peekin pup, Kenai 3 1/2 yrs
All posts for the month August, 2011
Breaking Dawn Kenai Style
Anyway, my big K love has been doing alot of this…snooze on my bed. And it doesn’t seem to be a comfie snooze, more like a snooze till I feel better thing.
Posted by greatdaneservicedog on August 29, 2011
http://greatdaneservicedog.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/breaking-dawn-kenai-style/
Snarky Old Fart…by Lisa Harmon
New box games are over, time to take it apart…BB boy, 3 1/2 yrs
Ha! BB got a new box, BB got a new box…it doesn’t have the same shine unless you can say it with a sing song voice, but you get the idea! Beebs had a grand time with boxes, first looking for what’s inside, then smacking it around, then shredding it to tossable size peices.
He had the grinning wiggles for a good 20 minutes after it went to the trash!
Kenai’s had a sorta tough week–he’s not feeling too spunky for some reason. He seems excessively hungry, and kinda stiff/sore at times. And a little grumpy. He actually snapped at little bro’s food-bowl-intruding nose. Ooo.
Snarky old fart…you thought the title was about me, didn’t ya? grin
So I’m gonna skip his low dose prednisone for awhile and see if he perks up. The trick is to keep him eating and his stools normal without the steroid. He’s kinda not himself, my buddy love.
Big K did get a nice car ride to the Walgreens and Ace Hardware store Friday, while it was nice and cool. What is it about dogs and lowered windows? Kenai, being a priss, does pull his head back in once we get to about 30 mph, but he can’t wait to stick that cinder block head of his out once we stop.
I guess bugs in the nose offends his tidiness?
The weather’s been so lovely I’ve felt guilty not spending more time gardening in the mornings. The boys miss it too, so it’s suck it up time and at least be outside with them whether I’m working on something or not.
Keeping the daily log blog about “Beating Lyme” is taking up too much of my blogging time, which is why I’m falling behind here, so I’m gonna change the format I think. And I’m gonna see if I can find some of K’s blog friends on facebook, so I can keep track of them better–all at once is easier than one at a time.
Like Savage, I haven’t checked in on Savage in forever. He has a new “littermate” named Tula, and they are great good pals. http://savagedane.blogspot.com/.
I’m figuring on a quiet weekend, with any luck, and the high temps in the upper 80′s mean most of the mornings are in the 70′s. That’s awful nice, after the heat wave of last month. I feel so sorry for folks in Tx where the heat’s never let off.
But we’re hanging in okay, and I will be more regular (and interesting) about Kenai’s posts from now on!
Posted by greatdaneservicedog on August 27, 2011
http://greatdaneservicedog.wordpress.com/2011/08/27/snarky-old-fart-by-lisa-harmon/
Playtimes and Sleepyheads…by Lisa Harmon
gosh the AC gets cold…Kenai 3 1/2 yrs.
Oh my gosh I’ve fallen so behind on posting! The new medicine schedule has also just wrecked my usual routine, and I’m a little under the weather so to speak too. But here’s a good fun rollicking post with lots of pictures!
We’ve got a small heatwave, nothing like July mind you, but the 90′s are pretty hot for these big guys, so they’ve been finding fun inside.
Interrupt the dishes, see me see me pups here, sparked a pretty good play time!
I get your funny flaps!! That bit of skin between the back leg and side is ticklish…we have funny bones, they got funny flaps. Tickles he, he, he!
Right after these pics big Boy and I ran to the store before it got too hot, and I figured he be sleepy. Not!
Slipper snitchin time! Tease his toes enough and pretty soon he gets even by stealing your slippers.
Got it!
They’re fun boys, and have been getting outside much more than last month. Their health is holding, with just some minor hiccups, like a punky day-after the Advantix went on. The one thing that’s bothering me is BB’s suddenly taken up that weird anxious behavior.
He’s just wound up way too tight, won’t listen as well, and is totally harrassing big bro. Kenai loves to play with him, but Beebs won’t lay off for some reason. He’s obsessive about sniffing/licking the floors where his brother’s been, too.
I’ve had to use our baby gate to make BB leave K alone enough to nap when he wants. I thought about just letting them sort it, but Kenai did get outright angry about having his back legs nipped at. That was fixing to be a meeting with Jesus, so I just seperated them.
Don’t know what’s got BB so wired. It’s all of a sudden too, the past week or a little more. Couldn’t be the food, could it? He’s been on the Bravo turkey for many weeks now. The remodel’s all done, so the stress levels gone down. I don’t know!
But it’s like he’s looking to pick a fight.
I’ve managed to catch up on Denise’s blog, http://hearingelmo.wordpress.com/. She’s always a fresh breath of air, that lady, and a wonderful advocate for service dogs and their humans. Glad to have found that site…
One last check out the window before nap time…
Posted by greatdaneservicedog on August 21, 2011
http://greatdaneservicedog.wordpress.com/2011/08/21/playtimes-and-sleepyheads-by-lisa-harmon/
Chops n Talks…by Lisa Harmon
surveying the sunrise domain…Kenai 3 yrs
Oh the mornings have been so lovely and cool! Kenai’s had lots more car rides because of it, and outside time too. He’s also had a bit of love from the neighbors, and tried his best to get them to play! But they had yard work to do, boo hoo.
I’m a little worried now: Bravo has discontinued the elk Kenai was doing best on. His skin breaks out on the buffalo, the gets die in the rears from beef, and those were the three options for red meat. I may try venison again, and see if he likes it better now.
BB has suddenly started being a pest late at night: wake ya up, whine, fuss. The first night I thought he maybe had an icky tum, so I put him out to relieve himself. No dice. Last night was night 3 and he woke me up in Kenai and I’s bedroom 4 times before 1:30 am when I got good an mad at him.
He got a good scolding, and I got all of 4 hours of sleep. Nobody was happy with that.
So boy’s breakfast and supper is going to have a Cortisol Control supplement in addition to the Kandidaplex. Maybe he’s just having an anxiety issue? Sometimes these guys are a ‘puzzlement’.
Today someone’s supposed to come fix the living room fan. I haven’t been able to steam the carpet in the mornings because it won’t dry before the guys get on it. It’s in bad need of a disinfecting bleach steam. Wait for it: I really do need to get a shampooer…
Been saying that since May, but now the mower’s in the shop…
http://www.theotherendoftheleash.com/ has an interesting article about blocking boards, which can be used both on dogs that get into it with each other and dogs that get overly excited and anxious around strangers. Appearantly the breaking of eye contact is what calms them.
I’d be interested to see what she says about blocking boards and barrier frustration–BB would only get louder and more frustrated. They’re used to people coming into the garage, but the front door is still an issue and now being treated for borrelia (lyme) again, I sure don’t have the gumption to work on it.
One of Kenai’s rides was to the grocery Sunday morning…
“charcoal?…na, na, that other bag had pork chops and sirloin in it…”
He likes the lady that always seems to take our groceries out for us, and they’ve developed quite the funny relationship.
She’s the only person I know besides Mom that he’ll “talk” to–whar whars, and funny noises.
She teases him some more and he talks some more, then he gets a pat n rub before she closes the hatch.
And he always seems to be in an “expressive” mood after a visit to the store. Some of the funniest faces I see are on grocery store mornings. Like this one after I told him the pork chops weren’t for him:
ha! He can whip out a face when he’s in the mood, can’t he?
Monday was flea and tick liquid day, so he was a bit blah. BB too for the most part, or at least as blah as BB gets, this side of comatose.
Tuesday though was a gorgeous day, in the 70′s most all morning, and cooled off quickly in the evening.
They both had lots of outside time in the morning, which brought on an afternoon of naps.
But they were ready for outside again when it was fire up the grill supper time. While this was going on
.
this was too
Yeee-Haww!
Some days are just good all over.
Posted by greatdaneservicedog on August 16, 2011
http://greatdaneservicedog.wordpress.com/2011/08/16/chops-n-talks-by-lisa-harmon/
Wee Wee Wee All Over the Yard…by Lisa Harmon
wake up time!!
Yet another cool morning run for big Brown, there, and car rides galore. He had to stay home with Mom yesterday when I drove to Columbia Missouri, but he got a nap on the bed with me and a ride to the pharmacy to make up for it.
The mornings have been so nice, almost chilly, down in the 60′s that my golden grizzly can’t resist a sunrise run. Then later in the mornings it’s still comfortable enough for him to go places. Yay, he says!
Now that the remodel is all done, there shouldn’t be any more spooky pooky puppy hiding in corners.
They were slowly getting better about the mad barking at every sound, but Sir BraveAlot was seen only when shooting from one hidey hole to another…
BB was just BB; underfoot n in the way.
It’s a warm kitchen, and a very effecient, functional one now. I guess whoever lived there last never made much, but now a girl could do some serious cooking. The storage space has doubled or better with nothing but new cabinets, the appliances are new too.
There was no way Thanksgiving dinner could have come out of that old kitchen, but boy could it now.
And with that ultra dark blood red paint gone, ya might actually want to eat there! Jonquill and Exciting Orange was all it took to give it zing.
Same square footage, whole lot more room and usefulness…
Now that all that’s over, the hope is to return to the usual summertime schedule: up and out to garden with special K, in for a break and breakfast for all, back out to finish the gardening, then rest before lunch.
The trip to Columbia confirmed it: my bizzarely intractable insomnia and worsened pain is due to a recurrence of tick disease. The borrelia is back, as is the babesia, but this time I’ve managed to add Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and systemic candida overgrowth to the list. Thanks for the tip and motivation to check, Denise.
So I’ve got scripts out the wazoo now. Antibiotics 2 x day, antifungal 4 x day then lessening each week. There’s eye drops, a new thyroid med, and a replacement for that awful expensive Lyrica. And it’s back to the low carb diet.
I go back in 4 months to see if we need to make any changes in the list of 5 antibiotics I’ll be rotating each month. I came home with a huge packet of information, about diet, detoxing from the toxins the cooties give off, adrenal stress etc.
There’s tons to read, and I’m debating about where to place my e-journal–unless it’s written down, it’s lost, ya know? So keeping track of what works, what doesn’t, how the diet changes are going and the like becomes essential for me.
But where? Here on K’s blog? The gardening blog? Do I really want to start a new blog? With 6 mo or more of treatment minimum, it’ll get big.
The battle with the stinky dirty carpet is being lost…There isn’t hair and dander down in it, not with all the vacuming I do and the steaming too. It’s the oils from their coats on the surface. It’s dog stink city in the living room, so yuk, time to do something!
I really must buy a shampoo machine. Those big rug doctors ya rent are just too big and awkward for me, not to mention the results are kinda iffy sometimes.
Grass, grass, glorious grass for a boy to trample. With the rain we’re finally getting, it’s starting once more to grow. Out came the mower and 3 passes into a yard chop, the belt broke. Now why couldn’t it’ve done that the last time I cut? There’d been a month to get it fixed since the heat meant no cutting.
Kenai was heartbroke, all ready for his race to that side of the back yard then back to the other. That’s his game while I cut the front: there I seed you, ha I was waitin! Awww phooey, droopy dog shuffled back inside. He’ll have to wait some more for a cut the grass chase-ems…
Posted by greatdaneservicedog on August 12, 2011
http://greatdaneservicedog.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/wee-wee-wee-all-over-the-yard-by-lisa-harmon/
Kenai Equivilant of Brownies…by Lisa Harmon
the sunsrise sentry photoshopped to an oil painting…Kenai 3 yrs
Thursday Kenai had a most lovely fun gardening time; out before the sun was up, run about, chase a rabbit, pee on things…
While I piddled about in the garden, Kenai revelled in OUTSIDE, like it was chocolate brownies with hot fudge. And the rabbit chase was the scoop of ice cream! I swear that dog grinned as he trotted back to me for a neck scratch and smooch on the head.
Kenai makes a big 1/2 acre circuit when he wants to stretch his legs. Now that he’s got a fenced yard, he can do that again!
Joy!
Here is the powerstroke puppy, building a head of steam.He likes to whiz by just missing me, which actually is a “get my tushie if you can” game.Having started over there near the garden…
now along the west fence…
having rounded the south fence, n goin north…
Big Brown made the most of his 45 minutes of outside time, then the thermometer his 85F just after sunrise, and it was time to come inside. Poor BB didn’t get a real outside time, since it was too hot.
He did get a run about mid afternoon when I had to go pick some veggies for supper, though, so the bent bottoms got a little fresh air.
He rounds corners too, just not as fast or graceful as big bro. Beebs don’t care, so long as he gets to play!
Both are doing well back on their Bravo food, though for some reason Kenai breaks out in a skin staph on the buffalo. Put him back on elk and it goes away. Hum.
BB was getting to shedding pretty good after several weeks of chicken and turkey, so I switched him to the duck (oh the price), and next will be the buffalo–we’ll see if his skin goes to pot or not. The two boys react differently to many if not most foods so I’ll be glad if BB can have the buffalo for his red meat.
Neither, though, can eat the beef without loose stools. Boy am I glad Kenai can eat the elk since they do need some sort of red meat. Kenai won’t eat the chicken or turkey, and I don’t blame him: it’s sloppy soggy wet, even after draining in a collander in the fridge. The elk and buffalo break into chunks so he doesn’t object to the texture.
The intense heat is going to break! We’ve been 15 degrees or more above normal since the beginning of July, setting records like the rest of the midwest. Our all time record high is 113F and we nearly beat it last week.
But the end of the week we’ll be back down to the 80′s! Low of 68F–heavenly. So the boys will have their garden time again! Just a few more days of triple digits. Good thing too, since my golden grizzly is getting extremely stressed by the remodel work.
Yes it’s still going on, as slow and drug out as death by starvation. But getting there in drips in drabs. K is so skittish by the end of the week that even a trip to the puppy store doesn’t happy him up. And it’s just been too hot to let him out to run safely.
So Saturdays are play days with the boys–soda pop bottle games, find me funs, toy times. Trying to help them de-stress, like a doggie spa boy style. Today will also involve a run to the hardware store and the gas station, if K seems relaxed enough. Need gas for the mowers and a 2 gallon watering can.
Saturday is also sleep in day for Mom (and BB), until he can’t stand the hungries anymore and starts crying “lemme out”, “gotta pee”, or “HUNGRY” from the back bedroom. Poor poops, he don’t like sleep in day.
But he gets over it soon enough, and settles into his play and follow Mom day. That’s the chocolate brownie and hot fudge for him; follow you around and get lots of attention. What a sweetie.
Posted by greatdaneservicedog on August 6, 2011
http://greatdaneservicedog.wordpress.com/2011/08/06/kenai-equivilant-of-brownies-by-lisa-harmon/
Senator Kenai and His Bug Eyed Momma…by Lisa Harmon
Kenai voicing his opinion about the late lunch!
August is comin’ in like a blast furnace here, as it is in most of the Midwest: 104F or there abouts all week. Finding entertainment for “dwinkle” n “pinkle” is going to start becoming important soon…the baby gate is back up to seperate them, since they’re determined to go charging through the house and harrass each other.
They need exercise. I need them to have exercise!
A good 12 hour nap every day wouldn’t do me any harm either…
I got a tip from Denise at “Hearing Elmo” blog that a Chronic Lyme flare up can set off sleep problems. Smart lady–I’ve been wondering if it was trying to rear its ugly head with the hurting hands and joints, but wouldn’t have put the insomnia in that corner without it being mentioned.
This bout of bugged-eyed sleeplessness has been especially bad, with no end in sight. A bing search turned up a doc in Columbia MO specializing in Lyme and recurrent Lyme. Much closer than the doc in Cleveland I was using when I could make the drive. Columbia is just 2-3 hours away.
So Monday’s list of must do was a trip to the grocery at first light, Kenai in tow naturally, followed by a call to the new doc’s office for a near 911. Big Brown would do well to have a nice outing, bored as he is, and I leave the car running for the AC so he doesn’t overheat.
”Maybe he’ll sleep through the phone call rather than bark at the neighbors” was the hope.
Either he’s not getting the idea of restricting his bark at the neighbor time to outside, or he doesn’t give a fig, can’t decide which (grin). Any car coming or going in the neighborhood sets off the “hounds of Harmonville”.
Truthfully they’ve gotten better about the carrying on when someone comes, so long as they don’t come to the front door. Then it’s a free for all: imagine zoomies with barking and you know. Once somebody’s inside though, they chill out, and often just give a single woof if people come through the garage.
Sometimes I wonder if they just like to hear themselves “talk”? Should Brown run for Congress? (Could he do worse or be noisier than the current litter in DC?) He’d wear a tie without objection, but I have my doubts about the rest of the suit. I’d have to follow him into the men’s room, which might cause a stir, too.
He’d vote for driver’s liscences for dogs, tax any and all cat products, ban “do not walk on the grass” signs, and Service Animals would have carte blanche. He’d also vote for free hamburger, and demand the Senate cafeteria serve everything with real butter. I’d vote for him.
You might be wondering what time it was when I started writing this post, as it’s gettin a little goofy…he he he. Goofy is a way of life when you have Danes!
If this kitchen doesn’t get finished soon I’m gonna be cranky. All but the hood over the range is in and working, but the guys just went off to finish another job. The paint job’s half done, no backsplash, no linen closet, no shelves/lights for seed starting, no lights in the china hutch, no tile behind the range. Grrr.
Uh, Kenny, remember me? Would like to unpack now, since we moved 4 months ago.
***
I’ve been slowly reducing K’s kibble, making it up with Bravo Raw Elk meat in hopes of slowing the shed n scratch. Dang but I wanted them back on a kibble, for the budget and the ease. They’re doing pretty good, holding weight and until yesterday had normal “leave-behinds”.
But they’re fighting yeast in the ears and toes, and acting like they have bladder infections again. I’ve ordered some oregano oil and colloidal silver, their Kandidaplex yeast killer, and some detoxifying glutathione from http://www.vrp.com/antioxidants/lipoceutical-glutathione
With any luck that will get all the cooties gone.
Their coats are okay, but shedding. Not thinning but shedding, and I’d like to stop that so they are getting an Omega 3, 6, 9 to their Bravo raw each day. I’ll had just a touch of kibble for Kenai since boy likes his crunchies.
Overall, they’re not in bad shape at all, considering what chronic Ehrlichiosis can look like.
Kenai is getting mouthy, the poop. He’s taken to complaining fairly often, and insisting on his love time. Here’s how the “train a human” session goes: he gets Mom first told, then provides her the opportunity to love and rub. Silly guy!
That’s my golden grizzly, wanting his “grammy love”.
He’s a good fella, and awfully tolerant of the heat-induced boredom. Not much outside time, even in the mornings, not when it’s 80F at 7am. So Monday morning’s car ride really scratched his itch!
Posted by greatdaneservicedog on August 1, 2011
http://greatdaneservicedog.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/senator-kenai-and-his-bug-eyed-momma-by-lisa-harmon/
about.me
lisa harmon
Having become disabled in my 30's, I began a new and unexepected life journey, chronicled on a blog. The need for tenacity, maintaining a stubbornly positive outlook on life, and the determination to focus on what I can do, have been the most important lessons disability has taught me.
I decided that training my own Great Danes to be my assistance dogs was one way I could have a fuller, more independent life. The experience has taught me more about life, love, and respect than any other endeavor of my life. There has been amazing triumphs, and deep sorrows but I wouldn't trade one moment of it!
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