DogPaddle

We may have found a forever home for Tyr. They have a huge fenced backyard, a dog-liking cat, have owned a large breed dog before, have kids that Tyr is crazy about, the Mom works very limited hours and her retired Mom lives with them. We have talked about Tyr's needs: eats at least 15lbs of dog food a week now and is only 5 months old, could use obedience to build confidence, takes some convincing to come when called, will eventually weigh around 100lbs, pulls on lead still, is quite submissive and must have soft training methods only, loves the snow. They are still positive they want him and have agreed if there are any problems they will return Tyr to us. We just have to contact the agency we do the fostering for and get final approval from them. We are going to miss him so much :cry: :cry: :cry: but I think he will be so much happier and will have a very good permanent home. :D

Hmmm, I think I have yellow dock, have to check the jars. If not I'll try the oil method. Thanks.

Tir - our rescue dog, needed to learn to play, now he loves it. He learned by watching the other dog retrieve/play. In the beginning he would only play with one person and no dogs in the room as if he was not sure it was ok. It may just take time and encouragement. Kavik - our Border Collie, prefers to play games that have goals or are like jobs like retrieving the kong. To increase his drive to play we did this: Put him in a downstay. Tell him wait. Excitedly ask him "Are you ready, do you want it, are you a good dog!" etc Toss the toy and give release commond at same time and praise if he bolts for it. If your dog is motivated by food try using a small kong with a small treat stuffed inside.

Thanks, he's very cute, took us a week to agree on a name now all we need is a digital camera so we can post pics.

New puppy - Zaphod, who we got from the shelter, has ear mites I think. Will be making a vet appointment soon. Any hope at all that I won't have to treat all three dogs and both cats for earmites? Any suggestions on control methods until I can get ear mite meds?

When I was much younger I poured a half strength viniger solution in my 2 year old brothers eyes (rest assured this was an accident). He screamed bloody murder but he still has perfect vision 23 years later. Maybe try a 1/4 vinager 3/4 water solution to be safe. You could try a "sonic" dog repellant but it would probably drive Goo nuts too. You could try "bear bangers" but that would probably freak your neighbours out. If you were feeling very benevolent (sp?) and thought you neighbour would respond well (and is capable of understanding subtlety) you could offer to come over and help them fix their fence??????

I'm in London, Ontario, Canada. 3 dogs. Walks - 1 long walk with kong throwing in conservation area on the 3 days I don't work, 1 short romp before work and one longer romp with kong throwing after work plus for Kavik constant ball throwing in house if I sit down. Training - mostly housetraining, walking on lead, walking off lead, mostly praise or kong motivated but some treat motivated training. Favorite thing I trained - crate training - saved my house and now Kavik no longer needs to be crated to be trusted. Sleeping - Inside. Kavik currently sleeps free in my room, he switches locations throughout night, bed, floor, bed, chair, bed - he's very polite and doesn't wake me but sometimes he wants a pillow. The puppies sleep in their crates.

We struggle with Kavik over this. I suspect that Kavik has made an inconvenient mental leap. "If I jump up (sitting people are easier) they will give me a command (down) when I do the down thing I get praised. Ergo jump up, do a trick, get snuggles. Good deal." When (IF :oops: ) I work out a solution I'll let you know.

There are a lot of people here who would be willing to make suggestions but they will certainly need more information. Just as a start: What where the exact circumstances of each incident? Describe the dogs usual behaviour and body language? Describe the dogs behaviour and body language just before and during the incident? What sort of training have you already done with your puppy?

Does your apartment have a long hallway? Jacks are very high intensity dogs and a walk might not cut it I don't know. He may need to run. My mom has a long hallway just off the living room, her chair has a clear view of the hallway. She constantly tosses a ball or small dog toy down the hall for her shih-tsu Abby. Abby chases, runs back with it, hops up on her foot stool and drops it, my mom throws it again and Abby launches herself off the footstool. Again and again and again . . . Abby likes it and it wears her out. Continue with the walks. Make up your own indoor games and/or look into agility clubs maybe. If the problem is excercise this may help.

Hmmm - Kavik #1, Tir half #3 and half #50. Does that make Tir #26 1/2 or a wild card? His colouring is GSD, and he's exceedingly stubborn, I think he must have got the Malamute brain :lol:

Our current vet recommends waiting till a dog is 6 months (for males) before having them fixed. We have an appointment for him to be fixed around then, if he is adopted before the appointment we will either move the appointment up so we can take him or have the new family take him to the appointment. As for cost - its not to bad to fix a male, around $50 Canadian and there are a few people at work who have already offered to chip in for vet bills. When we first got Tir we thought he might be diabetic due too the amount of water he drank. His consumption slowed down after 3 weeks or so. (We now think it was because he was afraid there wouldn't be water later.) Anyway there are some very good people where I work who would be willing to help if it was necassary.

This is our first foster dog. I think giving Tir up to a good home will be :cry: but ok (as long as it isn't much longer - everyone here is falling in love with him), the one home he was possibly going to go to (it fell through) was very encouraging. It was a couple, stay at home mom who used to work in a shelter, they were going to take him to obedience (I think this would be excellent for Tir as he needs to develop a little more confidence). I could feel good about sending him to a home like that. We have fostered 3 cats before, 2 at once. We found homes for them all, the single cat within a month. The 2 cats took 5 months because we were trying to place them together. With the single cat I was very sad when she went but it was an excellent home. With the 2 cats it was a relief, they were very difficult. One was ill and cost a fair amount of money but was quite cute, the other was the most aggresive antisocial cat I have ever met. He was only happy with his buddy. We placed them with freinds of ours in Alberta who are experienced cat owners. (We had to fly them out to them) If its too much longer to place Tir we are going to re-evaluate and keep him. We need to look at what a permanent addition of a large dog will cost and if we can provide the activities he deserves. We take Kavik to obedience and will be doing agility in the spring. I'm not sure agility would be for Tir, maybe some pulling or carting. Does anyone know if therapy dogs have to be a certain size?

I would agree with Sasha. My neighbour does not. :oops: Its hard to explain crate training a puppy to some half dressed guy at your door at 2am. Seriously though - don't reward the behaviour you don't like, even if it means having to put up with the barking for a while.

[size=6][/size][color=blue][/color]7[color=#444444][/color][size=3][/size] That's a lot of [color=blue][/color][size=6][/size]POOP[color=#444444][/color][size=3][/size] :D Welcome.

Ok so we have had Tir our Malamut/GSD cross foster dog for 6 weeks. It took him 5 weeks to start approaching us for snuggles and to realize he was allowed to play in the house :cry: . So now I'm worried about what will happen when he is adopted. Anyone have any experience with this? We did have one couple who wanted to adopt him. They have another Mal/GSD cross and they thought they would look cute together. Their dog was an [b]unfixed[/b] 4mo female. They said they would fix her :-? I wonder if they would still want Tir if I took him to be fixed first? They leave her outside for 7 hours every day the while the guy (works nights) sleeps, she has excellent shelter, food, water, toys and a kiddie pool in the summer in case she wants to cool off. The yard is secure enough that the dogs cannot get out but its not the best area of town and what if someone just took the doggy? I'm not sending Tir with them.

We have siamese cats. They can differnetiate - they will walk on the desk, entertainment unit, crate, dishwasher but not the table, counter or stove. They walk on a leash, come when called and we had one that would sit on command. If properly litterbox trained and with daily litterbox scooping there should be no litterbox smell. I've have known cats who were trained to use the toilet instead of the littterbox - they usually can't flush though. If they are brushed 2x a week you are far less likely to get that fine hair stuck to everything. [b][size=6][/size]TRAINING A CAT IS NOT LIKE TRAINING A DOG[size=3][/size][/b] If you have any questions on how to do some of the above training with a cat let me know and I'll let you know what worked for me, also try a cat site they may have even more info than us. Now on to breeds. If you want a doglike cat try a siamese or a maine coon cat (sp?). If you want a hairless the only breed I know of is a rex but I have no idea what the temperment is. A word of caution on dog/cat play - a rex has no protective fur and can become injured/torn by "playing" with a dog, a siamese will be ok with some dogs, a maine coon cat (sp?) will likely be fine with a dog, they are large and bold.

I could be wrong but it sort of sounds like the people you bought from are selling puppies for a puppy mill. Puppy mills are not pretty places so they sometimes send puppies that are ready to go somewhere more aesthetically(sp?) pleasing and less morally objectionable. I wonder - is there a way to find more info. I live in SW Ontario and definately would want to do something about any mill near here.

This worked at least some in a building my mother lived in. Some of the tenents requested the super put in a stand and a garbage can near to where most people start their dog walks. The stand is a dispenser and holds those small clear poopie bags. The supper put the equipment in and one dog owner requests donations from all dog owners in the building to keep the dispenser full.

My personal experience would lead me to say - leave the situation alone. It sounds like Billy is indicating to the new puppy that this is his house and he's the boss. Fairly normal amongst dogs and probably doesn't bother Molly much. Is a Jack Eskimo a breed??????

Is she in heat or is she pregnent?

Kavik used to do that. We fed him around 3 heaping tablespoons of yogurt everyday or every other day for a few weeks (and watched him and said NO whenever we caught him looking like he was about to dine) and no more problem. Can't say if it was the NO or the yogurt or the combination but the theory behind the yogurt is something about the live bacterial cultures in the yogurt satisfying some need the dog has to have similar in their intestines. Good luck.

:mad: argh! BAD e-bay, bad people! Selling a doggy to the highest bidder?!? Hey who cares if they are going to chain it in the back yard or use it for pitfighting or something?!? What can people be thinking?

Is it possible Duck has hurt a hip or something. Kavik hurt his hip tumbling about in the snow and ice last year. He didn't yelp or complain, just limped for a little bit and then refused to take any stairs for a week or so.

Thanks, now all I need to do is make the digital camera work so I can post their pics.