Cody's Life

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Cody on Holiday!

From tomorrow til next week, Cody will be on a holiday vacation at PlanetPooch. He wishes everyone a happy holidays. If you find yourself with extra time, please feel free to read through the archives and see what adventures Cody has been through in the last year!

Here are some pictures of Cody in his holiday outfit with some of his friends from work.

Monday, December 18, 2006

Treadmill for Cody

Last week, I wrote about how Cody was without many days of hard exercising. Over the weekend, I decided to take advantage of a sale at Sports Authority and bought a Horizon DT680 treadmill. I basically chose it because it was the quietest one they had that was at a decent price. I bought the treadmill for 2 reasons:

1) Cody can use it when it's raining and both of us are too lazy to get out and get wet.
2) I can use it while watching TV.

You may ask if Cody can really learn how to walk/run on a treadmill. Before I made the purchase, I snuck Cody in the gym in our apartment complex. I held his leash and straddled him on both sides so that he would stay on the belt. (Initially, he'd have his front legs on the belt and would get confused as his legs started moving without him). I started him very slowly and he seemed to get the hang of it. He started walking slowly at the same pace as the treadmill. I think it was promising enough to think that I can train him even better over time. I'll keep you all updated on the progress.

Friday, December 15, 2006

Pajama Day!

Anyone remember these pictures of that Cody wore when he was 2 months old? The pajama shirt was way too big and was hanging off him:










Well, today is Pajama day at work and I put on that shirt for him again today. It is now his "muscle" shirt since it's so tight. He still looks cute though :)










Wednesday, December 13, 2006

What Do Cody and Bees have in Common?

They both have hives!

Last night, Cody had a fun time running around and wrestling with a boxer named Ruby who lives in the neighborhood. There were bushes to hide behind and jump over which Cody and Ruby enjoyed.

However, this morning, I noticed some dark, pronounced areas on Cody when we woke up. At first, I thought it was the lighting or drool spots when he "scratches" himself. Upon closer examination, they looked like hives. There were very mild bumps that ranged from the size of dimes to the size of a Ritz cracker. There were a few larger ones on the main part of his body and smaller ones towards his tail. They were also only on one side of his body.

I panicked a little when I saw it. I thought that I should call the vet, but I didn't really have time that morning. Here were theories:

1) He has some weird cancer that suddenly came up and he's going to die.
2) He rolled over a huge amount of ticks and mosquitoes on one side and somehow they didn't follow him home (since I didn't get bitten)
3) He ran into some poison ivy and I will soon be developing a rash on my hands for petting and handling him.
4) He has some weird allergic reaction to something in the bushes.

Honestly, I didn't think that #4 was very likely since I've never seen him have hives. I figured it's the only one I can treat immediately though. I gave him a couple of Benadryl tablets before we left for work. Amazingly enough, a couple of hours later, the bumps were gone (but unfortunately, he did not get the drowsiness side effect).

Overall, I'm very grateful that I didn't have to spend a ton of money at the vet's for something that took care of itself.

For other dog owners, diphenhydramine/Benadryl tablets was ok'ed by my vet. Unless the dog has some allergy to Benadryl or other health issues, it's generally fine to give Benadryl to your dog for allergies. My vet told me to administer 1mg for every pound he weighs (so I gave him 50mg this morning).

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

I'm in Big Trouble

So, the rain has set in. And the laziness. Even though I wrote the post on how bad it was not to exercise Cody, I quickly forgot my own advice.

Last Friday: I didn't take Cody out because I already had exercise session with my human personal trainer and I thought Cody would be tired since he was at PlanetPooch the day before.

Saturday: I was out late Friday night. Plus, I have not been sleeping well the last couple of weeks so Cody and I slept until 3pm. He didn't seem that antsy to go out, so I thought we'd skip exercising on Saturday and just go out really early on Sunday.

Sunday: I had no excuse. We woke up at 7:30 but I was lazy. I read my book while Cody was entertaining himself. In an effort to completely catch up on sleep, we took a nap from noon-4. I was feeling super guilty when I woke up, so from 4:30-5:30, we did go on a walk that included fetching balls, and playing with new and old friends.

Monday: I had a 7am meeting at work so we skipped the exercise. However, Cody did have a few wrestling sessions with Tina, Miya, and Belvie. I on the otherhand have gone 3 days without a real exercise session.

Tuesday: We woke up early to run. But it was pouring and Cody and I refused to go out. I'm hoping that I can get him a couple of wrestling sessions at work, and then maybe a short run this evening. My personal trainer, John, is going to kill me. If the 5K run I'm doing tomorrow doesn't kill me first.

In addition to this lack of exercise, I'm keeping Cody on puppy food since he has more energy. I'm going to seriously consider getting both of us a treadmill.



I really don't want Cody to look like this:






I used to think Cody was ok, until I saw this picture of a really cut vizsla when I was looking for a picture of a fat vizsla (apparently none exists in the Google image search) . It's like the vizsla version of muscle building.


Friday, December 08, 2006

The Lifespan of a Dog

This is Freddie. She is 13 years old. She eats human food. Sandwiches, enchiladas, dumplings, meatloaf, you name it.


But other dogs eat dog food. And they live till 10 or so.

So if you want your dog to have a lifespan as long as a human's, you give him/her human food, like enchiladas.

If you don't want to live that long, you should start eating dog food.

The end.
Cody the Massage Therapist

Now that Cody is "old," he is looking into different career opportunities. Here are pictures of him with his first client.

























The problem is that he takes too many breaks and gets sleepy and yawns while he's on the job!




Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Happy Birthday Cody!!

Today is his first birthday. I put a Greenie "candle" in his dog food in celebration :)

Stats: He's 53 lbs. He uses a large backpack that is a little too big for him (because he's super skinny) and he uses an 18" collar. He's about 2 feet tall (floor to shoulder) and about 4 feet long (tip of nose to tip of tail). I *think* he's full-grown. He is now also tall enough to reach water faucets when we run, and easily jump on furniture. However, the flip side is that he can't fit as well in my car.

Food: He eats on average 2-3 cups a day. (He sometimes eats 2 cups twice a day and sometimes nothing at all). I'm still blending his old food, but he'll be completely switched over in the next week or two (it takes awhile because I'm not entirely sure when he'll eat). He's mostly on Nutro Ultra Large Breed Puppy food. I recently switched him to the Large Breed food since he's over 50 lbs and he's using a weighted backpack some days when we exercise. I just wanted to make sure he's getting some calcium to support the extra weight. I plan on continuing to use the Large Breed Puppy food for another couple of months. The reason is that adult dog food usually has a lower amount of protein because they assume adults are lower energy than puppies. That is true in most cases, but Cody still has a lot of energy. I looked into the ratios of high energy dog food, and it has a higher percentage of protein. To make sure he's getting as much protein as he needs, I'm going to switch over to adult food a little bit later.

Snacks: I still can't find one that he likes enough that he'll stay by my side or come when he's distracted. I'm still working on it though. Greenies are pretty close so I might try to buy mini-Greenies and see how well it works.

Accidents: He is mostly accident-free. I think he can go 8-9 hours without eliminating if he doesn't drink anything, but I've been playing it safe at around 6 hours during the day, especially when he's active.

Activities: We run 45-60 minutes on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. Thursdays, Cody goes to PlanetPooch for doggie day care. Since day care usually tires him out, we'll go for only a 30-45 minute run on Fridays. On weekends, we'll usually run for 1-2.5 hours. We'll also visit the offleash park and practice some commands there. Weekdays are usually 2-poop days and Weekends can be 3 or 4. I'm hoping that we start agility training soon after we practice a little bit more at the offleash park.

Health and Grooming: He gets a bath about once every two weeks now. I still trim his nails every week to week and a half. To avoid ear infections, I put in ear drops once every couple of days. I also brush his teeth or let him brush his teeth once every few days as well.

Commands: He's just learned the "front" command (coming in front of me and sitting) and the "finish" command (pretty much the same as heel - coming to my left side and sitting). He's pretty good at not pulling most of the time (unless another dog is around that he hasn't greeted yet). In general, he's improved overall, though he does bark from time to time.

Here is a picture of Cody when I got him (13 weeks) and one of him today (1 year). Can you tell the differences? Good thing he's still my handsome vizsla!

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

No Exercise?!?!

Yesterday I talked about Cody's appropriate poop requirement to fulfill his exercise needs. During Thanksgiving weekend a couple of weeks ago, I decided to do an experiment where Cody and I did not go out to exercise.

Actually, this "experiment" was an accident. We had run and exercised for at least an hour and a half for each day during the Thanksgiving weekend, and even though Cody wasn't pooped, I was (especially with the additional weight of Thanksgiving dinner and leftovers that I had to "carry" during our runs).

On the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend, Cody and I both slept in. We woke up around noon and spent awhile debating if it would rain soon (to decide whether or not to go on a long run or not). I spent the afternoon debating while I think Cody decided it wasn't going to rain. He jumped up and down the couches and tossed and ran after various small toys all afternoon. He was only slightly destructive (scratched a little of the carpet and corners), but basically a slight terror. When I decided it was time to go running (read: when he was so distracting that I couldn't increase the volume of my television enough), it started to rain so both of us just plowed through the rest of the day without exercise.

Anyways, due to this "experiment," I highly discourage any truancy in your exercise regimen if you also have a highly active dog.


PS. Today's Cody's last day as an official puppy! He turns 1 year old tomorrow!!!!

Monday, December 04, 2006

Exercise Quality

I don't know if other dog owners do this, but I measure the quality of Cody's exercise sessions in with the "poop quotient." That is, I count how many times he poops during an exercise session (each instance rather than the amount of poop)

For me, I use a heart rate monitor and I try to be "in the zone" for at least 30 minutes. For Cody, my equivalent measure is "2 poops".

On weekends, when we do 2 hour runs, we can get to 3 or 4 poops which is a huge success. Of course, there are other factors in play (mostly, when he last ate or last eliminated, and when we're running/exercising). Since Cody is now eating about every other day, a successful poop quotient ranges. Regardless, I've found that Cody needs a 2 poop minimum to make sure that he isn't a monster during the day.

If you have a dog, do you have a "poop minimum" to help you decide when they're properly exercised and how much is that?