What's Happening?

This has been a busy month with blizzards, Valentine's Day, a couple of important birthdays, Mango Minster and Westminster. I need to wrap up a few things and then I have a rant to share with you.

First a huge congratulations to Hickory and to all the people involved with this beautiful breed. She's a lovely dog and  showed well.

Of course, I have to acknowledge LadyBug. She has won more best in Show titles than any Portie in history and came the closest to winning the big one at Westminster. The entire PWD community is so proud of her. I can't describe the emotions I felt last night when she won the Working Group. I adore this breed and love to see them honored. But, at the same time I felt a sense of relief when we didn't win Best In Show. I've seen the damage a win like that can bring to a breed. Suddenly they're in the spotlight and lots of people who really don't understand the breed want to own one.

The breed can be damaged by overbreeding or poor breeding to fill the demand and good dogs can wind up in homes that aren't prepared for the demands of that particular breed and are then sent to shelters. Porties are wonderful dogs, but they are not easy dogs to live with. They have an energy level that is way above the average dog. They are working dogs who need to be busy and if not kept busy, they will find ways to fill their time that often are not acceptable. They need early training, but because they are very sensitive, they need a firm but gentle hand.

Because of size alone, I don't imagine people will be running out today to buy a Scottish Deerhound. I hope not and I wish the breed well.

Many of you have asked about Samba. I was disappointed when the blood work came back. There was no sign of infection, which means that she is experiencing a flare up of the MMM. We have doubled up on her Prednisone and already the pain has gone. She's feeling better, but a miserable side effect is that she has to pee frequently. For the past two nights she's been waking me every hour to go outside and pee. It makes for a poor night's sleep and I have to sneak a nap in each afternoon.

We're trying to help prevent another flare up in the future by addressing her diet. Dr B has been reading research papers on the immune system and together we're going to try an experiment. He feels that cutting way back on Omega 6 oils in her diet and drastically increasing Omega 3 oils will boost her system so that as we cut her Pred dosage, her body will fight off the disease. She's now eating a prescription diet that has almost no 6s and is high in Omega 3s.

Treats are a problem. He doesn't want her eating treats that have oils either, so we're making some substitutes. While the other dogs can still eat biscuits, Samba gets healthy treats such as baby carrots,

apple slices,

and sweet potatoes.

Later this week I plan to make fish stew for them to have with their dinner. I don't know yet how I'm making it, but I'll let you know what I use and how they like it.

Now, I have a rant. It seems like there have been a lot of them lately, doesn't it?

I feed my dogs yogurt at bedtime. Porties need a late night snack or they tend to vomit bile during the night. All my Porties have done this and long ago we discovered that yogurt at bedtime prevented this.

For years we've fed our dogs Yoplait Dora strawberry yogurt. They all like it, even the fussy ones like Monty and Tsar. It came in 4 ounce cups, six to a pack.

Last month we couldn't find any Dora yogurt in the grocery store. I bought some store brand strawberry yogurt and tried it that night. Unfortunately, there were pieces of strawberry in it and though I tried to be careful, I gave Tsar a spoonful that contained a piece of strawberry. He promptly spit it out and it landed on my shoe.

Back to the store, and there was Dora yogurt again, but there was a difference. Now they were 3 ounce ups, not 4 and there were only 4 cups to a pack, not six. That meant a pack contained half the yogurt and guess what... the price was the same. Now I ask you, is that fair?

Well, I refuse to play that game, so we made a switch to Trix yogurt, but they don't have strawberry flavor. I bought vanilla, cherry, wild berry and watermelon flavors. Tsar will eat vanilla and cherry. He may or may not eat berry, depending on his mood at the moment and he refuses watermelon. The Porties, who are much less discriminating eat them all happily.

There is one down side to this new yogurt. Look at the colors! While they might appeal to children, they stain white beards and clothes. My dogs can get sloppy when they eat from a spoon, so beware if you try this brand.

Rant over.