krissy

As others have said, you do not have to use a clicker. The clicker is just the audible marker of "yes, that was it!". I usually start with a clicker, and for some behaviours will go back to the clicker, however my dogs all know "Yes!" and "Yay!" and look for their treat as soon as they hear either. "Yes" is technically my marker word, but I use "yay" often enough casually that the dogs understand it too. Remember that training should always be fun. Sometimes we need to set training aside and "just have fun", however training itself should ideally be just that to the dog. This is how much my dogs love training. Kili literally races me down the stairs to the training room and, if I don't put up the baby gate in the kitchen, Summit will always follow us down. This IS their idea of "just having fun" (of course they love to just goof off and horse around too). Hopefully you can find the right ingredients for success and Sasha will love it this much too! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsRhA-bUEyo

Are there actually hunger pains? I think that's the first thing to determine. My dogs will eat anything, anytime, anyhow. But they're not hungry. They're just chow hounds. We keep food stored securely or they'd be into it. We feed them 2 meals a day, and they get treats for training. But that's it. If I tried to "fill them up" I'd never stop feeding them.

SO sad to see this post! Run free Brooke....

This is just a matter of incremental training as suggested. You don't necessarily need a trainer to help you with this as they've already described the process. Any time you train a complex behaviour (and what is "complex" depends on the dog). You name the behaviour whatever you want to name the end behaviour - "truck", "car", "in", "jump", "mushroom". The dog doesn't know what the word means. We pick things that actually make sense in context, but that's for OUR benefit. You could just as easily use "bacon" to mean sit... makes no difference to the dog. So just pick something that works for you, and doesn't sound like any of your other cues. You start with a mat on the ground and train him to go to it. Then you put it up a few inches (find an aerobics step or something). Then a few more inches (on a tupperware box or something). Then a chair. Then the car. Here's some examples of incremental training I've done with Kili for complex behaviours: http://apexagilitygreyhounds.blogspot.ca/2014/12/vault.html http://apexagilitygreyhounds.blogspot.ca/2016/02/dog-catch.html

Generally speaking, anxiety meds need to be given prior to anxiety beginning. They tend to be less effective once the dog is already upset. I haven't heard much yet for feedback on Sileo, but what you experienced sounds typical of most anxiety drugs. You may have had a better effect if she'd had the dose about an hour before hearing the first firework. Not always possible with people setting them off whenever they please.

Cartrophen or adequan are always my recommendations to clients.

I don't know for sure, but I often find pieces of fat in my backyard. It's suet put out for the birds, and the damn birds drop it in my yard. Then the dogs find it. Summit never gets a rumbly belly, but Kili will sometimes. I wake up hearing it and she refuses breakfast. Then a few hours later she's fine. I often attribute it to the suet in the backyard, but there's not always a correlation of me seeing her get a piece and her waking up with a rumbly belly the next morning. Not sure if there's anything you can think of that he might be getting into that could be causing it.

Add that to my list of reasons I'll never move to Australia! The major reason actually being that everything there seems to be out to kill (or seriously hurt) you! ha ha. At least so it seems from "72 Dangerous Animals: Australia". Yup. Canada may have some horrible winters but there's only a couple of venomous snakes in the country (none of which are really lethal)! And insects don't grow to be the size of dinner plates. I believe I will stay put. Actually, the huge spiders are enough of a deterrent any time I even think about how nice it would be to do a vacation! I'd probably be at serious risk of dying of a heart attack in Australia!

Sorry, yes the second response from the OP that I missed made that clearer. The original post made it sound like all dogs would be muzzled. Honestly, if my dog did not have to be muzzled for legal reasons (I.e. It was one of these green hounds, which I think OP did confirm in a recent reply), I would likely look elsewhere if I was being forced to muzzle my dog. *I* may CHOOSE to muzzle the dog if I don't know for sure about its small dog reactions, but that would be my own choice and precaution as a responsible owner. To me, if this hound has a green collar (or whatever it's called) and was suggested to be small animal safe by the rescue, and LIVES with a smaller dog already, then it is just unfounded prejudice on the part of the trainer to ask the greyhound to arrive muzzled. If it was brought up as an inquiry/suggestion... ("How is your hound with small dogs? Oh, you haven't had him very long and you're not totally sure.... Fair enough. Would you be opposed to bringing a muzzle to be worn for the first few minutes until we can be sure everyone is going to get along?") that's different... but as an assumption about the breed? I'd be looking elsewhere. I don't appreciate assumptions/generalizations about my dogs. Kind of off topic, but my FIL once suggested my DBF and I move to Aus for a few years on work placements. You know, see the world, have an adventure. I quickly shot that idea down. There is no way I could move my RABBIT SAFE dogs (never mind cats and small dogs... they live with three rabbits) to a place that thinks they are a menace to society without a muzzle strapped to their face. Australia seems like such a fantastic country in so many respects that I cannot understand where this prejudice came from. I mean, if they're so vicious how does every other country in the world manage to deal with them without muzzles? So strange and such a shame. I just don't understand it. I definitely plan to vacation in Aus some day, but work placement is off the table sadly.

But it's not JUST your dog that was asked to come in a muzzle, right? Your post made it sound like all the dogs were to arrive wearing muzzles. Personally that makes no sense to me and I'd find another class. It's one thing to muzzle your own dog if you are unsure of prey drive because he is new to you, but if someone told me to muzzle my dogs to come to a class - my dog safe, cat safe, rabbit safe dogs - I'd look elsewhere. You might at least ask what the rationale is and see what the trainer says.

Maybe, maybe not. Kili bruises hugely from blood draws every single time, and I always apply a pressure bandage for half an hour after. It never bothers her but it looks awful because she's white and fairly thin haired on her neck and legs, so it is quite obvious. Thankfully she doesn't bruise like that from surgery. If there is an actual hematoma (a lump) then pressure and warm compresses can be helpful. If it's just bruising (no lump, just discolouration) then warmth and gentle massage can help to spread the blood out. Not sure if this makes it resorb any faster or if it just spreads it thinner so it doesn't look quite so awful.

Keep us posted. How scary. And this may not be true for every hospital/doctor, but I never snigger at people for being overly anxious. Better safe than sorry. And honestly, I figure the owner knows the dog best, so if I can't find anything it makes me worry that I'm missing something vague. I always send people home with strict instructions to monitor and a copy of the local emergency clinics' info in case they need it overnight. Been there with my own dog... not right but couldn't find anything wrong and back to normal a day later.

My dogs roughly learn what the word "done" means. Alternately, they also know what "go play" means - go do doggy stuff on your own. In the very beginning stages of teaching a new trick I'd be really happy to see an understanding of the behaviour and a desire to continue, so I'd reward, then pull out a toy or something for the dog to play with and occupy him so that he doesn't default back to offering behaviours. With a more experienced dog with a trick that we've already worked on a bit, I ignore the offered behaviour or just verbally acknowledge it ("Good job! Aren't you clever? We're done now, go play") and direct the dog to a different behaviour (let them out into the backyard, clip on a leash to go for a walk, feed dinner, give a toy to play with, etc).

It is always good to check a murmur out, but they can often be benign in greyhounds. Kili has had a grade 3 murmur since she was a puppy. I check her echoed every couple of years, but it hasn't caused any concerns so far (she's coming up 4 years old in August) and she's obviously a very active dog. Fingers crossed it's nothing.

The matter of leaving dogs outside unattended aside, because cultural norms are very different in different places, why would you come home to a day's worth of poop and urine in the house? This is not what happens in North America where we keep our dogs inside. The dogs go out in the morning to pee and poop, then they come in for the day while owners go to work for 8 hours, then when owners come home the dogs go out and pee and poop. The average dog is not going to the bathroom inside the house. Exceptions would be dogs/puppies not yet housebroken, the occasional accident (usually owner induced by forgetfulness etc), and old dogs that aren't able to hold it as long. Dogs with separation anxiety may also go in the house because anxiety stimulates the need to eliminate. If your dog goes to the bathroom in the house, then you need to determine if she's not housebroken or if it is due to her separation anxiety. If the former, housetraining 101, back to basics. If the latter, you need to work on your alone training. Now, coming back to cultural norms, it may be normal in Australia to leave dogs outside during the day, but you said you have two other dogs that stay in the house. I can accept cultural differences, even when I don't agree with them, but to me it sounds like this is less about culture and more about the destruction if other dogs are in the house while she's outside. Destruction is obviously not tolerable, but I think there are methods better suited to helping her. If she has separation anxiety I'm not sure being isolated is the best method of dealing with it. If you want to put her outside, I'd potentially put another dog out with her to keep her company, assuming they get along well. Or, preferably, I'd see how well crate trained she is and crate her. And if course there needs to be some intensive alone training. I only have 1 dog out of 3 that is not crated while I'm gone, and that's the 11 yr old. The 3.5 year old and 15 week old are crated for their safety, and my sanity. Kili is only just starting to be trustworthy, and even so she's inconsistent, which means I continue with the crate. She loves her crate and it keeps her, and the house, safe.

Today marked 6 weeks since Summit's IVDD surgery, following which he was completely paralyzed in all 4 legs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?edit=vd&v=2drlY8nTDd4 The body is a pretty amazing thing. We still need to work on improving strength, as he lost a lot of muscle during the 3 weeks that he was down, but neurologically he's pretty close to 100% I think. He is going for short walks around the block mostly right now, and hopefully we can build back up some of that muscle so he doesn't get tired so quickly.

Sorry to see this post. Lots of positive thoughts headed your way....

I can't even imagine letting an 8 month old have free reign of the house. I know some pups that can handle it, but I can picture the trouble Kili would have gotten into if left unsupervised. She's 3.5 now and still crated when we leave the house for prolonged periods. I no longer crate her to take a shower, or if I take another dog out for a short walk, and I've also started occasionally leaving her gated in one room if I'm leaving for a medium amount of time (an hour or 2), but full days are crate days. Kenna is only 13 weeks old right now, but with her personality right now I can't see her being unsupervised any time in the next few years either. I agree there is probably some boredom going on. If she's not busy while you're home and destructive while you're gone though... I'd at least consider the possibility of separation anxiety. It may not be, but that is something that is better dealt with sooner than later so it is worth consideration before ruling out. As far as boredom goes, lots of good ideas. I love puzzle/food toys. I also have my puppies in some sort of class for about the first year of their lives (and really it's indefinite since they move on to agility and that never ends).

So sorry for your loss.

Yes, I realize that. I was just speaking to the experience I've had with them. Since they fit tightly, unlike a t-shirt, I suspect chaffing would be a lot less of an issue though it's probably possible.

I like the dogleggs products. I've used the elbow sleeves for dogs with elbow hygromas. So far the clients I've recommended them to have had only good things to say.

Pulled the urinary catheter tonight and helped Summit "walk" (it's more like coordinated stumbling right now) outside to have a pee. First time in 3 weeks. He has a rehab appointment on Monday to start figuring out his rehab program going forward.

Sorry you're going through this. It's so hard when they're sick not to feel helpless. I hope the meds give him some relief while you wait for results.

I've been going home at lunch for the past few weeks in order to check on Summit and make sure he hasn't pooped. Today when I arrived I was greeted by this incredible sight: I just about cried. I am amazed that he managed to get up there. And then, while I was in the yard with the girls, he managed to get down again.

Thank you for the kind wishes everyone. It has definitely been a trying couple of weeks. I'm beyond exhausted trying to train a new puppy and handle all of Summit's nursing care. But this is the price and responsibility of pet ownership that we owe to our beloved dogs for the love that they bring into our lives. It's really the least I can do considering what a fantastic dog he has been. It would have been nice if he had not decided to cash in all of his healthcare chips at one time... like a few smaller illnesses here and there over the years would have been better! I kid. Last night he was able to get to his feet with minimal assistance and was able to stand for about 30 seconds unassisted. DBF also said that he helped him walk to the door (carried him down the stairs once they got there) to go outside for a bit. I was at work, so didn't get to see that. He does have a UTI though. He was very uneasy and restless last night, and I thought he might just be too warm, but this morning I thought his urine looked a little red. I brought a sample with me to work and he does have a UTI, so I'm taking some antibiotics home this afternoon for him. I'm not too surprised as his urinary catheter has been in since the day after surgery. He's almost mobile enough to remove it, but I'm not sure if he's really able to posture to go to the bathroom even if we can get him out a few times per day. I might see how things clear up on the antibiotics. I feel like if I can keep the catheter in until after the weekend that might just buy us enough time to make life easier for everyone. We shall see.