Strong instincts II - Confessions

I was once young and naive...and that time was VERY long ago...about 2 years ago...Let me explain.

Since our Carpathian Shepard puppy arrived, at 3 months old, until he was about 6-7 months old I did no real training with him. Even afterwards I did not start obedience training until recently, at around 2 years of age. Let's explore the time in between :)

The Carpathian Shepard breed is an ancient one and one of the few that remains intact to this day. The dogs fulfill the same purpose today as they did hundreds of years ago. In essence they are fairly independent. They do not rely on people to tell them what to do. They rely on instincts. Those instincts are very simple: look for threat, and eliminate it. In order to be effective against predators (bears, wolf packs, etc.) the Carpathian dogs work in packs. Practically this means that hierarchy is established very quickly when two dogs meet. What does this look like in terms of dog to dog interactions?

Well, it looks a little like this at 3 months old:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOQVqTEzAOs


When he's a year old it looks more like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzPbBsavw30


Notice that he's amazingly calm in both situations and no one is injured. This is most clear in the second video, as the first still mostly looks like play. To be perfectly clear: although there is a disagreement and Czari "jumps" the big Newfoundland dog male (aka Terra Nova), he is never "out of control". The Newfy dog challenged him and Czari solved the "issue". As soon as the other dog calmed down he got off and they just moved on. That is the main difference between an unbalanced dog that is acting aggressively and out of control and Czari. Although a form of force is still being used, Czari did not snap and lose control of himself. He simple chose to use force to make his point. And he didn't use an excess of force either; energy is usually conserved for bigger dangers :). This is perfectly within the parameters of the breed's personality.

So, why I didn't interfere or attempt to prevent the incident? It was clear from the beginning that the other dog was posturing. The Newfy ran into Czari several times chest first (one of these is why Czari was jumping in the first few seconds of the video); Czari was giving him space half way through the video, before I called him back. After I called him back, and the Newfy charged him again, Czari jumped him. So why did I just keep chatting away? Or why was I just laughing happily in the first video? Simply put I couldn't read the signs and gave my dog mixed signals.

It is now time for the confession part of this entry: Czari, the Carpathian shepherd dog, is in fact my first dog in many ways. Although we got Zuzi first, I was not able to dedicate too much time to raising her. As a result, although I knew a lot more than real first time dog owners, I did not know something crucial: how to read doggy body language. So I could not always respond appropriately to situations and guide him in how I want him to handle such situations. It took around 2 years to learn enough to "see" what's happening. In the mean time it was a very stressful, intense, non-stop crash-course in dog language. I was fortunate that I was able to dedicate as much time as I did towards learning what I didn't know. Which is why it is VERY important NOT to get this breed of dog if you lack the experience. It will give you white hairs ...or something will go REALLY wrong.

For those interested in a step by step analysis of doggy communication...enjoy :P

Someone's gonna get it!

Who's the boss?!

Total domination!!!

Now imagine the above when they're over 100 lb! Imagine it while people are seriously freaking out that they're dog is gonna get killed...no, nobody is interested in explanations at that time...they just see 100 lb of fur, muscle and teeth on top of their "precious"...odd, I know...

I rest my case :)

So how did I overcome this challenge? We'll get there soon enough.

What to feed the pooch? 

 

Food is a serious question for all of us, since it does make the difference between life and death.
So, what do we feed the dogs? I can only speak from experience...and I've had a LOT of experiences in this department with my pooches.

Let's start from the beginning. We got Zuzi first. Our first dog EVER. As with everything you try for the first time there were a few hiccups along the way. We started off by feeding her kibbles like everyone else. First hiccup, she had very bad digestion issues. What does that look like? A LOT of cleaning up! It's what happens when your dog has "the runs" ALL the time (yes, literally). And it's furry; very, very, very furry.

That's a VERY furry dog!

So like any normal human beings we tried to stop the onslaught. We started feeding her rice with the kibbles and that seemed to work for a while. It wasn't perfect but it was better. We added cheese after a while and ham. She responded by starting to pick out the ham from the bowl and leave everything else. No one who has seen my dog eat recently would believe that she would be content with just a slice of ham (thin slices) per meal. But she absolutely ignored everything else. We would sit with her for 15-20 min trying to make her eat. The cheese helped. We would put the kibbles, rice, cheese and ham together in the microwave and heat it up so the cheese melted and stuck all the ingredients together. She did attempt to just eat the outside stuff and leave the kibbles but she wasn't very successful. Once in a while we attempted to switch the brand and flavor of kibbles and that seemed to work better for a while (couple of days) but this problem always returned. We figured she's just fussy and spoiled. When she started bleeding a every couple of weeks we got really worried.

We went to the vet to try to figure out what the issue is... Why is she having so many digestion issues?? They gave us some canned food to keep her on a diet for a while and then we went back to business as usual. Problem came back. We went back. Over the next few years we were in and out of the vet's office every couple of months at least.

When Zuzi was about 2 years she started limping. It went away after a while but then it came back again. By the time she was 5 years old it was chronic. It also seemed to affect more then one leg. As in it would shift around. Today was the front right, tomorrow left. After a while it seemed to affect the back legs. We went to the vet. They told us to just not strain her with too much exercise (we used to love letting her come with us on bike rides. She loved it! But afterwards...the limp was way worse). In time, they told us, she would heal. But she never did; from 2 to 5years it didn't heal. She was also starting to have teeth problems on top of this. So we visited the vet a LOT!

 She started gaining more and more weight. By 5 years she was close to 19kg (she's now closer to 12kg). The vet told us that she needs to lose weight. We agreed, but how do you exercise a dog that cannot walk??? She wouldn't walk to the end of the street and back. Literally our walks were 5 min. Then we would go home and she'd just lie down and sleep. She'd only get up to bark once in a while.

When Zuzi was around 5 years old, we got Czari (we fed him the same as her in the beginning). We figured another dog would help her be more active. So we started going out more to the dog parks. It was great for her! So much fun. Czari was very social and happy there, so it helped her be less shy. The limp didn't go away though. As Czari grew we got to go out more and more with both of them. So the fact that she couldn't walk properly was beginning to be more and more of an issue. We went to the vet again. They recommended a specialist, did some X-rays, and some other fancy procedures. They gave us some really strong pain medication. If used for a long time, it had the potential to do internal damage to the organs. So it worked great for a while but after that, when we tried to take her off it, she'd start limping again. The specialist helped. She gave us a plant based pain medication that had no long term consequences. But they could not figure out what was wrong with her legs. So hundreds of dollars later we were at an impasse. Out of options and still with no actual answer.

As fate would have it, this was also the time when people were very interested in healthy eating! Naturally this translated to their canine companions as well. We ran across the "raw diet". As in feed your dogs raw meat, as nature intended. It sounded good enough and after some serious research we decided to give it a try. They loved it!!! Zuzi who was refusing to eat previously, was now like a wild animal. She devoured it! Czari loved it too. The next day we noticed a major difference with Zuzi: her digestion issues were gone! Completely. In a couple weeks her teeth were better: whiter, less tartar, her breath smelled better.

The limp was still there however, and after we reached the impasse with the vets we decided to stop going to the vet. We had a medication that worked to take the edge off of the pain and allowed her to run and that wouldn't kill her any time soon. It seemed like this was the best we could do. Without surgery they couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. We drew the line at surgery.

Time passed. Czari was growing up and I had them on a very strict exercise program to deal with his energy level. About 3 hours a day of running and climbing in natural parks, and/ or the dog park (in all weather conditions). Zuzi received her medication every day and she was good to go. In fact she was the happiest we've ever seen her. We continued with the raw food diet for the duration of the summer and fall (about 5 months). For Czari we supplemented the food with protein powders, since he was going to be a big boy and we wanted him to have all the calcium and protein he needs to be healthy. We gave Zuzi some too because it was said to help with muscles and bones so what did we have to loose?

Note: We used whey protein. In Romania this protein is naturally found in the juices that are left over when people make cheeses. They feed it to all the puppies while they're growing up. Its their main source of protein. So we knew it wouldn't hurt the dogs. Here, in Canada, it is mainly used by body-builders and comes in powder form but essentially it is the same ingredient. We picked the one with no additives, flavors, etc. :).

I cannot tell you the exact moment when I realized Zuzi's limp was gone. Or that she was at a perfect weight. I do not know for sure. I know that after a while I started forgetting to give her the medicine. When she was still running around normally it occurred to me she doesn't need it anymore. We took her to the vet to weigh her at some point and they congratulated us.

Carpathian shepherd puppy (5 months), Keeshond female with summer hair cut

Winter came and we decided to switch to kibbles again because it was too difficult to clean up afterwards. We fed them outside to avoid the "contamination" everyone kept warning us about. It wasn't too bad because we discovered a different kibbles brand with around 80% meat content, instead of grains.

Winter here lasts a long time. It was around 9 months before we were able to switch back to the actual raw diet. During this time both Czari and Zuzi's teeth became yellow. Her tartar was actually so bad they recommend we have her teeth cleaned professionally at their office which cost hundreds of dollars.  Czari started getting ear infections. He had 3 within 8-9 months. The vet told us it's because he has floppy ears (a very popular explanation).

Madame taking a break

Beware the "curse" of the Floppy Ears!!!

By this time I wasn't so eager to believe my vet anymore. You see, I told them that during the summer we switched foods and how well my dogs are doing on the new diet. All the positive benefits I noticed. How much they love it. To my surprise they didn't seem excited for us. Mostly they said that it great BUT...and then followed a list of stuff to watch out for. It is natural for vets to warn you about potential side effects...BUT, I didn't hear that warning when I was feeding them kibbles, or cans or anything else. And the fact that they still had no idea what was wrong with Zuzi had shaken my faith in their expertise.

Just because people, or vets, aren't ill intentioned bad people doesn't meat they're right. Or that they know everything.

In the spring I switched them to raw food again. It's been a year since then and I fed them raw during the winter. I mop and clean afterwards with the awesome Swiffer! :D It is truly amazing how many options we have now a days. I mean, I don't see myself giving up steak just because it makes a mess :P. So, why should it be a problem to give my dogs meat? When you think about it, all this discomfort around raw food, really makes no sense,  It's been a year since then. I visited the vet twice only. Once for vaccines. The other for an injury in Czari's paw which was a fisco so great that it deserves its own story. The weight is good. The teeth are white, the tartar went away when I fed them bones. The limp went away when she dropped the weight. She's a new dog. Czari hasn't had ANY ear infections since. Yes, his ears are still floppy.

Ears still floppy... ;)

Shiny coat, happy healthy pooch

It would be a lie to say that I am not upset with the vets. I am. In fact I am VERY upset. Why? Because people look to them for expertise. I believe it was their duty and responsibility to get informed if they didn't know or weren't sure how different types of food affect dogs. I don't believe it's ok for people to trust their word, or their integrity, if at the end of the day they don't actually care about the animals, and only care about passing along the products and services they want to sell. There are exceptions of course. But for 5 years we were told the same thing over and over again, every time we asked how to change Zuzi's diet. Try this other kibble we sell in the lobby.

 I have to wonder...why? Sadly, the only thing that comes to mind is profit. Companies pay a lot of money to influence what information gets passed along. It's not so much ill intention, as it is lack of responsibility and integrity. I paid a lot of money for them to tell me they don't know what's wrong. And some outright told me they don't know a lot about feeding raw food. Why is that? If this is part of their field...why don't they know? Who pays for the studies that tell them that kibbles are safe and have benefits?? Raw food can be dangerous? Do we not handle raw food all the time for ourselves? Why can't we do it for the dogs too?

Like I said, you have to wonder why? All I know is: I haven't visited a vet for health problems in my dogs for over a year. So, looking past all the theories and ideologies and excuses...what is the result? Because result don't lie...and I don't profit from presenting my results. And I certainly didn't know any of this when I started; I didn't set out to prove anything or gain anything. (Unless of course someone is so impressed by my struggle they feel like giving us free food! :D Anyone?? Even if you say yes, I still can't be held accountable for having an agenda when I started this little experiment. So we're good ;)...)

The raw food diet does cost a little more then kibbles. But, I spent so much money on the vet and so many hours going crazy that I don't know why my dog is falling apart...I'm ok with this extra cost.  Everything has a cost. We cannot escape paying...in some way or another.

I'd rather invest in keeping them healthy then invest in watching them fall apart slowly. That's what the wrong food does...it rots them from the inside out.

But truly the most convincing thing you can watch it this:

Before raw food

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbgsXWsV878

Today, after raw food was introduced


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCazYieHYOA

 It's the best advertisement for any dog diet I've personally ever seen. Just my dog, Zuzi, before and after the diet change; on my silly cell phone camera. The first video, I took to show my vet what I mean by "she can't walk". The second one, we were having fun and I like capturing moments so I can watch them later :). Yes, exercise helped too. But again, hard to do when they have no energy because they can't digest the food you're giving them. You can find the pros of feeding meat on any website, which is why I won't bother listing them here. Can they survive on inappropriate food? Yes. So can we. But why do it if you have the option not to?

The latest thing I came across is Vegetarian/ Vegan diets for dogs. But someone else already summed up that issue better then I ever could: http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2012/01/19/vegetarianism-for-pets.aspx

This is just my story. And no I'm never feeding my DOG vegetarian. But one day I may own a COW and then I can feed all the veggies I want :). I'm pretty sure all my dogs pointy (and now awesomely white) teeth = carnivore. I may not be sure of much...but this seems pretty self-explanatory :P.

And then we sailed off into the sunset! ~ Just kidding :)

Strong instincts...Part 1

Yes, it is adorable isn't it? Of course 2 seconds before and after this shot he's chewing everything he can reach! :)

The first thing we noticed about our cute, scrawny, and amazingly uncoordinated puppy (I saw him trip and fall on his butt while standing once...just standing, no movement was attempted at all previous to the fall) is that he's got strong instincts and the ability to react in 0.0001 seconds.

Allow me to illustrate:

We're walking our brand new puppy through the neighborhood. A couple with a very excited adult male beagle dog approaches. They seem friendly so we keep going. Czari trips over his feet (or tuft of grass or something) to go meet him. In general, Czari loves other dogs. He's very social, and not at all shy. In fact most people told us for the first 3-4 months how well behaved and calm he is around other dogs, most people couldn't believe he's just a puppy; yes, he was THAT calm and well balanced. I wish we could take credit for that, but he came pre-programmed :). He's just great at communicating with other dogs. Back to Mr. Beagle. As soon as we approached he started pulling on his leash like crazy and agitating himself. The owners just smiled and started the usual "Oh, what a cute puppy!" conversation.

In 2 seconds the dogs were all tangled up in the leashes. Czari was just sitting there not sure what to do since the beagle had tangled him up. At this point I noticed Czari trying to get some space from Mr. Beagle who was sniffing him too intently. But he couldn't, because he's still tangled. So I tried to get the owners to do something about their dogs leash (extendable leash). As I was working on communicating that, I notice Mr. Beagle trying to hump Czari. I told them to get him away. They just sat there and laughed very amused. At which point I got a little irritated and told them "I wouldn't let him do that. Can you please get him off".

(Note: Normally, I would have said nothing, if Czari wasn't trying to get away and being trapped by the leash. For the most part I'm perfectly happy to let the dogs be and do their thing. But my puppy was definitely looking uncomfortable, so it wasn't just dogs being dogs in this case).

Again, the owners were just laughing. I decided to do it myself...I blinked...I heard a deep growl, little hairs on my neck stood up, and I automatically looked down...In the next split-second Czari (who had apparently had enough of diplomacy), was on top of the other dog and pinning him to the ground while poor Mr. Beagle, in a state of utter shock and panic, was screeching and whining at the top of his lungs. I didn't see him actually perform the jump. One second he was sitting, the next second he was on top of the other dog). The owners stopped laughing and proceeded to try to pull on the leash to retrieve the dog... while blabbering. Yes, that looked exactly how it sounds, they mostly strangled the poor thing and flounced about. Czari had him pinned good, he wasn't going anywhere.

I took Czari off while he gave another growl (I had never before heard such a noise, let alone from a 3 month puppy) and we walked away.

I wish I could say I said sorry. I didn't. But I did say "I told you" while I walked away. I can't deny that I laughed a bit on the inside, once my shock wore off. I don't think the other owners shock ever wore off. What can I say, this incident really doesn't go well with the image most people have of puppies. As for Mr. Beagle, I believe he'll think twice in the future.

I mean...Look at him!!...Who would have predicted that?!

 

The Magnificent Flopster! (Floppy Monster ---> Flopster :D)

This was the first time we truly realized... our dog is a little different :).

Coyotes...

The night is dark. The wind is blowing, and the air is frigid. It burns when you breathe. The snow makes it possible to see anything. There are technically street lights, but not nearly enough to really make a difference...just beyond the light the forest still looms, as dark as ever. It was one of those nights where you know no sane person would venture outside. To me it was a great opportunity for some off-leash running games! No interference! There is a nice field next to a forest. One of our favorite places to go to during the day. And on night like this, it's close to the highway! Quiet, but next to a road and out in the open, just the way I usually like it. Its the first time I visit it at night, but it seems perfect! I leave the forests to themselves at night, I keep to the fields.

An hour of fun later we were heading back to the car. The dogs suddenly stop. I look up and notice a pack of coyotes on the path. They're standing between us and the car. Czari growls and gives a vicious pull, he wants to go get them, NOW! Zuzi starts barking. I silence them, yell out to the coyotes to get out of the way. In my experience they're smart enough to get my meaning. Its happened before, in my neighborhood. You yell out at them, they cross the street or walk away and let you pass... Its not the neighborhood though, and they're a pack. They're feeling pretty strong. They don't leave.

One of them starts coming closer sniffing us out. The rest are pacing back and forth. Czari starts pulling again, almost pulls my arm off. He doesn't like this situation. I stop him again, barely. I try to walk forward. There's no other path. I'm in an open field but outside of my tiny path is snow up to my knees or higher in all directions. There's no way to "walk" through that. Definitely not with the dogs going crazy and the coyotes circling. I'd be trapped in the snow. Not an option.


Luckily, the coyotes seem to be moving out of the way. I walk a bit further. Czari starts going crazy again, almost pulls me over. He keeps looking to the left. I stop and try to see through the darkness to what he's looking at. There a shadow passing us a few meters away. One of the coyotes is walking beside us in opposite direction. I can't walk and hold on to Czari anymore, my arm is starting to cramp up, so I wait. Hopefully once he gets far enough away, Czari will calm down. A few seconds later, the coyote starts making yipping noises from behind us. More coyotes answer him from in front of us. They keep "speaking" back and forth. I realize they weren't moving out of the way. They just moved away from the light and were surrounding us. I got no idea how many there are in total, I counted 5 in the beginning...I don't speak "coyote" but it sounds like they're coordinating. My arm is locked from trying to keep hold of Czari. I couldn't pull again on that leash to save my life. I'm not dieing to wait until the coyotes move to the next phase of their little plan.

I tell Czari to hold on. He stops moving and stands very still. I take off the leash, so he can move freely, and say "ok". He takes off into the night. I walk as fast as I can to the car with Zuzi. I'm not sure if there are any more out there, following me, but I don't wanna run. I could trip and they do like chasing, so running is out. In 3 minutes we're at the car. Nothing followed me. Czari drew the whole pack off. I roll down the window and start honking and calling him. I listen for a second. There are noises coming from the forest. I hear the yipping sounds, they sound like before, normal. Then I hear more frantic yipping. Then, yelping. Finally, lots of whines and yelps. I honk and call for Czari again. He's got a little red light attached to his collar, so I should be able to see him coming back. I honk one more time. Its dead quiet now. Finally a red light appears from the forest. It circles the whole area where we were before and then starts running towards me. He emerges from the shadows very proud, tail high, and marks a bush; then starts looking around, scouting the area.

I get out of the car and grab some bread from the back seat and tempt him into the car. I was too afraid he'd go back, just to make sure they're all gone. I drive home. Czari is very content...downright satisfied! He slept very well that night. Me too...once I calmed down. Didn't go back to that field though. Not at night.

Pleasant dreams :)