Fruitycake

Hmm, the dog park incident would be a good illustration on why one of the dog parks near us expressly forbids guardable items like food, treats and toys. Not that people actually observe that, but if a dog were growling over a toy that wasn't supposed to be there I'd have some serious words for the owner of said dog about the rules and reasons for them. That potential guarding aggression is why they put those rules into play, and if his/her dog was a guarder, there should not have been a toy to guard - end of story. I think my reaction wouldn't have been to do major punishment for the growling at home, but maybe a quick "hey!" and a boot off of the furniture for a short time. Things get crowded on the couch, and if there's no space and you feel crowded on a people location like a couch or bed, the dog moves. Just my view, though. Sounds like she's a good dog, just asserting her desire to not be squished or trod upon.

Is there any possibility that he's worried about being allowed to come near you - are you "owned" by the labradoodle and he's nervous about intruding if you're hers? (Monty (grey) will want to come near us but he's dominated by the 7 lb cat and will veer off if she's around or looks at him crosseyed.)

You should call animal control or someone to deal with that situation - nocturnal animals out in the daytime is one of the major signs of them being infected with rabies. Especially if it isn't making an attempt to get back into hiding. Make sure your dogs don't get near it and don't go near it yourself!

I am so sorry for your loss. Take care of yourselves and his poor momma.

I hope they find out what is causing your boy pain, and that something can be done to make him feel better. I've heard of boots that can sometimes help with corn pain (but my boy doesn't have corns, and I've never actually seen them). Maybe that might be something to try? I bet you and your vets are wishing that there was some sort of magic arrow they could call up that would say "the cause is this." It must be hard to try to heal those that can't say "the 3rd toe on my left hind paw hurts when I move thus and so."

This. Monty detests the rain, but we haven't a fenced in yard so he must walk. He hates his jacket too so we gave up on the rainjacket and just keep him in his housejacket. He hunches himself up and gives mournful looks at us and holds it and holds it and holds it and seems to not understand why he is out there. But then, he is rather resistant to letting his bladder go just anywhere, so it could also just be his fussiness. I believe that if we had a fenced in yard he'd just stand at the back door looking in and whining and refusing to pee too....

We feed the cats in our extra bedroom (they are on a mealplan, so it isn't out all the time) and the door is mostly closed. If we free-fed, there would have to be a babygate there (and a strong one, because he broke into his babysitters' cat room and helped himself to their cat's food). We also keep the litterboxes behind a different babygate, which used to be a low one until we got Allie who thinks she would be a great agility dog and figured that hopping over a 1.5 foot gate was a cinch. We got one with the little kitty door in it and there haven't been any problems since.

This sounds like the type of seizure that my sister's dogs would have. It was periodic, but sometimes he'd just stop and be there-but-not-completely, like he was kind of stuck in a feedback loop of some sort. It wasn't a tonic-clonic, but like one of the complex partial seizures that people sometimes have. Epilepsy Foundation information about complex partial seizures

I believe that giardia can actually survive in the soil for years (5?) and can be carried by raccoons and other wildlife, so keeping your dogs to your own backyard isn't necessarily a guarantee that they didn't get it there. We had an explosive experience in our house, and both dogs went on medicine for worms and giardia. We also were keeping Monty in an X pen during the day and that was the time that we decided that maybe putting an old piece of carpet under his kennel would save our floor from the nastiness (towels and blankets were not enough, so it was great that we'd found someone selling pulled-up office carpet that we bought for $20 - well worth it to save the carpet in the livingroom!). Good luck! We send our sympathies and wish them a speedy recovery.

Sending you what comfort and sympathy I can. It's hard sometimes, loving someone so much but with such a shorter life than ours. But I think the joy that we share definitely makes the loss at the end bearable. Hoping he has more good days ahead. I'm sure he knows how much love he has, and that you want to do what is right by him.

Our Monty had cluster seizures (6 in 24 hours) about 3 months after we adopted him and was put on phenobarbitol. He hasn't had a seizure since - 2 years and 3 months seizure free. (We knew he was retired early because of seizures, and did research on the best and worst case scenarios before we were going to feel secure in bringing him home. The websites that are mentioned above are a wonderful resource for educating yourself.)

Is there any possibility that she was startled (not attacked, just startled) by a GSD, and is now just generalizing? A sudden bark from a car, or a house, or a backyard? Our Allie has an enemy that once scared her and now she gets ferocious any time she sees the dog - it doesn't matter how large the distance. Luckily we both walk our dogs, and I know their schedule so I can usually avoid them. Good luck! I have no training thoughts, but that Al has ben responding to the treats as outlined above. She thinks the best defense is a violent offense when it comes to her "enemy."

Oh man, I could see this. Monty had a couple of scary situations involving one of those bus-like things toddlers "ride" by scooting it with their feet. He'd seen it probably for weeks, but on its side it became something that wanted to eat him for breakfast (or lunch, or dinner). I think it was nearly a week before he was brave enough to slowly and stiffly approach it and sniff, and after that he acted like it no longer existed. Crazy dogs.

Now she can just pretend to be a big bad dog, and tell other dogs that she was in this horrible fight to the death and the only score on her was this measley little nip off the ear. 'Course she'll have to bribe her sister into keeping quiet...

I totally understand how frustrated you must feel. I have no suggestions, just good wishes that I'm sending your way. I too hope you find a magic spell to fix this!

Maybe his prior family didn't use the same language you are using, or there is the possibility that they never used any commands for him. You'd be dismayed if you had Monty enter your house too - he knows no commands but those I use on walks (and then he's just following our other dog, Allie, I'm pretty sure). You're going to have to pretend that he has no language, and start from the basics. Clicker or "marker" training can be really good. There is information on marker training (like clicker training but using voice instead of a clicker) and an excellent video at Leerburg's Dog Training Website. There is a pretty nice essay on the page for the video (over 3 hours!) called The Power of Training Dogs with Markers. I have to say that my favorite part of the video was watching the people training other people. The first person on there acted very much like what I expect Monty to do. A whole-lotta "hunh? wha? duhhhh" and freezing and being afraid to move.

Glad to hear that Treasure's little experiment seems to not have harmed her too much. I can see why you keep her muzzled when you're not there! I hope she doesn't find more interesting things to eat!

I am not very conversant with this topic, but I would think that since he is unreliable on the couch or bed, that he loses privileges for a while. Not forever, but until he shows that he can behave in a "civilized" manner. If that means a couple of weeks of no couch or bed access, so what. You need to reassert that you own these areas and that if you say he's off, he is off. No trying to get back on, no bullying anyone (you or dogs) when he's on. Then try him again. If keeping him off for weeks won't be working, I'd say boot him off and wait at least half an hour - until he isn't trying to get back on (you do NOT want to reward his pushy behavior by letting him get hsi way if he is persistent enough!). If that means an hour, fine. If it means 15 minutes, after he's gone back to his other bed and been quietly lying there, that's even better.

I have to weigh in on the hand feeding him. And only give him a kibble at a time when he is not growly. If you can distract him before he growls, and surprise him with food at his nose before that first growl comes out, he may learn that growling isn't getting him anything. If he growls, the kibble goes away until he's quiet again. Have you tried to sequester him away from you while you set up the food (and away from the other dogs, so he doesn't take frustration out on them)? Shut him out of the kitchen, and away from the ability to think he's demanding the food/bullying you into feeding him. I don't know if that would work, but it might be worth a try.

I've taken to "priming" the doggie pump when taking our Monty (who doesn't like to pee in the morning) out. I'll get a nice bowl of fresh water and bring it to his royal highness and usually he'll drink a little and I think that might help. Not that it helps all the time...he's also really reluctant to pee. Can't find the perfect spot to drain the bladder - no neighborhood tree/post/snowbank is quite good enough. When we first got him we would need to walk him (and yeah, he statued too) for over an hour and studiously pretend to NOT be on the other end of the leash when he did anything. Just standing there, pretending not to be there, with periodic glances from the corner of our eyes to see if he was actually doing anything, or what he actually was doing. He was really fond of pooping on bushes, too. That is fun, especially when the branches swing back up and fling stuff around. As embarrassing as it is now that I catch (he poops on the sidewalk), it was really embarrassing to have to dodge flying poo. It gets easier. I hope it happens soon for you!

Well, there's your problem: all that talk of food made her mad to get at her own! (I laughed when I saw what channel you had left her "watching" and know that I get hungry - or really grossed out - watching it.) Glad things are going better with her having free reign in the house!

I have two cats and would never put in a dog door for multiple reasons: because one of my cats would wander out there and get spooked by something and never be seen again (the other wouldn't go near it); the dog/cat interaction in the yard would be unsupervised; the possibility of other animals getting into my house; and the fact that there is a leash law for cats in my area just as there is for dogs (no cat or dog is allowed off property unless leashed or under owner's control - to prevent cat poop in gardens or cat bites/scratches to neighbor kids/dogs/cats and whatnot). Any possibility, as others have said, to having a completely covered run accessible via dog door?

Much good advice already, but I would add that I would not allow her to do the sphinx lie down facing the cat. It could be a "go ahead and run, I'll get you" pose, and the dog is still focused on the cat. With as fast as the dogs can move that kind of pose is just a lunge away from an injured cat. If you could get her to go lie on her bed, or walk away every time she seems to want to settle in facing the cat, I'd think that would be better. She does seem workable though. Good luck!

Sorry you're also having morning issues. I have a boy who has to have the perfect (and I mean *perfect*) place to pee. This morning it was an hour and ten minutes before he found the perfect place to pee and eventually allowed his urine to grace the edge of a snowdrift. This was on the 5th walk around the block. He does wear boots, because some of our neighbors haven't cleared the snow from the sidewalks and now it is sharp ice ready to slice his delicate paw pads (not sarcastic - he buffs them smooth regularly running and braking on the inside carpet). We also have a lot of salt-happy neighbors so avoiding salt is not an option unless we only walk around our own house. He is about as laid back as one could hope for in the booting department, though, so at least that isn't an issue. If she growls when you're booting her up, I think you might need to either muzzle her before booting for your safety, or get her used to having her paws touched in general (probably also while being muzzled - again for your safety). Our other dog doesn't like having her paws touched, so we do a fair piece of just touching and picking up her paws and fiddling with them just (whew, I can actually see my typos now!) to get her used to the contact. A treat held by her nose so she can lick and be distracted while you’re touching the delicate feet can help a lot (it has with Allie). Good luck!

[#CJOIN-0] There was an error connecting with the chat room. Please notify an administrator. Just got this when I clicked on it. *shrug* [Darn, I never have been there before so I wanted to see what it looked like now. Later, I guess.]