You want me to eat WHAT?

Last week, Mom spent a bunch of time putting raw chickeny stuff in plastic bags. Little did I know what her plans for it were.

Apparently, this is what I am suppose to eat from now on. Mom plopped a big ole meaty chicken breast in my bowl, and told me to eat. WHAT? Where's my kibble?

Don't get me wrong...I LOVE my raw bones, but aren't those just for special ocassions?

Seriously...I really am not sure what I am suppose to do with this piece of meat. Its not as crunchy as the bones I love, and its a little slimy.

Maybe if I take it out of the bowl it wil be easier to eat?


Hmmm...not so much.

Murphy's mom here. Yes, I have finally taken the plunge and switched Murphy over to a Raw Meaty Bone diet. He finished off the last of his kibble last night, so this morning was the first of many raw meals to come. I have done a LOT of reading on this, but I have to say I am still pretty nervous about it. I'm not crazy about him eating raw meat in the house, especially since he doesnt seem to want to keep it in his bowl when he eats. Plus, he's a growing Great Dane! He needs the correct nutrition to grow properly. Even though all my research tells me otherwise, I worry that he wont be getting the right amounts of vitamins and minerals with this diet.

I am starting him off on chicken. Whole breasts with the bone, and quarters. He'll stay on that for about 2 weeks, and then I'll start adding in different types of meats. Muscle meats, organs and bones. Beef, fish, lamb. Anything I can find that is cheap.

I decided to make this switch for many reasons. 1st, he has never done great on kibble. I have been buying him premium kibble since he was a pup, and he has always had stomach issues and loose stools. Plus, they are the smelliest poops I have ever encountered!! This last kibble he was on seems to be the best of them for him, but he still has issues. 2nd, he is super picky. He'll love the kibble for about a month...and then not want to eat it. Lastly, from all the research I've done, a raw meaty bone diet is the healthiest and most natural way of feeding dogs. They are carnivores. They are born to eat meat. They need to tear, and rip their food. Its good for their teeth, and for their overall health. Now I just need to convince Murphy of that!

He ate about 1/2 of the chicken breast/back this morning. He kept looking at me for reassurance. I kept telling him to eat. At one point he really started gnawing on the meat and I thought he finally got the concept...but I think the texture is weirding him out a bit. Its not crunchy like his kibble, or like his raw bones. After about 30 minutes of sniffing, licking and only a small amount of eating, I took the chicken away from him. I'll try again tonight, he should be good and hungry by then!

Sunday Funday

Yesterday was a strange day here in Sandy Eggo. Weird, wet stuff fell from the sky. Mom called it 'rain'. Its something I haven't seen much of so when we went to the park and it started raining, I had lots of fun catchin the drops on my tongue!

Today was back to normal. Beautiful and sunny, although a tad bit on the chilly side. Good weather for runnin and playin at the beach though!

Rusty was a super fun Vizla. We had a blast chasin eachother around! Especially after I stole his ball!

We ran thru the water and had lots of fun. I was all wet within minutes of arriving at the beach!

Mom said I looked like a drowned rat. Yeah! A very BIG drowned rat!!

Maggie (merle), Cloey (mantle) and Dexter (italian greyhound) from dog park joined us at the beach today. It was fun running around with them too! They are some of my favoritest doggies. Dexter is such a wee little guy, but he acts like he's the same size as us danes!

Ari and Titan also came to play. Ari is such a beautiful girl...I tried to get her to come romp with us but I don't think she wanted to get her hair wet.

Beautiful Ari & Titan

Because of the storm, there were big piles of seaweed all over the beach. We all had a good time investigating them. They sure smelled salty!

I think I discovered why Dexter is always chasing Cloey around. Wouldn't you too if someone was stickin their tongue out at you?

Here's Ari...again, lookin beautiful on the beach. I wonder if she knows how pretty she is?

We ran and ran and ran, all morning long!

And Ari just kept lookin pretty.

Dexter found the bottom of a piece of seaweed and pretended it was a ball. We all laughed at his silliness, especially since it was almost as big as he was!

Then I found this big post from a fence. I had a great time runnin around with it! Mom gave me her meanie face though and made me drop it. Sumthin about it being dangerous to run with a pointy stick in my mouth. I dint see what the big deal was.

After we left the beach, Mom and her friends decided to go get something to eat at a local restaurant. Luckily for her, all us doggies were too tired out to do any begging!

Even now, its almost time for Mom to go to bed and I've been sleepin since we got home! What a ruff day! ;)

Thanksgiving at the Grand Pawrents

Our Thanksgiving vacation started off a bit bumpy (pun intended!). As you saw from my last post, I had some sort of allergic reaction to something and broke out in huge bumpies all over my body. As soon as Mom noticed the bumpies, she gave me 4 pink mediciney pills, sumthin called Ben-a-drill, she said it would help with the bumpies.

Fortunately, they dint itch at all and I really dint notice them at all, so Mom loaded me and all her junk up into the SUV and off we were to the grand pawrents house. I like ridin in the car and the first part of the ride I thought we were goin to the park so I kept a keen lookout from the back of Mom's SUV. Ders a nice spot right between the two headrests where my noggin fits quite nicely. I can rest it there and not get tired at all!

After we had been on the road a while, I figured we weren't goin to the park and layed down for the rest of the trip. Mom says its not too bad of a drive when there is no traffic, but it still takes 2.5 hours of drivin to get to the grandpawrents house.

Once we arrived, Mom had to go out to meet some friends from high school. Part of the way thru the evening she got a call from her Mom. Not only were the bumpies back, but now my right eye was startin to get swelled!

Mom's best guess is that sumthin mean and nasty either stung or bit me on my face, right above my eye. My whole upper eyelid was swollen and a little warm and even a little tender to the touch. I was a good boy though and layed real still while she put a warm camomille teabag on it. I sure hope she dint make tea with that same teabag!

By the next mornin, I was feeling much better. Mom gave me more pinky pills just in case though and they musta helped cuz the bumpies and swollen eye dint come back.

One of my favoritest little persons was also at the Grandpawrents this weekend! She's my newest cousin, and almost 4 months old! Everyone wanted to put her on the floor so she could play with her toys, but they were a bit worried that my big body might hurt her. I love her lots and would never hurt her on purpose, but Im still a pup and Mom says I'm not very good about "personal space".

The solution to the problem came in the form of my xpen! At first I was worried that they were going to make me stay in there the whole weekend, but then I saw that Evie was the one who had to stay there! That's usually where I have to go when I am naughty, but I was watchin her the whole time she was there and couldn't figure out what she did to have to stay in the pen. She sure seemed to like it though! Especially cuz all her little friends were in there with her.

Later on, my auntie's friend Lara came by to say "Hi". I think she originally came by to see the baby, but once she saw how handsome I was she fell in love. We hit it off really well, she was super good at the tummy rubs and back scratches. I even gots to sit in her lap! (maybe this is what Mom means about 'personal space?)

One super fun thing about visiting the Grandpawrents is the really nice dog park. Its just about a 5 minute drive from their house so Mom can take me every day! There are really pretty views from the park, and most of the time I can find lots of nice doggies to play with.

This time I got to play with a nice golden retriever and a border collie. The border collie, just kept tryin to herd us around, but I dint mind.

I also gots to meet a beagle/basset mix. He was a friendly boy, but dint really want to play much, so we just said "Hi" and he went along his way.

Friday morning, when I woke Mom up she was kinda grumpy. It was kinda hot and dry at my grandpawrents and I dont think she was sleeping very good. But then we got downstairs and went outside so I could do by business, and we gots to see this beautiful sunrise! Lucky for Mom that I got her up so early! Otherwise she just woulda slept thru it!

Before we left to head back to Sandy Eggo, Mom made me lay down in the grass so she could take some pictures. Ugh, she's always pointing that flashy thing at me! Could someone make her stop?

After the photoshoot, Mom loaded me back in the SUV for the ride home.

Luckily, we had a stop to make for lunch so the trip was broken up by a fun romp with new friends! Mom made a stop at a cousin's house, right outside of LA, and she had 2 fabulous doggies for me to play with. While they had lunch and chatted, me, Molly and Dillon ran around and played chase! What a great afternoon!

It was fun to meet my cousins, and we even kinda sat still for a family picture.

Then it was back in the car for the last leg of the trip. I was super tired from the entire exciting weekend, so once we got on the road I passed out. We drove past downtown LA and I dint even notice (or care really!)

Boy is it nice to be home though!

Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving!

When things go 'bump' in the morning

Its been an interesting morning so far. Yesterday I got all kind of pamperings. A nice long bath, and then my normal dosage of Advantage. Gotta keep those fleas away!

Then, this morning, I woke Mom up to the wonderful symphony of puking. Not sure what it was that upset my tummy, but once I got all the undigested foodies out I felt much better.

So I was hangin around outside while Mom did her packings. We're goin to the Grand-pawrents! Did I tell you?!?

When I came back in, Mom noticed I was bumpy! Not just a few bumps, but lots of BIG bumps! Can you see em?

Mom's not sure what it was that gave me the bumpies, but she real quick shoved 4 pink pills down my throat so they wouldn't get worse. Some mediciney stuff called benadryl. Suppose to be good for bumpies I guess.

They don't seem to bother me at all, aren't even itchy! Not sure what the big fuss was all about!

D is for Dremel

uh oh

its time

Mom says my nails are gettin too long

so, out comes the dremel...and the dog treats

Mom tries to do this about once a week. I actually don't mind too much, although it does kinda tickle a little, its MUCH better than the yucky clippers. They put way too much pressure on a big dog's nails and they get dull so fast its hard to keep them sharp enough.

Its nice to have short nails. All the better to sneak up on the kitTON. No clicking on the floors = stealth mode for me!

42 week measurements

42 weeks, 118 lbs, 34.25" tall

More on Marvin

Marvin had an excellent center of gravity...

That's the scientific conclusion I've come to as to why the lil guy was always able to pin me.

Mom realizes she forgot to update everyone on the status of Marvin as my brudder. In case you haven't noticed, after long contemplations and lots of really good advice from a few of you (Thanks Hsin-Yi, & Cookie &Cinnamon's Mom!) as well as from friends & family, Mom made the decision to take Marvin back to his foster Mom. Sumthin about me not bein mature enough for a brudder right now. WhatEvah!

Mom explained to me that I'll get a brudder or a sisder one day (other than my Sophie KitTON sisder, that is). Right now, I just need to grow up a bit. She wants to be able to focus all of her attention on ME (which, really, should it be any other way??). That means I gets ALL of the treats, ALL of the toys, and ALL of the luvins. Not such a bad deal, don'cha think?

Not only that, but Mom thinks I need mores obedience class. For some reason when she calls me at the park or the beach, she thinks I need to run over to her as fast as possible. Wussup with dat? So, for now I will work on my heeling, and my recalls, and my sits & down stays.

Eventually, Mom wants me to get my CGC (Canine Good Citizen),

and after that she might even have me compete in obedience, rally or a combination of the two. She thinks in another year or so I'll maybe be more mature and then she can start lookin for another doggie to join our family.

For now, Marvin went back to the foster Mom's and that very same weekend she got an email saying he'd found a new fur-ever family. A super nice young couple about an hour from Sandy Eggo came to see him at the adoption fair he was at, and fell in love. Two Woofs for Marvin! I just know he's gonna have a grrrreat life!