Hi all,
Didn't really know where to post because this is more of a treat and toy question. First off I think most of us know not to give any treats that are China made. What about toys? Should there be any concern if a toy was made in China, since most are?

My more important question is on treats. Miya loves cow ears, I can get them in town, which saves me on driving long distance or money if I were to have them shipped. My question is that I have only 2 choices, one from China, no way I'll buy, and the other is made in South America, they list 3 countries, don't have a package handy but I believe it's Mexico, Argentina and maybe Bolivia? So are treats made in South America, I know Mexico is not South America but I have seen treats that say made in Mexico, are they safe to give to our huskies?

Thank you ahead of time for any ideas or opinions that you all may have,
Renee

You may take a look at this site for toys. They give a little into what to and not to look for and a few toy companies that are safer. I tend to focus on tough toys. If a toy is cheap I assume quality control is low and always wash thoroughly before giving them to the dogs.

http://thebark.com/content/choosing-safe-dog-toys?page=2

I don't know much about cow ear safety but have heard that Brazilian cattle are good quality so I would imagine you would be okay if they came from that region. I've gotten out of anything that comes from Asia. I wanted to get some ram horns and found some for a decent price the other day until I saw they were a product of India, so I passed on them. Dog anything can be a maze of confusion when it comes to quality. Makes my brain hurt.

Thank you Jenn.
I'll check site out. Miya has always played ball, sometimes tugs. But I guess she's getting bored. She won't play anything, wont eat any treats except Louisiana crawfish biscuits and tractor supply is not carrying those anymore, nothing that takes time to eat. That's why I have been asking so many questions on hiking, carting, toys, chews, because the only thing she wants to do is walk, which is perfectly fine with me or play with her boyfriend, I don't want to bug my neighbors daily so our dogs have a play date, although he needs it as bad as she does. He is an escape artist and comes over here she is not an escape artist but begs to go to his place. Teenagers, I'm not prepared, lol.

On a side note hubby drove from Springfield to KC this morning and has been stuck on a plane since 5:30, there is one flight left, if he makes it to DFW by 9:30 to make it home tonight. Hubby doesn't drink, he is tonight, worried about him. Haven't seen him since 6 am Sunday. What on earth is wrong with MO, lol. Trying to stay positive nothing against you, you have been more than helpful to me and I do appreciate it.

He just text me to say they think the airplane is safe to fly, oh brother. Still he's going to be delayed in DFW, takes 1.5 hours to fly KC to DFW, his flight leaves Dallas at 8 pm, don't think he'll make it. Hopefully he can make the 9:30 flight. We're going to take a walk.

Thanks again for your help, Jenn

Renee

Hope his flight goes okay. We always fly out of Springfield when we go to Arizona so I don't have much experience with it. Went to school in k. C. For a while though. I thought I was easier to get around there than in Springfield sadly.

Kenzi doesn't play with toys much either. She chews her bones and might sometimes drag a stuffed toy around but that's it. Keno loves toys he can gnaw into pieces so I get him tough toys. The latest casualty was a bee with rope legs.

Haha, saw that pic of him eating it. We had a nice walk, then she went swimming, too cold for me, she's napping, Yea, lol. My husband has to fly from Dallas to Abilene, they run like 6 flights a day and that's it. He either makes the 9:50 pm flight or he stays in Dallas and takes the 10 am flight. ugg. Thank goodness he doesn't fly again until late fall.His company has asked him to relocate to North Dakota or Alaska since he's moved up the ladder so fast, basically city boy(Tampa , Fl), to country boy EBF Texas. He's a mover and a shaker and he has stirred up this little town we're in. Corporate likes it. Thanks for letting me vent. Thank you also for the info, going to take a look at it, I may just start doing DIY toys knowing that mine aren't China made, sooooo many are, even some of the expensive ones. Sad really so much unemployment here and yet most of our goods that we purchase eveyday are not made here in the good old USA.
Take care Jenn,
Renee

My mom's new puppys favorite toy is an empty water bottle in a thermal sock and several strips of old t-shirt tied in knots together. Kenzi used to always love to throw around empty plastic ice cream containers. It's amazing how simple some of their favorite things are. But then I was one of those kids that loved the box the toy came in more than the toy so why should our fur kids be much different.

Alaska is stunning though not sure I could live there. North Dakota would be a shock but probably not as much of one. Glad your husband found a company that appreciates his moving and shaking. The company my husband works for is scared of those types and tries to get my hubby to quit for being that way.

I finally got to relax a little with the hubby, he had to work today, 7 days in a row, tomorrow off and then back another 6.
I think his company is leaning towards Alaska, Miya has taught me to layer and enjoy it. lol. We are both east coasters. He was born in NYC, me central NY, traveled along the coast to Florida and then straight across to Texas. Funny we met in Florida. Sad for your husband, they need to appreciate that. How can they be successful and last without movers and shakers? My husband was promoted almost a year ago, moved his district from #7 out of 9 to #2 out of 9 in sales. Upper management is more afraid of losing their jobs to him, hence why they are trying to move him out of Texas. It would double his salary and bonuses if we went to Alaska. So I don't know. It would be in Anchorage, so I think I could handle that, just not sure of never seeing 80 or higher temps, I love to swim, and it has to be warm, before I'll jump in water.

Miya loves water bottles and cardboard, lol. My Siamese loves the twisty ring that opens a milk jug. It's the simple things. I always enjoyed reading or playing with the cats and dogs we had. My mom would make me play barbies with my younger sister. Hated my sister for liking dolls, haha

I haven't mentioned on any of my posts, but Miya was my husbands compromise, he wanted a bird dog or lab and I wanted a gsd or husky. I won. He wanted a dog to go bird hunting with and everyone said "you can't train a husky to be a bird dog", we did, lol, we would tie in knots old shirts, still do, and taught Miya to retrieve and drop, most bird hunting is around water, she loves swimming. Huskies are naturally small prey driven, birds are small. The hardest part was to teach her "drop It" and "leave it". We tell her when we practice to go get her (I hope I don't get in trouble for typing this) shit bird. she hauls butt and happily gets it. So much fun. Yes you can teach a husky to be a bird dog HA! lol lol lol

We are a lot alike. My husband wanted a lab, I wanted a husky. Since we were supposed to be getting a dog to keep his dog company it was I who got to choose what, though technically hubby picked her out. He saw her on petfinder and said I should go get her, so I did. I grew up with Weimaraners, Beagles, and mutts. We hunted Pheasant, Quail, and Dove and always trained using a Pheasant head attached to a fishing pole (now there's a fun all natural toy for dogs). Kenzi will bring back toys but I know she would never in a million years turn loose of the real deal. She kinda points but she won't hold it.

Hahahaha, Miya would have too much fun with a Pheasant head. Sad we have no Pheasant and Quail seem to only be at high fence ranches, they used to be plentiful here, but no more. In NY where I grew up Pheasant, Quail, and Grouse were big to hunt. Told my dad about Dove hunting and he couldn't believe there was anything let to eat, i guess no Dove hunting in NY. She ate the first few Dove, but drops them now. She is phenomenal at staying, I guess that would be pointing? I've heard the term, not sure if that's what she is doing, standing at a stay, waiting for gun to go off and then runs after dead bird? We have a mini gun range on our property, if you get out a long gun she dances, thinking we're going hunting. It was harder to teach her to stay between shots when we're sighting in a gun. A shot goes off and she goes looking for the prize, it's quite funny to watch. She comes back with this look like "you stink dad, where's the bird?" lol.


My husband always liked Weimaraners, can't find any here. He picked Miya out, she was the only light colored pup in the litter. I held her for the first time at 12 days old. Her mom was as sweet as could be, didn't think she would be ok at me holding her pup so young.

She has been taught to retrieve (just going and getting the dropped bird). That is the standard training for labs and water fowl hunting. Our dogs go out into the field, find the birds, and then point them out to us. We flush them up, shoot them, then the dog goes and gets them. Hardest task is always teaching them to point them and not just grab them. We had one dog that would go out, find them, flush them, then grab the bird out of the air. Had to break her of that.

Haha, Miya does that with the local birds, we have Scissor Tails, and I'm amazed that she can catch them, she caught one a couple of weeks ago and started running to me, bird flapping its wings and hitting her in the face, she shook her head and bird escaped. She nudges me so I go with her and she is looking everywhere for this bird that flew off while it had a chance to fly away. We use decoys, at tanks and ponds, she is just so good about waiting, never tried her at stirring them up, I think its out of fear that she'll be hit with bird shot, if that makes sense. We apparently live in the Dove capitol of Texas. It just made sense to train her, since she loves water and loves chasing prey, and since they are already dead, she has never tried to kill anything, namely our 5 pound cat.

On a side note saw in another thread, that your hubby has blood poisoning, I hope he is doing better this afternoon, scary stuff. My husband lets things go far to long and I have to threaten him with, well the doctors can always chop your finger, foot, etc. off, makes him listen to me, lol.

It's nice to be able to chat to someone who has similar experiences, not easy to find on the net and in my case where I live, we are pretty remote and most of my neighbors are quite a bit older than us, so they are not interested in what we like, until Texas my husband never went hunting, I grow up in the country so a different story for me, he had to beg our neighbor to go Raccoon hunting, first year we were here he shot a small buck had no idea what to do with it, so my neighbor reluctantly showed him how to skin and hang. The neighbor is in his mid, late 50's, and has been hunting since he was small, I guess he's over it.

We hunt everything every year. It's our food for the next year. We usually take down a few deer, squirrel, birds, raise our own cattle. Our dogs have always been part of that hunt. I had a husky/border collie mix (we think) that we used to use to track injured game with if it got dark before we could find them. She was mostly just a nondescript black dog but she was a good tracker. Your neighbor must wonder what he's gotten himself into. lol. I think once a dog has learned the joys of hunting and really working no toys engage their minds quite the same.

That's an interesting concept, with her toy avoidance, I was chalking it up to her age, she'll be 2 in November and the heat. We still have a couple of months before any real hunting season. May I ask how you prep Squirrel, not sure we would eat it, but Miya can always use another protein source. We have a lot of squirrels and since they like to engage Miya in a chase, we shoot them, but have no idea we could use them, I know city slickers, After living in Florida for 16 years and when I lived in NY someone always did the gross work for me, I can't guide my husband, although he knows how to skin, do you just keep the breast of squirrels? Sorry to ask, but I hate throwing perfectly good game out, same with rabbits, and I hate bugging my neighbor. Most people here rely on deer only, and they take it to a processor, lazy country folk, haha. Would love to have cattle, we just don't have enough room on our property, been begging for a horse since we moved here, I envision riding my horse while Miya walks with us. Dreams.

We keep it simple with squirrel. The little greys are better than the big reds. Reds can be tough. We usually pressure cook them for a bit to tender them up, then cut and fry them like chicken. We also boil them sometimes in dumplings. Same way with rabbits. Taste wise I would think of them more closely to turkey. Can be a little dry and lack in flavor if by themselves. We turkey hunt too. Always did our own processing of everything but the beef. Always had the brain and the tongue removed to give to dogs. My aunt can cook up tongue pretty well but the texture is just not to my liking. I dehydrate the deer bones when I shoot one with a little meat and sinew on them to give to the dogs as well. They like that more than bought bones often and I know what's happened to it. Neighbor's dog got in the shed and stole Kenzi's last deer leg though. That frustrated me greatly.

Lol, poor Kenzi. I wouldn't be happy with that either. Thank you for the suggestions. We have a ton of Turkey here too. Husband hasn't been successful with Turkey. I've gone Dove hunting with him, usually by Deer season it's just too cold for me, I know I'm a wuss, but somebody has to stay with Miya, lol. It drives her crazy hearing all the gun shots and wondering why she isn't out hunting. My family always processed everything too, wish I had paid better attention to the whole thing. Bones are never a big deal, I get my fair share from the meat department at the local grocery store(IGA), plus we have a few friends who hunt high fence(don't agree with it, but I'll take their bones), they shoot Axis Deer, another friend goes to Colorado for Elk. Btw, on squirrel do you use legs too? With Dove was taught to use the breast only since there is very little meat on the legs and wings.

Depended on the squirrel if we used the legs. Kinda depends on if there's enough meat there to fool with. When boiling them it all cleans off pretty easy so we do, but if frying we sometimes don't if it was a little squirrel. We breast out about all birds, even turkey since many around here don't have much on their legs either. Always held back the feathers off the pheasant and quail though.Was an art major in school and did a lot of projects using the feathers. There are colors in a pheasant that make an arizona sunset look plain.

Hubby drew for tags a couple years in a row to hunt elk in Arizona. A friend of the in-laws raise elk to sell the sheds and sometimes we get the antler tips if they have a rack that isn't any good. Both dogs love the antlers, but we had to be so careful when we first got them since at the time, one of the racks my husband got on a hunt hadn't been mounted to the wall yet and you could tell both dogs were looking at it as a giant chew toy.

lol, she enjoys antlers as well. Funny about turkey, in NY you can use the whole thing, an ex of mine would go out shoot one, even pluck and prepare it for me and then I would cook it up, yum Thanksgiving looking turkey all year long it seemed, drumstick were big.Pheasants and quail are beautiful for sure, my mom would stew them up, very tasty, she was very artistic as well, she would use them for wall decorations and such. she probably let the cats have a free toy as well.