My name is Pepper, Ruler of Venice, Florida

07/04/2024

It’s that time of the year to have fun with fireworks, and also to try to keep pets safe. My two deaf dogs are fine, but the other two think the world is coming to an end.
If you have any tips on what keeps your pets calm, please share !
Here is what we do to prepare for the fireworks:

-Make a den for pets in a closet or room with. I windows . We use a comfy bed and blankets.
Keep it dark in the den so they can’t see the thunder, lightening or fireworks .

-Turn a fsn on high (blow it AWAY from pet ) or ask Alexa to play “white noise”.

-Buy a thunder shirt and wrap them tight ,like how you would swaddle a baby. It helps calm them down. If you don’t have a thunder shirt, just use a soft cloth like a T-shirt and wrap it around their belly area.

-Play mellow classical music on loud to drown out the fireworks or thunder.
Or ,ask Alexa to play “Through a Dogs Ear” . Mellow Classical music has a calming effect for dogs.

Check FIRST with your vet about giving 1/2 Benadryl (depending on weight )for a 15 lb dog , and give it 1 hour BEFORE the fireworks or thunder begins .If you wait until they are stressed out, it is harder to calm them down.
A friend just gave us some CBD dog treats to try. Will do an update about that soon.

-Give your dog a special treat like beef rib bone, broiled 1 minute on each side. The excitement over the bone is a good distraction . Feed it on an old sheet in the den or in a kennel .

-If you have a walk-in closet or laundry room with no windows, grab yourself a pillow and blanket to camp out with them for the night.
I bought a thin baby crib mattress to be comfortable.

Happy 4th🇺🇸

07/04/2024

Ginger and Zuko..
If you don’t have or want a TikTok account, you don’t have to join to view the videos. When prompted to join, just click the ” NOT NOW” button.

Check out Suzett’s video.

07/04/2024

Ginger and her neighbor, buddy, Zuko love to play together!

07/04/2024

Ginger needs to learn how to relax! Haha

07/04/2024

Miss you, Sierra.
Love you forever, friend

07/04/2024

It’s so darn hot in Florida that the pavement burns the paws. The pet stroller comes in handy in hot days!

07/04/2024

Lean on me…

07/04/2024

Pepper’s friend, Colleen , made these silly pictures of him🙂

07/04/2024

Pepper is jamming with Bruce Springsteen

07/04/2024

This page has been neglected for some time! We found some old video and pictures to share so you will notice that Pepper looks a little younger in some of these🙂

07/04/2024

The dogs are enjoying their Sunday beef bones on the grass

07/04/2024

M pepper spent more time chasing the fly away from his bone than enjoying his bone!

07/04/2024

Sweet dreams, Pepperman💤

07/04/2024

Poor Ginger is so scared of the thunder or fireworks. A friend of mine shared some CBD treats that sound promising to help with the anxiety.

04/30/2024

My Granddog is so cute and so loved❤️

04/05/2024

Experience Amazing

10/24/2023

For a loved one:

174.5K likes, 5437 comments. “Hi-ho, Kermit the Frog here! Stream The Muppet Movie only on .”

10/18/2023

Just learn to get along like this 🐕 🐈‍⬛

09/26/2023

Pepper is jammin with The Boss🙂🎼

Bruce Springsteen

Check out Suzett's video.

09/14/2023

Do you feed homemade dog food? Below is what I do from working with a pet nutritionist, but I am always open to learning new things.
The post is long because of all the details.

Start with a big soup pot of distilled or filtered water or even better, a pot of homemade Beef Bone Broth

Add a few peeled sweet potatoes and small bunch of organic carrots, an apple, small amount of broccoli and cabbage. Add fresh pumpkin if available. Cook for 30 mins on simmer until almost tender.
Add to pot a wide variety of green vegetables(kale, green beans, asparagus, small amount of spinach .
More then half of your veggies in the pot should be Green vegetables.
Add small amount of kidney beans or black beans.
Add a small amount of quinoa OR steel oats. Add a cup or so of blueberries
Cook for around 10 mins on low simmer.
Remove from heat and Purée it all in the pot with hand wand -or use a blender.

Add to the hot, puréed veggies 4-5 different kinds of protein : beef( make half of the protein beef ,if possibe . Use chicken with a little bit of skin,
LEAN pork loin( no pork fat for dogs) , turkey,
salmon with skin.
Add 10% organ meat like liver.Add some hearts and gizzards.
You can just cook this for a couple of minutes and feed semi -raw. The only protein you have to cook for six minutes is fish.

If you want to cook , only do so on a very low simmer for only 3 minutes.
Immediately cover, turn off stove and let sit in the warm soup for 2 hours so it is like crock pot cooking without high heat.
Once cooled down, add some canned pumpkin if you didn’t add the fresh pumpkin ( do NOT use pumpkin pie as it has spices that are toxic to dogs)
Shred or chop up meat in small pieces. Divide the food into containers that hold a three day supply of food.
My small dogs get 1/2 cup twice per day with a RAW egg on top of their prepared food for breakfast.
The basic rule is about 25 cal per pound of dog, so an active 20 pound dog will need about 500 calories per day. A senior or inactive needs about 400 calories per day.

The more you cook meat, the more you loose vitamins so feed semi- raw or low heat cooking for meats.
Veggies must be cooked & puréed because dogs do not have the enzymes to break down raw vegetables.
It won’t hurt them to eat raw vegetables-they just won’t get the nutrients from raw vegetables, so you have to cook and purée them if you want them to get all the good vitamins and nutrients.
Use mostly greens but don’t skip the sweet potato and carrots. Go light on the gassy green vegetables like broccoli and cabbage.

Meat is the opposite. You want to feed meat as RAW as possible.In the wild, dogs are not out there with pots and pans. They eat their kill raw. Domesticated Dogs are no different.

The one thing you want to do with meat from the grocery store is to always freeze it first for three days. The reason for this is freezing will kill any potential parasites, so you are then safe to feed RAW if you want to. Some dogs like the smell of cooked food just like we do.

Speaking of smell and taste, you can always add a little oregano and turmeric and other spices that are safe for dogs. Obviously, you have to be careful with not giving Cayenne Pepper and spicy things so make sure to research and Google spices that are unsafe for dogs, so you know what to avoid.

I worked with pet nutritionist to find the right diet for my dogs because most of my foster dogs are sick from heartworm or neglect or starvation or a multitude of problems. Diet is key to getting many things turned around.

Some people feed only chicken and rice, which is really terrible for a dog. That limited diet is only appropriate when a dog is recovering from some kind of sickness or stomach ache, NEver long term, as it is not enough nutrients or variety to have a healthy, thriving pet.

Much like us, dogs don’t want to eat the same thing every single day just like you don’t want to eat the same bowl of granola cereal every single day .So mix it up a little, do some research and follow people like Dr. Karen Becker
Hope that helps on YouTube. Look up some of the raw feeding groups or if you can’t/ won’t and you absolutely have to buy the processed food, at least buy some thing fairly decent like Dr. Marty’s freeze dried raw or Stella’s freeze dried raw. I use things like that for emergencies only or travel and mix it with homemade beef bone broth and I always try to top the food in the morning with a raw egg and find some decent protein if I can during emergencies.

The only supplement that is a must for homemade diet is Calcium Carbonate. It is super cheap and you need 1/2 teaspoon per pound of food.

Feed your dogs raw beef bones, like the beef rib bones, if you can afford it. Some dogs don’t like the raw egg white, some do ,so you have to see with each individual dog. They all like the raw egg yolk, but some dogs get an upset tummy from raw egg white part or they just like the white part cooked.

If your dog has seasonal allergies, avoid any root vegetables during allergy season and especially if dogs are licking their paws, be sure to add a little bit of olive oil or coconut oil to the food. Also, make sure to give them an egg yolk every day during allergies I do it daily anyway.

This basic, bass recipe is for a healthy dog. If you have a dog with some thing, like pancreatitis or kidney issues, the phosphorus will be completely different, and the protein part will need to be more egg whites  and protein that is lower in phosphorus.
What’s fits are highly trained but when it comes to nutrition, they only get a couple of hours of nutrition training in their education so it is important to work with a Pet nutritionist when it comes to your dog , especially if a senior, or a special needs with special needs . Even then, a homemade diet that is tailored to their issue is better than any canned food, including prescription, canned food.

08/17/2023

My mom found some good dog treats here for me. 😋🐶

08/17/2023

Dogs rule🐾

😍

08/15/2023

Oh Pepper!

08/07/2023

Alisa and her dog, Reggie just moved to Florida so we are showing them around to some of our favorite spots

Check out Suzett's video.

08/07/2023

Ginger was so sad when Zuko moved away…

Check out Suzett's video.

08/05/2023

Ginger is so scared of rain and Thunder that she takes to the dishwasher to hide!

Check out Suzett's video.

08/05/2023

Where in the world do they get these songs? Haha 😂

Check out Suzett's post.

08/05/2023

My little brother, Pablo Picasso is trouble!

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07/29/2023

Those water dogs sure do like playing in the water. We little dogs. It’s a form of torture. Give us the squirrel to chase any day.

07/29/2023

My person went fishing without me. I am bitter and will be writing this down in my Book of Wrongs.
Love, Pepper

Check out Suzett's video.