Fruitycake

I'm sorry that you also have a neighborhood with discarded food all around. Unfortunately, in my neighborhood it seems to usually be chicken bones! I don't have much trouble with Monty (our grey) because he is tall enough that it takes some work for him to get his head low enough to sniff anything - the trouble I have is with Allie (keeshond, nose already less than 14 inches from the ground when her head is up!). I have to constantly be scanning the ground around us and in front of us, not only for the stupid discarded chicken bones (and remember them on later walks, if I haven't managed to scoop them up in my poop bag), but "spare poop" which we also have too much of in our neighborhood. I do not want either of my dogs to step in or otherwise interact with another dog's poop! I swoop in and pick that up too, but I have both dogs trained to stop forward movement to a "Nah!" noise (when I don't use their real command, "wait"), and can call Allie off of things with a "hey, leave it." She is way more interested anyway, so with Monty all I need is the "nah!" for him to stop and suddenly decide there was nothing there that was interesting at all, and isn't that building across the street something tonight? I agree that you might want to try working on a "leave it" command at home, and then try working on it in other situations where you can control it better, even as you become hyper vigilant about not letting her find things on walks. It is hard to constantly scan for things, I know, but if you can get the training done too it will get easier. If you see it first, you can just hustle her past it before she can get her nose down and find it herself and become super fixated. If there is a certain area that often has discarded food, can you possibly try to avoid that area entirely? (I know that can be hard for us urban dwellers!) Good luck!

Even if you are "always in and out of" a room, if you don't actively spend time in there for a considerable part of the day, it won't feel like part of the "family zone" to him. Walking through regularly isn't like spending 4 hours watching TV or hanging out or playing games or on the computer or whatever like in a den or family room, or 8+ hours sleeping as in a bedroom, which might make it more homelike to him and like he's part of the family. That said, some greys really don't like to be kenneled away from their family when other people are home, so kenneling him away from you at night might be exactly what is causing the whining and fussing. Your home is a new place to him, and he may well be fussing because he is not used to being alone when others are there but not close to him. Would it be possible to bring him into the bedroom and keep him in there with you at night, either by bringing in the kennel or gating him in with you if the kennel won't fit? That way you would be able to hear him if he starts to fuss and needs to go out (as long as you are "keyed in" to listen while you sleep - my husband can sleep through nearly anything!). And as for him learning the meaning of "no" it would be like you doing something and me saying "gwertwpt" at you. He doesn't know what the word means, so it's just jibberish to him coming from a weird species that seems to make way too much noise from their mouths! If there is a behavior you don't want from him, it is best to try to prevent him from being able to do that behavior until you can teach him what you want hin to do instead. Is he sniffing or reaching for things on the kitchen counter? Work to train him to stay out of the way by blocking his access or putting a great bed where he can see you when you're in the kitchen but not get in the way or counter-surf. If he tries, you can tell him "no" but it won't tell him what you do want, and then you lead him to where you want him to be or encourage him to be elsewhere and reward the behavior you want. He's like a little baby, and just telling him no when he does something you don't want doesn't really tell him how to do stuff that you do. There are millions of things that we don't want our dogs to do, and if we only said "no" when training, they would never figure out that sitting/lying over here is a good thing for everyone, and behaving in this way is appreciated more than the thousands of other choices he might offer. I once heard a trainer in an introductory dog training class tell everyone in the class to pretend that there was no word "no" when training their dog - only "please do this" and "I'd prefer you do this" and, most importantly, "I really LOVE when you do this and please do it again."

I am sorry for your loss. This was a beautiful tribute, and it is obvious how much he was loved. Wishing all family members peace and healing for your hearts.

I am so sorry for the loss of your beloved Peanut. I hope that the good memories that you hold will help heal the wound to your heart that her loss has caused.

She was one of a litter of 4, and was the most rambunctious, friendly, and playful kitten of the bunch. She chased her tail *all the time* and played with her food (it would be batted across the room before being eaten - at least in her "early kibble eating" days) and every time I would clean the litterbox she had to clamber into the fresh litter, chase the grains of litter that moved under her paws and chase her tail IN the litterbox, and roll and roll and roll in it. She was a little nut of a kitten, and so whenI talked with her as she was going nutso I would call her "nuttier than a fruitcake" which was shortened to just the name Fruitcake. Her torti coloring didn't contradict that name, either (most vets would say that it was a good name based on her mixture of colors, and then I'd shrug and say she was named for being a little nut of a kitten). Her brother (still with me - literally at the moment, as he is on my lap and arm as I type) was the shyest of the litter, and for a long time all anyone would see of him was a black flicker when he'd dart behind something. So, with that and his jet black coloring he was originally named "Shadow" - but after about 4 months living with my parents in their very quiet house from 4 to 8 months of age, he became braver, and more settled, and darned smug-looking. In nearly every picture of him from about 6 months old he looked like he was a major Hollywood star and would look at the camera with his eyelids just a little drooped - like he should have been wearing expensive sunglasses and been swarmed by adoring fans, so his original name no longer fit. I kept picturing him wearing shades, so Shade Man he became. I am absolutely that I have the one-and-only ShadeMan (yes, his name is now one word) in the universe.

I had to make the decision to help my Fruitcake on, and it was one of the hardest things I have ever needed to do. 17 years, 6 months, and one day wasn't nearly long enough to have with my Fruity. Some highlights: She was the best jumper I knew (could jump floor to top of a 5' 6-7" fridge to get food and would even until she was 13 years old jump into our arms or onto my back when I was doing dishes). She was the most outgoing torti I had ever met (she would jump up on the laps of any visiting workmen, or people bidding to work on our house, or would rub against anyone that had entered the house if they didn't sit down). She was the best snuggler (would climb under the covers, turn around, and lie with her head on my pillow at night, every night). She would fetch her sparklie balls for treats (calling out "I killed it!" to show that she had brought it and convince me to give her a treat for being so clever). She was smart enough to figure out that when those "noise boxes" on the end tables made noise the people got up and she was fed - and figured out how to make the noise come out (she knew that the alarm clocks meant we got up, and when I got up she was fed, so when she figured out that stepping on the buttons could make the noise come out it became a regular thing. My husband's alarm clock was covered with sticky tape, but my alarm clock had to be moved across the room to the bureau and even then needed a stuffed animal put on top of it - because she was that darned smart. She even would play the message on our answering machine, and that was always across the room from us. It's kind of frustrating to wake up multiple times of the night to hear your own "Hi you have reached ..." voice from across the room.). She was the most food-focused cat I knew (once ate part of a styrofoam toy because it smelled like food, talked to food out of her reach to try to convince it to come down, fed our first dog cookies from the counter, and - in one exasperating instance - tried to feed the dog an entire hot-from-the-oven frozen pizza). And she just couldn't work up the proper "torti attitude" and be what people expected of a torti (she never once bit a human in anger, and while she loved to slap Monty upside the head if he wanted affection when she was on lap duty, she also rubbed against him and purred and seemed to be reassuring him when he had had a seizure in the middle of the night about 3 months into our owning him). She never once messed outside her litterbox, and her early training by her mother (who would still use a litterbox after a week of no scooping and all 4 of her kittens' and her waste in it). She had a great scowl, and would use it when she wasn't getting her way (which usually meant I wasn't moving fast enough to feed her). Even though she never was aggressive toward a human, if she got upset with one (I would "snuggle her up" when she wasn't in the mood, or wouldn't feed her even with her yelling at me and scowling) she would search out her brother and beat on him, or even choose one of the dogs to beat on instead. She liked sitting in my lap and reaching out and putting a paw on her favorite person, my husband (he moved around too much for her, I think). When sleeping under the covers encircled by my arm, she would also reach out and have to touch him. One Christmas when I went to my family's house earlier than my husband and brought the cats with me, she waited for my husband, her "daddy," in the "window-viewing chair" nearly all the time. As soon as he came, the seat held no interest for her anymore that trip. She was about 250 lbs of personality distilled into one tiny little 6.5 lb kitty body. I will miss her. There will never be another Fruitcake. I am so incredibly grateful that I got to know her, and hope that she knew how much she was loved.

Even if you don't trim them yourself, I think that RedHead has a great suggestion on helping desensitize him to you touching his feet. Dr. Sophis Yin (sadly now deceased) has a good video on helping train dogs to accept nail trims, and you can follow the steps even to help you just be able to handle his paws - very helpful if he ever gets an injury on a paw or you need to check his feet! http://drsophiayin.com/videos/entry/training_a_dog_to_enjoy_toenail_trims (Forgot the link)

No advice, just sympathies! I hope she has learned her lesson!

Monty LOVED when I worked with someone who had both a son and husband that hunted deer! He got multiple bags of the trimmings, and he was the happiest dog from October through January those years as he got bits doled out in intermittent meals. Making friends with anyone that processes/butchers their own meat is great for our dogs!

Unfortunately, there is no easy, single answer to your problem. With some animals it may be a digestive problem (not getting what they need the first time through because it travels through too fast or there is an enzyme that isn't produced in high enough amounts to get the nutrients out fast enough), while others may have learned it at some point and just continue after the triggering issue has been resolved, while others just do it because it either tastes good (the reason many go after cat poop-there is still good nutrient in there and apparently to dogs it smells delicious), or they have a form of pica (eating non-food things) focused on poop. There have been many threads on here, someone even had a dog that seemed to think (her??) housemate was an automatic food dispensor and would follow and get it immediately. The original post was quite disgustingly hilarious...I believe "catching it before it hit the ground" was mentioned. There are products out there that are supposed to make the poop taste bad, I think they are either pineapple or papaya extract, which you would need to feed to both to try and give it at least a week to see if it has had any results. And then there is the purely mechanical preventive approach: muzzle with a stool guard every time they are anywhere there might be poop and picking up immediately every time. Some people do both, forever. Sometimes just breaking the habit with enzyme and prevention for an extended period of time (months) may allow you to see if they have unlearned it and you can stop muzzling or enzymes. But always you would need to watch that theynot start again (an old habit/behavior is very easy to pick up again!). Good luck! Edited because I evidently cannot close my parenthetical statements!

I'm glad that what you have tried seems to be helping! One thing I have noticed, though, is that the "cups per day" recommendations on any bag of pet food are *exceptionally* high. As in, they may be nearly twice as high as needed to maintain a pet (not high exercise) animal, and especially in older animals. It is in the company's best interest to encourage high feeding amounts, because it means people purchase more. And my Monty, 8 years old now but he's always been this way, will poop what seems to be exponentially more poop when we even increase his food a tiny bit to try to get him to gain. He's a "hard keeper" and while he has always loved his food, he is a skinny hound and will not gain on increased regular food. We are nowhere near the recommended amount of his food per day for his size, but he is at the same weight he was when we fed him more. Sometimes we will add in raw beef chunks in the winter to add in easily digested calories, which seem to help him gain some without increasing his output. He loves that.... Another advantage to set mealtimes is that you will know exactly how much he is eating, and after he is used to the routine you will know when something goes awry and he goes off his food. I am a huge proponent of that with cats, too, because it can be a great early warning system for those stoic, stubbornly secretive animals! If he doesn't want to eat all of his food in two large meals, you might also think about keeping back a third small portion to give him just before bed as a last call, making his other meals a bit smaller. Monty does best on smaller, more numerous meals, but not all dogs are as frustratingly difficult to balance as he is!

Our prior dog, who didn't have any form of separation anxiety, would not eat anything while we were out. It could be a pig's ear - her absolute favorite - and we could hand it to her before leaving and she'd have it and I think she'd put it down as soon as we were gone. It would still be here, nearly untouched, when we got back and she'd be at the door to greet us when we'd get home with it in her mouth and then eat it when we were there, before we could even put her leash on her to go for a walk after an 8 hour day alone. We just joked that she didn't like to eat alone, so waited until she had company to eat it. (I could wish that Monty was the same way, but he's always trolling for food.)

He is still working to get to know you, this "living with humans" rules, and trying to figure out the human language and how to relate it in their own mind to what they know. It's a hard study! I agree with the "let the dog have his own bed" and never bother him in his bed, and to maybe hold off on the letting him on your furniture with you for a while. The trust isn't there yet, and he doesn't yet know how to share your space (which he will feel is actually "letting you share his space") without a bit of defensiveness. The holding of his nose caught my attention and I am glad that someone else mentioned that it is a threatening thing to a dog. You didn't mean it that way, but communication is highly dependant on how something is perceived rather than how it was meant by the one "saying" it. And I bet there was at least some body language that happened, like a stiffening of the body, or a tightening of his lips, or even his eyes going into a fixed hard stare to indicate that he wasn't cool with it but when you didn't perceive his "saying" that he was uncomfortable, he felt he needed to say it more directly (unfortunately with teeth, which connected). Give him some distance when he's lying down, try learning some of the body language of dogs (some are called "calming signals" to try to diffuse situations while others are more of a warning system that if you don't "hear" him telling you he's uncomfortable he may have to turn up the volume), and work on getting to know him and his idiosyncracies and what he likes and doesn't like and get that trust back for both of you. And any time he growls, back off and give him space. Do not punish growling, because that's usually the last warning you get (and the most easily read by humans) before the dog feels he needs to tell you with a snap (not intending to hurt you, this is usually fast, and while it can damage our delicate skin when it connects, it is actually not a true bite which is a teeth and bite down hard intending to do real damage). Dogs will tell rude dogs off with snaps, which sometimes do connect, but usually only a scrape unless the skin is delicate or their fur is short - it is a lot worse with human skin! Good luck, and this shows that at this time he is not comfortable with cuddling - even if you feel it is a bonding moment, he obviously does not care for it at this time. He may come to love snuggle times, or maybe never will be comfortable with it.

I had to train Monty to play with his toys (twice - he lost all memories after a series of seizures after his 3 months with us). I would get all excited myself, bounce around, and toss the stuffed bunny across the living room and make a huge romping party of running after it and picking it up and doing it again down the other direction. He followed me while I did this, wondering (no doubt) what the heck was wrong with his new person that she was acting this way, and when he actually beat me to the toy and picked it up I had a party and rubbed him all up and down his back as a reward and we romped through the house together as he carried it. I think it took about a week both times I had to train him to play before he got brave enough to pick it up himself, and maybe an extra week before he would always romp after it and get it. We kept the playing short and sweet at first (we kept the toy up when I wasn't working on getting him to play, because I didn't want him to destroy it if he decided to eviscerate it when I wasn't there to watch). Now he doesn't so much play with the toys as when he does his in-house zoomies we toss them in front of him and he reaches as if to pick it up and then runs by it to spin and come back. Our other dog grooms them to death, though.

Wonderful synopsis, and a great outcome! Thanks for posting the update.

What great news! I'm glad that the dermatologist had information and could give you answers, and that they were so good! And I think you totally lucked out with a specialist that was so good at communicating with you; sometimes they are so deep within their own knowledge they don't know how to deliver it to others.

Hmm, I've read but not had really much to add to the conversation, but if he's doing damage to the couch and you don't want him there when you're gone, can you just block him from the couch? Maybe go to Goodwill or somehow get a chair or something specific for him to lie on and block off "your" couch when you're away? So he'd still have his couch-like place, which could end up pretty yucky and maybe torn up but it would be his? Just a thought. The only time our Monty has ever tried to get on the furniture was when we had some super, ultra, massively delicious treats and we were trying to train our nongrey that she could have our loveseat as her place (instead of our couch). Monty wanted some so jumped up quick as anything when we told her to! He got his treat and jumped right back down and hasn't offered to get up on anything since then.

I am so sorry that you had to let her go, but am glad that she had a gentle passing. Take care of yourself, and remember the wonderful times that she shared with you. You are in my thoughts.

I am so sorry for your loss. I am glad that you have such great memories of her (with her "uniqe traits" and all, sassy girl that she was!). She certainly ended up in a wonderful home, with both the dogs and the humans wrapped around her little paw! Rest in Peace, Lefty. You will be missed by your family.

Monty has never had what I would call "bouncy" poops. His tend toward softer, and if he's been walked long distances he will drop a second one that will be less-than-totally-ok (a second is not good definitely leaves a residue, and a third is softserve to melted-softserve and grass is pulled and dirt dug up). It could still be nerves, it could be the worms, and hooks are hell to get rid of as Neylasmom has indicated. And then some dogs just never have "bounce" to their poo.

We feed our dogs three times a day. If we feed only twice the "output" would not be good, and once would be a nightmare! We feed in the morning at 7:30 AM, then at about 5 PM and then about 10PM. All meals are about the same size. Good luck getting some weight on him! We've had the best luck in getting our Monty to add a little weight by just adding in beef chunks (without the digestive upset of the added fat). Or venison trimmings when I had a coworker with a son and husband who hunted deer every year. Monty loved those times....

There are freeze dried lamb lung treats out there that I think Monty would take your arm off for. I don't know the brand, but I know that there are those out there that are only lamb lung with nothing else added, which sounds safe. Expensive, but safe.

I'm glad that your new boy is settling in so nicely, and that he isn't terribly destructive outside of the kennel! We didn't trust Monty outside the kennel (for mess issues and a little SA), for nearly a year - but we got rid of the crate about 3 months in and instead gave him a large X-pen (exercise pen) in the middle of the livingroom with a large cushy dog bed inside and his raised feeder in there too. And we trained him to go in using "kennel!" as a command - which meant and still does mean (even though we don't have a kennel anymore) "go to your dish!" Training can be easy, if you have a food-centric dog and can be patient. Pushing doesn't really work on the "softer" dogs, and Monty is one of the "soft" greyhounds and will turn off if you push at him at all. But he loves his food, and when we paired having a treat in our hands and pointing down with his lying down to get a treat he caught on really fast! He now offers that behavior if we have something and he'd like a taste, or if the other dog is getting something, or the cats are getting something, or I even stand with my hands cupped as if I have something.

You are likely going to need to do more dog proofing the litterbox if it is open to the room where she will be able to spend any time. Either move it to a room or area that is permanently off limits to the dog (babygate with a "small pet door" works well, or babygate raised off the floor - as long as there isn't a great incentive for the dog to get in there). Cats often don't like being disturbed, or trapped/cornered in a litterbox, and if the dog ever goes to investigate when they're doing business you could have a problem with their boycotting it in the future. Not to mention most dogs love litterbox crunchies. Yuck. I agree that putting in a really nice, comfortable bed in the room where you'll be spending time with her might be a way to go. She's got her "time to be alone" room to herself, and her "this is the greatest bed ever" when she's hanging with the fam.

I am so sorry for your loss and wish you comfort in your sorrow. I am glad that you had a chance to spoil him rotten in his last days and reinforce how much you loved him before wishing him a final goodbye. It was always obvious here how much you love him.