Wrestling Doggies

Firstly, Farrah really likes her new Puppy Pull toy. She has a good deal of play/prey/toy drive, which is why I was so happy to have a puppy from her breeding. I want to encourage her tug affinity for training reasons, so this was a good purchase for her. I consider this one of those "environmental enrichment" activities that helps to create happy dogs. She doesn't seem to want to play with it unless she has an audience (she's a total ham), so I will spice it up a bit with some of the leftover calf hide.

Last video, is Grym and Ike wrestling. There are 2 points where Ike doesn't appreciate Grym's rough-housing style, and you can hear him "discipline" Grym briefly by the change in his snark tone. Grym, good boy that he is, instantly backs off, giving some nice appeasing behaviors, and the play resumes. You can also see Ike wagging his tail with enjoyment and handicapping himself. He is really inviting the play, which is cute, considering he is definately the head cheese among the dogs and my little Silver Back, the gentle patriarch.

Breeding Better Dogs

@ Jen

You asked in this post how providing toys and new objects helps with a puppy's brain development. This article on Early Neurological Stimulation, describes what some breeders are implementing into their rearing practices. I have heard it described as "Super Dog" rearing and been privilaged to see how some Shiba breeders are using it in their programs with their puppies, and I plan to follow suit.

The portion on "enrichment" and future trainability speaks very loudly to me. I believe that providing varied types of toys and tactile experiences to young puppies helps them learn how to engage their world with more confidence, and sets them on the right path of learning how to learn, and learning how to play. I can tell you from personal experience and I'm sure you can relate to this as well given your extensive rescue history, that it can be very difficult to motivate a dog to engage you for training when everything around them is a new experience.

Undersocialized dogs and dogs reared in an un-enriched environment often have no clue about toys, how to play, and lack coping skills needed to be successful in new situations. Most of the training I do with my dogs involves using treats, toys and play to motivate behaviors I like, so a dog that is fearful of or disinterested in those things, makes training for even the most basic skills, difficult to say the least. And I really love a Shiba that wants to learn and play. Does that make sense?

Little Barnyard Miracles

Kitty is my "handicapable" pet chicken. She was attacked by a cat before she came to stay with me, and has a little difficulty getting around. She can do her chicken thing just fine, although she isn't very graceful about it, but she tries. We had some bad downpours a week or so back, and well, poor Kitty somehow managed to get stuck in a brush pile overnight in the rain. When I finally found her the following day, she was soaked, on her back in a puddle, and couldn't walk or stand up. She would instantly tip over and her head would point skyward. I thought she had some type of stroke on top of her old injury flaring up, or maybe her little chicken brain just can't work when it's upside down.

Anyways, she was quite pathetic and unable to fend for herself. The other hens started picking on her too. Knowing that she was going downhill, I placed her in a chick brooder with a heat lamp and hand fed her chick mash, corn and suet, hoping she would turn around. The next day she developed an audible pneumonia and could only lay on her side with her wings stretched out. I began to see she was suffering, and I started making preparations to euthanize her, but had a bit of a moral dilema in regards to how it should be done.

She is a pet afterall, doesn't lay, and I have always made special efforts to keep her safe and fed above the others, or lend her a little helping hand if she couldn't quite make it to a perch. It didn't seem morally "right" to slaughter her, so I opted on humane euthanasia at the vet the following morning, giving her one more night to turn around.

Imagine my suprise when I walked into the coop the following morning, and saw Kitty standing upright at the feeder and waterer drinking and eating on her own. Even when she was near death, she never gave up. She wouldn't just lay there waiting for death and quietly slip away. She made every effort to cling to life even if it ment dragging her body across the coop floor to peck my feet so I would pick her up. She is the embodiment of the term "plucky," and has safely secured a permanent place in my heart, not the table.

Kitty, the morning of her miraculous recovery.

Nesting

Ordered a box of great puppy plushies, squeakies, fuzzies, and rope toys to send with future puppies so they will have something that smells like home. This is all a year away from now at least, but my breeder/mentor says it's important to provide puppies with toys that have different textures and shapes from an early age to help with brain development. Let's just say I am getting a head start on one of the (potentially) smartest, most well adjusted, genius Shiba litters out there.

Annual Auburn Petpalooza featuring Shibas

It's the time of year again for the Petapalooza, this Saturday at Auburn's Game Farm Park, from 10-7pm. The Seattle Flydogs will be doing live demonstrations, and there will be a ton of other troops and vendors offering cool premium dog freebies. Free is good! Come see Beebe, Ike and Farrah as they entertain the crowd and show everyone how good Shiba Inu are at Flyball.

Booger

That's the best word to describe Farrah right now. I gave all the dogs new chew hooves this evening. Within minutes, this is where they all ended up. It's clear that a certain little fur person thinks she is pretty high up on the totem pole. What a booger.

Ike says: "Look what she did Mom. Make her give it back."

Farrah's First Hunt

Firstly, this was such a pretty little batch of eggs I had to take a photo of them for comparison. The dark red egg is from one of the Cuckoo Marans. Cool huh?

 Now here is a little Farrah brag:

The rain has flushed some worms to the surface and the moles are going to town. The four shibas have been stalking the little mole habitrails which are now only inches below the duff layer where the worms are. They flushed one to the surface and Farrah took the honors, making this her official first hunt. She really wanted to eat it, but I wasn't sure if it had been poisoned or not, so no mole meal for her this time. She is such a little prey drivey stalker/huntress which I love. What a good girl!

Buying Farm Fresh and Local

I think I'm done buying chickens this year.

Yesterday I visited a local small farm, Filbert Acres Farm, inquiring about their rare Buckeye chickens and Copper Marans. I bought 10, which brings the fowl total to 28 chickens. Firstly, I love this farm's mission:

'We are exploring organic certification. For now, be assured that our land has not seen chemical pesticide or fertilizer use for more than a decade. It is our conviction that we have a responsibility to farm sustainably.'

Sadly, a large portion of their Filbert grove had been cut down last week due to blight. It was sad seeing these 60 year old trees as piles of limbs, and I realized that this was a large part of the farm's income that had suddenly been lost. Farming is damn hard work and the payoff is small, and breaking even is a cause for celebration. I won't go so far as to say that what I have can be considered a farm at this point, but I very much feel the price of things these days.

Anyways, I'm signing up for their CSA share as this is the type of farm that I want to support. I feel more connected and linked with the communtiy when I buy local instead of from Safeway, and that gives me warm fuzzies. So do these:

The Java hens are growing fast. Last night they were perching
and pecking like old pros. They are about 2 weeks at this point.

The new additions hatched on Friday. These are my sweet
little Black Copper Marans, and yes, their legs are feathered
already! There is a Buckeye in their somewhere, and possibly
more to come in the next few weeks. It kind of sucks having
different age groups in the brooders, since it will be harder
integrating them due to size and pecking order, so I may wait
to add more chicks until these are out of the brooder and more
independent.