Little Watch Dogs

Kyuubi and Mika are little watch dogs. =) They constantly perch themselves at the end of the couch and stare out through the blinds, watching what's going on outside. Sometimes they take turns and sometimes they watch together.

They like to be the first to know when someone is approaching the front door. The duo make it known when someone is out there. They also start to look outside to see what's going on if there is a lot of noise they aren't used to hearing in their everyday lives. I will admit though, it does get a bit tiring when they are constantly alerting us that there is someone or something outside, especially on the weekends when kids are out and about playing. They are finally getting used to the sound of children running around, screaming and playing. Little kids screaming in a high pitch tend to make the pups a bit alert. =)


Disclaimer: I have never trained my dogs to be any type of watch dog, they do this on their own. A watch dog does not mean that they are a guard dog. There is a difference between a watch dog and a guard dog. Brad Anderson blogged about the difference between a guard dog and watchdog. It can be read here. 

watching together

Ostrich Tail

I finally opened the box of ostrich tails that I purchased from Creston Valley Meats. The tails are in a big ziplock bag with about 7 pieces of ostrich tail in it. Right when I opened the bag the pups came running into the kitchen sniffing out the new raw item on their menu. Needless to say they were excited and trying to jump all over me trying to figure out what I'm attempting to take out of the bag. I carefully took one out, probably with a look of disgust on my face, something about tails didn't sit right with me, but I knew the ostrich tail would make a great RMB for the pups. Sucked it up and put it on the cutting board to snap a picture of the pup's treat that evening. I mean, how often do dogs get to eat an ostrich tail? The first piece I grabbed is one of the smaller pieces in the bag. It is about 1 1/2 inches in width (at the widest part of the tail) and about 4 inches in length. A pretty decent size and definitely not a choking hazard. Even though I have been feeding raw for quite some time now, each time I give them something new I am a bit cautious, especially when it is a bone item. I wan to make sure they are able to gnaw and chew on the bone without hurting themselves. I usually do not have a problem with Mika since she chews her food and doesn't swallow or gulp down her food (unless she gets a boneless meal). Kyuubi, on the other hand, will try to swallow things sometimes so I have to be careful with him. I was glad the pieces were big enough that I did not have to worry so much about him trying to gulp the entire tail.

First pup to try the ostrich tail was Kyuubi. I laid their raw towel out on the patio and put the ostrich tail down on it. He immediately jumped onto the towel and sniffed out the ostrich tail. A few licks and then he started to try to chew the meat off the bone. He doesn't like using his paws so it was a bit difficult for him to rip the meat off the bone. He slowly started to chew the bone with the meat attached. He was happy when I came up and held the ostrich tail for him to chew on. He had the most satisfied look on his face while crunching away at the tail. He got a good chunk of the bone off and so I rotated the tail to a meatier side so he could get some of the meat. He ripped off pieces of the meat with his teeth and it helped a little since I was tugging on it a bit when he was getting a grip on the meat. Since this was a new item I did not let him eat very much of it. I wanted to make sure he would digest the tail perfectly fine before feeding him an entire tail as a bone-in meal. He did just fine with the ostrich tail and will probably get it later on this week as an evening meal. The tail is quite boney and I would most need to give him an organ meal in the morning before hand.

Now it's Mika's turn. I figured she would do just fine with the ostrich tail since she's been on a raw diet for almost a year now. She does what she usually does when she gets a RMB. She sits excitedly waiting for me to put it down for her. After putting it down and giving her the "ok" to go for it, she slowly walks up to it, sniffing the ostrich tail. Slowly, she starts to lick it, trying to figure out if she really wants to snack on it. She also doesn't like to use her paws on RMBs so after a while I come save the day again and hold the ostrich tail for her. She immediately opens her mouth and gets the tail in between her molars. She knows exactly what to do when wanting and needing to crunch up bone pieces. I felt more comfortable with her eating the tail than I did when Kyuubi was eating it. She chews the bones thoroughly before swallowing it. Mika has always been good about eating bones and has never thrown up any of the RMBs she's eaten. After a while I remove the ostrich tail and put it back into it's ziplock bag with the other tails. Unfortunately, Mika scared me a bit after eating the ostrich tail. She was hacking a bit 30 minutes after eating some of it. This is the first time she has showed signs of wanting and needing to throw up after having something bone-in.

Kyuubi's rating of the ostrich tail? Best RMB he's had to date! He is tired of the boring chicken cuts and the pork neck.

 Mika's rating of the ostrich tail? Loved it, but probably won't be having it very often. I will try it again with her to see if she can handle it better than she did the other night.



As for me, I will probably purchase ostrich tails again when I run out. Kyuubi did very well with them. It's also another protein that they get that is different from the normal cuts that I can easily get at the supermarket. Oh, another plus? It's only $.60/lb. Yeah, I'll definitely be getting these again in the future!

Sandy Paws

Last Sunday I took the pups with me to have a mini meetup with Corina, Jesse, Joey and their pups. It was almost a farewell meetup for Shuran who will be placed for a month with another family to see how he does. If everything goes well he will be placed with them as a co-op home to Corina's breeding program. It was very last minute as we had no idea where we were going to meetup at until an hour before.

I had never taken the dogs to the dog beach before so I wasn't sure what to expect since it is not closed off. Kyuubi did very well off leash. Except for the part of jumping all over people who were trying to tan. Oh well, maybe that will let people know that they shouldn't be laying out in the sun at the dog area for the beach. Kyuubi went off for a bit on his own and came back to find us. I was proud of him, but at the same time I think I was having some anxiety wondering if he would make his way back. We did keep an eye on him from a distance.

Around 10 weeks old Kyuubi tried to jump into a little river flowing through the complex where Kevin's mom lives. He did get wet, and seemed to want to keep going in the water. However, at the beach, he was terrified of the water. Someone had mention it might be because that the water was actually coming towards him and he might not have liked that. Mika, too was afraid of the water, but ended up getting wet because she wanted to dig in the wet sand and chase other dogs who were fetching balls out of the ocean.

The pups had fun and got to hang out with their buddies. I want to continue taking them to the dog beach, but I can do without the sand, so I think we'll just stick to dog parks for now.

Videos from the Dog Beach

Sharing is Caring

When we first brought Kyuubi home, Mika wasn't too sure about him. The first time I ever heard her growl was when the second day he was home with us and I heard Mika let out a growl! He had gotten near her OLD trachea chew that she refused to eat for 2 months. It was sitting in an old dog bed where we kept a lot of her toys at the time. We had forgotten it was there because well, she barely ever touched it. She suddenly wanted it though when Kyuubi showed a bit of interest in it. After that we made sure that we would keep them separated while they have chews or are fed. That didn't last long though because Mika would let Kyuubi take anything he wanted from her. She realized he was there to stay after the third day and didn't care anymore that he wanted to take her toy or her chew. She just went on to something else.

Kyuubi on the other hand resource guarded almost everything from Mika. Even while being fed in his crate he would bark at Mika if she even glimpsed over at him. He was kibble fed for probably the first two weeks or so when we got him then we switched him over to a raw diet. While being fed kibble in the beginning he would continuously guard it from Mika. After he started getting some raw, he no longer cared if she was near his crate while he had kibble. For a while he wouldn't eat his kibble anymore and just wanted raw. Mika would go over to his bowl and eat and he would go back to his bowl of kibble and they would eat it together.

Now, I won't say that Kyuubi no longer resource guards against Mika because he does sometimes. I still feed them separately, but if it's kibble (if I forget to defrost something) it would just be down in the kitchen and he will usually eat and if Mika wants to snack on some he has no problems sharing with her. When he's being fed a chicken wing though that's a whole different story. He's fed in his crate and he will still bark at Mika if she walks by him. He doesn't resource guard against antlers, bully sticks or other chews.

Here's a cute video of them together sharing an antler. Kyuubi though, doesn't really want it, he more so is messing around and annoying Mika. She lets out a whine at him that I find cute!

Happy Belated Gotcha Day!

So I am a day late to this, as I was busy yesterday and was not able to post about it!

It's been one year since I brought little Mika home! As it turns out it is also my birthday. Yes we picked her up on my birthday last year! It was not planned that way either. She was supposed to arrive a few days before, but I wasn't able to get her until the weekend started. She is the best unplanned birthday gift I could have received!

starting to come out of her crate

I remember trying to look into the crate after picking her up at the airport. She was so afraid and didn't want to come out of the crate. We decided to leave her in there while we drove home. When we got home we opened the crate and she just stood in the back. Wanting her to get more comfortable we opened the top of the crate so she could see her new surroundings. She started slowly coming out to sniff us. Still a bit timid, but she did warmed up quickly.

It's been an amazing experience living with her for the past year and I hope every year with her just gets better.

For her Gotcha Day, we decided to go to the local shiba meetup that was scheduled in our area. She had a blast running around and playing with other dogs at the dog park. After all the running and wrestling she did she was wiped out when she got home. It was a fun filled doggy day for her!

Beef Trim

One protein Mika is on quite frequently is beef. She's had beef shanks and ground beef. Lately, her beef has been the beef trim offered by Creston Valley Meats. Beef trim varies between different suppliers and butchers. I am very pleased with the beef trim I have received from Simon. Mika also adores the beef trim. Kyuubi will be getting some in the next few weeks. I will be adding bits of beef trim to his meals to get him used to a different protein. He's been eating chicken for the past few weeks and I think he's ready to add in another protein.

This box had 3 bags of beef trim

The beef trim comes in boxes ranging from 10 - 20 lbs. The beef trim that I get from Simon is very lean, sometimes having tendons attached to it and has the silver skin covering of muscles. The beef trim is from spare parts after aging the beef for human consumption. The rest that are not approved for human consumption is put together for pets. Since the beef is aged, when thawed it doesn't give off much water content. What I love most about the beef trim is that it has already been cut up, which make it very easy to portion and pull apart when thawed. The only con I have experienced so far with the beef trim is that it does give off an odd odor, possibly because it was aged.

Overall, I am very happy with the beef trim from Simon and will continue to purchase it from him. It is probably one of my favorite products I have gotten from him.

Isn't messy compared to other products

Picture Story

I apologize for the brightness, it was a very sunny day!

Creston Valley Meats

Finally getting a freezer chest has allowed me to have the luxury of buying in bulk from Creston Valley Meats. I got word about Simon and his processing plant through the Dogster - Raw Food Diet forum. I asked where people were getting their meats from in the OC area and one member responded with a few places and one being Creston Valley.

Simon makes biweekly trips in CA. One week to Northern California and the other to Southern California. He has various stops throughout CA, so we place our orders and let him know which drop off location we would like to pick up at. Simon also uses twitter to tweet his locations so people who are waiting for him know exactly which current drop off location he is heading to and the estimated arrival time to said destination. He also has someone helping him who calls all the clients to let them know they will be at their said drop off location at said time. He has a $5.00 flat rate charge for delivery to said location. It doesn't matter how much you buy, the delivery/shipping charges is always $5.00, therefore buying in bulk would be ideal. Before having the freezer chest I didn't want to make any purchases because it just wasn't worth it to me if I couldn't get what I wanted or be able to fit it in the freezer. Every order made is at least 10 lbs and I just did not have the room to fit 10 lbs worth of meat at a time. So going to the grocery store weekly and sometimes even a few times a week was normal until I finally got the freezer chest.

The first time I looked at Simon's site I was heaven! I envied all the people who were able to feed their dogs more than just the regular cuts that anyone can get from the grocery store. The different organs offered that I couldn't find at the local market, great prices, and most of all the green tripe made Simon my main supplier for dog food. Of course I have to try to stomach the smell of a lot of these products because it is for pet consumption, not human consumption, so the smell can be a bit overwhelming and hard to handle than the smell of regular raw meat. Plus, tripe isn't supposed to smell good anyway!

If you currently live in CA and do raw feed your dog(s), you should definitely consider using Simon as a supplier, he has great prices and has different meats and organs just for your furry friend. Believe me, Kyuubi and Mika are in love with the variety they are able to get and plus I don't end up breaking my bank raw feeding two dogs.

Protection Shiba

Mika has been coming into the office with me for a while now, and she knows everyone that works there, since there isn't many of us in the office. However, she still gets worked up when she hears someone entering the building that she does not know. She usually never barks at Amy who works in the front office when she comes into my office to talk to me. Or if she does bark she calms down once Amy starts talking to her. Now that I have Kyuubi in the office with me as well, Mika does not stop barking at Amy when she comes into "our" office.

Making sure no one gets near Kyuubi

It's cute that she is protecting and guarding him from people other than myself and Kevin, but also annoying when I'm on the phone with a customer and she goes off full blast barking. Well, she is the big sister and I guess she has to take care of her little brother when the parents are a bit busy with work.

Happy Birthday Mika!

Wow! She is a year old! Time sure does fly! I cannot believe my little shiba pup is going to be an adult now! So what are the plans for her birthday? I was going to throw her a doggy party, but the time just isn't right. With the expo coming up this weekend, I will be too busy to plan anything for her. However, she will be having a fun filled time at Wags & Wiggles daycare.

There has been ups and downs with her, but she has taught me so much in the past 10 months that I've had her. Mika was my first dog on my own that was not a family dog. She triggered something inside of me, a passion I never thought I had before, and I just want to continue learning so that I can better educate myself in order to do good by her and any other pet that comes into my life. Thank you little Mika for helping me discover a new me.

Mika 10 weeks

Mika few weeks short of 1 year

Doggy See, Doggy Do

One of the best things about adding a puppy into a family where there is already a well mannered dog is that the new pup will pickup on good manners from the already established dog in the household. Well, it's the total opposite!

Kyuubi is very easy to direct. If he's chewing on something he isn't supposed to and there is a toy near him all I have to do is make the sound "ah, ah, ah", he stops what he's doing and goes after the toy or if there isn't a toy nearby I bring one to him and he forgets about whatever he is chewing on and goes for the toy.

Taking my dogs with me everywhere I go, I always have a bag full of their toys, treats, poo bags, etc. so little Kyuubi thinks it's okay to chew on the bag that has his goodies in it. Mika did see him chew on the bag, and she also saw me redirect him to an appropriate thing to chew on. Then an hour later when I put Kyuubi down for a nap, I find Mika chewing on the bag now! Something she's never done before. Oh well, doggy see, doggy do.

First Storm

Sunday night going into Monday morning was the worst experience I have ever had with Mika. It was pouring at night and there was a thunder storm. It didn't really hit until about 4 o'clock in the morning. I woke to a little bit of rumble, but it was nothing dramatic... yet. A loud boom went off, followed by distant roars of thunder and flashes of lightning. Car alarms went off, my bedroom shook and Mika startled from her sweet puppy dreams jumped up and started barking.

She wasn't going to go back to sleep. No way, not after that. I tried to soothe her to let her know that everything would be okay. She jumped off the bed and started patrolling the room, pacing back and forth. After a few minutes I no longer heard her walking around the bedroom. I called out to her and didn't get a response. I sit up and turn on the light on my nightstand, looking around the room for her while my eyes adjust to the light. On the floor, laying next to two blankets and a pillow, she was trembling. The storm was still relentless and Mika never experiencing a storm before had no idea what was going on, all she could do was lay there and let her body shake involuntarily. I got up out of bed, picked her up and put her back on the bed, she curled up next to me and I kept petting her until she fell asleep.

This isn't a very clear picture since it was taken from my phone in the middle of the night, but here she is before I brought her back onto the bed.

How do you doggy parents deal with things such as thunder storms when your beloved pet is scared?

Pinecone Addiction

Somehow Mika has developed an addiction for pinecones. I think it all started at the Nihon Ken Long Beach Meetup. There she saw Ichigo, fellow Shiba Inu, chew on a pinecone and Kurenai, Shikoku Ken, also chew on a pinecone. Before that meetup she would walk by pinecones everyday and never stopped to think about picking it up.

Since the meetup, whenever she sees a pinecone she has to grab it and trot around with it in her mouth. I really need to get a video of her when she's walking proudly with a pinecone in her mouth. It is the cutest thing ever.

Found a pinecone on our walk

Anyone else with dogs that love to carry something in their mouth while they are on their walks?

Weekend at the Dog Parks

We usually only take Mika to the dog park once a week. If there isn't a LA/OC Shiba Inu Meetup going on, then we will usually take Mika to Fullerton Pooch  Park on Sundays to meet Shaina and Ari. However, Mika got a treat! Kevin took her to Irvine's Central Bark Saturday morning, and we also took her to see Shaina and Ari on Sunday at Fullerton Pooch Park.

Mika still acts like a puppy and still has the energy of a puppy. I'm not sure if she will ever grow out of her puppiness, but I don't really want her to either! I love that she is so social and loves to be around other dogs. The down fall is that she doesn't realize when a dog is telling her to back off! I always have to try to redirect her to another dog or pull her attention away. Nope, she is relentless, if she has her eyes set on a certain dog that she wants to play with, she doesn't care! She will jump up on owners if they are holding their dog cause their dog is afraid of Mika (who could ever be afraid of her?). I've tried letting her get snapped at by other dogs so she can start to learn the body language of other dogs, but she still doesn't get it. I'm really afraid for her sometime, so I always have to watch her to make sure when the other dog has had enough and physically pick up Mika and give her a little break before putting her down again. That usually will break her focus on a dog and let her roam around til she finds another playmate.

Here are two videos from each dog park this past weekend. The first one is from Central Bark. Sorry for the ending, I was a bit too lazy to edit it  :) The second video is at Pooch Park and you also get a glimpse of Ari in the video. The owner of the dog Mika is playing with, didn't really like the way they were playing. Not sure why the owner felt uncomfortable. I personally think she played wonderfully with the other dog.

Doggy Daycare

Yes! There is such a thing as Doggy Daycare! Doggy Daycare is awesome, not only is someone watching your dog for you while you are not there, they get to socialize with other dogs, and play all day long! A dog playing for hours on end equals a tired dog at home! A tired dog means a non-destructive dog, which makes owners happy!

This was Mika's second time at Wags & Wiggles Daycare. The first time she went to daycare was when Kevin and I went to my nieces, Elise & Chloe's Birthday at Disneyland. We weren't able to watch her on the Doggy Cameras (yes they have live feed of the daycare!) on our phones, so we were always curious what she did at daycare. We've taken her to dog parks and after a while she just hangs out and walks around the park, but she is never at the dog park for more than 2 hours. She was at daycare for at least 8 hours so we were hoping there wouldn't be any separation anxiety, which we doubt she would have anyway since she loves other dogs.

So why the second time? I was going to be in Corona all day and I didn't want to leave Mika home alone, even though she has proven that she is trustworthy to be left alone. We had a free pass for daycare from Mika's graduation from Obedience Level 1, so we figured we might as well use it for today. Kevin dropped her off on his way to work and I logged on to watch her on the doggy camera before I left to Corona. Throughout the day we were watching the doggy camera to see how Mika did. She had a lot of fun playing and wrestling with other dogs. Embarrassing moment for us though is when we saw her jump up on two different daycare attendants. Apparently one of the attendants was holding onto another dog, a dog that Mika wanted to play with. So she jumped up to try to play with the dog. Ah, geez I'm just glad she isn't a 100 lb dog where that would be very dangerous, but it's still a bad habit. I'll need to work harder on training her not to jump when she wants something.

Overall Mika had a great time at daycare, she was able to let out all that energy that little shibas have! Right when she got home she passed out, she woke up to eat dinner, but not the entire thing. That is a sign that she is really tired! This girl is very food motivated and loves to eat, and her not finishing her dinner is shocking!

Here are some screenshots Kevin took of Mika at daycare from the doggy camera.

Rendezvousing~

Where's Mika? :P

Here are some pictures of the aftermath of daycare!

all curled up

still snoozin'

cuddling with her snugga wubba