Give Your Hound Dog Something to Celebrate on Thanksgiving.

Everybody should celebrate on Thanksgiving including your faithful hound. Here's a neat trick for giving your dog a happy Turkey Day and for getting rid of all those horrible bits and pieces of turkey and those giblets you never use.

First you need a Kitchen-Aid Mixer with the box of attachments. This is essential equipment for any kitchen and a lot of people have all they need for this project in a box shoved in the back of their cabinet that they never use. Drag it out. It looks like this:

Your attachment box may not be as torn up as my box, but it looks like this inside:

This link covers assembling and disassembling the grinder mechanism. Reverse it when your done to clean it out. It's all pretty simple to put together.

Step 1:  Assemble the grinder mechanism as shown in the pictures below. Once you've picked the bones of your turkey and put aside the meat you want to keep, gather up the scraps and bits and pieces, the skin and other edible parts your dog may enjoy. Remember it doesn't have to look tasty to you. It's going to be ground up and unrecognizable.

Step 2: Place a bowl under the grinder outlet to collect the ground turkey. Then just start feeding the

turkey scraps and giblets into the hopper. The corkscrew mechanism inside will force the meat forward past the chopping blades and out through the holes in the front. Just catch it as it comes out. Just make sure not to feed bones into the mechanism. It might simply grind up smaller bones and cartiladge for extra calcium. Your dog can eat it without harm. Might even do her some good.

Step 3: Finish grinding up all the meet and stuff, then take the grinder apart and clean it out good.

Step 4: Bag up the ground turkey in small sandwich sized bags or any size zippered freezer bag you've got.

Step 5: Freeze the bags of turkey. You might want to mark them for the dog, although it probably won't hurt you if you make turkey burgers out of it. It's likely you've eaten worse in turkey franks from the store.

Preparation:  Just take the bags out of the freezer and heat in the microwave for a minute or two. It's already cooked so you don't have to worry about cooking it. I mix it with dry dogfood and the dog loves it.

Note: If you have lots of turkey left, you can run the good bits through the grinder and make turkey burger out of it. Season it and stuff it into sausage casings you can buy at kitchen supply stores and you've got homemade sausages and weiners.

The beauty of doing this is how fast it clears off turkey leftovers and puts them into a convenient storable form that you don't have to worry about going bad or drying out on you. 

© 2014 by Tom King

Homemade Doggie Treats for Christmas

(c) 2011 by Tom King

Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits

Introduction:
If you’re wondering what to give the family dog for Christmas, have I got a fun holiday cooking project for you – peanut butter puppy biscuits. These things are great. My dog loves these better than any dog biscuits I’ve ever bought and I know what’s in ‘em.

Here are the ingredients: 

• ½ cup hot water 
• 2 beef bullion cube 
• ½ cup oil 
• 2 eggs 
• 3 tablespoons peanut butter 
• 2 tsp. vanilla 
• 1 cup white flour 
• 1 cup wheat flour 
• ½ cup cornmeal 
• ½ cup oats 

Here’s how to make them:

1. Drop two bouillon cubes into the ½ cup of hot water and let it dissolve.

2. Pour all the dry ingredients together in your trusty Kitchen-Aid mixing bowl and whisk them up to mix thoroughly.

3.  Add all the wet ingredients together and mix with the dough hook to form a ball of dough. Add a little extra water to achieve the consistency shown in the picture.

4.  Wrap the dough up in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator to chill for at least 4 hours. The dough rolls flat better when chilled.

5.  When the dough is chilled, roll about a third or a quarter of it out on a flat surface. Flatten it till it’s about the thickness of a cracker – I like it about the thickness of Wheat Thins. They cook faster and crisper, though you can make them sugar cookie thick. They come out chewier that way. My sister-in-law’s toothless Chihuahua loves the soft ones. Daisy, my sharp-toothed border collie/lab mix likes the cracker crisp ones.

6.  Cut out the dough with cookie cutters. We used Christmas cookie cutters for Daisy’s Christmas stocking stuffers. They were appropriate. One was a tree, the other was a bow, but if you cut off the dangly part of the ribbon, it makes a little bone. The snowman becomes a postman or UPS guy. Daisy loves a man in uniform. You can also buy dog bone cookie cutters and all sorts of other shapes.
Lay the cutouts on a non-stick cookie tray or lightly greased one.

7.  Cook for 20 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. After they look done, turn off the oven. Allow the biscuits to cool in the oven and harden.

8. When they’re hard, store them in a zip type freezer bag to keep them fresh.  Makes a nice gallon freezer bag full.

These tasty treats won’t last long. Our dog, Daisy, is always very careful to take them gently from my hand so she doesn’t break them. She eats them slowly, picks up every crumb she drops, and then licks her paws (check the video).

Then she smacks her lips, licks them and gives me the pitiful sad-eyed puppy look till she gets another one. These biscuits are a healthy dog snack with ingredients you can feel good about feeding your pup. My wife says they are delicious (she sampled them). Actually, I like them with a slice of cheese.

They’re a snack the whole family can enjoy! And Daisy’s never been more regular!

Got to go. Mooch is chewing on my hand to tell me she wants a treat

Dog Pee Burns in Your Newly Sodded Lawn

I've Got Good News and Bad News

by Tom King © 2011

Miss Sheila, Daisy and I (and Justin, Rick, Sue, Mr. Muggs and the 4 cats) all just moved into a beautiful new home we're sharing in Puyallup, Washington here in the shadow of Mt. Ranier. One of the more exciting things for me about the move (other than living under an active volcano) is the fact that we have store-bought grass!

I grew up poor in Texas and have never in my life had a laid out lawn. The sod crew came in one day, spread some topsoil and laid out our lawn like a carpet. I'm thinkin', “Yee-haw, buddy. This is great.”

Now, I'm not entirely new to sod. Back in Texas we laid out squares of St. Augustine grass to try to encourage a lawn to grow under our big oak trees and sweetgums - usually to no effect. And we did lay out some centipede sod squares and plant some seed at the Lake Palestine house. The landlord had, a few years earlier, given up on having a lawn and was going to cover the (large) front yard with white gravel. He got as far as spraying it all with weed killer and then found out what that much white gravel cost. We fertilized, brought in dirt and as much sod as we could afford, planted seed and watered and managed to get a good covering of green. That said, I've never had an entirely store-bought lawn before. One day it was dirt and gravel and the next it was genuine mowable grass.

Dogs can crater a new yard in no time at all.

Then to my horror, yellow spots began to appear in the pristine green surface; first in the front yard where the neighbor's pit bill insists on marking his territory and then in the back where Miss Daisy, our half lab/half border collie and Muggs the chihuaha do their “bidness”.

“Surely,” I thought, “There must be something you can put on the pee spots to neutralize the acid or whatever is that burns the grass.”

Turns out there's not. The thing that causes the yellow burns on your grass is urea, a nitrogen rich substance excreted by dogs in urine – not the acid in the urine. Females, particularly cause these burns because of the way they pee. Males scatter urine over a larger area or pee on posts, fire hydrants and trees so their urine is diluted. Females squat in one place and tend to dump their pee all at once. *I make no editorial comment regarding this behavior in dogs nor intend to extrapolate any meaning positive or negative toward females of any other species.

You can see the dark green circle developing around the ring.

Urea in the dog's urine dumps a huge dose of nitrogen on the grass and burns the plants, especially in new sod. Because different types of grass have different needs for minerals, some lawns are especially vulnerable to nitrogen burn. You'll notice that along the fringes of the area burned, you'll see a ring of lush green grass, fertilized by the lower levels of nitrogen in the soil along the edges of the burn.

Burn spots are particularly common if your lawn is sodded with one of those lush Northern varieties of grass. These are more delicate-natured grasses and don't handle high temperatures and strong substances well. In the South, temperatures march along in the 100s for months at a time. Our Southern grasses welcome any moisture that comes their way and since the grass looks dead in the summer anyway, you wouldn't likely notice pee spots if a St. Bernard, three coon dogs,a half-dozen Rottweiler's and a Tyrannosaurus Rex designated your front yard as the neighborhood's public toilet.

Partially recovered dog burn spots with thick rings.

There is currently, no substance you can make or buy that you can dump on nitrogen to neutralize it. Nitrogen is a basic element and there's not a lot you can do about it if you get too much of it in your soil. Pouring on brewer's yeast and sugar are of virtually no value. Feeding your dog tomato juice won't get rid of the nitrogen in her pee either, though you might catch her swiping Vodka from the liquor cabinet if she gets used to the flavor.

Painful as it is to tell you, there are only four things you can do to prevent dog pee burns on your lawn. None is easy. None is convenient.

1. Follow the dog out to pee with a big gallon can of water. Pour the water on the pee spot. This dilutes the nitrogen. Do this consistently and you'll actually have a lot of very green circles on your lawn since nitrogen is a fertilizer. If you miss one, you'll get a yellow burn spot every time. After the grass is burned, it's too late to dilute the spot. All you can do is add some dirt and grass seed or fresh sod and water it well.
2. Train the dog to pee in a special spot. This is going to be like house-breaking all over again. Create a pee pee spot by marking an area of your yard with some sort of border and fill it with wood chips and other organic compost. The powerful urea in the dog's urine will actually break down the organic material in the pee pee place and accelerate the composting process.
3. Give the dog away. If all this is too much of a pain in the tookhas, you'll just have to get rid of the dog, because dogs will pee and dog pee WILL burn your lawn, especially if you have that wimpy Yankee kind of grass. It comes down to the grass or the hound if you're congenitally lazy..
4. Tell your neighbor's you bought a yellow polka dotted lawn on purpose. “It's the latest thing,” you'll tell them. “It's from, uh, France. Yeah, that's the ticket. …Paris, France!”

Daisy's Butt – Treating Flea Allergy Dermatitis

by Tom King (c) 2011

Introduction:

Poor old Daisy, my half something, half something else black and white hound dog suffers with what one vet told me was “fleas” and another, more helpful, veterinarian explained was flea-allergy dermatitis. The first vet acted like I was some neglectful redneck living in a trailer park that left his dog outside in a bare dirt yard. The second doctor knew me and rather than assuming I neglect my dog, he explained what flea-allergy dermatitis (FAD) is.

Description:


Notice where Daisy has pulled the hair off
on her lower back and at the root of her tail.


FAD is an allergy to the saliva of fleas. It differs from flea-bite dermatitis because there is no relationship between the number of fleas found on the animal and the severity of the reaction the animal has to being bitten. FAD is charachterized by persistent scratching, red, painful-looking sores called hot spots that appear almost overnight. FAD's most common symptom is a Christmas tree pattern of hair loss on the lower back and the root of the tail. The bares spots appear scaly, rough and may ooze a little if the dog scratches or chews to frantically. Most animals with FAD actually have very few fleas. They itch so badly they groom themselves obsessively and eliminate any evidence of fleas. Sadly, though you may treat for fleas, but if one or two get to your dog every few weeks, it will keep your pet itchy all the time. They will scratch themselves, lick their paws, bite, chew, rub their body against the ground or furniture and pull out tufts of hair.

TREATMENT

Step 1 Control the Fleas

Fleas are nasty little blood-suckers and can live up to a year. They like temperate weather and especially like high humidity. You absolutely must get rid of fleas around your house all at once. Treat all the cats and dogs in the place at once or they will reinfect each others. Dipping your dog is a good way to make sure all the fleas are cleared out. Spray the house, treat the carpets with borate-based flea powder and spray the yard with a flea-control product designed for each application. Outside, watch for moist, shady areas, piles of pine needles, wood scraps or garbage under plants and shade trees. Be sure you get areas your dog likes to lie around as these are the most likely places the fleas hop on board. For a natural flea repellent, try cedar or rosemary oils on bedding and even on the dog to keep any stray ones off her. Sticky flea traps won't get rid of your fleas, but they are a good way to tell if your eradication program worked. Hang them about and see if you collect any flees. They are small, dark, flat bodied about the size of a comma. Finally, use a topical flea killer like Front-line or one of the new combination anti-flea and worming treatments you can get from your veterinarian.

Step 2 Treat the Symptoms

Allergic skin can easily become infected with bacterial or fungal infections. These are secondary symptoms of the primary cause, but the animal's reaction to the itching does the most damage in FAD. A topical application of witch hazel to help the healing process along. If the skin becomes infected, apply a topical anti-bacterial ointment. If the problem becomes too bad, the veterinarian may give your dog cortisone shots to relieve the itching for several weeks. This will give you time to treat the underlying causes of the condition. Diphenhydramine anti-allergy medication can also help. Talk to your vet about dosage. Especially important is treating developing hot spots with a mixture of one part water and one part tea tree oil in a spray bottle. Another treatment is Absorbine Jr. applied a few times a day until the area dries up. Medicated shampoos may help, but the only real treatment for the condition is to keep the fleas off the dog.

Step 3 Address the Underlying Cause

Dogs' bodies manufacture essential fatty acids that help maintain healthy skin and fir. Omega 6 and omega 3 fatty acids include linoleic acid, an essential fatty acid produced by dogs. Linoleic acid is essential for a healthy epidermis. If there is a linoleic acid deficiency, the skin can become dry and flaky, fur may become dull and fall out and the skin may be more susceptible to inflammation. Fatty acid supplements in the diet can help reduce skin irritation and skin itching. It may take three to 12 weeks of supplementing the dog's diet to determine if supplementation will help. Besides promoting healthy skin, fatty acids also help support the immune system, growth, development of brain, kidneyw and other organs. They are also needed to help the body absorb vitamins A, D, E and K, all of which are important to healthy bones and skin and help prevent cancer. Omega 6 fatty acids are converted to inflammatory compounds and Omega 3's conver to anti-inflammatory substances. Because the acids compete for the same enzymes when they are metabolized, so they need to be balanced. The best ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 fatty acids is somewhere between 5:1 and 10:1, though veterinarians aren't sure. The best places to get these fatty acids are found in poultry, pork fat and plant oils like corn oil, canola, sunflower, and evening primrose oil. There aren't many omega 6's in beef or dairy products. Omega 3's are found in cold water fish oils (salmon, herring and mackerel) and in soybean, canola and flax seed oil. Vets prefer fish oils as fatty acid supplements for dogs since they are already balanced properly between omega 3 and 6. Most dog foods contain balanced omega fatty acid levels, but you may want to supplement your dog's diet if they are experiencing symptoms of dermatitis. Pet stores carry these and they can be purchased without a veterinary prescription.

Long Term Prognosis

Dog's with flea-allergy dermatitis will always be allergic to fleas. It will get worse as the dog ages. Some work is being done by veterinary dermatologists with allergy shots for the condition, but the jury is still out on the efficacy of the treatment. Keep your buddy treated with something like Frontline, K9 Advantix, Advantage or Revolution to kill any adult fleas on contact.

Precautions

Be careful when killing fleas. If your dog experiences heavy drooling or shaking, you may be seeing early symptoms of chemical poisoning from the flea treatment. Call the vet immediately to prevent the dog from going into convulsions, collapse, coma or even death.

References:

Recovery SA (Natural Remedy for Flea Dermatitis)
Pet Shed: Flea Allergy Dermatitis
Rural Area Veterinary Services; Foothills Animal Hospital; Flea Allergy Dermatitis; Bob McKee
University of Vermont Vetmed: Flea Allergy Dermatitis