particularly interested in the discussion about the effect of stress on the body, as well as over immunisation and a poor diet. My thoughts immediately turned to assistance dogs and how much the organisations that train them ensure that the dogs that are out working are not living a life of constant stress. Stress+over vaccination+poor diet=allergies and tumours.

My first Guide Dog puppy died on Boxing Day morning at the grand old age of 6. He had a tumour on his heart and had been showing signs of illness for 3 months. He had a huge fit and a distressing death,his owner is devestated as are we. I am not saying that the cause of his tumour was stress...or a poor diet...or over vaccination, but I am wondering how much the stress dogs are under in our society impacts upon their general health and well being and how much assistance dog organisations and police/armed forces take this into account. We hear constantly of dogs being trained as dual purpose dogs,of dogs being trained as seizure alert dogs...all great stuff, don't get me wrong, but what about the dog...when does it get down time, time to just 'be'...when is the dog allowed to sniff and play and how often? How much time off do working dogs get and how much guidance are owners given about how long the dog should work for in a day...a morning...an hour???

I think current research into how detrimental chronic stress is in humans, let alone animals,has to impact upon what we expect of our dogs when we ask them to work for us surely? Whilst most assistance dog organisations are hot on environmental enrichment and giving the dogs a free run a couple of times a week, how much I wonder, is chronic stress monitored in the dogs? I would love Turid Rugaas or Nick Thompson to go in and work with them all.....

As for my dogs? Stress? I am sure they get stressed, particularly Tango, but we are aware of it and we have coping mechanisms in place for her. Lucky girl :-)

A good story to finish on (sorry I can't find the reference to where it was from). There was an experiment done with a wolf. A known human was put in a room and a high value 'treat' was put in a locked cage/box next to the human. The wolf came in and tore into the container, trying to get the treat. The same experiment was done with a dog. The dog came in, had a quick try to open it, then went to the human and sat down. Brilliant!!!

Pondering...

In order to establish the health of a dog, the true health of a dog, what would a vet need to do? In order to confidently sign off a dog as being 100% fit for 'function' would a physical examination be enough?
How important is it that working dogs are 100 % fit for function and should we be proactive in the health checks for them or should we deal with problems as they arise?
Should cost be a motivating factor?
They are my ponderings for the week...

Being Tangoed

Tango is a rescue dog who has been with us for just under a year. We don't know much about her past, just that she was a working gun dog that was kennelled and hadn't lived in a house before. We were also told that she was quite high energy and excitable...



Tango and Cosmo hit it off immediately, more importantly Tango and George became inseparable very early on and she now sleeps in his room, under his bed (although starts the night in our room!) She is pretty clean in the house, she had the odd accident early on which we ignored and now will spend in the house if we are out. It is impossible to predict when she will toilet in the house (she never does it when we are in). I think she just decides if she needs to go and we're not there...then tough, how is she to know when we will return!!! You can't blame her really. Again we just ignore it as best we can (hard to do when there is a steaming heap behind the door when you open it....)



Other than the toilet issue Tango is a delight in the house and nothing has phased her at all so we think she must have had access in the past, perhaps even just at her breeders house when she was a pup. She adores all people but does have a tendency to lick. She has two types of lick...one is relaxed and she does it just for the sake of it, but the other she used to do a lot when she first came to us. It is a stressed out lick, strangely it even sounds different to a normal lick!!! She tends to do that one at the vets too and she is much more likely to jump up when she licks in that way. She often does it to people that she doesn't know...it's quite 'needy' bless her. It does make me sad now when I see her like that. She loves attention from people though and does thrive on it.



I have to say, when out and about Tango is fantastic, she can be really calm and placid...until she sees a cat/squirrel/rabbit/sheep or another dog and then she becomes turbo charged. It's incredible. She will bark and leap off the ground from a standing start and spin around in a full circle before landing and immediately doing it again. Sometimes it is sheer adrenalin and excitement at being so close to another dog....other times it's stress at the sight of another dog running. Tango cannot deal with other dogs running. She wants them to stop and if allowed to she will make them stop. If they then try to run again...she will stop them again until they lie still (yes, she floors them). If a dog is calm (and not macho..poor Cosmo hope he's not reading) she is fabulous with them, but if they are small, macho or running...she is like a different dog. For that reason we can't let her off lead around other dogs yet. It would be hugely irresponsible. We exercise her on a harness and long line. She doesn't exactly have a huge amount of stamina or energy so she copes really well with that. If there are no other dogs close then we drop the long line or let her off.



Over the last 11 months we have worked really hard with Tango around other dogs. She has met a huge number and we have taught her that the meeting continues if she is calm but ends quickly if she isn't...so now (touch wood) she is calm(er) when meeting most dogs. We have also hired a horse arena to work with her 'issue' about running dogs. Cosmo has been the running dog bless him and we have run him ragged around her and she now knows she shouldn't launch an assault on him, that it is far better to stay with us as we have cheese.



It amazes me that she was a working girl in her past though. She has no real desire to retrieve, she just isn't interested and her recall is...well it's pretty pants to be honest. We have worked hard on it and yes, we changed her name initially,but she didn't even respond to a whistle. She does now though as we whistle feed her in true ex puppy walkers for Guide Dogs style!



Finally, it seems our hard work is starting to pay off. I am aware it could go belly up again at any point, but over the last couple of days Tango has been a star. Not only has she greeted several dogs and all at the same time...but she told a small macho male to 'bog off' when he tried to mount her, in such a ladylike and patient way today I was thrilled. (Although not too thrilled at the dogs owner who kept telling me 'noooo he only mounts other males' despite me warning her that Tango would really not appreciate being mounted as soon as I saw his body language..but that's another story!) Now...I need to trust her enough in a situation like that (where all the dogs have been known to me for years, well except for the 11 week old Lab that is), to drop the long line! I don't trust her not to go charging off to the dog in the distance that is running yet and ignore the ones that are calm and close...so it's a big ask that trust thing. Small steps. We will continue to meet and greet on the long line for a couple of weeks yet I think and then we shall see....for now, we are all thrilled at just how far she has come. When she arrived she was stressed and didn't know what was going on, now we have a chilled out princess of a dog who is learning that another dog running isn't necessarily a bad thing.

The joy of a rescue dog though and seeing them come on so much, well, that's something very special.

I love Flat Coated Retrievers

I really do. I love their enthusiasm for life, the joy that they take in every waking moment, the way they adore their family...I just love everything about them. They make me smile. They make me smile a lot. I even love Cosmo's love of mud.....unlike Tango!!!!! Cosmo adores mud, he relishes his time in mud and water, but mud is his absolute favourite. Yes, my walls will never be completely clean again and sometimes even I am appalled at how much dirt I am covered in...but I can't help but laugh and share his joy when he is scuba diving through mud.

Results, Puppies...and Training Methods

My good news...and bad sort of...is that Tango has her results back from Cambridge. It seems the lump was a plasma cell tumour, which was largely benign but did have canerous cells too. Not good, but thankfully around the cancerous cells there was a good margin of benign cells and they removed it all. We now have to monitor her and check no more grow.

On a cheerier note, we went to visit my friends new addition at the weekend. Trudi is a Guide Dog pup, mum was a Golden Retriever X Flat Coat and dad is a Golden Retriever. Trudi looks strangely like an Arctic Fox though so not quite sure how that happened. She is adorable and doing very well on the house training front. It's funny though, seeing a new addition like her makes me ponder puppy walking again, but no, it's not for me at the moment. Lots of things would have to change first, both at home for me and in Guide Dogs, but that's another story! Suffice to say it does make me think...always dangerous!!!! I have therefore been pondering training methods more than usual (well, thanks to meeting Trudi, who is pictured in a brief quiet moment during our visit) and getting involved in a couple of interesting training threads on an internet forum!!

As a teacher, I am used to ideas being fashionable, then unfashionable, then just as you have thrown out all the paperwork that goes along with the idea, it becomes fashionable again. That of course is why teachers' houses are always full and overflowing with pieces of paper from ten years ago, you just never know when it will come in handy. Put different teachers in a room and ask them how to teach the same thing...and each one will come up with a different method. Unless any of them involve pain, either physical or mental or humiliation then most of them will work, depending on the characters of the children and the teacher. Some children respond better to a given teacher and vice versa...all to do with the mix of personalities. It is the same with dog training.

In dog training, ideas come in and out of fashion (perhaps not as quickly as in the education of humans, but that is getting too political for my musings on here), different trainers will all suggest different methods and most (excluding the ones that cause pain or humiliation again) will work, depending on the personalities of the dog and trainer involved. It's why I love dog training and why I love teaching (mind you I cannot claim that my dogs are exceptionally obedient/well trained..or that the children that I have taught are geniuses...but I do enjoy it!!) I think I should put the disclaimer in at this early stage in my blogging life, that I do not focus too much on getting my dogs to be obedient creatures who behave themselves impeccably, having puppy walked for Guide Dogs for 5 years, I am currently enjoying letting my dogs be just what is says on the box...dogs.(When I am not training Tango to accept dogs running around her and not doing agility stuff with Cosmo!)

I am hugely interested in training methods though. I have seen many people try to teach their dog with quite harsh and cruel (in my opinion) methods (including one man who thought it would be a good idea to bite his puppy's ear when it mouthed his hand.....). I am not 'into' such methods. I clicker train, I am patient and I do not use any aversives beyoned a fierce 'oi' or 'no' as I don't see the need. If I align myself with any dog trainer it would be either Turid Rugaas or Sarah Fisher, both of whom I have had the honour of meeting and spending time (all be it only a weekend with each), learning from.

I think I will ponder training a lot on this blog, if it doesn't bore people too much...but often it's good to get things down as it clarifies them for me more than anyone else!

Random happenings...

We still haven't had the results back from Cambridge as to what sort of a tumour Tango had. We are hoping no news is good news, although of course we still hear only the 'but.'

Tango was back at the vets on Wednesday and then again today as she developed a reaction to the stitches and had a mild infection in the wound. She happily rolled onto her back for her tummy to be tickled/examined and today was no bother at all when the stitches were removed. She is a delightful dog, her temperament with people is second to none. The vets all adore her, as does the receptionist...infact everyone who meets her seems to fall under her spell. She is one of 'those' dogs and she absolutely soaks up the attention, bless her. Once people also know she is a rescue...well...

Cosmo is the total opposite. Despite being exceptionally well socialised as a puppy he is much more aloof than Tango. He has his 'people', the ones that are in his 'circle of trust', he adores them and any attention from them, but if you are not in his circle, you can try as hard as you like, he isn't interested in you! It's embarrassing sometimes as he is an exceptionally handsome dog, with a very waggy tail and so people are drawn to him, but he won't even look at them, he just isn't interested! Thankfully now we have Tango I can redirect people onto her. That generally means I get to walk a lot more than Neil (who usually has Tango) as she can generate small crowd! Cosmo and I can head for the hills with my son!

A bizarre thing happened today on the way out of the vets, a pigeon fell out of the sky and landed just by Neil! It was in a bad way, so Neil popped it into the vet to see if anything could be done, sadly not. How weird though...totally random!

Tumour removal

Poor Tango had to go into the vets on Tuesday to have a tumour removed from the skin on her abdomen. The needle biopsy results had suggested that it was a plasma cytoma so it needed to come off so come off it did. Whilst she was under the general, she also had x rays taken of her shoulder joint, which has a lump on it. We were concerned it may also be a tumour...but the good news is that it isn't. The vets think that she has had a break at some point, that hasn't been treated and so arthritis has developed and new bone has grown over the injury site, bless her. She already takes Cod Liver Oil and we will now start her on Glucosamine and possibly in the future Green Lipped Mussel.

The tumour is now in Cambridge being analysed in great detail for the Flat Coated Retriever tumour survey. I can't thank the lady who spoke to me on the phone about sorting out where the tumour went and how it went there, enough. She remembered me from the last time I needed a form and was supportive, helpful and kind. I think the tumour survey is a fantastic thing. We are lucky as a breed to have it happening for our dogs (although the tip side of that is that we need it of course). My vets are amazed by it and think it is brilliant as apparently not enough research happens in vet medicine, according to them. On a personal level it is amazing to be able to chat to someone with so much experience of Flat Coat lumps and bumps when you are going through what is such a worrying time.

Tango is now feeling better and is having to be kept calm...not easy. The vet is pleased with the wound and the horrible bruise on her neck (pictured) has now gone, they had trouble taking the bloods they needed apparently. The results should be back from Cambridge at some point next week...and the stitches are out next Friday. We have everything crossed it is benign.