Not going home

Maggie refuses to go home after a whole hour at the park.

Maggie in WILD mode @ FF

Does your Shiba lie in wait to ambush on other dogs? Maggie loves to do this!

Maggie's favorite place in the world (we think).

Fourth Furmination

This summer and still shedding strong...
How do you all Shiba owners keep your sanity?

Beach dog

There's no doubt in my mind that Maggie was a marine animal in her former life. Maybe a seal or an otter (even though she's scared to swim in deep water). She just loves the beach more than anywhere else!

The don't leave me at home look

Mobile entry

It makes sense to go mobile. Don't want to fall behind this mobile age...

This was parked at Esprit park last night on our walk.

Maggie gets teased

The queen of manipulation

Maggie always lets us know:

 When she's having the time of her life at the beach or;

When she's at home bored out of her mind.

I always give in to her expressions and end up taking her somewhere fun or giving her a treat. 

Dogs have got it down.

Summer Camping

This past weekend we camped with Maggie at Lake Chabot Regional Park in Castro Valley, CA.
It was a beautiful place with lush green trees and Eucalyptus everywhere. It was a perfect getaway; not too far or too close to the city.

 

Maggie volunteered to keep watch around our campground. She was extremely vigilant the whole time and woofed at other campers and at wild turkeys roaming in the area. It seems that everytime we are out camping, Maggie cannot relax like she does at home. We think that she didn't even enjoy her barbequed chicken because she was so busy keeping watch.

"Must keep watch at all times."

We also went on a long hike along the lake. It was a hot day so it was difficult for Maggie to keep up with us. Somehow she managed to do the whole hike which was about a total of 6 miles.

Hiking around Lake Chabot

The next day, we decided to go on a row boat (like the time in Yosemite) at the lake. Maggie was pretty much scared the whole time, sitting on our laps shaking and panting uncontrollably. She gladly got off the boat as soon as we embarked.... I guess it's not the same as playing around the shore.

"What an ordeal. I'm never getting back on that boat again."

It was a short but a fun camping trip, and Maggie is now glad to be home. I'm sure we'll do this again next year or maybe even sooner. Minus the boat ride.

All tuckered out.

Homemade Dog Food

Lately I have been thinking of ways to make meal time a little more interesting for Maggie. Being a Shiba, she seems to get bored easily. I usually feed her kibble in the morning and raw at night. She seems to be doing very well on this diet, but she always has this look on her face like, "Is that it?"

Today I decided to make some home made treats. She usually gets dry, crunchy things like cheese biscuits and jerky-type snacks. I found many dog biscuit recipes online but they all call for flour and some kind of oil, both of which dogs do not need in their diet. I decided to concoct my own recipe with ingredients at hand.

I took some freeze-dried chicken giblets and dried cheese and ground them to a relatively fine powder in the food processor. To that I mixed about a 1/4 c. of Sojos (dehydrated vegetable mix), an egg, a bit of water and a bit of soy powder. And then I just formed them into little discs and baked them off for about 15 min. Voila!

The consistency turned out to be not like a cookie or biscuit, but rather a hard, dense muffin. lol.
I'm not sure how particular dogs are about mouthfeel, but this treat is wheat-free, all-natural, high-protein, and probably delicious! You can add your own flavoring or supplements too, if your dog needs them.

Maggie practicing her "WAIT".

If you think about how short a dog's life is, you want your dog to enjoy life like the rest of us. Eating is definitely up there on the list of dog's life's pleasures. 

I will post more recipes as I (and Maggie) try them out.