StarFox

Thanks for the ideas on what to use to clean his ears out. But thankfully when I took him to the vet today he said that Zebra had an allergy and not an infection. But then he said he saw blood in his ear canal when he was looking in it. Eeek! :o So he told me to put this ear cleaner in his ear twice a day for a week. and he gave him and anit-inflamitory shot to help with the irritation. But I just wish I knew what he was allergic to. And he didn't get water in his ear because he hasn't had a bath in a few weeks and it hasn't been raining at all(actually it never rains here it's california). On another note does anyone have insurance for there pet? If so what kind?

Poor Zebra Has an ear infection. :( His left ear is bright red and has buildup in it. I noticed it today when i was cleaning his ears out. He hates it when I clean his ears so today when he kept pulling away from me I thought it was just because he dosn't like it. Then I noticed that it was all red and I think it's hurting him. I Feel so dumb for not noticing sooner! :oops: I hope the vet has an opening tomarrow so I can take him. Our vet is always so busy and packed (but I guess that's a sign of a good vet,right?). Poor Zebra must not be feeling well, he dosn't even want a peice of cheese!

I read all your post and I agree. It is definitly an Alpha thing. He's still a puppy and he is in his "teenage"stange. and he is constantly testing me to see if I'm alpha, I can't tell you how many times I had to wrestle him to the ground and sit on top of him with my hands on his neck so he wouldn't bite me. He never sleeps on my bed. He always sits before I give him his food. But when he was younger he use to steal socks, paper towels, dish towels, shoes, underwhere...basically anything that he could get his grubby little paws on. We use to have to bribe him with treats to get the items away from him. Wich we learned very quickly that it was NOT a good idea to reward him for taking things. So we don't do that anymore at all! Now we just take them away from him and he dosn't growls he just sits there looking guilty. But he is definitly an alpha dog. In all our training class he mounts all the male dogs and in the fisrt two classes he acted like the alpha dog but once we got to the third class where there was a Mastiff and a Great dane he leard his lesson that he was not alpha. He tried to mount both the great dane and the mastiff (he's a german sheapard, golden retriever mix). :roll: But all I can assume is that because he was a rescue dog and they found him on the streets that he had to fight for what he got. Not that's an excuse for his behaviour but I'm just trying to think where he is comming from. Oh by the way he is neuterd. I know that makes a differnce in the way dogs act but I think I just got a realy stubborn dog. BUt the strange thing is that it's potatoes. We call them his 'potato babies' because we can't figure out what's his thing w/ potatoes. And I agree that you can not show fear with dogs. Especially my dog. When I first got him I was afraid that he would bite me now I don't. Although my brother is afraid of him (my brother is also afraid of our 4lbs rabbit). so I think I need to work on my parents and brothers behavior as well as the dogs. Thanks for eveyone's input. I appreciate it.

Actually Zebra has had 3 obedience classes. One basic puppy class when he was 2 1/2 months old, the second one was a clicker class and the most resent was an adult dog obedience class, which he just graduated from last weekend. But like I said he never is that way with me untill today. I suspect he was testing me to see if I was alpha. He know all his basic comands, sit, down, stay, wait, leave it, roll over, crawl ect. The only problem is that I think that I'm the only one he thinks is alpha. whenever he growls at my mom, dad, bro they just say 'no' and walk away. and when I try to explain that you can't let him do that they basically ignore me, but then again what do I expect from a younger teenage brother, my mom and dad. :roll: I probabaly made it seem that he is always does that be he dosn't. He has actually gotten much better. when we first got him he had bit my mom realy bad when she tried to take something away from him. Now it's not so difficult so he has come a long way from his bad behaviors (and trust me he had allot!). But in the beggining even our trainer noticed that he was trying to be alpha dog with eveyone including her. *sigh* of course I have to pick the most stubborn dog out of the bunch. But all in all he is good. I just thought it was funny because he protects the potatoes and not anything else around the house. Such a strange dog. :)

My dog is absolutly crazy!!! My dog Zebra was trying to get into the potatoes that we keep in our kitchen tonight. he stuck his nose in the box that we keep them in and I think he was trying to get them out. Anyways everyone is afraid of him when he does this because he protect the potatoes and if you go and try and reach for them he growls and snaps and tries to bite your hand. He's never done this to me before because I'm alpha to him but when I tried to take them away from him he tried to bite me hard! Of course I grabed his collar and had to wrestle him on the growned and I sat on him so he couldn't get up. basically doing alpha to him. But is anyone elses dog a potato hound?! Or do I just have a freak dog? I swear Zebra is part Devil.

Thanks for everyones input, I appreciate it. I just wanted to make sure i didn't have some defective dog..thought maybe he was broken :lol: He was Neutered at 2 1/2 months, it kinda came in the package. I had adopted him from the pound. So that's probabaly why he dosn't mark things. He is such the Alpha dog though (he tries to mount the Mastiff and the Great Dane in our Obedience class) So it suprises me that he dosn't mark everything in his sight. I just hope he dosn't change and starts lifting his leg, especially in the house. Thanks again for the input.

I have a question for everyone who has a male dog. My dog is a 9 month old neuterd male. He has never lifted his leg once to urinate. He squats down like females do. I hear that this is better for his hips because he is a larger dog (72pounds). Is there any truth to that? Because he is so young is there a chance that he will change and start to lift his leg when he urinates? Not that I want him too because I prefer him to squat. He also never marks trees or anything else that any other dog has marked, he only goes on our lawn. Just curious about this and wanted some input. Thanks