Texsox

Again, I offer fat cats . . .

She asks for $900 trillion, they counter with free coffee for life from Java World. Case closed.

Are you ever crazy for wanting publicity in America?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 9, 2012 -> 02:05 PM) One other thing to keep in mind, Tex....genetics plays a big role as well....you might have a dog with fantastic genes... He did, well above my ability to train him. I bought him from a breeder in Bristol, WI. who was well known for field trail champions. I followed their program as far as training and nutrition. I sometimes wished I had spent the money for professional training, but I really enjoyed the time my kids and I spent training him and going to competitions.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 9, 2012 -> 02:09 PM) Thus, we let them run the world. That would be cats

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 9, 2012 -> 01:03 PM) It's difficult to measure against other dogs because you're just measuring against other dogs eating the same thing, for the most part. Just in the last two decades or so are US animal owners beginning to go back to a raw diet in any numbers. Don't get me wrong...I am not saying a dog cannot live a happy life eating kibble. Just as humans can be happy without ever eating an ideal diet. However, if you don't know what you are looking for, or if you don't have a dog on an ideal diet to compare your dog against, it is really difficult to understand what you are missing. Dogs on an ideal raw diet will have almost pristine white teeth and no bad breath. They'll have beautiful shiny, healthy coats and have far less skin allergies. They'll have bright eyes. They'll have an ideal weight and have lean, strong muscles. They have more energy and at a more advanced age. They produce less waste because they are digesting more of their food. They also LOVE eating. As for your question about a balance of cuts...yes and no. We do not know the optimum diet for humans, let alone dogs. We just know that we require certain nutrients (and in certain combinations, these nutrients react differently to one another) in order to live optimally healthy lives. The best way to achieve this is just to eat as much variety as possible. If we eat a little bit of everything, we increase our chances of getting all the things we need to be optimally healthy. Therefore, you want to feed your dog a wide variety of proteins, and thus, a wide variety of meat sources. Whether this is beef, chicken, turkey, rabbit, tripe, etc., it just depends on what you have available to you as well as what the best sources of proteins are. Red meat is usually better than pork, as well as poultry, but fish is excellent. Green tripe is probably the optimal protein source, and if you had to choose but one source of protein, this would be what you would want to choose, but variation is always a good idea. However, what humans think of as great "cuts" of meat are not really what is important for a dog. In fact, the dog will choose the parts that are the most nutritious for him, which oftentimes are the guts (intestines or stomach) of an animal. The dog as we know it today is absolutely different than wolves were in the wild, and even different than the first domesticated dogs. But what people don't realize is that commercial dog food (kibble) is a relatively new creation. It's really only been around since about WWI in the US...if you consider that dogs have been around for tens of thousands of years, it takes a bit longer than a few generations to change their evolutionary design....humans are still struggling to adapt from "primal" eating habits that occurred a far longer time ago than that. That sure does describe my dog.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Feb 9, 2012 -> 01:48 PM) Im not sure suing for 900 trillion is a good way to convince people that you dont suffer from delusions... Exactly

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 9, 2012 -> 01:11 PM) There are still plenty of instincts remaining...it's just that when you see stray animals, you see them in your neighborhood, or in an urban area, where their instincts and evolutionary biology are pretty useless. I think that really depends on breed and family history. Those 25th generation purse-pooches can't have much instinct beyond which elevator to press or which limo offers the best ride.

About right. I'm not convinced this is a 4th place team in the Central. But it could happen. Anywhere around 2-4 seems about right.

I bet we could scrape up an easy $500,00 liquid from posters here. Think we could use that as a down payment and borrow the rest?

A dog looks at people and thinks, they bring me food, take care of me, pet me, give me this nice house to live in, they must be Gods. A cat looks at people and thinks, they bring me food, take care of me, pet me, give me this nice house to live in, I must be God.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 9, 2012 -> 12:21 PM) Why would you bring a stray cat into your possession? Any stray animal can be carrying a host of diseases. I'm sure if you decided to wrap up a stray dog and it bit you, that bite would be worse than the cat's. Cats are very careful creatures, the chances of catching a stray one are pretty remote. Cats will normally give warning. They get their fill, stop messing with them. Also, if you get nasty scratches from wrestling cats, maybe you should stop all the backyard cat wrastlin'. The biters where two from the same litter I had since they were kittens. Literally they would be purring, stretched out and then snap with the bite. Some sort of learned behavior from their littermates or momma.

Overall health, how long he lived, no major health issues. Looking around at field trial competitions and comparing him to others of his same breed. I have no reliable way to know if he enjoyed his diet. He wagged his tail when it was time to eat and seemed to like the food. But just like it is probably wrong to feed a dog like a human, it may be wrong to believe an animal tastes food like a human. As I watch them sniffing the crotch of another dog, I wonder what their taste buds are like As I think about a raw diet and how it basically tries to match what a dog would naturally eat, are you concerned about the dog not eating the prime pieces? In the wild, a dog would have had the tasty back strap as well as the neck. It seems that you would need to feed a balance of all the cuts or am I missing something? The dogs we have today do not exist in nature as their breed. These have been manufactured to human specifications to be pets. I doubt a wild pack of Peekapoos would do very well hunting game. So I can see where a man made diet could benefit a man made dog. But as I mentioned before, your experiences with a raw diet has me interested.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 9, 2012 -> 10:28 AM) Hah...come on, Tex...you're just looking for a fight here... Edit: BTW, the obesity stems from the fact that people feed their dogs as they would people...two or three times a day or free feeding...dogs evolved to eat very large meals once a day or less, due to the scarcity of prey and the competition for food. Thus, they can eat up to 8% of their body weight at one time, but this can take 24 hours to digest. They can then go days, even a week or more without food without suffering from exhaustion or any other form of energy depletion. People need to feed with THAT in mind instead of how their 6 year old kid eats. No fight from me. I believe there can be some very good commercial pet foods, and have years of experience feeding them to my pets allows me to be comfortable with that opinion. You are very successful with a raw diet, and I may give that a try. And I agree, my parents are a prime example. They dog eats too much three times a day and if their cat does not eat as soon as the food is put out, it is picked up and something else is fed to him. The poor dog is only seven years old and can't walk down stairs. When I show them the recommended portion per day, it is less than they feed the dog at one of the three feedings. I do agree with the doggie spa when they go out of town, with the special race car bed (ramp leading into it) and a 15 minute walk through the woods near the kennel spa.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 9, 2012 -> 11:23 AM) I was thinking more or less after you had them in your possession or whatever. Then I agree. I have had a couple biter cats. They will be purring, enjoying a nice back rub and *snap* they are biting my hand. And I've had some nasty scratches from wresting with them.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 9, 2012 -> 11:03 AM) And a feral cat can be far more apt to injure you than a stray dog... That hasn't been my experience (if we are just talking about common cats), not mountain lions, etc. I have had dogs snap at me but cats will usually run away or at least hiss. I have had a couple dogs charge me for no apparent reason.

Even though I consider myself more of a dog than cat person, I realize I will help a cat before a dog. A stray dog, especially a larger breed, makes me nervous, while a cat seems less of a potential harm. And perhaps that is also why I am probably kinder to stray cats than the homeless.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 9, 2012 -> 09:10 AM) Here is the introduction from a paper I found about the animal feed industry, written by a Harvard law student. It gives you a bit of an idea of what is going on with most commercial dog foods. Link Just like my eye doctor makes money when he prescribes new glasses and I buy them from him. I always assumed that the butcher and the vet each made a profit on the pet food I bought. I am certain that the American Butcher Assoc or whatever their trade group is offers advice to butchers on how to build their business by selling these products to savvy pet owners. I'm not certain the advice of a future lawyer on pet nutrition, even a Harvard educated one, is all that reliable either. Not saying he isn't correct, but I have fed my dogs and cats commercial pet food and they have lived long healthy lives. As far as enjoyment, I have seen them wag their tails for fresh meat and dry, compressed, nuggets. I'm not certain I can tell the difference. My lab ate the same dry food for 7 years straight and ran to his bowl twice a day to eat it. They biggest problem I see with pet diets is how obese we allow our pets to get. Why people would take away from their pet's quality of life by keeping them so overweight baffles me. I do like the idea of a fresh diet, and if my circumstances change and a dog fits into my life again, I may just go that route.

"homeless kitty" in my neighborhood -- "hey kitty kitty" homeless person in my neighborhood -- "9-1-1 operator, what is your emergency?"

QUOTE (G&T @ Feb 9, 2012 -> 07:51 AM) First, there are many examples of animals raising babies of another species or animals befriending animals of another species. Good point. I hadn't really thought about that.

Because we haven't written anything new in years. Same old stuff repeated over and over again? Maybe Kap will know

The pet thread has me thinking, I can't think of any other animal that keeps pets. We lavish $$$ on these animals. Imagine a commercial with a puppy scavenging through dumpsters, coughing, shivering from the cold. Yeah, I want to take that puppy home, and so do most of you. Now shoot the same commercial with a human scavenging through a dumpster, coughing, shivering from the cold. Not even close to the same emotion. How did dogs, and cats, and ferrets, gerbils, fish, etc gain that position? I find it an amazing quirk of human nature. Perhaps it is deep in our genetics. A primitive man huddled in a cave, worrying about a pack of wild dogs, thinking how safe he would be if he could command the dogs to help, not kill him. Our pets have gained a spot in our lives where we will sacrifice our own comfort and food for them. Maybe we could end human hunger if the homeless could be more like that puppy.

We beg for people to fill some of our boards.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 04:24 PM) You could put the dog in a crate on top of the car... Grandma is already there

I hope he finds a way to stay sober after his career is over.