Our Memorial Day hike with Oscar has piqued my interest in other outdoorsy/hiking opportunities in and around New York City.  It has also inspired a huge Internet shopping splurge for dog-related hiking/camping paraphernalia, which Oscar will clearly hate…starting with a new life jacket!

I’ve been meaning to replace Oscar’s life jacket for a while now.  It was purchased when he was still a puppy and we had no idea that he would blow by the 10 lb weight limit and end up at almost 20 lbs!  We love to take Oscar canoeing, but I’ve been nervous the last few times because I’m convinced that he’s going to go overboard and sink like a rock.  Contrary to popular belief, all dogs are not natural swimmers.  And we have confirmed that Oscar can NOT swim, but that’s another story…

 In addition to the K-9 Float Coat by Ruff Wear…

I also splurged on an Approach Pack and some Grip Trex Bark’n Boots.

The X-small back pack is on backorder, so we don’t have that yet, but Oscar is RIDICULOUSLY cute in his boots.  He hasn’t quite figured out how to walk in them yet - check out this video as he makes his first attempts to walk in his boots - in my opinion, possibly the best 7 second video on YouTube!!

If you like that one, check out the longer (45 sec) version we lure him around the kitchen with T-R-E-A-T-S to try to get him used to walking in the boots…

Okay, maybe we won’t be using these for hiking…but they will definitely be an improvement on the disposable booties we’ve been using in the winter after it snows.  And no….the boots are not for the snow - they’re for the massive amounts of salt and chemicals that everyone throws in front of their buildings to avoid lawsuits…

Right now, Oscar is a kibble dog.  He gets a mixture of Nutro and Beneful (plus a little taste of whatever I’m eating - I know, bad…) every day and he seems pretty happy about the situation.  He’s only 2 and a half, but seems to be pretty healthy, his teeth are very clean and he rarely has “dog breath”.  So, if it ain’t broke - don’t fix it, right? 

Maybe, but I have a few friends who feed their dogs a raw diet and they SWEAR by it - they believe that their pets have increased energy, thicker/shinier coats and a healthier weight since they switched to feeding them raw food.  Plus there have been a lot of scares lately with processed dog food… 

Experts who recommend the raw food diet cite studies where animals who are fed processed food appear to be healthy when they are young, however, as the animals reached adulthood, they supposedly begin to age more quickly (than dogs fed a raw diet) and also develop chronic degenerative disease symptoms.  These proponents claim that your dog would be healthier if his diet more closely resembled what he would eat in the wild.

And mimicking the type of diet they would have in the wild does make some sense to me.  I was also pretty surprised to find that Oscar seemed to LOVE the raw food meal that he tried at his friends Arnold & Giuseppe’s house.  So, as long as it won’t do him any harm, why not try it?

Well there’s cost and effort…depending on the raw food diet you choose it will probably take more effort that throwing down some kibble and will definitely be more expensive.  Okay, well that’s no problem - I love to feel like I’m spoiling King Oscar. 

My friend recommended the Volhard Natural Diet Foundation (NDF) - AM & PM. 

I’ve also heard good things about The Rotation Diet from Nature’s Variety.  What I especially like about the Nature’s Variety plan is that they encourage switching between types (raw, kibble, cans) of food.  I like the idea of keeping some kibble in Oscar’s diet to keep his teeth clean and breath smelling…well, not like dog breath!  I’m not really into canned food, but the combo of raw and kibble is appealing to me.  I really like the feeding guide on the NV website…it’s easy to use and helps you to figure out how much of each type of food to feed your dog each day. 

So, what do you think?  Should I give it a try?    I would love to hear about your personal experiences with a raw food diet.

Lately it seems like all I do is read bad news about pet food…a salmonella outbreak is traced to tainted dog food, pet food companies settle for 24 million related to the 2007 pet food recall, and now pet the price of pet food is rising along with gas and everything else.

And there is so much conflicting information out there…what pet food is the best?   Human grade?  Ones with ground organs and bones?  The raw food diet?  Meat vs. meal…ugh, I can’t take it anymore.  All I want to do is give Oscy the best, but I can’t even figure out what that is!!

Would love to hear some advice from anyone with some knowledge on the subject…

Hahahahaha….we love this cracked.com article, Dog Thong to iPaw: 15 Pet Products We Can’t Believe Exist.  You have to read all of their politically incorrect ravings for yourself, but my favorites picks were…

the Turd Burglar..

and Neuticles…

Believe it or not, Josh actually asked two different vets about getting neuticles for Oscar (who is half the man he used to be), but they politely discouraged us from pursuing that option.  Poor Oscar…

There’s no way that I could read an article called The Problem With Poo and not post about it, right?  At the risk of appearing poo-obsessed, I feel it’s my duty to share some really fascinating facts I just learned about the disposal of your dog’s #2.

So, all along I’ve been thinking that I’m such a good dog owner because I ALWAYS pick up Oscar’s poop.  But a study of Toronto’s public waste revealed it’s made up of a staggering 23-27% pet waste!!  And most of it is in non-biodegradable plastic bags.  Apparently, this is a problem for all major cities and I’m sure New York is no exception.  So, what to do?

Well, the people from BioBag point out that the best way to deal with pet waste is to treat it like human waste…bring it home, separate it from the paper/plastic that was used to pick it up and flush it down the toilet.  Hmm…pretty obvious, but I have to say that this solution has never occurred to me.  Also, it’s probably not going to garner widespread public adoption. 

So BioBag offers another option - they sell 100% biodegradable dog poop bags and they’re not too much more expensive than the non-recyclable version if you buy in bulk.  My recent research on Amazon came up with…

300 BioBags @ $39.99   vs.  120 Bags On Board @ $9.99

Okay, so I’m going to do my part and switch to BioBags…unfortunately I have several months of inventory of the “bad” plastic bags, so maybe it will have to be my 2009 New Year’s resolution.

Anyways, back to the article…my favorite fast fact is that San Francisco is now recycling dog waste into methane gas!!  Those crazy Califonians!  Where do they find the time??  Way to go, SF…the first no-kill city and now you’re even recycling dog poop!

If you want to learn more about the history of dog poop, check out New York’s Poop Scoop Law: Dogs, the Dirt and Due Process, by Michael Brandow, it will be available in stores this August, I can hardly wait!!

We’re always on the lookout for new innovative dog products and we’ve found a few that we thought were worth sharing…

First is the LED Dog Tail Communicator- poor Oscar’s little stub of a tail wouldn’t be very conducive to this product, but it’s a pretty cool idea.

We also like Mutt Muffs…how cute would Oscar look in these???  Although I can’t imagine that he’d be very psyched about the plane ride that went with the dog muffs…

Dogmatic Products, Inc. brings us the Snackshotz Treat Launcher.  It looks a little cheesy in the video link, but they have a pretty cute interactive game.

Finally, we have to give two thumbs (or paws, as the case may be) down for the Dogone - Dog Gas Neutralizing Pad.

No, this is not a joke…the product is now discontinued, but Flat-D Innovations, Inc. (the #1 name in flatulence odor control products - according to their website) was actually selling special dog “thongs” to help control your dog’s “gassy discharge”.  Ya gotta love the product description:

The Dogone - Dog Gas Neutralizing Pad is a comfortable and least intrusive means for deodorizing gassy discharges in a thong design. This will eliminate pet odors and dog odors from flatus or flatulence.

Uses our famous activated charcoal cloth (washable and reusable)! A starter hole is placed in the cloth in order to help you locate the suggested tail hole. Carefully measure tail and cut-out hole to proper size. Elastic straps are used for flexibility. Suspender clips are used to make the garment totally adjustable. They also provide quick release for allowing the dog out to do his business.

Patent Pending

Hey, I only promised Innovative products…nobody said they were going to be GOOD ideas!  Please share any other dog-related innovations you have come across!

SUCCESS!!!  Well, kind of…

A little over a month ago (see post Product Review - Pet Steps), we invested in some Pet Steps for Oscar in an attempt to curb his tendencies to hurl himself out of our bed and potentially injure himself.

He quickly mastered going UP the stairs which presented him with far better bed accessibility (wonderful…), but until about a week ago, unless we stood at the bottom of the stairs with his favorite treat and coaxed him down, he was continuing to leap to the ground - giving me a heart attack every time.

So I’m happy to report that we’ve kind of had a breakthrough in the past week - Oscar has begun to use the stairs to get DOWN from the bed of his own volition about 50% of the time.   Of course, when he does come down the steps on his own, he’ll stand at the bottom wagging his stub (tail) and looking at us as if to say, “Okay, I used your damn stairs, now where’s my treat??”. 

Oh well…I’ll take it!!  Maybe I should just give up and go with Grasshopper’s suggestion of a “doggie slide”!

So, Oscar sleeps in bed with us (please don’t tell Cesar Millan).  No, y’know what?  Go ahead and tell the Dog Whisperer, because having my pup snuggle up in the crook of my arm pit and fall asleep is one of my favorite parts of being a dog owner.  There, I’ve said it!

Anyway, Oscar can’t get into bed by himself, so when he wants to get in, he will just come around to the side of the bed, stand up on his hind legs and poke his head up as if to say, “Okay, I’m ready to join you.  Please pick me up now”.  If you don’t acknowledge him after 30 seconds or so, he will paw softly at the bed a few times, just to make sure you know that he’s there.  (Of course, you must not have seen him, because why else wouldn’t you already have come over and picked him up???)

That part is okay, it’s a little bit of a pain if he decides to hop out of bed to go get one last drink before bed or check out a noise when you’re already settled.  But, no biggie.  What makes me nervous is Oscar jumping OUT of bed.  Especially since he’s put on a few extra pounds this winter and he has such scrawny little legs.  I’ve been super worried that he’s going to hurt himself.

 So, I finally decided that since we’ve already broken all the “pack leader” rules in regards to the bed, we might as well get pet steps so at least the situation will be more safe and convenient.  Unfortunately, if you take a look at the options out there…pet steps are pretty crappy looking overall.  I was extremely hesitant to buy some cheap plastic or foam set of steps, especially since I’ve finally convinced my husband to exchange all of his terrible post-college hand-me-down furniture for some grown-up furniture!

So, I finally found Mr. Herzher’s Decorative Pet Steps and I think you’ll agree that they’re pretty good looking.

Unfortunately, they were pretty expensive ($99.99 for the 2-step model, $129.99 for the 3-step model) and not terrific quality.  One of the side panels was cracked in several places in the first set of steps that I ordered.  (Fortunately, since I ordered through Amazon, the exchange wasn’t too much of a hassle.)  You have to assemble the steps yourself and you definitely have to use the glue they provide - I tried to assemble without the glue at first and the steps rattled like crazy when Oscar ran up and down them.

Anyway, after a little hassle and a lot of dough, I think we have a solution that is safe for Oscar and looks okay.  But, I think there’s a huge opportunity for someone to come in and launch a competitive high-end pet step!

One last note…it’s so funny how Oscar keeps trying to revert back to his old ways of getting in and out of bed.  We showed him how to use the new steps by luring him with treats up and down, but he still keeps jumping off and coming over to the side of the bed to be picked up.  It’s been about a week and a half and I think he finally gets “UP”, but “DOWN” has really been a challenge!  We’re going to keep at it though!

If you’ve rescued or adopted a mixed breed dog, maybe you’re tired of having to answer “I don’t know” when friends or strangers ask what kind of dog you have.  Would you prefer to say, “My dog is primarily German Shepard & Samoyed, with traces of Clumber Spaniel, Labrador Retriever and Shetland Sheepdog.”?  Then we may have the perfect thing for you. 

There are at least two companies out there doing DNA testing of mixed breed dogs. 

Wisdom Panel MX Mixed Breed Analysis is available from Mars Veterinary.  For ~$200, you can go to a participating veterinarian who will take a small sample of blood for testing.  Within 2-3 weeks, you’ll receive a personal breed analysis for your dog.  Click here to see a sample breed analysis.  This method boasts the ability to identify 130 AKC breeds.  We checked a few zip codes in NY and there are a ton of vets who offer this service, maybe even your own vet.  Go to www.whatsmydog.com to check it out for yourself.

Or, if you looking for something a little less intrusive, you might want to try the Canine Heritage Breed Test from MetaMorphix Inc.  This test only requires you to send a cheek swab from your dog (no vet visit required) and the cost is $79.95.  Results are available 4-6 weeks after they receive your DNA cheek swab.  On the downside, MetaMorphix’s test can only identify 38 breeds, but if you suspect that your dog is one of the 38 common breeds in their database, then this might be a more cost effective option for you.

Check out this link to an article on dogchannel.com for more details on the two different techniques.  Either way, knowing what breeds your dog is made up of can help you to identify potential health risks.  It can also help you better understand your dogs behavior and identify what type of training and exercise might be most effective for your dog.

Everyone know that mutts are the most lovable dogs, but would it make them any less lovable to know what breeds are in their family tree?    I don’t think so…

We’re getting ready here in NY getting ready for the big game on Sunday! So for all you Giants fans - today’s post is just for you.

Now, your dog can support the Giants in the Super Bowl too!

You still have time to buy a Giants hat made for your dog over at Jake’s Dog House. When you walk your dog after Sunday, you can show off who won. And you can even hold them on a Giants leash!

I think that dressing up your dog is much less embarrassing than some alternatives:

We’d like to hear from you: do you think that the owners went too far by dying their dog blue for the Giants?

Go Giants!