Orange Coast Rhodesian Ridgeback Club Logo

President's Message
We are off to a great start this year! Kudo's to all of our club volunteers who came out to support our January and February events! Our January 23-24 "CATs" (coursing ability tests) and February 20-21 lure coursing trials were a huge success! We could not have done them without these club members volunteering their time! Special thanks to: Lisa Adams, Frank Smouse, Susan Adomian, Dorothy Crinion, Ericka Rowland, Troy Abney and Kate Zimmer!

The January "CATs" were a blast and included all breeds! We had everything from Miniature
Dachshunds to RRs to Fox Terriers, Border Collies, Carne Corsos, Dobermans and even a Boerbel (an African Farm Dog). The Basset Hounds were especially fun to watch!

We just wrapped up our February lure coursing this past weekend with perfect weather and perfect field conditions! These events are for sight hounds only. Participating breeds included RR's, Basenji's, Greyhounds, Whippets, Saluki's, Afghan's, Ibizans, Pharaohs and more! Special congrats to our Ridgeback BOB winner Saturday, "Hayden" (owned by Cassie and Cliff Taylor), and our Ridgeback BOB winner Sunday, "Breeze" (owned by Lyn and Art Valdivia). Our BIF winners were the Whippet ("Bridgette") on Saturday and the Greyhound ("Sonic") on Sunday. We even had a Japanese tour group of veterinary students drop in to watch and meet the breeds!

Meanwhile we are hard at work planning OCRRC's 30th Specialty show April 14-15 in Anaheim Hills. It begins with an RR specialty lure coursing trial on April 14 and the conformation/sweeps/obedience and rally specialty on April 15. We hope you can come! Morning hospitality, complimentary lunch, and complimentary dinner await you! Not to mention the beautiful dogs strutting their stuff and, the impressive obedience dogs showing us that they are indeed a versatile breed! Please keep checking our website and FB page for updates on all the fun planned! See this newsletter for more info on how you can be a part of it!

See you soon!
Jennifer Gysler
30th Annual Specialty is coming.........
Here is an update on YOUR Specialty event:
In an attempt to reduce our overhead costs, we will be emailing premium lists to those we have email addresses for.  We will also make our premium list and event announcements available through social media.

Our Specialty has always been about our exhibitors and their fabulous Ridgebacks, but it takes a village to pull off a successful event.  We would love to see your wonderful raffle donations and d ay of volunteer support is needed for the r affle table/ticket sales, and the s ales table.  Price lists are available so no guessing is required.  Please consider donating an hour between showing or spectating. If you can help, please contact Ericka Rowland at ericka.a.rowland@gmail.com.

We are still looking for early bird individuals to support Morning Hospitality.  Over the years, a comprehensive shopping list has been created and by dividing and conquering preparing the morning spread will be a breeze.  For many years this has been a team effort so don't feel you have to tackle this whole thing alone.  Sign up to help by contacting Jennifer Gysler at jennifergysler@gmail.com.

Do you have a catalog ad?  Our deadline for catalog contributions is March 11th.  Please contact Lisa Adams at k9AGJunkie@gmail.com.

The Specialty Lure Coursing on Thursday April 14th will be accepting day of entries.  Our judge will be Claudia Miller from Colorado.  The premium will be available at ocrrc.com and socalcoursing.com.


International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day (Feb 23)
Second dog biscuit installment in time to celebrate biscuit day - Liver Alone
1 1/2 cups of Tapioca flour (or garbanzo bean or amaranth)
1 lb. beef or chicken livers

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Puree liver in a food processor.  Immediately clean it afterwards before liver puree dries.

Combine all ingredients together and mix thoroughly.   Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper (helps with clean up).  Pour mixture into pan.

Bake for 30 minutes.  Cut into shapes using a cookie cutter.  Let cool completely on a wire rack.  NOTE: To make crunchier treats put back in over after cutting for an additional 2 hours at 150 degrees.  Store in an airtight container in the frig.

Learn More

Article provided by Lee Nudo
Sprouts Are a Rich Source of Nutrients for Pets,  By Dr. Becker

Most dogs and cats, given the opportunity, will eat grass occasionally or even on a
regular basis because they know instinctively that it improves their digestive health. But 
unfortunately, grass isn't typically very nutritious, even pet grass, and outdoor grass is 
often loaded with fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, animal waste, potential parasites, and 
other contaminants.  

If your pet likes or needs to eat grass now and then, my question is, have you considered
growing your own sunflower sprouts to offer instead? Sprouts can provide a very easy 
and inexpensive source of fresh, live organic vegetation for your dog or cat to nibble on.
Seeds are the first life stage of a plant, and sprouts are the second stage of a plant's life.
They are the tiny stems of the plants that emerge from wet seeds before they put down
roots and become full-grown plants.

After a few days of germinating, these little plants are packed with a ton of nutrients. In
fact, pound for pound, many sprouts contain significantly more digestible vitamins,
minerals, proteins, and enzymes than the adult versions of the same plants.

Sprouts are rich in enzymes, making them almost pre-digested, similar to plant matter
that wild dogs and cats ingest from the stomach contents and GI tracts of prey animals.
Unlike vegetables, which can be difficult for pets to digest if they're consumed whole,
during sprouting much of the starch that's contained in the plant seed is broken down into
simple sugars by amylase. The proteins are converted into amino acids and amides by
protease, and the fats and oils are turned into simple fatty acids by lipase.

Benefits of Sprouts
Sprouts have many beneficial attributes. For example:

 They support cell regeneration

 They are powerful, natural, and whole food sources of antioxidants, minerals,
vitamins, and enzymes that protect against free radical damage .

 They have an alkalizing effect on the body that is thought to protect against
disease, including cancer, since many types of tumors and cancers put the body
into a state of acidity

 They are abundantly rich in oxygen, which can also help protect against abnormal
cell growth, viruses, and bacteria that cannot survive in an oxygen-rich environment

In addition to their nutritional benefits, sunflower sprouts are also the ultimate in
homegrown foods. When you grow them yourself using organic seeds, you can be sure
you're not exposing your pet to harmful pesticides or other chemicals. 

Sunflower sprouts are also among the least expensive foods you can buy or grow for your
pet to "graze" on. Interestingly, if we don't provide living foods for our cats to eat, they
often end up snacking on our houseplants. Since many kitties also tend to immediately
throw up after nibbling a houseplant, and because some houseplants are toxic, sprouts are
a really safe and healthy alternative. If you grow them yourself, you can cut the cost by about 90 percent or more compared to
buying them.

Sprouting Process

When sprouting your own seeds, it's best to ensure they haven't been chemically treated,
so buy organic seeds. Soak them overnight in water in a Mason jar covered with a mesh
sprouting screen. The soak time depends on the type of seed you're sprouting: 5 hours for
small seeds and up to 12 hours for really large seeds and grains.

In the morning, drain the fluid off (I water my plants with it) and rinse the seeds. Turn the
jar on its side and repeat the process three times a day until the seeds sprout. On average, sprouting time is about three days. Rinsing and draining the seeds three times a day gives them just the right amount of moisture, and also helps flush away toxins.

Your container should be about a quarter to a third full of seeds, since they will swell to
around eight times their original size over three days. I recommend keeping the jar at
room temperature with good air circulation. At my house, I put it under the counter
beneath my kitchen sink. Once the green tips start to appear on the sprouts, you can begin feeding them to your pets right away, or you can refrigerate them, or plant them.

Another option is to grow your seeds in potting soil, which is how Dr. Mercola does it. I
like the sprouting phase because it speeds the process up. When grown in soil, you can
harvest your sprouts in about a week. A pound of seeds will produce at least 10 pounds of sunflower sprouts, which is a great yield.

Of all the different kinds of sprouts, sunflower shoots produce the most volume. In one
10" x 10" tray, you can harvest between 1 and 2 pounds of sunflower sprouts. You can 
store them in the refrigerator for about a week after harvesting.

Feeding Sprouts to Your Pet

At my house, I simply put the tray down on the ground and let my pack nibble on them
throughout the day. In the evening, I put them up on the counter and my kitties usually
continue to snack on them overnight. 
If you're sharing your harvest with your family, you can snip off sprouts, and then put  them in your pet's food bowl or on top of their regular food. All of my pets regulate their  sprouts intake really well, so I don't have to limit their access.

However, if you happen to have a dog that obsesses over sprouts, you're not going to put 
the tray on the ground because he might gorge himself. Instead, as a general guideline, 
you can offer about 1/8 to ¼ cup of sprouts for every 20 pounds of body weight each day. 

So for example, your 80-pound dog can eat up to 1 cup of sprouts per day. For your 10-
pound cat, 1/16 to 1/8 cup per day is plenty.

Article provided by Lee Nudo

The Bordetella Vaccination and Your Dog

Most boarding facilities require proof of Bordetella vaccination for dogs who will be visiting. However, because there are many strains of Bordetella, and because no vaccine protects every patient, some immunized dogs contract tracheobronchitis despite being vaccinated. Veterinary recommendations range from vaccinating every four months to not at all.

"There are two kinds of Bordetella vaccine," says Stacey Hershman, DVM, a holistic veterinarian in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. "The intranasal vaccine is highly effective and very safe since it is not systemic but goes down the nose into the throat. I do not recommend the injectable vaccine since it can cause negative side effects like lethargy, fever, vomiting, or diarrhea.

"I never vaccinate animals more than once a year for kennel cough, and then only if they are going to a boarding kennel. Kennel cough is not fatal in adult dogs, who usually board, therefore it would be over-vaccinating in my opinion to do it more than once a year. Healthy, strong immune systems are resistant and do not catch it, which is another reason not to vaccinate unless the dog is going to a kennel that requires it."

No matter what your dog's vaccination status, a few natural preventives can't hurt, especially whenever your dog is exposed to dogs with active or recent infections.

Please remember that the articles provided herein are meant to be for information purposes and are not endorsements or direction by OCRRC or the editor for how to feed, manage or raise your animals.  If you have any newsletter suggestions please contact the undersigned.

Sincerely,

Lisa Adams, Editor
Orange Coast Rhodesian Ridgeback Club
Orange Coast Rhodesian Ridgeback Club