|
I had no choice but to leave Sherlock alone for 6.5hours while I went to an appointment in a different city. My dog walker couldn't come to let him out so he was stuck in the crate. I made sure that he went potty first and he didn't have any accidents but wasn't happy when I let him out. The FIRST thing that I did was carry him outside because he was so excited to see me and had to go so bad that I knew the two weren't going to overlap for a long time.
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2014 16:12
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 31, 2024 01:13 |
|
|
Honey is my first puppy so bear with me here, sorry if I'm going to post a lot of questions In order to better reinforce peeing on the peepads, I've started giving Honey some treats (Little Jacs) every time she does. She's tiny so I give her a fraction of a piece Now she is attempting to game the system. She pees more often but smaller in order to get more treats. Sometimes she will even just walk into her peepad and walk out, and come up to me expecting a treat. I've started giving her treats only some of the time now. She's also lost her appetite for her regular food. She's gone from 2 lbs to 1lb14oz. Is this normal when you start giving them treats? Should I just let her get hungry so that she eats her food again?
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2014 16:40
|
|
|
m.hache posted:I guess it all depends on the type of Dog. Nyx is a Lab/Retriever and I'm pretty sure she sleeps all day when we're not around. Which means she's got so much energy when we get home. Can't wait until it's nicer out so I can just run her around the field for an hour. Artemis is a lab/??/??/energizer bunny mix. When we're home during the day she'll sleep sometimes, but it's usually during the weekends and I take them to the park, or we go on a long walk, or something and then they sleep for a few hours so I don't know if the two are entirely related. Maybe they'd sleep all day if I didn't do anything, but in the mornings and when we come home are definitely PLAY TIME non stop.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2014 16:49
|
|
|
Steve Yun posted:Honey is my first puppy so bear with me here, sorry if I'm going to post a lot of questions Others I'm sure will chime in: 1) Why use peepads? Is there any reason you can't take Honey out to begin with? It's never too early to housetrain! (Are peepads going to be in the pups life regularly? It's challenging to move from using peepads to going outside later in life) 2) Oddly, Jada doesn't pee her whole bladder out when I take her. She hold's it fine, but she just doesn't seem into the idea of evacuating the bladder 100%. Nothing to do with treats, though, so in that regard you should slow down the treat delivery. Only give treats when Honey pee's what you consider the appropriate amount (until she stops?). Giving her treats when she hasn't done what she's supposed to is you saying "I guess that's good enough for me!" and she'll pick up on that. 3) If you haven't already, reduce the amount of food when you're giving treats or, better yet, give regular kibble as treats. I don't know of a puppy that's lost weight due to being anorexic, though, so if there's a pattern of weight loss due to not eating maybe try another food? What have you been feeding up to this point? How much/often are you feeding? Are you free feeding? 4) My dogs are ~1yr at this point, close enough at least. If they decide to do something besides eat breakfast/dinner then they get to wait until next time to eat. That being said, they rarely skip meals, and when they do they will scarf down the next meal with a reckless abandon. Dog's won't let themselves starve to death (I keep telling my fiance) so if they don't eat now, try again later and see what happens. It depends on your puppy though. I wouldn't let an 8 week old puppy go without dinner, even if you've been stuffing treats in his face. If Honey isn't eating, try reducing the treats, give it a little time and maybe do some playing to wear them out. Then see if they're hungry after that! e: sorry for the double post but I didn't realize there were 2 pages to read when I posted ^
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2014 16:57
|
|
|
mcswizzle posted:Artemis is a lab/??/??/energizer bunny mix. When we're home during the day she'll sleep sometimes, but it's usually during the weekends and I take them to the park, or we go on a long walk, or something and then they sleep for a few hours so I don't know if the two are entirely related. My Girlfriend is home all day with her and I come home at 5:30 so at most she is alone for 2 hours at a time. I find she uses these small bursts to nap.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2014 16:57
|
|
|
m.hache posted:My Girlfriend is home all day with her and I come home at 5:30 so at most she is alone for 2 hours at a time. I find she uses these small bursts to nap. I'll trade you. That being said, I've never tried filming the dogs during the day so they really could be sleeping the whole time and I wouldn't know.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2014 16:58
|
|
|
mcswizzle posted:I'll trade you. When we started leaving Linus at home by himself, we set up my wife's laptop with a video stream we could check on our phones (the app was iCam). At first, he would whine for a bit and then sleep. He pretty much sleeps all day now with some activity to have water or bark at the mailman dropping something off. We stopped using the laptop after a few months. Most dogs can handle being left alone outside a crate all day but you've got to build up to it slowly. We first had Linus alone in his crate for a few hours and I'd run home to let him out. That turned into just lunchtime visits but still crated. On weekends, we might leave him alone but outside the crate for an hour or less. By then, he was fine by himself outside or inside the crate and it was only a day or two of lunch check-ins when he had the run of the house before we were confident he was fine for all day.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2014 20:04
|
|
|
Yeah, when we're going on short outings in the evenings or on weekends we'll usually leave Artemis out (rico in the living room, Artemis in the bedroom, Jada still crated. At least, we haven't done this in a few months so we crated Jada last time, but that was like, November). She does fine with that, but the longest we have ever done was during a movie, which was ~ 3-4 hours. I'm just needlessly worried about them getting hurt or in trouble, I guess. We do a pretty good job of keeping stuff out of their reach that they shouldn't have, especially in the bedroom
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2014 20:14
|
|
|
mcswizzle posted:Yeah, when we're going on short outings in the evenings or on weekends we'll usually leave Artemis out (rico in the living room, Artemis in the bedroom, Jada still crated. At least, we haven't done this in a few months so we crated Jada last time, but that was like, November). Don't sweat it. We're all nervous when leaving them alone. Even now that Linus is nearly two, I still occasionally have irrational fears. You'll get used/adapted to it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2014 20:37
|
|
|
Are these things any good http://www.petco.com/product/110970/Potty-Patch-To-As-Seen-on-TV.aspx
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2014 07:49
|
|
|
Steve Yun posted:Are these things any good It depends. Do you like having dog urine indoors?
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2014 12:06
|
|
|
Steve Yun posted:Are these things any good Not for indoor use -- the collected urine will stink the place up. Buuuut I have one out on the fenced-up concrete patio, and he has access to it at any time via the doggy door. For that it works like a charm.
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2014 15:36
|
|
|
Steve Yun posted:Honey is my first puppy so bear with me here, sorry if I'm going to post a lot of questions Why don't you start working on having your pup eliminate outdoors instead of inside of the house?
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2014 17:56
|
|
|
Well she already does, I figured I'd also train her to pee on pads so that she can take care of business when I'm not around or forget
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2014 20:22
|
|
|
Steve Yun posted:Well she already does, I figured I'd also train her to pee on pads so that she can take care of business when I'm not around or forget You can teach them to let you know so you can't forget. Artemis and Jada both ring bells hanging from my door to let me know it's time to go outside. Also, if you get on a schedule with taking them out, they should learn to hold it until that time. Then, if you pair that with bell training, you should never have any accidents barring health issues etc.
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2014 20:24
|
|
|
Ok I might try that BTW there is a possibility that I might travel with her in 6 months. She's small enough to go carry-on. Would a soft pet carrier be better or a rigid plastic one?
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2014 07:56
|
|
|
Steve Yun posted:Ok I might try that For carry on, I think soft is better.
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2014 12:57
|
|
|
I'm adopting a 3 year-old PBT(living with a foster family with kids) who has the same name as my young niece, Sapphire. I'd like to socialize my dog with her eventually; should I keep her name, change it to something similar, or change to something different? My niece is cool either way and I've read up on the subject, but I'm worried about someone calling her name and confusing my dog if I keep the name or something similar.
|
|
#
?
Mar 23, 2014 00:26
|
|
|
Blackbeer posted:I'm adopting a 3 year-old PBT(living with a foster family with kids) who has the same name as my young niece, Sapphire. I'd like to socialize my dog with her eventually; should I keep her name, change it to something similar, or change to something different? My niece is cool either way and I've read up on the subject, but I'm worried about someone calling her name and confusing my dog if I keep the name or something similar. Change the niece's name.
|
|
#
?
Mar 23, 2014 03:19
|
|
|
I'm redoing my backyard this spring/summer and as part of that I'd like to put a dog run in. I have a pretty oddly shaped yard in that it's approximately 140'x40'. I was thinking of setting aside a 10'x10' area in each corner with a 120'x4' run between them to give my two dogs room to run and places to relax. (Both corners would be under a tree.) They're both part Australian Shepherd, one is half husky the other half heeler. Would a 6' fence be sufficient to keep them from trying to escape? On another note, I will be out of town for about a week, how do you find a reasonable pet hotel? Both of my dogs are pretty active and I'd hate to leave the at home with just someone stopping in to feed them, but I've never had to consider having them boarded somewhere.
|
|
#
?
Mar 23, 2014 17:40
|
|
|
I adopted a new pup a month ago. She's one to two years old and is just a lovely doggie. BUT, are there some secret dog-cat hacks or something to help acclimate two cats who don't seem so fond of her? She's not aggressive towards them but is quite interested. Their feelings have rapidly improved from the first week to now but have seemed to reach a plateau. So they'll just sit on the table, cat tree, back of the couch, anywhere higher than The Dog, and hiss at her if she comes poking her stupid face around. I'm asking in the dog thread because I have much more control over how the dog presents herself. She seems to love that they get worked up and try to swat at her eyeballs. Their interactions are through door cracks, windows, and her on a leash, just letting the cats get away to wherever they feel safest (high places), and I've set dog-smelling things around the house and where the cats like to chill. I do some basic training with the dog while the cats perch and watch, and my cat will nap on the cat tree while the dog and I watch movies on the couch, so they see her do other things besides trying to invade their space and sniff them. I'm guessing the solution is to wait it out some more, but I wanted to check if anybody has any tips, tricks, hints, etc., to help the cats ignore her obnoxious invitations to play or get the dog to understand that the cats do not want to play wrestle. Dog:  My cat (the other cat is my roommate's):  thanksss
|
|
#
?
Mar 23, 2014 22:57
|
|
|
loldance posted:I'm guessing the solution is to wait it out some more, but I wanted to check if anybody has any tips, tricks, hints, etc., to help the cats ignore her obnoxious invitations to play or get the dog to understand that the cats do not want to play wrestle. Teach the dog to ignore the cats. Keep her on a leash, reward her for looking away from the cats. Keep her on leash or otherwise contained until a cat can zoom past and she passes it up, chase is highly self-reinforcing and will set you back both with her ignoring the cats and with the cats acclimating to her and deciding she's not a threat.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2014 01:58
|
|
|
Mulloy posted:I'm redoing my backyard this spring/summer and as part of that I'd like to put a dog run in. I have a pretty oddly shaped yard in that it's approximately 140'x40'. I was thinking of setting aside a 10'x10' area in each corner with a 120'x4' run between them to give my two dogs room to run and places to relax. (Both corners would be under a tree.) They're both part Australian Shepherd, one is half husky the other half heeler. Would a 6' fence be sufficient to keep them from trying to escape? Just curious, what do dogs get out of a 'dog run' that a more traditional play area doesn't satisfy? I only know of one or two dog runs (instead of dog parks or on-leash parks) and don't really know the concept.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2014 06:16
|
|
|
So this is the new puppy my wife and I have adopted, Oliver:    He's five and a half months old, and, according to the shelter, some mix of labrador, retriever, and spaniel. We can see the labrador, but anything else is just pure speculation. We set out to adopt an older dog, ideally small, and we ended up falling in love with a dog who was the exact opposite of everything we had been looking for. We chose him because he had an extremely mellow personality for a puppy. Anyhow, like a lot of people in this thread, I'm wondering about getting him socialized to our five year old cat. He's been extremely responsive to just about all of the training we've been doing so far, to the point that I have to wonder if someone had already started with him before he was in the shelter. We're trying hard to train him without negative reinforcement, i.e., if he does something we don't like, divert his attention and give praise/treats when he responds. Generally he is very good about this with the cat, choosing to ignore her as often as not, even when we walk him close to her on the leash. Currently, he has an area of the house where he is off leash which has all of his stuff, and everywhere else he has the leash on, though sometimes we drop it to see how he does. Every so often though, when she comes around he will growl at her; I would say maybe once or twice in an entire day. We're thinking it's a fear response to her, but neither of us is a dog psychologist, so we don't want to speculate too much. Like I said, he is generally interested and very curious when she walks by, but often ignores her when walked right up to her. When she comes into his area he will sometimes jump at her as though he intends to chase her, without growling, at which point we divert his attention. My wife is a little bit worried about the growling, though, so far, he's never been so wrapped up that we couldn't break him away from it. While we don't want him to chase the cat, his jumping at her appears to be playful, so we aren't terribly concerned about it, as much as we try to stop it. We introduced him yesterday to my parents' adult dachshund and he did very well. Basically, I'm just wondering if we're approaching this in the right way by diverting his attention and avoiding negative reinforcement, or if the growling signals something deeper that we need to be aware of. Aside from this (and his seeming inability to get into the car), he's a wonderful guy, and we think he's doing astonishingly well in the short time he's been with us.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2014 14:04
|
|
|
My newly rescued six year old beagle is working out great but sometimes he stops on walks and refuses to budge for anything. When he is following a smell or pulling he moves fine but every once in awhile he decides he doesn't want to move and won't unless I cajole him along or pick him up. I have him on a harness currently and have only had him a few days. Is this something that gets better with time or is there some training issue I am overlooking?
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2014 17:05
|
|
|
Budget Dracula posted:My newly rescued six year old beagle is working out great but sometimes he stops on walks and refuses to budge for anything. When he is following a smell or pulling he moves fine but every once in awhile he decides he doesn't want to move and won't unless I cajole him along or pick him up. This should fade as he gets used to the routine. You can either cajole him along, or just keep walking (as long as he can't slip out of the harness). Pretty soon he'll figure out that applying the brakes doesn't get him what he wants. Beagles are known to be stubborn, but it still should work. McCloud24 posted:So this is the new puppy my wife and I have adopted, Oliver: I would probably try to keep the two animals separated until he settles in a bit more. Then you can start gradual introductions by letting the cat loose and you sit there with a cup full of kibble or treats. Make treats rain from the sky as long as he's doing something other than looking at the cat. I'm talking rapidfire rewards. Then remove the cat and stop the treating. The crazy treat time only happens when the cat is around. As he gets better at this you can SLOWLY begin to reduce the amount of food you provide. More advanced versions of the set up are to toss a treat from the other side of the room if the cat jumps up on something, or walks by. Acknowledge when he's being good and ignoring the cat -- it's easy to take good behaviour for granted but in this case it's particularly important for you to recognize it and reward it. Don't do this if there's any resource guarding.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2014 17:12
|
|
|
Is it a dumb idea to adopt a puppy just 6 months after adopting a younger (1-2 years old) dog? Pickles seems to LOVE playing with other dogs, and we were thinking that adopting a companion for her may be a good idea. We were at first concerned that she was anti-social because she likes to bark at other dogs, but after some work and having her spend some time in an outdoor doggy daycare - it seems like it was all barrier/leash frustration (not being able to go play with the other dog). Our behaviorist agrees with this assessment.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2014 17:26
|
|
|
Rurutia posted:Is it a dumb idea to adopt a puppy just 6 months after adopting a younger (1-2 years old) dog? Pickles seems to LOVE playing with other dogs, and we were thinking that adopting a companion for her may be a good idea. It's not ideal, but you could make it work. In my mind, I would wait until one dog was "finished" before I took on another one. A dog being finished may mean different things to different people, but for me it means that a dog is well trained and well bonded with me. What finished means to you may be different.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2014 17:49
|
|
|
Rurutia posted:Is it a dumb idea to adopt a puppy just 6 months after adopting a younger (1-2 years old) dog? Pickles seems to LOVE playing with other dogs, and we were thinking that adopting a companion for her may be a good idea. I would probably go the other direction in age and get a dog that's 2-3 years older than Pickles and still likes to play if you were really sold on the idea of a companion dog. That way you have less unknowns in adult temperament (which Pickles has probably not fully grown into), and don't have to worry as much about puppy training and making sure the puppy has more one-on-one time with you than with the other dog. That said, if she has consistent playtime with other dogs structured into her week, I wouldn't be too quick to get her a companion. Adding a dog is a lot easier if you're at the push-button phase of your first dog, which doesn't happen for most dogs until after they hit adulthood and have been in your household for a while.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2014 18:08
|
|
|
Rurutia posted:Is it a dumb idea to adopt a puppy just 6 months after adopting a younger (1-2 years old) dog? Pickles seems to LOVE playing with other dogs, and we were thinking that adopting a companion for her may be a good idea. As someone who did exactly this, for very similar reasons, I'd definitely say consider Lenk's advice about waiting. If you have the ability to have play-dates or time to socialize without adding another dog, I'd go for that first, at least until you get into a solid routine. When I travel with Artemis (when I go out of town I usually take her and leave fiance at home with Jada and the rest) I can tell she's a lot less 'HOLY poo poo PLAYTIME' than she is at home when she's allowed to play with Jada pretty much constantly. I get the feeling that if we had not gotten Jada that Artemis would be a lazy lapdog already. I think she'll still get there, but since there's another dog to PLAYPLAYPLAY there's no reason to chill out and relax. I'm working on training both of them to chill out around dinner time and after a long walk, but it takes time and isn't as natural as I think it would be if we'd waited. Don't get me wrong, I love my dogs and am super happy with them. But I had 2 puppies to house break, and train, and feed, and this and that and and and. They're both around a year now, and well house trained, but the "training" training is slightly and unfortunately skewed in Artemis' favor. She certainly needs it more, but it's on me to make time to focus on training with Jada. Fortunately they're both smart dogs and pick stuff up very quickly so while Jada is "behind" Artemis in terms of training, she's still miles ahead of other dogs I know, and a lot of those we see out and about. Anyway, now that they're both well house trained I don't have to spend every waking moment following them around and focusing on them, but even now I spend the majority of my "free" time overseeing, watching and walking the dogs. It's a lot of work. It can be rewarding, but it's a LOT of work. I see why people say "get a puppy" before you have a kid.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2014 18:25
|
|
|
Wow, thank you all for the great responses. You have swayed me to wait. We're setting up a weekly full day of daycare (starting tomorrow) and our neighborhood is full of dogs so I'm also in contact with a few neighbors to set up playdates. So I think that will definitely hold her over until she's an adult at least. Thanks again!
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2014 19:29
|
|
|
Am I doomed to stinky dog-farts for the next decade and half? I feed Zee Blue-Buffalo. She enjoys her raw hide chews and she gets a Beggin Strip once in a while (once every couple of days, give or take). She's 14 pounds and I give her about 1 1/4 cup of food a day and she poos 3x a day. I expected bad gas the first 2 weeks from the change over from shelter food but it's going on a month now and she still rips them. Am I just being impatient?
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2014 20:45
|
|
|
Dirt5o8 posted:Am I doomed to stinky dog-farts for the next decade and half? Not an expert on the matter but perhaps the food you're feeding her isn't agreeing with her? I think our dog has farted like three times the whole time we've had her (8 months). Once she woke herself up and that was hilarious. Not to say she doesn't fart it's just we don't smell it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2014 20:47
|
|
|
Dirt5o8 posted:Am I doomed to stinky dog-farts for the next decade and half? Yeah as m. said, just because it's 'good food' doesn't mean it's good for your pet. If it's otherwise good you might want to just try another formula by Blue Buffalo? If the stool is soft, though, or you notice other things poochie isn't thrilled about the food, maybe try something different altogether. Maybe a new protein source? You might have to try a few different kinds to really know what's best, and you'll want to transition slowly between them. Something like switching between different formula's by the same manufacturer (correct me if I'm wrong internet people) might be a little less hard on her tummy, if it's only a few ingredients difference.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2014 20:51
|
|
|
I gotta say, her farts are pretty funny. Audible and startling every time. She's started off with sloppy, soft craps but they've been solid for awhile now. Ill shop around for different styles to see if it helps. My health-nut friend insists that you can't have healthy food without lots of gas.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2014 21:43
|
|
|
Dirt5o8 posted:I gotta say, her farts are pretty funny. Audible and startling every time. I dunno. My dogs don't fart much, and they're on good food.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2014 21:44
|
|
|
Honey is 3 months old now. She never had any brothers or sisters to play fight with, so she just bites my fingers all the time. Is this normal and should I let her gnaw and pounce on my fingers and toes for a few more months/until she gets her adult teeth?
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2014 22:21
|
|
|
Steve Yun posted:Honey is 3 months old now. She never had any brothers or sisters to play fight with, so she just bites my fingers all the time. Puppies chew a lot. Every time our pup would do that we would redirect her to an acceptable toy/bone to chew instead of our hands/feet.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2014 22:25
|
|
|
Steve Yun posted:Honey is 3 months old now. She never had any brothers or sisters to play fight with, so she just bites my fingers all the time. Oven mitts own for this. Put on the mitts, beat the poo poo out of her until she gets her adult teeth. Then continue to beat the poo poo out of her cuz it's fun.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2014 00:27
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 31, 2024 01:13 |
|
|
Dirt5o8 posted:Am I doomed to stinky dog-farts for the next decade and half? At least anecdotally within PI, blue buffalo just doesnt seem to sit well with dogs. I'd look into changing brands. There's plenty of other options. Some dogs are just farty (flat faced breeds) but it shouldn't just be never ending gross dog farts. Ew.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2014 02:52
|
|
