Picking the eve of WW3 to start writing lighter, happy, puppy-based blogs might not be the best of timing but, in for a puppy, in for a few dozen pounds, it seems.
And pounds, they are accumulating. Gus is the size of a sheep! He has to be 34 pounds (we’ll weigh him today). Maybe more. (Official weigh-in just completed. OMG!!! Gus is 40 pounds! Daisy is 35!!!). Daisy is slimmer but a smidge taller. They are growing faster than the price of their food.
Weighing them is already a bit of a challenge now (Sal holding Gus today was a real challenge). Sal gets on the scale and we note her weight (she’s been getting lighter as the puppies work her hard all day) and then she steps on the scale again holding a wriggling, squirming, face-licking, crazy-puppy and I note the combined weight. Weight B subtracted from weight A yields the weight of the livestock.
They sound like livestock on the deck. Like Water Buffalo!
The last time I wrote about the puppies, they were very, very ‘puppy-ish’ but, over the last ten days or so, they have matured somewhat. They are almost housebroken now. No accidents inside anymore but I am not 100% confident yet. They are still just 16 weeks today.
They used to be reluctant to get on the boat and now they are willing – any show of enthusiasm will probably have to wait a while. But they go. They were very leery of the ocean but now they will play and splash up to their knees. That’s good. We kinda need them to like the water.
Sal had to do a hill-climb to check the stream-water the other day and I dropped them all at the beach. They cautiously followed Sal way up the stream and sniffed and stared at everything. But, when it was time to return, they were balancing on fallen logs, leaping in the stream, charging around and even led the way down to the beach. No more caution. No fear coming down. That little foreign exercise (to be inevitably repeated) became integrated into their lives pretty quick. They even re-boarded the boat by leaping in from the beach (not enthusiastically but they did it).
Sal really wants them to socialize. They have already had a couple of play-dates. Ruby Poodle came the other day for play-date #2 and was there yesterday for #3. She’s the tall brown one in the picture. Sal had taken ’em up for the food distribution day (when the water taxi comes in and the locals gather for their deliveries). And Hazel was also there. She’s the Golden Pyrenees/Retriever cross. Biggy Smalls (white one below) was also there. Everyone got along just fine altho Daisy tends to prefer a lap to a leaping. Gus, however, is right in there.
The timing for my writing happy, happy may be a bit off given the state of the world but it is good for us. We really needed a shot of puppy love to shake off our recent winters of discontent that we all faced for the last two or three years. I did, anyway. And Sal has reaffixed her perpetual smile/grin ever since they arrived (unless she is sleeping which is getting earlier and earlier each night). They have been good for us.
Our Off the Grid Home 
Nice.
Its been unusually cold this late winter.
I’m used to seeing a few warm/hot March days.
Nothing so far.
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Dog heaven OTG.
No cars.
No leash laws.
No need to pick and pack their poop in a park.
No dog catchers.
No dog license nazis.
No Karen’s yelling at you.
Heaven.
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All true. For the dogs and for us. Interesting fact: dogs fed a raw food diet poop and the poop disintegrates into compost almost immediately – one or two days. Do not pick it up and it disappears. Dogs fed industrial dog food poop out more rice, corn, wheat and ‘filler’ which sits around for weeks. Those white stools sitting like little bricks are cheap rice-filled foods and NOT good for the sidewalk or the dog.
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True, in the “civilised” world, there is almost no more room for dogs. There are almost no places left where our dog can just run free, without a leash and undisturbed, just following his nose. People always complaining about evry little thing, actually I am quite fed up with the civilised world….whats new 🙂
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Now, you see…that whiny, cry-baby attitude would normally be the behaviour of a small, spoiled brat. But NOT these days! Whinging and moaning now is a sign of mental health! Hell, if you are just a moaner and a whiner, you qualify as an OPTIMIST these days! So long as you are comforted by scotch, a good wife and a dog, you are fine. It’s when you start looking in the gun catalogues that we have to worry. Given your circumstance, you sound positively up-beat!
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haha, love this comment of yours! I have all the elements you mentioned (good wife, scotch and a dog)
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I’m still looking in the gun catalogues …
:0
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your promotion of raw diet is yours, my last dog, a lab lasted 16 years eating Presidents Choice lamb and rice and table scraps. he was only to a vet once (other than routine visits) after two dogs jumped him and ripped his eye lid. Sadie eats Sharkaire chicken and rice (high quality and she needs the extra fat as you know she is “on” nonstop) at 3 cups a day and table scraps. she is 68 lbs and poops about a foot per day,(its my job to make sure its off the trail). hers breaks down in about 4 days max so not so big a difference. Im so happy for us out here as there is no dog cops and so many smells to follow, but even in Comox Sadie needs a collar very seldom as there is the Northwoods in Comox a very large not quite official yet off leash area over 400 acres that we can explore, I use about 20 acres when there and there’s Airforce Beach about 1.25 x .5 miles (at low tide) sandy area that is at ease with enforcement and many dogs to meet, not so anywhere else I’m aware of.
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A friend of mine used to live in Port Hardy.
He was driving home late one night and watched as his neighbor’s dog was being walking into the woods by a pack of wolves.
The “missing dog” posters went up about a day later.
Keep the dog close in the bush.
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Yeah, the local wolf pack lure domesticated dogs into the woods using a bitch-in-heat as bait. Dog goes and never comes back. Fitting metaphor for life, don’t you think? The cougars out here are almost as bad (only because there are fewer of them). They just walk up to whatever they want and drag it off into the bush. Dog, kid, small adult……(no humans have actually been carried off but one kid was rescued just as the cougar had him by the head and was starting to drag him off. And one adult female was stalked so closely that she turned and ‘went nuts’ on the cougar. Between her and her dog all upset, the cougar wandered away. ) The bears are not an issue. Dogs chase ’em off. We and the pups are lucky – our topography is such that we are physically cut off from the main carnivores on the island. It is literally impossible for anything but a cougar and/or a mountain goat to get access to us. And, even they would be reluctant just for the extra effort.
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Hypocritically, I advocate for a raw food diet but do not fully practice it. In order to cover my bases, they get ‘good’ kibble in the morning and a piece of raw chicken or beef with veggies and a kibble-top up at night. As puppies, they also get a third ‘lunch-time’ meal and that is usually kibble with an egg or all-natural yogurt. All in all, each is eating about the equivalent of 6 cups of food a day. A lot! Apparently, according to the charts, they consume more as puppies than they will as adults. A ‘foot’ a day, you say? Oh, how they influence us, eh?
In an effort to train me last week, Sal advised, “You can always tell when they are gonna poop because their little anuses stick out.” In an effort to remain sane, I shrieked, “Who the hell is looking for that!?”
Training is gonna go slow, I think.
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the older they (you) get, the more difficult it is to train them (you). I’m afraid all energy might be lost on you…
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That’s what Sal says, “Who knew training four month old puppies would be so much easier than training you!?”
Mind you, she is saying that while I do the dishes, after having poured her wine and while I watch the dinner as it cooks. I think I have been too damn-well trained but, well, I am not 100% sure. Sal will have to tell me.
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