Don't Stop Walking and You're Embarassing Me Methods of Walking

Ruki's been getting stubborn about walking again. I use two methods--one I just discovered today--to keep her by my side and trucking along. The first involves the Don't Stop Walking method--just keep on going and pull her along with you when she pauses. The second is the You're Embarassing Me method: I think sometimes she doesn't like being so close to me, but rather behind me, like an embarassed teenager. So I hold the leash behind my back, and she's a few steps behind me, walking at her own pace, happy as can be.

I wrote to our puppy-sitter about walking Ruki with the DSW method:

She *is* big and stubborn these days. Or, rather, she's tired, cranky,
and scared. I "treat" her out of the courtyard and off of the block--I
go through about 4-5 treats just egging her on and treating her for
walking a few meters. But once she gets going, she's OK. If she starts
to slow down or pull back, just keep on walking. Pulling her is OK;
just don't try and jerk her.

I put the leash around my right wrist, and hold the leash parallel to
my waist/belt, and hold the slack with my left hand--Ruki stays on my
left all the time. When she slows down or pulls to the side of
backwards, when my left leg goes forward--I don't stop--it pulls the
leash and her along. But it's one consistent motion, so it's not
jerking at her throat. She pulls for about a second, but then she
comes along, and then I give her a treat.

Then we battle it out that way about 5 more times, and then she's
fine--a couple more hitches along the way, but most of the time it's a
breeze. Every once in awhile I'll let her stop and sniff around. And
when she's trucking along I'll push a treat in her mouth--don't let
her bite! If she snatches at the treat, pull it away, and don't let
her have it until she's gentle!--just to keep her going.

Grading Commercial Dog Food Brands

From the BullDogDomain forums, I found a ranking system for dog food. Partially from this, and partially from recommendations from books and a pet food store owner, we switched Ruki from her breeder's Eukanuba Large Breed Puppy to Innova.

The ranking system mostly focuses on how transparent the dog food producer is about the quality of the ingredients, the amount of filler (e.g., corn which is indigestible by dogs), and how "natural" the ingredients are. The premises being that if you are vague about something, you're hiding something bad, and how well you pick and choose your ingredients.

Another highlight of the ranking system is deducting points from foods that contain ingredients that many dogs are allergic to, e.g., wheat or soy.

From my2bullies&BTBfoster, http://forum.bulldogdomain.com/index.php?topic=8832.0 :

How to grade your dog's food: (Some brands are done at the very bottom]

Start with a grade of 100:

1) For every listing of "by-product", subtract 10 points

2) For every non-specific animal source ("meat" or "poultry", meat, meal or fat) reference, subtract 10 points

3) If the food contains BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin, subtract 10 points

4) For every grain "mill run" or non-specific grain source,subtract 5 points

5) If the same grain ingredient is used 2 or more times in the first five ingredients (i.e. "ground brown rice", "brewer's
rice", "rice flour" are all the same grain), subtract 5 points

6) If the protein sources are not meat meal and there are less than 2 meats in the top 3 ingredients, subtract 3 points

7) If it contains any artificial colorants, subtract 3 points

8 ) If it contains ground corn or whole grain corn, subtract 3 points

9) If corn is listed in the top 5 ingredients, subtract 2 more points

10) If the food contains any animal fat other than fish oil, subtract 2 points

11) If lamb is the only animal protein source (unless your dog is allergic to other protein sources), subtract 2 points

12) If it contains soy or soybeans, subtract 2 points

13) If it contains wheat (unless you know that your dog isn't allergic to wheat), subtract 2 points

14) If it contains beef (unless you know that your dog isn't allergic to beef), subtract 1 point

15) If it contains salt, subtract 1 point

Extra Credit:

1) If any of the meat sources are organic, add 5 points

2) If the food is endorsed by any major breed group or nutritionist, add 5 points

3) If the food is baked not extruded, add 5 points

4) If the food contains probiotics, add 3 points

5) If the food contains fruit, add 3 points

6) If the food contains vegetables (NOT corn or other grains), add 3 points

7) If the animal sources are hormone-free and antibiotic-free, add 2 points

8 ) If the food contains barley, add 2 points

9) If the food contains flax seed oil (not just the seeds), add 2 points

10) If the food contains oats or oatmeal, add 1 point

11) If the food contains sunflower oil, add 1 point

12) For every different specific animal protein source (other than the first one; count "chicken" and "chicken meal" as
only one protein source but "chicken" and "" as 2 different sources), add 1 point

13) If it contains glucosamine and chondroitin, add 1 point

14) If the vegetables have been tested for pesticides and are pesticide-free, add 1 point

94-100+ = A
86-93 = B
78-85 = C
70-77 = D
69 = F

Here are some foods that have already been scored. Dog Food scores:

Authority Harvest Baked / Score 116 A+
Bil-Jac Select / Score 68 F
Canidae / Score 112 A+
Chicken Soup Senior / Score 115 A+
Diamond Maintenance / Score 64 F
Diamond Lamb Meal & Rice / Score 92 B
Diamond Large Breed 60+ Formula / Score 99 A
Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Ultra Premium / Score 122 A+
Dick Van Patten's Duck and Potato / Score 106 A+
Foundations / Score 106 A+
Hund-n-Flocken Adult Dog (lamb) by Solid Gold / Score 93 D
Iams Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Premium / Score 73 D
Innova Dog / Score 114 A+
Innova Evo / Score 114 A+
Kirkland Signature Chicken, Rice, and Vegetables / Score 110 A+
Nutrisource Lamb and Rice / Score 87 B
Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Puppy / Score 87 B
Pet Gold Adult with Lamb & Rice / Score 23 F
ProPlan Natural Turkey & Barley / Score 103 A+
Purina Beneful / Score 17 F
Purina Dog / Score 62 F
Purina Come-n-Get It / Score 16 F
Royal Canin Bulldog / Score 100 A+
Royal Canin Natural Blend Adult / Score 106 A+
Sensible Choice Chicken and Rice / Score 97 A
Science Diet Advanced Protein Senior 7+ / Score 63 F
Science Diet for Large Breed Puppies / Score 69 F
Wellness Super5 Mix Chicken / Score 110 A+
Wolfking Adult Dog (bison) by Solid Gold / Score 97 A

Good Raw Foods for Treats

So for treats--instead of treats we buy at stores--we've been using slices of baby carrots. Ruki loves 'em. And we see them in her poo a day or so later. I don't know if there's any nutritional value to them, but at least there's no fat, and some fiber content for her.

I recently tried chunks of celery. Ruki doesn't love 'em as much as the carrots, but she'll still do tricks for them.

I gave her a blueberry, too, and she almost died--in a good way. I think she thought she was in berry heaven. Apparently, though, we have to watch out for citrus fruits because they might be bad for her stomach.

Here's a quote I found on a web site:

http://experts.about.com/q/Dogs-701/ok-pup-3.htm

"Besides apples, most dogs also like banana slices, blue berries, carrot slices or baby carrots, peas, broccoli, green beans and cauliflower. My dogs LOVE Clementine wedges, but then who doesn't?

A couple of things to watch out for: DON'T give a dog onions, mushrooms or grapes, they can make your dog sick."

I've also started adding a fish oil pill to her breakfasts.

My Case for Biodegradable Poo Bags

So up until now we've been using the plastic bags we get at the grocery store--and using the self-checkouts and grabbing a few extras on the sly. This at the time was the best idea for us--we give a second use to something that is necessary and will be trash, and they're made from recycled products. Plus they're free!

But we started running short on our stockpile, and I was feeling environmentally guilty about grabbing new ones and about the amount of waste we're creating.

I explored other options--namely buying smaller poo-bags to reduce, biodegradable bags, and flushable bags. Smaller poo-bags make since because at least we're reducing our waste by replacing new, ganked plastic grocery bags with smaller ones. Flushable bags sound great, but honestly it's kind of gross to mix dog poo in the human toilet and anyways they're not guaranteed not to clog your septic system (and we live in an old apartment building). And biodegradable bags? We can't compost our poo and these bags probably wouldn't biodegrade any faster than regular ones in the landfill.

So I decided on biodegradable. Why? Well, at least we're reducing; we're giving them a fighting chance to degrade wherever they might, and if we can sneak the bag into a yardwaste bag, then even better! But mostly, if we're going to choose a bag, we might as well put our money into an industry that is working to save the world, and not one indifferent to it. So I went onto Greenfeet.com and bought us a few packs of the bags.

Check out my post on my confusion and eventual success in figuring out how to use the damn Biobags in the first place.

How to Use the Biobag Dog Poo-Bag

I am an idiot. I just bought two bags of Biobag Dog bags. They're environmentally-friendly, biodegradable, compostable bags made for dog poo. Unfortunately, they're made in Norway--hence the instructions aren't the clearest. Here are the instructions on the box and each bag:

1. Put your hand in the bag.
2. Collect the droppings.
3. Push the top-end through the hole.
4. Pull tip through the hole.
5. The bag is closed.
6. Put the bag in the litterbin.

OK. So I was fine with Steps 1 and 2. But 3? What does that mean "Push the top-end through the hole?" The box and a web site clarify this: "insert film through hole at top of the bag and pull down to secure dog waste." What the hell does that mean?

So now, after much fumbling, experimentation, and imagination, I figured it out.

1. Put your hand in the bag.
2a. Collect the droppings.
2b. Reverse the bag--just like you would when using any other bag.
3. Pinch the *bottom* seam of the bag, right underneath where all your poo is, and pull the pinched piece up and through both holes at the (now) top of the bag.
4. This cinches the lip of the bag through the holes, so now the poo is captured in the "middle" of the bag, and the bottom bit is what you hold onto to carry the bag and throw it away.
5. The bag is now closed.
6. Put the bag in the trash.

Whew. I hope that helps anyone who is as slow as I am!

Bulldog Crack: Rawhides and Booda Velvet Bimples

So we finally took the plunge and introduced Ruki to rawhide chews. I had heard so many cautionary tales about rawhides and bullies: you have to constantly watch your bulldog so that she doesn't tear off a bit and choke on it.

But she was getting too quickly bored with her other toys: the stuffed ones with squeakers, the knotted rope pull toy, the rubber bone, etc.

We started with a pressed rawhide from the breeder. She didn't mind it, but then I watched to see what kind of things she chewed on. Ruki loves sawed off stumps of shrubbery, and I realized she wanted something softer than pressed rawhide. I tried other Nylabones, and finally she found her favorite in a flexible, soft, rubbery chicken-flavored Nylabone.

That was a few weeks ago. Most recently, she's been chewing on the soft plastic corners of her crate. (Also, we just moved her from the small, puppy/cat crate to a larger, medium-sized breed crate. She took to it in a few minutes--no adjustment period needed here!) So I realized she needs something new.

The rawhide? It's like crack. She loves them. She even sometimes cries when I take them away from her--which I try to do so she knows that *I* commence playing and chew-fun, not her. I try to keep her chewing on them in one or two places--I don't want her chewing on the rug so it doesn't assume the smell and taste of the rawhide.

Recently, I picked up a Booda Velvet Bimple bone. It looked soft enough for her puppy teeth and jaws. Wow. She loves that one, too. But I really have to watch her with this. In about an hour, she stripped all the bumpies off the Booda--leaving little plasticy bits all over. I vacuumed those up. Then she really went to town. The Boodas are made of corn starch, so it starts getting white and foamy after a while. I heard in a discussion forum of a bulldog that chewed one of those down and then started puking up white stuff--the Booda corn starch.

Which, on a side note, is weird to put in a digestible bone because corn products, I thought, *weren't* digestible by dogs. Oh well. Right now, she has neither rawhide nor Booda in her mouth, and now she's just exploring...

Ruki-Monster with Her Stick du Jour

We took Ruki to the Boston Common for a play-date with some friends. Damn, she's cute. At least *I* think so... But what else can I do but think she's the cutest thing in the world?!??!?!

Looks Like a Pimple

So I just noticed a flesh-colored bump on Ruki's lip. I went onto the Bulldog Domain discussion forum, and it sounds like it's either a pimple or an ingrown hair. Apparently, puppies get acne when they get infections from, maybe dirty food and water dishes, especially ones not of metal.

Well, we wash her metal food dishes regularly, but I think that recently she's been chewing on her crate, and I wonder if that's what caused the infection. I have to remember to wash that down.

Treatment-wise, they recommended just to keep it clean and wash it with "Melesab shampoo diluted (5CC to 1/2 cup warm water in a picnic ketchup bottle)." Hopefully it just goes away on its own!

Update: She just got another pimple on the other side of her face! Oh no!

Update on the Harness Situation

So we decided in the end not to get the harness. This decision wasn't entirely thought-out: the local Petco didn't have any harnesses that we liked, and they didn't fit Ruki anyways. I went on-line and looked at the Sensations and Hightower harnesses, and didn't really go any further than that.

Because all of a sudden, our problems with Ruki on the leash started going away. Yes, she pulls occasionally when there's something she *really* wants, but since we've been treating her to come out of the courtyard, we haven't had much of a problem.

I treat her with these all-beef squares, ripped in half, so the pieces are like 1 cm x 0.5 cm or with slices of baby carrots. After about a week of this fantastic behavior, it takes at most 2 treats to get her downstairs and out the door. About 3 to get her out of the courtyard. And I usually burn about 10 or so for a 20-min walk around the block--sits at street crossings, jobs across streets, random treats while she's following, etc.

I think now that Ruki is about 4 months old, she's becoming more emotionally mature. It was almost overnight. She has her crazy times, but not as crazy as before. Her chewing is pretty manageable--as long as I keep my eye on her, she doesn't really chew things she's not supposed to, and if she does they're "soft chews" and not the voracious gnawing it was before.

She hasn't had an accident in the house for about a week. We can let her out of the crate and just let her play and hang around.

It's crazy. I think she's even developing her language to let us know when she wants out. Recently, she's just kind of gotten up and walked to the door. And hangs out there. Looks like a signal that she wants to do something outside!

I don't know if this is a change in her, a change in us, but probably both combined. So if anyone's having trouble with their bullie, the leash, and walking, the only things I can say are: take a deep breath, relax, and she's still growing up.

Some More Cherry Eye History

Ruki had her cherry eye 2 weeks after we got her, when she was 3 months. We waited for two weeks before we worked with our breeder to fix it. That was 2 weeks ago. And the other eye had not popped out.

My theory is that Ruki was mucking around in some dirt and then got "boxed" pretty hard by a particularly "fiesty" Boston terrier in the area. I remember vividly seeing the paw knock Ruki right in the eye.

So, all in all, 4 weeks and no other cherry eye!

As for the fixed eye, the flesh under the eyelid *does* look a little redder than the other one; and she still has daily "gunkies" (for lack of a better word), mucous, I suppose, that we clean out with saline. We're going to keep up with the antibiotic eyedrops, and if her eye's still gunky after another week, we'll consider taking her in to the vet--and after our insurance kicks in. :)

A Good Link on Training Bulldog Puppies

According to this article, Ruki's on her last month of tractable training! :(

But I found this article to be very helpful on the few basic commands, with an understanding of bulldog personalities, and with good guidelines as to how long to keep training sessions.

http://www.dogchannel.com/puppies/training/article_bulldog.aspx

Trying the Harness

So today we're going to pick up a harness and see if that works any better than the regular collar. I'll let you know if that works any better... I just don't like the look of the harness, but it might be worth it.

The recommendations seem to be the same type: Sensation or Hightower Harnesses:

http://www.softouchconcepts.com/

http://www.waynehightower.com/

(Update: I e-mailed Wayne Hightower about availability of his leashes, and I haven't heard from him in about a week.)
(Update: We decided not to buy the harness in the end.)

Also, here's a link to a YouTube video on leash-training:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5Oy5AANTpw

Walking the Bulldog, Pt 2

So now I'm paying for my hubris. I thought I had Ruki all figured out on the walking part. Now she's worse than ever. I've tried everything, and walking has become more than a chore, but a *battle*.

Here's a good discussion on the difficulty of walking a bulldog puppy.

I've recently been treating her up and down the stairs with some all-meat treat strips (these 1 square cm bits, that I break in half), and sliced-up baby carrots on the walks outside. I wonder if different food associations mean different things--and whether this is a good or bad thing. I think maybe the best thing to do is keep on mixing it up.

Sigh.

On a somewhat similar note, Ruki is now averaging one accident a day, and largely b/c of our fault. In fact, last night, she peed on our bed. Awesome.

What it comes down to is that at 4 months, she's still too young to trust. She pees when she needs to--and so far has only learned not to pee in her crate.

No Paper in the Crate

One mistake I made early on was when we were first crating our new puppy. I figured, she's going to pee in the crate, so maybe the best way to make clean-up easy is to put paper in there.

But wouldn't that confuse her? Here's the create--don't pee where you sleep. But here's paper, and that's where you've been peeing your whole life so far...

It's tough, thinking that if there's no paper, then she'll just be soaking in pee. At least the paper should absorb the pee and keep it off her fur. But I read in SMART Puppy, that paper in the crate's a no-no. And that makes sense.

Maybe for the first day or two, it's OK. But maybe that's it, over the next few days when she starts figuring things out.

Excessive Barking

This morning, after crating, Ruki starting whining and then barking... But this time the barking wasn't just a yelp or two, but she kept it up! What was going on?

Then I realized that I had snoozed... For a little too long. I usually feed her around 8.30 a.m., and lo and behold it was already 8.30 a.m. My fault, Ruki. :)

Bulldog Cherry Eye Removal

I've been following and participating in a number of online discussions on treating bulldog cherry eye. The consensus seems to be that the modern techniques of "tucking" and/or "tacking" are the way to go, whereas the "old school" method of "third eyelid removal" is barbaric.

The modern procedure of tucking or tacking involves tucking in the third eyelid and stitching it down or even tacking it to the bone so it doesn't "pop out."

After speaking with our breeder--who is fantastic and if you're looking for a breeder, e-mail me, and I'll recommend her!--she strongly recommended removal. She would even meet with us halfway between Brooklyn and Boston to perform the removal for free.

We agreed. And now Ruki's cherry eye is gone, and so far she's fine--but I'll keep this blog updated on the progress.

Our main concerns with the removal were secondary infections and the later occurrence of dry eye. After three days, no infection, the eye is fine--but we've also been using antibiotic and steroid eyedrops on her. And for the dry eye our breeder assured us that the tear gland was not removed.

Our main concerns with tucking/tacking were expense and the effects of the procedure. Online, prices ranged from $90 for both eyes to $600 for one. I spoke with a vet tech who said that in our neighborhood, the procedure would cost at least $300, not including the cost of the visit, anesthesia, etc.

As for the effects of the procedure, it's not safe to anesthetize Ruki at her age--14 weeks. We'd then have to wait until she gets spayed at 5-6 months. And on top of that the surgery may be fairly invasive--especially with tacking to the bone.

Our breeder reported that she's seen tucking and tacking procedures which "popped out" and eventually ended up in removal anyways. And as for the dry eye? It seems that dry eye occurs in bulldogs who have had tucking/tacking, removal, and no cherry eye at all.

So maybe medically-speaking, tucking/tacking is the best procedure. But practically speaking, it seems that removal is not a bad option--and less barbaric than the complicated surgery. Literally, the removal took a few minutes--with the actual cutting taking a few seconds. They used topical anesthesia, and Ruki didn't yelp one bit from the cut. And when we were done, she was on her feet as if nothing happened. There was some bleeding, but that stopped in a few minutes.

I may get some hate from this post, but I'm just reporting our experiences. I'm actually more interested in any long terms effects, and we won't know those until much later on...

Setting the Mood to Listen

Training dogs is a lot like teaching children. I used to be a teacher in an urban school, and learned a lot about teaching as a science--more than just an art.

One of the most important methods of preparing a classroom is to get the students into the "mood" to learn. If you don't calm them down and get them focused and ready to learn, you're going to have trouble getting them to focus throughout the class. Many teachers who have problems with classroom control don't use techniques like this to set the tone of every class.

I'm learning that the same is with puppies. If I wake Ruki up, and she's cranky, well, I have to give her some time to wake up. And then when she doesn't focus on me, and pulls on the leash, or won't go where I need her to go, I get frustrated.

So I bring her close, I put my hand under her muzzle and calm her down to focus on me. I'll do a few "sits" and "look at me's," which turn into "comes," and then *sometimes* :) we can get walking.

Also, when she has her "crazy times"--when she basically goes ape-shit--it's like recess. I let her go for a few minutes, and then I set the tone differently with sits, look at me's, and comes; and some space games to get her to stop and sit if I get between her and something she wants. Then she's back to nice, chill Ruki--which is a recent but welcome phenomenom.

Why Doesn't My Puppy Love Me?

...That's the way I've been feeling lately. She loves everyone so much more--goes crazy--for anyone but me. I'm old news. She doesn't listen to me. She gives me the stink-eye instead of kisses. She shrugs away from my hugs.

We're working on a mixture of "demotion" and armed warfare. The armed warfare means more treats and lures for getting her off of our block. The "demotion" is less ground-level eye contact, more strictness in the house.

I'll let you know how it all works out.

But one thing that helped: Yesterday, I took her to a nearby park with a big field. I let her off the leash (which is OK for Ruki since she really can't run that fast or far). And then I jogged away. She could not *not* stay far from me. As soon as I started moving away, she started trucking along. The faster I went the faster she came. And when I stopped she's gallop up and stop near me.

So maybe she doesn't "love" me, but she definitely *needs* me. And I'll take that for now.

Also, check out my previous post on my moment of zen.

A Moment of Zen

I had a moment of zen today while walking Ruki. I realized that most of my frustration with her--trying to get her out the block--was because I was putting my needs *way* above hers: my need to make sure she pees and poos and gets tired and her need to wake up and be a bit of a puppy, sniff around, wander, etc.

I realized that we had to meet half-way. And it worked--at least for this morning. I fought with her to get her out of the courtyard, and fought her to get her past the trash alley. She chased after people, and pulled against me constantly.

(Though I have to admit I treated her down the stairs. But apparently that's not a bad thing b/c she's still a puppy. I talked to the dogwalker Mike and he recommended treating her all the way out of the block.)

But then I gave her slack and time to sniff around a bit. I thought, "This is going to take forever." But, really, it was like 2 minutes max. And then she was ready to go. We made it a few steps, and the same process--again. But she's a puppy. This is what she needs.

And after a little bit of give and take--she started walking with me. Then back to being cranky. And then back to being nice. Jekyll and Hyde.

But she's a puppy with no long-term memory, no attention span. One other trick I started using is that she gets distracted, and we need her to focus. So just get down and play with her and pet her, and her focus is back on you and not on whatever it was before.

And by the end of the walk, I really appreciated her.