Beef jerky stuffed pig's hoof

What happened Dobie?  Why did your crate explode?

Oh I see, you were trying to pull the hoof treat out with the towel...

My bff gave him this new treat and Dobie LOVES it.  He can chew on the pig's hoof for 2 whole hours while I watch a movie.  No other object has kept his attention for this long.  Luckily, his big mouth is unable to get all the beef jerky from the tip of the hoof.  So he can only chew on the hoof and lick at the beef.  This treat has occupied him for 8 hours before he finished all the beef jerky inside.  Made by Rollover, it can be found at Petsmart.

Food intolerance

Dobie has been battling colitis for 2 months on and off. Each time at the vet, the fecal exams come back clear and the vet prescribes Metronidazole. Then they suggested de-worming just in case he has parasites. I didn’t want to put Dobie through more medication so I tried a week on a bland diet.

At first, Dobie got his Purina Pro Plan Salmon and Rice kibble 50/50 with plain white rice. His stools became smaller, but still soft. Finally, he got acclimated to eating rice, so all he got was plain rice. This is when I saw the change. He had good solid poops, no straining, and he was able to hold it again. This confirmed my suspicions that his problems were food related. Though I’m not sure what ingredients upset his tummy.

The vet prescribed him Hills i/d. He’s doing fine on it, however I’m not happy with the ingredients. The first five ingredients are corn, brewers rice, dried egg product, chicken by-product meal and corn gluten meal. I can understand that it is a bland diet for dogs with gastrointestinal problems, but I didn’t expect a prescription diet to include chicken by-product meal! Gross!

After a week of good stools on the Hills i/d, I went to Global Pet Foods to pick up some Acana kibble. Since he’s doing well on the chicken based food, I got him a small bag of Acana’s Chicken and Burbank Potato. I’m mixing in ½ cup Acana, ½ cup Hills with 1 cup rice for him now and so far so good. Time to cross fingers and continue increasing the amount of Acana in his meal. Doesn’t his dinner look delicious?

4 months - Little dog big bark

I am so proud of Dobie. His barks are usually quite high pitched when he’s hungry or wants attention. But now I know he’s just being a puppy around us. Yesterday, I heard a big-dog bark from his little puppy body for the first time.

It was 11pm, I had put him to bed in his crate and gone to bed myself. I didn’t know our friend was dropping by to pick up an xbox game. Usually Dobie is very excited and friendly when the doorbell rings because he expects us to welcome in more playmates. He must have known the situation was different since the lights were off and I was upstairs, because when the doorbell rang, he let out a series of protective big-dog barks.

I don’t know how he changed his voice, but the barks were menacingly loud with a low growl. He sounded genuinely frightening. Brandon and I ran downstairs to see what was wrong, and when we got there, he instantly quieted down and waited for us to see who was at the door. When we saw our friend, he sensed that there was no threat and went back to sleep. Even though Dobie was in his crate and couldn’t do anything if it was a break-in, he still warned the ‘intruder’ with his pretend big-dog voice to stay away from our house.

So when people say that dogs don’t have the instinct to protect their homes if they are crated on a regular basis, you can tell them that this is a complete myth. My 4 month old puppy had the good sense and courage to use his big voice. He doesn’t just see the crate as his home, he knows he’s part of the bigger home that Brandon and I belong in. I also learned that even though Dobie has accidents inside the house, chews carpet and wets his crate, he DOES see this as his home and feels the need to protect it. I am extremely proud of my little puppy for being a brave doggy. Good boy Dobie!

Dobie at 4 months of age... *wink*

Ear posting success!

Dobie’s ears have only been posted for 4 weeks and they are standing beautifully! The trick my breeder taught me is to post for at least 3 weeks using a cup first. Then switch to the post. The reason this 2-stage process works well is that the cup helps the base of the ear set. If the cartilage doesn’t harden in an upwards position, the ears won’t stand vertically, parallel to each other.

The methodology is to start by developing a good foundation (base of the ear), ignoring the fact that the cup causes pockets. Pockets are easily removed by stretching the ear up the post. I can testify that these pockets were removed after 1 week of posting. And now, Dobie’s ears stand perfectly. I also did not need to bridge the ears. Since he had pockets and the ears leaned too far inwards, I was happy to see that the posts pointed the ears outwards.

I noticed immediately when I switched to the post that due to his low ear setting, his posts did not stand vertically. They pointed at the 11 and 1 o'clock positions. Some people opt to use a bridge (piece of tape to join the posts) to pull the posts into the vertical position, but the ears could easily lean more to one side. The cup is much more stable, doesn't move around on the puppy's head and ensures that both ears grow straight upwards.

TOTAL POSTING TIME: 3 weeks using a cup + 1 week in posts

Here he is, just shy of 4 months, and I have not posted his ears for 3 weeks:

3 months old

They grow so fast it makes me sad. He still tries to climb on my lap, but he’s too big to curl up on top of my legs now. Dobie is adjusting to settling down on the floor beside me instead. He loves cuddling up for a movie, I think more so than playing fetch (a game he insists we play at least 3 times a day). When we’re playing ball and I sit down on the floor, he thinks it’s his cue to come sit in my lap.

Above: 9 weeks old  /  Below: 12 weeks old

When it comes to learning new commands, he’s awesome. Most definitely the smartest puppy I ever met. You would think that pottying in the crate would be a thing of the past by now, but he still has trouble holding it in the morning and when he feels anxiety in the crate. His natural waking time is around 6am. If I’m not downstairs by 6:15, I’m almost certain to find him crying in a puddle. Then when he sees me, he gets so excited he starts jumping and splashing the puddle to my horror, so all I can do is avoid eye contact with him, don’t say a word, and wait for him to calm down so I can clean him up. I have a feeling his bladder control is not as developed as it should be at 3 months. He only weighs 20 lbs, but the general guideline is that a 3 month old should be closer to 30 lbs. I’ll discuss this with our vet next week when he gets his 3rd set of puppy vaccines.

Here he is at 12 weeks of age, after 3 weeks of posting ears. I’m very pleased with how well his ears are standing after only 3 weeks with the cup. I started putting them in posts this week to straighten the tip of the ears and remove the pockets (which cause the ears to lean inwards).