sarabz

I'm another one that doesn't know much about the requirements for service animals, but can tell you that I live in the middle of Manhattan with my grey. She's always up for a walk, a car ride, etc but very mellow while at home. Definitely confident - she's had absolutely no problems living in the city from the minute we brought her home, so it is really about the individual dog. Sounds like the right grey might be a good fit for you - kudos to you for doing so much research on the breed and good luck!

2010? Peanut butter doesn't last that long in this household! I have 1/2 of one jar of Kirkland PB that's on this list - obviously there isn't a problem with this particular jar or the other jar in the package Thanks for the update. Scary to realize that one plant can produce so many products.

I can say "stinky fishies" to Bella in a totally normal tone of voice and she starts bouncing around with her ears up, and runs to the drawer in which I store her treats, including sardines I'll give them to her about once a month - she doesn't really need the oil for her coat now that I bathe her very rarely and use a conditioner when I do, but she likes them so gets them occasionally. Side note - I still haven't brought myself to buy chicken feet yet. I get weirded out looking at them in the grocery store and can't quite get them to the counter

This stuff is SO yummy

I don't have much advice as I haven't had to deal with anything like this, but for what it's worth - the first couple of weeks we had Bella we baby-gated her into the bedroom during the day. We'd come home to scattered items, shredded paper, etc. From the day we trusted her with the run of the apartment, nothing has been shredded or disturbed since. As others have mentioned, maybe something like an x-pen to block off the access to the door would give you some peace of mind. Good luck!

Well, Bella's been given watermelon slices by DH who misunderstood that I would only give her the fruit and not the rind - and she suffered no ill effects. Not sure what that's worth, but there you go

You don't usually ask for prayers; I don't usually say them - does that mean if I say some for your boys, they'll be given more or less weight than frequent prayers? For what it's worth, you definitely have them

Never mind

Our Bella is so bombproof that she was asleep within 30 minutes of bringing her home, including sleeping through a screaming fire engine. She lives in Manhattan, and so can now sleep through sirens, fireworks, thunder & lightening, protests, the FedEx depot across the street, 42nd st traffic, walking through Times Square, walking through Grand Central Terminal, traveling on trains and in taxis, falling asleep in Grand Central and on the train....... The only thing that spooks her is a human foot, under the bed clothes, touching her. That is SCARY and all efforts to escape must be made immediately

Maggie- Nope - Jeff mentioned earlier in this thread that some topics were going away altogether. On another note - first, Jeff, thank you so much for keeping this site going! I didn't want to start with a complaint! I'm finding the new font really hard to adjust to - seems like bits of letters are missing (optical illusion). Is there a way to change the font in our personal settings or just deal with it? OOH - on yet another note, I LOVE the new quote/multi quote use - seems much easier. Maybe nothing's changed there, but it felt like it!

We're pretty much the same as Giantsfan - Bella doesn't need them at this point, but it's a habit for all of us. She gets one when we leave for work in the morning, and if we're going to be away for most of the day on a weekend. I have 6 Kongs, fill them once a week and stick them in the freezer. I put a few Charley Bear treats in the bottom, and then fill with a mix of oatmeal, yogurt, banana, peanut butter and pumpkin (when I can get it). Bella will get through them in about 20 minutes, but now she knows that if she's getting a Kong, she's alone for a while. It costs only a few dollars to fill all 6 and then I have a stash in the freezer which makes it so easy.

Bella doesn't chatter but I have noticed her chin quivering lately if we scritch in exactly the right spot

She's fine this morning - I gave her that one aspirin last night and by 10 pm (goodnight potty time) she was ok. Still a little stiff but ok. This morning she's been stretching, bowing, and roaching, so she's good. It was funny when she didn't want to get off the sofa for dinner, though!

After posting about how food obsessed Bella is, tonight she wouldn't get off the sofa for her dinner. She had her DHPP shot. Between giving out a squeak as she shifted on her bed, and not getting up for dinner, I know she's sore Poor girly Of course, I felt bad so I brought her bowl to her and held it for her so she could eat on the sofa without getting up Good thing DH wasn't home to see this!! Poor girl just looks confused and not very happy. ETA - I did give her one 81mg aspirin. She's had aspirin before on the advice of our vet and had no negative reaction.

Thank you for posting this! I was looking for the thread where you posted the comparison but didn't go back far enough

Thank you all!!! Appreciate the insight and advice - now if I can just get both myself and DH trained I would love to do an obedience class with her but as much as I ask DH to do the same things I do so that she learns the same routines, he insists on asking her to do things that make no sense to me. Example - he'll take her leash off as they're coming out of the elevator, even if he knows he's going to want to wipe her paws or something else as soon as they come in the door. I've always been a big fan of "make it easy to do the right thing" - so, if you want Bella not to go farther into the apartment when you come in, leave the leash on. Have had this conversation a few times, and it doesn't work. (On DH, not Bella )

There are a couple of threads on this already - This one is the most recent Search for "insurance" on this forum and there will be a lot of topics that pop up and mention it. Welcome to Greytalk!

Nope - we've never had trouble keeping weight on her and it's not a new behavior, I'm just sick of it OK, so really what everyone's telling me is that none of you are any help whatsoever!? Gee, thanks!!! But yes, I'm thinking that cutting back treats to either none or very predictable times as we've done with meals would help this. Christie, the description of Bootsy is a perfect illustration of Bella's behavior!

Begging even I'm ok with - it's when she's flinging herself around the room attempting to get in front of me to sit/lie down in hopes of a treat. She's broken glasses jumping over the coffee table scraped a leg or two banging into a wall, bruised DH and myself by jumping over/onto us because the other has food, etc. Her eyes bug out of her head and she acts like she's never had food before Or - is this just normal but seems awful because we're in a tiny apartment?

I'm ok with her inhaling her OWN food - what I'm trying to get away from is just the obnoxious, will-barge-through-a-closed-door-to-get-at-food attitude. I guess stopping the random treats/snacks is a good first step - if there's not the chance that she's going to randomly get food, then she'll stop expecting that something might be for her?

"Food motivated" is great for training. "Food obsessed" is a different category altogether. Bella's becoming completely obnoxious about anything that might possibly be edible that she thinks she may get. I'm sure it's a problem we've created since she seems to be getting worse - so how do we stop it? Anything that Bella thinks is remotely edible she gets wound up about. You can crinkle the wrapper on a sponge and she'll wake from a sound sleep and come barrelling into the kitchen. If she thinks you have a treat she will sit/down/sit/down - basically go through any trick she has - in hopes of you giving it to her. She snatched a banana, unpeeled, from someone's hand in an elevator the other day (boy, was that embarressing). She gets so high energy and so wound up if she thinks she's getting something to eat, I'm just waiting for the day when she injures herself or someone else trying to make sure you see her. I took her into the wine store on the corner which always has dog treats and she put her front paws up on the counter to try and get a treat (I didn't let her have one after that). We can say "leave it" if she finds something edible on the ground and she will. She doesn't bother our dinner plates or when we have people over and have hors d'oeuvres on the (low) coffee table. She's never counter-surfed. She does get treats, and occassionally when I'm cooking she'll get a bite of something. Again, here, if I drop something on the floor while cooking, she'll wait until I say "ok" and point to it before she'll eat it, but she'll usually hover and drool while I'm in the kitchen. At about 645 pm, she'll start getting agitated - she usually gets dinner around 7 pm. She'll get up and walk over to her bowl, then walk to the closet where her food is, then back to her bowl, then she'll stand and look at us. She only does this at night, not in the mornings. So, as I said, I'm sure we created the monster - how do we stop the obsession? I'm guessing a good start is to not feed her anything from the kitchen and no treats, just meals? Thanks for any advice - ETA - I know I have grammar issues in this post, sorry

I've never had to correct a dog for doing it - until I realized that Bella's nose is almost always at exactly the right height and I haven't had such a tall dog before I typically keep her on a short enough leash when she's that close to people so that she can't do it. I do discourage her when she starts, although it can be a little hard in a crowded elevator

I have to say - I got on this same kick of baking treats for my greyhound Bella loved them And dropped some of the most foul gas bombs I have ever encountered I don't bake treats for her anymore She gets Charley Bears and other treats from Trader Joe's and treats from Rain Dog Treats (pictured below) No more gas bombs Not what you want to hear, I'm sure

I buy the 7" regular (not odor free) in packs of 100 because that's the best price per piece. Bella gets one and will usually chew on it on her own in two or three sessions - she's funny to watch because she'll go nuts with it for a few minutes and then it's like she gets tired; she'll just drop it and flop over I haven't noted any particular unpleasant odor, other than when I open the drawer in which they're stored. Not horrible, you just know there are not-for-people things there.