What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

[Nettle]

Given that children never listen to their parents, may I suggest that you find some baby-with-dogs sensible advice on the Internet so that he doesn't do the 'Aw, it'll be all right' thing and leave dogs and baby together?

[Lotsaquestions]

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[ZaraD]

Awwwwwwwww look at that little face , all the snow is gone here , can't believe a few days ago we had thick snow now it's all gone.

[MPbandmom]

Good Idea Nettle. I trust Oldest's wife to be sensible about dog baby interactions and keep Oldest in line. They have an open floor plan in their living area though so will need something to combine with furniture to make a barrier to keep the dogs and baby separated when the baby is down on the floor. Thus my offer of the x-pens. No one trusts Sirius with baby, and while Sky loves little children, she tends to be overwhelming.

Thank you lotsaquestions. I used to tell my children that if I ever had a dog I would want a husky. Then I would say, but I don't want a dog because they have to be walked in all kinds of weather and I am not an all kinds of weather walking person. Well, I have now walked in all kinds of weather that I never imagined walking in, but I do have my wimp out point now that we have the yard fenced. I can do cold as long as it isn't windy. I also tend to avoid going out in the rain, but then so do the dogs these days.

Sky's best feature is her gorgeous blue eyes plus she has a great personality. We have come to an agreement on her pulling for the most part. For several years we did dry land mushing, but she is retired from that now.

Sirius is just as cute and spunky as can be. She may have some herding breed in her and has passed a herding instinct test. She likes to control the movement of the cat.

Merlin is cute. My two have a husky and pom sibling as fence friends around here. The only two dogs in yards that we have met that get along with my dogs and that my dogs also get along with.

[ZaraD]

Sampson s doing well, he's now starting to get a bit more energy and has been playing this morning with his favourite toy the squeak lion , don't know if it's just he feels better or if it's the bone broth doing its magic as he's been enjoying his bone broth , he'll be on that until he's happy enough to eat his solid food again.

[Lotsaquestions]

@MPbandmum A Pomsky? Oh my word, don't tempt me. The closest proper breed I've found to the Pomsky in size, looks and temperament is the Norweigen Buhund, but they are so rare in the UK!

@Zara that's great news!

[JudyN]

I've done my bit for the positive dog training movement this morning

We were walking up a narrow path, and a dog on lead was coming the other way. Then a spaniel belted past us, and the approaching dog went for it. The reactive-dog owner was very apologetic, and asked the spaniel's owner to check he was OK, which he was. I moved off the path into the bushes and gave J treats so she could pass us at a distance. She told her dog off at length, with a couple of smacks She said to me that her dog was normally fine, but on-lead, narrow path, spaniel doing a fly-by... So I told her J could be iffy in those circumstances, but he was much better now, and I'd found giving treats when we met other dogs had made a huge difference, whereas any sort of punishment just adds to a dog's anxieties about other dogs. She said she hadn't thought of using treats, and would try it.

Now, maybe she went away thinking 'Nosy interfering liberal do-gooder,' but I like to think not!

I'm sure a lot of the time people punish their dogs because they don't want others to think that they're ignoring or accepting the behaviour. But as people here will have noticed, I'm long past worrying about what anyone else thinks

[ZaraD]

Today has been a good day for Sampson he's enjoyed his broth and he's had a lovely walk at his pace and we didn't go far , then this evening he gave his raw food a try and he ate half and then had a rest and then after about 5mins went back and ate the rest so he's definitely making progress.

Same can't be said about me I'm really struggling on my diet on the candida diet your not allowed sugar at all not even fruit the past few days if been very weak, tired all the time and sleepy, my symptoms have all gone but I don't think my body likes the no sugar so I saw my GP today and she said my sugar levels are really low and that I need to eat some sugar like fruit, she said she doesn't agree with the diet as there's no evidence that natural sugar like fruit will feed the candida all we recommend is to cut out all processed food and sugars and just eat while foods and limit sugar so she said I would not eat bananas or grapes and other high sugar fruits but you should be fine with low sugar fruits like berries. She also said that as long as you also include probiotics and anti fungals you should be fine, she said low sugar fruits are fine, but it still makes you think but what about the diet were it states no sugar it makes it hard to know who to believe with all different info out there

[JudyN]

There's so many crackpot diets out there Zara, I'd go with what the doctors tell you, or information from the NHS or candida society (assuming there is one). You're going to get withdrawal symptoms if you suddenly cut sugar out of your diet though, so you can expect to feel rough at first and then the symptoms should ease. There's quite a lot about this on the internet, but be wary - some sites will tell you that once you've got through this, you'll feel so wonderful you could enter the next Olympics and cure world poverty. This is unlikely to be true

It'll probably take time to find the right balance for you, but you'll get there

[ZaraD]

There's so many crackpot diets out there Zara, I'd go with what the doctors tell you, or information from the NHS or candida society (assuming there is one). You're going to get withdrawal symptoms if you suddenly cut sugar out of your diet though, so you can expect to feel rough at first and then the symptoms should ease. There's quite a lot about this on the internet, but be wary - some sites will tell you that once you've got through this, you'll feel so wonderful you could enter the next Olympics and cure world poverty. This is unlikely to be true

It'll probably take time to find the right balance for you, but you'll get there

Thanks Judy I think it's 0 sugar that I find the hardest and there are other sites that say like my doctor to have low sugar fruits it's seems to be 50% say no sugar and 50% say limit sugar, some even say that having no sugar can make it worse , most my symptoms went away after a week, I had some blueberries today after seeing my doctor and I had an apple and I felt loads better and my symptoms did not come back.

[MPbandmom]

@MPbandmum A Pomsky? Oh my word, don't tempt me. The closest proper breed I've found to the Pomsky in size, looks and temperament is the Norweigen Buhund, but they are so rare in the UK!

Not a pomsky. Two dogs, a husky and a pom. The husky is out more ofte than the pom. Neither are out on a regular basis.

Interesting that you mention Buhund. We originally suspecred that Sirius was a Buhund based on internet searches for dogs of her appearance. We have met a semi local buhund and he is much more dainty boned than Sirius. I have not done her DNA, but these days think is she is anything other than "a dog" she might be cattledog/elkhound mix. She is large for a buhund, but small for an elkhound and obvioulsy not elkhound color.

When we went to a barn hunt and she saw an elkhound, she did a very definate double take.

Sky had us a bit worried last night. We think the cold got to her as she loves to ve outside. Then I took her for a walk of just over a mile. She hadn't been her usual pesky, what is taking you so long to get us ready and outside self, and walked more slowly and was limping quite a bit. I think she was cold and exhausted. For supper, she only ate the peanut butter coated supplements that we give her. It is a tumeric supplement and she won't eat them without slathering them in peanut butter. She woudln't touch her chicken thigh. She also wouldn't move off of the floor.

I eventually got her to stand long enough to help her onto the couch so she would be off of the cold floor and covered her up with a blanket. (we have a concrete slab as a foundation, and sometimes the floor feels like walking barefoot on a concrete sidewalk outside in the winter. We do have flooring over the concrete, but it doesn't provide much insulation.

When I went to bed last night, she was still on the couch. Sometime during the night she came upstairs and went to her crate. She seems to be okay today. She has goine outside a couple of times, but is not pestering me to take her for a walk. For breakfast, she ate the chicken thigh from last night, most of her usual breakfast, (I reduced the amount a little bit.) and then came inside after breakfast hoping to finish off Sirius' breakfast.

Several friends have sugested she is in pain, which I know is the case, I'm just not sure the best way to treat it. The vet has given anti inflammatories a couple of times, but they don't seem to make any noticable difference and they are really expensive. We give her Dasaquen with MSM and the Tumeric supplements on a daily basis.

On the vacation side, Oldest just posted video of baby crawling. This could give them more of a challenge keeping dogs and baby separated. The dogs are pretty good about not trying to go through barriers. Not sure about the baby.

[Lotsaquestions]

@MPbandmum Buhunds are gorgeous dogs, temperament to die for. I wish they weren't so rare over here, I worry about diversity of genepool. The inbreeding coefficients of alot of Nordic types in the UK is already too high, when I was looking for a German Spitz breeder I found 20% to be the norm!!

Today we met a dog that I just got bad, bad vibes from. If the dog is off lead, Merlin is happy to approach, and the owner looks competant and relaxed, I give the meeting the benefit of the doubt and try my best not to get tense at all. But today we came across a Shar Pei and I just instantly tensed up. Unfortunately I had nowhere to go to pass them a good distance away. Merlin did his ususal pre-flight checks, the owner was smiling and happy, both dogs off lead, but the Shar Pei went straight into stalk mode. Normally I don't mind this so long as Merlin doesn't, since a good chunk of collies / GSDs / Shelties do it to begin a game, a game Merlin loves. But this felt like 'hunt mode.'

Still the owner was smiling, Merlin was happy and started to approach. I thought me barrelling in there might add tension and start something, so they met. Everything about it was off. Merlin just stood there letting the dog sniff him and moved on, the Shar Pei acted like he'd never seen a dog before and was very in his face and tall and stiff. There was no happiness I could see. I think the woman noticed I was nervous with me sheepish 'is he alright?' question and put her Pei on a lead to take him away.

So is this normal with Shar Pei's? It was like all of its body language was wrong, but nothing came of it and Merlin, who avoids aggressive dogs like the plague, was pretty chill. After the encounter he just continued on like normal, whereas if he had a stressful time he would be hovering around my legs and fidgetting until he had his chicken or game of tug.

[JudyN]

I've seen a few encounters like that with Jasper and other dogs - my reading is usually that they both want to look dead 'ard but don't really want to have to prove it, so are figuring a way of separating without looking like a cissy... or possibly without turning and exposing a vulnerable part. I do call J away, but I tend to keep it low-key - more of a 'come along then' so as not to add any stress to the situation. Generally they sort themselves out without any snarks or fisticuffs.

J looked at his bed in my study today and whined at me - it's two old dog beds on top of each other, and the top one was all skewiff. I straightened it and he settled down, but it's very lumpy with no padding in some areas, and the underneath one is as flat as a pancake. Oh dear... I think I might have to wander over to the Orvis website again.... It's rather ironic that their official address is on Cheap Street

[Lotsaquestions]

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[ZaraD]

im on the train now on my way to crufts with Kera and my sister were staying in Birmingham so we can stay for all four days and we have tickets for best in show. cant wait to see the Euraiser , setters,Giant schnauzer im looking forward to talking to other giant owners. might not be on for a few days as i'll be to busy at crufts