How much can a dog shape up in a month and a half?

In my pondering today, I have decided to yet again make a feeble attempt at slimming down 'the thing.'


Alright... in Pippin's defense, he's not, at the moment, that bad... compared to his worst! He actually came back from the regionals looking like he had a little more shape, if one could believe that.

Last time I had thought I would attribute to Pippin's health, I went running with him on the bike. That lasted about a week, and I'm not all too sure why I gave up on him then. It's a combination of his misbehavior and diet that I think get me down. Pippin is a top notch, professional counter surfer food sneak. He's closed off from much of the house, but the smallest, shortest slip of the mind when one forgets to close the gate, and he will always find something to eat. Whether it's from the counter, the garbage (also closed with an extra anti-Pippin mechanism,) or right out of the fridge while you stand there (happened once, with my Dad, it was turkey,) whether it's a loaf of bread or a tub of margarine, Pippin always seems to find it. It's almost hard to feel bad for him.

I feel bad for him, sometimes considering I fear it may have been my fault in the early training stages. I often wonder if it was the consistent food rewards that shaped him into being such a food hound. Often I am then reminded, however, that even right from the start, our little puppy was eating things like nails... and the wall. In the present day, he sometimes may fancy himself a nice scented wax candle... or the ceramic holder it may be in. I'm not exaggerating., nor has this ever been something internal... beside his weight, vets have never really had any bad news about him.

A feast for a pint sized Pippin.


Pippin is confirmed to go to nationals in early August. Perhaps not only seeing him a slim sexy beast, but wanting him to perform well at the nationals will be enough motivation I need to put this pup through doggy boot camp.

So... how much can an overweight dog shape up in roughly a month and half?

Today's weight: 70 lbs (you better believe it. I didn't, at first.)
His height: Roughly 21-22"


Today I had both the dogs retrieving a toy from down the alley on the side of the house where I set up a jump they couldn't go around and they had to jump both ways. I'm going to take him out on the bike again this afternoon. He won't last long, considering as well his paws are not accustomed to jogging too much on concrete as Damon's are. It's a start. Regardless if he loses much any weight or not, at least this will provide some bonding time for us. Perhaps he'll listen better then, too.

Pippin wins everything

There hasn't been a lot going on. At least one point worth mentioning on this blog though, is that my parents, and my parents' dog (okay, my Dad's dog,) Pippin, came home from Vancouver island yesterday after a long weekend of doing agility at the BC/Yukon agility regionals.

Pippin came in 12th in his class (that's better than ranking high, since it's my favorite number,) and scored high enough to qualify for the nationals! Way to go Pippin & dad! (Excuse the crappy cell phone camera quality of this photo.)


Too late (or too early) to be thinking of anything else to write about now. Then again, Damon recently has been having some issues with his ears. I first noticed a few days ago now he was holding his head funny and shaking it. Admittedly, his ears were due for a cleaning, though what I found was that he had a small cut on the inside of his ear, no doubt made worse from his scratching at it. If a cut is all that it was, it's doing fine again now. I cleaned his ears and taped the one so he couldn't get a paw in there to scratch at it. From what I read it is a very sensitive area for a dog and especially due to ability to scratch there for most it sometimes is hard to heal. Funny story though, after I finally finished cleaning his ears properly (which was the first time I have ever done the ears on him exclusively, without doing a full bath, also the first time I have ever actually experienced him cowering away from me and not willing to come,) I thought I'd have him wear the 'cone of shame' for the rest of the day to prevent scratching at his ear.

I don't know if it was because he was upset, or perhaps he had never been in one before, but I wish I had had my video camera. At first I didn't notice it. I put it on him outside, where he was, stopped him from trying to shake it off, didn't go inside for more than a minute before coming out again and there he was-- standing completely still-- staring at the ground. I didn't know what he was doing, and for a split second I had even considered he might snap out in surprise if I spooked him. This was how strange the situation was! He was just so darned stiff! I called out to him, walked towards him, gave him a pat on the back and then lifted up his cone. Wag of the tail, he was happy to see me! It was like he just came out of a trance. But now he was fine again and we walked (he, fumbled,) towards to door. I opened it very wide so as to help him get inside. Even still, the cone made contact with the edge of the sliding door and bam. He was out again. Just frozen. I helped him around, then, bam. Frozen. Stuck on a table leg. I watched him for a moment, this was where I realized what was happening and I admit, I started to laugh a bit. It was just the strangest thing! It was like he was surprising himself into a trance, like he had no idea on earth what could possible be happening. Anyways, a good full minute of standing at the table leg was the extent of his cone-wearing as I took it off and taped his ear instead.