Puppy Class 2: ADHD Danny

Introducing the Class of June '09. Ahem.

Coco, the red poodle: Danny's best buddy and partner in crime. Isn't she a sweetie?

Ally, the American Cocker Spaniel: She's the belle of the class with gorgeous fur and a personality to match.


Coffee, the Silky Terrier: The cutest lil' thing you ever saw. He's the smallest of the lot but he can hold his own just fine!

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And of course there's Danny, the Attention Deficit Hyperactive Dog.

Puppy class 2 went decidedly worse than the first. To begin with, Danny was late. By the time he arrived, all his classmates had already done one play session and were settled nicely on their owners' laps. Danny, on the other hand, was all geared up to play and refused to sit still.

He eventually got to play of course, and got more than he bargained for when, at the end of class, a 6-month-old Labradoodle named (what else?) Doodle came in. Danny started barking up a storm and I had to distract him with treats. And then even treats failed when Doodle barked back.

According to the trainer, it's just a sign that they want to play and not one of aggression.

When we let them all go for the final play session, Danny was the only one who dared to play with Doodle (he's 3 times Danny's size, 4 if you include the fur). Ally's owner says it's cool that he's so confident. The trainer calls him obnoxious.

Either way, I'm stuck with him.

Recharging before the next ruckus.

Ear progression

I've been meaning to blog about this for the longest time, and would have forgotten if it hadn't been for Gerry. If you've been following the Danny posts, you may have noticed something interesting about his ears.

Gerry certainly did. She recently commented that he looked different now and finally figured it was something to do with his ears.

When we first got him, his ears looked like this (ignore the mess, please):

One ear is bent forward, while the tip of the other is tilted back. I kept telling him to make up his mind about it. After a couple of weeks, I returned home to find him looking like this:

His right ear is still headed back, but his left one is completely upright. Personally I think that way they look rather disproportionate to his head. but all the better for hearing, right?

So I thought that he had decided on going straight (no pun intended). But then a week later, I reached home to find this:

Yes, I know he hasn't been groomed since he came back from the pet shop, but check it out: I've got a floppy-eared dog! First time in my life too!

My colleague, Shirley, has a 10-year-old schnauzer and she told me I'm quite lucky, cos that's the typical look of the breed. Her schnauzer's ears are completely erect. She even tried sticking blu-tack to his ears to weigh them down, but he just shook them off and sent bits of the blue stuff flying across the room.

Appearantly some people also try taping coins to the tips of the ears in an effort to get them to flop down. If all else fails and they're stuck with a straight-eared schnauzer, some owners take them to the vet to get their ears cropped to reduce the satelite-dish effect.

They already have their tails cropped, now the ears?!?

Ouch.

Puppy Class 1: Meet and Greet and Puppy Treats

When we got Danny, we decided that we would start him off on the right foot, and promptly signed him up for 4 sessions of puppy class with PuppyLove. We decided on a group class so he would meet other puppies and get some solid play time in.

Let's face it, we're pretty boring to play with. The moment he starts nipping or scratching, we go NO and walk off. It's happened so often he was beginning to think his name was Dannyno.

Anyway, he had his first official class on Saturday. He has 3 classmates: a cocker spaniel, a poodle and the smallest, cutest silky terrier.

It was the first time he has seen other dogs since his pet shop days but, according to the trainer, he still has good manners.

Step 1: Everybody sniff the front
"How y'all doing?"

Step 2: Everybody sniff the back

"Ooh! You had slippers for supper! Yum!"

Step 3: Run around and drive the humans crazy

The poodle's Coco, and she's Danny's best friend in class.

We also learnt how to get them to sit and teach them their names, or in Danny's case, unteach him his name. PuppyLove's methods all involve positive reinforcement which mean lots of treats. Danny like!

Actually Danny like a bit too much. Every other puppy was sitting patiently on their owner's lap waiting their turn to practice. But Danny was determined to sample every treat in the house. It took all I had to hold him steady, and it drove him absolutely mad when other dogs didn't get to their treat fast enough.

The worst was when Coco drop her treat right by my foot, and I refused to let him have it.

By the end of the session, Danny was pooped. It was first time he sat quietly anywhere. You wouldn't have known there was a dog around.

After 10 minutes in the car....

After 20 minutes...

ZZzzzz.....

One doggie bag coming right up!

Danny's packet of Science Diet ran out. I've been itching to try Orijen so I decided that even though their puppy chow contains chicken, I'd get a bag. However, the only one they had at the store was the BIG one.

I needn't have worried. Turns out Danny loves Orijen. Can you tell?

Psst...don't tell SPCA, but aren't you just itching to shove the whole dog in?

"Don't mess with me and my puppy chow!"

Hmm...maybe I can get Orijen to sponsor him. Anyone know their marketing guys?

Ode to a Fat Black Dog

I was digging through some files when I found this poem I drafted some time ago about Chassard. It really happened.

Angie had a big fat dog

His fur was as black as coal

And everywhere the black dog went

Chaos was sure to go.

She took him to the park one day

When it was bright and sunny

He dove into a flowering bush

And came out looking funny.

They walked home past a petrol kiosk

The pump guys started laughing

"What happened to your dog?" one asked

Where should she begin telling?

When they reached home she took a brush

And brushed him till he shone

And then she said, "If you try that again,

You'll wish you were never born."

"Erm...sorry?"

The fishing expedition

Danny likes to chase anything small that moves. Balls, birds, fingers, toes are all fair game.

He's also one curious little bugger. Everyday when Rhoda makes her rounds about the garden, he'll tag along. It's hard to predict where he'll be, so this often means he gets watered along with the plants.

One morning though, he peeked over a small ledge, discovered the garden's tiny pond and spotted it's even tinier goldfish. They move about in a clumsy fashion which allows light to shine off them as they half waddle half swim.

It was a dream come true.

It only took a second for his brain to process before he leapt off the ledge and got an unexpected mouthful of water. Rhoda eventually found him mournfully treading water and fished him out.

Needless to say, the goldfish darted off and Danny got nothing for his trouble except a load of wet fur and his first swimming lesson.

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.

Dog eats better than me (food followup)

A couple of weeks back I was still deliberating about what to feed Danny. Honestly, I have never given so much thought to my own diet. Just about everything that goes in is what I feel like eating at the time.

Case in point: I woke up one morning and spent the next 10 minutes opening and closing the fridge door in the hope that something inspiring would magically appear. Then the light blub went off. I made a beeline to a bag of Rufffles (cheddar and sour cream) and downed half the pack. Breakfast solved!

The same went for ice cream on a seperate morning. But my argument has always been that it's part of a complete breakfast (even though it doesn't say so on the box). Look, it contains milk, carbs and plenty of liquid (in solid form). And if you're lucky, it'll even have nuts (protein and fiber). How brilliant is that?!

Anyway, back to Danny. My concern was to make sure he was getting all the nutrition I wasn't. After hunting about a bit more, I decided to try out Orijen. Remember the BARF diet? Well, Orijen's formula follows the diet very closely, so much so that it states BARK (Biologically Appropriate Real-Food Kibble) on the packaging.

Enquiries at a pet store revealed that Orijen doesn't use any grain or corn as fillers, resulting in kibble that doesn't give off tiny crumbs. The only problem I could find with the brand is that some people feel that it contains too much protein for the dog.

The problem with too much protein? It can cause the pee to smell and some people believe it may result in kidney problems in the future. The other school of thought, however, is that it's not the quantity but the quality of the protein that causes problems.

Either way, I've decided to give it a go. The tricky thing about him is that mini schnauzers are generally prone to skin problems. According to the vet, dogs with skin problems shouldn't eat dog food that contains chicken, and Orijen's puppy food does.

My solution is to start off on Science Diet puppy chow. It's one of the very few designed-for-puppies kibble that doesn't contain chicken. Once he hit's adulthood, I'll start him on Orijen fish.

He eats anything including my mom's plants so I'm pretty sure he'll like it. Even if he doesn't, one thing's for sure - he'll be healthier than I am.

The envionmentally friendly dog

This is our recycling box. Everything plastic, metal and paper gets cleaned up and tossed in here for collection on Mondays. (The wire mesh behind is courtesy of Danny.)

Danny's into recycling too - although he doesn't quite know it. Since he discovered it a week ago, it's been his magic toy box. Whenever he's bored, he will pop over and whatever looks fun is his next toy-of-the-hour. It never disappoints.

Danny with a vitamin bottle. That's my dad's foot, by the way. He pats Danny like that when he doesn't want to get his hands dirty.

Danny still going at the bottle. Next to him is an ex-yoghurt pot he dragged out 10 minutes earlier.

His most recent discovery is a small metal tin that's driving me nuts. He gets big kick out of dropping it down the stairs and watching it crash and bang it's way down before picking it up and starting over.

Still, he IS saving me money on toys. Plus his collection time is twice a day. How's that for saving the earth!

When Gerry and Jane came to play

Last weekend, Danny had his first visitors ever. Jane just came back from Shanghai and so Gerry proposed to meet up at my place and see Danny.

(Note: No one comes to my house to see me.)

Happy Jane! (cos got curry puff)

Happy Gerry! (cos I said photo would go on blog. haha! kidding!)

Gerry came with hubby. My only evidence of that is the corner of his sleeve on the left side of the photo. But he's there. Really.

She also brought a pressie that Danny just loves. Which was a good thing too. Once he got hold of it, he stopped chewing Gerry...for 20 minutes, that is. Poor Gerry.

Yes, Danny is into his teething phase now. He's 4 months now and will be changing his teeth over the next 2 months so we're stocking up on toys. He's was chewy when he first came but now he's really going for it.

After two accidents on the floor (where does it all come from???) and numerous attempts at knawing appendages and clothes, I finally chucked him back into his "room" so we could have some peace.

I have another two sets of friends who have been asking to see Danny and who insist they want to see him as a puppy. One will be coming all the way from Clementi later this month.

I hope she knows what she's in for.

Toilet training: Danny - 37, Owner - 2

Toilet training is ... not going so well.

We've had Danny for about a month now and he only pees on the newspaper when he is in his room. Once he's out, only poo goes on the paper, the other one? Well, it's a free-for-all.

Today was a classic example. In an attempt to confine him a bit more, mom tethered him to the railing and placed some paper in a corner right under him.

I went into the house to get something and when I came out, he had made a special effort to walk off the paper and take a leak on the floor.

I took the paper and spread it out so that it covered the radius of his leash. However, he was engrossed in a toy so I left one square foot uncovered.

I went back in again and I'm sure you can guess what happened.

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Yep, that's right. He peed right in that tiny spot and left the newspapers pristine clean. So cliche, right?

But that's not the end. Our friend decided he was tired (and maybe a little hot) and proceeded to lie down right in his own puddle! *Faints*

AND WHEN HE SAW ME, HE JUMPED UP AND PUT HIS PAWS RIGHT ON MY WHITE T-SHIRT! *FAINTS*

All my yells of "NOOOOOOOO!" just made him decide he really wanted to jump on me.

Anyway, normally if he steps in his pee, I just do a wet wipe on him. But this time, his whole underside was drenched. So I had to take the one with no sense of personal hygiene down for another bath. He just had one yesterday.

Rhoda likes Danny. So when she heard I was going to bathe him, she wanted in on the action. She held him while I took pics.

"Not again...Why me?"

"Is that a camera?"

"Yay! It's over!"

All things considered, I must say he's one better than Trakker, who thought the whole house was a toilet. Traks especially liked the fresh scent of the morning paper. By the time it got to us at breakfast, however, it wasn't quite so fresh any more.

Maybe I should be thankful Danny doesn't do it on the paper.

S. N. A. D.

Oooh! What's this?

Pretty, no?

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It's Danny's new collar!

(Top view)Here he is sitting on hubby's lap. He likes to do that. And yes, I know hubby has no exercise fashion sense...

(Side view)

...But Danny does! Doesn't he look handsome? *adoring smile*

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Eh? What's that? Why did I put a pink collar on a boy dog?

Oei! I'll have you know that it takes a real dog to wear pink! Besides, he's a sensitive new age dog and TOTALLY in touch with his feminine side, okay? So there! Humph!

(P.S. The owner likes pink so he has no choice.)

(P.P.S. Hubby says taking him for a walk like that will emasculate him, but he doesn't have a choice either. Hah!)

Things I didn't know: Food

A large part of my life has been spent as a dog owner. It all began when 8-year-old me brought home a puppy from my friend's place. She was a yelpy silky terrier and I changed her name about 10 times in the course of her life. When she was Sheila (or was it Suzie?) she gave birth to two puppies, one of whom mated with a fellow neighbourhood silky to produce Trakker. Two years after Traks passed on, came Chassard.

My point? You'd think that after all this time, I'd be a walking encyclopedia on everything dog. Truth is, I'm nowhere close.

To me responsible dog ownership is making sure he's fed, bathed and brought to the vet when necessary. When everyone else was talking about how much effort it takes to be responsible, I nodded my head gravely and wondered what the heck they were talking about.

With Danny, I decided I should do a bit of research...

...I wish I didn't. I'll start with food, shall I?


The BARF Diet

Have you ever heard of BARF? Yes? No? Well, it stands for Biologically Appropriate Raw Food. It's based on the theory that dogs eat raw meat and bones in the wild, hence that is the best way to get all their necessary nutrients. Appearantly dogs on the BARF diet are happy, healthy and free of the usual doggie ailments.

Sounds easy to do? Just get some cheap leftovers from the market and chuck them straight into the food bowl, right?

Haha. It involves a combination of meat, bones, fruits, vegetables, offal (aka spare parts) and other supplements, all mixed in the correct proportions. Specifically, it needs about 60% to 80% of raw meaty bones, such as chicken necks and wings, and 20% to 40% of the rest.

As organs like liver and kidney clear toxins from the body, some people opt for organic offal to minimise the toxins for canine consumption. Others also grind up the meat and bones in a meat grinder to prevent their dogs from chipping their teeth. And where do you get a meat grinder? Why you buy one of course!

There's also an assortment of other stuff like eggs, vitamin E, alfalfa and cod liver oil which supplement the diet.

If you're barfing at the BARF diet, you're not alone. I thought about all the cheeseburgers, goreng pisangs and pizzas that I eat, and frankly, if I put Danny on this, he'll be eating a lot better than I am.

Thus, I decided I'll go back to good ol' kibble (aka dry dog food).


Kibble

Kibble is what we fed Chassard. That's just about all he got. One bowl of Science Diet in the evening and one egg in the morning.

I thought of returning to that with Danny when I opened my big mouth at a pet shop. The staff were very friendly and helpful but I left with more info than I bargained for.

Ahem. Science Diet is generally considered a good brand, although it has its detractors. Chassard was all happy sappy with it and was actually getting fat, so I don't have issues with it. For dogs with skin problems, it's best to avoid the chicken version. However, the only alternative is lamb which results in smelly poop.

The brand some vets and pet shops are plugging now is Fish 4 Dogs. It's appearantly very good for dogs with sensitive skin as it is fish based and hence minimises the chance of allergies. The problem? Your dog gets fish-breath, which, as the pet shop peeps happily pointed out, I can buy a seperate pack of chews which function like breath mints. Yeah, right.

Then, upon a net search, I found people recommending Wellness, Canidae and Orijen. I was told to look for labels like "holistic" and food which does not contain corn, which dogs can't digest. Why is it in the recipe? Well, corn is used as a filler to bulk up the food.

I was also warned against vitamin K or menadione which is a controversial man-made vitamin. It helps stop or control bleeding but also weakens the immune system and induces allegic reactions among others.

So what's a girl to do?

Danny was on a mixed diet of dry and canned food. That's what he was getting at the pet shop. Unfortunately schnauzers come with a built-in beard and we have to wipe his mouth after each meal thanks to the wet food. Fun for him, cos he thinks it's a game; not for us, cos he was getting puppy breath.

Fortunately his canned food ran out. Being the efficient, responsible owner that I am, I failed to replace it. Now, he's left with his dry food (and his breath's perfect). It's ANF though, which contains the dubious vitamin K.

I don't know that to do when that runs out. I'll let you know.

For the record: Things dogs can't eat
Chocolate, garlic, onions, grapes, raisins, cooked bones, tomatoes and dairy products.