Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Dog Product Review - Mutt Soup mix for dogs

          As you guessed it this is another of my doggyloot purchases. At first when I saw this Mutt Soup listed I wasn't going to buy it. But after reading the natural ingredients list and learning that this little nearly 6 ounce pouch (along with a few things you need to add) will make 6 cups I thought what the heck! I have been wanting for sometime now to start making a few home cooked meals for my dogs, but I have felt a bit intimidated about the whole prospect. The Mutt Soup mix I think is a super way to get over that hurdle, after all it can't get much easier then opening a pouch, add a few ingredients, and cook.

          All you need to cook this soup is add 1 pound of lean meat (your choice of meat), 6 cups of water or unsalted chicken broth, and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. The one problem I ran into was trying to find unsalted chicken broth, the best I could find was low salt. I take it specialty shops like Wholefoods would most likely have it. So what I did was to use one can of low sodium chicken broth and made up the rest of the cups needed with water. The grocery store had a sale on good lean hamburger so that is what I used for the meat.

Cooking the Mutt Soup Mix.
          Following the simple directions on the pouch I began cooking the soup for the dogs. The smell was wonderful, it made me hungry. Fussy was even sniffing the air, I think she knew something was up. I have heard it said some where that the color of your food should be colorful and not bland, that is one way to tell if you are eating healthier food. If that is true then this soup mix must be healthy because the colors were very pleasing to the eye. I was very tempted to give it a taste when it was done but I didn't.

          The hardest part of making the soup I think is waiting for the finished soup to cool so you can dish it out to the pooches. To make the cooling go somewhat faster I dished out some of the soup for the dogs and then placed the bowls in the coolest room in the house. Stirring the bowls also helped to cool off the soup at the bottom.
The finished soup.
           Fussy, she is a dog that I can count on taking food gently from your hand, mostly it is because of her picky appetite and neurotic need to check food for "poison". By poison I mean her medication, she is the worst when it comes to taking her pills. I've had dogs in the past that at some point I needed to give pills to, either they took the pills wrapped in food or I just popped it down their throat. Easy peasy! But not Fussy, she has a....let's just call it a "unique" ability to avoid pills. I can't just pop the pills down her throat like any other normal dog as she some how always manages to munch on my fingers and spit the pill up. Hiding it in food is also difficult. She is very good at finding a pill in nearly any food, and once she finds it she will either be leery about eating that food again or quit eating it altogether. Any new food you need to make sure you have a super tiny piece to hand her so she can first sniff it and then if she takes it she'll roll it around her mouth and spit it out a few times before eating it. If you hand her a piece of new food that she deems to large she wont even try eating it. Well back to where this is relevant to the Mutt Soup......so anyway the soup is cooling down. To test the temp I stuck my finger in the bowl, it was still a to warm. So I am sitting there with soup on my finger and Fussy staring at me, I don't want to waste any of this soup so I offer her my finger to lick off (something I have done many other times before with her). As I hold my finger out for her I see the look on her face get super excited. OMG is she going to bite my finger?! It all happen so fast I couldn't react other then to just stand there waiting and expecting to feel teeth. Thankfully at the last moment Fussy realized my finger was there, I could see her facial expression changed and she gently licked to soup from my finger. Whoa that was a close call. Apparently Fussy loves the smell of the soup, so far so good.

          Waiting for the soup to cool I decide to go and sit in the front-room and watch some TV in the meantime, and like usual Fussy follows me. If you are at all familiar with English Springer Spaniels you know that they will follow you EVERY WHERE. It is not very usual for them to sit in another room for a length of time without you. So Fussy and the rest of us sit down and begin watching TV. All of a sudden I get this feeling something is off. I look around the room, odd Fussy is missing. I brush it off thinking she walked out to the kitchen for a drink of water. A short time passes and she doesn't return so I get up to look for her. She is in the room with the bowls of soup staring at them just waiting patiently. This must be some soup to make her act like that!!

          Finally the true test comes when the soup is cool enough, I pass out the bowls and wait. Maybe it is me but there is some comforting feeling when you hear a bunch of dogs all contently munching on their food. Fussy showed no sign of picky eating as she dived right in slurped up every last bit of soup, she even lick the bowl completely clean. Oh yeah, Mutt Soup is a big hit!

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Annual Dog Holidays & More Part 2

July

August
  • National Immunization Awareness Month
    (Not exactly a dog holiday, but a good time to learn about what shots dogs should have.)
  • DOGust: Universal Birthday Of Rescued Dogs August 1 (North Shore Animal League America declared August 1 as a birthday for all the shelter animals whose birthdays are unknown.)
  • International Assistance Dog Week August first Sunday of http://www.assistancedogweek.org/
  • National Spoil Your Dog Day August 10
  • International Homeless Animals Day August third Saturday of http://www.isaronline.org/index.html
  • National Homeless Animals Day August third Saturday of http://www.isaronline.org/ihad.html
  • National Dog Day August 26 http://www.nationaldogday.com/
  • National Holistic Pet Day August 30

September

October

November

December

Years
  • Chinese New Year Year of the Dog in 2018, 2030, 2042.

Televised AKC Events http://www.akc.org/events/tvschedule.cfm


Please let me know if any of the dates I have are inaccurate.

Don't miss: Annual Pet Holidays & More Part 1

Friday, May 17, 2013

Annual Dog Holidays & More Part 1

January

February

March

April

May

June

Did I miss any Doggie Holidays? Comment below and tell me about it, I might even add it to the list.

Continued on Part 2