Monday, February 28, 2011

Our Westie.TOto the Sealion!

I present Our Westie TOto the Sealion!
Balancing Boing Boing on his HEAD!
On Youtube soon!

Regarding Westie Allergy

Hi Tracie,

After reading your blog, I realised that Bubbles are suffering from allergy.
We are lucky that so far TOto hasn't shown any sign of Allergy, but there are times when he scratched more than usual we will start to suspect everything!

Once it happened we STOPPED all his treats and threw them all away!

And the 2nd time it happened we start thinking what is 'New' in TOto's life! Oh ya, I used washing detergent on the Towel I wiped him everyday. I remove that step, and TOto is back as usual.

Of course there are 1001 reasons in the environment.
But if you goes to a Vet, the shortcut reason will always be 'Oh they are allergic to something in the environment!' Bullshit, hahaha I also can do that and then prescribe some Antihistamine.

One forummer has mentioned that he tried to remove everything from his dog and test one by one what are ther real culprit that caused the allergy!

I shall shortlist some of the causes that you can control and see whether it helps!

Food
First and foremost, the thing that affect Westie the most is their Food! Look at the ingredient closely, and the shorter the list of ingredient the better! And so far Westies are allergic to EVERYTHING except Lamb and Fish! Learn the Ingredient and read through them! Try to remove ingredients such as wheat, corn and grain. Buy the kibbles in small quantities, and see if the scratching get better. There are some Grainfree + Lamb/fish kibbles around. TOto is having 1/4 cup of Solidgold Huchen Flocken and 2/4 cup of Orijen Fish.

If you have the time and $$$, the next best food idea will be BARF (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food). I have read ravings review about how their dogs miraculously recover from their Allergies with Barf diet! Or if not the next better idea will be home cook food because you are still in control of what you are feeding your dog and you cut away all the preservatives!

Water
The water they drink usually stained the fur at the mouth, use filtered water. We add drops of Apple cider to TOto water everyday. If you suspect the water, boil it. If you can afford buy bottled water.

Treats
We usually made our own treats but we still indulge TOto here and there especially when there is a discount! But we are very strict, he only can have all fruits and vegie biscuit, if not we still keep to Lamb and fish! But we cut up all his treat to very small pieces! We do not want to overfeed him!

Shampoo
Use paraben free and phthalate free shampoo that are hypoallergenic and all natural! I higly recommend Earthbath Oatmeal & Aloe Shampoo.

Bath Water
My hubs mentioned that Singapore water is very 'Hard'. He says try to leave the water overnight before bathing your dog. He mentioned that the 'chemical' will sink to the bottom of the bucket, so you have to gently scoop the top part of the water for use. We bring TOto down to walk at least 3x a days, and each time he comes home we will wipe him thoroughly and even dip his feet in water to clean it!

Grooming
One of the reason we handstripped him was to reduced the chances of TOto having skin allergy. By handstripping, their hair follicles can breath better. Hubs explained that usually westie one hair follicles has a few soft coat fur, and one coarse fur; so if you pluck the coarse fur away. It helps that follicles to loosen up and the skin could breath better! Hahaha this is Hubs ways of explaining to me!

Please read and take it with a pinch of salt, we are not experts! These are written based on our own experiences and what we researched and read here and there ...

Sunday, February 27, 2011

鼻子脱色! (Nose color fade!)

While in the dog park, TOto nose got scratched, I didn't realised that until we got home and Hubs saw that TOto nose seems swollen! And still we didn't know it was so bad because it was swollen into one bulge.  Only after he starts to peel, and we realised he got scratched on the nose! There was also another scratch near his lip!
His Daddy Heart pain; but mommy tell TOto,"You are a big boy now, and when you want to play, accidents happen. Suxk it up!"

Hopefully the colour comes back faster, so ugly!
Hahahaha ~

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Handstripping Question

Hi Tracie,

Sorry that I have to answer you here.
Yes I have read online about westies being handstripped after they are a few years old but it will take a longer time for the hard coat to grow out. It won't be easy but yes you can do that.
And my advice is to try it yourself first unless you 100% believe and trust your 'handstripper' or if you have the time to stand there and look at the groomer handstrip your dog; DIY to understand and experience the process first.

We sent TOto for 2 session of handstripping and in the end we realised that the 'PRO' didn't do a proper job and damage his coat, and now I am slowly trying out to grow out his coat. By using the Handstripping method, their fur has to be plucked from the ROOT. And if the Groomer is lazy and use the lazy method via Shedding Knife instead of the Mar Stripping knife, then the soft coat will be pull out and hard coat will be cut!

If you do not want to invest in a Mar Stripping Knife, a Pumice Stone works well too, especially with the soft coat at the neck! Some experienced YouTube's groomers only uses Baby powder and their FINGERS!
Me and hubs do alot of research online, and watched lots of youtubes video, before deciding to do it ourselves.Experienced it yourself first before sending them to the so-called EXPERT because you might not know if they are doing the correct job or NOT! It took 2 sessions for me to realised that the Professional Groomer didn't exactly Handstrip TOto and even use a scissor to CUT his skirt to create the line at the side! I was so pissed, and we wasted like USD120.00 for the 2 useless session, which I can use to get a Grooming table myself!

It took me 2 hours for the Shoulder, head and Neck by myself. And another 2 hours for his behind and back! Hubs says I am improving and moving faster and faster!! TOto's backside is so much smaller after the 'pluck pluck pluck'!
Handstripping is expensive and time consuming but they shed less and hard coat are so much easier to maintain because hard coat doesn't get dirty and they don't matt as easily too! If TOto starts to smell, we just have to rinse him with water and dry him with a towel, that is it! He be perfect after that; no shampoo and no blowdrying!

Thanks for reading and Good luck to you Tracie.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

No I am not THAT KIND!

I have wanted to get this out of my chest for sometime now so here I goes ranting!
A girlfriend once commented,'Oooooh you are that kind of Dog parents.'

She was meaning to say that I was 'that kind' that show off my puppy by teaching him tricks so that I can show it off. I was actually a tad offended by this comment althou she did not meant it to be malicious but ...

Anyway, she has a Chihuahua who escaped from her house, ran into the streets and was knocked down by a car. I told her if your dog is trained, this won't happen.

Training your dog teach your dog; How to learn, How to understand Human, and most importantly teach the dog SAFETY! TOto has been 'learning' since he join our family, so now we just have to give TOto an expression, a hand signal or a noise and TOto knows whether it is an 'Approval' or a 'No'.

A well mannered dog will be a well-loved dog, which makes a Happy dog, so he can blend well into OUR HUMAN's Environment. Ultimately TOto is living with us and not us living with him in his Kansas Farm!

Safety wise, TOto has learn not to 'DASHED' out of the door. Even if we allow him to go out of the door first, he will still wait for us at the staircase. So please train your dog to 'SIT' and be the last to walk out of the door! THIS IS SO IMPORTANT! My Hubs even goes to the extend to teach TOto to sit when a car is approaching and only move on when the car is drivng away; this teaches TOto not to panick when he sees a car. And TOto learnt to 'Down' when he sees a dog approaching from afar so the other dog won't panick and attack TOto! All these are basic survival skill in the 'Human' world which is not in their Basic Animal Survival Instinct!

I don't know about other dogs but TOto loves it when he can 'Understand' us. And the only way when TOto can totally understand us is through all the tricks we trained him to do. When he does something right, our 'Approval OK' makes him SO HYPER and HAPPY! So part of Teaching is giving him our Love, Attention and Approval, and of course all the TREATS and praises! Although Training sounds so harsh but for TOto, 'Training' means 'Treats', 'Biscuits' and Daddy's attention!

So NO I AM NOT that kind of Dog Parent because I have 1001 other reasons why I want to train my dog! And Safety is the first and foremost most important reason.

The other 'Benefits' I get out of it is BONUS!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Apple Carrot Meatball lookalike BISCUIT!

I did 2 batches this time round, the usual Flat biscuits and the Meatball lookalike Biscuit!
I wanted to shaped the biscuit into a round shape so that I can stuffed it into his Kong!

So here we go with the Basic Peanut Butter and Banana Dog Biscuits Recipe. I replaced the Main Ingredient Banana and Peanut butter with Apple and carrot! I also added Salmon Oil capsules and Garlic Oil capsules into the mixed. That is ON MY/YOUR OWN RISK!

Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 egg
1/3 cup carrot (or lesser)
1/2 cup chopped apples
2 teaspoon Honey
1/2 cup rolled Oats
2 TBSP Milk
Added 2 tsp of flaxseed
2 Salmon Oil Capsule
2 Garlic Oil Capsule
Add milk/water if the dough is too dry!
Chopped apples and my Salmon oil capsules & Garlic Oil Capsules. I must get a processor SOON!
Just add everything together, use your finger and mixed it up into a dough!
Mixture is very sticky because I added abit of MILK. The dough was a tad dry but after I added abit it become too wet.
300 Degrees Faraheit for 1hour. Hubs say they look like Ikea meatball, which result in him having cravings for meat ball! Apples and Carrot biscuit doesn't smell as aromatic as Peanut Butter and Banana. But I did another batch the next day!!
I bought this Locklock container for his Home baked treats!

One side for the usual flat bisuit! These peanut butter Biscuit smell so nice and it tasted good as well. I steal quite abit from TOto's biscuit Container for myself! Yeah, all ingredients are HUMAN grade!!!
The other side for his Vegetarian Meatball Biscuit, hahaha!
Hopefully this batch can last for another 2 weeks!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Our Westie TOto @ 1 Yrs 3 Weeks Old

  • He doesn't chew around the house anymore. Yipeee for me, I can place my stuffs anywhere! But we won't know what will happen if he is left ALONE at home!
  • Usually when only Mommy and TOto at home, he doesn't disturb me as much. TOto will do his own stuffs and me mine! But when Daddy come home, it will become a whiny, attention seeking puppy! Especially on the weekend, TOto will be so whiny, even if I am in the kitchen cooking! TOto thinks, weekend is FAMILY, and I shouldn't even COOK!
  • He has barked to warn us that the door is unlock for at least 4x! So is it just co-incident? We really wonder how will TOto know that the door is unlocked?
  • TOto is so tuned to our scheduled, he sometimes sleep at 3am and wake up at 11am!! THAT IS LATE for a DOG.
  • When TOto wants to PLAY, he will bring a TOY and bang it on your thigh! When Hubs bend down on the floor, TOto will be very excited and goes to his basket and starts CHOOSING his toy to play with. AND TOto usually have a mind of his own, and he will select what he wants to play with you!
  • In the morning, TOto DEMAND for Morning greeting by whining in the bedroom! And he only wants MOI attention. You see his tail wagging like mad when I greet him in the morning! Hubs' jealous because it is hubs who bring TOto down for the morning walk!!!
TOto is rather 'grouchy' when we are doing his video so his actions are very mechanical. When he is very happy, all the tricks that he does will look so different and happy! Anyway, for the record this is TOto @ 1years old!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

TOto @ Lewisville DOg park 2011

The rare days in 2011 when the weather is good enough to bring TOto to the dog park for a run!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Our Westie TOto . Playing in the Snow!

Finally I find out the reason why my pc cannot load Video. Anyway that problem is solved and I can load more TOto's video. Here is one when Texas snowed and we finally let TOto out for a run when the sun is out bright and shinning, BUT it is still very cold! TOto had so much fun because his friend Cooper, the white schnauzher came shortly! They had fun running UNLEASHED just right downstairs in our apartment compound!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

My Dog is eating TOO FAST!

Recently TOto has been GULPING down his food so fast and within seconds everything is GONE! And already whining for 2nd helpings!! And this is such a bad habit, swallowing everything so fast means he didn't have time to digest and cannot feel the fullness from the meal. So we are out in the 'market' looking for some products to slow down his mealtime! There are the metal ball, the slow feeder bowl etc. We don't know whether such products work and they are NOT CHEAP so we DIY!

We used these OLD toys that came with TOto when we brought him home, and TOto doesn't play with them. And it WORKS, we wonder why TOto doesn't just bite them out. But while waiting for TOto to get clever, we just continue to use this! There are some other DIY recommendations online; and the next progressing deterrent we will be using will be a Campbell soup CAN!
It works, now he doesn't whine for seconds.
TOto has this habit of drinking water after his meal if he is FULL, from his meal and now he has gotten back to that habit!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Whinnneee whine whineeee

You know what, I know Toto so well. TOto always and I mean ALWAYS come complaining to me. And mommy would take action!

Pee Pee Urgent; Look at me WHINE
Want to play; Look at me WHINE
Hungry; Look at me WHINE!
Biscuit; LOOK AT ME WHINE!!!!

We wonder why TOto only whine at me, but my guess is 'ONLY, Mommy knows!'. Usually it is that few things, and when we have done what TOto need, he will be satisfied and be on his own; doing his own stuffs! There are always that different signs of his discomfort that we had take noticed. When he wants to pee, he will sit in a very awkward position or stop play in the middle of a fetch. And when he wants Biscuit, he will whine and look at the Biscuit Tin direction!! He saw SUNSET and think is time for DINNER; sometime Sunset here at 4pm! But Mommy Know BEST ...

AND PLUS, only mommy can make Daddy's ass move and bring TOto down for his potty session! So TOto knows WHO wears the pants at home!!

Daddy bringing TOto down for his last potty session @12.50am in -1 degrees Celcius.

TOto looking at me,"Mom playyyyyy; Hippooo also can, Leo also can!!!!"

TOto,"Nomm nommm nommmm...."

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

GOod day @ Dog Park!

We brought TOto to the Dogpark on Saturday and Sunday and I realised he didn't crave as much other dog's attention as he used to. TOto play and response to us more than he wants to find other dog for play! Maybe we brought him to Doggie Daycamp so frequently that he doesn't lack other doggy friends' attention!

When we ask TOto,'Where is Ball Ball, go get Ball ball!'. TOto will response by scanning the area visually for a tennis ball, and run to the nearest one to fetch one for us to play 'fetch' with him!

TOto playing 'Police catch Thieves' and oddly TOto loves to be the 'Thief'!
He LOVES being chased ...
COming back from Fetch!
Hugs from his Daddy!
TOto loves to play frisbee too! TOto manage to intercept 2 kids playing with frisbee in the dogpark. Luckily TOto didn't snatch the frisbee and ran away. Hahaha TOto goes snatch the frisbee and ran towards either his Daddy or Me! We have seen some dogs that 'steal' toys and just RUN AND RUN away, it is so embarassing for the owner!

Weather is getting better, we be frequenting the dog park now!

Monday, February 14, 2011

I SPY

TOto Sun-tanning and enjoying his Dogzilla Chew in the patio on a Bright Sunny afternoon! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Our Westie.TOto and Kong

We bought this Kong toy like since forever but TOto only learnt how to like to play with it recently!
So weird ...
Kong can buy us some time when TOto is very needy and seeking attention when we are busy! And usually after TOto try lick the biscuit out of Kong; he is so tired he usually doesn't request for more Treats!

Friday, February 11, 2011

TOto ♥ my Home Baked Dog Biscuit!

A neighbour hear us speaking Mandarin to TOto and he exclaimed,
'TOto is billingual'!

We bought some Dog Biscuits for TOto recently, although it state as ALL NATURAL but the biscuit smelt so FLOURY. And I hate that smell! Unlike store bought biscuit, our own home-made biscuit smell nice! The Ratio of FLOUR to all other ingredient should be very high! Haha that why you cannot smelt other ingredient except 'FLOUR'!

Using the basic ingredient from Peanut Butter and Banana Dog Biscuits, this time round I added more ingredient; half apple, Carrot, 4 Salmon Oil capsule. Add abit of water if you cannot handle the dough or add more flour if the dough is too water. Dog biscuit unlike HUMAN biscuit has a HIGH TOLERANCE for error!
The apple are not chopped fine enough, hahaha.
The carrot, apple and banana are so OBVIOUS from the pictures!
But I have to bake Longer because of so much wet Ingredient used. I bake it @300 F for 30minutes and I flip and bake the bottom for another 10minutes @ 300F!
ALL natural, No perservatives, Salt or Sugar!
Hopefully this can last TOto for 2 weeks!
He ♥  it!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Soft Toy Look alike TOto!

Cuddling in bed in the morning refused to wake up!
He look just like these fake soft toy!

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

@ 12 months 6 days ...

Biscuits is always on HIS MIND!

Monday, February 7, 2011

Westie Charm

Is there a doggy mommy day?
Hahaha a westie charm from Tiffany & Co in 18k Gold @ USD825.00 before tax!

❤❤❤

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Busybody ...

In the middle of the night, when he cannot get to the Patio; he will look out the window like this. Hahaha we teach this when he is younger so we do not have to open the patio to TOto in the middle of the night!
TOto the busybody; westie!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Toto is ONE today!

Happy Birthday to Toto!!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

When the weather is good ...

The weather is suddenly so good we have to bring Toto to the dogpark for a run!
BUT daddy has to buy Lottery ticket first! And TOto eyesight will never LEAVE Daddy's track!
When TOto is tired of standing, he will rest his butt on the seat!

The dogpark is PACKED with Human beans and their dog buddies!

Another nice nice day with TOto ...