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Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Ask the Ao4 - IV - Furminators, Small Guys, Digging and Grazing

Hi everypuppy, it's me - Amber! Stormy said I could answer some of the Ask the Ao4 questions today - I hope you like my answers!

Jazz and Dixie, our very special Beagle friends in Japan, wrote, "What do you think of the Furminator?? Mum has one that she used once towards the end of autumn last year. It seemed to take out a lot of our downy undercoat and mum was worried that we would need that for winter to keep warm here in the cold Tokyo winter. So she put it away. However things are warming up over here and of course we are both shedding like crazy. So she has dug it out and used it again. Its not coming up with the longer hairs that are falling out all over the floor but the undercoat. Please advise AO4!" I do believe I'm the right member of the Ao4 to field this one, and it's a low soft-ball, right over the plate. Let me refer you to Dave's Haik-woo #17, and the post at that hyperlink. The simple answer is, "Brushes are evil, Jazz & Dixie! EVIL! And the Furminator is perhaps the most evil of all!" Oh, sure, our mom thinks the Furminator is great - like you two said, it gets our undercoat out. She thinks that it's great to remove the old part of the undercoat (which is what the evil Furminator gets), and that come Fall we just "know" to grow it back in - so we'll be plenty warm come winter. Our mom has another torture device called a "comb" that she uses to get the guard hairs out. (She used to use a softer bristle brush on her Beagles to get those longer hairs.) I love my mom VERY much, but I think she is way off base here. Brushes are EVIL and it's MY fur! I want it! I wish she'd stop taking it! I hope that helps.

Bruin, a very sweet Boston Terrier, wanted to know if I "like smaller guys???" Ha rooo! Oh, Bruin, you're so sweet! Yes, I like almost EVERYpuppy I meet! Probably the smallest puppies I made friends with were two Yorkies who came to visit us. There is a picture of all of us at that link... and here is one of just me and the boy Yorkie, at right. There was some concern about me playing too rough with him, so there was no rough-housing allowed. There was also some concern about me stepping on him, so I tried not to do that, either. He and his sister were carried when we went on walkies together ...

... so we actually didn't get to do too much, but he was a nice little guy. Are you as little as a Yorkie?

Ruby Bleu, another sweet Boston Terrier friend, sent us this question, "When I'm at the doggie park, my mom insists that I shouldn't dig in the mud or eat grass. Is there a good way I can convince her it's ok for me to do that?" I ran my answer past Storm and she gave me the green light to post. First, the digging issue! Ruby? Your mom knows that you're a Boston Terrier, right!?!? Isn't digging part of what you do for a living? I'm sure she knows that. So you have to wonder why she doesn't want you to dig in the mud at the park. The obvious answer there is that she wants you to dig in your own yard! Maybe that's a good compromise! Some bipeds have set up special designated "digging areas" in their yards for pups who like to dig; perhaps your mom is waiting for you to choose where in your yard you'd like one! Then you won't dig at the park. :) As per eating grass, Stormy said that we are canines and the world is our salad bar. (She can be very profound sometimes!) We members of the Ao4 eat grass sporadically - sometimes if our tummies are upset or sometimes because we just feel like it. Storm said perhaps our diet is lacking in veggies. Siberianly speaking, I love fresh baby spinach (at left) and can't get enough of it. How is your veggie intake, Ruby? Maybe your mom needs to check with your vet about what green veggies you can have and give you a little supplement! Or again... maybe she wants you to eat the grass at home and not at the park. Hee hee hee.

Thank roo for the great questions! We'll answer some more tomorrow!

Love to everypuppy,
Amber

22 comments:

  1. Those were excellent questions for sure. Our human prefer we dig in anyplace BUT home! We also like to eat grass too. Especially Kona. He keeps our yard nicely trimmed along the fence line. Mom calls it "roughage" and says it won't hurt us, so what the heck. Anywhere else she won't let us eat it cuz you never know what's been sprayed on it.

    Holly

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  2. Excellent answers Amber. Mom hates when i go to the pool yard and eat at the green salad bar, then I run all the way through the house, dash through the dog door to the doggie backyard, and go Horka..Horka....Horka. This makes her really mad. I do all that before i eat my breakfast. If she catches me at the scrumptious salad bar, I am vanished to only the doggie backyard where that is not a option. I really like the escargo at the pool salad bar.
    Yummies! Maddie would like one of the birds that teases her in her salad bar someday.

    Woooooooo,
    Frankie

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  3. Thanks guys for your excellent answers. Since we don't have a yard I suspect my Mom just wants to be mean or doesn't want me to get dirty - the nerve. As for the veggie thing...I don't get enough green leafys so the spinach stuff sounds good. I'll have her check with the vet to make sure!

    Lots of Licks, Ruby

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  4. Anonymous1:50 PM

    Wow super questions and awesome answers!! You all are so smart!!!

    Oh Amber.. I love spinach too! It is yummy :)

    Hugs, Sitka

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  5. Haroooo AO4! We have one for you, can we Huskies have aparagas & brussell sprouts? We get all kinds of good veggies (green beans, broccoli, carrots, ect.) but the lady wasn't sure about the other 2 & we think they would be very tasty! Oh, and we've missed you all a lot! Hopefully we'll get to be around more now that the lady is done "planting".
    Face Licks, M&M

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  6. Great questions and super answers! I love my veges - every single one of them!

    Love ya lots,
    Maggie

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  7. Oh yikes! The furminator even sounds evil! I hope my Mom doesn't know about them (note from Mom.....she does and is thinking of getting one). She did bring home what she calls a rake. At first we wondered why she thought we were gardens. We sit for about 2 seconds while she rakes us. She actually thought we'd put up with that?? HA!
    ECHO

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  8. Dear AO4,
    Your humans are scary, their faces are very blurry, are they always like that? Do you want me to cartoon some faces for you to put over their heads so you can keep their identities a secret?

    Meeshka

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  9. Dear Holly: We're not diggers, but we all like grass. Especially Stormy and Zim. Well, Zim likes anything that's growing.

    Dear Frankie girl: Thank roo! Zim sometimes does the horka before breakfast, too. He goes into the bathroom; Mom thinks he's very thoughtful that way. You have escargo poolside? Oh, how delightful!

    Dear Ruby: You don't have a yard? Hmm... can you borrow your mom's credit card and buy one? You could put it in the living room or something. If that doesn't work, Zim likes to dig on the bipeds' bed. Give that a try!
    I hope you get some spinach! It's GREAT!

    Dear Sitka: Isn't spinach so yummy?!?! And I get to have TONS of it sometimes - like 2 or three leaves!!!

    Dear M & M!!!! We are SO happy to hear from you! We were getting SO worried!!!
    Zim will post an answer to your question tomorrow! And he said to tell you our mom hasn't been doing too much planting, but she's been doing something called "weeding". He said if he went around the garden pulling up stuff like that, he'd get the ol' "nononozimmieno" thing -- but when Mom does it, it's OK. Go figure!

    Dear Echo: We have a rake, too! Rakes are EVIL!

    Dear Meeshka: Hee hee hee! That's so funny! We figured who really cares what the bipeds look like, there are Siberians in the photos! Would you believe me if I told you they really DO have digitized faces? :)

    Love,
    Amber

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  10. Dear Maggie: Sorry ... I got so excited about hearing from M&M finally! I didn't mean to skip your comment! What all veggies do you get? I also like iceberg lettuce, green beans, and whatever else Mom drops on the floor!

    Love,
    Amber

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  11. Great questions. The furminator is bad, bad, bad. Our mom uses a Master Blaster that just blows the old hair out. Digging is good, eating grass is sometimes good. And its how the people smell not look that is important. Of course thats just our humble opinion.

    The D'Azul Siberians

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  12. Oh those are very good answers Amber. Can I ask why are some huskies black/white while some are red/white?? What other colors do huskies come in?

    ~ girl girl

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  13. Anonymous8:55 PM

    YAY! Amber answered my question! I'm bigger than a yorkie...but not by much! Mom says I'm a small Boston...whatever that means!

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  14. Our mommie makes us veggie slurrie in the blender with chicken livers or canned fish. We get all kinds of veggies: squashes and pumpkins, and greens, and beets and sweet potatoes and all sorts of yummies!!!

    Girl-girl, huskies come in all sorts of colors, red, grey, black, brown and all white like Shiloh. All are great. Mom thinks the white ones are expecially funny after the grass gets cut, cuz their feet turn green!

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  15. these were great questions and answers! we love spinach around these parts too. I think the digging in the yard is the obvious answer as well!!

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  16. Dear Amber,
    Shhhh... no more Furminator talk. My Mum dosn't need any new ideas!
    Licks,
    Nugget

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  17. Amber - good questions and excellent answers.

    I have never eaten vegetables in my life, well they have been given to me, but I spit them out and refuse point blank to eat the bloomin' things.

    although I eat grass, which is not good for me, my Vet says.

    love and licks, Marv

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  18. Hi Amber,
    Thanks so much for answering our question about the evil furminator. Mum has decided just to use it before summer and then retire it for the rest of the year. We much prefer the soft bristle brush. With regards to the 'greens' - well we eat a little grass and a few sticks almost everyday which mum doesn't really like. She says any dog could have peed on it!! She sometimes gives us carrot or cucumber sticks or lettuce as snacks. We were wondering about cabbage though. Does it give one gas? When mum lived on a farm they weren't allowed to feed the cows cabbage for that reason.
    Licks and thanks
    Jazz and Dixie

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  19. I learn so much from these ask AO4 questions and answers.

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  20. You guys have to look into syndicating your blog! Who needs all those advice colums?!?! We agree that brushes are EVILLL! We like most pups, too, no matter their size. Tasha has a problem with Standard Poodles once in a while! Its usually cuz of the poodles bad attitude, though. We eat grass and get veggies in our food from time to time. Belly Rubs, Tasha & Eva.

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  21. You pups are so smart. We like to eat grass all the time, especially me. We have to go to the vet today so maybe I'll have my mom ask if we are being "normal".

    Steve

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  22. Dear D'Azuls: "Master Blaster"? That sounds SCARY!

    Dear Girl Girl: Zimmie answered your great question on Wednesday!

    Dear Bruin: Maybe you and I could play, then! That would be FUN!

    Dear Guinness & Shiloh: That sounds yummy!

    Dear Joey: Isn't spinach the BEST!!??

    Dear Nugget: The you-know-what is EVIL!

    Dear Marvin: I really recommend baby spinach! Really!

    Dear Jazz & Dixie: Mom won't give us cabbage. I think she's afraid of the gas issue! And it's hard to digest!

    Dear Peanut: You're so sweet!!!

    Tasha and Eva: I don't know about poodles, but there is a Bischon we walk past sometimes. He's on a rope in his front yard - and he SWEARS at us when we go past! Honestly, I've never HEARD such barks! Talk about a bad attitude!

    Steve: There's "normal" and then there's "Sibe normal". Hee hee hee!

    Love to everypup!
    Ammy

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