Dear Dog Friend,

I apologize! I got a few people writing me that something went wrong with the last two issues - somebody got the January 26 issue way into February... I checked into it and found that there had been a technical problem with the server during an upgrading. The problem was partially caused by me making the last two issues ahead of time and programming the server to send them out later - it should be solved now. I am sorry about the confusion - it particularly made the "Puppy Choice" articles come in the wrong order...

However, this upgrading does have a positive aspect to it: I can now make a special issue of the The Peeing Post for AOL subscribers. Sometimes, people on AOL get a distorted version - but I have never heard anything from AOL members about not being able to read The Peeing Post, so I am in doubt if it is worth my trouble to go through that extra work... So, if you are on AOL and you sometimes experience trouble, please let me know!

Summer camps

It's Spring! So, it is time to plan summer camp courses! I got the times now for the courses in 2003. We will be doing two in the Wells Gray Park area and two in the area of Kamloops, Adams Lake - all in the Interior of British Columbia. I am still not finished negotiating for a special accommodation offer for the latter, but I do have a reserve, so we will go ahead. The only thing that will stop us would be that too few students sign up...

As usual, the rule is this: We run a camp course when 5 students are signed up and have paid their deposit, and we close the door after number 6. So, if you hesitate signing up because you don't know whether or not the course will run, chances are very slim indeed that it will run with you! If you sign up and the course doesn't run, you will immediately be given a full refund of your deposit no later than a week before. And I mean this: A week before. So no last-minute sign-ups please - it is simply not fair to the other participants who need to plan their travel...

You can get more details about the camps at http://k9joy.com/dogtraining/campcourses.html - and you can also get an overview of the scheduled times at http://k9joy.com/dogtraining/scheduledactivities.html.

I look forward to seeing your dog - and you too! (Even your family, if you want to bring it - yes, kids are welcome, no extra charge. Last year, we had a mother with a 5-year old who turned out to be a great asset for the class!)

Fire on "Feeding"!

Raw feeding is "hot" - even though the food of course never touches heat... (bad joke - don't try to understand it!). Unfortunately, when people shift to a natural diet, many experience that the dog will vomit up the food again. From there, they draw the conclusion that the food is "bad" - and they go back to the dangerous kibble!

The darn thing is that this is a completely wrong conclusion. In 99% of the cases, the dog will vomit because you fed it something different than the kibble the stomach expected!

Yes, dogs get outright addicted to kibble, like a drug addict to heroin, or a smoker to tobacco....

The real problem is that kibble contain some 70% carbohydrate (at least) from their main component: grain. The unfortunate thing about grain is that it does not appear on the list of natural food sources for a wolf/dog at all - but it is a cheap source of energy. Dogs can digest it - but it takes a stomach pH around 6 or 7 to do it effectively. The enzymes that are responsible for this kind digestion are "special-made" by the pancreas and cannot function at all at other pH levels.

But raw food is supposed to be digested at a pH of 1 or 2, and by a totally different set of enzymes... Mind you, pH=2 is is some 10,000 times more acidic than pH=6!

And now what really should not be a surprise at all: when you feed your dog in accordance with a predictable schedule, at regular times, and you always feed mostly grain, the the stomach will soon learn to "jump the gun" and start the digestion process before the food is in the stomach. Remember Pavlov's dogs! That's exactly what happened when he trained his dogs to produce stomach juices on the sound of a ringing bell, more than 100 years ago.

The point is that when you have fed kibble for a long time, the stomach prepares for the digestion by producing the wrong enzymes and the wrong pH for digesting raw food.... When you now "take the stomach by surprise" and feed raw food, it cannot handle it...

The obvious solution is to feed the raw food at times when the dog does not expect it - and the problem does not pop up at all...

Anyway, if you know somebody who has tried to shift to raw food and tumbled into this problem, you can help them by giving them a copy of this article about food conditioning.

Also, for an overview of the reasons for not feeding your dog grain products at all, I will publish another article soon - but you can take a peek at it here.

Finally, the next article to follow will be about detoxification; it can be pre-viewed here.

Just to confirm: those articles may be printed, copied, distributed, published, whatever - as long as no changes are made and the bios at the end is included. So, if you know some friends who need a little help with the decision, please extend that help... (You can, of course, also simply send them to http://k9joy.com/education/feedyourdog.html if they are ready to at least consider the commitment.)

Mental stimulation - brain work

I am getting closer to having this book all re-written and ready to publish. A few more weeks, and it should be done. I plan on attending the big book show in Los Angeles at the end of May, and, by then, it will be finished, ready to "find" a publisher that will put it on the "printed " market also, no matter what it takes from my side!

I am still looking for more good illustrated examples, though - and although I am fine featuring Bettemuir, my own little one, as the star, then it really isn't fair to your dog that it does not get to show off too! So, please let me have your story about how you get your dog to work its brain, solving problems it enjoys solving! Pictures are great - if you have them on paper, I will scan them and send you both the originals and a floppy disk with the digitized pictures on. And you will, of course, get a free copy of the finished book in return for your story and the permission to use it!

I am also trying to find a title and a sub title that will make people want to buy this book. I need your help for this...

I made a few suggestions on a page on the web site where you can let me have your opinion by simply putting a few checkmarks at your favorites. If you go to that page and let me have your feedback on the titles I have been thinking of (or give me a suggestion to another one that is even better), then I will make a drawing among those of you that do it - the winner will be given a free download of the e-book when finished.

So, the rules are these:

1. Go to http://k9joy.com/forms/BookTitleFeedbackForm.html.

2. Select the title and the subtitle that sound most intriguing to you - those that would make you the most interested in buying the book. If none of my suggestions appeal to you, you can instead submit your own suggestion.

3. Add your name and e-mail address in the appropriate boxes for those and hit "Submit" - then I will get the result and I will know who sent it.

4. I will have an independent person make a draw of a lucky winner amongst all of those that submitted either an opinion about any of my suggested titles or a suggestion to another title - whether or not I actually pick that title! (In fact, I have to discuss this also with the publisher, but I need to have some good suggestions ready...).

5. I will announce the winner in The Peeing Post and make sure that this person can be among the very first to download the e-book, free.

6. All contributors will be given an opportunity to get the e-book at a special discounted price. They will get a special URL sent directly per e-mail.

Please note that one person can have only one opinion, but you are welcome to let your family members and friends participate also - as long as they have a separate e-mail address (hotmail and yahoo count...).

How to Choose a Puppy, part 4: Your selection of breed

Let's return now to the puppy planning... Last time, you were left with a list of breeds you have an interest in, and you had a list of features that were important for your attraction to each of these breeds. For each of the breeds you researched, you now make a score list. Assign some value of importance to each of the individual features. Very important could be 10, not important at all could be 1. This is your personal subjective opinion.

Then you go over the breeds, one at a time. For each of the value, you now assign a score for how well this breed satisfies your objectives on each particular issue. You can give scores from 1 to 10 again, 10 being the highest.

For each feature, you now multiply the score for the breed with the importance of the feature. You will get a number between 1 and 100 for each feature. For each breed, you add all those score numbers for all the features.

Here is an example of what this score list might look like (you make one sheet like this one for each breed):

Please note that it is only the last two columns (numbers in italic) that will vary from one breed to another.

There is no limit on how many features you want to consider, yet you should only list features you know are important to you.

When you made your score sheet for each of the breeds you are interested in, you do the math by summing up the last column so you can find out what the result on the bottom line is. I strongly suggest you do not do this, until you have filled everything else out - it keeps you from cheating...

The breed that comes out with the highest score is your primary choice. Number 2 your possible alternative, unless the difference is big.

If you end up with a result that surprises you or with one you don't really like, then you have been cheating on the scoring! You have either been dishonest about what really is important to you, or you have ignored you own research... I suggest you start over then and redo all the numbers.

This test is your reality check - I strongly suggest you be very honest to yourself. If not, you are creating a problem for yourself and for your puppy....

That'll be it for now - but that was also quite a chunk, I guess.

P.S. I recently got quite a few inquieries about doing seminars or workshops or courses for associations and groups - on their location.

The standard answer is that I am very positive to discussing ways in which we can make that happen!

Please check my web site at http://k9joy.com/dogtraining to get some inspiration as to what the program could be - and what kind of terms you could expect me to agree to. And then: contact me so we acn discuss the details!

Cheers,

Mogens