Henri

Setting up a thread to see and hear about the latest antics of our newest furry DG member in the PNW. Okay, Lynn, get your questions and observations ready. And get your camera out!

Great idea Kathy..... I am definitely ready for another puppy fix! (Not to mention pretty happy that it's not mine this time.... I adore Phoenix but we are all breathing a tentative sigh of relief that she is slowly losing some of her less desirable puppy traits!)

I know exactly what you mean!

My camera has been missing for the last few days. Hopefully I will find it soon.

He is a lovable little rascal. He hasn't had an accident in the house (knock on wood) for almost a week. Yeah! But, he loves to chew. And chew. And chew. And dig. Fluffy white dogs are not good gardening companions.

Excellent news. Keep up with your techniques for the next few months. It's easy to make that mistake of thinking they're "past that stage" and then later on finding the corner they've been so carefully sneaking away to. It's happened to all of us.

Same with the chewing - I always think they're past that stage and then come home to find they've pulled those expensive sunglasses I splurged on right out of my purse and chewed them to bits . . .

Looking forward to those pictures. He'll grow fast. Find your camera so you don't miss a thing!

Do puppies know instinctively not to eat poisonous plants like Brugsmansias?

No they don't. Just like you can't have rhododendrons around horses and goats and wild cherries around cattle, you have to keep the poisonous stuff away from the dogs, for sure. No garlic, onions, chocolate xylitol (chewing gum in your purse), grapes or raisins, either. And puppies are tough because they are tasting everything!! I'd give up on Castor Beans and Brugs this year . . . or share them out to someone else.

I keep reading about not giving dogs garlic, but we used to give our Irish Setters garlic and brewer's yeast to deter fleas, and everyone was recommending that back then. We also used to give our Great Dane grapes, all the time! We'd stand in the arbor and munch, and give her the tough skins. Maybe some dogs are more sensitive than others; I certainly wouldn't give our Labradoodle any of those things now that I've heard they're bad for her.

We always had rawhide bones and other treats for our dogs when I was growing up, and at first we gave them to the dogs we got after I was married, too. But years ago I was talking to the mother of my daughter's friend and somehow the topic of rawhide bones came up, and she said we shouldn't use them because they can make dogs ill; her dogs threw up when she gave them to them. I thought that was ridiculous since we'd never had problems. But the next time I gave my dog a rawhide chewtoy, didn't she throw it up? I swear that woman jinxed me!

Greenhouse_gal I heard the same thing about rawhide bones. I have given them to my dogs in the past but now I use the tough nylon ones. There are always so many opinions about pet things!

I would still be giving rawhide bones to my dogs if it hadn't been for that woman putting a spell on me or something. We used those knotted rope bones for a while, until they starting appearing out the other end of the dog. My Labradoodle loves to fetch, so her favorite toy is the ChuckIt. She has a blue rubber ball that goes with that and she loves to chew on it, but otherwise she's not very mouthy. Some of my dogs liked the chocolate Nylabones, but she doesn't even seem interested in those.

If you look at some of the bones, they're made in Mexico and contain formaldehyde . . . now I'm not chemist, but that can't be a good thing.

Funny story about the dog. Some dogs are more sensitive to the no-nos than others, definitely. But some people also don't die from smoking, and we still know that's playing with fire.

Unfortunately the consequences are great when your dog is sensitive and in some cases, sudden. I should add to that list that highly concentrated baking chocolate is pretty much deadly, so don't even leave it out on the counter . . .

For those of you with herding dogs, you should be aware that there is a genetic mutation, commonly referred to as MDR1, which will allow certain drugs to pass through the brain barrier and kill the dog. Some medications that are commonly used with dogs can't be used for them - Ivermectin (for heartworm) and Loperamide (in Imodium) are two of the more common ones. Sensitivity does vary. For some dogs, rolling in fresh horse manure of a horse that's just been treated with Ivermectin, can cause problems.

http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/depts-vcpl/drugs.aspx.

Fortunately, now there's a test you can have to see if your dog is a carrier or this gene.

http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/depts-VCPL/test.aspx

And I was just talking to someone recently about Rosemary extract, which is commonly used in the better dog foods as a preservative. It can cause seizures in some dogs . . .

http://www.thedogpress.com/Columns/10032-Rosemary-Neurotoxin-Pet-Food_Liquorman.asp

Omigosh, nothing's safe! I don't think Labradoodles are considered herding dogs, and we do use Ivermectin because mosquitoes are rampant around here. So far no reaction....

I would guess that you're okay there, as well. It's a recessive gene, so a dog needs to inheret a copy from each mom and dad for it to be active. I only know about it because in the history of Silken Windhounds, there was some Sheltie (actually, this was proof of it) and that has introduced the mutation into the SW population. The good breeders are trying to eradicate it through testing and then elimination of breeding between carrier dogs. Actually, the dog in the picture is a Silken Windhound because the Silken people have been working with UW on research . . .

You'll see at the bottom of the page that this breeder, for instance, shows the results of heart, thyroid, eye, and MDR1 mutation tests for each of her dogs. Breeding dogs the right way is clearly not for profit. LOL

http://www.talismanhounds.com/ilsa.html

I can only worry about so many things, and what my dog eats or doesn't eat from the garden is fairly near the bottom on my list. I do know she eats various grasses, berries, and small mammals whenever she can either catch or find them (yuk, I hate dead-animal breath).

Yeah, and you can't stop them from eating everything.

But I'm pretty attached to mine, and I'll avoid anything I know about that I can change that's like to bring us all heartache.

I had no idea that rosemary was a neurotoxin! I've been using a lot of it lately - who knew?

I know. What's the term they use? Epileptogenic? There's a new one.

Greenhouse Gal, Post a picture of your Labradoodle, please. My DIL has a Goldendoodle. He is such a great dog.

I need to go explore the sites you just listed, Katye. Will be back soon.

Lynn - they're just informational. I'm reasonably certain that Henry doesn't have the gene mutation. But it's good to make sure that he isn't able to get at any of the foods listed.

And, if he eats higher quality food, you probably want to check to see if his food has rosemary extract in it. Seems like smaller dogs have been affected by it.

We always gave our dog garlic in his food....I was told it was good for the heart and help keep them from getting worms. Our dog lived to 14 people years before we had to put him down, he had a lot of pain and couldnt move anymore.

Here's Chouette, on our dock, taken last summer when she was 2:

Gardenchick, we always gave our setters garlic, too. It didn't seem to hurt them but maybe they weren't as sensitive as some other dogs.

This message was edited Jun 9, 2010 2:17 PM

I mentioned the drug issues, along with the link, to another group I talk to, several of whom have Border Collies, and one of them sent me this link about an Aussie:

http://www.miniaussierescue.org/BusterAlert/bustersPage.html

He eats Wellness brand. I will go check the ingredients. We are trying to resist the urge to feed him table scraps. I do give him a bite of cheese as a treat when I am eating a slice. Is that bad for him? My mom's poodle loves fresh green beans.

Cheese is okay. Lots of people use that as a training treat. Make sure the pieces are tiny. Like kids, too much cheese can sometimes "stop up" a dog. :-)

Green beans are good. I know people who use that (and carrots) as snacks for their overweight dogs.

Wellness is good food, but they may use Rosemary extract . . . if it's working for you, I'd keep him on it, but maybe check out some of the Bishon groups online and see if anybody's had problems with Rosemary.

Also, keep some canned pumpkin on hand and give a little bit of it every now and then. Most dogs like it and it has fiber and moisture which is good for digestion.

I can attest to the fact that Chouette is a love. She's a very nice dog in person. greenhouse Gal is very nice as well. I so enjoyed strolling her garden and studio.

Lynn, Henri, is soooo cute!!!

Thanks, Jan! It was so lovely to have you come by last summer!

Henri is adorable too, from what I've seen.

Those silken hounds are sure beauties.

My dog gets a lot of garlic too because she cleans off my pans, bowls & dishes. She grew up on human food because there weren't a lot of pet stores in the Costa Rican rainforest, and I hadn't exactly planned on adopting a puppy, so her baby food was rice & beans. Her favorite food of all time is green peppers.

But she never seems to get into anything that is harmful to her. The Natural Balance food seems to agree with her but now I'm off to check the ingredients list.

Since I could never muster the energy or knowledge that so many of you have about breeds & animals in general, I'm lucky that she exhibits the worldliness & Teflon genetics of a Third World mutt.

How did you manage to adopt a pup in a Costa Rican rainforest? Although I imagine that the other PNW-ers know the story by now. Talk about culture shock once the dog got to Oregon!

Chouette is so cute. What aface.

Where is the picture of Lynn's dog?

This message was edited Jun 9, 2010 1:19 PM

Well, I thought I saw a picture of Henri, but it's not on this thread. Am I dreaming? That's a probability.

Thanks, Willowwind. I could swear I saw a photo of Henry on another thread. Maybe I'm confusing him with another pup, though.

There was a picture of him on another thread - probably one of the Apropos of Nothing threads.

Here's another comprehensive list - http://www.vetinfo.com/dtoxin.html.

Toxicity does vary by animal and in some cases you have to feed quite a bit.

Chouette is charming. I just can't get enough of that name.

Thanks, Kathy! It's French slang for "cute" or "cool." What it really means is a type of owl, though.

I like that they've kept Buster's page up to date. I think it's a great tribute to him. Knowledge is a powerful thing.

Oh, even, better. I wish my name meant "cool". How could you go wrong with a name like that?

Thanks katie59, good to know I'm not losing it. ^_^

No problem, Jan. I definitely need that reassurance every now and then, as well.

Kathy, I wanted to name her Bisous, which is French for "kisses" and is the way one signs a letter to a good friend (that or "bises") but another woman I know used that, and I didn't want to be a copycat. When we got her I started off calling her Truffe or Truffle (for the mushroom, not the bonbon), because she was black and quite textured, but she just felt more like a Chouette so we switched to that.

We actually had her flown in to Philadelphia from Denver; that's where the breeder was and she sounded like such a great, responsible breeder that we went with her instead of someone closer.

I think you ended up with the right one. I think there are lots of Bisous. My niece, who is French, named one of her cats Bisou or Bisous.

Once you click with a breeder, it's definitely good to stay with them. And I'm sure they feel the way about a good owner, too.