Mrs. Big Nate and The CHS Dog Jog

It's already over two months since the Calgary Humane Society (CHS) held their 10th Annual Dog Jog. For the second year in a row, my wife, Mrs. Big Nate registered as a supporter for this worthy cause.

The CHS reports that this year's event held on June 5th at Fish Creek Park, had over 600 participants and raised a whopping $130,093! Not bad for being such a miserable day for weather to boot.

The first time Mrs. Nate registered was at last year's event where she raised a cool $600 as a fundraising individual. After the jog was over, they announced who the top fundraisers were. Third prize went to a person who raised $700. We weren't even expecting to come close to third but were very surprised to learn that Mrs. Big Nate was only $100+ off from making third place. Either way, it was fun and it was worth the time and effort to help Calgary's top pet rescue.

When Mrs. Nate got the email this year telling us about the 2010 Dog Jog, she was immediately on a mission! She was not only going to register again but was going to go for the #1 spot as Top Fundraising Individual too. This person is the one who raises the most money in donations as a single participant. She was not registered as a business or as a team. She started her campaign right away and began hitting up friends, family and co-workers for anything they would be willing to give.

CHS offered participant donation pages on their website. Participants would have their own donation page with pictures and a story. I immediately created this for her and every now and then, she would share this link on her Facebook updates. It was incredible to witness how giving our friends and family really are! Of course Poooh Busters was the biggest donor for her campaign, we donated $250 on behalf Mrs. Big Nate. Thank you Roland and Erin for that! Also Mrs. Nate would like to thank everyone who made a donation, it was really a heartwarming experience to see such generosity.

So how much did she raise? It's actually hard to determine an accurate number. There were so many things that happened causing the numbers to be mangled. All the cash donations were entered twice, once by me and once by the Dog Jog donation committee. Also there were two or three donations made on her page that never got added to her total. Either way, Mrs. Big Nate raised approx. $1700 for this year's Dog Jog! That's more than $500 above last year's top fundraiser!

So the pets and people that benefit from these donations must be thanking Mrs. Nate for her hard work and effort. I know I'm thankful for her each and every day.

It's Not Just About The Dogs!

I know we spend a lot of time talking about dogs. We take pictures of dogs, we write about dogs, we shop for our dogs, we walk them and play with them. In fact as a society, in general we are crazy about dogs! We'll even pay someone to come to our yards on a weekly basis, pick up the doggy doo and take it away. Thank goodness!

Anyway, my point is that dogs aren't the only pets out there. People love all kinds of animals and want to take care of them in their homes and as a part of their families. Cats, fish, rodents, reptiles, and even miniature, Pot Bellied Pigs!

But I'm here to talk about Birds. Yes, Birds!

Hands up. How many of you have ever had a bird as a pet? Come on, let's see those hands. Personally, I used to own several White Doves. Long ago, I was a children's magician and performed my shows using live doves and a rabbit.

As a former guardian of birds, I know what is it like to care for birds and how much work it can really be. I truly believe you have to be a special person to care for a bird and keep it as a member of your family. Dogs and cats need lots of work too, don't get me wrong but birds need a different type of energy than other pets.

A great friend and supporter of Poooh Busters approached me about having us sponsor a fundraiser event for an organization called Birdline Parrot Rescue. My first thought was probably the same as yours now...but Poooh Busters is a dog service, we have nothing to do with birds! But you know what? We love all pets and we care that all animals in the world get a good and loving home. So with the Team's agreement we decided to do our part for the parrots out there. Poooh Busters is sponsoring the 1st Annual Birdline Canada Ltd. BBQ Fundraiser! Please check it out on their Facebook events page. It's a real easy and an inexpensive way to help a worthy cause. Just show up to the Whitehorn Community Centre in NE Calgary on August 21, 2010 and drop off a bag of bottles, in return you'll get a burger, chips and a pop! Or if you have no bottles to donate, just purchase the ole' burger combo for a mere $5.00. That's it! What could be cheaper or easier?

I've never really paid much attention to the "bird side" of the pet industry but it's astounding how much is really going on out there when you start looking! First I checked the Birdline Parrot Rescue website for some quick info, they have an extensive site with tons of articles, info on adoption, rescue, health and nutrition and more. This site lead me to the Avian Welfare Resource Centre, these folks talk about conservation and legislation among many, many other things. From there I did some Googling and the results were just crazy! Just type in "Bird Rescue Canada" and you'll see the resources for Canada alone is astounding!

So we decided, birds (Parrots especially) need to be recognized too. After all, Poooh Busters is not just part of the dog industry, we are a part of the pet industry.

Maybe together, we can help make this world a better place for all pets, no matter what their species!

I haven't met a Labradoodle I didn't like!

I came across this blog on the dogasaur.com website. I always wondered where the Labradoodle came from. I had never heard of the cross breed until my parent's-in-law bought a brother/sister pair, Cole and Lucy. They're are black in colour, large in size and they love to play. They are extremely friendly and maybe a bit hyper. Other than that, these dogs are awesome!

The creator of the popular labradoodle wonders if he was barking up the wrong tree when he came up with the idea for the world’s first designer dog.

The 81-year-old Australian man says he’s not sure he made the right decision to cross a poodle with a Labrador retriever back in the late 1980s. Since then, designer mixed-breed dogs have proliferated, giving pet owners the choice among groodles, snoodles and spoodles, among others.

”Today I am internationally credited as the first person to breed the labradoodle,” 81-year-old Australian resident Wally Conran told The Australian. “But I wonder, in my retirement, whether we bred a designer dog - or a disaster.”

While working for the Royal Guide Dog Association of Australia in the early 1980s, Conran was contacted by a vision-impaired woman in Hawaii. She needed an allergy-free guide dog since her husband had allergies to dogs. Though no breed is completely hypoallergenic, Conran decided to try crossing a poodle with a lab. Once he found a trainable poodle with a good temperament, he mated it to the lab and three puppies were born. The vision-impaired woman’s husband learned that just one puppy was allergy free.

The new crossbred dog was a good fit for allergy sufferers who were vision-impaired, but the world’s first designer dog didn’t really catch on until Conran came up with a great marketing idea.

“I decided to stop mentioning the word crossbreed and introduced the term ‘labradoodle’ instead to describe my new allergy-free guide-dog pups,” he wrote.

The name caught on and interest in the labradoodle soared, but he began to worry about “backyard breeders producing supposedly allergy-free dogs for profit,” Conran wrote. He felt that he had opened up a Pandora’s box.

“Were breeders bothering to check their sires and bitches for hereditary faults, or were they simply caught up in delivering to hungry customers the next status symbol?” he wrote.

And, Conran added, “It’s not something I’m proud of. I wish I could turn the clock back.”

The Big Switch - Part Four

Wow! Can it really be Day 22 of the Big Switch to a raw food diet?

I've been a little behind in my updates and I apologize to anyone who was anxiously awaiting this next chapter but I have to say I was more than a little disappointed when I weighed all four animals in at Day 14 and discovered not one had lost a single pound!

I titled this series of blogs "Oscar and Goo's Weight Loss" but I think it's probably a good idea to take away such expectations (from myself as well as the kids) and rename these updates with a more appropriate title. After all this is about a lifestyle change, a switch to raw food, not just plain old weight loss. Yes? It has been a big adjustment for everyone!

So over the past week I have stopped concentrating on the "diet" aspect of this raw food diet and more on just getting into a routine and learning more about what the pets like and dislike, portion sizes and supplements. My goal now is to get them to actually like and want their dinners instead of having to bribe them to eat it.

I'd say we've reached that goal and just in the past three days or so! It seems only the past few days now both dogs and both cats really dig into their meals, virtually no coaxing or hesitation occurs anymore. A big bonus! I'm finally getting to the point where I think I'm prepping the food much better. At first it was quite mushy and probably was an undesirable texture for the palet.

I'll continue to plug along and and the dogs and cats will keep eating until eventually it will be just like we were doing it all along. Maybe I'll try another weigh-in again in the next couple of weeks. Next blog I'll talk about the various supplements and oils that we have been trying out.

I also wanted to talk about a product I picked up from Tail Blazers in Copperfield. We were complaining to Holly about the dogs wrecking our lawn with their urine even though they get walked twice a day. She threw down this small paper bag marked "Dog Rocks". Basically it's a certain type of rock that you simply place in your dog's water dish and the minerals these rocks release into the water they drink help neutralize the chemical in the dog's urine that ruins grass. In fact, it actually does the opposite, now it seems your dogs will be fertilizing it! So for under $20, we picked up a package and promptly placed it in their water bowl. We've been using it over a week now and I'm just starting to see evidence of where the grass grows a little longer and little greener in spots. I'll take some pictures and post them, I think this product really works! I can't wait till we've been using about a month and see the real results of no crappy brown spots dotting the landscape!

Visit their website for more info!

Poooh Busters Blog: Oscar & Mr. Goo's Weight Loss Diary - Part Three

Well here we are on day ten!

I am happy to report that things have been going very well. All the animals have settled into their new feeding routine and we have started to broaden their horizons.

On the last blog I weighed all our pets in. Mr. Goo coming in as the heavy-weight champion of the world with an astounding 25lbs! This coming weekend on July 4th I will weigh them again to see if anyone has lost a pound or two over the last two weeks of being on their new, raw food diet. Mrs. Big Nate and I have noticed that Oscar seems to have dropped an inch around his chubby, little waist. I can't wait to see if he has indeed lost weight!

We purchased two Wizzer Belly Bands from Pawhaus Pet Boutique a couple of months ago. These are cloth bands that wrap around Oscar's waist to cover his "willy" and keeps him from peeing in the house. These are a godsend! Since we have been using them, we find very little "markings" around the house (only when forget to put them on him). We had originally ordered a small size thinking Oscar is a small dog. We got the Belly Bands and discovered our "little" Oscar was a large size, not a small! So Amanda from Pawhaus was kind enough to exchange them for larges. We just couldn't believe Oscar was a large! Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because lately we found Oscar's Belly Band has fallen off sometime through the night. He must be losing weight because we can't tighten the bands any further to keep them on him. Very excited about this!

So back to the food. Last Sunday we ran out of our original supply of raw food including any samples Holly was kind enough to send home with us. So we visited Holly's store and really stocked up this time. We picked up 8 boxes of various types of meat for both the dogs and cats. The nice thing about Tail Blazers is they give you discounts when you buy more. We have found the animals like Urban Carnivore. The meat comes in easy-to-measure patties of various types of meat.

The girls at the store were also knowledgable enough to suggest a good poweder supplement for the dog's food. It has all kinds of great vitamins to help them get more nutrition from their meals. We also picked up bottle of fish oil to add in as well. This helps with digestion and a few other things too. (I think, Holly can correct me if I'm off here).

A few things I have noticed along the way:

• Nobody seems to enjoy the beef much. The cats especially love the poutry types (chicken and turkey). Both the cats and the dogs just turn their nose up at the beef for a while and then eventually tackle it. I usually have to put a little extra "enticer" in to get them to eat.


• The dogs are now always hungry. They hover over the cats while they eat hoping to get some leftovers if they walk away without eating the entire dinner. We need to look into what to do about making them feel fuller. I remember Holly suggested adding fibre to their meals, I hope this helps.


• The dog's pooops are smaller, darker and harder. It's almost like they're "using" what they are eating more, creating less waste. This is something Poooh Busters could either love or hate! The pooops are easier to pick up but less pooop means bad things for us! LOL


• The cats are shedding like crazy! Holly said this could happen as they "detox".


• The cost so far has been comparable to what we would have spent for dry food from our vet clinic. We certainly spend more on the food from the vet than from a grocery store or large pet store chain. So for us, the switch to raw food has not been a burden on our pocketbook.

To wrap up, I look forward to blogging again after the weekend to update everyone on the weight of our four subjects.

Thank you for visiting and reading, see you next time!

Oscar & Mr. Goo's Weight Loss Diary - Part Two

Well here we are on day three! It is going very well actually, much smoother than we had expected.

The feeding routine is as follows:

The cats get fed twice a day, once in the morning before work and once again around 5:00 after work. The dogs get fed once a day, usually around the same time as the cat's dinner time. So everyone is eating around 5:00 all at the same time.

Day One

The morning of the first day was pretty much a wash, the cats wouldn't touch their breakfast. We left the untouched bowls out all day while we were at work. To our surprise, upon our arrival at home, we found the food was all gone. Not sure if the cats or the dogs ate it.

At dinner time all the animals decided to turn their noses up at the raw food. This was the dog's first exposure to this strange, new meat. To entice them, we added a little bit of kibble in hopes they might just give it a taster. The note that Holly Montgomery from Tail Blazers wrote states we are not to mix dry in with the meat. The simple fact is that the meat digests much quicker than the dry kibble. This causes digestion problems such as gas and indigestion. We weren't sure what to do to get them to eat so we broke this rule right off the bat. It didn't matter either way, they just picked out the dry and left the meat behind. We left the food out for most of the evening but neither of the dogs touched it. I picked up the remainder and put it in the fridge to try again the next day.

The cats didn't touch their dinner either so we added a half can of the Fancy Feast we usually mix with their kibble. This worked beautifully! They ate about half each and walked away. All in all not too bad for the very first day.

Day Two

On day two, things went a little better. Again I added a half can of Fancy Feast to help with the transition. Mr. Goo was probably starving at this point (he is always hungry!) so he gave it his best shot. He got through about half and said that was enough for this morning. Chloe ate some too but threw it all back up and then walked away.

In the evening, we had no trouble with the cats eating their dinner. This time they ate most of it and happily Chloe kept her food down. The dogs again did not really want to eat. We discovered Oscar with his short snout was having trouble picking up the bits of meat so Mrs. Big Nate thought it would be easier for Oscar if we put his dinner on a nice, flat plate. He ate most of his after adding just a little bit of cheese to further entice them both. This also seemed to help Mojo as he actually ate three or four bites before giving up. Mojo is picky at the best of times, he was the one we were worried about most.

Day Three

I'm happy report that this was the day of turn around! The cats pretty much ate all their meals before I left for work in the morning. I think were getting pretty hungry by this point and just wanted to eat something, anything!

When we got home, we fed the entire clan all at the same time. It was like someone turned on a switch or something! All four animals pretty much devoured their meals. We are still adding little enticers to help with the transition but I will start cutting those in half as of day four.

We couldn't be happier with how things have gone so far and I can't wait to start seeing some of the positive side effects that come with this new diet. Namely of course, weight loss!

Here's the stats:

Mojo - Age: 5 - 15lbs (Goal: 13lbs)

Oscar - Age 4 - 19lbs (Goal: 12lbs)

Chloe - Age 1 - 9 lbs (Goal: Maintain Current Weight)

Mr. Goo - Age 9 - 25lbs (Goal: 15lbs)

Oscar & Mr. Goo's Weight Loss Diary - Part One

It seems that not only us humans struggle with the never-ending battle of the bulge. Our pets are dealing with this issue everyday too.

Pet obesity is a major health concern. Overweight pets suffer more physical ailments and do not live as long as animals of recommended weight. Obesity often reduces a pet's enjoyment of life. An estimated 25-40% of dogs in the United States are obese. Pet obesity is not an issue involving dogs alone, cats and all domestic pets are at risk from this potentially fatal condition. I wasn't able to find a decent statistic for Canada but I think we can safely assume our overweight pet population is roughly the same as in the States.

Being in the pet industry I get to know a lot of different people with a lot of different opinions. Vets have a completely different view of what a pet should eat compared to dog food reps setting up displays in your local , large pet store chain.

I am very fortunate to have come across an excellent source of information on what a pet should consume to be healthy and to maintain a proper weight. I met Holly Montgomery after becoming involved with Poooh Busters. Holly owns and operates Tail Blazers in Copperfield, SE Calgary. Tail Blazers, "Health Food Store For Pets", is a store where pet guardians can find only wholesome, healthy food and treats, a wide variety of supplements, accessories, knowledgeable staff and lots more!

This store, especially Holly's store has an extremely welcoming and warm atmosphere. It's almost like walking into a store in the middle a very small town. It's casual, fun and very personal. Holly knows many of her customers and their pets by name. She knows what they are there to buy and offers up her expert advice on all things related to raising a well fed, healthy dog or cat.

Mrs. Big Nate and I own four pets. Two dogs and two cats. One dog, Oscar is overweight and one cat, Mr. Goo is what I would call obese! The other two animals are of a healthy weight, which in itself is weird. How can two animals be fat and the other two be fine? They all eat the same things and pretty much the same amounts.

Well, I thought it was about time to use Holly's knowledge and products as a resource to resolve the overweight issues Oscar and Goo are experiencing.

So what is Holly's suggestion to get a fat pet on its way to a lean body?

A Raw Food Diet!

I've heard about raw food from several different sources and even did some research on it over the internet. As always there are arguments for and against the feeding of raw food. So what better way to test this science than by performing my own little experiment. Subjects? Oscar the Japanese Chin dog and Mr. Goo the Long Haired, Blue-eyed Burmese cat!

So the over the next few months I will be blogging our progress and experience. Please be sure to follow along, and you might learn a little something along the way. I sure hope to!

On my next blog, I will weigh in both pets and talk about our first few days of transistioning our pets to their new diet. Stay tuned, it should be interesting to say the least!