Who needs a shedding comb...

When you've got teeth! Hahah, it's the bit of Simon fluff between his jaws that I thought was funny as heck. Silly puppy.

Warmin' up!

It's been pouring rain here for the last few days - today was the first day where it was actually dry and sunny for a minute. I keep hoping it will clear up a little just so that a) the arena isn't soup, and b) that I can go run the dogs on the back trail without Corgis being coated in mud. Simon has lost a fair amount of weight and toned up, but I'd like to see him do a little more...

I really need to go buy myself a good blower for drying the dogs. I had one, but I left it it back at the kennel when we moved out of that building. Sigh. Anyone out there have a good blower they can recommend at this point? Simon's coat is so thick, drying him is an all day experience without one.

Not A Corgi!

However, my dear mare is as obnoxious as one at times. Blondie puts anything in her mouth she can reach; and carries it right out of the barn. I've caught her running off with my gloves, my helmet, my crop, her bridle, rakes -- you name it, if she can steal it when my back is turned, it's gone. She hordes these little things in her haybucket and her stall; honestly, I'm just glad she can't dig holes, or I'm sure she would be burying anything she can reach for later!

... she does like Caleb, though. Caleb has no fear of her either, so she's all excited that the puppy will actually sit (both pets supervised) to be sniffed and nuzzled. Caleb just likes tasting her nose. She's always loved dogs, so she's had her feelings hurt a few times that none of mine want to go and visit her. Instead, they hide in the Volvo with big wide eyes as she pokes her nose into the window. ;)

Wish I was at Nationals...

I also wish it wasn't raining. It's actually pouring sideways here again, sigh. Don't get me wrong, I love the rain, but Simon and Caleb are totally bored. Simon when he's bored just flops in a corner and sighs.

Caleb, on the other hand, starts looking for things to destroy as quickly as possible. It's never a good sign when you say, "Put that down! Take it out of your mouth," for the umpteenth time. He's really a cute guy though - he actually came and snuggled with me and the cats for an hour on the sofa last night, and the cats didn't mind him, since he was radiating heat like a little striped water bottle.

He's really pretty, though. Both him and Simon draw people wherever we go.

Pudge Pudge, go away...

Riles and Simon, tossin' each other down in the pasture at my friend's farm. Riley's undercarriage is what this post is about - well, his underbelly, anyway!

I just have to share this because I've been fighting this for Riley's whole life.

Riley is fat. Obese, really. He's weighed as high as 42 pounds once. I feel bad for him because people constantly make fun of him, poor guy. My vet was sure it was a thyroid issue - his heart beat is slow, his temp a few degrees below normal, etc... but nine hundred bucks later, there's not a darn thing wrong with him. (Well, at least not that. There's a hundred other things wrong with him. Yay puppy mill rescue dog! Not.)

He's just Zen. My vet has the same sense of humor I do and dryly remarked that in case of the apocalypse, I am to save him to eat last, he'll be the one who stays nice and fat off of twigs, leaves, and rocks.

I put him on literally 1/4 cup of a light kibble a day and green beans and pumpkin for nearly a year, and we got down to -- drumroll---

38.8 lbs. And there we've sat. We walk a mile or more a day, throw the ball for fetch. He does not get handfuls of treats, etc. We have been on every diet, every exercise program, everything we could possibly think of. Mind you, I cannot feed him a raw food diet, which my vet recommended and I would have liked to do... he always got horribly ill on it, to the point where one morning I had to rush him to the vet because he literally got out of my car to go to work and I found his feathers soaked in blood, where he'd been fine ten minutes before.

Well, thanks to the folks I met at the herding trial who mentioned that Simon was getting slightly heavy (and I was only feeding Simon 3/4 a cup, split during the day) I went into a "dog must lose weight and tone up for show" for Simon - I've pretty much given up on Riles.

One of my customers had her Shepherd on Sojo's Europa, and said she finally had to take him off because he couldn't keep the weight on. I sell it, but I honestly hadn't used it before because of Riley's stomach issues - several of my people here had. So, I thought, oh, what the heck, let's try it. One of the things I liked is that they gave the okay to use cooked meats, as long as you add a multivitamin and other additives, like yogurt and cottage cheese, etc... I also add a probiotic supplement and digestive enzymes.

Switched Simon, Caleb, and Piper over pretty fast and no problems. Shockingly enough, so did Riley, with no issues whatsoever. I've had them on it since the trial, and we've been doing our regular activities... Simon's really toning up fast, and he looks WAY better, gah! Way better! Caleb's full and isn't begging and being a shark, and looks great. Piper of course, has always been a lean, mean, Corgi machine, and yet even she looks more toned.

Today, at work, one of my employees mentioned that she thought Riley had lost weight. I was like, nah... nah, he's still an ottoman.

However, they convinced me to put him on the scale and -- Riley has lost nearly two pounds! He is at 37 lbs. I am just shocked. He looks good, he's not gotten sick. The only downside is that because of the added water, he's having more of his other physical urinary issues, but frankly, a wet mop on Pergo is worth two pounds...

I'd like to get ten off of him. That's a reasonable goal, I think. I just hope this keeps working - the dogs look good, they're full and satiated, and frankly, I'd eat the darn Sojos mix. It smells like good soup. Really good soup.

Okay, I might just have to try it. *grin*

Woof!

Went riding today, and it was a good ride. My mare's getting way more responsive under saddle; now it's my turn to get way more responsive on top of it, poor girl. We did get a couple of good stops in, where I just shifted my weight and sat back in the saddle, said "whoa" and she halted without a touch on the reins. She's just a lovely, lovely horse, wow.

Caleb sat with me in the barn (tied on his lead) for a while and played with a tuft of horse-hair. He's such a goof. He has no fear of the horses, so I'm trying to teach him respect for her - just to make sure he doesn't think going close to any of her hooves is intelligent. She likes dogs, and I never let my dogs run loose at the barn or around the horses, but better to be safe than sorry if something were to accidentally happen.

Drivin' the tractor...

Simon was helping at a friend's farm today, putting up fencing. He's all proud of himself, he can drive the tractor. At least he thinks he can!

(I wish the focus was better on this, I loved his expression.)