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Our 4 month old won't let us brush him. We have tried a few brushes of varying teeth and no matter what it is he immediately bolts away. This is the only thing he isn't down with us doing. We have tried doing it while he is dead asleep, worn out from a walk, after a bath, while treating heavily, etc, but nothing will work. Any tips on how to get him to at the very least tolerate it? He has long enough fur that it needs brushed but he is getting too big to have to try to hold him back while brushing, so it needs to be something he will let us do on his own.
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Jul 16, 2012 17:45
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MrFurious posted:My complaints are directed largely at younger owners, but other folks who fit this role as well. Young twenty-somethings who are just out on their own and living paycheck to paycheck but who really want a dog. That's great, but realistically, they can't afford one. They have zero money to spare for basic preventative care let alone training. So they just adopt a stance of denial and get the dog anyways, or worse, they view the animal as relatively disposable. I actually don't agree with that last bit. I know the type of owners you're thinking about and I think it's more of a mindset than a financial thing. I've known plenty of very wealthy people who had the money to spend on their animals but didn't think it was worth it because it's "just an animal." Their pets suffer just as much and are considered just as disposable as someone with the same attitude and no money. On the other hand I've known poor people who had no real savings but took fantastic care of their animals and would do whatever was necessary to ensure the animal wasn't suffering. I guess maybe I'm biased because I got my first dog when I was 18 and really did not have the financial means for him by pretty much anyone's standards, but I still managed to feed him a decent diet and spend a lot of time training him (which doesn't have to be expensive) and got him necessary preventative care. We had a couple of smaller emergencies and I scraped the funds together somehow. It was a struggle but it was worth it to me, and seems to have paid off for him because I still have him 17 years later and he's remarkably healthy and still more active than a lot of much younger dogs. So yeah, I realize it's just anecdotes and I definitely think that if you're able to you need to be putting money away for emergencies, but I've seen a lot of good owners with barely a penny to their names and bad owners living in mansions to really make generalizations about what kind of owners people are based on their finances.
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Jul 16, 2012 17:57
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Asnorban posted:Our 4 month old won't let us brush him. We have tried a few brushes of varying teeth and no matter what it is he immediately bolts away. This is the only thing he isn't down with us doing. We have tried doing it while he is dead asleep, worn out from a walk, after a bath, while treating heavily, etc, but nothing will work. Any tips on how to get him to at the very least tolerate it? He has long enough fur that it needs brushed but he is getting too big to have to try to hold him back while brushing, so it needs to be something he will let us do on his own. Slap a leash on him, tie him to something, and brush him. Feed high value treats whilst brushing - but whether or not he likes it, he gets brushed. The best time to do it is when you get back from a walk, as he'll have a collar and harness on and you can just bring him straight inside and brush.
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Jul 16, 2012 18:09
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Fraction posted:Slap a leash on him, tie him to something, and brush him. Feed high value treats whilst brushing - but whether or not he likes it, he gets brushed. I would do it before walks instead, so the walk is a nice reward after brushing time. What I do is smear peanut butter on a wall or cabinet so my dog is standing in one spot and then brush/apply flea drops/look in ears/whatever. Since your dog bolts I would leash him and either tie it or step on it, then apply peanut butter and carry on with brushing. Also work on desensitizing him to the brushing experience. Do one brush stroke and cram a super high value treat in his mouth and release him for a bit. Slowly build up to whole brushing sessions and he should be much happier about brush time.
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Jul 16, 2012 18:20
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Re: trouble brushing the dog. Try a treat where the dog needs to lick at it, like a frozen peanut butter stuffed kong. When the brush is out, the food tap gets turned on, and when the brush goes away, the tap turns off. Start slow, and only progress to the next step if the pup is 100% comfortable with the one previous. The steps are things like "take brush out of drawer" "bring brush close to dog" "hover brush over dog" "touch brush to dog" "brush dog gently once on its side" ... they progress to more brushes on tougher spots (legs and ears are toughest for my dogs). See how you can break it down into tiny, easy steps? It's easier to create that positive emotional reaction in pups if you approach it that way. Be careful that you're not scratching your dog's skin, or snagging the fur, especially to start since those unpleasant experiences will compound on each other.
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Jul 16, 2012 18:32
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MrFurious posted:Sounds like the beginnings of separation anxiety. Make sure you're practicing all of the crate games you should be to start. I also had my first exposure to some SA dogs in my volunteer work this weekend -- I'm going to ask if it's okay for me to circulate some of the training exercises they work to alleviate that, so if so, I'll post what I can. Thank you very much for the advice and help. We've been taking him out every day, just not letting him walk outside on his own yet. I'll probably start today since he has his first shots and just make sure to keep him away from bad stuff. We're trying to do the 100-person thing-- good thing he's so cute that you can't walk a block without someone stopping you to pet him...
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Jul 16, 2012 19:12
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Captain Foxy posted:I would consider anything under a two-three year health guarantee a huge red flag, personally. Most heritable genetic disorders don't even show up until the dog is past maturity at 2-3yrs old, and most dogs are still physically puppies at one year. The best breeders offer lifetime health guarantees, and if I'm paying the $$ for a purebred pup, you can bet your rear end I'd only pay for a lifetime guarantee. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 20:38 on Jul 16, 2012 |
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Jul 16, 2012 20:31
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Thanks for the brushing tips everyone!
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Jul 16, 2012 23:04
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Asnorban posted:Thanks for the brushing tips everyone! In addition to the great advice that everyone gave about desensitizing and pairing brushing with food, you can make a lot of progress through negative reinforcement, for more stubborn dogs. It sounds like your dog has already learned that running away will get him out of a brushing (at least temporarily) and so when you use a leash to hold him still, he may try other methods to get you to stop by throwing tantrums, barking, nipping at the brush/you, or rolling over so you can't brush where you were brushing. If these things happen no matter how slow you were doing with the food/desensitization*, it is important not to let them work! Persist with your brushing through a tantrum or other form of resistance (even if it's just touching the dog with brush and not real brushing) until the dog gives in. You CAN outlast the dog! And the second the dog gives in, that's when you take the brush away. This teaches the dog that being calm will end brushing and being naughty will NOT end brushing. At first you can end the session entirely if the dog is really spazzing out, then you stop for just a few seconds, then you work up to brushing while the dog is calm (but still ONLY stopping when dog is calm and doing what you want). *I love using food and desensitization, but my dog is a special, stubborn snowflake to the point where if there weren't two of us there (one to shovel food in her mouth and the other to brush), she would protest in all manner of ways, including snapping at my hands/the brush. I couldn't go any slower and I didn't want to provide her so much food (because we provide her tons of food for EVERYTHING, see special snowflake who reacts to every-loving-thing), so I switched gears and showed her that doing it MY way was the only way to get it to stop. Now she sits calmly while I brush her and only occasionally gives me dirty looks when I'm too rough on a huge mat.
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Jul 17, 2012 01:18
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Here's my new pup.   She's a sweetie. Very loving, and very smart. A couple things that I've noticed: She really doesn't dip into her first meal of the day until about noon, when I try to feed it to her at 8. Also, she doesn't have much interest or energy in playing. Is this because she's only been here a couple days? I imagine she's pretty stressed from the whole adoption experience. Matty D fucked around with this message at 18:12 on Jul 17, 2012 |
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Jul 17, 2012 17:59
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Matty D posted:A couple things that I've noticed: She really doesn't dip into her first meal of the day until about noon, when I try to feed it to her at 8. Also, she doesn't have much interest or energy to play. Congrats on the new dog! She's a cutie!  One possibility is that she just might not be a breakfast dog. I used to stress about my dog not eating much in the morning and would try to add canned food to get him to eat, but even that he would eat a couple bites and leave. I settled on offering dry in the morning and leaving it out all day for him to eat as he pleases and then add a little but more dry food and some canned food for dinner and he eats it all up then. Stress definitely could be a part of it though. Someone else might be able to give you better advice on this, but I would just keep an eye on her and let her settle in some more.
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Jul 17, 2012 18:07
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Gahh what a cutie, such pretty eyes. And yes, irregular eating is pretty typical. Try not to baby her TOO much by leaving the food down all day or she might get stupidly snotty about it. Scheduled feedings work out for the best. Also have you brought her to your own vet just for a wellness check? Schedule one if you haven't. Not saying her lethargy is something medical, but it's more something you should get done to make sure she's clean.
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Jul 17, 2012 18:09
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We are taking her to the Vet this evening, the shelter provided it as a free check up. I also think she could possibly have kennel cough, or some sort of viral infection. She's been snorting a lot, sometimes hacking a bit. Her bark is basically silent as well. Not sure if that would be related. took her on a walk. trip report: She seems to associate play to being with other dogs, more so than people. If she sees another dog, her energy level and awareness jumps up substantially. One on one with me and a bag of treats though doesn't elicit much of a response. Matty D fucked around with this message at 18:50 on Jul 17, 2012 |
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Jul 17, 2012 18:15
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So my poor puppy just got back from being over night at the shelter, and I have no idea who to blame if anyone. When I got the dog, her ears were down right filthy, and it took hours and hours of cleaning and figuring out how to pluck ears and the smell was god awful. Since we got her from the shelter, we got a free vet visit. I took her there and explained her ears were really bad smelling, and I guess I cleaned them so well, the vet missed that she had an ear infection (more on that later). She checked her ears with a scope and couldn't find anything, and had a hard time looking into her mouth because she wouldn't open it. Vet said she's ok, so I move on. So 5 days later after this vet visit i go and look at her face and holy poo poo it's exploding.  So I did research, figured it was a fire ant bite, and gave her anti histamines. Next day, (sunday so everything is closed) her face then looked like this.  Great, so I go call the vet, schedule an appointment for what would have been today, and keep feeding her anti histamines hoping it'll swell down. Well here comes monday, and her face is about 50% bigger so I say gently caress it we're going to the shelter and they're going to make sure that you're not going to die. Yeah, so after they sedated her, turns out she had foxtails in both of her ears from the moment we got her, and nobody picked up on it because it's a blond dog. We got her back today and she has a sack on the side of her face picking up puss and blood and she's on 4 different medications. She couldn't open her mouth at the vet visit because the infection was in her mouth having spread from her cheek, and began rotting out her gums. I'm so loving angry the vet missed it, and the shelter missed it and I dunno what to do about it. Do I just send a strongly worded letter to the vet i went to, or really was it just a simple mistake most people would make. Also I left out pictures from the work done on her because it's quite nasty.
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Jul 18, 2012 01:58
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Veskit posted:
Why don't you call up the vet and give him/her an opportunity to explain? If you really want to make an issue out of it, you could contact your state's vet board, but to be fair, two different vets missed it, so it might not rise to malpractice. I guess the question is, what are you hoping to get out of this? If it's vindication or an apology, you're much better up calling the vet and just having a conversation (preferably a non-accusatory one). If you want to sue, you're going to have to be able to quantify your damages and probably get another vet to testify the first two vets screwed up- probably not feasible. If you just want to complain/get the word out, go on Angie's List or Yelp and review the vet. Or contact the state veterinary board, but I wouldn't expect much to come of it.
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Jul 18, 2012 03:09
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It's very difficult to see foxtails in ears...or in noses or and any other body cavity. They don't show up on radiographs and they blend in with surrounding tissue. Even the best of clinicians miss them when they know that they should be there. Call the vet and talk about it, and I'm sure they'll tell you the same thing. Don't give a board complaint. That's a dick move. Also, don't Dr. Google your dog.
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Jul 18, 2012 03:41
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Veskit posted:I'm so loving angry the vet missed it, and the shelter missed it and I dunno what to do about it. Do I just send a strongly worded letter to the vet i went to, or really was it just a simple mistake most people would make. If you want to get the point across to the vet that they need to work on their ear examination skills, you will feel better and the vet will feel way better (and still learn) if you let them know in a civil manner. Yelling at/berating a vet will just get them defensive, depressed, and sad. They did not deliberately miss the foxtail (hopefully) - it was an accident - and they will feel bad about missing it. Who knows why the foxtails were missed? Were they small foxtails? Was there so much debris that it was difficult to see? Was the history/findings so out of league for foxtails to make the vet dismiss foxtails (incorrectly in this case, but what about the other 99 dogs that present with the same signs?)? Were they already migrating in the tissues and thus not visible? Did the cleaning and plucking you did cause so much inflammation that it was too uncomfortable to do a completely thorough examination? Was the infection itself so bad that they couldn't get down there? Find out why it happened. From there determining course of action is appropriate.
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Jul 18, 2012 04:07
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Well, I didn't want to google doctor my dog, so I trusted that everything was fine and it wasn't. I'm not going to file a lawsuit or anything, but I just wanted to make sure that this was an understandable mistake and not negligence. No, I'm not going to yell/berate anyone, and I thought the phrase "strongly worded letter" would always be taken lightly. I'll alert the vet and tell her that she missed it, and I don't feel comfortable using her again.
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Jul 18, 2012 04:36
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It's obviously your call if you don't want to use that vet again and it is really important to be able to trust your vet, but foxtails are really easy to miss and I wouldn't change vets over that. One of my dogs got a ton in his face and paws one day when we were working in an area that was covered with them, and I thought I got them all out but then he kept getting abscesses and we'd go in and the vet would examine him carefully and remove more foxtails but still miss a bunch. We had to go to the vet 2 or 3 times (it was years ago and I don't remember exactly) because of it and the vet found more each time. That was a really good vet too, they were just hard to find on my mostly tan and white dog.
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Jul 18, 2012 15:45
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***I have an appointment with the vet for this afternoon. I am just posting in the meantime to see if anyone has opinions on what is going on with my puppy's butt.*** Shanti had diarrhea a few days ago, and it was pretty severe. After calling the e-vet, I was told to feed him chicken and rice with some kibble in it. I did that, and his poop got a little more consistent. However, last night I looked at it and it was mostly rice (not worms, I checked). This morning after breakfast, his poop was rice and completely unchewed kibble. So... he's not digesting his food? Wtf. I just want my dog to be healthy and happy! Throughout all of his butt problems, he's kept his energy up and drank a lot of water, cuddled, crated well... I hope he's just feeling the shock of a new home and that it's nothing more sinister.
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Jul 18, 2012 15:58
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uptown posted:***I have an appointment with the vet for this afternoon. I am just posting in the meantime to see if anyone has opinions on what is going on with my puppy's butt.*** Giardia?
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Jul 18, 2012 22:24
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Incredulous Red posted:Giardia? Not a vet, but seems unlikely to me -- it's usually a stinky, pudding diarrhea thing. The fact that the food is totally undigested (malabsorption I think -- vet students?) doesn't rule out bacterial, but can be a large variety of things, from scary to not. uptown I'm interested to see what the vet said, just curious. Hope things are okay.
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Jul 19, 2012 02:55
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Update: So it turns out he does have worms. I grabbed a sample of poop for the vet before we left, and not only were there pieces of kibble in it, the "rice" was in fact worms. I guess my inspection yesterday wasn't up to snuff, because today when I collected the sample I was like "Oh yep. Worms. Ew." She sent us home with a dewormer (Pyran) and a probiotic to hopefully help with his pooping issues (Florentero). Now my new problem with Shanti is that he hasn't pooped since 7am... Sigh. I never thought I would be this interested in, or neurotic about, dog poop. The vet also sent his poop sample off to the lab for testing, and said she'd get back to me within 2 days regardless of whether it was just worms, or if he needs something else on top of the dewormer.
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Jul 19, 2012 03:38
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uptown posted:Sigh. I never thought I would be this interested in, or neurotic about, dog poop. Yeah welcome to owning a dog.
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Jul 19, 2012 05:40
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nevermind.
A Magical Unicorn fucked around with this message at 11:34 on Jul 29, 2012 |
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Jul 19, 2012 12:51
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Sounds sketchy. A reputable breeder wouldn't be misplacing the papers. The parents appearing healthy means nothing at all, a good breeder would have them tested for genetically inheritable diseases. Most of those diseases won't be visible for a few years, a vet checking the puppies would never catch them. Purebred or not would be the least of your worries.
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Jul 19, 2012 13:46
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A Magical Unicorn posted:I'm interested in buying a pair of Siberian Husky pups (after lots of research I believe I can handle their needs). I found a seller that was advertising a pair of "pure" huskies. They claim they have papers for the parents, but today they told me the papers have been misplaced. This is a BYB. Papers and vet checks mean nothing. Find a breeder who does genetic health testing (pennhip/OFA/CERF, etc) and either shows, works, or otherwise competes with their dogs. A breed club is a good place to start.
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Jul 19, 2012 14:12
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A Magical Unicorn posted:I'm interested in buying a pair of Siberian Husky pups (after lots of research I believe I can handle their needs). I found a seller that was advertising a pair of "pure" huskies. They claim they have papers for the parents, but today they told me the papers have been misplaced. Firstly, buying two puppies at once is a bad idea. Link. They tend to bond too strongly to one another, and not strongly enough to you. They can become insular and not learn how to get along with strange dogs. Plus, when two pups grow up together, one of the pups will never really reach its full potential - one will be unnaturally "softer" than they would be otherwise. Secondly, some dude breeding his two pet huskies together to make more pet quality puppies isn't a good breeder. Vet checks don't cut it. Responsible breeding is much more than simply putting two dogs together of opposite sexes and hoping for the best. There are genetic tests to do, plus breeders have intimate knowledge of the lines of their dogs. They can tell you exactly why they bred two dogs together, and the reasons are never "convenience" or "good temperament". Lastly, there are no health effects associated with the dogs not being purebred.
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Jul 19, 2012 14:42
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Wow, what an obvious BYB. Also HOLY gently caress do not try to raise two puppies at once.
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Jul 19, 2012 18:06
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Racing enthusiasts will keep full husky litters at a time, so having two wouldn't be an issue, if the living conditions are appropriate. They can grow into functional sled dogs even when trained with other young dogs. Of course old leaders are helpful and speed up the process a lot, so less "individual" training is required.
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Jul 19, 2012 18:33
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Riiseli posted:Racing enthusiasts will keep full husky litters at a time, so having two wouldn't be an issue, if the living conditions are appropriate. They can grow into functional sled dogs even when trained with other young dogs. Of course old leaders are helpful and speed up the process a lot, so less "individual" training is required. This person is most likely not going to be actively sledding with those dogs. I don't think keeping a full litter for working purposes applies here  We have had over 8 adult dogs in our house at one time and even I wouldn't want to be raising more than one puppy at once. *shudder*
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Jul 19, 2012 19:06
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The most difficult puppysitting job I ever had involved two huskies. They were like raptors, they would watch me in the kitchen, then raid the cabinets at night because the owners were dead set against crate training  . They only ever opened the high-value food cabinets, and they were completely silent while doing it. Don't get two at once. Think about finding one, and then adding another later on so that the younger pup can model after your hopefully well-trained well-behaved husky. Having two sounds like an exercise in futility with stubborn dogs who motivate each other to be even more stubborn.
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Jul 19, 2012 19:11
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A Magical Unicorn posted:I'm interested in buying a pair of Siberian Husky pups (after lots of research I believe I can handle their needs). I must know what what research told you how simple it is two raise two spitz breed puppies so I can laugh at it.
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Jul 19, 2012 19:13
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TVs Ian posted:This person is most likely not going to be actively sledding with those dogs. I don't think keeping a full litter for working purposes applies here I have to admit around here most huskies reside with sledding enthusiasts. Of course some are kept as pet dogs, but those are few and far in between as a husky is not the most suitable option for that role. If one wants a northern breed our own Finnish Lapphund and Lapponian Herder quite often suffice and are better suited to life as family pets. Although quite a few enthusiasts have their beginnings in owning single huskies, they may have acquired as an adult not suitable (i.e. most often not fast enough) for a racing team.
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Jul 19, 2012 19:20
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When I worked at a dog daycare/boarding facility the dogs I least looked forward to seeing on the schedule were a pair of huskies from a family. They worked together in a way that no other sibling dogs I met did and were probably the only dogs I've met who have cared about "dominance". At their home they regularly worked together to kill any small animal that came in to their yard (including neighborhood cats), and at daycare they spent the whole time cowing all the other dogs into submission and eyeing the little dog runs. The female would stare down other dogs and the male would come around and flip them. It was nuts and you had to stay on top of them the whole time or they would start 2 on 1 fights. I would not wish a pair of huskies, even from good responsible breeders, on anyone but the most dedicated racing enthusiast. Do more research, contact local breed or sledding clubs and for the love of god don't get two puppies at once.
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Jul 19, 2012 19:45
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Riiseli posted:I didn't think so either. It's a possibility, though, and one were having more than one puppy is quite manageable. So I thought it was worth mentioning amidst all this no more than one puppy at a time discussion. Which is very valid in most situations, but not all. As far as it being a possibility, someone who was serious about such a high intensity dog sport probably wouldn't be looking at dogs of questionable breeding and conformation from a shady BYB source, though.  Are the huskies you're thinking of just generic sledding huskies ie Alaskan husky type mixes that are more suited to be workers or pets vs the AKC Siberians (which are by and large just pets here in the US)? Because I can see how one would be less suited for a household than the other for sure.
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Jul 19, 2012 19:59
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TVs Ian posted:As far as it being a possibility, someone who was serious about such a high intensity dog sport probably wouldn't be looking at dogs of questionable breeding and conformation from a shady BYB source, though. FCI registered Siberian huskies like the ones we get here: http://www.piilopolku.net/index.php?p=2&t=3 The bottom three are (from the bottom) a Lapponian Herder, a Alaskan husky and a Alaskan husky, the rest are Siberians. Unfortunately there's been a influx of show type Siberians, which I don't really appreciate. Of course quite a few enthusiastic racers have Alaskans or at least some Alaskans, but there are competitions for purebred Siberian huskies and they are bred for sledding, not for shows or pets.
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Jul 19, 2012 20:55
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Riiseli posted:Not necessarily a possibility in this case, but more of a possibility in general. That first puppy on the top looks high as hell.....
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Jul 19, 2012 21:05
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nevermind.
A Magical Unicorn fucked around with this message at 11:34 on Jul 29, 2012 |
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Jul 19, 2012 22:49
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A Magical Unicorn posted:These are pet dogs and the ones advertised are about half the cost of ones from a breeder - but price isn't the issue, it was more about being put on a waiting list and possibly driving a 6 hour round-trip from a recognized breeder, as opposed to a 15 minute drive at a time which would really work out for me. Go to a shelter.
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Jul 19, 2012 23:03
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