Working Like a Dog - Page 1

Mojo makes a good supervisor! 😄

Atta boy. Keep those guys in line. LOve it. Thx for sharing...NAn

Thanks Nan! Here is Beau, doing his internship. Supervisor in training! ⚠️

 

Wow, Beau became a tank! They seem to be a good team! 

Yeah, his daddy was something big and barrel-shaped, loose skinned, but thick and soft. Oh, and at least carried a dilute gene, and with floppy ears! Sounds like a donkey! LOL

He weighed in at 98 lbs. @ 3 years. Maybe he could lose a lb. or two, to get into fighting form, as he will help himself to Mojo's bowl of food if no one is paying attention, and if Mojo isn't interested. Mojo is a connoisseur about his food. He only wants the best of what is his daily caloric intake and will selectively wait for those special opportunities of gastronomy.

Funny thing is, Mojo first has to walk away for Beau to make his move as the bowl cleaner. Even if we give them both a dog biscuit, and Mojo spits it out for any reason, Beau will then spit his out, too! When Mojo walks away, we tell Beau, it's OK! You can eat yours! Never mind Mojo! Then he'll get around to eating it, because really that is what he wants to do! Beau idolizes Mojo, for the most part. Sharing attention, sometimes he can be a bit pushy. But yeah, they are a good team!

Starting to shed now, so that just might result in a loss of a few pounds!

Yeah, Beau is carrying too much extra...now that winter is nearing it's end, hopefully he'll run them off. [No offense intended, bee, but since Mithuna is repeatedly told by me that his young bitch is too heavy and it's bad for her health overall, I didn't feel I should ignore Beau's barrel of a barrel, lest I be accused of favoritism.]

That aside, I am loving the two of them supervising the work for you...hey, if anyone knows how to dig, it's certainly a dog, so it's quite fitting that they keep an eye on the project!

Gardening? [looks out window at snow drifting down for at least the 3rd time this week...feels envious.]

[sigh...]

This has been a strange winter!   Most of our heavy snowfall and other nastiness (ice storm) have come at a time when normally the worst is over. Up until then, it was an exceptionally mild winter!

But one thing all Canadians know is spring in Canada pays NO attention to the calendar whatsoever!

I think a vast majority of American pets carry too much weight. That said...it must be quite the uphill battle to keep Beau at fighting weight. IIRC, he was neutered as a tiny puppy, so he has never had "normal" metabolism, never developed the fat-burning musculature of an intact dog or even a dog neutered after full physical maturity. Not saying it's impossible or that Bee shouldn't try to get him to lose a few pounds- just saying I can sympathize with the difficulty of keeping him lean and mean. But it sure would be good for him in the long run to say as lean as possible since he does have the disadvantage of puppyhood neutering working against him (ACL tears, etc...lots of things are more prevalent in prematurely neutered animals). BTW, Hexe- accused of playing favorites isn't nearly the worst Mithuna might hurl at you if irked. I was called a "f'ing hoodrat" and a "stupid p.o.s." 

Wow! I, too, have had the P.O.S. thrown at me...well, not at me personally but at one of my dogs, which probably made it hurt more. (And it wasn't by Mithuna.)

Welcome to the club, Jenni! This board is not for the easily offended.

Speaking of weight - took my old guy to the vet's last week, on what I thought might be a one-way trip. He's just shy of 26", and .... I couldn't believe it! He weighed in at only 68 lbs.!

If you feel his ribcage, he's not bony. There's a nice bit of padding over the ribs, and, of course, I want to keep him lean due to his mobility problems. (Not just for his sake, either - lifting 68 lbs. into my SUV was not easy!)

When I told the vet, he nodded and said, "It's due to muscle loss."

Anyway, I decided to give one of the newer NSAIDs a try and it has helped quite a bit (Onisor, I think it's called.)

Let me start off saying, I am not offended by any one thinking Beau could lose a few pounds, as I think the same thing!

I am sure with the current reduction in food quantity, and the warmer weather coming, it will surely encourage more outdoor activities. I am confident soon enough, we will see some more definition of ribs. He's full of muscle, that dog, covered in a loose skin. Mojo is more lithe, and wirey muscled in comparison, at 9 and 1/2 years and 83.5 lbs.

Jenny is correct in that he was snipped at a very wee age, not exactly how I wanted it to happen, but somethings just can not be undone! I think she is right, and I can believe there is a different metabolism to my dogs, whatever the cause. It also probably didn't help that the kid feeding him was overfilling the bowl, and I'm not sure how long that went on before I caught on.

Mojo is so different, he will leave food in a bowl, if he is full. Beau, nope, once he's got Mojo's approval to eat, he'll just eat every bit until it is gone. Seeing as we are just getting over winter and a little extra cushion does provide some benefit from the cold, I wasn't too worried about it. Beau absolutely loves to hang outside, he'd probably stay outside all day if I let him whatever the weather.

Hey, at least my dogs manage to get off the couch and never go down to the basement! Added as a clarification since I managed to get the Mithuna name mentioned in this thead! Lol. 

Now, still, just to be fair to Beau, I felt I needed to take another shot with a much flattering and truer view of his unique form!