Ontario Adventures

So we moved to Ontario. Why? Many reasons: my education, it was way past time, since I've been trying to move out east for more years then I'm ever putting into writing (seriously, no!),...there's a possibility I didn't believe I could keep annoying the Alberta wildlife forever and not get eaten...the list goes on! But regardless of motivation, here we are: Ontario!

First impressions: It's hot, really hot; this is the longest summer I've had in a 14 years! Which is awesome, for me. Czari's just happy to sleep through it. He's got an air conditioner that he's fallen in love with and spends the hot days basically wrapped around it.

It's also more abundant in terms of the wildlife available to enjoy/annoy. So far we have found raccoons, coyotes, wolves, deer and FAR too many bugs. Not kidding about the last one! The house I'm renting is in a forest (YAY! So cool! but wait...there's more!) and every night I have the local insect traffic running through my house - I've tried: closing the lights, poisoning them, shooing them away and finally developed a new hobby of just stomping on them since they're not getting the message - I feel I'm making some progress but have a sneaking suspicion it may just be the weather getting colder as we are entering October...possibly).

Current backyard... :)))

You may wonder how I managed to find wolves...well, I have a gift you see...

I do live in the city and did not travel anywhere near the more northern parts of Ontario where one might expect to find wolves. However, as previously mentioned, I am special, so I quickly mapped out all the parks within a 2 hour driving distance. I then narrowed this down to all the wildlife reserves, and then checked all of them out until I found one that felt all "homey"...aka, like Kananaskis. In my defense, the website distinctly said the wildlife part refers mainly to frogs. And there were a TON of frogs, so many that they would just throw themselves at your legs as you walked past. I liked the place and it seemed safe enough. So I proceeded to go have fun at sunset as per my usual routine. Half an hour into my hike, as the sun disappeared, a familiar sound drifted towards us from across the lake: howling wolves. No, not coyotes. I know because I've heard coyotes before; definitely NOT coyotes. I was back in my car in 15 min, after the most productive evening run I've had in a while. Czari? Well since they were across the lake, and he couldn't beat them up, poochie was content to just keep running around beside me. Moral? Internet is sometimes wrong. Yes, I realize it seems obvious. Like I said, I'm special.

And so begins the next chapter in our adventures blog...

Doggy may have underestimated the depth of this river and fallen in, head first, 5 min before this picture was taken...I may have spent those 5 min laughing my head off at him...sometimes, he's special too. He was trying to find a racoon...He didn't succeed. Look on his face as he got out of the river with fallen maple leaves on his head: Priceless!

The Raven situation

My dog can talk to birds...yea, it's like that. It's not nearly as crazy as it sounds.

Now we all know that Ravens, crows, magpies etc. are very intelligent animals. Since they also happen to be carnivorous, its been well documented that all birds from the Raven family group share a rather close bond with carnivores. For anyone whose surprised by this type "wolves and crows/ravens/etc" into google.

What they usually fail to mention is that birds are not at all picky in terms of species. Basically as far as I can tell they're thinking goes: if it looks like it could lead to a meal, follow it and collaborate!

How do I know this? Well, there's been a few "signs" shall we say...

The first instance was about 3 years ago. I was happily hiking with my dogs and enjoying nature. Czari was still very young, not even fully grown yet and he was having a lot of fun sniffing bunny tracks in the snow. I was enjoying how the snow sparkles in the light and Zuz was busy being Zuz, aka running around like a maniac in the same vague direction I was going and swimming through the snow (there's a slight possibility that I purposefully choose a route through deep snow once in a while...its hilarious! and it tires her out, so win-win!). At some point Czari gets all enthusiastic and disappears into the forest. He comes back with a rabbit... and 3 magpies! Yes, I know, he's that good!!! No, just kidding :P. The rabbit was his...the magpies were volunteers. LOL! The scenes though was quite interesting and bewildering to me, I had no idea what was going on. The magpies, landed on the trees and stared at him for a minute. He sat down to eat. The magpies landed closer to him on the ground. He continues eating but moved over a bit. The magpies got closer and started picking at the snow around him. He shooed them off the way he does with Zuz sometimes when she tries to steal his food, but he's not too concerned about it. Got up, snapped at them a bit to get them to move farther off and continued eating. Zuz looks at me all confused, I look at her and shrug..."I guess you're no longer the only annoying creature trying to steal Czari's food."

Zuz in all her glory! :)

 
Once Czari finishes he gets up, the magpies start making excited noises and fly up around him, and then he goes back into the forest to see if he can find more rabbits. the magpies follow on his tail.

Roughly 20 minutes later we are at the end of the trail and I call him back. The magpies are still following him but stop and land on some trees at the edge of the forest. I briefly consider the fact that if I keep coming to this exact spot I believe I can easily make myself some magpie friends. After a minute of fantasizing about running around with my bird palls (I may or may not have had some epic nature tune singing in my head at this time) I decide that maybe it's better not to bend the rules of nature too much...mainly because I'm afraid of coming home covered up in bird poop, and with my own personal cloud of magpies. However, my prudent choice did not stop Czari from figuring out and watching for birds to provide clues in regards to quick meals.

Which brings us to the Raven Situation. No, I do not have a pet raven...at the moment. However, it did take me quite a while to convince my dog that although ravens and crows are quite handy to communicate with we are not going to follow every one of them. Even if they want us to. Even if for instance they pass by us, and on a tree, make lots of excited "cra"s and then proceed to fly in a certain direction, stop on a tree and repeat. They're not very subtle. As soon as Czari starts following they fly further off in the "right" direction and keep going, so on and so forth. It took about 30 seconds for him to put together this pattern and figure out it leads to potential food and for the next 6 months I watched out for crows with some suspicion.

Now not all interactions are positive. For instance it also only took a few seconds for my dog to figure out that sometimes the birds are all excited because they already found some food and can't contain their enthusiasm. And he's got zero problems going out and stealing their food and coming back with a deer leg and a very angry Raven flying at his head. This particular one was quite huge. And after much "discussion" : Czari growls, raven flies at him very angry, Czari growls again and finally the Raven lands all puffed up and angry on a tree next to us and just stares at us. I ask: "What the hell are you doing?!" and for a second actually expect a reply... Afterwards the raven stares at us for a little bit and sticks around but eventually leaves when it's clear the fun is over. Though it did come back a few times when we went back to that area. And no it wasn't a random coincidence. I have an ongoing tally in my head regarding close-up monitoring  of my presence by anything including giant black birds and there was clearly a giant black bird following be around the next couple times. I figured that was it's territory and it was still not quite sure what to do about us. I ignored it and eventually it lost interest. And eventually Czari made peace with the fact that we can't follow any and all birds, even if they want us to and it leads to food. Yea, I know life is rough.

Now if that sounds a little out there...it doesn't even come close to the shock I had when I realized Czari managed to piss off a squirrel so much it climbed a tree branch above his head and peed on us! It didn't actually land on us (thankfully) but the intent was clear and punctuated by the most indignant squeaking I EVER heard. But that's a story for another time ;). 

Eyes in the darkness

Sunset...it's coming...

The days are much shorter now, winter is well on its way. The darkness is broken up by some street lamps and my own head lamp. I start to run through the grass on my usual trail. The dogs are ecstatic as they've been cooped up in the house all day while I was at work. At some point Czari passes me and jumps up so high past me I'm worried he'll jump over me. Zuz is a furry little blur in the grass. After about an hour of prancing around we're on our way back. I thought I saw some shadows moving a while back so we're walking a lot slower and more attentively now. Poochies are on leashes since we're approaching the road.  Czari's walking nicely right next to me, scanning the area, my hand brushes his head accidentally once in a while. Zuz is keeping up behind me. I'm scanning the shadows with my headlamp, just in case the coyotes decide to pay us a visit. Its not very likely since I haven't seen them in this area for a very long time...but you never know.

As fate would have it, today is my lucky day! There, in the grass, something is shinning back at me, a pair of eyes...I shout out at it and alert Czari. He's staring in the shadows trying to figure out what I'm looking at, there's no wind and the eyes are far away. I can't see a body, but it's staring straight at us and its bigger than a coyote. I wait and it advances forward a little bit, I shout out again. Czari's starting to pull on the leash. I pet him a bit and wait. I learned the trick to always stay calm a while ago, I'm pretty good at it by now. The eyes take one more step and then the head lifts, it turns around and walks calmly away. From the back and the walk I can finally tell what it is...a big deer. It vanishes into the grasses in a couple seconds and I relax. Czari's not completely convinced. We start walking towards the car and he's still restless, pulling once in a while. He's controlling himself well though, so I decide to let him go investigate. The deer is long gone.

I expected him to charge ahead like usual as soon as I tell him go, but he starts walking forward slowly and low to the ground. He stops to sniff the wind, but there's just not that much wind. He walks again closer and stops again. Tries to sniff again...walks closer, and then jumps away suddenly a few times. Walks around the area in a circle. Then goes all the way to the spot and sniffs. I see him walk around the spot a bit and check up and down the hill. He goes to pee on a bush nearby, and then just walks back calmly and I pet him, tell him he did a good job and put him back on leash. I tell Zuzi "good job" too, because she stayed with me calmly instead of barking. She too has gotten much better are following my cues when we're hiking. She's still a little silly though...what can I say, she's just a different dog :P.

I really thought Czari was just going to go running after the deer when he realized that's what it was...Yet again I am positively surprised by my dog's innate and acquired wisdom. How he seems to just know when to charge and when to approach situations calmly and take his time to figure out what he's dealing with. Of course, each time he comes back and looks to see if I'm happy with what he did or not and each time I give feedback. That helps too. But this situation was completely new for him and he handled it very well.

As for the mystery deer, I suppose it was perplexed by our presence...figured out what we were and then decided we are not worth pursuing...though I have to say it really did look like it was about to charge me for a few seconds there, but maybe it was just curious. I guess we'll never know...

A winter's tale...

Czari & Deer leg - previous hike when it wasn't pitch black!

It is late fall, and the days are getting shorter, colder. Here, it is already dark by 7pm. The colder weather moves in quickly. It was hot and sunny yesterday. Today, I woke up to the first light layer of snow. It isn't too bad yet and I convince myself that it's still kinda summer. I like summer (I really, really like summer) and I really hate the fact that it's so short here! I miss the days when summer was 4 months at least and by the end of it I was as brown as a potato. So, I like pretending it lasts longer than it actually does...

I love going hiking after work. There's something addictive about that feeling of freedom, especially after being closed in for 8 hours.The sunset is at around 7:30 pm, and I finish work at 7 pm, but I convince myself I can somehow still pull it off. Plus, I have a new head lamp I'm dying to try out. It's amazing how quickly I can convince myself to do these things...truly...it's amazing!

I race home after work and load up the dogs in the car. Half-way to the mountains the blizzard starts. In addition, there's no moon on this night. For those who did not know (aka myself before this little adventure), that means it's pitch black in the mountains...no artificial street lights up there...they make a difference, yea. It's one of those days when I really feel compelled to keep going though.

The blizzard is done by the time we reach our destination. There is however, a LOT of snow on the ground. I park next to the highway and figure I'll just walk alongside it for a bit and come back quickly. I start making lots of noise as soon as I get out and release my dogs. Czari gets to work right away scouting the forest. I notice that the area is quite beautiful at night. There is a short hill that descents into a little valley; its surrounded by forest but the valley is open and only a couple minutes from the highway. As I start walking the fresh snow crackles with each step. There are ice crystals on every branch that sparkle in the light from my headlamp. Its cold, and my feet hurt a lot but I start to think it was worth it. Where else would I see this? I try to take a picture but it doesn't show up on camera...some things can't be photographed.

I start to jog a little to warm up and get some blood flow back in my feet. Zuzi is sticking close to me, she knows the routine and she is smart enough to not venture far at night. Czari is a rapidly moving shadow to my left, zig-zagging every which way. Once in a while I call him, and he comes to check in on me. A huge head and a pair of glowing eyes pokes its way out of the tree line. I say "good boy"  and he goes back to doing his thing. The head lamp is very useful, I can shine it all around and see if other pairs, of less-familiar glowing eyes, shine back at me. About 15 min in Czari starts barking at something in a very pissed-off way. I look at Zuz, she looks at me, and I say "let's go" - she understands these situations; when its potentially dangerous she gets a LOT smarter, and more obedient, in a flash. We start running up the hill, towards the car. Czari sounds farther off, still barking his head off. Zuz is sticking close by, she resists the impulse to run straight to the car without me, and as soon as I get to the top of the hill I put her on leash. If anything does show up, she's the best target...

Miss Cougar-bait

I load Zuzi into the car and start yelling for Czari. A few minutes later, there's a familiar shadow moving towards me along the side of the highway. Czari is back but he's not happy, he's pacing and sniffing at the ground, stops to bark again, sniffs some more. I can't coax him closer to me so I get in the car and drive to him. When I get there, he finally comes to me and I load him in the car. I go to see what had him so intrigued. I walk to the spot where he was most intent on scratching and peeing and there it is, right on the side of the highway: fresh cougar poop. 

So, basically...

There was a cougar pooping on the side of the highway and Czari chased the crap out of it! 

I do feel a little guilty...the cougar had the right to crap in peace and I disturbed it's bathroom break. I may have mumbled "oops, sorry" and thought maybe I should not do this at night anymore - it's probably a bad idea. Then I got back into the car and told Czari he's the best-est doggy ever!!! Without him, chances are I would have been cougar poop too (to be honest - Zuzi can outrun me).

Not a flattering picture...

So ended my first wintery night hike. Yea - some lessons require repetition...No one's perfect!

The story continues...

The beauty of nature

The day is gorgeous. The first snow of the season crunches with each step. From the left a breeze picks up...it is warm. It completely wipes away the chill from the air.  It smells of pine. For one bizarre moment I feel the need to touch the snow at my feet, just to make sure that it is still cold. How can the air be warm when there is snow all around? The warm breeze picks up again, almost as if it senses my doubt. I smile at it and turn to continue walking.

 

 

The trail twist and turns, as it winds through the trees. There, on top of the snow, barely a few centimeters deep, are bunny foot prints. Almost as if the bunnies had figured out a way to fly across the snow, leaving only a whisper of a print behind. I feel the sudden urge to leave my own hand print next to it. For a silly moment I can almost imagine the bunny coming back and sniffing all puzzled at my strange hand print. Everything is so quiet. There is only the crunch of the snow and the sounds of the distant stream to accompany me. The silence is peaceful, calm.

Czari has been gone too long and I start yelling for him. A few minutes later a large shadow is moving to the right. Zuzi stops at my feet and starts sniffing in the same direction. I tense for a moment, scan the shadows...

Czari comes out silently from among the trees. He steps into the light and lies down. I notice steam rising around him and laugh at the effect.

 
And...there is something is his mouth...something furry...

Fresh rabbit, anyone?

Until next time...enjoy nature! In whatever way best suits you... ;)

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 :)

It Bites!!!! 

You may be wondering about the trial of raising such a dog as the beautiful, majestic Carpathian Shepherd dog. Having already discussed some benefits, such as it comes fully house trained :), I feel it is only fair to impart some...trials, as well...here we go:

And the Teething starts...NOW!

The little cutie-pie above...aka Czari...aka Monster-Pyranha... bites... a LOT!

Let me define "a lot": from the moment it arrives, at around 3 months of age, until the moment it matures in size, around 1 year, it will bite EVERYTHING!!

Monster-Pyranha vs Poor defenseless tree

"Everything" includes but is not limited to: your hands, your toes (say NO for these right away, it hurts considerably more then the hands!), your hair, your ears, nose, clothes, shoes, car seat-belts (replaced those, managed to bite straight threw them in a few minutes), any other pets you may have, wood (anything made of wood), toys...well you get it, basically anything he CAN put his teeth on...he WILL! This does not stop until the teeth are fully grown. As said teeth are quite big, it does take...a while. You may notice his head is very warm during this period (approx. 9 months), and that once in a while he whines for no reason while attempting to destroy anything is sight. Do not worry. That's just the teeth talking. It does help to give ice to chew :))).

*** Please note: While a lot of modern breeds tend to stay away from biting the face, this one, in my experience, has no such mental barriers. If your nose is within chewing range, it WILL be chewed! Also note, such an injury is difficult to explain to colleagues...SO, keep nose at a safe distance!

The poor soul above was the recipient of many such "love bites". While another poor soul, below, didn't quite succeed in keeping the face at a safe distance... though, please note, he did miss the nose! :D
Zuzi (fur-ball in picture below)...Well, her wounds were mostly psychological :P

 

Of course there were many more such love bites...this was just the first month :D

Why did we allow ourselves to be thus chewed mercilessly by Mr. Pyranha? --> "Soft-Mouth".

In short you do NOT, under any circumstances want this dog to grow up not knowing how hard he can bite before causing damage. It is as I mentioned previously, a very strong animal, so it is crucial that he is taught and imprinted as much as possible with the idea of how much he can bite before other things start yelping, or in our case saying "OUCH!!!". This is a crucial part of socialization and must never be skipped. This is a guard dog after all. Telling it simply "no" will only ensure that if it so happens it does need to protect you, it will end up doing far more damage then necessary. And I have noticed that he only uses the least amount of force necessary when trying to defend you...provided he knows what that IS!

And on that note...what happens if you and your Carpathian Shepherd dog, meet a pack of coyotes intent on not leaving you alone? Well...that's a story for next time ;)

Until then... :)

It was my fault you see, I had just washed him...

The stories of old...

The stories of old still live in the Carpathian mountains. You know the stories...the ones of vicious beasts, cunning and blood thirsty...the wild boars, the bears, the roaming wolf packs... The ones that seem legends now...or nightmares of a bygone age.

Such as the story of the old woman who lived in the woods and the bear...

She lived alone in a cottage in the woods. She knew the forests and the area well, having lived there most of her life. If was a simple life. Raising animals, tending to them, planting in her garden. She lived alone, all the family having long since gone off to make a life for themselves elsewhere. But like most people she was content in her humble life. She took great care of her home. It was obvious that the little cottage was warm and homey always. The villagers living down in the valley would come up and visit her once in a while. Especially recently, as a logging company had just cleared up a path leading right past her home so it was easier to walk up. This visit up to the old woman's cottage was random like any other. In was around sunset as most other visits. When the visitors arrived at the little cottage however they were surprised to see that the old woman was nowhere in sight and all the lights were off... They called for her but no one answered...They entered the cottage and found her hiding in a corner behind the door...eyes filled with panic and fear.

A bear had come by earlier, she saw it come up from the window. He lumbered up to the cows and with the force of one paw snapped the animals spine so it could no longer move or run. It did not kill the animal though...it simply started eating it. The screams of the cow resonated for at least half an hour...though the woman believed they didn't stop for hours. She barricaded herself in the cottage and waited for it to end.

The visitors were not surprised, after all she had no dogs for protection...and the animals from the Carpathian mountains, which make up the largest virgin forest left in Europe...they are not shy. They have lived alongside people for hundreds of years...they learned many things...

After a cup of tea to steady her nerves...they advised her to get some dogs.

Surprise!!!

Czari was not what you would call a "planned" addition to the family...we had no previous intention of getting another dog, let alone a large dog, of this breed, at the time.

However, once in a while life takes an unexpected turn. We came into contact, quite by accident, with a breeder of Carpathian dogs from Romania. We were intrigued. For starters there were the stories...dogs that fight with bears and wolves on a daily basis, yet still remain sweet and loyal to humans. Truthfully, we assumed it was mostly tales and peoples' imaginations. The dogs looked quite common at first glance.

Then there was the possibility that this particular puppy may not find a good home. While most Carpathians have a greyish coat, some have black and white. Although accepted in the breed standard, the color is not the most popular choice among buyers. By the time we found this out, some members of the family had already gotten attached to this puppy...the rest were shown pics...

Sooo...we simply couldn't let him go! Especially while knowing he may not make it due to something as banal as coat color...(He has grown into a perfect specimen. Our faith was definitely rewarded!). We had already raised Zuzi succesfully...what's one more anyway?

First difference between Czari and Zuzi that we noticed... the Carpathian Shepherd mother took the whole litter off into the forest for 3 days and didn't come back...turns out, she was teaching them to hunt.

Second difference: Czari, did NOT soil his cage on the flight from Romania to Canada...that would be 9 uninterrupted hours of flight time!

And that was just the beginning... :)