skyisadog's blog

The Bath Problem

we have one of these!

Sky doesn't like water, not one little bit. At least when she recognizes it as such... but most especially, not running water - which has presented us with a bit of a problem. It's time for a bath.

As much as she always wants to be with us, she's very conspicuously absent (and as far away as possible) when it comes time for us to water the plants in the courtyard, for example, and she really hates crossing any water on our walks. So she hasn't been properly bathed since May, when she went to the groomer and totally freaked out when it came to the bath portion of that visit - though I do give her sponge baths with plain water on a washcloth, which she doesn't mind at all, and in fact quite enjoys.

So, we have to try to change her opinion of this strange practice of getting wet all over, being sudsed up and rinsed down. Wish us luck. What we are doing right now is putting her in the dry tub a couple of times a day, at which point I usually wipe her down with the washcloth to get her a bit used to the idea of something of this nature happening in that space... and then we give her some doggy crack (a pig's foot chew thingy) afterwards as a big, big treat. So, our hope is that we might instill the idea of tub (and what happens there) = TREAT!!!

Today we are going to try turning on the handheld shower head to the merest tepid trickle (with, hopefully very little to no sound, since this seems to be a big part of her fear), and see if she will put up with this being applied. Will update this evening to let you know how it goes.

Diet update; Potty Patrol; and some People Food

how do we work this thing?

I mentioned a while back that I was convinced by something I read that I needed to increase Sky's protein in relation to rice and veg in her home cooked meals, but I think this was (probably) wrong. I saw her straining the day before yesterday when she had to do her poop, plus her schedule has gone a bit off, with more time passing between movements, and I think it's due to less fiber in her food. I may be wrong, and it may be down to the heat instead, and the fact that she seems not to drink as much as she should (it seems to me), but I'm going back to our old formulation of about 1/3 each brown rice, veg, meat/fish for now.

Yesterday, actually, I put very little rice, added some black eyed peas (I would have gone with lentils, but black eyed peas was what I had around, and I wanted to start off with what I hoped was a corrective meal in the morning), and a bit more veg (spinach, green beans, carrot, zucchini; all nearly pureed then cooked) than meat (chicken), and made it very wet. (Canned pumpkin is supposed to be a very good thing for this, but not something I can find here.) This actually did show up in a more effortless poop yesterday evening, according to my husband, so I think we're back on the right track - for her, anyway. The whole food thing is so difficult to figure out, and as I keep repeating, for every bit of advice you find, you'll find pretty much the opposite point of view persuasively presented, so it's difficult to be confident of one's choices. I do know that her output has always been good (not too soft or hard) and regular, and it seems like it started veering more towards hard and/or constipated, so I'll go back to tried-and-true for now.

And speaking of food, I want to give you my Mushroom Soup recipe, because it's easy (if you have a food processor) and quite delish. We had this yesterday, and it was ultra-yummy:

Taz's Mushroom Soup (for people!)

1 pound of mushrooms (I used regular domestic button mushrooms)
1 large zucchini
1 large onion
1 large carrot
1 red bell pepper
Sherry
Cottage cheese
Olive oil

Mushroom Soup (photo from amateurgourmet.com)

Grate or finely chop (I used a food processor) the onion, carrot, pepper and zucchini and sautée in olive oil; meanwhile mince the mushrooms (again, I used the the food processor), and add to the pan. Continue to sautée this mixture for another five to ten minutes, then transfer to a soup pot and add about a quart of chicken broth and 1/4 to a half cup of sherry, or to taste. (I actually used a great homemade sweet red wine that came from a Greek village, but I think sherry is probably the best equivalent.) Simmer for an hour, then add a small container of cottage cheese (probably a cup to a cup and a half ) or an amount to your taste, and puree the mixture (I used a hand-held stick blender for this, but you could use the food processor again). Season to taste (I just used salt and freshly ground pepper). If the mixture is too thick, you can add water or more broth. Let simmer for another ten minutes or so, and it's ready!

Very important: This is not a dish to make for (or share with) your dog, because of the onion and alcohol. Keep this one for yourself! However, I find it is one good use for some of the broth that I get when I boil turkey or chicken for Sky's meals. I have a tiny little freezer, and can't save all the broth, so I try to plan some dishes that would benefit from the broth when I make her meals for the week.

Well, that Ant gonna work out

Old bowl, in water

Sadly, it's back to the bowl drawing board. The terracotta bowl is great, but I woke up this morning to find... ants in the dog food bowl. This has nothing to do with the bowl itself, of course, but I have to put the food bowl inside a larger, shallow dish of water that acts as a sort of "moat" against the ants, and the terracotta bowl isn't heavy enough in the water. It wants to float. So, I guess we will bring it back when it gets cool again, and our little summer visitors have disappeared off wherever they go.

So, yeah, back to using one my big soup/salad bowls from my set for the moment, inside a cake-pan-style dish filled with water. I wanted to put dish soap into the water to make it even less likely that ants or other pests will breach the defense, but I'm afraid Sky will drink it, so I put apple cider vinegar in there instead, I also mopped the whole area and poured vinegar along the area where they were entering, since this is supposed to be a deterrent. We shall see.

Trying out a new food bowl

New terracotta bowl

I notice I keep running into the advice that one should use stainless steel dog bowls for food and water, and I'm not sure why stainless steel is stressed so much (worries about breakage, I'm assuming), but I bought a couple from the pet store and they aren't working out at all for the food... too light, without a non-skid bottom, so they just get pushed around when she tries to eat.

Up to now, I've just been using a couple of large, heavy china bowls from my regular set because I'm not a big shopper, and haven't come across anything suitable so far, but a couple of days ago, I had a brainstorm. The best Greek yogurt here comes in these nice, heavy terracotta containers with glazed interiors, and I realized the large size is just about perfect as a food bowl. It's about seven inches wide and three inches high, with a flat bottom, and very sturdy (and cute! I'm a sucker for terracotta). I don't usually buy this style of yogurt because it's pretty pricey, but compared to buying another food bowl, it's like buying a bowl and getting the (fabulous) yogurt for free. So this is what we are using now for food, and I'm using the stainless steel bowls for water. If it continues to work out as well as I think, I'll pick up one or two more because I wash the food bowls every day, usually when I pick up the empty dish from the homemade meal and put down a new dish of kibble, and it's convenient to have a clean one waiting.

Great Tip: Cotton Ball Remedy

Cottonballs

Dog owners, go ahead and stock up on some cotton balls (100% cotton only) to have around in case of an emergency. This page describes how inducing your dog to eat cotton balls after they've swallowed a sharp object can save his life, or at least forestall expensive, painful surgery. Apparently the cotton will wrap itself around the broken glass, sharp bone, or whatever, and carry it safely through to the other end. And though convincing a dog to eat cotton balls may not sound very easy, these people say that it's quite simple to do, just by soaking the balls in Half & Half (or cream, I imagine), or spreading them with liverwurst. I imagine I'd try peanut butter if I didn't have either of those.

If you ever do have occasion to try this (and let's hope you never do!), be sure to keep a close eye on your pup and rush him or her to the vet if you see blood in the stool, black, tarry stool, or other signs that your dog is in distress.

Sky Takes a Taxi

sorry, no - this cab is not for you

So, the other night we went out to meet some friends at an outdoor cafe, and we brought Sky with us. It was a beautiful walk of a couple of miles, around the Acropolis area to the neighborhood of Psiri (look at this little map, to see the whole area of our neighborhood, Acropolis, Psiri, etc.; you can see pix of Psiri here). It was a weekend night, lots of people were out strolling and it was very festive, with the cart vendors selling nuts, sweets and popcorn and the lighting and green areas around the Acropolis making everything look magical. By that time it was already 11 pm, so by the time we left the cafe, it must have been around 2 am, and the walk back didn't seem like it would be quite as fun. So my husband suggests we take a cab.

Let me tell you something about cabs in Athens. They don't want to take anyone anywhere. There are about a million of them, and not one of them wants to pick you up. You have to stand in the street and scream out to them where you are going as they slow down fractionally, and then they don't even tell you "no" - they just hit the gas and leave you standing in their dust. Not an exaggeration. It is also not an exaggeration when I say I have lived here for over a year, and have never, not once, taken a cab on my own. I tried once or twice, and then just gave up the whole idea of cabs in Athens. I walk a lot.

So, I was pretty incredulous that my husband thought we might be able to get a cab with the dog with us, when it's such a struggle to even get one when we are alone. Nevertheless, he convinced me we should take a shot at it... and maybe it was the late hour, or the angel of little doggies in the wee hours was looking out for us... or I don't know what, but we get a cab from Ermou street, almost immediately. I was amazed. Sky was perfect. I got in the back first, then my husband lifted her in, on his lap, and she rode there the whole way, not nervous or disturbed at all. My husband told the cab driver, "this is her first time in a cab", and he answered "well, she and I are even, then; it's my first time having a dog in the cab." He mentioned that she was a lot better than some of his customers, because she didn't talk. :)

Oh, Cod, it's Good! (a food update)

Cod

Our latest Sky House entree, introduced just today, is the most pupular so far, it seems. This time around our menu features cod as the main attraction, and Miss Sky is going pretty nutso for it. The ingredients are boiled cod, brown rice, carrots, zucchini, green beans, spinach, olive oil and a little garlic powder. The ratio is about half cod to half rice-veggie combo - so, about 1/2 parts cod, 1/4 parts each rice and veg. I boil the rice and steam the vegetables in the left-over fish water. (I always use the cooking water if I boil the meat or fish source; I usually end up using all of it.)

And I'm organizing the food a bit differently these days. Now I mix together the rice and vegetables in one bowl (or two - one in the fridge, and one in the freezer) and store the cooked meat or fish separately (usually, also part in the fridge and part frozen), and mix them together just before I feed her. The reason is that the rice and veggies are a lot less likely to spoil, and will last at least a week in the fridge, while I'm always cautious with meat and fish (and for good reason! I recently got food poisoning from fish soup I made for us, and I was actually very, very, extra careful with it, since it's summer now - freezing half immediately, and putting the rest in the refrigerator right away... but two days in the refrigerator was too much, it seems. Or our refrigerator isn't cold enough - I don't know. But aaarrgggh. So. Sick. Crazy.)

Also, I used to shred the raw vegetables, but now I steam them and roughly puree them, since an article I read argues that the dog's shorter intestinal tract is not efficient at dealing with raw vegetables. You can read a hundred things, all advising radically different methods of feeding the dog, but for now I'm going with high protein / cooked meat or fish  / steamed veg, with the veg in a sort of artificially "pre-digested" form. No corn or wheat, plus active plain yogurt (I feed it separately, since she loves it like dessert). There are a few other health food things I would like to add, if I can ever find them, but I feel pretty good about this diet for now.

Our tally thus far is:

1. Boiled turkey leg meat, plus brown rice, plus raw shredded carrot and zucchini (plus olive oil and light powdered garlic - just add this to description for the rest, as well), plus yogurt added in before serving = Liked Very Much!
2. Boiled turkey thigh meat plus chicken livers, plus oatmeal, shredded carrot and zucchini, and steamed, shredded green beans = Didn't Like Very Much At  All.
3. Sauteed chicken livers, plus brown rice, plus steamed and mashed carrot and zucchini and spinach = Eh. Meh. Not Bad, Not Fab.
4. Boiled Cod, plus brown rice, plus steamed and pureed carrots, zucchini, spinach and green beans = OMG, SO GOOD, I Go Crazy!

And there you go. That's our user-reviewed list of homemade dog foods so far.

What a pretty girl! Collar & Lead.

In the "accessories" section of our previous update, I neglected to mention our new collar and lead, that I'm very, very happy with. The manufacturer ("Nobby") appears not to be online (weird, these days, no?) but I can give you a good idea anyway. They are both made of a nicely soft nylon (much softer than the less-flexible "ribbon style" we had initially) and the collar is adjustable, with color-coordinated plastic "quick-release" snap buckle. It's not too narrow or

Collars like ours

too wide, and I love it because there is no metal buckle to rust or catch on anything, plus I adore that the snap buckle and size adjustment bit (I have no idea what that's called) match the rest of the collar. Many designs have those pieces in black plastic (and, of course, others have the traditional silver buckle) and I don't like the break in the visual color line . It's 100% adjustable without being bulky, no flapping collar end to deal with... and it's purty! It's a solid, deep, vibrant turquoise/aqua color, and I matched it with a simple walking lead of the same material, but a nicely bright lime color, so the combo is very fresh and summery and lovely with her white coat. (And as we've already established, she is a pretty, pretty princess.)

The collar looks very much like the nylon collars I've pictured in this post (found here), but from what I can see, ours appears to be softer. On this color chart, the collar color is closest to "sky blue" (how appropriate!), and the lead color is closest to "lime green", but they are both deeper and more vibrant, and sort of "shimmery". On this chart, which captures some of that effect, they are closest to #72 and #7, respectively. I'll take a pic at some point, if I can (a little difficult to deal with the camera when I'm walking her alone, so I'll need to do that when we have her out together, probably).

It would be nice to do a sort of deep violet/indigo and scarlet combo in the winter, maybe... something like #42 and #23 on the second chart. oooh, or the #65 or #66 blue instead of the violet - which would be so very gorgeous with her eyes! *AS IF* If I could find anything close to those colors. Perhaps I should start a business as collar/lead supplier to the color obssessed? Surely there are enough of us out there? Or, on the other hand, color adviser & supplier to the color/design-challenged? Send me pix and a description of your dog's personality, and I'll pick colors/patterns? Maybe I should have thought of this back when people had money? :-)

It worries us a bit...

how much our dog looks like Gary Oldman as Dracula.

Gary

yikes!

Really. *shiver*

Sky Update

She likes to keep me company

It's been a while, so I'll report our current news in the form of a collection of small items, since there are no issues or  complications to discuss...

Potty: Everything is great! She's no longer afraid to pee in front of us, never, ever goes in the house, and is on a pretty regular schedule of pooping in the evening, and peeing in the morning or afternoon. She isn't always 100% readable about when she wants to go out (perhaps because she usually doesn't need to ask... we go out quite a lot, unless it's too hot, so she has a lot of opportunity for relief), but last night (after I had taken her a couple of hours earlier, and she didn't go), she very specifically went to the front door and turned around to look at me. The problem is that this isn't necessarily always a specific action, because our front door is designed in such a way that with the (frosted, non-see-through) glass section opened it's like a big open window (with decorative metal grate), so she also goes to the door just to look out. But last night the AC was on and the window-part closed, so she was obviously not looking outside. I plan to create a ribbon with bells sewn to it to attach to the door, and teach her to ring this when she wants to go out. If I can.

Food: I still haven't been able to acquire the kibble I really want for her, but we are using Nutra Gold Holistic at the moment, which stacks up favorably compared to other dry foods available here. And I'm still home cooking high protein meals for her, which she gets once a day. She likes everything, but she likes the home-cooked a lot. She also likes yogurt, and I give her (and me!) a little 2% plain, natural, "active" yogurt every day, for the calcium and to promote good digestion.

Play: She's still not a giant fan of fetch or chew. We play a bit with her toys, but she definitely gets bored before I do. "Fetch" is pretty funny, because she will retrieve the ball and bring it back a couple of times, but then starts ignoring it, obviously thinking, "well what is the *point* of this if she's just going to keep throwing it every time I bring it back. I'd like to help out here, but -hey- enough is enough, m'kay?" She's really physically playful with my husband, leaping and twisting, and turning herself inside out with joy when he gets her going. It's adorable. Sometimes, when he's on his way home, he calls me and we decide to meet for a beer nearby, or just walk together with the dog, so she and I go walking and when I see him coming from the opposite direction, I pretend not to notice him, and she's of course totally distracted, sniffing everywhere and being out! And we get closer... and closer... and... when she finally realizes it's him, she goes mad with excitement, just about turning somersaults in the air. That's really our funnest game.

Jewelry

Accessories: You know what's hard to find in Greece? Dog tags. We did finally find a great pet shop (Pet Planet, at Dimitrakopoulou 106 in Koukaki, if you live in Athens and are interested), that sells them, though - so we now have a tag on her with our address, my husband's cell phone, and her name on it. (In addition to the microchip, of course). We also got a small cat bell that we attached to her collar, because she's so quiet, and is almost always right under your feet when you least expect it, and in our kitchen and bedroom she's just about the same color as the floor, so it's easy not to notice her. After we both nearly killed her or ourselves tripping over her, we decided that a little bell would be a good warning. It's a lot like this one, but prettier. When combined with the "evil eye" good luck charm (popular in Greece for pets and kids) that someone gave us, it's all getting a bit garish, to be frank.