Fast and Furry

In addition to Marge's 6 runs at last weekend's trials, I also ran Arrow, the Border Collie, in 6 runs as well.

Arrow is a hard dog to run.  She is a phenomenal agility dog, but I have to execute everything almost perfectly because she's about a zillion times faster and a zillion times more responsive to slight body language than my dog is. A Border Collie in the truest sense, one misplaced hand, one accidentally outstretched arm, could mean an off-course or bars down (and it often has happened).

If given the opportunity to run both Arrow and Marge at a show, I always prefer to run Marge first to give myself a chance to grab another look at the course without having to run at warp Border Collie speed.. and, since Marge is not all about that type of precision, she usually does fine.

I have been running her in a few trials here and there since last summer, and while we've had many close calls, the only qualifying run I managed to score with her was in FAST.

On Friday, we had a shoddy Jumpers run, and then a near-miss in Standard (she went around ONE little jump).  Saturday, Jumpers, again, did not go so well, and I stepped to the line in Standard really not knowing what was going to happen.

We were clean until the table.  OK, good, I thought, now I just have to help her through that 90-degree turn to the teeter without any bars down.  Done.  Next was the weave poles.. would she stay in until the 12th and last pole?... yes, she did.  Then, she kept the double jump up.

By about that time, she was creeping down the descending side of the A-Frame.  I paused an extra second to make sure I knew exactly where I was sending her next.  I was not about to let any bars come down.  I was going to get that Q.

And I did!

Unfortunately, we weren't able to repeat that success the following day, but I was ecstatic over getting that one Q.  Hopefully, a Jumpers Q will be next, since that's what Arrow needs for one of the titles she's working on.

Running Arrow is vastly different from running Marge.  When Marge NQ's, it's often not because of the agility itself.. it's because her head is on swivel and she's not reading me clearly because she's stressing about something.

On the other hand, nothing seems to phase Arrow when she is in the agility ring.  Admittedly, it was kind of hard in the beginning to tell myself to stop worrying about the environment and stop being a cheerleader when I am running her, because worrying and cheerleading is what I had to do with Marge for so long.  But, I have learned to differentiate between the two and it has made me a better handler for BOTH dogs.

Next up will be a two-day indoor trial on Memorial Day weekend.  I'll get to show this wild and crazy gal again... and I am so happy that I've been given the opportunity!

Six, Seven, Eight

We had my dog club's three-day agility trial this past weekend, and I think we had a good deal of success!

Marge qualified in three out of six runs.  This is exactly what she did at my club's November trial, with one minor difference.  In November, she qualified three times in Standard.  At this trial, she qualified three times in Jumpers, giving her 8 of the 10 qualifying scores needed in Jumpers for the Master Jumpers title.

Here are her Jumpers runs:

She seems to be running really well lately - putting in some fast times and reading my handling very well. She picked up 9, 10, and 9 MACH points, respectively, in each run, putting her total at 83.
Our Standard runs were not horrible.  On Friday, she was a little bit stressy and went around a jump and then took an off-course dog walk (probably due to bad handling).  On Saturday, she skipped a weave pole (just a fluke thing), and then jumped her A-Frame contact.  On Sunday, we were clean up until the very end of the course, when she took an off course jump (that I pretty much sent her directly to) and then took down a bar.
She did do her teeter all three days, though, so that's a gigantic plus.  She did her table, too, but was hesitant to lie down on it, so we'll need to work on that before our next trial.
It's important to note that this is the trial site that, back in 2010, I was convinced that Marge hated.  There were planes overhead, trains going by, and it was just very noisy and industrial over all (it's sandwiched between oil refineries!). She ran here again in 2011 and did much better, but did not qualify.  The fact that she ran here this past weekend and DID qualify and DIDN'T appear to dislike the site makes me very, very, happy.  Naturally, now I'll start to change my tune a bit about this site and admit that I actually like it!
We've got a fair number of trials coming up - two days over Memorial Day weekend, and then FIVE days scattered throughout June.  I expect for Marge to finish her MXJ title and begin to put a dent in those much-needed double Q's!  This is the best she's ever run and I want to capitalize on it.

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!