Blind Willie is always hungry
Willie's weight has crept up on us. Although he is a big, tall, strong dog, and you can feel his ribs (through his massive coat!), his tummy is a bit fat and he is trying to lose a few pounds. Actually, that's a mis-statement: Willie himself is not trying at all. If it were up to him, there would be no restrictions on his food intake. So he is on a strict regime of only enough raw food to feed his ideal weight, which is probably about 75 lbs; he gets no treats, except for one daily nutraceutical "Sea Jerky" to help his arthritic knee.
He and Tarka both love the carnivore lifestyle and are on a raw meaty bones diet. They enjoy all kinds of exotic goodies, and a pig's foot, which is mostly bone, was a recent scrumptious dinner. Here's Willie enjoying his rather phallic looking meal.
Tarka is a much slower, pickier eater than Willie, and usually savors his dinner for 20 minutes or so, compared to Willie's two-minute crunch-and-gulp method. Though the aforementioned pig foot lasted him about half an hour, we'll have more of those please!
So, always hungry, Blind Willie finishes his meal, begs for more (but only gets eye drops), and starts patrolling the room for Tarka's food.
Most of the time Tarka defends his food vigorously, as you can hear in this video (listen for the ferocious growling coming from behind the table!). Sometimes Tarka is not ready to eat his food and he hides it under the removable pillow on his bed. Then he has to lie on it, because Willie knows about Tarka's secret pantry and will steal the food if Tarka is not vigilant. Willie is undeterred and tries to dig it out anyway, which prompts more growling from Tarka. Tarka has a few other hiding places, but he has to watch Willie carefully. If Willie gets too close, Tarka leaps up and charges at him, snarling. Willie responds with a big "woof" in self-defense, and continues sniffing quite happily. He may be completely blind, but he is not undetermined
in his quest for sustenance - which is something to be grateful for, given that he was a stray in northern Wisconsin in February, and might not be alive today if he weren't so accomplished at sniffing out a meal.
Last night I roasted a turkey breast for the humans in the house, and afterwards let the two dogs lick the juices off the cutting board. Willie was flat out asleep at the time, but when I stuck the board in front of his nose he woke up and enthusiastically helped Tarka clean up. They are quite happy to share this kind of treat, and licked the board together. Tarka stopped as soon as the surface was clean. But Willie thought there was more flavor to be extracted from the wooden board, and though he was on his side, ready to go back to sleep, kept on licking for a few minutes more.
When he was done he simply stopped licking and went back to sleep right where he was, with his head on the board. And probably dreamed he was hunting wild turkeys.
He and Tarka both love the carnivore lifestyle and are on a raw meaty bones diet. They enjoy all kinds of exotic goodies, and a pig's foot, which is mostly bone, was a recent scrumptious dinner. Here's Willie enjoying his rather phallic looking meal.
Tarka is a much slower, pickier eater than Willie, and usually savors his dinner for 20 minutes or so, compared to Willie's two-minute crunch-and-gulp method. Though the aforementioned pig foot lasted him about half an hour, we'll have more of those please!
So, always hungry, Blind Willie finishes his meal, begs for more (but only gets eye drops), and starts patrolling the room for Tarka's food.
Most of the time Tarka defends his food vigorously, as you can hear in this video (listen for the ferocious growling coming from behind the table!). Sometimes Tarka is not ready to eat his food and he hides it under the removable pillow on his bed. Then he has to lie on it, because Willie knows about Tarka's secret pantry and will steal the food if Tarka is not vigilant. Willie is undeterred and tries to dig it out anyway, which prompts more growling from Tarka. Tarka has a few other hiding places, but he has to watch Willie carefully. If Willie gets too close, Tarka leaps up and charges at him, snarling. Willie responds with a big "woof" in self-defense, and continues sniffing quite happily. He may be completely blind, but he is not undetermined
in his quest for sustenance - which is something to be grateful for, given that he was a stray in northern Wisconsin in February, and might not be alive today if he weren't so accomplished at sniffing out a meal.Last night I roasted a turkey breast for the humans in the house, and afterwards let the two dogs lick the juices off the cutting board. Willie was flat out asleep at the time, but when I stuck the board in front of his nose he woke up and enthusiastically helped Tarka clean up. They are quite happy to share this kind of treat, and licked the board together. Tarka stopped as soon as the surface was clean. But Willie thought there was more flavor to be extracted from the wooden board, and though he was on his side, ready to go back to sleep, kept on licking for a few minutes more.
When he was done he simply stopped licking and went back to sleep right where he was, with his head on the board. And probably dreamed he was hunting wild turkeys.
Posted by Ask Muddy Blog at 9/9/2010 3:20 PM 
Categories: Samoyeds, Pets
Tags: dog weight loss Samoyed hungry dog
Categories: Samoyeds, Pets
Tags: dog weight loss Samoyed hungry dog
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