Labrador Retriever Newsletter

Float Plane Follies

After working with the puppy and saying goodbye to a wonderful family, I crawled back into our float plane and prepared for takeoff from the remote Alaskan lake. My flight examiner, who had just administered the check ride for my float plane rating, was beside me. I started the 100 horsepower engine, and taxied out into the glassy smooth water. The evergreens towered above us all along the lake’s edge, while two huge bald eagles soared and then dove on the water. “Take off in that direction”, said my examiner, pointing the short way across the lake. “Are you sure?” I asked, not believing we could clear the trees. She responded in the affirmative, and I threw the throttle to the firewall. The prop spun wildly, throwing a spray of water to our sides. As the floats came up on the water, I formulated a plan to make a hard right turn as soon as we were airborne, slipping the long wings between two stands of trees that I knew we could not clear otherwise. I informed the examiner of my intentions, and gained her approval. I pushed in some right aileron to break free of the water’s tenacious grip, and we were in the air. During the turn, I marveled at the height and closeness of the trees. Surely, I thought, they must be close to brushing the belly and back of the plane. Suddenly, my examiner straightened the control wheel, not realizing how close the trees were. “No! I yelled, though I think it came out as “AAAAAT!”, my trademark word for training Labs. Before I could reenter the turn, I watched for what seemed an eternity as the tall evergreen slammed into the left wing, just a few feet from my seat. “Bam!” The plane pitched to the left and downward, with the forest floor rushing upwards, filling the cockpit window… “Bam!” The plane pitched to the left and downward, with the forest floor rushing upwards, filling the cockpit window…

So here we were, preparing to crash into the forest, where we would most likely not be found until spring. Time stood still as I fought to regain control of the aircraft. If we crash and live, I thought, the mosquitoes will drain us of blood before the bears move in. Perhaps I could just encourage the bears to move a bit faster, and escape the misery of the stinging Alaska State Bird. So how did we come to be here anyway?

    The boys and I decided to go to Alaska to visit some of our northern customers and see how they were faring in the training department. During this trip, I wanted to add a float plane rating to my land plane rating, so that I would be able to visit even those customers inaccessible by other means.

    After my exam ride, which I passed, we flew in to visit a family that has three children and a Retriever. They live in a very remote part of Alaska, accessible only by dog sled or float plane. They have their own generator, and school the children in their beautiful cabin on the lake. Mike, the Dad, creates special items out of wood and antlers. He finds trees that have grown hard, dense balls of wood as a result of a tree irritations (forest pearls, I suppose). He halves these, and creates uniquely beautiful bowls of various sizes, as well as carvings of bear and other animals. These are the real McCoy – not the “Made in China” items one so often comes across, but real handcrafted items done with a labor of love, each with its own story. I took a liking to his works, and decided to make them available for order on a special part of the Labpups.com website. This portion of the site will be dedicated to offering unique goods and services created by our Labpups customers. Look for them in October.

    After a great cup of coffee, the family walked us to our plane, and assisted us in our departure, possibly saving their dock from being chopped into firewood by our propeller.

   So there we were, having taken out the top of a huge evergreen, scaring a squirrel to near death. (During his surprise descent, he learned that you don’t have to be a flying squirrel to fly). The forest floor was rushing upwards, and I was more worried about mosquitoes than the actual impact. I pumped the elevator, staying on the knife’s edge of stalling from slowed speed and the desire to climb. Trees whisked by the wingtips and under the floats, leaving evergreen tags lodged in various parts of the aircraft. Dipping a wing here and there, we eventually climbed out of the woods, skimming the tops of trees for another quarter mile. We both breathed a sigh of relief… until we looked out at the wing. Tatters of aluminum and fabric hung from the twisted airfoil, and I noticed that I had subconsciously added full right rudder to compensate for the drag of the crippled left wing. This particular part of the plane was only held on by two bolts, and we had a fair idea that these bolts were pretty stressed out at the moment of impact. Would the wing hold on? If not, how many times would we spin before hitting the ground? More importantly, could we fly far enough away from those dreaded mosquitoes before we went down? The ride back to Anchorage was tense, though we chatted the whole way back. Beautiful moose wandered the open fields below, and eagles soared everywhere, sometimes coming under the aircraft’s wing, as if to add support. If we died, we were going to become part of the most beautiful land God ever created. We limped back to the airport, and felt relieved to touch down on Lake Hood. My examiner exclaimed, “I have definitely approved your license!”

Top of the World

The boys and I decided to head for Barrow, Alaska, which is the farthest north one can head on the North American Continent without stepping into the very cold waters of the Arctic Ocean. This is just a few hundred miles from the North Pole. Barrow is only accessible by boat or airplane, and is home to the Inupiat. (Eskimos). It is a barren landscape, devoid of trees. The ocean ice breaks up and moves out for a few weeks out of the year, and then the whole affair refreezes thick enough so that you could take a snowmobile to Siberia. Along with the ice come hungry polar bears, darkness, and wind. (It is rather chilly). We were there in July, when it warmed up to 32 degrees. The sun never sat – it just stayed low on the horizon and traveled all the way around us. Due to the earth’s wobble, you could see the sun dip once each day. At 3:00 am, I looked out my window to observe the Inupiat children at play. Some had short pants and no shirt. This particular village is allowed to take 22 whales each year, and the beach is a virtual graveyard, with rib bones and vertebrates forming ghostly figures. While on a tour of the town, we stopped at the village’s old watering hole, where they used to cut blocks of ice and haul them back into town via dog sled. There was a large dog, upside down and dead, half in the water. His brown leather collar signified his one time dependence on man. I inquired of an Inupiat woman what had happened to the dog. “It’s dead,” she said. “Yes,” I agreed, “But what killed it?” “His owner shot it,” she replied. “He was sick.” I gathered from additional conversations that the Inupiat just think of these things differently. To them (or at least the ones I met) the dog is a tool, and its vet is a 12 gauge shotgun.

While the town was skinning out a whale, a polar bear popped up from a hole in the ice and began racing towards a little girl. She ran towards her snowmobile, but it was obvious she would not make it. Her father wiped the whale blubber from his hands, picked up his rifle, and dropped the 900 pound polar bear. The daughter went back to playing, and the father resumed skinning. Life is quite different in the Arctic Circle. I was reminded many times that we were no longer at the top of the food chain.

Prince William Sound (Southern Alaska)

Bud, one of our great customers, took the boys and I salmon fishing in both Homer and Whittier. We were hooked, and returned to Whittier for seven days of additional fishing, having rented our own boat. Whittier is a very small town nestled in the horseshoe of tall snowcapped mountains. The ocean fills the spaces between the mountains, to a depth of 2,000 feet. This water is so cold that a man overboard would perish in about five minutes. “The lifejacket is just so you can locate the body,” said Bud. Glaciers are everywhere, and the boys and I pulled our boat right up to Blackstone Glacier. As the ice crept over the land, it produced an awe inspiring noise – something between a rifle shot and thunder. The idea is to wait for the ice to calve off, and ride your boat over the resulting twenty foot wave. Awesome! Sea Otters were everywhere, floating on their backs and using their stomachs as dining room tables. We cooked one of our salmon over an open flame, and shipped the rest back home.

JaxMax Labrador Food

Several years ago, we hired the world’s leading carnivore nutritionist to develop the very best formula for Retrievers. Developing a formula is easy – having it turn out to be a super successful formula is like winning the lottery. JaxMax has been nothing short of phenomenal. Many veterinarians have recommended JaxMax to their customers for a last chance at curing allergies, resistance issues, poor health and failing joints. The demand for JaxMax has never been higher. As we bring more private investors on board, we will be offering an array of products for your Retriever.

Different brands of dog foods can have the exact same ingredients on the labels, but be miles apart in actual content. This lack of knowledge can cause great problems in the health of the Lab or Golden, and will reflect negatively on the owner’s bank account. For example, chicken meal comes in several different qualities. It is against the law for dog food bags to contain information concerning the quality of chicken. How would the consumer know if the chicken was 80% digestible or 20% digestible? They wouldn’t. The only person that would know the true quality, digestibility, and absorption of a certain food would be the formula owner – not the store salesman, not the veterinarian, and not a best friend. This is top secret information. Recently I was in the dog food aisle, watching a consumer choose between bags. Eventually, the shopper picked a product, and I asked her what led to this choice. “A friend that knows all about dog foods told me to get this one”, she said. I asked what qualified her friend in this department. She didn’t know. I asked if she thought dogs should have mostly vegetables or meat. “Well”, she said, “I always hear of wolves eating rabbits, so I suppose meat should be the first ingredient”. I asked her to flip over the bag she chose, and read the first ingredient. “ground yellow corn”, she said, twisting her face to the side. “I guess that’s not good?” I told her that she obviously knew more than her friend. She tossed the bag back on the shelf, and picked one that had chicken as the first ingredient. True, she didn’t know the quality of the chicken, but at least she was headed in the right direction.

JaxMax now available in California!

For our California customers, JaxMax is now available at three additional locations. The people listed below also own Labradors from Labpups.com, and are willing to help you get the formula at a great price. They are ordering JaxMax and treats by the pallet, which lowers shipping costs dramatically. I suggest purchasing several bags at a time from them to lower your driving cost to their location.

San Francisco Area Los Angeles Area

Michelle Munguia

San Bruno, CA (near the airport)

650-624-0805

Bridgette Peck

Thousand Oaks, CA

805-494-9614

Ed Pacult

Piedmont, CA

510-420-0727

Changes to JaxMax

In our dedication to keep on the cutting edge of nutrition, a slight tweak to the cooking process has come into play. We will be cooking the food a few seconds longer, which will improve the overall digestibility for all dogs. Ingredients will remain exactly the same. You will notice that JaxMax will take on the wonderful aroma of toasted oats as a result of this longer cook time, and your dog’s stool will become more firm. According to the hundreds of dogs that tried the improved JaxMax, “WOOF”!! (This is dog talk for “Wow, that’s great”!). You may notice your loyal companion paying more attention to the food dish than to your neighbor’s cat.

When food is cooked longer, it tends to expand. This means the volume of JaxMax in the bags will increase, though each bag will weigh slightly less. You will see this change beginning in October. At first, the bags will appear all silver. During the November production, the food will be in the traditional bags you are used to seeing. There will not be an increase in price.

OCD, Dysplasia and Nutrition

Did you know hip dysplasia can be tied back to improper nutrition? This is not to say every case is caused by poor nutrition, as physical injury and even genes can play a role in some diseases, but nutrition plays a huge part.

OCD (Osteochondrosis Dessicans) occurs when bone grows faster than surrounding cartilage.). This causes the cartilage to shatter, placing a small amount of material in the front leg joint. This leads to irritation and limping, and in some cases can result in arthritis. What causes bones to grow faster than desired? We know high protein and growth hormones can cause this condition (This is not genetic, even according to the latest veterinary medicine manuals).

For this reason, we strongly recommend not feeding puppy food to your Labrador, even when he is a puppy.

One would think most veterinarians would be attuned to this situation and offer advice accordingly, but the sad truth is that we expect too much from our vets. Nutrition is a totally separate and very demanding field. Even a board certified specialist in veterinary medicine will most likely not have exposure to this kind of experience.

Treatment for OCD in Retrievers

The old treatment was to have your Labrador jump up and down, run after the ball, and exercise until the tiny piece of cartilage was broken. The body then absorbed the excess material, and life returned to normal. New treatment includes opening up the joint and surgically removing the offending splinter, or using arthroscopic surgery. The Lab’s activities are then restricted for several weeks. An increasing number of veterinarians are recommending using the old method, as outcomes favor this approach. (It is much easier on the Lab, too). Results are showing that surgery holds no more promise of cure than exercise. As the last veterinarian I spoke with on this issue said, “Don’t waste your money on the surgery”.

Upcoming Newsletter

In the next issue, look for “Devil Dog Hits the Rails”, a lighthearted look at the life of a runaway Lab.

There will also be the latest up to date information on the pros and cons of spaying or neutering at an early age. (Hint: Postpone that operation until you read the article!)

As always, PLEASE update your address, phone numbers, or e-mail addresses with us, as we keep your dog’s microchip number in our data base. If we recover your lost pet, we will be trying to reach you.

Upcoming Event dates

The next Lab Jamboree will be held May 13th 2006. Plan ahead for this spectacular event! We are expecting over 400 people to attend this FREE event.

Date: Saturday, May 13th 2006

Times: 11:00 am. to 4:00 pm.

Location: Labpups.com grounds

Food: Richard Easterling’s famous BBQ ribs and chicken, along with hot dogs and all the fixin’s. Dining under the tent top available. Key lime pie for desert
.

Band: Jerry Goodman’s Beach band

Activities:

Pony rides and a petting zoo

Piñatas

Sno Cone

Drawings for free prizes

Nutritional information. (Very important!!)

Information on an alternative invisible fence for pet containment.

Information on training your Lab or Golden. Stop your dog’s bad habits!

Giveaways. (Last October there was a free 1 week cruise given away).

A special offer on JaxMax you won’t want to miss!

Pet Supplies Available

See your pup’s brothers and sisters.

A great time to socialize and meet new friends.

And the list goes on!

Until next time,

The Labpups.com Team