Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Neighborhood Coyote
We have coyotes in my neighborhood. It's actually quite neat to hear the yipping and see them around in the early mornings. Though I've been told stories of a big male that has jumped into a yard, snatched chickens from a porch, and ripped up a boxer, the coyotes have been pretty good to us since we've moved into the area.
Of course, our chickens are kept in a predator-proof hardware cloth coop with a welded wire fence, the scent of several dogs, and another chain-link fence as barriers, but still that's nothing to a real determined coyote.
This coyote was a regular up until the 4th of July.
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| A crop of the coyote |
I think the neighbors setting off fireworks in their pond scared him (her?) off from the area. The Poongsans and Jindos haven't given their special "There's a Coyote here!" bark lately.
I hope he hasn't been shot for going after small dogs. Some neighbor's visitors were letting their small dogs loose in the street which means prime coyote bait. The Poongsans have been letting me know about it with their special "There's a dog that shouldn't be loose!" bark. Sometimes their owners catch on and retrieve their dogs, and sometimes they don't.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Slab Fracture
A couple weeks ago, PoongSoon cracked her upper right pre-molar #4 while chewing on a knee bone. (Not the typical knuckle bone.) It was frustrating to see as she really didn't need that bone to clean her teeth.
This particular crack is called a "slab fracture" and it exposed her pulp and went into the gumline. When I took her into the vet, he actually wiggled it and I could see it moving around within her gums. (I felt kinda ill looking at it.)
Since I noticed the fracture immediately, the vet said a root canal was an option, but since she wasn't a show dog, I opted for a complete removal.
Leaving the cracked tooth in was never an option in my mind because keeping a grumpy 75 lb dog among other dogs is not something I ever want to deal with.
So, PoongSoon was taken in and her cracked tooth was removed. Because it was a healthy tooth with healthy roots, the vet had a chore and charged me the max for the task. He had to break the tooth into several pieces in order to extract the tooth. He gave me the pieces since he thought I might be interested in it. Or maybe he thought it might ease the sting of the vet bill.
PoongSoon was placed on canned dog food for the two weeks following her recovery. Only 5 days into the canned food regimen, her teeth had become very dirty from the plaque and tartar.
Now, the spot is fully healed and I'll have to get her teeth back to its pristine shape some other way.
 |
| Cracked upper tooth among clean teeth |
This particular crack is called a "slab fracture" and it exposed her pulp and went into the gumline. When I took her into the vet, he actually wiggled it and I could see it moving around within her gums. (I felt kinda ill looking at it.)
Since I noticed the fracture immediately, the vet said a root canal was an option, but since she wasn't a show dog, I opted for a complete removal.
Leaving the cracked tooth in was never an option in my mind because keeping a grumpy 75 lb dog among other dogs is not something I ever want to deal with.
So, PoongSoon was taken in and her cracked tooth was removed. Because it was a healthy tooth with healthy roots, the vet had a chore and charged me the max for the task. He had to break the tooth into several pieces in order to extract the tooth. He gave me the pieces since he thought I might be interested in it. Or maybe he thought it might ease the sting of the vet bill.
 |
| Tooth broken into 6 pieces |
PoongSoon was placed on canned dog food for the two weeks following her recovery. Only 5 days into the canned food regimen, her teeth had become very dirty from the plaque and tartar.
 |
| No tooth, but really dirty teeth |
Now, the spot is fully healed and I'll have to get her teeth back to its pristine shape some other way.
Sunday, June 2, 2013
10th Southern California Jindo Picnic
Yesterday was the 10th Southern California Jindo Picnic. This time it was located at Griffith Park's Mineral Wells Picnic Area. Alas, unfortunately, I gave one long-timer bad directions and told him Mineral Springs Picnic Area. The rescue website had exceeded the monthly bandwidth quota and so I went by memory.
Apparently, I'm getting older and my memory is not as locktight as it used to be. I took two wrong turms even though I've been to this site about 7 times.
People flowed into and out of the picnic at different times. That was actually okay since we didn't have a Canine Good Citizen test scheduled (nobody RSVP for that) and it was discovered that the jumps for the agility course had been damaged while in storage.
So we ended up just chatting about Jindos, which is the core purpose of the picnic.
I had bought three dogs to the picnic. PoongSoon the 2 year old Poongsan, HwangYoung the 10 month old male Jindo, and JinHo the 5 month old male Jindo. (I'll give an intro about HwangYoung and JinHo in a later post.)
At the picnic, I got a chance to see my former foster dog, Gracie, again. She grew into a pretty girl dog although not quite standard Jindo. Nice thick fur with good length, pretty eyes, and rounded ear tips. HwangYoung thought she was quite attractive and flirted his teenage heart out to her. (Sorry, HwangYoung, she's still quite spayed.)
JinHo, in the meantime, was placed in the same x-pen as HoSu. He knew she was "FEMALE" as well. During the picnic, he made sure to practice his newly-found skill of peeing with his leg up. Perhaps in Winter 2014, he and HoSu might be bred together, pending health checks of course.
It seems almost strange to talk about a future litter at a picnic hosted by a Jindo rescue, but one thing I realized from talking with the folks that came is that the Jindo breed has lost its way in the U.S.
There were several folks that had owned good Jindos before, and their current Jindos just did not compare to them. Just not as smart and not very lively.
One person had a dog that bit people 5 times before Animal Control put down the dog. It might have been hypothyroidism, but about 15 years ago, a Jindo that bit a family member with no good reason was disowned as a purebred Jindo. Biting was abnormal. Now too many people are accepting it as normal and won't put down such a dog.
It used to be common knowledge that you just don't board a Jindo at a trainer's and expect the trainer to "fix" the dog. Throwing money at the trainer is no substitute for learning how to train a dog yourself.
One family had "put in an order" for a Jindo Ranch dog. I don't know if they understood what they were getting into and whether they absorbed what they saw when they saw Gracie who was from Jindo Ranch. I had put in lots of time socializing Gracie and taking her to Puppy Class. It is lots of work to bring such a dog up to the level of what a well-bred Jindo would be by default.
There was one female Jindo there that should have been well-bred. I knew much of the maternal line and met the dogs in person but several unwise decisions tipped her over into an aggressive dog that no dog or person could approach. She was very much over her threshold and resorting to "a best defense is an offense". She even lunged at PoongSoon who was just minding her business while laying on the ground. It was the first time I've seen PoongSoon get irked enough to stand up to her full size and respond with her own growl.
This could have been addressed earlier if there were other experienced Korean breeders that could have provided GOOD instructions, but pretty much the better Korean club is dead and the other one has "issues".
Apparently, I'm getting older and my memory is not as locktight as it used to be. I took two wrong turms even though I've been to this site about 7 times.
People flowed into and out of the picnic at different times. That was actually okay since we didn't have a Canine Good Citizen test scheduled (nobody RSVP for that) and it was discovered that the jumps for the agility course had been damaged while in storage.
So we ended up just chatting about Jindos, which is the core purpose of the picnic.
I had bought three dogs to the picnic. PoongSoon the 2 year old Poongsan, HwangYoung the 10 month old male Jindo, and JinHo the 5 month old male Jindo. (I'll give an intro about HwangYoung and JinHo in a later post.)
At the picnic, I got a chance to see my former foster dog, Gracie, again. She grew into a pretty girl dog although not quite standard Jindo. Nice thick fur with good length, pretty eyes, and rounded ear tips. HwangYoung thought she was quite attractive and flirted his teenage heart out to her. (Sorry, HwangYoung, she's still quite spayed.)
 |
| HwangYoung and Gracie (now named Daisy) |
 |
| HoSu and JinHo |
It seems almost strange to talk about a future litter at a picnic hosted by a Jindo rescue, but one thing I realized from talking with the folks that came is that the Jindo breed has lost its way in the U.S.
There were several folks that had owned good Jindos before, and their current Jindos just did not compare to them. Just not as smart and not very lively.
One person had a dog that bit people 5 times before Animal Control put down the dog. It might have been hypothyroidism, but about 15 years ago, a Jindo that bit a family member with no good reason was disowned as a purebred Jindo. Biting was abnormal. Now too many people are accepting it as normal and won't put down such a dog.
It used to be common knowledge that you just don't board a Jindo at a trainer's and expect the trainer to "fix" the dog. Throwing money at the trainer is no substitute for learning how to train a dog yourself.
One family had "put in an order" for a Jindo Ranch dog. I don't know if they understood what they were getting into and whether they absorbed what they saw when they saw Gracie who was from Jindo Ranch. I had put in lots of time socializing Gracie and taking her to Puppy Class. It is lots of work to bring such a dog up to the level of what a well-bred Jindo would be by default.
There was one female Jindo there that should have been well-bred. I knew much of the maternal line and met the dogs in person but several unwise decisions tipped her over into an aggressive dog that no dog or person could approach. She was very much over her threshold and resorting to "a best defense is an offense". She even lunged at PoongSoon who was just minding her business while laying on the ground. It was the first time I've seen PoongSoon get irked enough to stand up to her full size and respond with her own growl.
This could have been addressed earlier if there were other experienced Korean breeders that could have provided GOOD instructions, but pretty much the better Korean club is dead and the other one has "issues".
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Good Gopher Dog!
PoongSoon dug out her first gopher of the year. It was a big fat one responsible for eroding our side yard slope. Good dog!
Monday, December 31, 2012
Climbing a Hill
I took PoongSoon the Poongsan and HwangYoung the Jindo for a short hike this afternoon.
It looks to me that PoongSoon had an easier time going up the hill than HwangYoung. Which makes me wonder once again if there are certain climbing advantages of slightly straighter angulation.
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