General Dog Chat 4

[geekone]

Apologies I just noticed the thread was running out so I am going to repost.

Oh steppe how high is the dosage? When we were on a high dosage that's when BiteyDog went a bit 'funny' and coupled with the hunger ate the rag that got stuck .

Is he also drinking and peeing lots?

Steppe, I’m afraid the rain and the head through the cat flap made me laugh. Luckily Cocodog can just about put her front paws and nose on the edge of work surfaces but has never sprung up on tables or surfaces. Although she is greedy she is not a food thief, the worst she has done is try to swipe a few crisps out of a bowl on a low table.
I hope he is off the steroids soon☹️

Bitey, we leave the back door slightly ajar for cocodog. If it clicks shut, she will rattle the disused cat flap to alert us and if that fails she trots round to the patio windows where you get the most rspca face in the world. Having said that, we are out in the garden and paddock a lot so most times she is quite happy to come indoors with us for a lie down 😁

Our kitchen is the coldest room in the house so I really want to shut the doors . He's out there now nursing his ball and won't come in. If I leave him he will start shivering with cold bit still won't come in. I have taken to picking him up and bringing the daft sod into the house

SquirrelDog is really tall on his hind legs - he comes up to my hip. For some reason I’m in denial about this, and he’s always getting stuff off the kitchen work tops. Most recently my antibiotics (a lot of people have googled ‘is ciprofloxacin poisonous to dogs, it turns out. Luckily, it’s not) and a box of matches. Do you know what’s really fiddly? Picking up about a hundred individual matches off the floor.

There is definitely a benefit of having a small ish dog. Thankfully too small for counter surfing

Yeah, but if BiteyDog is anything like the Cocker we know, he can jump about 4 feet vertically from a standing start!

Ssshhhh don't tell him that

BastardPup isn't well. He's eaten something again, I think - he's been sick and had diarrhoea and is now lying there with his stomach making bloody awful noises

Poor BastardPup. Hope it doesn't last long .

Any idea what he might have eaten?

Not a clue. We have had no puke or poo since 12.30, but he hasn't eaten either. He's knackered.

He is a sod for picking up leaves at the moment, or clumps of mud, and in the dark it is hard to tell what he has got.

The thing with leaves is that in this weather they are 'rotting' with god knows what on them

BiteyDog is looking miserable at the moment as he knows DH should be home by now but he's gone to the gym so will be late. I can tell he is just putting up with my company as he really wants DH .

Coco dog is shattered, walk this morning for an hour with best mate Archie also meeting up briefly with a mad young choc lab, home alone for two hours then off to agility class, brief rest then a potter through the woods. Has helped me do the wood burner and currently watching DH cook a stir fry. She needs to crash!!

Sounds like Cocodog has had a lovely day. Hopefully she will crash soon 😴

Tis lovely that biteydog wants your DH home, Cocodog loves greeting my DH but makes it abundantly clear that I am her main person. Unfortunately, DH has been wooing her with titbits behind my back but has realised that this is not a good idea because she is not settling as well as she used to in the evening and now he is backtracking on this policy! Dare I say, men!

Hi all! How's it going? We managed a second hydrotherapy session today. Still hates it haha!! He's tired now and it seems to be doing him some good with stiffness

bright green poo this morning, goodness only knows what he has eaten.

steriods were not a high dose, and already winding down, nearly at the end. He ran off again this morning.

Thing is, we are being super careful about where and how we let him off, so that he isn't a danger to others. eg when he ran across the road, we were a whole field and river away, in the woods, which he loves and doesn't want to leave. I usually don't put the lead on until half way across the field, but being cautious I went to put it on at the river and he took one look at me and put his head down and took off.
Same place today, on the way in (which is normally safe as he wants to go into the woods), waited until we were over the river and half way through the woods before I let him off the lead, and he turned right round a bush and vanished. 10 full minutes later I saw him back in the field, on the way back to me. So he had turned right, ducked down through the woods, crossed the river and gone back over the field.

He then walked to heel very subdued, on the lead for most of the walk, while his friend ran in mad circles round him wondering why he wasn't allowed to play. There was one place I could let him off, but he had a miserable walk, and is now lying on the floor with a huge fat stomach, again goodness only knows what he has eaten.

It isn't so much that he is running AWAY, more that he is running TO food. I am guessing this morning that he smelt something as we crossed the field, and took the first chance to run round back to it.

Vet thinks his recurrent ear infection might be helped by going on an allergy free diet. I did say that until he stopped eating everything in sight, I wasn't going to pay for special food!

steppe When our vet discussed an exclusion diet for his IBD we both agreed it was pointless as he goes to daycare so we can't stop him from eating other things.

BiteyDog is very clever and will sense a walk is about to finish and jump away when I attempt to put the lead on him. I now have to find various ways of letting him think we haven't don't yet and then I can grab his collar .

Can't imagine what could cause bright green poo .

NewYoiker he looks so cute in the pool even though he hates it

thegirl I am very jealous as although I am 'mum' to BiteyDog DH is clearly his pall and reserves his spaniel wiggle dance for him .

desperate for a 1:1 trainer really, but I keep looking and just can't find someone I like and can afford!

I have gone as far as I can training via youtube
It wasn't a problem, when he ate the odd bread roll out out for foxes, but this running off is wearing me right down

Even with a small dose, the steroids might still be having an effect though. Don’t be too sad until he’s completely off them.

One major problem we have is that SquirrelDog didn’t really have a ‘reward structure’ - trying to teach him that I am worth being with because I’m a fun source of food and play is a long and painful process. Our trainer reckons we are now at the point where ‘he’s still take off, and he wouldn’t hear you while he’s hunting, but when he snaps out of it he’d want to get back to you as fast as possible.’ Brilliant. If only I could guarantee he’d ‘snap out of it’ before he ran straight across a road, I might be able to consider letting him off. It’s a bloody good thing he’s cute.

BiteyDog is good with coming back but we did have an incident last week. It wasn't that he ran off but more that he decided to check out the rear end of a horse for a fresh meal whilst I was removing his poo from the path. The horse gave him a nudge which fortunately wasn't hard.

I am not a trainer but think you need to stop the running off because it has become self rewarding. Could you find another place to walk for a while to break the association?
When I walk in open fields with cocodog I do bits of training with her with food rewards to keep her attention on me, I also toss bits of food for her when she is within a few metres of me. I read a thread on here ages ago, the poster called it the magic circle of reward to condition them that being close to you, coming when called etc is highly rewarding. It does take time though. Then once he has had a chance to burn off some energy I would put him on a long line/longer lead for the rest of the walk so he can’t rehearse his bad behaviour. You could always play ball with him in the garden if you feel he needs more outlet for energy.
Perhaps if you put out a thread giving your rough location and ask for 1to 1 trainer recommendations? I live in South Somerset and could recommend a great one. Know how frustrating it is, my old lab was a real scavenger☹️

thegirlsallgrowedupnow

we are trying to put a stop to it.
We have him on a lead in every place he has run off, or that we think might be an issue, only off in 'safe' places.
Trouble is he keeps finding new ones! So the running over the road was a new one, so the next day I kept him on the lead for much further into a 'safe' part of the woods, and then he did it again. I wasn't expecting that because we were walking towards friend's house and he is keen to get there, and because usually once we are past a certain point he refocuses.
The irony is that this walk is away from our normal one, because I am walking friend's dog, we are going a completely different route, and I thought that would be good as it will break the habit of other places. Instead he has just found new places

I agree though it is self rewarding, and we need to break it.

Maybe rather than the dog food manufacturers spending lots of money and research making nice tasty meat treats they should make them taste like rubbish or cow pat and I am sure half of our dogs would gobble them up.

met a dog today, almost identical to Steppedog. Owner and I were chatting, his dog is a rescue, they have had him for 2 months. He arrived aged 11 months, and had been locked in a crate for the whole 11 months Owner said at first he didn't move from the spot you put him on .
Had never been on a walk, had never been, anywhere, and was terrified of everything.

When I met him this morning, he was trotting along happily by the owner, ears up, full of life, looking fabulous, and alert and loving the woods, nearly made me cry.