Wednesday 10 August 2011

You Can Fool Some Of the Dogs.....

 People will recognize this famous quote which I've changed to suit this little story:

"You can fool some of the people dogs all of the time, and all of the people dogs some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people dogs all of the time."

Today was my shopping and bills paying day so I also registered my dog as per city council regulations and also bought her a spiffy new collar because the old one was getting a bit frayed at the buckle.  She loves that darn thing and if I take it off at bath time she follows me around until I put it back on.

Her name is Bella and she's a black and tan Kelpie X  Red Heeler (Australian Cattle Dog) and very smart. So much so that sometimes I think she knows what I'm thinking.  Anyway, since we got a new collar I decided it was also time for the dreaded worming tablets.  Don't worry this isn't gross...XD.

Last time we went through this drama I bought what are falsely called "meat flavoured chews".  I get the proper medications from recommended companies, not cheap stuff that doesn't even work and probably contains who knows what dangerous chemicals.

That went down like a ton of bricks.  The chews had the consistency of hard rubber and she took one sniff, looked at me as if to say..."You have got to be kidding...."    

Irresistible to dogs, yeah...what a laugh.  Not my dog!  No way was she going to eat them.  I didn't think they even smelled like a meaty treat myself and with her sense of smell I can't imagine what they smelled like to her.  I ended up painstakingly chopping them up into tiny pieces and mixing them into a teaspoon of peanut butter so she would take them that way.  Crisis averted.    They are not cheap and if I had gone to the Vet here they would have charged me an arm and a leg and they give tablets which would have had the same result.

Bella has a few foibles.  She won't eat meaty bones and she's not really fond of meat in general which is something I've never come across in all my years of having dogs as pets.  Having said that I've also never had fussy little toy breeds either so it's probably quite common among some breeds.  

I've never given her canned food as I think it's just rubbish and unhealthy and she won't eat it anyway.   She will eat meat if it's prepackaged and cooked in a compressed roll from the refrigerated pet food dept and she will eat raw chicken wings and some raw and cooked vegetables as well as dry dog food.  Her favourite veggie treats are raw snow peas and green beans.  Because she won't chew meaty bones I give her rawhide chews and dehydrated real meat "bones' to keep her teeth healthy.   One bonus is she doesn't have bad breath and her teeth are pearly white...!!

Anyway, back to today's worming drama.  This time I got tablets that were small bone shaped and supposedly liver flavoured.   Right.....that worked...not.   I offered her one and I got the "look."  She did give one a cursory chew and immediately spat it out in disgust.  I don't know how what kind of dogs these are tested on but they must be really gullible...lol.  

So, it was back to the peanut butter solution.  A teaspoon made the medicine go down.  I wonder what I'll get next time.

I don't own a camera at the moment but she looks like this picture of a Kelpie I found on the Net as far as colouring goes.   She loves tennis balls too.




She is of a more stocky build with a deep chest and has some ginger/red undercoat beneath the black due to the Red Heeler parentage.  I never saw her parents as I got her from some people who had pups to give away and the parents were on a farm out of town.  Because many people don't want females because of the cost of de-sexing or the probability of unwanted breeding she was going to be put down as she was the only one left.  It cost me $280 for the operation five years ago, but it was worth it ten times over.

Many people who know of my Oblivion mods will possibly have seen My Dog Rosie which is based on the dog I had for 15 years before Bella.  Even after all this time I still miss Rosie as she was extra special.  Bella also has the same qualities but is more out going and has a different and at times stubborn character.





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