I just love going to Big Bear Lake! It is a lot of fun, the fishing is good and it is totally dog friendly. If you ever want to take a trip up there e-mail me and I will hook you up with our favorite cabins. They are so totally dog friendly and I love them! This trip was a lot of fun for several reasons. For one- Kerrigan is an adult dog and listens to what I have to say. Secondly Copley is feeling a lot better and had a great time hiking again for the first time on months. Also it is really, really, really hot in Vegas and we needed to get out of the valley before we went nuts.
I have a lot to say about Big Bear this time but sadly not so many pictures to go with it! One thing you might have noticed in the recent cell phone photos is the dogs sporting bandanas (or in Kerri's case a piece of bandana tied to get collar). Those are our new bug control technique. I took bandanas and put a few drops of Cedar Oil on them then stored them in a Tupperware. This trip did not tell me lot about effectiveness because there were very few bugs anyway. I can say it didn't smell too bad and the dogs seemed fine with it. When we take some trips to more bug filled places I will let you know how well they work. Fortunately we don't have any ticks, mosquitoes or fleas in Las Vegas so it is not something we deal with at home.
I also want to comment on our feeding situation while traveling. I like to bring their home made raw food but in some situations it is just not practical. This trip we were gone for a whole week and didn't pack a cooler so I needed something easier than raw. I brought ziwi peak dehydrated food that I keep around in case of emergency and also use as training treats from time to time. The dogs are used to it already so it doesn't cause them any tummy issues. Ziwipeak is the only protein based kibble-type thing that comes anywhere close to raw (although it is still processed and not optimal IMO). I like it because there are not a lot of fillers and it is mostly meat. It also absorbs water very well so I can make it into more of a mushy wet food. The one complaint I have about it is cost. It is possibly the most expensive kibble on the planet. Most nights the dogs got Ziwipeak re hydrated in coconut water. On the days when we went to the supermarket I just bought the dogs meat. That is the kinda convenient thing about feeding raw- you can just buy meat at the supermarket.
To the raw purist out there yelling at me I say this- my dogs eat no processed foods on a regular basis. They are healthy and proper weight and look great. When I am home I feed me and my family all organic/local/farmers market veggies. We buy our meat from local ranchers who pasture their cattle and the list of food products we don't buy for ethical/health reasons is so big I can barely shop at the supermarket anymore. When I go on vacations I stop at has stations and eat kellogs breakfast bars and I don't die. You have to make compromises while you are traveling- my dogs are not going to die because they got a few nights of commercial food.
That's all for this post! I hope you are enjoying my 30 DOCPP and you should also look forward to my post about the zoo we went to in big bear. Hint: lots of wild canines- lots of wolves doing cute things.
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