MadLab has had quite a traumatic few weeks. After ripping his stopper pad and requiring surgical repair, he was restricted to lead excercize only and pottering round the garden to do his business (will not do it on the lead). Three Saturdays ago, he begain vomiting repeatedly in the afternoon and reconsuming the vomit when we were too slow with the kitchen roll. It stopped by the evening and he was fine overnight. No interest in brekkies and a bit subdued but not worrying looking in the am. DH and I took the kids off for their Sunday morning activities but cancelled our brunch to go home and check on M.L. We found a huge puddle of blood!
Went tearing off to the vet. M.L. was in deep shock with cardiac arythmia and passing blood from both ends. Thank goodness for a very clever vet who wouldn't give up! The final diagnosis was haemoragic gastroenteritis (ruled out pancreatitis and atypical addisons) but it was odd because it came on so fast and with such severity. His bone marrow shut down during this and only 10 days post discharge has his blood count reached the lower end of normal. That said, he is back to his bouncy self and regaining weight.
So, here's the problem...
MadLab had taken to relieving himself on the deck and seems terrified of the grass for about 20ft in front of it. We have been using treats and praise to get him to put one paw down on the grass but he's very worried. When we kick a football (always irrisistable) from the deck, he'll visibly steel himself and then leap as far from the deck as he can, scramble after it and run back along the borders. Once on the borders, he will go to the back of the garden for a poo but then looks stranded unless you guide him back. At night, he will not get off the deck at all. The vet thinks that he can remember that what made him sick was probably on that bit of the garden.
Before you dismiss that as being impossible for a dog to connect that something he ate made him sick and to remember where he ate it, the staff at the vet practice remarked that he is the most intelligent dog they've treated. We've always had retrievers who've been trainable but M.L. is actually resourceful. He was bred and trained for a working purpose.Favourite new trick- kids tell him to find their school shoes in the morning and he brings the correct shoes to the correct kid. We didn't teach him this, he just started doing it
I've looked at every inch of the garden as have the gardeners and can't find anything he might have eaten and we have no poisonous plants and we don't use chemicals.
Should we just keep going with treats and praise and accept it will take a while? Get a doggy friend to come play? His best LabBuddy, unfortunately, is trained not to poo in the garden so won't be a good example. Can you change the way the grass smells ? Ideas appreciated.