Bark Back

Recently a friend on Facebook alerted me to a campaign being run by our friend Arbor at Go Vegas Dog to bring awareness to a recent epidemic of police shooting dogs in their own backyards.  To bring awareness to this issue Arbor is asking for a little help from all her friends.  Here is what she has to say about it:

Woof friends! The unnecessary and unjust killing of our family pets by law enforcement must stop. It has become an epidemic in our country occurring in our homes, back yards and front yards at an alarming rate. I know it's a big task for just one dog to tackle, but if we bark together I know we can make a difference! I'm putting together a video to bring awareness to this very problem and I need YOUR help. I'm looking for pictures of your four-legged family members with signs civilly protesting puppycide. Give your pets a voice, be creative!

As some of you now know, a family dog named Bubba in my hometown of Las Vegas was unjustly shot and killed in his own back yard by a poorly trained police officer. It is in his honor, and the many others who have senselessly lost their lives, that I am making this video. Would you please join my campaign?

Please submit pictures by January 28th. Captioned photos are welcome too, but I prefer physical signs. Get your family and friends involved too, the more pets we having barking (or meowing) back the louder our message will be! Send pics via Facebook (Go Vegas Dog) or e-mail them to: govegasdog@gmail.com

Thanks and big licks!

So blog readers (I get google stats, I know there are hundreds of you coming here every day, so don't pretend you don't exist)- I don't usually ask a lot of you guys but today please share this campaign, participate by taking some pics of your pups and talk to your friends about it!

Camp in the Desert

This week me, Ben, Copley, Kerrigan and some friends went camping at the Wee Thump Joshua Tree Wilderness.  To tell you the truth I almost lied about where we went.  I feel about Wee Thump the same way my Dad feels about his favorite fishing hole.  It is only really good because no one else knows about it.  We have been out there 5 or 6 times and have never ran into another hiker on a trail or had to pass a car on the road.  Every once in a while one of the campsites has an RV in it but that's it.  To me that is the best kind of camping.  BLM land with no one else around, no amenities, just the hundreds of pounds of gear we cram into our vehicles to make ourselves comfortable.  Since moving out to the desert where there are no bears or alligators I have really gotten to love this whole undeveloped dispersed camping thing.  BLM land is nice because unlike national parks the dogs have a lot more legal freedom and the likelihood of you seeing another human being in a BLM wilderness camping area is pretty much zero.

Here is a shot of our campsite.  The weather was really nice during the day, I was even in a t-shirt in the afternoon.  At night it got a little bit chilly but the dogs figured out the whole laying by the fire thing really quickly.  In fact Kerri only had to wear her little sweater because she was so toasty by the fire.  It was nice for her because her overcoat is a little bit bulky even though it is really warm.  Copley also got a new coat for the night and it worked out really well.  He didn't need it by the fire but once we went to bed I put it on him.  Kerri crawled into my sleeping bag and slept next to me with her little nose sticking out the top.  It was adorable and she was probably warmer than she normally is at my house!  Poor Copley didn't fit in a sleeping bag but he managed to bundle up in a fleece blanket in the tent.

So we put out this crate mat and unloaded the cooking stuff onto it because it was clean and we didn't want it to get dusty.  Of course Copley decided to rest on the tiny corner of bed that was still exposed.  Silly dog.

Copley was off leash during the day at the campsite but with birds of pray literally circling overhead we had to keep Kerri on a leash.  I have a lightweight 30 foot leash that I attach to a pet in place.  The pet in place is such a simple thing but it has totally revolutionized our camping experience.  Because it is just a sandbag there is nothing on it to get a leash wrapped around like attaching to a tree or a picnic table.  Believe me, they still get themselves wrapped around stuff, but it is much better.  

 Here is Copley showing off his new coat.

Whats going on there?  Well Copley of course immediately found some animal poop to roll in.  It was either burrow or horse so it didn't smell THAT bad but still.  He had to get a baby wipe bath because we didn't want to be cuddling with a dog who smelled like a barn.

There is some campfire before and after for you.  Don't worry we brought the palm leaves with us, we weren't burning any animals habitats by hacking off bits of native trees.

You may be wondering where Nova and foster dog George were while I was out on this trip.  Well George is really cool but I am not entirely sure I trust him not to go crazy in the tent and unzip it in the night and run off never to be found again.  Since I don't really want to loose a dog that belongs to someone else he got boarded for the night.  Nova had a kind friend come over to our house and hang out with her.  It is going to be a good long while before she can go camping.  Right now she is too scared to even leave the living room.  I will leave you all with one more good shot of Wee Thump.  Joshua Trees are so cool!

hmm...

I appear to have accidentally deleted two recent posts...  One on ID tags and one on Nova.  Is it possible to blame the dogs?  Enjoy this picture of Kerrigan eating a bully stick that is entirely disproportional to her size while I spend the time I would have spent writing a blog post trying to figure out blogger.

Happy New Year!

Just a quick post to say Happy New Year everyone!  We have been very busy this week but did manage to get away on a hike, you really gotta love the weather in Southern Nevada, hiking in December in a t-shirt.

In other great news today I got everyone food and little Nova ran right into her pen and waited eagerly for me to drop her bowl.  I couldn't believe it!  Up until now food time has been either me trapping her in the pen without her suspecting or me crating all the other dogs, then putting her food down and hiding until she went into her pen.  Then I would sneak over and shut the door while she wasn't looking so she didn't drag chicken all over the house.  Today she literally ran into her pen and sat wagging her tail waiting for food!!!!!  Small victory I know, but I am excited anyway.  This means she knew that being confined in there was a good thing, knew that waiting patiently would get her the food and was comfortable enough to sit there while I walked directly towards her and put it down.  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas everyone!  Or happy Tuesday to all the non-Christians out there.  We had a great morning here.  Things were quiet it was just me, Ben, Kerrigan, Copley, Nova and foster dog George.  Our celebration started last night when I did my baking.  Thanks to cake mix that came in this month's BarkBox the dogs got some baked goods too.

 This "Puppy cake" mix was really cool.  It is made in the USA with only a few ingredients and is colored with beet powder so it gets our seal of approval.  The recipe called for 1 egg, 3/4 cup of water and 3tbs of vegetable oil, similar to most human box cake.  I decided to use coconut oil because I know my dogs love the taste of it and it is pretty healthy.  The recipe seems to have worked out just fine but I did have to melt the coconut oil because it has solidified in this winter house temperature.

 I had a gingerbread man cake pan so I used that to make little cupcakes!  They are perfect for my little dogs plus they are festive for the holidays.

 Here they are iced with the unflavored yogurt frosting that came in the pack.  Not only were they cute but they also were a big hit with the dogs.  Keep in mind Copley and George would eat ANYTHING so that is probably not saying much but Kerri will walk away from food sometimes and she gobbled these right up.

Now we come to Christmas morning.  First the dogs helped us open our gifts....  Yeah "helped."  Here are Copley, Kerri and George "helping."

Nova was petrified of the present opening process, just like most things but she did get in on the action when we opened the dog presents.  I think my dogs might actually have gotten more stuff than us this year.  First we opened a package from our friend Mosby and his humans

 We got two cool toys and some chew sticks, I think they were tendon wrapped in chicken?  At least that is what they looked like.

Nova is doing so much better.  Looks how brave she is in this picture!  She is still very uneasy around people but she is making so much progress.  When I think about how she must have spent last Christmas I almost could cry.  Now she gets to spend the rest of her life happy, well fed and well loved.  This is only the beginning for Nova and I hope next Christmas she will be able to wear a tacky sweater like Kerri and cuddle up next to the family on the couch while we watch TV.  If I could take all of her scared away right now I would, but these things take time.  Her life only gets better from here on out.

Back to the presents you will see Kerri modeling the contents of the stockings.  Each dog got a crinkly holiday toy and an organic oat and peanut butter dog treat.  The rats also got one of those treats, they are a big fan of anything with oats in it.

Nova LOVES her crinkly toy and has been carrying it around her pen.  You really never know what she will love and what she will be pitch terrified about.  Also you may be asking why there is a pillow in the chihuahua palace?  It is because my amazing husband has been waking up at 5 AM every night to change Nova's pee pads and to lay down in there and sleep for a few hours so she can get used to us but still be in her safe place.  That's right, Ben is sleeping in an X pen on the floor to help out a scared chihuahua.  I love my husband.

The last gift I have pictures of (there are more toys too, but I am slow releasing those) is Copley's favorite.  My parents sent out 6 HUGE braided bully sticks.  Even Kerri likes getting in on the giant chews.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Nova Update

Hey everybody!  This is going to be a bit of a dry post.  I really want to keep track of Nova's progress, and what we are doing.  I guess I could keep it in a journal but perhaps it will be helpful to others rehabbing a scared/under-socialized dog.  Keep in mind I have NO IDEA what I am doing here.  I am not a professional and when I have trouble I either call one or read a book on it.  Unfortunately there are not many books on this.  In fact most seem to say this in one way or another; "before you decide to adopt a scared or under socialized dog think very hard about it.  It is a bad idea.  They will probably bite you.  Don't do it.  You doing it?  Yeah, your an idiot.  But hey- if it works out they will love you forever."  So that's that.

Lets get to Nova day by day.

1. Friday December 7th:  This was Nova's first day.  Her rear legs were still wrapped up and she was very scared.  She wouldn't leave the crate but I gave her a pee pad and water in there.  I knew she wouldn't eat with me around, so when I left for an hour I put in 4oz of cooked chicken coated in a pro-biotic digestive enhancer and some calcium supplement made for home-made diets.  When we came home she had peed all over herself so we took her out and cleaned the crate up a little bit.  While I was doing that I put her on the couch next to me and she did cuddle up to me and the other dogs a little bit.  I think she was just scared and cold because that was the most actual contact she has tolerated since being here.  Our potty training plan had not developed at this point but she did make a run for it out of the crate and huddled next to it.  She peed there- and while that seems like a bad thing I think it was a good sign.  Even with the pad in her giant crate she really, really does not want to use the bathroom in her living area meaning she will be easy to housetrain!  Win one for us.
2. Saturday December 8th: A lot of the same as Friday, she stayed in the crate the whole day and today I gave her 5oz of cooked chicken with supplements (weighed before I cooked it).  She ate it while I hid in the garage.  Today I also picked up some Wellness 95% meat cans and have been giving her a Kong stuffed with the 95% Chicken every time I leave.  She did get up and sniff Kerrigan and was showing a little life.  Unfortunately I had to grab Nova and take her to the vet for a bandage change on her back feet.  I was able to corner her in the crate and grab her but it was a traumatic event for her.
3. Sunday December 9th.  Sunday was a good day.  Nova was still hesitant with me around but I guess while I was out for a few hours she ran around and played with Kerrigan!  She also started taking treats from Ben and particularly likes these crunchy Zukes treats I got.  While I was out I got a thundershirt- that is a whole post of its own.  But the good news is that it worked.  I put it on her and she came out and was hanging on the couch near me.  Today I only seared her 5oz of chicken a little bit, it was her first mostly raw meal and she ate it with me in the other room.\
4. Monday December 10th: Today I had to catch Nova again to get her to the vets for a bandage change and to get her stitches out.  She was pretty shy but was ok when I grabbed her.  Unfortunately she ignored me for the rest of the day.  She did grab a moose antler and drag it out of the toy box to chew on.  That was exciting because she was brave enough to do it and also because Copley let her chew on it without getting grumpy.  He really seems to feel for Nova and is more tolerant of her than he usually is, almost treating her like a puppy.  Today was also when we decided we were keeping her for sure.  She also ate 5oz of raw, bone-in Cornish game hen, her first official raw meal!  She chomped it like a champ.  I think Nova is used to eating whatever she can get her paws on without a whole lot of opportunity to be picky.
5. Tuesday December 11th:  This was a lot of the same but we did have one breakthrough!  Some friends from out of town came over and Nova was very curious about them.  She has taken to sitting on the couch next to us as long as we don't touch her but she was accepting being pet on the butt very well.  Ben took the opportunity to gently scoop her up and she snuggled into his arms for a bit.  Eventually something spooked her and she ran away but I think it was the first time she actually enjoyed the warm and petting that came with being held.  I even have photographic evidence!  It is only cell phone pictures because I turn off the sound and flash so she isnt startled.

 There is the Nova update, I am only behind by 11 days now...

Happy Holidays!

 Happy Non-Denominational Holiday Gift Giving Season!  Whatever you celebrate this time of year I hope you are doing great.  Things have been very busy around here- you know new dog and all- so this will be quick.  I wanted to share our holiday decorations and how we get the dogs in on the action.  I am sure I will be posting a picture of all of our dogs gifts, they are looking to be plentiful this year and I didn't even buy many of them.

 Stockings- right to left- Ben, Annie, Copley, Kerrigan, Nova

 Holiday biscuit holders!

 Kerrigan's paw print and the "Family Rodents 2011, Nick, Bean, Tubbs and Sandy"

 Copley's Paw Print

And our holiday BarkBox!

Thank you all for reading this blog and encouraging me to continue blogging through this year.  I have plans to share with you Nova's progress day by day and I have been writing it down but time to edit and publish it is not here right now.  In the meanwhile enjoy Christmas!  We sure are.