*After looking at these Lani pics I went and checked out her ear - its not red like it is in the pic. So I dunno what that is in the pic, but no worries. )
Lani is a pretty girl in the last shot, such a sweet soul! Do the pups like cottage cheese? We just froze cottage cheese in the kong and kitsune was obsessed with it. he stayed with it for an hour getting it all out!
The food thing: Its not too hard if you do some internet searching (for what is good and what is bad) and stick to the following 1. know thy dog (know what she can/can't handle or has issue with - like I can't give Tsuki cooked chicken and Hachi doesn't do cheese very well) 2. Feed smart - don't choose items with high or added sugar/salt. Watch for dyed food items or items with too many fillers, do size appropriate portions, etc. All human food in moderation.. For instance, I choose to buy natural no sugar added Peanut Butter instead of Skippy for the pups. I get organic non sweetened plain yogurt/cream cheese/cottage cheese instead of flavored stuff. I get Sardines and Mackerel that are canned only with water. You'll get there Katie, its a learning process!
Thanks! I'm sure I'll figure it out sooner or later. (hopefully sooner!) But I DO so appreciate all the info and tips from you all!!! This forum is JUST what I needed. I want Honey to be HAPPY and HEALTHY for MANY years to come!!!
I've yet to give Honey a Kong. But i DID give her some Bananas and she went BONKERS!!!!! LOVED THEM!!!!
The towel rubbing...are the shikas the only ones that do that? It's too cute [ & Ahi has such a lovely expression on her face, til near the end ] I wonder why they do it...?~
Awwww now I know I'll have to bring a towel with me when I come to kidnap an Anderson dog ;o)
Brandon - PJ's are the outfit of choice for me as well... mostly because I can't find anyone to hire me! (Apparantly I'm over-qualified to teach 3 year olds how to walk in a straight line, and I'm not as cool as the LA choreographers... )
Yes, the shikas are the only ones that rub on towels. Ahi gets so excited when you show her the dish towel, we have to keep it up high enough so she can't get it otherwise she will take it down while we are not here and have her way with it. They are so silly!
Bev - I have learned that each of our dogs have their own level of "flight/fight tolerance". Each has their own threshold and list of things that they consider to be "dangerous" and therefore they react differently to stimuli. So a lot of times one will find something very threatening and the others will not even be phased by it. Also, in the video, notice Ahi didn't make a sounds, she just took off - that leads me to believe she was driven more my prey instinct than territorial. Had she been driven by territorial instinct she would have given a warning bark and the others would have joined her as back up.
Ahi has the highest prey drive of all our dogs, so more than likely what she smelled/heard was a bird or rabbit.
Kona is more reactive to territorial stimuli than Ahi, so he would have reacted more aggressively towards a dog.
The Akita girls, on the other hand, would be more reactive towards people.
Hilo is more reactive towards things he doesn't understand [like cars, or hot air balloons] as well as dogs.
Does that make sense? It's rather interesting to me.
Brad: Very interesting how they all react differently...
We were in the off-leash dog park at and just after sunset one day this week. There were several other dogs (6-8 of various breeds, mixed and purebred) playing and interacting in various ways on top of the hill where the dogs and owners like to congregate for socialization time... To our surprise, we heard a whole chorus of coyote barks and yips and howls to the northwest of the off-leash area of the park, quite a distance away (ocassionally we have heard one yipping as darkness approaches, but this was definitely unusual). All the dogs stopped what they were doing, turned toward the noise and were in various stages of alert, several gave low warning barks, some advanced towards the noise, etc. Just at this time, they also saw a woman with two Scotties running on a trail inside the off-leash area off in the same northwest direction. Josephine, and most of the other dogs had been playing with the Scotties at some point earlier in the visit. In spite of that, it appeared that most if not all of the dogs then somehow associated the noise/threat of the coyotes with this woman and her dogs, because as she left the enclosure and went to her car a few of them gave chase including warning barks, etc. (but none went all the way to her). As she stretched by her car in the parking lot (visible from the hill, but outside the fence) several of the dogs (including Josephine) continued their alert stance, advancing behaviors, warning barks, etc. and were now totally focused on the threat posed by her and the Scotties (coyote song had stopped long before)!
I wished I had my movie camera for the whole episode! I did learn all these various dogs had that guarding instinct, for sure. I don't recall any one of them behaving like a wimp and seeking comfort from their owner!
The other funny thing--- this women and the Scotties seemed to be totally oblivious to all of this focus and attention, not to mention a total lack of reaction to the coyote chorus. Maybe they couldn't hear it at the level they were, since we were all on top of the hill, while she and the Scotties were below us? Anyway, not sure why, but that was intriguing too!
)
Comments
Whats the white stuff in the kong?
We use cream cheese in their kongs because the Akita don't like peanut butter very much - but they all love cheese.
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Do the pups like cottage cheese? We just froze cottage cheese in the kong and kitsune was obsessed with it. he stayed with it for an hour getting it all out!
The food thing:
Its not too hard if you do some internet searching (for what is good and what is bad) and stick to the following
1. know thy dog (know what she can/can't handle or has issue with - like I can't give Tsuki cooked chicken and Hachi doesn't do cheese very well)
2. Feed smart - don't choose items with high or added sugar/salt. Watch for dyed food items or items with too many fillers, do size appropriate portions, etc. All human food in moderation..
For instance, I choose to buy natural no sugar added Peanut Butter instead of Skippy for the pups. I get organic non sweetened plain yogurt/cream cheese/cottage cheese instead of flavored stuff. I get Sardines and Mackerel that are canned only with water.
You'll get there Katie, its a learning process!
I've yet to give Honey a Kong. But i DID give her some Bananas and she went BONKERS!!!!! LOVED THEM!!!!
Kona is such a handsome man, the angles of the pictures really compliment his head shape.
It's almost like that spark of mischief is gone from Ahi! haha too cute
I love Loa's shots when she's laying in the bushes. She always looks so sweet, but like she belongs in the wild. Cute!
Lani is such a pretty girl, there isn't a flaw anywhere on her
Thanks SO much for the spam Brad! We eat it up like candy
lol! No, Jessica, I was rock'n my PJs in those pics. It was like 8:30am. That's why I look kinda rough, I had just got out of bed and saw a photo-op.
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Poor gingerbread men. They're all happy and waving and don't realize what's to come.
your pups have a great environment to live in!
Ahi and Kona playing - then Ahi hears an animal on the other side of the firewood and freaks out...
Some more Shika towel rubbing...
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Kona & Ahi look like such a pretty couple
The towel rubbing...are the shikas the only ones that do that? It's too cute
Brandon - PJ's are the outfit of choice for me as well... mostly because I can't find anyone to hire me! (Apparantly I'm over-qualified to teach 3 year olds how to walk in a straight line, and I'm not as cool as the LA choreographers... )
Such a tiny towel for 2 addicted shika's!
Love the towel-rubbing --- very silly!
Ahi has the highest prey drive of all our dogs, so more than likely what she smelled/heard was a bird or rabbit.
Kona is more reactive to territorial stimuli than Ahi, so he would have reacted more aggressively towards a dog.
The Akita girls, on the other hand, would be more reactive towards people.
Hilo is more reactive towards things he doesn't understand [like cars, or hot air balloons] as well as dogs.
Does that make sense? It's rather interesting to me.
----
We were in the off-leash dog park at and just after sunset one day this week. There were several other dogs (6-8 of various breeds, mixed and purebred) playing and interacting in various ways on top of the hill where the dogs and owners like to congregate for socialization time... To our surprise, we heard a whole chorus of coyote barks and yips and howls to the northwest of the off-leash area of the park, quite a distance away (ocassionally we have heard one yipping as darkness approaches, but this was definitely unusual). All the dogs stopped what they were doing, turned toward the noise and were in various stages of alert, several gave low warning barks, some advanced towards the noise, etc. Just at this time, they also saw a woman with two Scotties running on a trail inside the off-leash area off in the same northwest direction. Josephine, and most of the other dogs had been playing with the Scotties at some point earlier in the visit. In spite of that, it appeared that most if not all of the dogs then somehow associated the noise/threat of the coyotes with this woman and her dogs, because as she left the enclosure and went to her car a few of them gave chase including warning barks, etc. (but none went all the way to her). As she stretched by her car in the parking lot (visible from the hill, but outside the fence) several of the dogs (including Josephine) continued their alert stance, advancing behaviors, warning barks, etc. and were now totally focused on the threat posed by her and the Scotties (coyote song had stopped long before)!
I wished I had my movie camera for the whole episode! I did learn all these various dogs had that guarding instinct, for sure. I don't recall any one of them behaving like a wimp and seeking comfort from their owner!
The other funny thing--- this women and the Scotties seemed to be totally oblivious to all of this focus and attention, not to mention a total lack of reaction to the coyote chorus. Maybe they couldn't hear it at the level they were, since we were all on top of the hill, while she and the Scotties were below us? Anyway, not sure why, but that was intriguing too!