Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

Rottweilers. Computers. Cameras. World Domination. Not necessarily in that order.

Rottweilers.
Computers. Cameras.
World Domination.
Not necessarily in that order.

Review: Pet Botanics Healthy Omega Treats

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Although I mainly use “people food” for dog training treats, I am always on the lookout for high-quality and healthy commercial treat options as well. So I was delighted to have the opportunity to test and review Pet Botanics Healthy Omega Treats, thanks to manufacturer Cardinal Laboratories.

Rottweilers are generally chow hounds that will eat anything, so you may be wondering why treat selection is even a question in our household. We do have a few special issues here. Freya has a very mild case of IBS. She does not require a prescription diet and suffers only a few flare-ups each year, but we still have to be selective about what she consumes. Natural foods and treats with a limited number of ingredients are usually the most successful. Also, Freya gains weight a little too easily, but Axel has to be watched pretty closely to make sure he doesn’t run too much weight off. So calorie count of food and treats can be important.

With a short list of eight ingredients (NO grains are included, a good thing), and the low calorie, low fat designation (9 calories), Healthy Omega Treats looked to be a good fit to our needs. Main ingredient is meat (our sample was Duck, and the other available flavors are Chicken, Salmon, and Tuna), followed by sweet potato and cod. “Omega” refers to the Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, which are beneficial to dogs’ skin and coats.

Assistant reviewer Oliver Kittyweiler helps display the unique layered look of these bite-sized treats.

As for taste, reviewers Freya and Axel both gave these treats a big “paws up.” These are definitely a high-value treat to them. The high value, small size, and low calorie count make them almost ideal as rewards during training. I say “almost” because my personal preference is for an even smaller and softer treat during training. It was easy enough to break these in half for our training sessions, though.

Freya was able to fully enjoy the Healthy Omega Treats with no bad effects despite her mild IBS, so we can now add this to our list of Freya-friendly treats.

We’ll definitely be checking our local retailers for these treats and are looking forward to trying the fish flavors in particular. They are also available for online purchase:
Crazy Pet Shop
Amazon.com

Cardinal Laboratories provided a free 6-oz. package of Pet Botanics Healthy Omega Treats, Duck flavor, for us to sample. I thank them for the opportunity to test and review this product.

(NaBloPoMo | March ’10: 24 of 31)

Shameless self-promotion, spring 2010 version

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My original plan for advertising in the first 2010 issue of The Total Rottweiler Magazine was to celebrate the titles that Axel finished in January, particularly his AKC Championship.

Well.

Since my new AKC Champion is like one of those children who, while nice-looking in person, always has a goofy expression, closed eyes, head turned to the side, or what have you when it comes to photographs, I did not have the variety of shots, nor a decent head shot, for a nice elegant new champion ad.

So here is what is running instead. Behold the beauty… and the goofiness… that is Freya and Axel.

click image for full-sized PDF version

We also took the opportunity to promote Axel’s niece, Chassis (Precious Gems European Cut). I predict a successful career ahead for this young lady!

click image for full-sized PDF version

(NaBloPoMo | March ’10: 20 of 31)

Action!

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Photo by: Chuck Currey, Currey Photo, Reddick, FL

During Axel’s journey to his AKC championship, I collected many, many photos of him stacked nicely, standing pretty with Julia and the judge.

What I didn’t have was action photos, either from conformation or rally obedience. I was very surprised to receive the proof of this photo in the mail. It was taken the very last time he was shown in AKC conformation. It was the last show of the second cluster of the Florida Winter Classic held in Brooksville. He went in the ring solely to hold the 3-point major; he had already finished his championship during the first cluster. So glad he did, as there were no action shots that I know of taken at any of his other shows. Axe moves nicely, and this photo really shows it. Yay for surprises, surprises like this one, anyway!

(NaBloPoMo | March ’10: 10 of 31)

Space case

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It’s a case of no space, as in my back yard is not big enough to lay out a full sized rally obedience course. This will not stop us from practicing the individual exercises, although the sogginess of the yard and the on-and-off rain might move us indoors to an even smaller space.

Although I usually don’t mind living in the city with all of its conveniences, sometimes I truly envy those of you who live in the ’ burbs or beyond. Your jagoff neighbors are separated from you by yards or even miles, not inches. Your basement is big enough to set up a full 40' x 50' AKC rally or obedience ring. Your yard is big enough to set up a full 50' x 80' APDT rally ring, or maybe even a 100' x 120' agility ring or 100m x 80m Schutzhund field. Space and distance, what a life! Or at least I say that until I need an open-24-hours grocery store or veterinarian or whatever within five miles or less. Tradeoffs, always those tradeoffs.

For the rest of the week, Freya and I will be practicing individual Level 2 exercises in whatever time and space we have available to prepare for Saturday’s trial. So the small size of the back yard won’t really matter. Heh, now that I look at our schedule, we have trials every weekend for the rest of the month, so it may not matter until March 29!

What I would like to try at that time, though, is to design some fun practice courses that will fit within a 20&#39 x 20&#39 space. Last summer, most of our back yard practices were done using the diagonal plus a square. I really had no idea what I was doing in terms of layout. Most of those practices took place after our very first trial in July and before our second trial in November, so I had been on only one trial course and a few practice courses. Oh, and learning whatever I could from downloads on the Internet. We did manage to learn and practice all of the novice level exercises for UKC and AKC, so my simple squares weren’t totally ineffective, but they were a little boring.

Now that I have a bit more trial experience, a few more classes, and a lot more reading to draw from, I’m hoping to come up with some better and more enjoyable practice ideas.

(NaBloPoMo | March ’10: 9 of 31)

In the mind of a canine

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We call Axel our “problem solver” because he really does seem to think things through. He’s the one that likes toys with treats inside that are a little bit tricky to remove, and puzzle toys in general. He’s so different in this regard from Freya, whose strategy for getting cookies out of a Kong involves bringing it to you repeatedly until you loosen the cookies for her. Hmmm. Maybe she’s the real problem solver.

Axel did something yesterday night that made me wonder again about how he thinks. We buy large Milk Bones in the bulk sized cardboard box, and put them into plastic containers that snap shut. Dan had opened the box, given a cookie to each dog, and due to some unknown interruption, left the box on the dining room floor and never got around to the next step of putting the rest of the cookies into the plastic containers.

I saw Axel nosing at the box, told him to leave it, and then life’s little interruptions intervened again to keep me from putting the cookies away. After dinner, the dogs were expecting their usual Milk Bone “dessert,” but I was preoccupied with something on the computer and failed to distribute the cookies. A little while later, I heard some noise in the dining room and Axel came into the living room with one cookie. He is a Rottweiler, so I am not sure why he didn’t stay in there and quietly eat all of the cookies. That is why I wonder how his mind works. He knows he gets one cookie after dinner and that I wasn’t getting it for him. So as the problem solver that he is, he got it for himself. Just one, because that’s what he is supposed to get.

I know, it’s kind of a nothing story. But I’m just amazed that he didn’t eat the whole thing!

(NaBloPoMo | March ’10: 4 of 31)