TRUNKING – A NEW TREND

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth…if only we can do the same thing to those ‘animals’, (and when I say ‘animal’ I’m referring to a human being who facilitates ‘trunking’) put them in a car trunk and let them fight to the death, if they don’t, let the dogs attack them.

TRUNKING is a new trend in illegal dog fighting and is gaining popularity in Florida, USA, but who knows where else? People put two dogs in a car trunk and for 15 minutes, while the car stereo is at full blast, the driver goes on a joyride with the two dogs inside the car trunk, fighting to the death. The dog that is dead or most injured after 15 minutes is thrown away.

Sad, but true. People are doing this now. It’s such an ugly truth. Even if you’re not a dog lover, just the thought of two dogs killing each other to please their master and most of all, survival is just plain horrible, disgusting and sick! I can use every adjective in the dictionary to describe this terrible act but doesn’t make it any better.

I’ve signed an online petition to Florida’s governor to help stop this crime. I hope you do your part as well, maybe not as an animal lover but as a human being. Please click on the link below if you want to sign the petition. All that’s needed is your name and your email address.

http://forcechange.com/64627/put-an-end-to-dog-fighting-in-car-trunks/#gf_1

THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN GETTING A PUPPY

When Pom-pom was still a puppy, taken 2 years ago. He’s my Pomeranian spitz.

Sure, you saw that cute, little furry thing on TV, or one of your friends has a big, friendly, giant dog breed and you imagine yourself buying one. That’s the easiest part; but have you thought of other more important things to consider when getting a dog / puppy?

 If you want a dog, ask yourself this question: are you ready, really ready to take care of a puppy? Puppies are like babies. They need attention – lots of it. They can have accidents around the house and will chew anything they can get their sharp canines on. You need to have the commitment to be able to train them (housebreaking) and yelling doesn’t help much.

 Cost of dog ownership – spending money in buying a puppy doesn’t end there. You also have to think of vet care; puppy vaccines, booster shots, anti rabies shots, neutering or spaying, etc. The dog food – puppy food cost more than adult dog foods. Planning to get a big breed? They have BIG appetites too. What about chew toys? What about grooming? If you plan to have a dog breed with fur that continuously grows, be prepared to have funds for the pet groomers!

 Consider other people / pets in the household – Do you have children in the house? Do you have other people with fur allergies living with you? Do you have other pets, let’s say a cat? There are certain dog breeds that do not tolerate children, some are good with them. Some dog breeds have hypoallergenic fur, which is fairly safe for people with fur allergies. I had a cat before my dad brought home a four month old Dalmatian – they hated each other at first, then they learned to ignore each other after a few years. They have learned to mind their own business. I’m not saying that this will eventually happen if you have a cat and suddenly brought home a puppy, but be sure to consider everyone else living in your house before buying a puppy.

 Research about the breed – not researching about the breed firsthand often results in regret in the end. I know someone who bought a Chow-chow, Japanese spitz cross breed and later spilled all the things she didn’t like about her dog. She said she didn’t expect the dog to grow big like that (yes, her dog grew up almost as big as a Chow-chow) and that she didn’t think it would be ‘that’ aggressive. Hello! With a Chow’s temperament and a Spitz’s character, what were you expecting?! That’s two personalities in one dog!

 Size of dog – if you’ve got a small space, let’s say you’re renting an apartment then don’t get a Great Dane or an Irish wolfhound! These dogs need all the space they can get to run around. Also, the bigger the dog, the more it will eat – another thing to consider.

 Activity / energy level – Some dogs have high energy levels and they need to use / release that energy or else you might end up with dog problems such as excessive barking. If you’re the type who loves outdoors then it’s okay for you to get a an active breed of dog that you can take running, jogging and hiking.

 Temperament – dogs are like humans, some have short fuse, aggressive and some just really, really have long patience with anything and everything. If you plan to take care of a dog for the first time, it’s better to get a dog that’s on the ‘mellow’ side – ones that have agreeable temperament and not the ones who assert their way and take over as the leader of the pack. Remember, if you plan to get a dog, you will be the pack leader, not the other way around.

 Physical maintenance / grooming – Are you ready for the cost of taking your dog to the groomers? Or if you are feeling adventurous, are you brave enough to do the styling on your pet? Trim its nails? Clean its ears? All those will definitely take a lot of energy, time, effort and commitment.

 Pure breed or cross bred dogs – Pure breds are more famous than cross bred dogs, but they say a pure bred has more health problems than cross bred ones. I have two Pomeranian spitz’s and they turned out fine – intelligent like a Pom and loyal like a Spitz.

 Where to get your dog? – Personally, I prefer my vet’s referrals when I want to buy a puppy or close friends whose dogs are healthy. I don’t buy from pet shops or online ads, because honestly, I don’t have any idea if the parents of the puppy they’re selling are top of the line and without genetic problems. How can I be sure that they are not doing ‘inbreeding’ with their dogs?

 I always think that dogs are like humans too. They need the same amount of care we do, the only difference is that dogs live shorter and well, obviously, they can’t talk. So again, consider some of the pointers I wrote before getting a dog. If you have other things to add, please don’t hesitate to leave your comments. I will gladly appreciate it.

I AM MAX, THE ROTTWEILER

Human picked me out of my 8 other siblings, I don’t know…maybe because she thought I was cute while chewing on a metal bar, haha! She took me home that same day, but we had to stop at the vet first. On the way there, I threw up on human’s lap. Her pants were a mess but she didn’t get mad – lucky me!

The vet gave me vitamin shots and scheduled another visit before human carried me again and we went home. I was surprised to find out that she had other dogs – a cranky, old Dalmatian named Antonne and Sonic, a Chow-chow / Shi-tzu cross. There was no doubt about it, human and her family loved dogs 😀

A few months later, human brought home a green ball, and it has been my favorite toy 😀

I like to go on an adventure when it rains at night. Sometimes, I forget that human and her family is worried that I go missing for several hours, the longest I’ve been gone was two days, when I wandered too far away and another family found me. They knew where my human’s house was, but they were afraid to take me there, that I might attack / bite them. But one of them managed to get a chain and attached it to my collar and tied me to a tree for the meantime.  They were a nice family, they fed me but they complained I ate too much. Hey, I’m a big dog!

A few hours later, human’s father fetched me and thanked the family who took care of me the last two days. I’m glad I’m back at human’s house again.

Last rainy, Monday night I went on another adventure. But since everyone in the neighborhood knew me already, one of the neighbors went to human’s house and told them where I could be found. Again, human’s father went and fetched me.  I shouldn’t be going on adventures like that again, but I just can’t help it.

Max loves taking a bath 😀

Happy Max after taking a bath

 

This is the latest photo of Max, after he went on an adventure just the other night. Just chilling out – no, there will be no adventures for you this time, Max.

 

 

MY POMERANIAN SPITZ’S

Yeah, they’re a cross between a Pomeranian and a Japanese spitz, but I couldn’t care less. Pom-pom (the bigger one, male) and Chibi (female) are just two of  the four dogs I own. They both know a few commands. This time, I asked them to ‘sit’ and ‘stay’ before I gave them a treat.

“We look good together, don’t we?”

Eagerly waiting for me to give them their favorite treat 🙂

Well behaved Pomeranian spitz’s. They sit and stay for as long as I want to.

Stay…training them myself really pays off.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF NOGI-NOGI (Part 2)

It’s been six months since Nogi came to us as a flea infested pup. Well, he’s grown bigger now, even his ears are up and now we call him ‘Batdog’ – his ears are just too big for his head! I am glad to say that all the fleas are gone, and he’s got a shiny coat now (even after developing mange and losing his fur because of excessive scratching) and the neighbors are even surprised he’s all healthy now. I had the vet check him up, gave him shots for the mange, I bought anti-flea shampoo and powder and even bought ‘IN-DIET’, a food supplement (brand) for dogs that eliminate breath stink and improves their fur quality. We give our four dogs this food supplement every day.

I don’t think Nogi will grow any bigger though. If our guess is right (we all think Nogi’s a native dog breed and nothing more; unlike what our neighbor said that Nogi’s a beagle breed) and I think we all are, then he’s not going to be doing a lot of growing anymore.

He is Max’s new toy now. Yeah, now that I need to buy Max another ball – he lost his favorite green ball in a very grassy area at the vacant lot near our house while he was chasing a cat (who held on for dear life on a middle of a tree while Max could only look up in frustration), Max dropped the ball somewhere and forgot all about it when I called him back. So now, Nogi is Max’s new toy. Max, the ever gentle giant, would play with Nogi with a lot of patience. It would look like Max is somewhat tearing Nogi’s head away from its body but it’s all play!

The video below was taken last January 21 of this year, Max had never hurt Nogi while they are playing.

Nogi loves attention (just like any other dog, right?) and when you approach him, his ears would go sideways, his tail would wag like there’s no tomorrow and he’ll almost lie down on the ground (just like melting) as soon as you touch him. But do NOT ever approach him when he’s eating – this is the only time when he doesn’t want attention from anyone else. All our three dogs, Max, Pom and Chibi, we can approach them while they’re eating, pet them on the head and even put out hand in their food bowl and they wouldn’t complain. Nogi is a different story; he loves his food and nothing will and can get him to stop eating once his bowl is set down and he starts eating– he will growl and growl until you leave him alone. This trait of his reminds me of Antonne, our Dalmatian who passed away last year due to old age.

Other than that, Nogi is just another sweet dog who loves attention, food, loves to run and play and be Max’s toy

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF NOGI-NOGI

This is just a video of Nogi eating his dinner. We we’re just amazed at how he gulps – yes, I said gulp because he doesn’t even chew his food! He is half Chibi’s size, but he can eat twice as much the food Chibi eats (if we let him).  He’s has too much energy and chases everyone, especially me; and as a proof of that, I have scratches on my legs 😦   I’m too scared to clip off his nails, even if I ask the vet to do that it would seem impossible because Nogi doesn’t want to stay in one place!

An update: Nogi is now free of fleas! The wounds on his back are all dried up – fur is gone in the area where he had the wounds, but it will grow back in a few months! By the way, the barking in the background is Max, my 2 year old Rottweiler – he wants his dinner too! haha!

 

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• A BLACK BEAGLE NAMED WHITEY (although I call him NOGI-NOGI) (bokutoupdtokyo.wordpress.com)

TRAINING YOUR OWN DOG

Taken when Pom-pom was just over 7 months old.

Sit, shake hands, down, crawl are just some of the commands I taught my Pomeranian spitz named Pom-pom.

I never thought it was possible. We’ve had several dogs before Pom-pom and the only commands they knew were ‘go inside’, ‘out’ and ‘come here’. I’m always amazed at dogs who can perform tricks, even if it was just the basic ones. I remember seeing a home shopping network advertisement, selling VHS tapes (yes, VHS tapes, this was more than a decade ago) on how to train your dog. They claim it was easy and that there was no need to pay big amounts of money to have your dogs trained by ‘professional’ trainers. Speaking of which, these professional dog trainers ask for a very high fee, which in my opinion isn’t so practical anymore. Thank goodness for Youtube videos where you can choose from tons of dog training videos.

Take it from me, I watched a couple of videos and picked up a few tricks to effectively teach my dog. The first command I taught Pom was ‘sit’. I think it took me about four to five days before he learned the command. But when he did master it, we were all smiles! Nowadays, it only takes Pom three days to learn a command.

Does he look more like a Pomeranian or a Japanese spitz?

It definitely takes a lot of time, effort and patience to teach a dog. But it was fun, you get to learn more about your dog. With what I learned from Fred Alimusa, a famous dog trainer here and he also hosts a segment in the show DOG TV, I teach/train Pom fifteen minutes each day. Any longer than that and he loses concentration even if there’s food involved. Also, PLEASE don’t scream the command to your dog. That is just so WRONG! Sure, you’ve got the dogs attention but you’re just scaring/confusing the poor creature. When training a dog, I make sure that I have their full attention, and when I give the command, I look them in the eye and praise them if they did good obeying the command. Oh, and of course, don’t forget to give your pet the reward / treat for doing something right.

Smiling for the camera...not exactly.

Some other commands Pom-pom knows: (the following commands are in our native language and I simply translated it to English)
Come here.
Let’s go.
Where’s your ball? (Pom will frantically search for his little orange ball when he hears this command)
Get your ball.
Leave it there. (I use this command when we’re about to go outside and he wants to take his ball with him. When he hears this command he instantly drops the ball and waits for me to open the door.)
Up. ( he will stand on his hind legs)

Currently I am on day two, teaching Pom the command ‘crawl’. He just needs a little more training and he’ll be able to perform the command perfectly.
You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars have your dog trained to tricks/ commands. You can train your pet dog yourself if you can commit your time and effort and lots of patience.

Here are the videos of Pom-pom performing his tricks.

 

 

 

 

Or you can check out my Youtube channel if you want to see more videos of Pom-pom, Chibi, and Max 😀

 

 

We are family! Sorry, blurry pic. I was using my old camera phone here...