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.

One Tough Cookie

The Nawny that I know is a soft and gentle girl that doesn't have a mean bone in her body. This was the case until we met another dog that was mean for no reason. Locked in his yard, growling and barking like he had to prove something as we walked by. I stayed in front and guided her along as she followed behind, when this black dog lunged into the fence at me, a big ball of teeth, black fur and loud barking. It was a tall fence so I wasn't phased, but Nawny, perhaps feeling threatened or feeling that he was threatening me, went into a rage with a hoarse growl and bark, throwing her 65lb frame at the dog with no fear whatsoever. I was shocked! I gently pulled her back and called for her to come along, still amazed that my gentle girl had it in her. She however gave me the look, like "no worries bub, I've got you covered."

I couldn't help but smile all the rest of the way home. :)

Bing Crosby

We've been hitting a wall with Nawny's progress on separation anxiety and we felt that she did better when we left her out of her crate. Yes, the last time she smashed our cupcakes and a bag of chips the proceeded to leave a puddle of very smelly urine and a pile of poo in our living room. In her defense, that was her first time being left alone, and she hadn't gone to the bathroom for over 24 hours due to stress and nerves. This time we took her on a nice long walk and made sure she did her dirty deeds before leaving her.

Apparently she has a thing for shoe shopping. While we were out Nawny was able to pull out some baskets in which we had stored my shoes and my slippers for the house. It was probably my scent that was comforting because all she did was bring them over to the couch and drop em, so it doesn't seem like she wanted to chew them.

Also, it appears we have a crooner in our midst! A regular Bing Crosby or Frank Sinatra if you ask me. In our taping her behavior we found a new development about an hour in. To express her loneliness she decided to express her feelings through song. Here's a taste of the vocal stylings of Nawny...Enjoy!

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head..

With the rain going on 3 days straight Nawny's walks are limited to whenever the rain lets up. This usually means me peeking outside to see if there is a break, and if there is indeed a pause in the rain, I rush to get on Nawny's blue balloon booties (more on this later) and try to go for as long a walk as weather permits while making sure she goes to the bathroom. I'll have to admit she's got one heck of a bladder, not because I won't let her go, but just because the stubborn girl will literally hold it for no apparent reason sometimes. Lately I have to admit she's been better, but for some reason when it's raining she will stop when stop and lazily look around not sniffing not even a chance of looking like she will go. So that is how it goes... me standing there in a hooded rain jacket holding an umbrella over Nawny... who is wearing blue booties... raindrops fallin' on our heads.

Back to the blue booties. I was always the guy who thought dog shoes to be ridiculous, and yes I am now one of those owners who puts shoes on their dogs, but only when it rains! So the story is, her labby paws are webbed and trap a lot of dirt, water, mud, grass, gravel, sand, small children, you name it. Even if I wipe her paws off with a towel she still tracks in a lotta stuff all over the floor and carpet. I didn't think she would like the actual dog shoes, too bulky. So i got these blue disposable/reusable Pawz booties that are literally balloons that have a wider opening.

UPDATE... in the middle of writing this entry, we got that break in the rain. So we went through our rushed routine and snapped a quick shot of the booties. We went on our walk and Nawny decided that she wanted to be stubborn and hold it this time. So 10 minutes into our walk a block away from home the break in the rain is gone. Gone in like 2 split seconds gone. Gone as in POURING rain gone. Gone as in we are now stuck under a tree in a HAIL STORM gone. So like an respectable owner I crouch and hold the umbrella over her. We crouch there like a sorry pair, in the shadow of a large tree huddled under a umbrella that is way too small hoping it passes in a few minutes. No such luck... it gets worse. MUCH worse the trickle in the gutter that was running by just a few minutes ago... now a small stream, soon to be a urban river. Ok maybe I dramatize but you get my point... someone just dumped a pool on us. Nawny and I decide to make a run for it, after all it's less than a block away. BAD IDEA. I would post a pathetic picture of said wet Lab and owner but she's freezing cold and i'm soaking wet. Time to change and blow dry this wet doggy till she passes out in a warm ball of fur puddled in my lap.

BOOOOM!

So what do we have in store for Nawny on her first day alone while we are off to work and school you ask? Why thunderstorms of course!

The Labrador gods must be testing us because why oh why are we having the worst set of storms since 05 happen the first week that she has to be alone? Luckily my brother came to the rescue and stayed with her for half the day. Big ups Jeff you are free to raid the fridge as payment.

So all the fuss yesterday seemed like distant memories today. She did ok even with Jeff around. Something funny that both Jeff and I noticed is when Nawny goes into deep sleep and has her doggie dreams, she tends to have either nightmares or some intense dreams. It happened last night and it happened to Jeff today.

It starts with snoring... cute right? But wait there's more, slowly it becomes a twitch of the lip, a few more twitches of the lip, and then a growl, and even a slight baring of the teeth and a snarl! A SNARL! This coming from the most gentle dog I've ever met. Shocking I know, whoever or whatever got her so angry, scared, or confused must have deserved it. Gentle giant with a tough girl alter ego?

The quirks and surprises keep on coming, and finding them out day by day makes me smile from ear to ear.

Worrisome Parents

Today had to have been the toughest day so far. This morning, we continued to try to get her used to being by herself. I got up early to walk her but she didn't care to go to the bathroom in the rain, so she would stand out there in the rain with me avoiding the grass looking at me with the "I want to go home eyes." I finally gave in after about 10-15 minutes when she wouldn't go. She had not gone to the bathroom for over 24 hours so i knew she had to go.

We left her for a little over an hour out of her crate because she usually does better and won't bark the entire time we're gone. We put the trashcan in the bathroom as our Missy our family rep said and cleared the coffee table and the counters. Well almost cleared the counters. Deep in the corner was a box of cupcakes and an unopened bag of chips. We came home to a the cupcake box smashed and torn in the kitchen the bag of chips now a bag of crushed bag of chips, a big pile of poo in the living room and a big yellow puddle.

I wasn't mad at all because it was all our mistakes.... we shouldn't have let the food out and we knew she had to go at some point. I was more relieved that she didn't have some kind of a bladder infection. I was however worried sick because of the cupcakes. There was no chocolate flavor, but there may have been chocolate frosting... I can't recall.

We spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up the house due to new dog, some doggie accidents and just overall dirty floors from the rain. We kept Nawny in the her crate and she slept for the most part while we cleaned. Around dinner time we wanted to test her again, and we used technology to help us in training. Annie went out to run some errands while i setup the laptop downstairs to video chat with the other laptop upstairs. This way I could see what she was doing and say something and Nawny would hear me downstairs through the laptop speakers. Just as expected, I was hiding out upstairs and the minute Annie left Nawny clawed at her mat and crate. She stopped immediately with a puzzled look when my voice came across the video chat speakers..."Nawny be good!"

She looked around puzzled for 5 minutes and then settled down whining. Every 10 minutes or so she would whine or bark, and the "wizard of oz behind the curtain" would come across "Be a good girl Nawny..." After about an hour Annie came home and I sneaked back downstairs. She actually ate dinner right away tonight, right when we put it out so she must have been starving and worked up an appetite after being so nervous when we were gone.

After dinner my brother brought our beagle Guiness over to visit. Nawny was initially quite excited and her hair actually bristled a bit as she went near Guiness. Guiness being the big chicken he is ran and hid behind us. After a few minutes they were tolerating each other and figuring out each others boundaries. Not BFF's yet but not bad for a first encounter.

My brother left with Guiness, and Annie had to leave back to her apartment for school this week. This was when i started to panic... at first Nawny seemed down because everyone left, but she took her nap, and when I called her up to go to bed. She stopped at the stairwell and SPLASH, she threw up a small puddle of liquid and kibble.

Immediately my mind was racing... "oh no what if she has chocolate poisoning, what did i do to this dog???" After some water and a little coughing and slight gagging she seemed ok again, and is calling it a night. I hope she's ok... in just 3 days this girl has my heart in knots worrying that she'll be ok.

Cruising

Nawny does great in car rides... as you can see here she's one cool dog when hanging in out in the backseat rolling down the boulevard.

On another note, crate training trial #2 when alone... unsuccessful. Barked up a storm for 20 minutes and tried to dig her way through the crate to China.

Busted!

So first whole day at the condo for Nawny today and for the most part it was uneventful. She seems to still be a bit drowsy from having been knocked out for her teeth cleaning two days ago and spent the majority of the day sleeping and resting. She did however get quite a few nice walks in through the day.

The most interesting part of the day had to have been the continuation of training her to be alone without freaking out. We tried to do short stints by leaving her to go get the mail, or leaving her to go run an errand or two. For the most part she handled it well but she did bite off a piece of the blinds on our door.

We decided to do some covert ops and spy on her when we were out. So Annie and I setup our macbooks to record opposites of the house with the webcams. Sneaky, yes we know. We left her for ten minutes and came back to review the tapes and the results... well you can see for yourself. HA! She was good for the most part, mostly moseyed around whining a bit about being alone. Nawny figured the best way to fix this was to go where she wasn't allowed. Where is that? Well the most comfortable place downstairs... the couch of course! But before doing that perhaps to retaliate being left alone she felt it best to survey the apartment from a high point of view, simply standing half on the couch and half on the coffee table. She decided that after a minute that she got a good enough a perspective and settled in to nap away on the chaise. BUSTED!

(the webcam isn't the greatest camera)

We're still working with her on getting used to her crate, but no matter how inviting or how hard we try to convince her it's a safe place she seems to prefer to lie on the rug which is closer to where we are. We hope that she gets past this separation anxiety before we have to return to work and school next week, but realize practice makes perfect!

Welcome home!

Day 1

Today Nawny calls our home, her new and forever home. Annie and I couldn't wait for her arrival and had not slept well for the past two days. We both rushed home an hour early, while staring at the clock as the second hand ticked by counting down till 3pm when she would arrive.

But first here's the story of how Nawny came to be...

Annie and I had recently moved to Pasadena and decided that we wanted to add a new member to our family by adopting a dog. I was heart set on a Labrador and talked Annie into the idea that they would make a great pet, cuz they do! We had signed up with SCLRR and instantly were amazed at how great the organization was. They were very meticulous and all the people who volunteered are some of the most kind-hearted people I have ever met. My kind of dog people!

After searching for a few months and meeting a few dogs, we just hadn't found the perfect fit for us. Then one day we stumbled upon a 4 year old male Lab at the Pasadena Humane Society. Dexter (what we decided to name him even though he wasn't ours to name) was a energetic, happy, bundle of joy. We put our names on the list to adopt him and had a 24 hour hold on him. Little did we know that we would find the perfect Lab for us on SCLRR when we got home.

Nawny's bio seemed perfect in every way. She had all the great qualities that came with an older dog. Gentle, mature, loving, trained and incredibly obedient. We were completely torn! Here we were already having convinced ourselves that Dexter was to be our new dog, and then here comes Nawny shattering our confidence. We had to contact our family rep Missy at SCLRR. And here is where fate takes hold... Missy our family rep turned out to be Nawny's foster Mom! She immediately made time to for us to meet Nawny the next day so we could make a decision between her and Dexter.

Upon meeting Nawny, within 5 minutes we were convinced. She was everything we wanted and more. Her warm loving eyes and gentle demeanor won our hearts. Nawneroni!

Nawny spent the first day going to Petsmart and My Pet Garden to pick up everything she needed. She rode great in the car, sitting next to Annie in the back seat. She still isn't used to her new home, and didn't enjoy being left in her crate when we left to pick up dinner, but is slowly figuring out that her loving family is going no where. By the time we got home, she was so exhausted she took a bite of her food and fell asleep on the floor!

She slept great in the bedroom the whole night without getting up once... must have been a long day! Here's a picture of her first night with us. And so this begins the Chronicles of Labrador Anawnymous...