Dog Treats

A few months ago I blogged about my recommendation for what to feed your dog. My dogs have been eating Dr. Harvey's Canine Health now since March - and not one of them has thrown up. I'd heard that dogs just throw up more than humans - that that's normal and acceptable. But now I realize it's not - it's a sign they're not eating food that's good for them.

Since March, I've also taken a harder look at what treats I give my dogs. I was already starting from a good place - my dogs get "Jackie treats" every day, which are homemade by a co-worker. But sometimes I would supplement with other treats, and some of them were sourced from China. I also gave my dogs rawhide bones.

Treats

These are the treats I've introduced in the past several months (all made in the USA):

• Max & Ruffy's. Max & Ruffy's come in a variety of flavors. They're small round treats great for training. Some (but not all) of the flavors are available at amazon. Peanut loves them, but Biscuit doesn't seem to be a big fan. He only eats his when he sees that Peanut has finished hers and might take his away. He may not like them, but he doesn't want HER to get extra treats. 
• Merrick Power Bites. Now THESE are a big hit. Also small and great for training or games, but these are chewier and meat-based instead of fruit/veggie flavors. And my pups LOVE them. 
• Fruits & Veggies: There are a number of fruits & veggies that are good for dogs. Mostly I've begun incorporating them more in MY diet, and giving my dogs scraps as treats. Just make sure they have no added sugar or sulfites.
• Apples
• Bananas
• Carrots
• Strawberries
• Watermelon
• Spinach
• Cucumbers
• Coconut flakes
• Others I don't use much but are good for dogs: Zucchini, blueberries, bell peppers.
• NEVER FEED YOUR DOG GRAPES.
• Healthy Dogma Banana Chips. The pups love these, but I don't buy them a lot since they already get pieces of my banana every day.
• Yogurt. The probiotics in yogurt make it a great treat. I give my dogs each a spoonful a day. And, so that I can use most of a carton before it goes bad, I got two mini-ice cube trays and I freeze some in there. So sometimes they get it in frozen chunks instead of soft yogurt.
• Homemade Blueberry Banana treats. These are Biscuit's absolute favorites. If they don't get them immediately after dinner I'm in big trouble. Here's the recipe:
• Preheat oven to 375.
• Blend 1 1/3 cups washed blueberries and 1 peeled banana with 1 cup water in a blender.
• In large bowl, mix blueberry mixture with 3 2/3 cups whole-wheat flour to form a dough.
• Spoon the dough onto a cookie sheet in about 1-inch spheres, or make fun pawprint ones by putting the dough in a pawprint tray!
• Cook for 8 minutes, flip or take out of tray and put upside down on cookie sheet, cook for 8 more minutes
• Makes about 70-75 treats. Freeze half and store the other half in the fridge.
• Also check out your area for local mom & pop dog bakeries. Here in Loveland Doggy Dips & Chips is a great place to get fresh homemade dog treats, if you don't have a Jackie. :)

Rawhide Bones

I started seeing a lot of articles about the disgusting bleaching process of rawhide bones, and it was moving me toward cutting them from my dogs' diet. But when I saw that China was serving 40-year old meat for HUMAN consumption, I decided no more ANYTHING edible unless it was made in the USA. And that meant (very covertly) throwing out their rawhide bones.

I wanted to find a USA-made substitute that would be a good chew for the dogs. Their Dingo rawhide sticks usually lasted 5-10 minutes, so that's what I was hoping to find. But so many of the sticks I found were over $1 per stick! So this is what I've tried at a more affordable cost:

• Merrick Jerky Strips. These only lasted about 30 seconds. They are so soft that they're more of a big treat than a chew. The dogs loved them, but it's not the durability I was hoping for.
• Get Naked Chew Sticks. These last about 90 seconds to 2 minutes. Not the durability I was hoping for, but far longer than the jerky strips. Long enough that I felt I could get away with calling them "bones" and the pups wouldn't feel ripped off. And, they have varieties for different healthy functions, like joint health and antioxidants. One bag has 18 sticks and is $4-5, so it's pretty comparable in price to the rawhides I was getting, but they are so much better and made in the USA. 

Why?

About a year ago, I was put into a leadership position at my work. Which was a great honor and has been a great joy. But I’m young, and I have a lot to learn about leadership.

Peanut, inspiring pup that she is, taught me one lesson. I’d actually heard a couple much wiser leaders at work make comments to this effect before Peanut helped me learn it firsthand.

The point I’d heard was that in leadership, it’s important to understand why. For example, if someone asks for a deadline extension, understand why they want it. Is there an unrelated task they think they need to do before the deadline in question, and that task really doesn’t need to be done? Do they think there’s more due on that deadline than you’re expecting?

So here’s what Peanut did. It was the middle of the night, and I woke up to her whining. She was standing on the dresser. (She has a stool next to it so she can get up there to look out the window.) I told her to stop whining and get down. She kept whining. More and more insistently, I kept telling her to stop whining and come to bed. Finally, I woke up enough to realize she was whining because in the dark, she didn’t know how to jump on the stool and get down. The reason she was whining was because she couldn’t do the very thing I also wanted her to do! So I turned on a lamp and she got down.

A speaker at a leadership conference gave this example: two girls are fighting over an orange. The mom sees this, cuts the orange in half, and gives each girl a half. One girl throws out the peel and eats the orange. The other girl throws out the orange and uses the peel to bake something.

When we don’t understand why, waste happens. When we do understand why, we may be able to make everyone happy without even having to compromise.

What NOT to Say When Someone Loses a Pet

When I lost Buttercup, I heard some of the same well-meaning but gut-wrenching "condolences" my uncle had complained about upon the loss of his dog. Those without their own pets may not understand how deep this loss feels. So, when offering comfort to someone who has lost a pet, consider whether you would speak the same words to someone who just lost a human loved one.

Would you say to someone who just lost a grandparent: "At least she lived a nice long life"? You shouldn't - so don't say it to someone who lost a pet. No matter how old the pet was, it doesn't change the fact that the person is grieving a great loss.

Would you say to someone who just lost a parent: "At least you have another one"? Of course not. But I heard this one all the time. Yes, I appreciated having Peanut and Biscuit around when I lost Butters. But they weren't the same as having her. And sometimes, it made it harder. Like when I had to scoop their dinner, it was always a reminder that I was only scooping two bowls now. Or how Peanut got super sad when I watched videos of Buttercup, so I had to sneak it without her noticing.

Would you say to someone who just lost a child: "Are you going to have another one?" It's true, eventually we who have lost pets will probably get another one. But I read recently that getting a new pet just after the loss of one is usually a bad idea, because you expect it to fill the void and be just like the pet you lost. You need time to grieve so you aren't getting another pet just to fill the hole. For someone to imply that another pet could just fill that role really hurts.

Instead of saying things like the above, simply say you're sorry to hear about the loss. Ask how the person is doing. Be a listening ear if the person wants to talk about it. And consider your context before asking questions. For instance, I asked my co-workers not to talk to me about Buttercup because I didn't want to cry at work, and I was having a hard time holding it in as it was. I appreciated that by-and-large, my co-workers respected those wishes.

Dog Safety

It was a moment that has replayed in my mind countless times. Both dogs sat on my lap in the passenger seat, heads blissfully catching the breeze out the window as Dan turned a corner. And then in the blink of an eye, flop! My dog Biscuit fell right out the car window.

Thank the Lord we were on a quiet side street and there were no other cars. Thank the Lord Dan was only going about 10-15 mph as he eased out of the turn. Thank the Lord he had quick reflexes to brake right away when I cried out my brief but effective message: "DAN! BISCUIT!!"

I watched helplessly in the mirror as Biscuit wisely tucked and rolled, then popped his head up, befuddled as to how he'd ended up in the road. (Truth be told, I was a little befuddled too. I'd had an arm around him, and I hadn't felt the push of him jumping.)

As soon as Dan stopped I got out of the car, careful not to free Peanut, and went to gather my little man. But Dan was also calling him from the driver's side, so Biscuit ran around that side. In his confused state, he couldn't quite tell where Dan's voice was coming from, so he stood in the middle of the road looking around. (Have I mentioned how thankful I am that there were no cars around?) I ran toward the front of the car calling him, and he started to run around the front of the car from the other side. As soon as he saw me, his pace quickened. He was sure glad I was there to save him from this strange situation!

For about five minutes, Biscuit's life was changed. He kept his head inside the car with just his nose barely peeking over the edge. His paws were firmly planted on my lap. But then he started to creep up closer and closer, until he was putting his paws up on the window sill (a habit we expressly forbid, but Biscuit has a hard time following our rules on that one).

We got him checked out by the vet and he was fine. We figured that was the case, as he hadn't been acting hurt or dazed, but I wanted to know for sure. I also did some Googling about dogs falling out of car windows. And I saw a lot of stories about people who'd experienced similar situations - some not ending so favorably.

We've now implemented a rule that our dogs must be leashed while they are on car rides, so they can stick their heads out the window and we have something to tether them down with. But I also found in my Google searching items like this one, that really help keep your dogs safe. (I've put 2 on our wishlist!)

I've learned my lesson. I'm not going to ride with the windows up - the whole fun of a car ride for a dog is feeling the breeze - but I am going to take precautions so that there are no more car flopping incidents!

Stuck

It's been almost three months since I lost my precious baby girl. Three months that feel like so much longer. I tried to picture her the other day and I couldn't really do it, not without looking at a picture on my phone.

After she died, I was sad to keep taking more pictures of Peanut and Biscuit. I have been, but I knew with each click of my camera, that was one more I'd have to scroll through to get to my pictures of Buttercup. I hated to think that we were making more memories that didn't include her.

But even though I was able to overcome that feeling of stuckness and take pictures of new memories, there are so many other ways I still feel paralyzed.

Like I've been wanting to make a photo collage of my best pictures of her. I bought the frames and everything. But they've just been sitting there gathering dust because I can't bring myself to do it. I like looking at pictures of her here and there to remember, but sitting down and looking at pictures from her whole life, knowing it's over...that just feels too hard.

And a few years ago, I started writing a book of devotions about ways Buttercup taught me about God. It later came to include Peanut and Biscuit. I had ample material, and I've been writing one devotion a week to keep up with it. Or at least, I was, until April. You see, I've had inspirations that I've just written about that week, but I also have a whole list of ideas for devotions I want to write. Many of which include Buttercup. I always thought I'd finish the book while she was alive. I had a great idea for a cover shot with the two of us. Writing it now feels so hard. I feel stuck.

I so want to do these things - make her photo collage, finish the book - to honor her life and the way she touched me. And I believe someday I will. I'd love to see my devotion book published some day, with a nice picture of her and her siblings on the inside cover. Then a lot of people can be touched by her the way I was.

If only I didn't feel so stuck. I just want to hold her in my arms again. To wrap her around my shoulders like my little lamb. To show her that book, published, and celebrate with her.

Oh, how I wish I could.

I keep having this image in my mind, of a time last summer when we went to pick her up from our friend after a vacation. She was relaxing in the shade in the backyard and didn't hear us at first. So our friend said, "Buttercup, look who's here..." and she turned and saw us. She jumped to her feet and ran towards us, licking our faces and jumping at us. I hold onto that image with the hope that one day when I die, I'll see her again and she'll run toward me just the same way.