Rickiesmom

" . . . our bossy, foot-stomping, whining, talking broodie. " She sounds absolutely, perfectly, totally delightful, coat or no coat. Happy Gotcha Day Petunia, no doubt extra treats all 'round today!

Safe to say, you cannot possibly post enough pictures of this bunch and their mama!

My guess, depending on when you enrolled the 9 year old, is that the rates were lower then, and have increased gradually. Your new pup has been assigned the current (and therefore higher) base rate. I first enrolled dogs with Trupanion in 2009 (Healthy Paws is not available in Canada) and their rates now are much higher than they were then as well. In fact, looking at what people are paying for HP, even with the increases, it looks cheap to me, and that may be why their rates are climbing so quickly - the revenue pool has not been enough to cover the current cost of care. As a sidebar, I love, love, love Belgian Malinois <insert envious emoticon here>.

I use the same approach as Scoutsmom as I like having one hand for control. As with hers, my dogs settled very quickly on where they wanted to be when walking, which made things easy.

What a sweet girl. I am so sorry for her heartbroken mom, and for you, her step-parents, for your loss of a beloved hound.

Kate 1:Fan 0

I think the image is remarkable. The photographer appears to have edited the lighting to emphasize the intense focus in the hound's eyes prior to competition, and to make the muzzle look like knights armour. As always, so much is in the eye of the beholder. Thank you for posting the shirt - I would certainly want one if any of my hounds were in the list.

That looks like one very tired and happy boy !

Can he eat turkey or pork, boiled to remove as much fat as possible, with white rice? We had a different intestinal problem many years ago, but a single starch and a single protein got us over the hump. Not an indefinite solution, but useful in the short run if it would work. No idea if fasting him before switching would help, someone with medical knowledge will hopefully see this soon.

Happy 14th Birthday Cletus Not only choice birthday yums, but on a carefully chosen plate! Aiden

Thank you, I haven't been able to see people's pictures and couldn't figure out why.

No secret. I mix about 1/4 can of Tripett (any flavour) with a scant 2c water, then add a diluted-per-directions sachet of gelatin. Sometimes I add little bits of chopped veg or apple for added texture. You could use more tripe if wanted. Since tripe stinks so much has such a compelling aroma, the advantage is that you don't have to heat the water or the tripe. Just combine everything really, really well, cover and put into the fridge. More recently I've started using a bit more more of the total water to mix with the gelatin - it makes it easier to blend everything together. The dogs are more than willing to pre-wash the main jello dish when empty, so all you have to do is swish with water and put into the dishwasher. As an aside, you can use the same approach with unsalted chicken stock, either on its own or to enrich the tripe version. If your dog needs extra collagen, you can double or triple the gelatin (just use extra water to dilute it). The more gelatin the bouncier it is.

Vonnie is on a restricted diet, but was treated to tripe jello. Mmmmmmmmmmmm. Barney had some too. Mom's lunch included cheddar cheese, so we cheated and each of them got a little of that too. Happy hounds!!

24th on our calendar too!