April 17, 2012

$3.74 worth of all-natural beef heart dog treats

Looks something like this...


I did this a while ago, but never shared these pictures with anyone. Though, since I'll be doing pretty much this same process for the rest of my dog's treats (including with different meats and organs,) I thought I'd share this now. This is $3.74 worth of beef heart fresh from the butchers shop. I would have gotten it frozen and had to let it sit and thaw a while before cutting it, but they didn't have any frozen and were just cutting this now when I got it.

I cut it into bit sized pieces, my first tray's pieces were much larger than my second batch (I was expecting them to shrink more when cooked-- they hardly did at all,) and so the second tray's pieces were half if not a third of the size some of the pieces from the first batch. Here is the first tray full...


And the second...


At first I was following the explanation of another blogger and set the heat at 300 degrees. After 15-20 minutes of that with not much notable progress other than a rancid stench that filled the whole house, I thought, screw it, and kicked it up 100 degrees to 400 and they cooked much quicker. I wasn't sure what I was looking for before the first batch anyways, other than I knew I wanted them (the pieces) to be quite dark. I may have been a little impatient (I was waiting to start the other half of the heart to be done with it, and only had the one pan,) but this is what I took out of the oven...


With a bit of flat metal I assume was once a cheap-o spatula (now with the handle broken off of it,) I loosed the pieces from the pan, wrapped them in a paper towel and set them on a plate outside to cool (this is only the first batch.)


Here are some pieces from the first batch you can see the size of in relation to my hand. Quite large! But they were soft enough to be cut into smaller pieces if I had felt like going to the trouble. For $3.74, for over a couple of pounds that acted as my dogs meal on training days, I didn't really feel like I was wasting anything by not doing this. You can sort of tell by this too the size of the actually giant pan, and just how many decent sized pieces I was able to make.


I don't know much about drying meat, other than I'm sure I didn't leave them in the oven for as long as I could have, so after they were all done and cooled I put them in a bag and still kept them in the freezer as I do with all the other dog meat. The only downside to the way these turned out was when I was constantly grabbing and feeding them to my dog during agility training, whatever bits and color rubbed off of them were all over my fingers, underneath my nails, the leash, and on the light colored pouch I kept them in for the duration of the class. I didn't mind; it wasn't a mess passed simply washing my hands and wiping down my pouch and leash. Learning how to dry the bits out more will make this better.

April 16, 2012

My dog diagnosed me with separation anxiety

Actually, it was my sister who shone the light on that one. You won't get the humor in it unless you're a dog person who knows how common it is to hear about the condition-- in dogs. Anyways, it's true; I AM the one who has issues leaving my dog-- and it's 100% not the other way around!

Sometimes I think my dog takes more care of me than I do him.

April 13, 2012

Breed-Specific BC

I'm working on a sister blog, sort of, to this one called 'Breed-Specific BC.' I originally wanted to make a website out of the idea, but unfortunately due to a lack of funds I won't be able to purchase the hosting needed for another website, and to be honest, as long as the information is there on the net I don't see why it needs it's own domain name.

I'm hoping to make it the go-to source for all information regarding BSL in the province. Whether someone is looking to move, or are just traveling, or just want to keep up with the news, etc, all the information will be there and be kept up-to-date. There will be a list and a map including all areas that have some form of BSL, or have had it/are thinking about it, and what exactly those restrictions are whether it's an all out ban or a muzzling rule. I'll also be updating it with news on the Ontario legislation, hopefully as we all know we're hoping on looking towards a retraction of the province-wide pit bull ban. But for now, I plan on only doing as much as I can handle, this means keeping the blog updates to just Ontario and news regarding BSL changes in BC. It is possible that once I get into the rythm of things I'll slowly work on expanding the website to different provinces.

I'll be posting links to the blog once completed. I'm excited to know a lot of people will find it very useful!

EDIT: I have started the blog, you can find it here at http://breedspecificbc.blogspot.ca/ If you have any information pertaining to the BSL in the province, or anything else you believe may contribute to the blog, please send me an e-mail at: damnradioman@hotmail.com

Otherwise, as I've stated before (in the 'about' section) this blog was originally intended to be used as a storing place for all my informative pit bull and BSL rants/articles I wrote geared towards educating my friends & family via facebook. However, I'm now looking at expanding this blog by including various updates on Damon (my own dog,) the rescues and shelters I work with/volunteer for, and just in general my life related to dog stuff to make this more of my personal blog.

Thanks for reading thus far, and I hope you continue!

April 11, 2012

B(ull) S(hit) Law

This is possible my favorite quote that truly sums up the political reality of just what breed-specific legislation really is:

"Just because a dog of a particular breed, or a particular breed type, is viscous does not mean that any other members if that same breed will act in the same manner. Certainly "shotgun"-approach legislation violates more than the rights of a dog; such broad-brush prohibitions run counter to the foundations of freedom on which the United States was founded. We are indeed a country of laws, but we are not automatically a country of lawbreakers. Dogs that have been caught in the gill net legislative approach that does away with entire breeds of dogs and not with specific wrongdoers is not in keeping with individual rights. All citizens of conscience deplore dog bites and dog attacks on children and other innocent individuals. To automatically ban all dogs because of the actions of a few or even only one dog smacks of something that deeply threatens the foundations of our freedoms. The guarantee of due Constitutional safeguards were designed to prevent an erosion of individual rights while protecting the general public."

-Joe Stahlkuppe, The American Pit Bull Terrier Handbook