Sambuca

Bu and I had agility class tonight and he was off tonight. Moreso than his typical off. I'm losing my voice and I'm wondering if my voice change bothered Bu. Is this possible?

I don't think you can totally train it out, but you may be able to train the dog to "leave it". If you have a strong "leave it" you may be able to call the dog off the chase. It's not 100%, but it may work.

http://www.yellowsnowdoggear.com/inc/sdetail/97/105 I like these leashes.

I have no problem with it as long as my dogs don't react. Bu came to me with a huge scab between his shoulder blades and it was suggested it was from frontline, so I've avoided it. He's been on a few different combos since and been fine. My dogs are on flea preventative all year because they go all over the place and socialize with lots of dogs and I don't want anyone sharing with my boys.

Comfortis is like Capstar, but works for a whole month so that you have a little wiggle room cleaning the house. You'll need to flea bomb the house and wash ALL fabric, linens, dog beds, dog toys, etc.

Bu HATES all contacts except the table. He gets nervous if they're even on the course and I haven't asked him to do them. We now ask the he puts his front 2 feet on any piece and that's it. And sometimes we let him just run passed them. He'll sometimes pace around and ignore me if it gets to be too much for him. Are there any pieces of equipment that seem to produce the anxiety that you can either avoid altogether or start training from scratch again?

My dogs get things with small amounts of onion/onion powder pretty regularly. Burgers, stir fry, potato hash, hot dogs, steak, etc. small amounts are generally not a problem. I've even seem it added into dog treats.

It can definitely be improved with training, but he may never be trusted to interact with little dogs outside. I found with my guy, Sailor, that if he got a sniff of the small dog, he'd realize it was a dog and he was fine to interact with them, but he was never as reactive as yours sounds.

I would love to try it, but my Costco doesn't carry it. They do great on the salmon and not well on the turkey.

Check with your vet before using any meds, even homeopathic. They could interfere or react with any prescribed meds.

If it's the head, the body will expel it eventually like a splinter. Or if it's sticking out you can try and grab it.

People use the collar that way on purpose. Some like the martingale effect of it and many use it as protection for the dog. With the prongs out, any dog attacking it can't get to the neck. The guy was probably trying to protect his dog.

I've been happy with Embrace. I pay yearly and can't remember how much it is at the moment.

It's being used on a greyhound?!? That's a sure way to rip the skin up. Disgusting. I don't like them on any breed. I have seen them used with the prongs facing out so that if the dog is attacked the prongs protect it, which I think is fine since it's then a metal martingale.

You can add deerskin to the muzzle. Buy it at any drugstore in the foot care aisle, cut to size, and stick it on the nose part.

The thunder shirt looks the same on Bu. Unfortunately it didn't help him at all. Hopefully it works for Dino! Good luck.

Bu eats 6-8 cups of food a day and still throws up bile on occasion. As long as his weight is good, it doesn't matter how much you're feeding him. You can start giving him a cup of food 3 times a day. 1 each at his normal times and 1 at bedtime. A big treat works as well.

It took 8-9 foods to find one that worked for Bu. He was on Metamucil until we found the right food for him. It wasn't perfect, but better than nothing. He had had tons of tests and nothing was wrong. The only tests left were surgical and we didn't want to go there. He just has a sensitive belly.

Not a specific protein, but there's a brand of wet dog food that makes Bu have frequent urination. I'm sure there's something in there that doesn't agree with him. Oddly, he was only getting 1-2 tablespoons of the food a day and it caused big enough problems for concern.

That's ridiculous! How many people feed their dogs green tripe, which is basically unprocessed cow manure? What's the big deal?

I had a foster with a horrible skin infection (even the vet was shocked at his condition). He was bright red and missing lots of hair. He was on antibiotics for weeks with no help. I cut chicken out of his diet, and his adopter avoids it, and he's been fine since. He's eating Natures Domain salmon and sweet potato food. It's the Costco version of Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream. Bu is intolerant to chicken and he's on the same food and does well. Make sure to read all the ingredients on everything you buy for him! They sneak chicken in everywhere!

Sounds like the other dog have him confidence and he's now acting in fear. What type of training does your trainer use? Positive reinforcement? Dominance theory? If it's not positive reinforcement, I would find a trainer who does use it. If people are coming over, make sure he's wearing a muzzle. Have him on leash and give him treats through the muzzle as people come in the house so he has positive associations. Is there any way you could adopt or foster or even borrow a confident dog to help?

I'm a dog walker. My guess is that the new walker is causing the issue. It could be something as minor as not giving a treat when they leave when the old walker did to not giving an adequate walk or even not treating the dog well and peeing is how the dog is showing it. I'd get the 2 walkers to talk and figure out if the routine has changed at all. If so, get the walker to do what worked. If not, get the old walker back.

I feed the dogs when I wake up and before bed. So 8am-1pm and 10pm-1am. Whatever works for me. They adjust and survive. I try to vary it a bit regularly so they don't get to set on time. It keeps them more flexible and they don't have issues if my schedule gets completely off.

I agree with you Pam. Sailor has gotten into milk chocolate a few times and I wasn't too worried. When he got into chocolate covered raisins I was concerned about the raisins, not the chocolate. I induced vomiting and he was fine.