Big fun day this past Sunday!

Well I had such a fabulous time that I totally stunk at taking pictures and video!  So, to see what all the fun was about read the two blog entries below.  Both of these blogs are written by foster parents who attended the workshop:
 New Rattitude NW Team Tries TTouch 
Intro to TTouch workshop

 

Four NR foster parents made the trek to Vashon Island to learn from the best - you all know her if you follow my blog Lori Stevens. D'light and Gramercy came along as did NR foster boy Cody!  Gramercy spent a lot of time sitting with foster parent Candace, so he was in 7th heaven.  Thank you to Northwest School of Animal Massage for hosting a great workshop.

 

While we all had a lot of fun, the four of us walked away with a ton of great information and new skillls that will help many of our foster dogs.  I will say for being a bunch of volunteers I love the dedication by all our northwest volunteers to learn new things and push our own skill set and knowledge.

Foster parent Blair (left) senior TTouch Practitioner Lori Stevens (center) and NR foster parent Candace (right) learing a TTouch

Foster parent Janell doing some TTouch on Gramercy while he relaxes in my lap. 

 

Gramercy giving foster parent Blair one of his famous kisses!

Gramercy exhausted from all the kisses and loves.  He was a giver and taker!

D, the next day dreaming of all the touches!

 

And if anyone was wondering what Catty was up to... She and her dad had a relaxing morning & then they went for 6.5 mile walk.   A perfect day for Miss Catty girl!










 

The question I always get asked...

How can you foster and not want to keep them all.  And what I often say that is this isn't about me.  I foster to help wonderful dogs find great, loving homes.  Do I feel some sadness when they go to their forever home - of course I do.  But, that little bit of sadness is mixed with a huge amount of happiness.  You have to remember that these dogs wouldn't have lived had there not been a foster spot for them. Not only have we had the pleasure of getting to know and help many amazing dogs - we get to see and hear about their bright and full lives. 

Below is an update on our foster boy named Reynvaan - now Rain. This sweet guy was on last call due to no shelter space.  I feel a tremendous amount of joy for this boy who was rescued and is very loved by his family.  Happy life to you sweet Rain!

 

Here's the email from Rain's mom:

 

Rain went on his first camping trip last weekend! It was soooo exciting.... He got to play on the beach, go for hikes, sit around the campfire (taking turns on different laps), smell very interesting smells, get close to a chipmunk, sleep in a pop-up camper with his family, and much more ! He even rolled around in a field of flowers and got adorned with a daisy chain !  Watching his family canoe was hard work though! He never took his eyes off whoever was on the water... a rattie has to make sure everyone is ok!

 

Rain in his daisy chain

In the pop-up camper with his family



Sitting around the campfire with his family



Fun on the beach
 

"On a coffee run"

The whole family!

Having fun!

What a happy life for Rain - thank you to his family!

Gramercy, the boy who makes chores a bit more enjoyable

I usually put all the dogs away when vacuuming.  But I was doing laundry and my husband started on vacuuming the stairs.   As you can see Gramercy likes to be in the thick of what's going on.

"Watcha doing foster dad..."

"This thing is weird"

"But not too bad as my tail will tell you..."

 

"Oh I love to give kisses for hard work done well!"

 

Ready for a nap!

"Chores are exausing!" 

So many names...

Sweet G, Grambles, "G",  Grammers, Gram-man are just a few of this sweet boy's nicknames.  He doesn't care what you call him as long as he gets loves from you! 

Oh and he LOVES to give love too!

The above picture was taken at a rattie meet up and what you don't see is that the photographer got a face full of kisses for Mr. Loves.



Here I am getting some kisses from Sweet G!



 

So what to do with the food? Part 4 of 4

If you as the human are still fretting that your dog isn't getting enough food here's some things you can do to enrich your dog's eating experience.

1) Go to amazon and type in interactive dog toys and purchase a feeder for your pup

 

 

2) Don't want to buy a feeder, no problem - go find some boxes
 

 

The above boxes were easy for ubber smart  Gramercy!  Below we tried a harder box.  Gramercy says "No problem".  If you have a nervous/shy/fearful dog always use easy boxes and work up. This is about having fun so, make sure your dog has fun.

 

3) Don't have any boxes, no problem - play find it!  

What I really like about the game of find it is that it's interactive with you. I can guarantee that your dog will love this more than a big bowl of food.
 

 

While dogs like to eat, what I've come to understand is that many of them like a challenge and YOU can help them with this during meal time. 
 

Gramercy waiting to work for his food

Does all of this take some work - of course it does. But, think of how much happier your dog will be with the simple changes in this series of posts. 

I can guarantee you that your dog won't think you are cheating him or her out of food.  If anything it will be the opposite as your pup will feel better at their ideal weight.  And you've given your pup something that works their brain and they've connected and interacted with you.

 

What's a 1/4 cup of kibble? Part 3 of 4

For many dogs the culprit of being over weight is portion control and that's on us, the humans. In this fast paced world, it's easy to just toss food in a bowl or feeder and move on. We do this with a guess and hope for good enough. We often error on the side of too much. 

 

Or we may measure but then mindlessly offer treats and lets face it, no one turns down a treat.  Many of us don't account for those "treat" calories.  This quickly increases a waistline on a pretty small dog. This is a mistake I've made with my own rattie!

 

A quarter measuring cup - every dog household should have one!

 

 

A level 1/4 cup of kibble

A "scoop" of a 1/4 cup of kibble

                                       



 Above is the amount of kibble Gramercy eats twice a day.  As you can see, it's less then 1/4 cup. He eats this amount as we are still working on getting some weight off of him and I'm factoring in his calories from the bully sticks he chews on and the 1/2 tsp of raw coconut oil in his meal.

 

 

Now, the above pictures may not look like that much of a difference in the amount of kibble. BUT it's actually a significant difference and those extra kibble calories add up fast.  I think it's easy for us to forget (me included) that we have small dogs - many between 7 and 15lbs they don't need a lot of calories.

 

The bowl on the far left is the "scoop" it contains 84 pieces of kibble.  

The center bowl is the what Gramercy eats, it contains 32 pieces of kibble. 

The bowl on the far right is the level 1/4 cup amount and it contains 56 pieces of kibble

 

So, you do the math and think about those extra calories at each meal that your dog could be consuming.  No big surprise why we may accidental end up with a chubby tubby dog.

 

 

The really great news is that because our dogs are small and don't need a lot of food, we can feed them high quality food!  There are some great choices out there that include high quality kibble, high quality canned, dehydrated and raw.

 

Wondering how the quality of your food ranks look here:  dog food reviews

 

Here's a link on why feed grain free food

 

 

 

Gramercy's weight loss - Part 2 of 4

So you may ask - what are we doing to help Gramercy lose weight? 

 

The biggest thing is portion control!  This includes everything that Gramercy ingests - food, bones and treats. Everything needs to be calculated.  While exercise is important to aide dogs losing weight remember Gramercy couldn't exercise very much due to his spine issue and he still lost weight.

 

People often get concerned that a dog will "feel sad" if he doesn't eat a lot and I think if Gramercy could talk he would tell you that while he doesn't get big portions of food - what he does get a body that doesn't hurt.  His mood is brighter since he's lost weight and he has greater mobility.  We often forget that being overweight can really impact a dog's mental health because they just don't feel good.   Think about how your body and mind feel when you loose 4lbs and we are all bigger than 15lbs!

 

Below are two excellent video's by Dr. Karen Becker that I urge everyone to watch:

 

How to Help Your Chunky Dog Release Excess Pounds

 

Why heavy dogs are becoming the norm

"Yes, this tasty duck foot counts towards my daily calorie count!"