Lately we’ve been having some problems with the pups having loose stools.  It has gotten so bad, we decided to take the three into the vet to get checked out. On the day we were to go to the vet, Sadie and Fargo got sick. So it was a good thing we had the appointment.  They were both throwing up quite a bit during the night and by morning it was obvious neither of the three didn’t feel well as they were not their usual perky (or should I say pesky) selves.  So off to the vet we went. 

Now let me explain that while Dr. J is seems a very good vet, his bedside manners are not the best.  In fact at times a bit irritating but he seems to know what he’s doing, so we’ve put up with it.

When we got to the vet, he ran his usual fecal exams and came out to tell me that he didn’t really see much wrong with the poop and that maybe their food just wasn’t right for them and maybe we needed to look at a different food.  I explained to him that this was the third dog food brand we were using in the last four months and all had the same results.  He just shrugged and went on to discuss their throwing up. He told me that this was usually due to eating something that didn’t agree with them.  He asked me if they had eaten anything unusual lately.  Now all of this sort of ticked me off because we have been monitoring their food and sadly, their poop for the last several weeks (months actually) and I could tell you exactly what they had eaten on most any day.  None of it was "unusual" I assured him.  Of course he gave me a bit of a disgusted look and went to the back to get some medication.

So after spending a couple of hundred dollars for a vet visit, I had some medication but absolutely no answers as to what might be our problem. Needless to say I was not a happy camper with the vet!

So onto this morning and everyone seems to be doing much better. They are their usually pesky selves, wanting in and out every couple of minutes. Rough housing and barking, you know, the usually puppy stuff.

Ruthanna gets up, goes out back and quickly does a u-turn to come and get me. "Have you seen the backyard lately" she asks. I respond, "not really, I’ve been busy with everything else." She then tells me I might want to get out here to see this. So out I go as she points to a spot in the backyard. A spot where our 4 foot Hibiscus tree resides.

Only now it’s…

I look around the yard and I further realize that there are no branches laying around.  No twigs.  Not even a leaf!  Those dogs have eaten a TREE!!!! It is completely without question gone!

Then I remember Dr. J’s question…."have they eaten anything unusual lately?" Hmmmm, I don’t know, maybe a tree.

Sigh, add that to the "dogs have eaten" list. Oh, and one last thing, with all that fiber in their system their poop this morning was like a rock!

It seems that if you have giant breed dogs, one of the more common questions asked is, "Do they drool much".  So far we have been pretty fortunate as Ursa has a pretty firm mouth and Sadie and Fargo have been pretty young and their mouths have been pretty tight as well.  Ruthanna and I both knew that at some point that wasn’t going to be the case.  We both figured that Fargo once he got older was probably going to be a drooler.  Well that day finally got here.  Sunday, Fargo had his first official reported case of drool.  It was quite impressive too!  Even managed to get a twig intangled in it!

Sigh, our boy is growing up. I’m so glad we were able to catch this memorable occasion on film.

As you might have read in past posts, we have been going to training class with Fargo and he has shown to be quite quick at picking up things.

At home, for the last several weeks we’ve been working with Fargo to get him to ring a bell at the back door to let us know that he needs to go out.  Currently he goes to the door and will either just stare at it or sit there waiting for us to come open up the door.  When he does this, we go over and show him the bell and get him to sniff it or to paw it to show him that he needs to ring the bell.  We’ve also tried putting peanut-butter on it to get him to mess with it but so far, no such luck.  Fargo just has not grasped the idea…at all…not an inkling that the light bulb has even flickered on this, but we keep trying.

Tonight for the very first time, we were sitting at the dinner table and what did we hear?  Why it was the bell!  Oh my goodness, could it be?  Did Fargo finally understand to ring the bell to go out?  Could we be that fortunate after all these weeks?  Sigh, why no! Uku, our cat, rang the bell to go out! We haven’t even been showing the crazy cat what the bell is for!

Sigh, Fargo, you’ve been shown up by the cat….who got to go out!