it's time for the cold!

As many of you know, Tyara is a snow dog. So her favorite time of year is almost here! Cold weather means a new fur coat for her. While I observed her this week, I have noticed she has gotten a lot bigger than she was just a couple weeks back. Then I saw she is shedding just a little bit now since she shed it all during the warmer climate; she still sheds but not huge chunks as she did before when it was more warmer in the day. Tyara isn't a fat dog. She is actually really skinny, but her fur now, in the winter, makes her look all big and extremely fluffy (although she's still fluffy either way).

I have always wondered when does a  body of a dog know it's time for a new fur coat. According to Gina Sapdafori a dog will start growing their winter coat during the fall, while they still shed out their thin summer coat that they grew out in the spring. It really doesn't have anything to do with their body; it's practically just when the seasons change is when the dog's fur coat changes. It's pretty crazy to think a dog will grow new fur twice a year for ever year that they live. Can you imagine how much fur it is to comb off Tyara since she is a snow dog? Every other day in the summer I will brush her to  make her thin coat better.

In the site Dog Day Afternoon Spa: "Shedding 101" compares a dog's fur coat to trees and their leafs. I found this comparison really cool and it shocked me because they are both so similar. They are the same in how they change because of the seasons. In the fall, the leaves change color and start to fall, just like a dog's summer fur falls, and to some may change color. I have also noticed a change in Tyara's fur color; it changes from a lot of white to a lot of grey and maybe even some brown. I have noticed that this year her fur is growing a bit more dark with a lot of more grey in it.

Tyara's fur coat, Pic taken 10/23

Even if I have to  comb her a lot, and take out full bags of her old fur coat, I would rather be doing that to make her fur coat for the winter look nice and shiny.

Work Cited

 Spadafori, Gina. "The Pet Connection." VeterinaryPartner.com. Veterinary Information                         Network, 7 Nov. 2001. Web. 24 Oct. 2014.





more than a pet

My dad always calls Tyara my sister (even if she's my pet). I also considered her as one, while I observed her this week, I noticed that she does act like a little sister whenever I go outside to observe her, she will come and see what I'm doing, it's like if she knew she was being observed. She will come to me with a ball for me to play fetch with her, just like any little brother or sister does to their older siblings for them to play with them. Whenever I come home from practice, as soon as I'm in the garage to go outside to see her, I hear her dog collar jingle since she is running to the garage to see who just came home. I feel it's like a little sibling waiting for their big brother or sister to come home.

"I was feeding her lettuce, she really really likes it, I don't know why. The lettuce got her hungry so she went to eat her dog food. Sometimes for her to eat her food I have to go and shake her dog bowl for it to make a noise and sometimes feed her one by one until she goes and eats on her own." field notes 10/15. The way I sometimes have to feed her like that or get her attention to her food, reminds me of how I would have to feed my little brother before. Tyara will act as if she is eating her food. She puts her snout in her bowl but doesn't eat anything, I will think she's eating and leave her alone so she can finish her food. Then I will come back outside and she would just be laying next to her food, once she sees me coming, she will get up again and do the same thing, just this time I actually sit outside with her  until she eats her food!

She loves to lay in her dogloo. I sometimes have to make little noises for her to come out of there because she will literally lay in there the entire time I go outside and observe her. When she does that, it reminds me of my little brother and how stubborn he is in the mornings not wanting to get up for school. As soon as she hears me make noise or she hears something strange, she gets out and goes check out what the noise was. She's curious just like a little sibling. She just isn't a pet to me, I actually love her more than that, I really consider her as a sister.


pic of Tyara inside dogloo taken on 10/16

My Brother

During this whole week while we are  on fall break, I couldn't observe my dog since I went out of town, but this gave me a chance to observe my little brother,  Jeferson, during the long car rides. 

Jeferson is 9 years old, and like any other little brother, he is a pain in the butt. Being in the back seat with him for hours is a lot of work. Many people would guess he would just stay calm and play with his phone, but that only lasts for a little while, because then he starts asking "Are we there yet?" Or "How much longer?" 

I've paid a lot of attention to him lately  (well since there isn't much to do in car rides lol) I have noticed that after he gets bored with his phone, he starts to annoy everyone for a bit, nut after all that seems like he gets tired and decides to take a nap. He doesn't feel a thing when he sleeps while we are in the car, he's a very hard sleeper. Once he wakes up he does this face like, "where am I?" and of course the first question he asks even when he just woke up is "are we there yet?"


pic taken 10/9

"He actually smiled at the camera this time when I asked if I could take a picture of him, he usually doesn't let me." field notes 10/9.

It's hard for us to get along at times, since the age difference is 7 years ( a lot! I know!) but during this trip we actually bonded, while we watched movies or played cards in the car. "I saw the way he smiled when I played with him something or just tickled him, his cheeks got all red when I started to tickle him, his laugh would make me laugh and we'd both end up laughing in the car." field notes 10/10

Looking at my Surroundings

Ever since my last post I've been putting even more attention to Tyara. She is starting to shed a bit because she is getting ready for the winter. Her top coat is falling off a bit, she is growing out her new thick fur coat for the winter. When chunks of fur fall off they look like little pieces of puff balls.

Since it has been warm lately she has been really happy. She really likes to sleep where the sun hits the most. I don't understand why, I ask myself wouldn't she get really hot because her fur? She likes to sleep a lot, and she isn't even so old yet! She looks at me strange while I'm observing her. She gives me a look like "What are you doing?" then she goes back into doing what she normally does, lay on the grass. "She keeps laying down exactly in the middle of the grass while my dad mows the lawn, it's like she finds it really refreshing after being on the hot sun." Field notes 10/2.



 Picture taken 10/3





  While I was observing my beautiful dog, something else captured my attention. My mom's two Zebra Finch birds she has hung up on a cage, Tyara was laying under them and outta nowhere I see a feather of one of the birds fall off. I had heard them chirp lately but not this much, it seemed as if they were fighting with each other like two married couples!(It is one male and a female.) They have this cool chirping noise they do when they communicate with one another. In the video below that I recorded myself (make sure volume is high) you can hear them chirping to one another, and at one point you can even hear the male chirp really loud because it hears a cars horn, which I found really funny.

On this picture it shows the two birds, these are exactly how the one my mom's has look like, the female on the white and the male with the gray and brown. The female has laid eggs before, but they just ended up killing their babies. I always asked myself that and what I found out from the site according Lady Gouldian Finch: "Chick Tossing & Nest Abandonment" was that they will abandon and kill their babies if  they are first time parents (which these were) they don't mean to do it but they will start to panic when they see something strange happening in their nests, which also includes their eggs hatching. http://www.finchniche.com/features_abandoned.php that site will talk more in depth why they would kill them.(What harsh parenting!)



From Scientific American
 

Doing this observation, I have not only learned new things from my dog, but also from other pets that  I have! I hope to learn more new things and you can read them in my next up coming blogs.