April Outtakes: Titanic Week

As a lover of historical events (though not exactly a fan of history as a whole), and as the sister to an amateur vessel photographer, I went up to Staten Island's North Shore, which looks out towards New York City, to watch a ship commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's ill-fated sole voyage depart from New York Harbor.

Naturally, Marge tagged along, and every photo I took mirrored those that my sister took, except for the fact that Marge was present in mine, but not in hers.  While they were the focal point of my sister's images, for me, the ships provided a backdrop for my lovely dog!

We were also shown on the New York Harbor Webcam, waving to hundreds of people streaming the cam live from their homes as they watched the ship set sail.  Anything for a little publicity for my gal.

(The man in the image is the person who owns the company that streams these cams from popular ports.  Tracking and watching ships is apparently a hobby, much the way I go plane spotting.  My dad looked on somewhat quizzically as all of this went down, but it was all in good fun.)

The week also included not one, but two trips to go see 1997 film, Titanic, during its re-release in theaters.  Yes, I am a Leo fan.  No, that doesn't have much to do with this blog, so I'll stop right there!

Why Hello There

Yes, it seems that three weeks have slipped by without a single blog post from little old me.  As I sit in my bed at just past 1 AM on this dreary, rainy night, I think it's finally time for a little update!

The first week in April, we went to one of my favorite trials, a two-day event about forty five minutes away.  MargeDog and I were lucky enough to get to stay in my friend's new RV (she literally traded in her smaller one and bought this new one only about 48 hours before the trial!).

I won't post everything from the trial since it was so long ago, but we had two nice runs in Standard (including one where we NQ'd on the second to last obstacle, and another where our only mistake was the weave poles), one wonky Jumpers run on a super hard course, and one clean Jumpers run for Marge's fifth MXJ leg out of ten needed.

We had a lovely run and the course played extremely well to Marge's running style, but encountered a bit of trouble at the back tunnel.  Some judges call a tunnel entry like that as a fault, and some do not.  I have been on both the winning and losing side of that call.. and that day, I was on the winning side.  Lucky.

I also ran Spirit, the Golden Retriever, to her AXJ, while her mom was at a bridal shower, and had a smoking run with Arrow, but bars came down.  We got to watch Amy and Layla earn their AXJ as well.

Anyway.. now to a bit more modern times!  Today, Sunday, I had a 1-day agility trial way out in Long Island, about an hour and forty five minutes away.  Rain was in the forecast and I strongly deliberated about not going, but Louie and I took a chance on it.

We got through the morning without much weather trouble.  Thankfully, when it was my turn in the ring in Standard, no rain was falling.  I always hate to run Standard in the rain, since I don't think Marge likes climbing on wet obstacles.  Fortunately, it wasn't an issue.

She had an absolutely beautiful Standard run.  I really liked her speed, her focus, everything.  Her teeter looked wonderful and it was so quick that it actually took me by surprise a bit (hence the botched front cross!).  We managed a Q for 15 MACH points, putting our total number of points at 55.  Only 695 to go!




With a double Q on the line, I decided to stick around for Jumpers.  The rain was really starting to come down, but since there were no contact obstacles involved, I didn't mind giving a run in the rain a try.

Marge was quite animated outside of the ring, barking and jumping, so she didn't appear to be too bothered by the weather.  When she got in the ring, she was definitely moving at a snail's pace, but picked things up a lot at the end.

We didn't qualify, because I didn't support the double after the weaves and she didn't even think of taking it.  She also went in the wrong end of the tunnel at the end of the course.




Oh well.  I appreciated her effort, since I know running in the rain isn't her most favorite thing in the world, so she got a whole snack baggie full of meatballs and chicken after the run.

Well, I've got lots more to update about, but I'll save it for another post.

Review: MrChewy.com!

I was thrilled to be asked last week to do a review of MrChewy.com, an online dog and cat food website.

From what I hear, Mr. Chewy is a pretty popular guy and many bloggers have met him already.  But, if you don't know the basic facts about Mr. Chewy, here they are:

• They boast a selection of 70+ dog and cat food brands
• They offer free shipping on orders over $49 
• They donate to pet charities like Best Friends Animal Society and Bide-A-Wee for every new customer referred
• They will gladly accept items back up to 1 year (365 days) since the date of sale.

Here are some of my thoughts on my shopping experience on MrChewy.com.  I was given a $50 gift certificate to use to buy items in exchange for my review, and that is the only way in which I was compensated for this review.

Site Layout

The site layout is plain and clean, with no advertisements and simple menus.  From the second you log on to the page, you can tell that MrChewy is clear in their focus to serve dog and cat owners.  I think the narrower focus is a good thing - companies that try to cater to every type of animal couldn't possibly stock a large array of brands and items.

They have lots and lots of different sorting options, ranging from sorting items by brand to sorting them by the form of the food (dry, canned, etc.).  This is definitely appreciated, as there would have been NO way for me to navigate through the 70+ brands without sorting them all different ways as I decided what I wanted to splurge on.

I would have liked to see an option for sorting by main ingredient or protein source, but I accomplished what I wanted just as easily by entering "duck" in the search bar.  Up popped all of the duck-containing products on the website.

The verdict? No major complaints about the site layout.  Lots of menus for sorting things is essential when so many different items are stocked. I would welcome seeing additional optional sorting menus as well.

Product Offerings

Now, let's get to the meat and potatoes (no pun intended) of what Mr. Chewy sells.  There is a lot of stuff on there.

My goal was to buy lots of different things to try rather than taking the easy way out and stocking up on Marge's or Layla's food.  I was pretty successful in that regard, because of the six items I purchased, five were things I had never tried before.. mostly because many of them aren't carried consistently in the pet stores here.  

After several hours of perusing (yes, I am a VERY careful shopper), I decided to buy the following products:

• PureBites Freeze Dried Duck Treats
• Stella & Chewy Carnivore Crunch Duck, Duck, Goose Flavor Cat and Dog Treats
• Sojos Good Dog Treats, Blueberry Cobbler Flavor
• Stella & Chewy Freeze Dried Chicken Patties
• Nature's Variety Instinct Grain-Free Duck & Turkey Dry Dog Food
• Merrick Wishbone Treat

The first four aren't carried in the pet stores I frequent (and I live in NYC, for goodness sake, so I can't imagine my rural readers see a lot of these brands).  The fifth is carried sparingly (and when it is carried, it's EXTREMELY expensive), and the sixth item I purchased with the last few dollars of my gift certificate.

Overall, their selection of brands is pretty exhaustive.  They stock lots and lots of high-end kibbles, including Orijen, Taste of the Wild, Nature's Variety, and Wellness.  I was tempted to buy and try a lot of them. They also carry some dehydrated raw products from Stella & Chewy and The Honest Kitchen.  These are all well known, well respected brands, and I was excited to get to try them.

The treat selection is endless.  Zuke's, Natural Balance, and lots of gourmet/raw brands I had never heard of before.  I left the site wishing $50 could buy it all!

The prices on all of this stuff were very competitive, some of them beating the pet store prices by a pretty significant margin.

As I continued browsing, I did see some supermarket brands... Iams, Beneful, Pedigree.. even a couple of products made in China.  I didn't appreciate that these brands were being sold alongside their much-higher-quality counterparts.  This made me question the focus or mission of MrChewy.com a little bit.  I understand that their goal is to have a large selection of brands, but if they dropped the crummy brands and let the supermarkets handle those, perhaps they could have an even larger supply of high-quality foods.  Maybe they could consider stocking pre-made frozen raw and not just dehydrated raw (since I can't find frozen raw in ANY of the stores around here).  I'm sure those who live in rural or secluded areas and want to feed their pets high-quality diets would really appreciate another online buying option.

Still, virtually every large pet food company sells this type of stuff.. so I certainly wouldn't hesitate to order from them because of it.  I am a careful consumer and check the ingredients and country of origin of everything I buy for my pets, regardless of what site it comes from, and I urge everyone to do the same.

My verdict on product choices? There's tons to choose from, including lots of top-notch brands and a plethora of different treats, but I think Mr. Chewy needs to drop the stuff that's packed with corn and fillers and can be picked up at just about any store.  Replace the supermarket foods with even more offerings in grain-free and raw diets and the site will have a much clearer focus.  

Product Information/Options

I absolutely loved being able to read the ingredients of just about any product right on the product page on MrChewy.com.  This is particularly useful for people like me, who own animals with specific diet needs (Layla, I'm talking about you!!!!).  It allowed me to reasonably narrow down which products I was interested in buying without having to go to the company websites.

The "Mr. Chewy's Recommendations" widget just underneath the product info was a nice touch, too.  On a website so big, it can be easy to miss some of the products similar to the one you're looking at.  In fact, I bought the Stella & Chewy's Chicken Patties after seeing them on the Recommendations widget while looking at another item.

There are also lots of reviews from customers, which a lot of pet food sites lack.  I'm not sure whether this reflects positively on Mr. Chewy, its customers, or both, but I appreciated it.

One bone I had to pick with the website was that the product information itself was often incomplete.  I, personally, would have appreciated being able to see which country each product was made in, since I do not feed my animals any products manufactured in China.  I could have sworn that I saw something that read "Product of China" on one of the item pages, but I then never saw it again.

I also found that some products were miscategorized or incompletely categorized on the site.  For example, there are some foods and treats that are appropriate for both dogs and cats, but I only found them under the dog food and treat menus, despite the fact that the product name clearly reads "For Dogs and Cats."  I saw probiotic product clearly described as being helpful for digestive health listed under "Calming" supplements, which led me to not buy it because I wasn't sure exactly what it was.

Lastly, though I wanted to try a couple of different canned cat foods for delicate little Layla, I did not order any, because they only came in bulk sizes.  I suppose this is part of Mr. Chewy's mission, to be a continuous supplier of dog and cat food to its customers (hence their repeat delivery options), but I thought it was worth a mention.

The verdict? I like the ingredients list, product recommendations, and customer reviews.  Actual organization of products needs work, and I think the product descriptions can be beefed up a bit, with countries of origin added for all products in the interest of full disclosure.

Shipping

I ordered my items the night of March 27. I received my order March 29.  So, they kept their promise of quick delivery times - all for free (since, even though I had a $50 gift certificate, shipping is free on orders over $49).

So, no complaint there whatsoever.  I'm super inpatient about getting things quickly, so I was happy to get my order that fast!

The verdict? Shipping speed from PA to NY was very quick, as promised.


Now comes the really fun part - getting to try out all of our stuff :)

Over all, I really enjoyed my shopping experience on MrChewy.com and am very grateful that I was given the opportunity.  The selection was huge, prices competitive, and the shipping times were great.

I think I'll use them occasionally for food and treat orders, especially because shipping is free on larger orders, since many of the products they carry are not found in all of the stores here (particularly, the raw foods).  However, I don't plan on exercising their multiple shipments option, since I'm OK with going to the store if I need to in a pinch (I live in New York City, after all - the store's about a half mile away!).  I urge you all to check them all out if you haven't already, particularly if you live in an area where some of the better brands might be hard to find.

Thanks for the experience, Mr. Chewy!

(Disclosure: I was given a $50 gift certificate with which to buy products.  This review is based off of this experience.  I was compensated in no other way for my review).

Tummy, Sneezy, Gimpy Troubles

We had a little bit of a health scare with Layla last week.   It was a three-headed monster type day on Tuesday, with Layla's asthma and digestive problems both acting up, and also the addition of a third problem, favoring one of her front legs.  This all came only one day after Marge battled some sort of digestive upset that she quickly got over with the help of a bland diet.

I wasted no time and got her in to the vet Wednesday afternoon.   The limp really wasn't that bad and Layla was showing no hesitance jumping or moving around, but I figured that we had had a pretty good streak, having not gone to the vet since November, and that I may as well ease my mind and get her checked out.

The vet examined her leg and concluded that her range of motion was quite good and that although she probably has some arthritis, there really weren't any anti-inflammatories that he could prescribe.  I expected to walk away with Rimadyl or Metacam, just like I've gotten for Marge in the past, but apparently, they are not marketed for use in cats in the USA.

Over all, he didn't think her limp was very worrisome nor very severe.  He said it was likely either arthritis or perhaps some kind of soft-tissue injury that, if given time, would go away. He sent me home, told me to beef up her steroid dosage for two weeks, and check in with him then.  If the limp wasn't gone, then we'd pursue X-Rays and blood work.

We also weighed her (she dropped a bit to 7 pounds 10 ounces from 8 pounds 3 ounces), and checked her heart, which he said sounded good.

After only a couple of days on an increased dose, Layla's leg problem disappeared.  However, I absolutely hate that she is on steroids.  Her maintenance dose is quite low, and even this increased dose is low, too.  But, I've never really thought of steroids as a long term solution, and it scares me to think that she has been on them for a year now.

My vet is adamant that cats deal with Prednisone remarkably well and that her liver supplement, Denosyl, will protect her liver, but I am still uneasy about it.  I know many cats who take a long-term low dose of Pred, but I really wish I didn't have to.

Over all, she's doing really well considering she's 13 and has several chronic-type conditions.  Hope her relatively good luck continues.

The Female Black Lab

One little known fact about Marge's history is that at the time I adopted her, three other people were interested in her.

I worked, at the time, at the kennel where she was sheltered, so therefore had the privilege of being able to bypass all of those other people as I decided whether or not she was a good fit for me.

I wonder from time to time, though, about those other three people who wanted the "female black Lab." Her fear issues were really not visible in the shelter, so who knows what would have happened if any of them took her home.

Let's just say that I'm happy things turned out the way they did!

This was Marge's intake photo, taken a couple of days after she arrived in New York after her journey from Georgia in June of 2008.  That's me holding her leash - a leash I still own to this day!

Day Two, Season Three

We went back to the hotel shortly after my Jumpers runs with Marge and Arrow.  I was initially nervous about how Marge would fare, but she actually really enjoyed the experience.  She thought the hallways and staircases were the coolest thing ever, and settled right in in the room after a few minutes of jitters.  I'm sure it helped that there were other dogs around.

I put a blanket down on one of the beds and let her go to town on a chew.  She remained on the bed pretty much all night and had herself a long, deep sleep.  I would not hesitate to stay with her in a hotel again.

The next morning, we got up really early so that we could get to the trial early (which meant time for obsessive walkthroughs -- woohoo!).  Our Jumpers run was first.  The course was more difficult than the day before and a lot of people were complaining about it, but I didn't think it was too bad.

Marge ran it like a pro!  She even worked through my lousy late front cross and a bad rear cross to the weaves.  We qualified for 6 MACH points and our 4th MXJ leg.




Arrow had her turn next in Jumpers.  Although everybody that watched said it wasn't that bad, I felt like we crashed and burned a little bit.  By moving forward just a couple of steps, I sent her off course over the jump next to the tunnel.  Then, she took down three bars.  Not sure what that was about.  She clearly enjoyed herself, though!





My last run of the day was Excellent Standard.  With a double-Q on the line, I felt pretty good about our chances.  Unfortunately, one wrong course ended that idea... BUT, there was so much good in the run that I didn't even care about the QQ.




For starters, she did the teeter even after I sent her off course, getting on it from a weird angle and riding it all the way down to the bottom (a huge deal, considering if she's even the least bit stressed or confused, her teeter performance is the first thing to go). She also did the table, even with the auto table count that I swore scared the pants off of her a year and a half ago at a 2-day, outdoor trial. (I'm still not convinced she's unafraid of the auto table count; I do think the loudness of the trial site helped her deal with it better, though). Her contacts weren't wonderful, but she was speedy and really running well.

Shortly after Standard (and after watching my friend and instructor get a MACH 5 on her Novice A dog!), we headed home. We were all pooped. We stopped for one little picture with our several-hundred-dollar little green ribbon from the weekend.

I thought it was a great way to start the trialing season.  Marge had a great weekend for many different reasons - the agility was great and she also enjoyed herself hanging out at the trial site and hotel... a little vacation for her, if you will.  We'll be back out in two weeks, for one day, at this same trial site.  Hope our sync continues!

Another Season Begins

What a weekend!  Our 48-hour plunge in to the agility world began Saturday morning around 5:40 AM, when I woke up and got the last few things ready for our trip to Dream Park.  Marge, knowing exactly why I was up at that time and what we'd be doing that day, whined in anticipation from the time I woke up until the time we got in Louie's car and got on the road.

Marge was all business when we got there an hour and a half later.  Forget the fact that we hadn't trialed since November; there was no adjustment period for her.  I even set up a crate for her in the crating room for the first time, thanks to Amy, who save me a spot.  That didn't bother her either.  In fact, I found her sound asleep in her crate on a couple of occasions.

Our first run of the day was Excellent Standard.  It was probably the toughest course I've ever seen at a trial, with lots of International-esque wraps and turns.  The opening, as well as the sequence in the back after the table, was eating lots of people up.  The Q rate was quite low.. less than twenty 20" dogs qualified out of about 100 dogs.

We didn't fare too badly, though Marge completed neither of the obstacles that I really wanted her to complete.  My bad handling set her up for a really bad angle to the teeter, hence her not getting on.  Then, she appears to read my motion at the table as a cue to go, so didn't complete that obstacle, either.

I chalked most of it up to it being the first run of the first day of the first trial of the year, and although I was slightly concerned about her not getting on the teeter, I didn't freak too badly.

We had a little bit of time between runs, so I wanted to make sure I kept Marge's stress level down and took her for a long walk around the big trial site.

(Yes, that's a Flexi I've got in my hands! Worked wonderfully for getting Marge some exercise around the muddy site. Promising a whole post on that later.)

The Jumpers course was pretty much the gimme-gimme course for the day.  It played so well to Marge's strengths that I knew we'd do well on it.

And, we did.  We ran the course clean in our typical rear cross style.  A Q in the bag for the weekend, I thought.

Oh wait.

No.

Marge left the ring at the end of the run.  It's not totally unheard of her for to sort of run aimlessly at the end of her run, but it has never cost me a Q because she has never ran off without coming back.  In her defense, it looks as though she tries to come back to me once I call out to her, but couldn't figure out how to get back in the ring the way that she exited in the first place.  There goes the whistle. Huge heartbreaker.





Someone that I know who was watching us had a really weird comment about the whole thing. Instead of being surprised, asking why I thought it happened, or saying something like "what a bummer," she almost seemed like she was personally insulted that it happened.  I'm not sure what that was about. Maybe I'm missing something.  Whatever.

I spoke to the judge afterwards and told her how shocked I was that it happened.  I've shown under this judge before and am somewhat acquainted with her and generally find her to be a pleasant person.  I guess I just wanted to say SOMETHING to her, to make myself feel better, to the effect that although I was 100% in agreement with her ruling, I wanted her to know it was an extreme fluke!

Last, but certainly not least, I got to run Arrow in Jumpers as well.  I was seeking redemption for my Q that wasn't a Q and also looking to get Arrow her 9th MXJ leg.  Neither happened, but this was definitely my favorite run of the day.  Popping out at the weave poles and a bad cross at the end doomed us.





When the agility for the day was over, we did a little bit of this... because how could I deny Marge some time with her best buddy?  Adorably enough, she attempted to follow and sniff every single Golden at this trial.  At one point, Spirit walked by and I bent down and whispered her name in to Marge's ear... and Marge locked on immediately and wanted to catch up to her.  So cute.

Stay tuned for more...