Miss Greta Loves Her Frosty Paws Ice Cream

Well it is that time of the year in upstate NY. SPRING/SUMMER TIME! We are getting are flowers planted and bbq’ing outside. And of course we stock up our freezer with some icecream. At the end of a hot day, and just before the sun goes down, my husband and I go outside on our patio and enjoy a cold refreshing icecream. And it can be just about any icecream. From cones, to banana splits to just plain icecream in a dish. When we are done with our icecream, we usually leave a bit for our dogs, (not if it is chocolate), and let them feast on it as well. And yes we let them lick it right from the bowl. If you are a dog lover, you won’t be saying or thinking “YUK” right now. 🙂
So since they love icecream so much, we now buy them “Frosty Paws” which is icecream specially made for dogs. And just in case you are wondering, yes I’ve tasted it. And for that I WILL say “YUK”!! It comes packaged just like Skippy Cups. And it looks like vanilla icecream, just not as white. It tastes like cold, moist dog biscuits. BUT THEY LOVE IT!
So hear are some pictures of Miss Greta eating her Frosty Paws “off of a spoon”. (and no “YUKS” please)

And here is Miss Greta after eating her icecream. She is all happy with herself now.

We buy the Frosty Paws at Checker Hill Farms on Freeman’s Bridge Road. Actually we get her Eagle Pack and everything else from there too. I believe that Frosty Paws are sold in places like Pet Smart as well. Believe it or not, Price Chopper use to sell them a couple of years ago. But we haven’t seen them in a long time there.
So now we know for sure that it is summer, even though the calender shows differently, cause the Frosty Paws are on the scene.

Springtime In Upstate NY With Miss. Greta & Ren

It is the middle of April in upstate NY. The days are reaching the mid 70’s and there is plenty of sunshine. The trees are starting to bud and the spring bulbs are peaking through the heated ground. Everyone is busy raking and getting flower and vegetable gardens ready for our “breath of freshair”. After being in our homes for almost 1/2 year it is truly like a re-birth.

So with that said, I will start my Greta update with her counterpart, Mr. Ren the Chihuahua! Here are some pictures of Ren while he has his short burst of energy:

Ren does get bursts of play time ‘maybe’ once a day. It lasts only for about 5 minutes…then he’s off to the water dish for a drink and back to sleep. He’s old now with a little arthritis in his back legs and a bit hard of hearing. But all in all…he’s a trooper. He weighs about 9lbs, which is actually larger than most chihuahuas. This particular breed has been mixed with a terrier blood line for disposition. Ren is very obedient and an all around good dog. ONLY PROBLEM…Ya just can’t potty train them. If we take him outside, he will do his duty. But if WE don’t take him out, he goes on the bathroom floor. So it is really US that is trained.

Due to their short hair, they don’t tolerate cold very well. So if you see people with a chihuahua with a sweater on and it’s cold out…the sweater is a must. They also burrough under blankets and even my clothes that I am wearing to get warm. Sometimes you will also notice them sleeping with their nose between their 2 front paws. That is so their warm breath is felt on their face. They obviously love the heat and it is very well tolerated during our summer months.

Now Miss. Greta on the other hand does excellent in the winter months. She tolerates the cold very well. The summer’s are killers for her. It is only springtime here and only in the mid 70’s and Greta is panting continuously. Today we had to take her pool out so she could cool down. Here are some pictures of her from today while we were outside ‘putting winter away and taking summer out’! 🙂

Miss. Greta just loves it outside. She has her favorite outside toys. Miss Greta is relentless when it comes to her toys. She is truly obsessive compulsive. We hardly get any work done outside. She is at us continuously to throw her toys so she can run after them. But when we notice her panting too hard, we just have to ignore her and stop playing with her. It doesn’t stop her from pestering us, but we do not interact with her.

We still love the invisable fence. It is truly a God sent. We put Greta’s collar on her everytime we go outside. It gives us a piece of mind. She knows the boundries and does NOT go but a few inches before she reaches them. We have had people with dogs walk by our home and she will sit there and bark but NEVER crosses that line.

Miss. Greta is really shedding pretty good right now. She isn’t actually blowing coat, but there is hair everywhere. We brush her just about every other day but the fur just keeps coming. And it’s not even really HOT here.

We still feed her Eagle Pack with cooked ground meat and eggs twice/day. She still sleeps in her crate at night and also if we are not home. Miss. Greta is still relentless when people come to visit. We’ve given in to the fact that she will always be that way. I guess we just aren’t very good ‘parents’.

Miss Greta’s new thing is when I take a shower. We have sliding glass shower doors on our bathtub. So when I get in the shower in the morning, she nicely slides these doors open, with her nose, just enough to get one of her toys through and drops them into the shower. Then I have to get it and throw it out through the shower doors and out the bathroom door so she can try to catch it. I can’t help but laugh at her during this entire process. So what use to be a 10 minute shower, turns into a 30 minute one.

Well, that’s what’s new with Miss. Greta and Ren for now. I will be back with new updates………..

A Miss Greta Update

Well, here we are in upstate New York and just waiting for Spring to arrive. There is still little snow on the ground. But due to the rain, it is very muddy to say the least. This makes for a messy outdoor run with Miss Greta. There are only certain parts of our back yard that is yet solidly saturated with mud. So we try to pick the areas she can romp on. And that is a difficult task.

Greta is still Greta. She is still just one big puppy with a lot of energy and lovable personality.  Here she is with a “new” toy. It is a squeeky fish that is also made out of that canvas like material. One of the only ones she can’t chew threw.

We also use to have two bowls for her. One for her water and one for her food. They were both kept on the kitchen floor. We found that it was becoming difficult for her to eat as she grew larger. She would actually pick the food up with her mouth and then lift her head to chew and swallow. So we ordered this from Foster and Smith which has made a great difference in her eating. Both bowls are made of a heavy ceramic which is much easier to clean. She is much more comfortable eating now.

Now even though we have both a food bowl and a water bowl for her, she still prefers the good old toilet for fresh cold water!

Now isn’t that a sight? 🙂

Miss Greta is still very playful and still just loves her toys. She would play fetch ALL DAY if only we had the stamina to do it.

Miss Greta still sleeps in her crate at night and loves it. We are sure that she would be fine out of the crate at night while we sleep. But she prefers her crate. We still feed her Eagle Pack with gound cooked meat and 2 scrambled eggs. We continue to mix a teaspoon of Shed-X in her food which keeps her coat beautiful and cuts down on her shedding.  Anyone who owns an animal can certainly relate to that! When they start shedding, my vacuum cleaner is never put away.

My husband continues to take her for walks which she totally enjoys. But one thing we find is that she NEVER gets tired.

She is still a maniac when people come over. She cries, whines, barks and jumps all over everyone. We are still waiting for that to get better. IF EVER! Miss Greta still loves to chase the birds at our bird feeders and chase the squirles and rabits. She never catches them and we don’t know if it is because she is just not fast enough, which we find hard to believe. Or if she just does it for the fun of the chase.

We still don’t put her and Ren, the chahuahua together. I know I have said before that I would take some pictures of Ren and post them. But Ren isn’t quite as animated as Miss Greta is. Pictures of Ren would mostly be of him sleeping. That’s about all the poor guy does. He does engage in some playtime, but it only lasts about 2 minutes. Then Ren is back to his little bed or on your lap for a rest.

Well that is my update for now. We will be back………..

How to get more life from these “squeaky toys”

In my last post, I showed you pictures of Miss Greta’s squeaky toys and the one that survived and the ones that didn’t. Well, my mom was over for a visit and I was showing her Greta’s toys and that I was going to throw them out. She had a great idea! She said that as long as the “squeaky thing” still worked and all of the fiber fill was still in tact, she suggesting just taking it and placing it all in a sock and knot it at the top.Well, I went to my husband’s dresser and pulled out one of his socks. I stuffed the sock with the fiber fill and the squeaky thing and knotted the top. SHE LOVED IT! It was like a brand new toy for her that still squeaked. And she doesn’t chew threw it. Of course I can’t say that any other dog won’t be able to rip it apart, but Greta didn’t. So if you have any of your dogs toys that they have ripped apart, just take it and put it in a sock to give it more of a life span.  Of course I just used a plain white sock but I’m sure we could use colored socks or socks that have those funky designs too.Of course, my husband now has one lone sock in his drawer, but at least we can’t say that they got lost in the laundry! 🙂  

Greta Gets Spayed

On January 14, 2008 we had Greta spayed. We dropped her off at the vets that morning about 7:30. She clearly has no loyalties, since she went more than willingly with the assistant at the vets office. And can I say that she never looked back either. She just thinks it is “all about her”! And of course it is. 🙂 The vets office called us about 1pm to tell us she went through surgery fine and that we could pick her up about 4:30 that evening.

Before we decided to have her spayed, we did some reseach on the pros and cons involved. We also discussed it with our vet who was definately in favor of spaying. The vet said that if we did not spay Greta and she continued her heats without breeding her, the vet would garentee Greta would develop cancer by 7-8years old. So my husband and I made the decision to have her spayed after her 2nd heat. And when I say that “I” and my husband made the decision to have her spayed, I was reluctant. I am a naturalist at heart, but not to an extreme,and feel that there is a normal function for all living things. For example: Women don’t get hysterectomies just because they will never have children. And yet we do it in the animal world. So, science won out and I caved and Miss Greta got spayed. My husband is the more logical one and usually follows things by the book and also respects the experts. Not to mention that I think if me and Greta were drowning, he would save Greta first. So I know that he also loves Miss Greta and is looking out for her best interest.

She came home shaved, groggy and full of stitches. They also send pain medication (Metacam) that we were to give her every morning for the first three days.

So the next morning, (first day post-op) she ate and drank very little and we gave her the pain medication. She whinned continuously. She also was ok on urinating but no bowel movement.

On the 2nd day post-op, we gave her the pain medication again. She ate and drank very little and still whinned continuously. And again no bowel movement, but urination ok. She seemed to be an intirely different dog. She was affraid of everything and preferred to be in her crate. Which was unusual since she only was in her crate at night of if we weren’t home. She never went in by herself. We even notice her getting on one of the beds under on of the comforters. Clearly not like Greta at all.

So on day 3 post-op, we chose not to give her the pain medication and she ate a bit more and drank a bit more. She did finally have a ‘small’ bowel movement.

It is now 5 days post-op and Greta is much better. Although she still whinnes and will still go into her crate on her own free will at any given time. Her appetite is back to normal as is her drive to play. Oh and when she whinnes, she is LOUD!

She goes back to the vet on 1/28/2008 to have her stitches removed. We are greatful that Greta has not attempted to chew on her stitches. In fact she hardly even acknowledges the area.

Here are some pictures of Greta, 2nd day post-op:

So there is poor Miss Greta, looking a little under the weather on her 2nd day post-op. But we are happy to say that she is doing just fine now. Although she has evolved into a very verbal whinner now. But we still love her to death of course.

She still jumps all over people when they come to visit. Perhaps a wee bit better, but still very excitable. But she is really still a puppy at 15 months old. And yes she still thinks she is the center of the universe and we do nothing to steer her from that idea! 🙂

Greta’s diet is still the same. But now we have added eggs to her diet. So now we giver her Eagle Pack, mixed with ground turkey, chicken or beef, cottage cheese and (2) scrambled eggs. She loves it!

She looks healthy and her coat is magnificient. We were very surprised at her weight. When we took her to be spayed, she weighed in at only 64lbs. We thought that she was well in the upper 70’s. She is solid with no fat. I guess she is just smaller than we thought.

Well until the next update…..love your dog since they are probably the only living thing that will love us unconditionally!!!

1 Year Old Pictures Of Miss Greta

Greta is 1 year old now!

On October 6, 2007, Miss Greta turned 1 year old. She is a stunning beauty and can I say that she knows it too. She has already gone through one heat cycle and has just started her 2nd. We were undecided whether to let her go through 1 or 2 heat cycles so I guess it will be 2.

She is a very good dog, and is still somewhat out of control when people come to the house. She jumps all over them and licks them to death. Embarrassing needless to say, but we just can’t seem to stop her from doing it. We did find one thing that works. When we know before hand that someone is coming over, we will put her in her crate before they arrive. One they have arrived and things have settled down a bit, we let her out of her crate and she is less invasive to our guests.

Even though winter is setting in here in the Northeast, my husband still takes her out for her daily/nightly walks. And she is taken outside to run and play. She just “loves” her play time. And of course she still thinks the universe revolves around her.

We still feed her Eagle Pack Adult dry dog food mixed with ground turkey or chicken or hamburg and cottage cheese. We had noticed her starting to itch quite a bit more than usual and beginning to shed more than she has. So while my husband was at the only pet store around that does sell Eagle Pack, he asked about her itching and if it could possibly be from the food. The employee check all of the ingredients in the Adult Eagle Pack and reassured him that it wasn’t from the food. He suggested a product called SHED-X. It is primarily for dry skin and shedding. It contains oils such as fish and soybean oils along with many vitamins. We put about 2 tablespoons in her food everyday. We  noticed she has loose stools in the beginning, but they soon became normal. She has since stopped her itching and her coat is silky, smooth and shinny.

We still have the 11 1/2 yr old  Chihuahua and he is also on Eagle Pack for seniors. He is doing very very well on that dog food. We don’t mix his food with the ground meat, we do however, mix in some cottage cheese. Maybe just 3/4 of a teaspoon. And both dogs are fed twice a day.

We also noticed that when we have TV on, she will stop whatever she is doing when a commercial appears and watch it. I guess there is something about these tv ads, huh? 🙂

She is a very protective, loving member of our family. Although I would like her to be a bit calmer, she is still very puppy and seems to always be ready to play. She still sleeps in her crate every night and is in the crate during the day if we are at work. She loves her crate!

We still have to watch what we leave around since she thinks that everything is hers. Oh and I forgot to mention that we think that she has a foot fetish! The second we take off our shoes and socks, she will lick our feet continuously if we let her. Strange, huh?

The invisable fence has worked great! We still put the collar on her when she is outside, but she knows exactly where her boundries are and stays clear of them. There have been times when people will walk by with their dogs and Miss Greta will stay behind her boundry line and just sit and  bark at them. Our last shephard, Baron, would bust right through if he spotted another dog.  We do have a long lead for her outside, which has been used only once or twice. We rarely use it as she is a definate “hole digger” if left unattended. Well, actually she will start digging right in front of us while she is out running free. If left to her own desires, she would dig a hole clear to China! So once the snow falls, we will let her dig all she wants in the snow. No harm there!

Well, that’s the update. I will try to get some pictures up here on her blog so you can see what a beauty she is.

Until the next time……………

Greta 9 months old

Here is Miss Greta at 9 months old. She has gone through her first heat now and has definately made a change in her. She is much calmer and seems to know that she is not the alpha female of our household. We have grandchildren and they have been over more than usual these days. It appears that she ended her heat cycle just about the same time the grandchildren were visiting/sleeping over more than usual. The combination has helped her develop into a calm, maturnal, obedient, beautiful German Shepherd dog.

My husband and I would highly recommend any dog owner to let their female dogs to go through AT LEAST one heat. Miss Greta did emerge from her heat cycle with a “bark”. She has become somewhat protective also. Previously, she would see people walk by the house and would just be appear to be only curious. Like a puppy should be. Now when she sees someone walk or ride their bikes past our  house, she will bark. And certainly not viciously. Just making herself be heard :).

We continue to feed her Eagle Pack dog food mixed with ground turkey, rice and cottage cheese. She still gets her daily walks and is played with quite a bit. She also still sleeps in her crate, that she and my husband and I appreciate.

One thing that we have noticed with Miss Greta, is that she is not very tolerant of the heat. Our last German Shepherd, Baron(male), could tolerate the heat very well. In fact we had a pool for Baron which we still have for Greta. Baron loved it and would play and actually lay down in it to stay cool. Greta just “stands” in it. She will not lay down in the water. So needless to say, when we are outside and it is too warm for her, she goes right to the door and we let her in to enjoy the airconditioned house.

We had our 4th of July bash which was hampered by rain all day. Most of the guests called to say they wouldn’t be venturing out. But some did still come and we continued to have good food with great friends and family. We had the garage and some tarps set up outside that seemed efficient for the day. Greta was kept in her crate most of the day, as we were all in tight confines for the most part. We did finally let her out later that night. My husband kept her on the leash to avoid her “relentless jumping”. When he did eventually let her off her leash, I was surprised how well she behaved. So she is on her way of being the well behaved, obedient dog , affectionate dog we had hoped for.

Well, that is the current update on our Miss Greta. I will be back to update again……

Dog Food Recall

I am glad that Greta gets fed Eagle Pack. Baron, our last Shepherd was fed Iam’s.  I’m glad we didn’t follow that pattern.

Isn’t it just hard to believe how ONE company in Canada supplies over 50 brands of pet food? Perhaps we should just go back to feeding our pets table scraps so they can share in our high colesteral, high blood pressure, heart disease and obesity!!

We Feed Greta “Eagle Pack”

I would like to talk a bit about what we feed Greta. Our last German Shepherd was fed Iams most of his life. It wasn’t until a friend of ours came over who also raises Shepherds, and he was telling us how his dog use to ‘itch’ all of the time. He found that his dog was allergic to ‘wheat’. He had to switch his dog from Iams to Eagle Pack. We realized that Baron, our last dog, use to itch all of the time as well. Especially his ears. And he use to lick the pads of his paws. Now all of this may not seem to substantial, but on one of our visits to the vet, we told him of Baron’s symptoms at which time he also agreed that Baron probably had an allergy to wheat as well. When we told the vet about the Eagle Pack dog food, he agreed that it would be the best. Baron was switched to Eagle Pack dry dog food, but unfortunately wasn’t with us much after that. Although there was enough time to see a difference.

So now we have Greta on Eagle Pack Puppy Large Bone dry dog food as well as any snacks we give her. She does excellent with it. On occasion we have given her some other brand of biscuit and we will notice her itching more. So we avoid any other brand.

She is now losing some of her baby teeth so we giver her some rawhide to chew. We also give her ice-cubes to chew. She loves them. I love ice water myself and drink it a lot, so every-time I go to the freezer to get some ice-cubes, Greta comes running over to get hers as well.

Perhaps my blogs may be boring to some readers. But for the German Shepherd lovers, like myself, you may find all of this as interesting as it is entertaining and possibly educational. So enjoy and  I will be back.