Run With Dogs : Sad and Lonely Old Blog

Sad and Lonely Old Blog

Posted by: Audrey Post date: February 3rd, 2011

It’s been a while. My bad. Been tied up writing web content, building sites and selling them, and generally faffing around. Kids keep me busy, but I’m still running and am doing the Kokoda Challenge on the Gold Coast this year again.

Back onto the theme of dogs and running. I was absolutely horrified and disgusted to read the news report about the sled dogs being euthanased after the Vancouver winter olympics. You know, I can stretch my mind to the dogs being a business “commodity” and I can even stretch it to some of the sled dogs maybe not being suitable for rehoming for whatever reason – mind you, if they were working with the general public they would need to have had good natures. No reason why they couldn’t have been rehomed. What I can’t come to terms with is the dogs being euthanased in such a way that the person doing it received a payout for post traumatic stress disorder. You can read further details here.

What I find particularly distressing is the idea that these intelligent, aware creatures would have known what was going on, and heard the cries of the other dogs as they were “euthanased” – I use that term very loosely because that word means “peaceful death”. Nuthin’ peaceful about that!

There have been calls for emails to be sent to the company, expressing disgust and outrage. I had a better idea. I was going to build a website and call it www.companynamekillsdogs.com and get it to the top of Google. Nothing defamatory or libellous, just the facts.

It’s not hard to whip up a simple website with WordPress. That’s what this site is built with. It’s free, and very easy to use and customise. The domain name costs around $10 a year. The main thing you have to worry about is web hosting. If you’re looking for a place to host your website, reliability is the key. Because I’m not an expert on this sort of thing, I also appreciate good customer support. If you Google “web hosting”, there are pages upon pages of results. How do you choose a web host? Have a look at this site -

http://www.thetop10bestwebhosting.com/

It features reviews of the top 10 web hosts out there, and these reviews are by real people who have used the services. So, the comments are genuine. For example, check out the Just Host user reviews – you’ll find comments from users in the UK, USA and all over the world. You’ll also notice that there are some people who haven’t been happy with the service, which indicates to me that the site is legitimate; you get the good with the bad. If you have a close look at the site, you’ll notice that there are reviews for both UK and US webhosts, and they’re not necessarily the same. There are good Fasthosts reviews that see it place in the top 10 in the UK, but it doesn’t show up in the US charts. Just Host, on the other hand, are number one in both regions.

I always like to rely on reviews such as those on this site to make my webhosting choice, it’s easier than buying a pig in a poke. It’s a real nuisance to have to move sites from one webhost to another, so making a good choice right from the start is worth the effort.

The last thing I want to say in this marathon post (drought, drought, drought, FLOOD!) is that I’m going to change the whole theme of this blog. I’m still running, but after a few years it’s getting a bit monotonous. So, the new “runwithdogs” blog will be about the science of the canine athlete. There is more and more research out there that’s absolutely fascinating. So, new topics, new theme, whole new look. Watch this space.

2 Responses to “Sad and Lonely Old Blog”

Bill Says:
April 27th, 2011 at 12:03 pm
Hi,
Good to see you back on-line again. Knowing you live in the Queensland area, I thought about you all a few times over the past few months. Hope everyone you know came through ok.

On the scientfic side of things – a question. I read somewhere that dogs doing a lot of running don’t want carbohydrates like we do, what they want is fat. What’s the best fat and how much can/should you give? Charlie is a 4 year old kelpie weighing in at about 18kgs. He is currently on a mix of some raw meat and a cup and a half of Purina a day.

Sorry to bother you with a question first off!

All the best, Bill

[Reply]
Audrey Says:
April 27th, 2011 at 12:07 pm
Hi Bill

You’re right, dogs don’t need carbs like we do, although they do use glucose and glycogen for those short bursts of speed like in an agility competition. Endurance dogs can eat up to 50% fat, and some of those sled dogs in Canada and Alaska eat up to 70% fat. Not sure if that would lead to diarrhoea, you’d have to give it a shot.

Guinness has just turned 4, and he weighs in at 24kg! He just kept growing. He eats 2 -3 cups of dry food a day, and he’s very lean. I’d suggest when you’ve worked out a diet that suits Charlie, then feed him “to condition” ie if he’s a bit thin, give him more, or if he’s getting curvy, cut back a little. Hope that helps.

[Reply]