Cave Canem

I've got 4 moderate to high shedding large dogs. I brush them frequently with both a standard curry comb and a Furminator and they are on a very high quality diet. But I'm a vet student with little time for house cleaning and I'm wondering how the Roomba does on pet hair. We've got hardwood or tile everywhere the dogs are allowed access.

When I graduate from vet school in a couple years, I'm interested in moving back out west (I lived outside of Denver when I was in middle school and have wanted to go back since I've been in Missouri way too long!). At first I wanted to go to Fort Collins because the vet school is there, which makes certain things a lot easier, especially if I decide to do a residency there. But the price of living just 40 miles north in Wyoming seems a lot cheaper.

I know it's absolutely beautiful (and windy!) in both places, but is there much else difference? How is finding houses (with a bit of land for some horses) south of Cheyenne, but north of Fort Collins? How's the job market for my husband (he does project management/customer service/advertising, etc)?

I love strong masculine names that are somewhat unusual. Not all these stupid Aiden, Hayden, Jaden, Kayden derivative names lately, ugh. My husband has in jest suggested Raiden of Mortal Kombat fame just because of this onslaught of lame names.

Anyways, Snape is my all time favorite character in literature and really the only reason I like Harry Potter. Rochester is from one of my other all time favorite Byronic anti-heroes: Mr. Edward Fairfax Rochester from Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre." I guess if he really hates Severus, he could go by Chester?

Yeah yeah yeah, kids get teased no matter what. Screw that. Me and my husband won't have kids until I've been out of vet school for a couple years (maybe 5-7 years from now), but...thoughts? Does it flow at least?

My husband is 24 and is looking for a new job. He's 2 years out of college and is looking for a job in marketing or managerial type work. He's got a goatee and it makes him look older (early 30s instead of mid 20s). He can get it well trimmed and always looks professional otherwise. He's got good experience for being a relatively new graduate and all that. Should he shave it and be conservative or keep it and look slightly older?

Heck freakin' yeah! I'm still going to be in the middle of my vet school semester by mid June, but I'm SO THERE! And it's only an 8.5 drive! YES!

My dogs prefer "wet" or moist treats like cheese, Hebrew National hotdogs, Zukes Mini Naturals, and lamb sticks for training in things like agility, but I'm always on the look out for good dry treats. They like Liver Biscotti and Innova EVO treats. What dry treats do your dogs like?

Me and my female Malinois do therapy dog visits to a children's hospital. I usually ask the kids if they have any pets as a way to make conversation. Many of them say yes and tell nice stories about them, which are always nice to hear (of course, I always get the "we just had litter of puppies!" that were backyard bred, which makes me cringe). But a surprisingly large number say "yes, we had a dog, but it ran away!" This seems suspicious to me. With so many people microchipping these days, it seems unlikely that all of them (and there's quite a lot!) just "ran away." More than likely, people are lying to their kids.

What do you tell your kids if something bad happens to the dog and at what age?

I've been a raw feeder for my dogs for about 3 years now and they do very well on it. They're pretty much never at the vet except for yearly checkups (but no yearly shots as I'm a minimal vaccinator). However, I'm in vet school and next semester we start our nutrition class. I'm fully expecting to get blasted for doing it, but I don't care. The results speak for themselves. :-)

For those who have fed raw, what have you noticed as far as longevity goes? All stories welcome!

I have a 2.5 year old Vivitar (ha ha, yes...) digital camera that's starting to fail me. While I am intrigued by them, I don't feel like I'd bring a dSLR along with me as much due to the size, so I'm looking for a higher end point and shoot or dSLR-like camera. I don't take a ton of indoor shots, mostly outdoor action shots of my dogs doing activities like agility, so I need something that will give me nice action shots, image stabilization, and a nice optical zoom (10x+). I've heard recommendations for the following brands, though I personally prefer Nikon as a brand:

-Sony Cyber Shot DSC-H9

-Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18

Any to add or any further recommendations?

I've got a question for you vegans/vegetarians who don't eat meat because it's inhumane. I'm a vet student with a masters degree in biology. I won't work with feedlot medicine because it violates my personal ethics. But what is wrong with eating humanely and sustainably raised food animals?

I buy almost all my meat and all my eggs, milk, and honey from local farmers (usually at the farmers market) from pasture raised cattle, bison, pork, chicken, goat, and lamb. We even got a 25 lbs pasture raised turkey for Thanskgiving this year (boy, was it good!). My dogs are also all on a raw diet and much of their diet is derived from these sources. The stuff I can't buy at the farmers market, I try to buy at the university meat lab so it is still local and the animals are well cared for.

Biologically, we are omnivores. If we raise animals on a biologically appropriate diet in sustainable and humane conditions without danger from predators, what is ethically wrong with this?

So I'm getting a Belgian Malinois puppy in a few weeks (google image search "Malinois" if you want to see what they look) for Schutzhund and agility. I am a HUGE diehard Harry Potter fan and want to name him something related to Harry Potter. His registered name will be Ordre du Phenix du Dantero (he's from an O litter). I'm kind of leaning towards either Phoenix or Fawkes for his call name. Can't use Sirius (saving it for when my husband gets the dark Great Dane or Irish wolfhound he wants) either and I already named my boa constrictor Severus. My other Malinois is named Lily already, but I'm not a big fan of James, sorry!

I asked chain link versus wood privacy and people seemed almost 100% in favor of wood privacy vs chain link for return on investment. Here's the thing...We're only going to be living in the house for 4 years until I finish vet school, so we need to be able the sell house ASAP but I don't want to invest a bunch of money in a vinyl fence if it's not going to a better ROI than wood privacy. What is the better return on investment (NOT which would you personally prefer in your yard): wood privacy or vinyl fence?

I'm getting a Belgian Malinois shepherd puppy in a few weeks for agility and Schutzhund (I'm an experienced owner, vet student, and behaviorist and I own a Malinois/GSD cross and I foster for Malinois rescue). I can't wait for the 7th Harry Potter book to come out as I'm a HUGE fan, so I want to name the male puppy something to do with Harry Potter. Malinois are red fawn with a black overlay and I am trying to decide if Phoenix is a good name. My husband says it's a little too girly. Any opinions?

Me and my husband are about to buy our first house, but I think we're going to have a major issue with the landlord with a 2 ft long crack that has appeared in between the windows on the front of the house and the front door in the drywall. He says that there wasn't a crack before we moved in and it is due to our dogs hitting the wall (huh?). I say the foundation is cracking and here is why: there is now a crack in the foundation about midway on the front door, there is a vertical crack in the dry wall above the door (sorry, the dogs cannot jump that high), there are no impression marks of the dogs hitting the wall, water pools between the slab of concrete for the front door and the front windows during a rain, AND about a month ago, we came home and the cherry tree in our front yard (about 3-4 yards from the front door) had FALLEN OVER because the ground was so soft after a storm. No lightning, no nothing. Any idea how we could prove this if he tries to rip us off on our deposit?

Me and my husband are buying a house in the next few weeks. Many of the properties we are looking at don't have fenced backyards or they are too short (we have athletic large dogs). The dogs won't be outside under supervised. We need to be able to sell the house ASAP in 4 years when I'm done with vet school, so what would be the best ROI on fencing: chain link or wood privacy? I'm also considering bamboo, but not sure how that would hold up. None of the properties seem to have restrictions on wood privacy vs. chain link.

I'm considering buying an earth bermed (i.e.-partially sheltered by the soil) house. I'll be done with vet school in 4 years and so I need to be able to re-sell it quickly. The city where I live is somewhat conservation oriented. Any ideas or experiences with these sorts of houses?