friday friday friday...

well ansel is settling in.  i'm reading cesar milan's book 'be the pack leader' (i know he's the pat parelli of the dog world - doesn't make his training concepts invalid though)...  and also have been implementing nilf (nothing in life is free) with him and he's been a little more respectful.  still have a little ways to go.  he's got a little bit of 'small dog syndrome' and i suspect some trust issues for humans as pack members simply because of previous neglect.  i think it's just going to take time.  another good thing, is handling him with confidence and assertiveness will also translate better to my horses (calm assertiveness and confidence is something i can really stand to work on with the horses...).  he's learned his new name well and comes to me when called.  he's still not sure about my husband and has some possessive aggression, especially about sleeping places.  some of his personality is starting to come out and i've seen a little bit of tail wagging which made me feel good.  last night he decided to play the tough guy and bark at the police helicopter flying overhead.  this morning i got some very high pitched (he has a lower pitched tough guy bark even for a pom) barks asking to be let out.

i am concerned, however, about his intestinal health.  he's got a touch of the runs, which i expected given the stress and microbial environment change of a new home and doesn't have much of an appetite.  it's slightly blood tinged (improved this morning).  he's not going frequently - still only once or twice a day and he's drinking plenty of water.  this morning he took a couple bites of kibble and then lost interest.  i think i'm going to take him off all food for 24 hours and then start him on chicken baby food and brown rice and see how that goes.  if it's not cleared up by sunday i'm taking him to the vet first thing monday morning.  i know toy breeds are susceptible to bloody diarrhea when they're stressed... he's current on all his shots and he's had a clear fecal recently so i'm not so concerned about parasites as i am about stress.  i'm back and forth on giving him kaopectate - i'd rather wait and see if it clears up on it's own, especially because while his stools are loose, they're not frequent and i don't want to constipate him.   when he's recovered from this, i plan on switching his kibble from natural balance to blue buffalo, so as to eliminate the need for an outside vitamin supplement.  then he'll just have the brewers yeast and melatonin in his kibbles as well as the omega 3s.  i also was told at petsmart that a gal who had a pom with the same skin condition started feeding her dog blue buffalo and the coat results were amazing.  having seen significant coat improvement in my own cats after putting them on a holistic diet (eagle pack to start, then i switched to blue buffalo) i can certainly believe it. 

in grooming news, he's had two baths (should have only been one, but yesterday he had an accident in his little kennel and thereby needed a second) and i gave him his vitamin e oil massage.  which means another bath today.   i'm looking into the dermagic system for him - the starter kit is $60 so a little too steep for me right this second but i'll go ahead and purchase the whole set probably around the 1st of the month.  in the meantime i may just buy a bottle of the lotion and start using that for now.  the earth bath shampoo i'm using has aloe vera and tea tree oil in it as well, but it hasn't been scientifically formulated the way the dermagic has and it has fewer of the good ingredients as well.  it'll do for the moment though.  he was on a nioxin treatment with occasional selsun blue but honestly, he's so teeny i want to avoid adding to his chemical load as much as possible and both of those treatments do that.  the liver and skin are connected - and when the liver gets overloaded the skin tends to be a backup detox system and that can definitely hinder coat growth in animals.  that's a big part of why diet, liver and colon health play such a part in a 'healthy glow' - the body doesn't need to use the skin as an excretory backup for toxins through sweat and sebaceous glands.  nioxin does stimulate hair growth, but it works on the outside.  it's my belief that the best coats grow from the inside out... and outside stimulation won't fix his internal issues. 

later today i'll take some 'before' pictures just to document how he is right now.  last night i dreamt of how he would look with a full, beautiful pomeranian coat.  i can't wait to see how pretty he is going to be.  until then, it's sweaters and lots of love.