Happy Six Month Birthday, Valentina!

As I write this post, Valentina is lying on a rug next to my desk, playing with her stuffed toy, Christmas doggie. She was six months old as of February 7, 2013, and I must admit she is a well-behaved dog.  When you read up on Great Danes, you will always find a mention somewhere that Great Danes are people dogs.  They are not the kind of dog that you can throw in the back yard and forget about.  They thrive on human attention, and they can actually go crazy and become agressive without human contact.  Personally, it is hard to understand why anyone would get a dog without giving them attention.  Valentina goes everywhere with us.  Our yard in Mexico has not been fenced in yet, so we really do take her everywhere.  We eat in restaurants that are dog friendly, and if we run into the store for groceries or other items, one of us stays with her in the car and walks her out in a patch of grass. When we arrived at our home in Mexico, Valentina was a very timid little puppy, unsure of strangers who came up to admire her, and she would bark at little children, thinking them odd little aliens.  Now she LOVES to meet new people, relishes little children petting her, and is very outgoing. In addition, she behaves herself at restaurants.  We carry a rug, toys, travel water and food dishes with us, and she lies down , plays with her toys, or waits, respectfully, for a bite of spaghetti al pesto, or the occasional corn chip (sans salsa). (She likes my homemade vegan pasta with pesto best, but loves the vegan spaghetti al pesto that they make at the Peacock Garden Restaurant, too. And, at the Peacock Garden, she loves to watch all the multicolored exotic chickens and the peacocks in all their regalia!  The friendly servers  know Valentina by name and always greet her.) 

We have to remind ourselves that she is still a puppy.... Nevertheless, this 80-pound puppy behaves herself at restaurants and everywhere around town.  All  of this has happened because we do take her everywhere with us. She's part of the family. Both Cesar Millan (How to Raise the Perfect Dog) and Sophia Yin (Perfect Puppy in 7 Days) emphasize that you need to take the puppy with you to as many places as possible, and even tie the puppy's leash to your waist as you go about the tasks of your day.  The dog becomes socialized that way, and learns how to act in all the many situations he/she might encounter in life with you.  That advice has paid off -- we have a very well-behaved puppy!

P.S. Have you seen Cesar Millan's new show on National Geographic Wild?  It's called "Leader of the Pack." Just like with Dog Whisperer, I always learn a lot from his show. He's now based in Spain. Lucky Europeans!

A PETA Recipe for Vegan Dog Food

PETA has a great recipe for vegan dog food.
The only thing I change in this recipe is I use one, 14 oz. jar of natural peanut butter instead of the full 24 ounces in the recipe, because I don't want to overdo the protein with a growing Great Dane puppy, I add minced dried cranberries (no sugar) in place of cranberry extract (because I haven't found any cranberry extract here at Lake Chapala, and didn't bring any down with us from the US), and I add BacPac probiotic from  www.nzymes.com in place of PB8. I put it in a rice cooker, and it turns out beautifully.  Lately her soft food consists of a steamed veggie, like green beans, ., a  mixture of cooked grains (millet, brown rice, quinoa, barley, oats,  etc. -- usually 3 or more) , some raw food cut up in a blender,  and a cup of this mixture.  I now try to put it out at least mid-morning (warmed up to at least room temperature or a little warmer) so she can eat what she wants of it all day.  She always leaves some by the end of the day, so I know that she is probably getting what she wants and needs. And  I always keep out a bowl of some of my homemade kibble recipe.  Here's the recipe, which can also be found at:
http://www.peta.org/living/companion-animals/say-no-to-kibble-vegan-dog-food-recipe.aspx

Homemade Sweet-Potato Peanut-Butter Vegan-Dog Delight
6 cups (filtered) water
1 cup mixed rice and quinoa (I mix black, brown, and long grain rice with black and/or
white quinoa.)
1 cup mixed lentils (I mix green, red, and French lentils.)
3 medium sweet potatoes sliced into 1-inch cubes
3 cups or 24 oz. natural peanut butter
1½ cups or 8 to 12-oz. apple cider vinegar, optional (My dog is a flat-nosed breed, which means she tends to get gassy. The vinegar gets rid of virtually all of her gas, but if your dog does not have a problem with this, you can omit the vinegar.)
8 g hemp protein
1 Tbsp. flaxseed oil with DHA (Store in the fridge or freezer.)
200-250 mg cranberry extract (Since a vegan diet is alkalizing, your dog may need this acidifier to maintain a healthy urinary pH.)
VegeDog multivitamin powder
Prozyme Plus (This helps with digestion so that your dog can absorb as many nutrients as possible.)
125 mg PB8 brand probiotic (1/4 pill)

• Boil the water.
• Add the rice, lentils, and sweet potatoes.
• Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 40 minutes to 1 hour, or until all ingredients are soft. Stir occasionally and add more water as needed. Too much water is better than not enough water. (Remember, you want the ingredients to be extra moist because they will be easier to digest.)
• Mash the sweet potatoes with a fork and mix thoroughly. Let cool.
• Add the peanut butter and vinegar. Stir well.
• Place 3 to 5 servings in your refrigerator and store the rest in the freezer.
• Measure 2/3 cup of food per meal.*
• At mealtime: Add hemp protein, flaxseed oil, cranberry extract, Vegedog, Prozyme Plus, and PB8 into the 2/3 cup of food. Mix well and serve twice daily.

* Serving size is based on the diet of a 20-lb. dog. Please adjust the portion size to suit your dog's weight.

Note:Please remember, as with the introduction of any new food, to introduce this new diet gradually. This means replacing a small portion of your dog's current food with the new food and gradually increasing the amount of new food while decreasing the amount of old food over a period of approximately 10 days.

 

 

 

Valentina's Recipe for Kibble and Treats

We did it!  Valentina was eating 6 cups of homemade kibble to 1 cup of commercial vegan kibble.  Now she eats only homemade kibble, cooked grains and other soft food, and raw food.  I noticed when I went to get the one cup of commercial vegan kibble from a tub on the floor and had the 6 cups homemade kibble in the dish to the side, Valentina would always walk up to me and try to  eat only on the homemade kibble side.  We did a taste test, putting 4 kibbles of commercial on the right and 4 homemade kibbles on the left, and she ate the homemade kibble, and walked away, not interested at all in the commercial kibble.

I put down a bowl of cooked food midday or late afternoon, and I put out kibble a cup at a time throughout the day.  Valentina is not a binger, so I don't think I have to worry about that, but I think  it's just safer to put out her food in 5 or 6 smaller portions.
Here's Valentina's recipe for Kibble and Treats:
  

Valentina’s Tantalizing Treats

or

Valentina's Krunchy Kibble

2 cups sweet potatoes, baked at 350 degrees until soft (30-45 min.?)

2 ripe bananas, mashed

2 TBSP flaxseed meal + 6 TBSP boiling water (soak 3 minutes) or 3 TBSP flaxseed meal + 9 TBSP boiling water

1-3/4 cups water

3 TBSP coconut oil (or olive oil)

1 cup dried cranberries, minced (or dried blueberries or dried cherries) (preferably no sugar or sweetened with apple juice)

2-1/2 cups whole wheat flour OR whole wheat pastry flour

1 TBSP VEGEDOG (Vitamin Supplement for Vegan Dogs)

1 cup rye flour

1/2 cup brown rice flour

½ tsp. salt

1/2 cup oat flour

2 TBSP VEGEYEAST or nutritional yeast

1/4 cup garbanzo bean flour

1/4 to 1/2 cup vital wheat gluten flour

1/4 cup to 1/2 cup hulled hemp seed (hemp hearts)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (160 degrees C).

2. In food processor, mix sweet potatoes, bananas, hydrated flaxseed meal, water, oil, cranberries, and hemp seed.

3. In mixing bowl, add liquids (above) then dry ingredients; mix first with mixing blade, then switch to dough blade until well mixed.

4. Flour hands and counter to keep dough from sticking. Knead dough by folding it on itself until elastic, as if making a pie crust.

5. Roll dough to about 3/8 inch.

6. After placing dough on cookie sheets, poke with a fork to prevent voids, unless using cookie cutters,(before baking)

7. Bake for 20 minutes.

8. To make crunchy, (good for healthy teeth!) place in warm oven (at lowest temperature) for 2 to 4 hours, or leave out in the air for 2-3 days to dry.

Makes ….A LOT!!!

Be prepared to flour hands, board and rolling pin, because this dough is sticky!

This recipe can be cut into cookies for treats, or cut into kibble size pieces and fed as kibble.

The recipe is very versatile, so you can substitute one kind of flour for another if you don't have it.

For a K-9 Little Treats Maker go to:

http://www.fantes.com/cookie-cutters.htm

If you don't have a kibble cutter, you can cut with a pizza cutter to speed up the process. Trust me, you want to get this kibble cutter!

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I add the following to about 6 to 7 cups of kibble, and then serve in 1 to 1-1/2 cup portions:

1 TBSP to 1-1/2 TBSP Flaxseed oil (the kind without added Vit. C)

2 Gamma - E capsules (I use NOW brand) pierce gel capsule and squeeze out vit. E oil. (This E vitamin supplement has all 4 vit E's, not just alpha tocopherol.)

Mix the two oils into the kibble, then add:

VEGEDOG (vitamin supplement)

VEGEYEAST (OR IF YOU DON'T HAVE IT, ADD NUTRITIONAL YEAST)

Amino Acids removed from capsules: L-Carnitine, L-Taurine, L-Methionine, L-Lysine

Prozyme, or NZyme -- enzyme supplement

BakPak -- probiotic supplement (or PB8 Probiotic)

Mix.