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We're meeting a 2 year old female lab/rottweiler tonight that a family from Kijiji (Canadian craigslist) is giving up. This dog isn't spayed and hasn't had any shots beyond her puppy boosters. If we adopt her, do we just take her to the vet and say "some people didn't take great care of this dog, we don't really have papers for her but they told us she had her first round of shots, give us the works!" Would it be a good idea to have her get used to us and our house for a few days before we take her to the vet? We've had lots and lots of foster dogs so we know generally what to expect from bringing an adult dog into our house but this will be our first forever dog so the longer term stuff like vet visits and boarding are newer to me.
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May 9, 2012 14:52
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 21:57 |
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We had a foster dog (a border collie cross) that would NOT walk on our kitchen floor (linoleum) when we first got him. I think the first day we had him he went careening into the kitchen and took a nasty spill and after that he just wouldn't do it. Further to that, he was so scared of it that he would act crazy if you lead him on to it on his leash (you have to go through the kitchen to get to the backyard) and make himself fall again, which was just reinforcing the problem more and more. We fixed it by getting super high value treats and placing them further and further into the kitchen. Never had a problem after that, I think it only took one session but we're talking people-food level treats. Now for my own question: we're adopting the dog that I mentioned above. The guy who's getting rid of her lost his job and can't afford to keep her and as such he said he's been feeding her pretty cheap food. I would of course like to get her on one of the PI recommended brands but I'm wondering if it's going to be too much of a shock to go from crap to the good stuff. Even if I'm going to slowly introduce the new food with the mixing strategy would it be a good idea to get an intermediary bag like Costco brand or should we just start switching her to the good stuff right away?  "Please don't make me have diarrhea!" prom candy fucked around with this message at 14:56 on May 10, 2012 |
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May 10, 2012 14:53
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Makes sense. The people at the pet food store also said to switch very slowly. Can I introduce this dog to my friend's dog who I know is up to date on her shots or should I completely minimize her contact with other dogs until she gets needled next week?
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May 10, 2012 20:47
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I decided not to risk it. She's getting her rabies and round one of her boosters on Monday, it can wait until then.
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May 11, 2012 15:44
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Etheldreda posted:I'm adopting my first dog-that's-all-mine, i.e. the first dog I'm going to have to train on my own and live alone with. She's an approximately 6-month-old 15-pound shelter rescue mutt who seems very sweet, calm, friendly, didn't bark, not hyper, etc. and I get her tomorrow! In my experience adult dogs will pick things up fairly quickly. The biggest difference is that you may have to break some bad habits (if they had a previous family that fed them at the dinner table or allowed jumping or whatever). I was never able to get any of our fosters who spent time in shelters to be okay with the crate, but we never had any of them for longer than two or three weeks. Some of them would accept it but you could tell they didn't like it. Besides that I was able to get most of them behaving well pretty quickly after their arrival.
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May 12, 2012 06:32
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^^^ Not having her dog fixed in the first place shows an extreme lack of responsibility and I think that's why people are saying you should be wary. "Oops litters" are a thing that should not happen, and you should never give anyone money for accidentally contributing to the pet population. I have another "hey we got a dog" question. We picked up our dog (the lab rotti from the last page) on Thursday night and I worked from home on Friday so that she wouldn't have to be alone in a strange house on her first day. Throughout the course of the day I also worked on some training stuff with her, played in the yard, etc. Now it seems like she's really imprinted on me and is less enamoured with my girlfriend, who had to go into the office on Friday. I'm at home more often than my girlfriend so the dog is going to see more of me, but right now if I leave her alone at the house with my girlfriend she'll cry and whine like she's been left completely alone. Does anyone have any tips for showing her "hey this is your person too, you have two owners and we're both cool!" My girlfriend has been giving her her meals and we're going to try getting me out of the house in the evenings this week, but I'd be interested in any other ideas you guys might have.
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May 14, 2012 14:58
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a life less posted:Sign your GF and pup up for training classes. Training is a fabulous way to build a rapport with a dog, as long as it's fun for everyone involved. So look up a fun, reinforcement-based obedience class for them. Just remember to take it lightly - I see too many people stressing out in class when their dog isn't holding its sit stay. And those who stress out are less likely to desire to do their training homework, and keep up the training for the life of the dog. As far as a dog is concerned, sit is a trick just like spin or shake a paw. That's a good idea. I really think the training that I've been doing is part of the reason that the dog has imprinted on me. I'm not an expert by any means but I did most of the training with all the foster dogs we had and I really enjoy it. My girlfriend doesn't know a lot about clicker training and I think she's afraid she's going to mess up the progress so she hasn't done much of it yet. The dog came to us knowing "sit" and "paw" and I was able to teach a reliable "down" on the first day but maybe I'll get my girlfriend to take charge and teach leave it or wait or even something fun like roll over. Once we get the dog spayed we'll probably all go to training classes together.
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May 14, 2012 15:57
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ShadowCat posted:Is is this an ok place for a rant? I think this stuff either belongs in its own thread, or maybe even in E/N. Maybe buy a clicker and click and treat your parents every time they don't make dumb stupid decisions?
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May 22, 2012 21:00
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How much exercise should Stella be getting in the days after her spay? Can I throw the ball a couple times for her or should I keep it strictly to short walks around the block and general sniffing around in the backyard? Also, the vet gave us two doses of 24hr pain medication. I gave her one dose yesterday, should I give her the second dose today even if she's acting normal? The information they sent home said that they usual feel just the dose they give after the surgery is enough but I think I bought the "overly concerned dog owner" package and wound up with extra meds.
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May 24, 2012 20:53
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Don't get a puppy if you can't be home a ton for the first few months. If you can be home every few hours you'd be fine to get a dog that's as young as 6-8 months old but tiny puppies have tiny bladders and housetraining requires constant vigilance. (Edit: since I'm contradicting Foxy here I should clarify. If you want a dog that young be prepared to exercise the poo poo out of it when you are home!) Most people here will tell you that 8 hours is the longest a dog should be alone and I'm inclined to agree. I also don't think it's fair to put a dog on a schedule where it's alone for 8 hours during the day, then another few hours at night almost every day. Dogs are also a lot better on their own if they're getting enough exercise. The worst thing in the world is a bored dog because a bored dog will find something to do, and you won't be happy with what that something is. Life is better for everyone if you can run your dog a little ragged in the morning before you leave. Another thing is to ask the rescue about separation anxiety. Dogs with high separation anxiety don't do well in homes where they'll have to be on their own a lot. In my experience severe separation anxiety is fairly common in shelter dogs. One of our fosters was just an awesome dog but he couldn't handle being alone at all. He would go poo poo-rear end nuts in the house, break out of his crate, or if we successfully crated him he would chew at it until he bled. There are still scratch marks on our front door from where he tried to get out. We placed him with an older guy who lived on a house boat, which was pretty awesome for everyone. In terms of breed it really just comes down to what you like. There's a reason that popular breeds are popular. Whippets are often recommended in PI because they're kind of couch potatoes. I would make a list of the breeds that you like and then read up on them.
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May 25, 2012 21:19
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Canuckistan posted:Thanks for the concern about the time and dedication needed for a dog. I know what's involved with that and I'm OK with taking it on. This sounds like a weird situation. Why are you looking at one of these dogs specifically?
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May 29, 2012 21:02
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Maybe so, but if you get a dog that's been fostered in someone's home you're able to get a much clearer picture of what you're getting into.
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May 30, 2012 02:07
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Is Purina Pro Plan good? We're feeding our 9 year old large mutt dog a boutique grain free salmon thing but it's getting increasingly hard to find and we also seem to have to bribe her to eat it more and more often (favourite trick: pretend to grab "special ingredients" from the fridge and sprinkle them on her bowl.) I always thought purina and other big brands were bad but now places online are saying they're good actually?
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Jul 17, 2019 04:25
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GoodBee posted:This might be a talk to your vet situation. Do you need to feed salmon or grain free because of allergies? If not, does your vet recommend a senior dog food? One for large breeds? Is your dog just kind of picky? Our vet seems to really like to recommend the food they sell in their office The dog was having some stomach issues where she didn't want to eat her breakfast along with rumbling from her stomach and occasionally vomiting and so we cycled through a few different foods that our vet recommended looking for novel proteins, cutting out grains, etc. Eventually we just started splitting her two meals a day into three meals so that she eats right before bed and the problem mostly went away. She still turns her nose up at a meal now and then but the stomach noises and vomiting only seem to happen when she gets into something she shouldn't have. She went through a big phase of occasional stomach issues recently before we realized our neighbour's crab apple tree was dropping apples into our backyard that she was sneak-eating.
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Jul 17, 2019 13:49
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Thanks! Yeah our theory now is that the ingredient list was a red herring and meal frequency was the issue. I'm not sure if we want to stick all that closely to the food we're feeding now or not. The dog doesn't seem to like it all that much, she poops like 4x/day, shedding and dander are brutal (although we think she's GSD-ish so shedding is a fact of life) But yeah maybe it is back to trial and error to find something that works well for her. I guess the original reason for my question of "is Purina Pro Plan good" comes back to those questions of quality control and ethics. I know they're owned by Nestle which is ehhhhhhh in the ethics department but some info online said they have excellent quality control, good ingredients, treat their animals well etc. It's just hard to know who's getting paid to say that stuff vs saying it because they believe it.
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Jul 17, 2019 14:59
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So the switch to Purina Pro plan is going well, our dog seems to love it and she hasn't had any issues. We have quite a bit of her old food left though. We're at 75/25 new food/old food right now, is there any harm in just hanging at that ratio so we can use up the old food or should we be trying to transition fully to the new one? The old one is Canadae Pure Sea and we're mainly switching off because it's grain free, hard to find, and the dog just seems sick of it.
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Jul 26, 2019 05:03
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My dog seems to have a hot spot:  She's never had one before. I noticed her chewing on that spot a little bit last night or maybe the night before but this bald spot seems to have just developed today. Is this a go to the vet situation or a clean it with soap and water and go buy some spray from petsmart situation? edit: booked an appointment just to be safe prom candy fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Aug 29, 2019 |
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Aug 29, 2019 19:23
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Thanks, per my edit above I think I'm going to take her in just because she's never had one before and she's 9. Glad to hear it's not that abnormal because seeing that on her freaked me out. Hopefully we can just supervise and skip the cone because she doesn't take well to it at all.
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Aug 29, 2019 19:56
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Thanks! The good news is we're taking her up north this weekend so she'll be under constant supervision for the next 3-4 days. I guess she probably shouldn't be going in the lake though.
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Aug 29, 2019 20:25
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Ontario! Also speaking of which, we've been up north a lot this summer including over the last weekend so I wonder if it's a mosquito or deer fly bite
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Aug 29, 2019 21:07
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Here's a fun one: my dog (75lbs lab mix mutt) ate my leather wallet. The wallet itself is relatively small and she didn't eat anything inside of it (or the cloth) but I can't find any trace of the leather so I'm thinking she chewed it up and ate it. Is this a go to the emergency vet right now situation or is it a keep an eye on her and see if she poops in the next 24 hours situation? Edit: called the e-vet, they said for a dog her size just keep an eye on those poops for the next little while. prom candy fucked around with this message at 04:23 on Mar 15, 2020 |
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Mar 15, 2020 03:56
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She has eaten lots of stuff in the past and had no problems. Chocolate, bone-in pork chops, whatever kind of granola bar my wife leaves in her purse. She's never been one to eat non-food items though. Now I need a new wallet too, poo poo.
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Mar 15, 2020 04:49
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Wallet update: Barfed up in our bedroom at 5am. Dogs are lucky they're cute.
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Mar 15, 2020 14:38
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We also switched to Purina ProPlan and like it. Stella still turns up her nose at it sometimes but less often. She shits less frequently (she was doing like 5 a day on the old stuff) and we can get proplan cheaper and delivered to our door.
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Mar 27, 2020 04:05
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The thing I'm most glad I taught my dog is "wait." And that leads into that trick where you put the treat on their snout and then they catch it. She doesn't always catch it but she's good at waiting for it! We also taught her to roll over but we don't do that one anymore because she's old and it doesn't look all that comfortable for her. If we have a really good treat she busts it out on her own sometimes though.
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Mar 30, 2020 21:10
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Hey dog thread, question for those of you who might have some more experience: my dog Stella is a ten year old lab/shepherd/mutt mix and we've had her since she was two. For as long as we've had her she's been reactive to other dogs. She's not crazy aggressive but we have to cross the street when other dogs are coming on walks and she's started some poo poo with friends' dogs before. No serious bites but bared teeth and growling, especially when a dog wants to take something that's "hers." That said, she also has dogs that are her "friends" that she plays well with (typically good natured dogs that are willing to put up with her bullshit domineering play style, or dogs that she's known since they were puppies.) She's got no issues with people at all, you can take a high value treat right out of her mouth and she doesn't care. Anyway, she's getting on in years and my wife is talking about getting a second dog, probably a puppy. On the one hand Stella does seem really, really happy when she has another dog to play with, and it might be nice for her to have a friend for her senior years. My wife also wants the second dog because she and Stella have a really, really tight bond and when Stella goes it's going to crush her (me too obviously but I'm kind of the third wheel in this relationship.) I'm worried that introducing a new dog might just end up making Stella's senior years shittier. We're childless millennials so obviously our dog is the star of our household, and having another dog vying for space and attention might suck for her. I also worry that she'll tolerate the puppy but just be kind of a dick to it and it won't be very nice for the puppy to have this big old lumbering rear end in a top hat telling it off all the time. Plus Stella is pretty dumb and doesn't realize she's getting old and if she's wrestling with a puppy/young dog all the time I'm concerned she's going to hurt herself. Also on a personal level I've never had two dogs before so I'm just thinking about the logistics of having two dogs to walk, two dogs to fit in the car, etc. etc. In terms of actually having a puppy we're pretty well situated as we're both at home full time (my wife just got let go and I have a permanent wfh position) For those of you who have introduced puppies/young dogs into a house with a senior dog, what do you think? Good idea or potential disaster?
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Apr 3, 2021 22:47
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Instant Jellyfish posted:I think your concerns are valid and it's a big leap to go from one dog to two (and then a slippy slope to three). You need to be prepared for them to not get along or two have to keep them separate long term as you do careful introductions. It isn't fair to let the older dog have to be the one to teach the young one manners and it also isn't ok to have your puppy chomped by a resource guardy adult. There are some good books on managing multi-dog households if you want to read more before deciding, "Feeling Outnumbered?" and "Multiple Dog Household: a guide to training and problem-solving" are the books I've been recommended. Thanks, this is good stuff! Having to manage a household where we have two dogs that can't really be around each other is my biggest worry. I love my dog but aside from leash-reactivity she's been really good and really easy. Before we had her we fostered a lot of dogs (one at a time) with a lot of different needs and I'm not exactly eager to get back into a position of managing dog drama every day. devmd01 posted:wanna play?!?!?? yes, very much
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Apr 6, 2021 18:01
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NexGard has been worth it for us just in terms of not having to apply a liquid to the dog or try to get her to swallow one of those horse pills.
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Apr 7, 2021 20:24
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Demand for dogs has skyrocketed during the pandemic. You'll be able to get an untrained 18 month old somethingdoodle for pennies on the dollar soon
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Apr 14, 2021 17:34
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Slow News Day posted:I don't believe it. Over the past eight months of fostering this ACD I've gotten less than ten emails from interested potential adopters. The D in ACD doesn't stand for Doodle
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Apr 15, 2021 03:55
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loving can't stand people who let their dogs loose. Sorry that happened to you and your foster dog.
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Apr 24, 2021 05:22
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Riatsala posted:I have a problem, thread, and I need advice. My pup has been with us for 6 months now and he still makes a big fuss in the morning before we've let him out of his crate. We tend to sleep from 11 - 8 each night, but most days around 6:30 or so he'll start whining dramatically, slowly picking up volume until he starts yelping. I know he can hold his pee without trouble, I think he's either got separation anxiety or just wants breakfast, but we'd really like to get a full night's rest. What do? I put a curtain over his crate when we put him to bed; that stops the evening fussiness but has done nothing to abate the morning tantrum. Our dog wakes us up between 6:30-7:30 every morning, one of us gets up, lets her outside, gives her breakfast, and then everyone goes back to sleep. I figure just because a dog (or person) can hold their pee doesn't mean they're having a good time doing it. Stella's never had a problem calming back down in the morning after she gets her stuff though.
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Apr 27, 2021 15:54
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I'm back with another food question. A couple years ago this thread put me on Purina Pro Plan and we've been giving our dog Bright Mind for dogs 7+. However we're bad dog owners and didn't read the ingredients closely enough and it turns out it has a couple sources of glucosamine in it, which our dog doesn't tolerate very well. I'm guessing it's a relatively low dose since we didn't notice, but we'd still like to switch her off. Does anyone know of any good foods for senior dogs (ours is 11) that don't have glucosamine? It seems like a lot of the ones for senior dogs specifically do have glucosamine.
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Aug 25, 2021 23:35
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Dog thread I need some help. We lost Stella, our 13 year old dog last summer and it was terrible. Recently we dog-sat for some friends and it was really great having a dog in the house again, so we decided to start looking for rescues. We found a nice 4 year old dog for rehoming on Kijiji. We went to meet him and he seemed really nice. Clearly underexercised and not well trained, but friendly and sociable for sure. But I feel like something is holding me back from pulling the trigger. Stella was my first dog and it just feels like maybe I'm not ready for another one, or the fact that I didn't feel the same connection with the new guy means it's not the right move. I remember being all-in on Stella right away when we met her even though the situation was pretty much the same. I don't know why I was so sure back then and I'm not now. I need to tell his family if we're going to take him or not. Any advice?
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Jan 19, 2024 01:03
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If it's not hell yeah it should be no, right?
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Jan 19, 2024 01:25
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Talked to my wife some more, shared your comments, thanks everyone. We're gonna go for it! At the end of the day and I don't think there's any way having a nice dog move in with us could do anything but improve our lives.
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Jan 19, 2024 03:21
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So I talked with the current owner and she said they've been free feeding him. I'm not really into that idea so planning on switching to set meals. I've never had a dog that didn't just devour their food when it was set down. Do we just take the food away if he doesn't touch it after a few minutes and try again at the next feeding time? Oh and of course dog tax: 
prom candy fucked around with this message at 21:51 on Jan 20, 2024 |
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Jan 20, 2024 21:49
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Huh I always just thought free feeding was bad/not ideal but I guess maybe not. He seemed a bit overweight to me when we met him but we'll let our vet make that call. It sounds like as it is now they just top the bowl up for him.
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Jan 20, 2024 22:17
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Diego is home with us! First day was hard for all of us, he was pretty stressed after basically (in his mind) being dognapped from his family, my wife and I were both pretty emotional about having a dog in the house again and also getting a bunch of Stella's stuff back out. I hadn't actually had any breakdowns about her in a few months but they're back in a big way now. He's also been really dog reactive on walks and barking at dogs out of our front window. He was living in an 8th floor apartment before so I think having dogs (other than the one he was living with) just waltzing by is not something he's got any experience with. Last night was pretty rough as well, he didn't want to settle down anywhere and paced around or whined a lot of the night. Even though it's been 6 months since we lost Stella it still feels like whiplash going from a 13 year old dog with set routines and well known behaviours to a 3 year old dog that's stressed as gently caress and mostly an unknown quantity! So all the rough stuff out of the way, he's super cute and affectionate, whip smart, and seems to love training. He's got 0 interest in his kibble in the bowl but is happy to work hard for it learning tricks. Yesterday he cuddled with me on the couch for a while and he seems to be learning his manners pretty quickly. Before Stella we had lots of fosters so it's been a while but we're not totally strangers to having a new dog in the house and the consistency required to get them up to speed. Today he's been much more chill. I think we're going to pause on taking him out on walks or letting him look out the front window until he calms down some more. He can get plenty of exercise playing fetch in the backyard and mental stimulation from games and training inside the house. The previous owner said he had some leash reactivity when he was a puppy but that it was gone so I'm thinking we can just limit potential triggers until he's a bit more sure of us and our house and routines and then give it another try. Stella was dog reactive too so it's not new to us but by her senior years it was mostly just pulling and huffing and puffing at other dogs, or letting out some low growls at the window. If we can get Diego there I'll be happy. He's cute and smart and I like him a lot but I also feel stressed and overwhelmed and guilty for getting a new dog but there's no going back now and I think he's gonna be a great addition to our household. Dogs man, they make you feel stuff. 
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Jan 22, 2024 20:42
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 21:57 |
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We ended up returning Diego to his previous owner after another day or so and I stopped coming to the thread because frankly I was pretty loving embarrassed about it. Basically it came down to us really not being up for managing a highly reactive dog and his previous owner insisting that none of the behaviour we were seeing was anything she had ever seen from him before. So because he had a safe place to go back to where he clearly felt more comfortable we asked if she would please take him back and try to find a more suitable rehoming option. Since then we decided we weren't ready to adopt at all and got in touch with a local rescue to do some fostering so that we could have some dogs in the house again without the big commitment. We fostered back in our 20s when we were too young and flakey to keep a dog had really positive experiences and also as a bonus you get to help dogs find homes! Plus now in the social media era it's an excuse to take a shitload of photos and videos. Last weekend we picked up a pair bonded seven year old golden retriever and a five year old black lab mix named Jasper and Wallace. These guys were awesome. A bit crazy at times but calmed down nicely, slept through the night after 2 or 3 days, lovely with guests, no reactivity that we saw, etc. etc. And then on Saturday Jasper bit my wife hard twice and almost a third time. The dogs came with some toys and had been great about sharing them, playing tug of war with us and each other, etc. so my wife picked up a couple of new ones at Costco. Jasper started tearing the fake fur off one of them so she calmly told him "ah ah don't do that" and started reaching for the toy and he lost his poo poo and lunged at her. It was like a switch flipped. Our old dog had resource guarding issues (with other dogs, not people) so we're pretty familiar with the warning signs but there was nothing here, just 0-100. She yelled at him and poured her drink on his face and he stopped and then that was it. We got in touch with the rescue to let them know what happened and after thinking it over we also asked them to find another placement for the dogs. My wife feels awful and can't stop blaming herself and we're both really sad now because we really liked those dogs and we were hoping to be able to see them through until their forever home but instead we bounced them out. At the same time I just felt super on edge with Jasper for the entire rest of the time we had him. Possibly the worst part is we met up with the foster that was taking them (someone who had them before already and who was now actually considering adopting them) and the rescue didn't even loving tell them that Jasper attacked a person. So that tells me that the rescue probably thinks it was our fault or that we were overstating what happened and also who the gently caress knows what else the rescue isn't telling their foster or adoptive families. We sent another email to them last night with a description of what happened and photos of the bites but we haven't heard back. Anyway I dunno why I'm even posting this. I love dogs so much but I'm starting to feel like maybe I should just get some fish instead because something clearly isn't working here.
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Feb 20, 2024 02:21
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