The cost of things: April 2013 + Packlove.com invites

Tags

budgeting, fromm family dog food, fromm's dog food, grooming, pet finances, taste of the wild, tick removal, ticks, zukes

This is my third year of tracking our pet finances here at the House of Two Bows. This is an ongoing effort to get a practical sense of what it costs to keep two 20 ~ 30 pound adult dogs in an area of the US with relatively high costs of living. Previous posts in this series can be found under the category of finances.

The Cost of (Pet) Things for March 2013:

• Food: $66 [previous month, $72]
• Treats: $11 [previous, $9]
• Grooming: $7 [previous, $8]
• Accessories and misc: $0 [previous, $0]
• Vet & Medical: $0 [previous, $265]
• TOTAL: $84 (running average for 2013 ~$162/month)

Kibble-wise, we seem to be swimming in a constant stream of Fromm’s. It helps that I’ve accumulated quite a few nice coupons, including the latest one for a free 4-pound bag of Salmon Tunalini with the purchase of any 12-pound bag. This happens to be my favorite Fromm formula (see review), so we stocked up on sixteen pounds of this grain-free, fish-based kibble.

I am intrigued by Fromm’s new grain-free Pork & Peas recipe, which we’ll probably try with the next coupon I’ve reserved. This month, I made the mistake of purchasing a small bag of the new Taste of the Wild Southwest Canyon formula, which hypes the Wild! Boar! in the recipe. In my mind, I had cleared it as a “pork-based” kibble, when it’s really no such thing. You’ve got to get through beef (first ingredient) and lamb meal, as well as several other ingredients, before you even get to the wild boar…

Wild boar mentioned 3 times. Beef, lamb, ocean fish, etc. not mentioned at all until list of ingredients.

Though it’s my fault for not looking carefully, I hate it when pet food companies do this. Grr…

Not that the Bows have been complaining. I’ve been feeding it in low ratios, generously cut with Salmon Tunalini. What a ridiculous protein medley though! The Bows usually don’t get beef at all (except a bully stick or some tendon every now and then, and some buffalo kibble for training). So far, their digestive response has been okay, so maybe this will work after all… but I still wouldn’t use it for our regular rotation.

Some yogurt, raw organs, and turkey parts rounded out the food purchases this month, as well as treats for the dehydrator. Also bought some Zuke’s dental chews that were half off on clearance. These are the first commercially produced treats I’ve purchased all year!

The most important, though slightly overpriced grooming item this month was this tick key.

After years of hiking, sometimes even in deep woods, and only two ticks in all our years, we ran into three ticks in the course of two days — one on Bowpi, one on Bowdu, and one on RJ. When I saw the first one, I drove directly to the nearest pet store and picked this up. It really does do the trick with minimal fuss, which was particularly important for Bowdu. Hopefully now that I have one, I won’t have reason to keep using it.

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In other news, looks like the floodgates have been opened on Packlove.com, a new design-oriented social network for dog lovers. Lots of people are handing out invites lately. We have quite a few left too, so if you’re interested, just leave a comment with your e-mail filled out in the form (the e-mail will only be visible to me), and we’ll send you an invite ASAP!

The House of Two Bows can be found at:

http://packlove.com/Bowdu

http://packlove.com/Bowpi

Bowpi is also planted on the site somewhere other than her profile. Did you spot her yet?

Obsequious undergrads at the end of the semester

Tags

canine body language, submissive dogs

Bowdu must understand how I feel at the end of the semester, when students start flooding me with apologies for their lackluster performance…

* timid knock on office door *

Oh look at that. A new face to my office hours right at the end of the semester. What can I possibly do for you?

Well hi yeah, I was calculating my grades and I’m really scared that I won’t get an A in this class because you see I’m gonna be a doctor and if I don’t keep a perfect 4.0 my pre-med sorority is going to kick me out so PLEASE is there ANYTHING I can do so I don’t RUIN THE REST OF MY LIFE??

Well you know if you had come to talk to me when you got your FIRST B+ on your paper — which is a great grade, by the way — maybe you wouldn’t be feeling so desperate now when there’s nothing you can do.

Yeah but it’s JUST a paper about literature it’s not supposed to be this hard! And by the way, we wrote our second-year Chinese final skit about this class and it’s hellafunny so maybe we could present it in the last fifteen minutes of discussion for extra credit –

CHILDREN! Get out of my face! If you had actually done the assigned readings and contributed thoughtfully to sections, you wouldn’t have to be groveling for points now!

Gawl, what an unhelpful JERK! This class sucks why is it even required for the major?

New student lurking outside the office: I’m just minoring in this because I thought it would look good, but it’s bringing down my GPA. My REAL major is way more important. This class is going to rob me of future opportunities to solve the global energy crisis. FML.

* The roles of the obsequious undergrads played here by Pejë and Wall-E, two very sweet pups who greet every dog by licking their muzzle. Bowdu generally has issues with overenthusiastic dogs that get in his face, but these two are so ingratiating, he can only respond with a more “restrained” roar and snarl, which is all it takes to get them to back off.

FILM: National Velvet

Tags

dog movies, horse movies, liz taylor, mickey rooney, national velvet, terrier mix, terriers

Film: National Velvet
Director: Clarence Brown
Performers: Liz Taylor, Mickey Rooney, Donald Crisp, Ann Revere, King Charles (The Pie), Jacob the dog (unknown)
Breed featured: Terrier mix
Production information: MGM, 1944 (USA)

Yes, yes, National Velvet is known as a classic girls-meets-horse story… but let us not forget about Jacob, the scene-stealing dog. Described as a fox terrier in the book, Jacob is some kind of terrier medley in the film, sporting a shaggy coat and what appears to be a slightly misaligned bite.

This minor detail does not prevent him from being a very successful mooch at the dinner table.

Not only is Jacob the dog a central member of the Brown family, there really wouldn’t have been a story without his presence. Though The Pie, the horse, was known to escape at will, it took a confrontation between Jacob and the horse to set things in motion. Jacob acted on his animal instinct and charged after the horse, causing him to leap over his walled pasture and wreak havoc in town — the last straw for his previous owner. If Jacob hadn’t chased the Pie that day, Velvet Brown may never have had the opportunity to obtain the horse for herself.

Mostly, I liked how Jacob was as much a part of the family as any of the children — faults and rowdy impulses and all.

Indeed, National Velvet is as much about discipline (or lack thereof) as it is about raw instinct. Nobody ever actually gets punished in the story, especially not when acting in accordance with their inner nature. Even when there seems reason to correct flagrant “misbehavior,” all actions eventually serve a noble purpose — even if just to reveal something more about a character’s integrity.

It’s wholesomeness that even a dog can possess.

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The House of Two Bows keeps a running index of movies blurbed on the site, annotated by breed. If you’re interested in writing a guest blog for a dog film, contact for details.

Guess what happens next…

Tags

canine body language

Read the body language…

… is it obvious what’s going to happen next? Check behind the cut to see if you were right!

Wild things at the park

Tags

wildflowers

It’s the best season for flourishing wildflowers. But because there is so much color everywhere, the park groundskeepers are loathe to actually trim anything back…

Consequently, the foxtails are out of control. We’ve also been bringing home ticks from the park — one on Bowpi, one on Bowdu, and one on RJ in the span of two days, which is more than we’ve ever found in the past several years combined!

Also, Bowdu is gearing up for his spring shed and the start of summer allergies…

PRINT: Yeh Fan, Plum Blossoms and Dog

Tags

art, asian art, chinese art, dog art, chinese watercolor, chinese brush painting, taiwanese art

Been busy in the library lately. Might as well share some of the goodies.

I really like this watercolor by contemporary artist Yeh Fan 葉帆, entitled Plum Blossoms and Dog 梅花與犬. This piece was commissioned by the National Taiwan Arts Education Institute for a touring exhibition in 1994 commemorating the Year of the Dog, and appears in the collection Jia xu gou nian ming jia hua gou zhuan ji 甲戌狗年名家畫狗專輯 (Taipei: Nat’l Taiwan Arts Education Institute, 1994), p. 48.

Sad Singaporean Shiba

Tags

eric khoo, housing and development board, jack russell terrier, JRT, public housing, senior dogs, shiba inu, singapore, singaporean dogs

I was flipping through a book on dogs in Singapore* when I came across this sorry example of a Shiba Inu in the first few pages:

Though the book does not purport to represent any of the breeds within standard, I would almost rather not see a Shiba than one in such shape. I was frankly taken aback by his girth, the large callus on his front elbow, his flattened rear pasterns and collapsed, faded ears. For all the good that this book is trying to do by imparting a sense of responsibility and important knowledge unto the Singaporean and Malaysian general readership, I could not help but think the authors were oblivious as to what a real Shiba should look like.

So I scowled. I sneered. I judged. I posted the snap to my Instagram, voicing my disdain. Several friends responded in kind, and we frowny-faced together, finding solidarity in our sadness for our maltreated Shiba brethren. “Looks like a typical puppy mill Shiba,” commented one of my friends. I admit that I thought the same thing.

Well I put the book down, returning to it at a later date. That’s when I found another picture that hinted as to where this Shiba might have come from.

Singaporean Film Director Eric Khoo [邱金海, Be With Me (2005), My Magic (2008), Tatsumi (2011)] apparently owned an eleven-year-old Shiba named Iiko. He is described as “rare” (like the first picture), and “gentle and loyal with his kids.” Iiko’s feet appear aggravated by allergies, his paunch is more pronounced from that angle, and his tear-stained countenance and droopy ears suggest that he’s not particularly pleased to be manhandled by the crowd of boys, despite the caption.

Though Iiko actually appears more decrepit in this second picture (the final photo credits confirm it’s the same dog), my criticism of the Shiba’s first representation immediately softened upon seeing him portrayed in this domestic setting. Here he was, somewhat dopey and dour looking, but nevertheless placed as “one of the boys” at the center of the family. Within a series of pages describing how to “Be a responsible owner” by properly socializing, training, and vetting a newly acquired puppy, the presence of this senior Shiba — older than the eldest son by three years — affirmed the idea that a pet is a commitment for life, through family transitions, poor health, and old age.

I felt sheepish for having been so judgmental based on the first picture. Truth is, both are only pictures, brief moments embedded in a cultural context that is unfamiliar (which is why I checked out the book in the first place). For all I know, Iiko sleeps outside on hard concrete and seldom gets actual human interaction… Or maybe he gets to rotate between the boys’ beds each night. That reality, whatever it may be, is not for me to know and judge.

As a pet, the authors of the book included Iiko in their annals of special Singaporean dogs because they found him worth documenting. Perhaps it’s just because he’s a “rare” breed and belongs to a famous filmmaker. Perhaps the authors wanted to highlight his simple canine essence by contrasting him to Khoo’s celebrity. Or perhaps it’s just because he’s old and has obviously seen better days. Frankly, this Shiba was still one of the unhealthiest looking dogs in the whole book, as even the local pariah dogs appeared more fit.

Still, he has a home and a family to call his own — the basic satisfactions of human and canine alike. Ultimately, it was more significant that this li’l dude was old than a picture-perfect Shiba. The authors knew what they were doing after all.

* Reference:
Lee, Koon Ann Lennie and Ilsa Sharp. Singapore Dog: K9 Facts, Figures and Fancies. Singapore: SNP Editions, 2003.

As a final tangent, one of the most fascinating entries in the book was a list of breeds approved by the Singaporean Housing and Development Board. Since the vast majority of Singaporeans live in HDB government-sponsored housing, this is essentially a form of breed-specific legislation that affects the general population. On the cover is a Jack Russell Terrier, a breed which is HDB approved. However, the JRT breed introduction takes exception to official recommendation, noting, “The authors do not agree with the HDB ruling and do not recommend this breed for high-rise and/or HDB apartment living.”

Relevant websites:

• HDB list of permitted dog breeds
• Doggiesite.com
• Action for Singapore Dogs
• Singapore Police K-9 Unit

Flinging feces for the children

Tags

children before dogs, dog play, dog poop, humping, humping dogs, stray dogs

This is an amusing passage from Alan Beck, The Ecology of Stray Dogs: A Study of Free-Ranging Urban Animals (West Lafayette: NotaBell/Purdue University Press, 2002), a monograph about his field research in Baltimore in the early 1970s:

I was present at a meeting of “Children Before Dogs,” a group of citizens organized by consumer advocate Fran Lee, when the police had to be called in to end the fighting between pet owners and others in the audience. It was sad to see people yelling, fighting, and at one point even throwing dog feces at each other. Dog feces were blamed for killing both the “Maxie” style skirts and children. (54)

no, I’m not going to actually post a picture of feces being flung!

Obnoxious poop machines indeed, infringing on human sartorial freedoms! Sadly, the fight for dog-friendly spaces has long been a steady campaign to mitigate the offenses of the few.

Fwippa fwippa

Tags

onomatopeia

Is there a proper onomatopoeia for the sound of a shaking dog?

Fwippafwippafwippa is about the closest I can get to the sound of Bowpi’s ears slapping against the side of her head.

Bows unbound

Tags

marin headlands, off leash

Not sure what everyone else was doing last Sunday…

… but whatever kept everyone else away allowed us unrestrained access to the entire Coastal Trail at the Marin Headlands.

I’m not familiar with the floral cycles here. The wildflowers didn’t seem to be quite at their peak as they are on our side of the Bay. We still caught some nice blooms. And one very cool-looking pod thing.

Pictures remind me to look them up later… I don’t know the names of any of these plants.

The Bows had a great time dashing around.

The pair of shots below exemplify a key difference between the two Bows. Bowdu will just plow through as if he expects everything in his path to clear the way for him. This includes any human legs that happen to be blocking his route (*BOOF*). Bowpi, on the other hand, will try to duck and weave, navigating just a little more carefully, falling back when necessary.

Sometimes I imagine what the Bows would do if they were lost in the wilderness, left with nothing but each other and their own survival instincts. Would they take cues from one another or would they basically be fending for themselves? How long would they trek together before splitting ways? Who would catch the first meat? Who would seek out human assistance, and who would revert to feral mode? If Peepsy got really cold, would Doobs let her snuggle against him? Or is Doobs more likely to resort to cannibalism?

Anyway, as we headed back to the car, RJ and I split up at one point without really signaling our intentions to the dogs. He decided to take a steep side route down, whereas I didn’t want to risk a tumble with camera in hand, so I stuck to the main path. Both Bows had been at his side when we parted ways. Some time into my wending descent, I looked back to see, much to my dismay, Bowdu running along the cliff edge of the path, heading uphill in disoriented panic. I yelled sharply and waved my hands high in the air to flag his attention, but he was such a tiny, distant speck that I couldn’t be sure he saw me for a second…

But only for a brief moment.

Bowdu closed the gap in no time, and would certainly have bowled me over with relief had he not been just a thirty-pound Shiba. Meanwhile, Bowpi had stuck with RJ. We were all reunited at the bottom of the trail, just as the humans had planned but had not communicated to the dogs. The Bows will have to play out their wilderness abandonment survival adventures some other day.