Immobilized!

So in addition to the blood tests for the suspected allergies, we also wanted to keep Nawny from any further biting.  She hates the "cone of silence" and usually stands facing a corner for minutes on end unsure what to do until we call her over.  Then she has the look of "I hate my life" in her eyes, so we looked for an alternative, and I must say the contraption is pretty darn effective.  Think of a neck brace for humans, but for dogs. HA!  It is called a bite-not collar and really does the trick, especially if your dog is like Nawny and doesn't like her field of vision blocked off with blinders.  It prevents the dog from reaching back or down to bite on her body which causes hot spots and missing patches of fur and hair.  There's also a strap that goes around her torso so that she can't slip it off over her head.  Might ingenious, bite-not team!

Itchy and Scratchy

Well you've seen the shedding and the hairballs that result from it, but when is shedding too much?  We're concerned now that this may be the perfect storm: shedding an overly thick winter coat, food allergies, and seasonal allergies.  At first we just figured, ok that time of year and she was always an outdoor dog till now, so she has a lot to shed right?  Then we noticed Nawny started to bite and scratch a lot, and we took her to see the vet.  It was dismissed as seasonal allergies maybe pollen or grass, especially since we had changed her diet to Orijen a high protein grain free diet.  Usually grains are a good cause of allergies in dogs when part of a staple diet.  So we tried Benadryl... no luck.  In fact we're convinced she may even be scratching more after... albeit groggy and drowsy, but still itchy.  So after trying to stop her when we catch it and tired of her sad looks speaking to us "i know I'm not supposed to but it's itchy..." we are finally doing what we should have done to begin with...  Full allergy blood work.  Nawny goes to get her blood drawn tomorrow... really hope it's not food allergies, as we have a whole lotta Orijen we're gonna be donating.  I know... stupid, we should have tested before we bought a ton. Bugger...

Cheetah Spots

I always thought only chows had spots on their tongue, but the first time Nawny yawned I learned I was wrong. She has these spots on her tongue shaped like a flower. If we ever lose her in a field of yellow labs, we'll always know which one she is because of her flower-spotted tongue. In fact her identifying tongue has helped us once already, when we took her to the groomers. Although I'm sure the groomer would have figured out which dog was which, the spots did the trick. See spot, see spot run. See Nawny, see spotted tongue.

Hairball!

So apparently Labs shed a good deal, but two times a year, when the seasons change, showers of fur fall out every time they are touched. We thought we had found an exception to the rule because Nawny did not shed AT ALL during the winter. We basked in the false pretense that we found the only Lab in the world that did not shed. HA! Naive, yes I now realize the sad truth.

It turns out we did not find the only non shedding Lab in the world... as a matter of fact far from it. It seems lately I have been vacuuming every other day, hunting down little tumbleweeds of fur blowing into corners of my once pristine condo. My hoover windtunnel series vacuum (with pet hair removal brush tool, yes this is my plug for hoover) has served me well and I have definitely gotten my moneys worth in only the 5 months that I have owned it. I emptied the bagless canister today and unloaded a hairball the size two small chihuahuas. TWO, yes TWO, small chihuahuas. I will spare you the picture because it is rather gross.

However, after her bath today, which I may add is quite tiring in a condo bath tub , I collected a wet ball of dog hair/fur the size of a softball. This is wet... compacted... hair, imagine if this were fluffed out and collected... seriously I think it would have easily filled 2 plastic grocery bags. Perhaps there is profit to be made by collecting the softer down of a dogs coat and using it as fill for pillows... hmm? Anyhow here is a picture of said hairball with Annie's fist as a reference to the hairball. Thank goodness for hair catchers... imagine calling the plumber to remove that mess. Yuck.

Pearly Whites!

Nawny is not your typical Lab. For one she does not retrieve and instead looks at you with a look of, "yea... nice throw, what do you want?" Two, she isn't very mouthy and does not have too many toys she plays with. Her one exception is her nylabone, which she still hardly chews. So with the interest of dental hygiene in mind we wanted to find some chew toys or chew treats that would help her clean her teeth along with her brushing during the week. (she hates having her teeth brushed)

The solution: Zukes Z. Ridge dental chew bones! She loves Zukes treats with glucosamine and chondritin that she gets when she takes her vitamins everyday so we thought we'd give the dental chews a shot. Well whether or not her teeth are cleaner is yet to be decided, but one things for sure, she did chew the heck out of it. One moment we she took the bone ten minutes later we found her sleeping on a pile of chewed Zukes bits. The bones are completely edible so we were not afraid of her eating a few pieces, but she did leave us a nice little mess for us to clean.

Verdict: Cleaner teeth? who knows. Fresher breath? slightly. Ten minutes of chewing satisfaction? Definitely. Fan of Zukes Z Ridge dental chews? to be determined...

Before...


After...

Princess Naw-ny-dala

(title for all you star wars geeks)

After an overzealous Furminator session, Nawny's skin was a little irritated. She kept biting herself to the point where her skin was getting red and scabbing. We tried giving her some Benadryl, which didn't help her itchiness but just resulted in her knocking out faster than usual. Her vet recommended bathing her more often, so we dropped her off at My Pet Garden for her first pampering session to get a soothing oatmeal bath. Dropping her off was like dropping off your kid on the first day of school! I was so worried that she would be scared because she does not like the blow dryer. Four hours later, here is what I found. She was not so happy about being dressed up, but seemed no worse for wear after going under the blowdryer for an hour. Big dogs aren't normally given the frou-frou treatment and I couldn't help but smile at her get-up.

A look back

Hard to believe that the Nawners has been with us for almost a month now. The time has flown by and it seems like it was ages ago when she was still acting up with the separation anxiety and Mary-Kate Olsen eating disorders. She's now happily settled in used to our daily routines and eating like a Lab should. OK maybe not quite like a Lab but at least eating regularly and willingly. Hey we even got her to switch to the high protein diet Orijen dog food, cost a pretty penny but awesome kibble from our Canuck brothers of the North. Gone are the days of a mouthful of kibble on the ground!

Here's a picture to remember those days gone by. (one of my fav's i might add)

The Things We Do...

The things we do for the dogs we love.


I used to love the rain. USED to LOVE the rain. Not anymore. Ever since we got Nawny, I now dread the rain because although she will willingly go with me for a walk in the rain, she doesn't seem to enjoy it much. I thought Labs were water dogs? Maybe that only means water in a lake, river, pool, or even ocean and not so much water falling out of the sky. With another few days of rain Nawny has decided to go back to her, 'see-how-long-i-can-hold-it' bathroom routine. So this leads to me anxiously looking out the window looking for a break in the rain to rush and grab my rain jacket, umbrella, put on her blue booties and run outside and hope she does her business before the next torrent starts. Even with me rushing around, the minute we get outside Nawny just trots along until she wanders on a patch of grass as I let out a sigh, "finally!" But no, she stops looks around in the rain and stands there. Still standing... and still standing... standing on this pristine unsoiled patch of green wet grass. To make this scene all the more comical, I am standing there in the rain holding the umbrella over her to keep her as dry as I can while raindrops plip and plop on my hood.

Rain, rain go away come back on another day... Stupid rain.


***UPDATE*** the video links on blogger suck, so I embedded youtube links on the videos in the past posts. Check them out if you never got to see them :)

outdoor adventurin

Nawny has really started to settle in and become slightly more active in the past few days, yes ever so slight because she is still the lowest energy lab I've ever met. Then again who wouldn't be after having 20-30 puppies? Well we've started taking her to the dog park so she can enjoy some sunshine, green grass and the company of other dogs. She still rides great in the car as you can see, we even got a shot of in the middle of lickin' her chops. At the park she's still fairly shy not quite sure how to play and maybe a bit too gentle for the rowdy ones that are screaming by like rockets honed in on a tennis ball. Either way, she has a good time; her tail is wagging and she sniffs politely like a true lady and by the time we get home she's about ready for another 2 hour nap. Oh how it's good to be Nawny... but then again she's earned it. :)

Rub a Dub Dub Lab in a Tub!

Bath time! With a week of rain last week and a few trips to the dog park this week, we felt Nawny was past due for her first bath. Not sure how happy she was to be in a tub even with all the love that Labs usually have for water. Overall she was pretty easy and it was a very pleasant dog wash all things considered, but then again she's pretty easy going about everything. (except eating) The one thing she chose not to do was shake off all the water while still in the tub, and thought it best to spray the bathroom with beads of water all over. Needless to say we had the nice aroma of wet dog for the rest of the afternoon.