Just When You Think Things are Figured Out They're Not

Yesterday I posted that we'd be taking back the puppy we recently fostered. This morning I called the person who would be returning the puppy to remind her to bring the health certificate she received when she took him in. She mentioned that she was going to call me. She decided to keep him. She said that she found someone to watch the puppy while she was away and if she had to hire a dog walker she'd do that as well. She wants to see if she can make things work.

So now we're back to the original plan of taking in Shelly, Sue/Stu's mom this evening.

The Boy Named Sue becomes the Boy Named Stu

I received a call this afternoon from the person who adopted Sue. She decided that she doesn't have the time to take care of a puppy and wants to do what's best for the dog so that he has a better life.

Sue is also known as Stu now so that people don't think he's a girl. Apparently Vicky was getting phone calls from people thinking that he was a girl even though his Petfinder profile states that he's a male.

We'll be picking up Stu tomorrow evening. Originally we were going to take in Shelly the beagle, Stu's mom but with the return of the puppy we'll be taking him instead.

This is the first dog we've fostered who has been adopted and then returned. Well, Sally was returned but that was after eight months or so. An older couple adopted her and found out that they were allergic. They tried for months to make it work since they really loved Sally but in the end they had to return her. So I don't count that as a "real" return. ;)

I knew that eventually one of "our" dogs would be returned. I'm happy that it took until dog 26 and 15 months for it to happen for the first time.

The Boy Named Sue Found a Home

This morning I worked on an application for Sue. He was adopted this afternoon! His new owner is a med student at University of Michigan. She comes "home" to Grand Rapids every weekend. Her parents adopted a dog from Vicky a couple of years ago. So it's cool to get some repeat business so to speak.

Before we went to the adoption meeting we took pictures of us with Sue and tired him out. The first part of the ride he cried in the carrier but he eventually settled down and went to sleep.

Meet Sue!

Although we were planning on waiting until sometime next week to foster again, we picked up Sue this morning. He (he's named Sue after the Johnny Cash song) is the last of his litter to be adopted and rather than be left all alone we took him in. Since he's a puppy it shouldn't take too long for him to get adopted.

We picked him up at the farm where he had been staying. We've been told that he's a stinker. I guess one of the girls in the litter was alpha but when she was adopted Sue decided that he should fill that role. People would come to look at him and end up taking another puppy in the litter because he was being mean to his brothers and sisters.

We knew that he'd get the idea that he's not alpha dog with Beacon around. And so far Beacon has been putting the smack down whenever he feels Sue is misbehaving. Sue immediately submits and tries to lick Beacon's chin, which is a sign of submission.

So far he's been pretty good for a puppy. He's 9 weeks old. His mom is a beagle and who knows what his dad is. The entire litter was a mix of colors.

As soon as we brought Sue home we went into the backyard with all of the dogs. He ran around and tried to avoid getting wet by the hose. Andrew got him a couple of times. We'll have to see how he really likes water in the kiddie pool sometime soon.

We'll see how much sleep we get tonight!

Flipper is Adopted

Yesterday I started working on an application for Flipper that I received online. A couple in their 30s with a six month old son were interested in adopting Flipper.

I spoke with the wife and really liked her. I called a couple of references, one of which I also really liked. I asked the wife if she thought her son would be okay with Flipper as he (the son) got more mobile. She said that she plans on teaching her son early the right and wrong ways to interact with a dog.

Flipper has a pretty laidback personality so I think he'd be good around kids of all ages. He'd probably like the extra attention.

Originally we were going to plan an adoption meeting for Sunday afternoon. Andrew and I were going to be busy yesterday evening. The family was going to be busy today and tomorrow. But when I called to let the family know that they were approved I spoke with the husband. He's from England and for some reason at times over the phone I couldn't understand him! He asked if he could come and pick up Flipper and surprise his wife, who was out at the time.

So Flipper ended up going home earlier than expected. I liked this family so hopefully Flipper will like them too. The husband took the leash and collar that Flipper had on saying that he'd return it later in the day. Typically we adopt dogs without collars and leashes so that items can be reused for other dogs. I took Vicky's tag off the collar in case for some reason the items didn't come back. But when Andrew and I returned home from eating dinner and getting him some new running shoes the leash and collar were on hanging off the handle of the front door. Flipper wasn't attached so I took that as a good sign. ;)

The husband said that he'd have his wife call yesterday after they got home and surprised her. She never did call. Maybe she will today or tomorrow. If not I'll go with the no news is good news thought.

Since we didn't have Flipper for very long we'll probably take in another foster dog, if we're needed, sometime next week.

Flipper Tales

Flipper continues to adjust to the routine here. Beacon and Haven continue to keep to themselves. They will all sleep in the same room, fairly close to each other but that's about it. Flipper still would rather hang out with humans than other dogs. I wonder if he hasn't gotten much human interaction and attention. He was brought into the Shelter the end of May. Vicky took him in the end of June and since then he basically has been recovering from surgery.

Yesterday Andrew took Beacon and Haven for a run in the rain. I stayed home with Flipper. We played fetch in the backyard. He does really well chasing after a ball and bringing it back.

Earlier in the day his surgery spot hit the grass as he was fetching and he yelped. It must be a little sore still. And maybe that's why he's not into playing with Beacon and Haven. Maybe he knows that he's still a little sore and he's smaller than the other dogs in the house.

For some reason today Flipper has developed a "fear" of coming down the hallway from the computer room to the rest of the house. He didn't have issues yesterday. He acts like he's nervous about something, similar to Haven not wanting to pass by grates. He'll look and get low and then sprint down the hallway and he's fine. But he doesn't have any problems going down the hall back to the computer room!

Meet Flipper

Yesterday after Andrew got home from work we went to take some pictures of kittens to put on Petfinder. We also picked up Flipper, our newest foster dog.

Vicky has had Flipper for almost three weeks. She got him from the Shelter. He was born with a deformed leg. As he walked it would scrape along the ground and get cut up. In order for it not to get infected Vicky decided to have it amputated.

A little over two weeks ago his front leg was removed. He has been doing well ever since. He's now off medication and the staples were removed last Friday.

Although he only has three legs he still gets around. He runs, plays, and doesn't seem to mind or know that he's missing a leg. He's not as fast as other dogs and he gets tired faster but that's it.

Flipper is about a year and a half old. We wonder if he's got some hound in him. His ears are rounded rather than pointed at the ends like our dogs. His bark also sounds a little like a hound. He's also got shorter legs, which could come from having some hound in him.

He slept well in the crate last night. Hopefully today he'll start to get on a schedule with us. There was one family interested in him last week but that fell through. Hopefully it won't take too long to have someone else want to take a look at him.

Changing of the Dog Food

We brought Beacon and Haven home in July 2003. Since then it seems like we've been on a neverending quest for the *perfect* dog food. Our dogs have tried out 10 different kinds of dog food (11 if you include the small bag of food we got to test and evaluate before it's on the market) throughout the course of their lives. It hasn't been easy finding something we like in regards to ingredients that also suits the dogs' needs (ie frequency and consistency of stools, changes in their coats, how they digest it, etc.).

When looking at dog foods the main things we take into account are ingredients, serving size, and price. After that it's a matter of trying a bag and seeing how the dogs react. We're willing to pay a little more for good food for the dogs, but it took us some time to figure out which food should be considered "good".

We knew from the start that looking at the ingredients in dog food was important. You want to avoid grains because they're not as easily digestible. The first three ingredients are important because that's what most of the food contains. So if a (non-ground) grain is one of the first three things listed as ingredients you may want to look into other options, especially if a grain is the first ingredient. You also want to avoid by-products. This means that "chicken by-product meal" is ground up chicken feet, organs, and other parts that don't contain the nutrition needed.

Most dog foods that we've looked at indicate a 2-4 cups per day feeding schedule. With this feeding schedule per day per dog, a 40 pound bag of food lasts about a month. When figuring out cost of a food we take into consideration how much we'll have to feed the dogs each day. Although one brand might cost more money, if the amount to feed each day is closer to 2.5 or 3 cups the overall cost isn't really as bad as the price sticker indicates.

Our dogs started off on Purina Puppy Chow Large Breed Formula. They were eating this before we brought them home so we continued to feed them this food for a short time. It's considered a "grocery store brand" food because it can be found at most grocery stores and is pretty cheap. We were probably paying around $15 - $20 for a 40 pound bag. The daily feeding suggested by Purina for our dogs' weight and age when we brought them home was up to 2.25 cups. But it went to 5.25 to 5.5 cups daily by the time they're 10-11 months old! The first three ingredients in this food are ground yellow corn, chicken by-product meal, and corn gluten meal.

A few months after we had Beacon and Haven we decided to look at other brands and ended up choosing Iams Puppy Large Breed, which cost around $25 for a 40 pound bag. They were on this for a few months before we decided to look again at food. While on Iams puppy their fur wasn't the softest but it didn't have a sticky feeling you can sometimes see when dogs are fed cheaper brands of food. The serving size for this food is 4 cups daily for puppies 8-12 months old. The first three ingredients in this food are chicken, chicken by-product meal, corn meal so we went in the right direction but would later find out that we could do a lot better.

It seems like every 3-6 months we start thinking about dog food again and wonder if there's anything better we can give the dogs. This time around we choose Diamond Large Breed Puppy (which isn't shown on their webpage so this link goes to their main site). We thought this was a "quality" food for a reasonable price (~$20 for a 40 pound bag). The dogs had nice, shiny coats which were soft while eating this food. Their stools were firm as well. The feeding guidelines for their weight and age at the time is 3.75 - 4 2/3 cups daily. The first three ingredients in this food are lamb, lamb meal, and whole grain brown rice, which I got from an old Word document we saved while researching dog food.

As the dogs approached their first birthday we started looking at adult food. Because they were doing well on Diamond we switched them to Diamond Large Breed Adult, which also isn't on Diamond's main page. I can only assume that the feeding guidelines and ingredients are similar to the Large Breed Puppy formula.

About a year and a half ago Diamond had a recall on some of their dog food. I'm wondering if since then they've been trying to reorganize the company and therefore aren't offering large breed products for puppies and adult dogs. I'll have to look next time we're out to see if it's in stores but not on their webpage for some reason. I did notice that they're offering a "naturals" line now, which is a higher quality food. In looking at the ingredients (they do offer large breed for puppies and adults) they are a little better but not as good as other foods we've found.

To date our dogs were on Diamond products for the longest amount of time. They were off Diamond food though for around six months when the recall came out. And even if they were eating Diamond food the recalled didn't reach the state of Michigan. Although the dogs were doing well on Diamond we again got the itch to see if there was anything better out there.

Canidae was our next food to try. This food costs ~$30 for a 40 pound bag. We ended up only buying one bag of this food. Although I had read good things about it and liked the ingredients it wasn't a good fit for our dogs. Their fur wasn't as nice and their stools were softer. After we finished the bag of food that we purchased we switched foods again! The daily serving for Canidae is 2-3 cups. The first three ingredients are chicken meal, turkey meal, brown rice.

After the Canidae didn't work out we decided to go back to Iams, but this time we bought Iams Large Breed Adult. Our dogs had done well on Iams puppy. The dogs were only on this food for a couple of months before we decided to switch again. Their stools were a bit softer and more frequent. Their fur was also not as soft as it was while they were on Diamond products. The feeding guideline for Iams Large Breed Adult is about 2.5 cups daily. The first three ingredients are chicken, corn meal, and ground whole grain sorghum. This is actually a slight step back from Diamond products since the second ingredient is corn meal.

Our next switch was back to Diamond (the recall at this point still hadn't happened). We tried their Lamb and Rice formula, which again isn't listed on their webpage. We had read that lamb was good for dogs with sensitive stomachs. Beacon will sometimes throw up mucus before eating if he's hungry. He also seems to be the one we judge whether or not a food is "right" by his stools. We ended up only purchasing one bag of the Diamond Lamb and Rice because this too wasn't a good fit for our dogs.

A friend of mine used to work for the dog food section of Proctor and Gamble (they make Iams). She sent me a coupon for a free bag of Eukanuba Large Breed, which is this company's higher end food. A 40 pound bag usually runs around $37 but we've been able to get it on sale for $30 - $33 most of the time. Aside from Diamond our dogs were on Eukanuba the longest amount of time. They had soft, shiny coats and firm stools while eating this food. The daily serving size is 2.75 cups. The first three ingredients are chicken, corn meal, ground whole grain sorghum. Although the second ingredient is corn meal they didn't have any problems with this food. They were on this food for around six months.

About a month ago the dog food bug hit again. I started researching foods again. We picked up a bag of Nutro Natural Choice Adult Lamb Meal and Rice. This food didn't last long. We typically mix old food with new for a few days before giving the dogs 100% new food. Once Beacon got to being on 100% of this food he started throwing up. The first day I just thought he had his usually tummy issues. But after the second and third day straight I wondered if it was the food. We switched him back to the Eukanuba that we still had (cold turkey) and he stopped throwing up. So for a short time Beacon ate Eukanuba and Haven had the Nutro so it wouldn't go to waste. She didn't have any issues with it other than more frequent and softer stools. Although lamb is said to be better for sensitive digestive tracts Beacon hasn't done well with either lamb products we've used. The daily serving size for this food is 3 2/3 - 4.5 cups daily. The first three ingredients are lamb meal, ground rice, and rice flour.

With our wanting to try something other than Eukanuba and the Nutro not working out I had to do more research. I really like the ingredients in Wellness and especially Innova. But both cost $40+ for a 33 pound bag. Even with the smaller daily feeding recommendation we haven't felt that spending more than $40 for less than 40 pounds of food is worth it.

I also researched Eagle Pack Large Breed and we found a 40 pound bag on sale for $30 so we tried it out. I'm not sure what the not-on-sale price is but so far this food is good all around. The dogs haven't had any problems with it at all. The daily serving size is 2-3 cups. The first three ingredients are chicken meal, ground brown rice, and oatmeal. For now we will be sticking with this food. I'm sure at some point I'll look again to make sure there's not something better out there. But I also think that I've researched most of the brands out there so there's not much more to choose from!

Early on in our research for dog food we realized that it's best to do your own research. Many vets tout Science Diet. This food is considered "high quality" and costs the same as premium foods. But the daily serving size for large breed adults the size of Beacon and Haven is 3-5 cups. And the first three ingredients are ground whole grain corn, chicken by-product meal, soybean meal, certainly not what I'd consider "high quality".

As with many things (both for dogs and people) what works for one dog may or may not work for another. We've found that just with our two dogs. So ultimately it's important to do research with a minimum of looking at ingredients and daily serving size. From there it's a matter of what you want to afford because we've found that for the most part you do get what you pay for when it comes to dog food. The rest is up to the dog. He or she really gets final say because they're the ones eating and reacting to the food.

Bella's Adopted

We met with a family this evening who adopted Bella. They were orginally interested in a puppy but Vicky convinced them that they should look at Bella. They totally loved her.

The family has two kids (8 and 6), both were really excited and eager to take Bella home and teach her new things. I think Bella will enjoy having kids to play with her.

The family bought her a purple leash and collar, both had fake diamond studs. Hopefully she learned how to be a princess from Haven while she was here. Although Bella won't have other dogs to play with in her new home it seems like she'll get a lot of attention from the kids as well as the parents. And she might even like being an only dog getting all of the attention in the long run.

Originally we were going to meet the family and fill out paperwork today but I received a call a couple hours before our meeting time and they said that they wanted to take Bella home tonight. They thought they'd be gone all day tomorrow and were going to pick her up at our house Wednesday morning. But they're not going to be gone as long so they wanted to have Bella as soon as possible.

Bella will also be renamed Zoe! There's a dog named Belle already in the family so they wanted something different. I think the new name fits. Hopefully she'll pick up on it soon. The family is also taking Bella/Zoe to obedience training, which I think will she'll do really well with.

We'll take a week or so off and then I'm sure Vicky will have another dog for us to foster.