Yes, I am alive! So is Mr Knightley!

1 year 1 month old

Woah, so long since I did my last post! I am sorry my devoted (and not so devoted) readers! That will at least change when we find a new puppy. This will be my least posting month for over a year. Shocking.

There are four or so reasons I have been so tardy in my postings. Firstly I continue to be pretty rocked by the whole situation of 'losing' Knightley in that way, and then losing the choice of that last litter was upsetting too! It is hard to find another litter that I am happy with. Secondly, not much has been happening really. I do some training with Knightley but probably not as much as I should, and no where near as much as I was doing. In a way I'm just waiting for the new pup. Thirdly, I've had a nasty bout of laryngitis for the last week, although antibiotics have helped me get over it much faster than I would have otherwise. And lastly, I have been doing a LOT of work on my Oz Working Dogs stuff, specifically the website. I used to work in the website industry quite a few years ago and my skills are very rusty, but they have been just enough for the package I have been using. Unfortunately my skills are extremely out of date. However, if I was to pay for the site I now have to be done professionally it would cost thousands of $$.

I also now advertise on Google for Oz Working Dogs, and Facebook, and that takes some time as I learn those ropes. On that topic though, go to the Oz Working Dogs Facebook Page and like me! You'll get discounts from being a friend of OzWD and can keep up with new products.

Knightley with his head chopped off in my new no pull
harness. It comes only in black - apart from the handle which
is red and black and quite sturdy and semi rigid. This was my
prototype and I am going to change the design a little but by
and large I am extremely happy with it. The straps are wide
enough to sew patches to.

In addition to vests, capes and harnesses I am selling all sorts of other bits and pieces now, from leather collars and leads, to Musher's Secret (protective paw wax), treat pouches, clickers, dog whistles and more. You gotta check it out for yourself to see! I've also developed my own no pull harness, which also doubles as a working harness. It has a handle, and O ring on the back, and is made of wide belt material. I'm also soon going to be selling patches from my site, which for many Aussies will be a great relief I am sure as they are very hard to get in this country.

So you can see why that has been taking up a good deal of my time. I very much enjoy developing new products, especially ones that work well and I can use! I have stopped using my Easy Walk harness in favour of my own.... not because I just want to use my own stuff, but because it works better for us. Actually I should come up with a cool name for it. I find the versatility of it makes it much more useful. We use the handle to help him up into the car, and I use the back O ring quite a bit, such as on his Flexi, which you don't want to do on the front O ring.

Another photo of my working no pull harness.

Knightley continues on his supplements and by and large is doing ok, but we overdid it a couple of weeks back and he limped out of the dog park. Very upsetting to see but it's hard to manage so he doesn't get himself to that level. I am a little worried about his elbows now too. His hips are cracking regularly and I thought I had heard his elbows occasionally cracking too but it's hard to ascertain which joint is cracking sometimes... but tonight he was on hubby's lap (and mine too partially, he's a looonnggg dog!) and hubby said his elbow definitely cracked. Sigh, here's hoping he doesn't have elbow dysplasia too.

He had a new meal tonight as part of his raw feeding diet - wallaby tail! It was a big hit. Sometimes I give him a large amount of meat and let him 'self regulate', ie eat as much as he thinks he needs and then he'll stop when he has had enough and I'll remove the rest. So I put down 1kg (2.2lbs) of wallaby tail tonight and it all went! And this was AFTER having maybe 200g (a little under 1/2 a lb) of pork earlier. So it seems wallaby tail is a go. It is important when feeding raw that you give your dog as much variety as possible, and wallaby is something very new.

I probably shouldn't have given him that much when giving a new meat for the first time - but there was a lot of bone in the meal and bone is a constipating factor so it should take care of any runs that may eventuate. I think I'll try to source some entire kangaroo tails. These wallaby tails were chopped up - not so small that Knightley would choke, but smaller than I liked. I would love some entire roo tails, although freezing them could be a challenge!!!! I am assuming you know what a wallaby is by the way. It is similar to a kangaroo, just smaller with different colouring. Some are endangered, but some are not. That is why a larger roo tail would be even better, if I can find them somewhere. Surely a farmer somewhere must want to get rid of some tails? So long as he took the skin off first though........ lol.

A photo from last year up at the snow. We were
at the very end of the ski season last year hence
the patchy cover. I had been looking forward to
seeing the surrounds with a proper dump of snow
on them.... but oh well. Everyone gets sick but I
can't risk getting sicker. Next year hopefully!

One major annoyance from being sick was the big snow trip I had been looking forward to was off the cards for me. Hubby went up without me, and it was really really snowy this year. I am sorry I missed it. I was pretty ill though, and my parents had planned to take care of Knightley while we were freezing our butts off at the snow, so they ended up taking Knightley for two nights anyway. So I was extremely lonely all weekend without my pup and my hubby. It was great having both of them back, although it was right having Knightley leave while I was pretty under the weather..... I was really too sick to look after him. My parents seem to have got on well with him, so it's good to know there is always someone who can take care of him if needed. He can be a bit troublesome, but he is a lovable dog when all  is said and done.

I am still trying to find another litter to temperament test for a new puppy but it is easier said than done. Of course there is always the option of straying away from the Golden Retriever breed....... but well, I would rather wait. I have my reasons, and I love them too!

Anyway readers, take a look at the OzWD site, and let me know if there are any products that need adding, or ones I could develop. I'm going to have a go at for both my vests and for normal guide dog harnesses. Is there anything else the assistance/service dog world needs?

Take care all. I'll try to post more often.

Knightley 10 months old, new sleeping arrangements, hip injections and deposit on car!

10 months old

Well I usually get photos on the day of every month birthday, but today was just a bit too busy! I'll try to get some tomorrow. It seems sooo short between each month birthday, it seems only a week or at the most two since I was saying he was 9 months old. He neeeeeeearly lifted a leg when peeing against a tree today. My boy really is growing up. He also has new sleeping arrangements as of tonight. For the first couple of months of his life with us he slept closed in his crate, then after that we graduated to sleeping in a rather large pen (because he liked chewing things and destroying things a little too much... just loves things in his mouth - still does), and then today graduated to having the kitchen and dog/dining area to himself every night. It's extremely neat tonight, which is certainly important for the first night so he doesn't get into something on the first night and get into a habit after that. The main reason it's perfect in its neatness, and the reason I decided to make the change now, is that we have a rental inspection tomorrow (usually every 6 months, but it will be 9.5 months this time) and I wanted to put away the pen. When I went to check on Knightley after finishing cleaning the bathrooms to a soft gleam (! or trying, as far as rental houses can be pushed towards gleaming!) he was lying virtually in the middle of the floor, but I kind of expect him to be in his crate when we come out in the morning.... that is usually where he is in the morning.

It's just totally amazing how fast he has grown up. People who meet him when we are doing our public access training no longer recognise him as a puppy, although they often realise he is on the young side. When I tell them he is nearly 10 months old they are amazed how big he is (I don't really think he is big! compared to some other breeds he is rather medium sized!) and how well behaved he is for a puppy. If only they could see him when he grabs some contraband!! Still, he is a darling pup. Only two more months and we'll be getting hip x-rays which will tell us his future with me and whether he can truly be a working assistance dog. Unfortunately Golden Retrievers have quite bad hips, and while I am doing what I can to end up with good hips on Knightley, you can never know.

Anyway, today I had a couple of injections into my 'bad' hip, my right hip. Last time I had this done I was virtually immobile for a week.... I woke up the day after the injections and could barely move my leg. The injections were painful today, and they also did a nerve block for the first time, so we'll see what happens there.... but if they help this time, it'll be worth it. I expected to barely be able to clean the house tonight because of my hip but it has been ok, as long as I don't stay still for too long because then I start to seize up. It could be very bad tomorrow. I got a call from the place I work/volunteer and they are begging me to come in tomorrow as there has been a crisis and we have an important event coming up on the weekend. Rather stupidly I said yes, so I am quite sure I will need a wheelchair. It isn't going to be a very wheelchair friendly office, but I'll cope. I find it very hard to say no when people actually *want* me. It is something I have to work on - saying no for the sake of my health.

In case your missed the photo in my last blog post, our new
car! Plenty of room for dog face (my loving name for Knightley!)
in the wagon part. The car is in good nick although I would have
rathered a few less kms on the clock, but we don't expect it to last
forever - just until my hubby gets some well deserved raises at
work over the next couple of years! The car is exactly what we
wanted though. Definitely want to take it on a weekend away!

After the hip injections hubby and I and my parents went to the other side of town to check out the car we were interested in again (a used car, see previous post for details). To cut a long story short, we have put a deposit on it, and are buying it!!! It's 'our' first car, and has plenty of room for passengers, and Knightley too as it's a stationwagon. It's fitted out for a roof-rack as well, so we may look into that too for flexibility. Anyway, it has a few easily fixed minor issues, so we will be picking it up on Thursday arvo (Monday night now) when everything is fixed. The only problem is because it's a stationwagon, to go in the wagon part Knightley will have to really jump and he is *SOOO* bad at jumping lol. He can't jump into the back seat of a normal sedan - he sort of pulls himself up. I know it's partly a puppy thing... but hopefully he will learn to jump soon. He actually can jump quite well when he wants to, so we just have to harness that. Maybe big chunks of beef heart (his favourite) in the back after fasting him for a day!

Speaking of fasting for a day.... I mentioned in my last post that Knightley had had a bad tummy. I decided to fast him for a day to let his stomach settle down. It's always a good move to make, it means that any last diarrhea can make its way out and it also means you won't irritate the stomach again before it's ready. Bone if good to stop the runs, so I wanted to feed chicken+bone with large percentages of bone tonight, but the silly hubby forgot to get the chicken wings I asked him to, and we have no chicken in the freezer. He did however get a nice cheap pork leg roast - so Knightley got a smallish serving of that with the leg bones. Leg bones of the larger ruminants - cow, deer etc are not safe to raw feed as they can break your dogs teeth. However, small animals like rabbit and chicken are absolutely fine, and so is everything up to pig and sheep. Try to cut down on fat when your dog's stomach is upset too, just feed chicken or turkey. If you can't feed those, pork is the next best choice. My poor boy was obviously very hungry, and like usual it was great to see him happily gnawing and crunching away, but we'll see how his stomach is tomorrow.

Anyway, tomorrow I need to get up early to do some finishes to the house, so it's sleep time for me. Cross fingers for me that I can actually walk! Wish I could take Knightley to the office already for his retrieve, dropping things in a wheelchair is going to the awkward as I'm usually with a family member when I'm in the chair......