He is so adorable. <3

Awww he's looking so dignified and grown up already

aww he is looking so big and grown up now

blueeyedghost wrote:

He's definitely starting to lose that puppy look!  Just for shiggles, do you know offhand how much he weighs?  I know he's got far better breeding than Shadow, but since they're exactly the same age it might be fun to compare.  She was 29 lbs on Tuesday at daycare, and has been gaining right around 2 lbs per week.  She started losing her teeth just a few days after you posted the picture of Dizzy's teeth too, which I still thought was a tad on the early side.  She still looks very puppy like in the face to me, but I also see her every day.  I need to go update our scrapbook, but I really haven't gotten many pictures lately.  He really is a gorgeous dog, though

Thanks! I was curious about his weight too, so I swung by our vet office during our evening walk last night. He's marathon weight right now, 26.2 lbs, and seems to gain about 2 lbs per week as well. I think he should be a bit heavier though, I haven't been able to find a good food for him yet. Finally got him settled midweek on the bland diet and started to slowly mix his totw back in and as of this am, he has a new nickname, squirt. So back to bland diet and some other food, I think the totw is just too rich for him (he can handle about a cup and a third a day without getting diarrhea, but I feel like he needs more), going to try a small bag of lamb and rice, I know rice seems to upset some, but my first sibe did the best on that, so here goes nothing. I hope I can at least mix it with the totw, so I didn't just waste $50 on food. I noticed last night he lost another tooth on the top. I kept thinking it was early too, AND he lifted his leg the other day! I was totally surprised about the leg lift! My hubby rolled his eyes and asked if I was going to cry, no lie, I almost did... Lol!

wpskier222 wrote:

Thanks! I was curious about his weight too, so I swung by our vet office during our evening walk last night. He's marathon weight right now, 26.2 lbs, and seems to gain about 2 lbs per week as well. I think he should be a bit heavier though, I haven't been able to find a good food for him yet. Finally got him settled midweek on the bland diet and started to slowly mix his totw back in and as of this am, he has a new nickname, squirt. :roll:So back to bland diet and some other food, I think the totw is just too rich for him (he can handle about a cup and a third a day without getting diarrhea, but I feel like he needs more), going to try a small bag of lamb and rice, I know rice seems to upset some, but my first sibe did the best on that, so here goes nothing. I hope I can at least mix it with the totw, so I didn't just waste $50 on food. I noticed last night he lost another tooth on the top. I kept thinking it was early too, AND he lifted his leg the other day! I was totally surprised about the leg lift! My hubby rolled his eyes and asked if I was going to cry, no lie, I almost did... Lol!  

We had a lot of issues with what food Bode would do well on when he was a puppy. We went through TOTW, Blue Buffalo, and I don't even remember what else. We finally tried Nature's Domain, and his poops have been great ever since. We were on the Turkey and Sweet Potato, which was fine, but they just came out with a Beef and Sweet Potato formula and he's doing even better on that one. I know you're in NYC, so not sure where the closest Costco is or if a membership is even worth it for you, but it's just a suggestion! Plus it's nice because it's ~$30 for a 30# bag.

There is a cost co in Harlem, but it's such a pain to get to and to somehow get 30# of dog food home would be a nightmare or a $25 taxi ride. Usually I just order online and have it shipped to our apartment. But I think I'll actually have to go to a pet store today. Also, he's allergic to chicken. So that crosses off about 70% of foods out there. Even the ones that don't have chicken meal, have chicken fat. Oh well, onward. Hopefully he do me another solid one day. Poor guy!

wpskier222 wrote:

There is a cost co in Harlem, but it's such a pain to get to and to somehow get 30# of dog food home would be a nightmare or a $25 taxi ride. Usually I just order online and have it shipped to our apartment. But I think I'll actually have to go to a pet store today. Also, he's allergic to chicken. So that crosses off about 70% of foods out there. Even the ones that don't have chicken meal, have chicken fat. Oh well, onward. :)Hopefully he do me another solid one day. Poor guy!

Totally understandable. That would be a hassle!

I hope you get it figured out. Poor baby. And it's so frustrating for you I'm sure.

Yeah, I was pretty annoyed when he woke me up at 4 am this morning. But when I was carrying him down the stairs and heard his gurgely tummy I felt so bad for him.

He may have an issue with potato. Shadow can't have any potato at all, and as I've discovered it is a royal pain in the ass to find a grain free, potato free food. She's been on Nature's Variety Instinct with Raw Boost and has had solid poops, but it has a higher ash content so you run the risk of urinary crystals. It's expensive too. I've been doing more research and have come up with Nutrisca, Back to Basics, and Spring Naturals, all of which have significantly lower ash contents and are very reasonably priced. I think I'm going to switch to Nutrisca, mostly because I can get it at the store where I get Earthborn for Ghost.

Hm interesting. I will have to experiment and see if potato is an issue. I'm going to try something with lamb and rice first, and see how that goes. For one brief moment he was good on a mixture of merrick duck & sweet potato and totw salmon puppy, but could only handle about 1.5 cups a day any increase, even if it was adding a 4th mealtime induced diarrhea. Maybe I'm just overdoing it and he doesn't need more than that.

blueeyedghost wrote:

He may have an issue with potato.  Shadow can't have any potato at all, and as I've discovered it is a royal pain in the ass to find a grain free, potato free food.  She's been on Nature's Variety Instinct with Raw Boost and has had solid poops, but it has a higher ash content so you run the risk of urinary crystals.  It's expensive too.  I've been doing more research and have come up with Nutrisca, Back to Basics, and Spring Naturals, all of which have significantly lower ash contents and are very reasonably priced.  I think I'm going to switch to Nutrisca, mostly because I can get it at the store where I get Earthborn for Ghost.

I second trying Nutrisca! just recently discovered Nutrisca Raw Freeze Dried. I just use it as a training treats/vitamins. Its a very well made product and Anyas sensitive tummy tolerates it well

I will have to look into that for sure. I found a store that's not too far away that carries it. Thanks for the suggestion. I think it might actually be the high protein content. His breeder had him on Eukanuba large breed puppy, which has a 25% protein content and the totw has 32%. It might just be too much for him to handle. Definitely want to look into the nutrisca as well though. Any thought on puppy vs. adult food? Do I need to worry about it if I get him an adult food?

I actually was told by the vet at Shadow's daycare to switch her to an adult food at 4 months because of the calcium content. She was cool with all life stages too, especially when I told her that Ca:P ratio was one of the things I look closely at. I think Dizzy would probably be well suited with one of those as opposed to specifically puppy or adult.

Okay great. Thanks! My vet said science diet of course. Bleh.

My vet knows better than to go there with me

Asked my hubs to check on Diz and here's what I get... :)Guess he's not doing too bad today. I'm going to have to expand his crate soon.

wpskier222 wrote:

There is a cost co in Harlem, but it's such a pain to get to and to somehow get 30# of dog food home would be a nightmare or a $25 taxi ride. Usually I just order online and have it shipped to our apartment. But I think I'll actually have to go to a pet store today. Also, he's allergic to chicken. So that crosses off about 70% of foods out there. Even the ones that don't have chicken meal, have chicken fat. Oh well, onward. :)Hopefully he do me another solid one day. Poor guy!

That's how I am with Yuki, luckily TOTW Pacific Stream worked perfectly for us otherwise I don't know what I would've done. So many foods have either chicken or rice in them and shes intolerant to both.

Oh, and Yuki only eats two cups a day of TOTW at 11 months old, so I don't think 1.5 cups is too little at all. She also got diarrhea when I tried to increase her food to 2.5 cups a day a couple months ago because I thought she wasn't eating enough, but once I put her back down to 2 cups her stool was fine and shes at a healthy weight.

Is your HOTM photo in central park with the 50 ft line? How did it go??

Well, I forgot to bring his harness, so it was a little anticlimactic lol, I was watching closely to make sure he did hit the end full speed. Also it was about 80 at 8 this am when we were there. Plus, I don't think he really knew he had that much leash to run. It was cool though, when he did run, he stayed within about 20' of me and kind of roved, if that makes sense. Really made me feel like we were a team. Hopefully it will be a little cooler next weekend! When I sat down in the sun, he found a shady spot and laid down but wouldn't get too far from me. Really neat to see him that way. I'll upload some more pix later.

Yeah, having a pup simply just choose to be near you and in close proximity is one of the best feelings in the world. On our two camping trips so far Link was off leash and he stayed near, often following me around like a shadow. The best was when about 7 humans and 3 dogs were all sitting around a camp fire, I got up to go in the cabin to use the bathroom and get a snack and he on his own followed me to the cabin, patiently waited for me by the door, and then followed me back to the fire and curled up on my foot.

That was the absolute best, I felt so enormously grateful for him and fulfilled.

That's cute that Dizzy avoided the sun. He probably wants you to bring his fan to Central Park with you, duh

Dizzy has a new best friend. Its his plush squeaky soccer ball. He totally wore himself out playing with it last night and then snuggled with it. Of course, he can never be without his trusty fan.

So cute! And I don't blame him without wanting to be without his fan, the humidity in Maine has been disgusting, I can't imagine what its been like there.

Let's just say there's nothing quite like the smell of hot garbage in nyc in the summer. Dizzy seems to enjoy it though, but we've been getting up at 5 so he can get a decent walk in the morning. Otherwise, he gets cabin fever.

Yeah, I had to get up early this morning to take them for a walk because Monday and Tuesday we just did games and the little pool for their exercise but they needed one today and even at 6:30 it was so muggy. Luckily the heat wore them out quickly!

Pix taken June 23:














Dizzy is starting to look really grown up! He seems to be in the middle of a big growth spurt, and this week, his hind end grew and his body got bigger around, and a little chunky! His front legs haven't hit their spurt yet, so he's downhill for now. ;)Here are some updated pix of the big, little guy, taken today June 30.