Food Drive Saga & Beach

Well... hand feeding was short lived. I did it for several feedings and a few days but did not feel like there was a huge improvement in her food drive. She also wasn't finishing a complete meal (about 3/4s through she would get less interested and I could feel it/see it).

Breakfast is the worst time for her in terms of eating. I think it has something to do with not really being hungry even though she has fasted all night. Dinner time is usually not a struggle and I think that is because she has been active throughout the day and has worked up an appetite. I posed a question to dog friends/dog people asking how much I could feed in one sitting. Stuck needs 3-4 cups of food a day to gain or maintain weight. It's been a struggle to keep weight on her because of this food issue. She maintains for a while and then starts refusing meals and drops again. Anyway the general opinion and experience seems to be that it is okay to feed 3 cups of food in one sitting.

That being said, for two meals now I have fed Stuck 1 cup in the AM and 2 cups in the PM and so far she has eaten every meal. I am going to give this a try and if it doesn't work I will switch to feeding her once a day.


We are starting a Relationship and Engagement Class through Harmony Canine and I decided to boil some chicken for bait to see if she would eat it with more enthusiasm. Well, knock on wood, she really likes the chicken! She is luring and pushing into my hand and has even bitten me a few times trying to get the food (Hahaha, who knew I'd be happy about that?). I'm hoping this trend continues because it makes training a heck of a lot easier for me. I used the chicken today to work on chin rests, takes/holds for the retrieve, and also for working on teaching her to stand.

In other news, we went to the beach on Tuesday. I honestly cannot thing of a time I laughed so much. It ended up being Seppel's birthday that day (I hadn't planned it that way), I thought, what better of a way to celebrate my dog than to go have a fun day at the beach. Stuck had a great time. At one point we went to a beach that had a lot of logs/rocks to climb on. She didn't hesitate to get up onto things for me, it kind of made me feel good that she was willing to do those things for me. It's a very slow process but I feel like we are headed in a good direction as far as our relationship goes.

Half brother Detour

Stuck's sister Livid

Seriously, eat your damn breakfast!

Enough is enough and I am changing the way I do things when it comes to meals and Stuck.

I have always felt like meal time for my dogs is their time. I have never felt a need to make them work for their meals. That isn't to say I've never done it. A few times I have had them work for their dinner, but for the most part I let my dogs eat their meals in peace.

However, I have also always had dogs who would eat themselves until they exploded.

Unfortunately, that is not Stuck. Stuck will eat her food most of the time, but she is picky about treat rewards, she would rather work for a toy, and more often than not she will either skip breakfast or only eat part of it.

It sounds really stupid, but it drives me up the wall! I'm like, EAT YOUR FOOD!!!!!

SO, that being said, I tried something new yesterday that I am going to run with for a while and see how it goes. I am not going to feed her breakfast anymore. I will soak her food and feed her when I go on my lunch break and make her work for the meal. Yesterday she was extremely happy to work for the food and she ate the entire meal. I did the same thing for breakfast this morning and dinner tonight. Right now I am working on food luring, teaching her to roll over, and teaching her positions. It's a bit inconvenient depending on the day, but if anything I guess it helps encourage me to do even more with her.

I feel like a lot of people poo-poo malinois ownership. I know not every mal is like the dog that I have. I also know that she is a fairly easy dog compared to a lot of other Belgian Malinois, but, that being said, I never had to do this kind of thing with my other dogs. There is a lot that I have to do differently with her. I exercise and train her multiple times a day. My other two dogs Seth and LiLo don't need that. They can go days and days without exercise and right now I haven't been training either of them and they are just fine. They eat their meals without question. They will take any treat that I offer. I also discovered today that she will play on the springpole by herself. Seppel loved the springpole but would only play on it with me standing there watching him... I think it's a testament to the difference in drives and energy level. I am really glad she is willing to play with it on her own because it's something she can do outside while I am doing things outside too. I guess I'm just saying, a high drive dog is a huge commitment and you won't know what you're in for until your experience it. But don't blow off the experiences that other people have to share, because it can be helpful to you, I feel.

Now to go way off topic but I took hip and elbow x-rays on Stuck and sent them to OFA. They came back as good and normal. Today I took her to a health clinic and got her CAER/CERF and cardiac certifications. The CAER testing is only "good" for 12mos, but I did it just be sure that her eyes are totally normal - and they are. If I were to breed her in the future I would repeat the testing. Her heart screening came back normal too. At this point it looks like Stuck can do all the things!

Regroup and Rebuild

It has been a week and a half since Seppel passed away. I have good days and I have bad days. Unfortunately Stuck is caught in the middle of this.

To say it has been hard is an understatement. I battle not wanting to do anything daily. If I could crawl into a dark hole and hide there for forever, I would.

Most people when they lose a dog have time to grieve and think about things before getting another dog. With Stuck I feel like I am living with a new dog before I am ready to have a new dog. That's the best way I can describe it. We don't really have a relationship(because she is still new) and there are things about her that were more tolerable when Seppel was around.

That being said, I have a lot of really good dog friends who have kept me grounded.

Right now I am mostly working on building a relationship with Stuck. We are still training, but I am taking time specifically to just do things with her. It is hard because there are many days where I don't want to do anything but I have to because she needs it. In a way I am thankful for this because it makes me get out and do things. Inevitably we have a good time too, even if I wasn't feeling it at first.

It's not really Stuck's fault that I am in a funk. Grief is a really strange thing. If I were to give Stuck back (not happening) I would not go out and get another dog for some time. I love the sport of IPO too much to just give up. The logical side of me absolutely does not want to do that. However the sad side of me would like to give up a lot of things right now.

As far as Stuck goes, she's doing really well. I taught her a trick ("rewind" or reverse circle), she's getting really good at now. I took her to a dock diving competition where she was called for finals but we couldn't make it that day. We've been going to dock diving practice and she really enjoys it. Last weekend she was jumping 18ft.

Last week I took her to the beach for the first time with her sister and my friend Kay. She had a good time, we all did. I hope to take her back there soon.

 
I took her to 1000 acres park down near Corbett on the 4th of July. We met up with Lauren from Zoephee, they go to that park a lot and I was having a very terrible day. Lauren and her girls showed us around the park. I wouldn't normally go to a large "dog park" like that but Stuck is not dog aggressive and at this point is actually afraid of larger dogs, so everything went okay. We honestly didn't come into contact with many dogs other than Lauren's dogs (all of the girls ignored each other) because she took us in areas that were being less traveled that day. It was a good experience overall and I hope to take her back only because dogs are allowed to be off leash there.

I also bought Stuck a collar from Puppy Posh. You can see in the beach pictures her sister has one too. That was completely by accident... I guess the girls want to be twins:

 

I hope that in time Stuck and I will form a real relationship and that she can help fill the giant hole Seppel has left in my heart. All I can do is try. She is so different from having a bulldog. She is happy and eager but the energy is completely different. It's hard to explain without experiencing it for yourself, but she's just not the same. I do enjoy her and I enjoy working with her, but we have a really long way to go in developing our partnership. It doesn't really help that I am in the throws of grief right now, but I am making a conscious effort to try to build us up.