krissy

But don't desensitize him too much! A healthy level of respect is good. Kili always terrifies me by following bees and wasps around trying to sniff and/or catch them.

Lol, looks like a quiet day for all the dogs! Ryder is one of the only ones standing upright!

Yes, he needs something to prevent licking. Whether that is a cone or a muzzle, but something is necessary. Most of us here use muzzles instead of cones.

And this gives you an idea of what toy motivation can develop into: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCFLYRzyrwk I basically just present a toy now and she gets super excited about it. We still mostly use food at trials and classes because that does still have a stronger value for her, but at home I train frequently with just toys.

It's all about making the toy as exciting as possible, and making it a valuable commodity. There are a number of ways to do this, but the most important thing is to always be enthusiastic about the toy. Don't train with a toy unless you are prepared to be 110% over the top crazy happy and energetic. I used to joke about running Kili at agility class being more of a work out for me than for her. Here's an excerpt from a blog post I made when Kili was about 10 months old. Were taking a sports foundation class at the time and a big component was encouraging toy drive: Drive: In this exercise you throw your toy and hold your dog back. Be sure to be pulling BACK on the collar and not UP. Your dog is not to sit politely and wait. You want her to be pulling towards the toy. You then release your dog with a command to "Get it!" and race her for the toy. If her motivation is poor and you get to the toy before her you should grab it and have a party for one. Make the toy seem like the most exciting thing you've ever had. This should get your dog interested in it, so continue your party for one until she is jumping for it. Grab her collar immediately and repeat the exercise. She should be much more motivated to get to the toy first. If she does then grab the other end and engage her in tug for a minute. Always try to stop this exercise with your dog still really wanting more. Put your toy away and only bring it out for this game. Here's the video that goes along with it... drive is the last exercise, so you can fast forward a bit to see that. However, the other exercises are also helpful and you can also see a bit of what I mean by being enthusiastic and over the top excited about the toy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVhVW9kDItQ I also followed this up awhile later with a post on motivation in agility. At this point we did have some tug drive, and what I was describing was using it to transfer the drive over to the agility run... however it still applies to developing toy drive and it shows you what I mean. So in the first part of the video I did a bit of play, and for a lot of dogs I would have been exciting enough to get a good run, but Kili was just kind of lukewarm about it. To really GET HER GOING I had to RUN, YELL, SQUEAL, and play KEEP AWAY... for several minutes. She loved it and she'd tug and chase and show her toy drive. But if I didn't give her 110% then she didn't even give me 50%. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogWnyz0ZRw8 Here's the full blog post if you want to read the details: http://apexagilitygreyhounds.blogspot.ca/2014/01/16-months-hard-to-motivate.html Now is a completely different story. I try to run her before I head to a trial to take a bit out of her, and then I do some focus work before we head to the line, but I no longer try to rev her up (I'm actually trying to rev her DOWN usually). It becomes second nature, but you really have to mean it and give it in the beginning with a greyhound. Good luck and let me know how it goes! I'm looking forward to doing this all over again soon! ETA: Also, don't forget the key rules for tug/toy training... 1. Moving prey is way more exciting than dead prey. Make sure the toy is moving lots. 2. Always move the toy AWAY from the dog's mouth, don't shove it in. As my trainer always used to say, "Squirrels don't jump into their mouths, they run away!". Some dogs get turned off by having things shoved into their faces, and most dogs have some level of chase drive that is engaged by something moving away from them

NSAIDs are your best bet for inflammation, so if the Onsior isn't working but you still think it's a muscle issue then you could try washing out for 7 days and then starting a different NSAID. Every dog is an individual and they all have slightly different responses to different drugs; sometimes one works better than another. Strict rest is also vitally important. If you pull a muscle, cover it up with pain killers and keep using it, it'll never heal. If he's still been going for walks, running, or jumping on and off furniture I would immediately restrict him for 7-10 days and see if any improvement. If not and you still think muscle then laser and massage would be next on my list. If there's any consideration for a bone or joint issue then I'd get the x-rays done. Edit: Sorry, I forgot he had x-rays done already. You can either retake them on the off chance that something as progressed in the past few weeks, or ask them to be passed on to a radiologist for an expert eye.

Assuming they keep the hound for a few hours post op there's no reason not to travel by car. Kili has been popped into a vehicle for extended drives several times following anesthesia/sedation. The first time we were at the referral hospital until about 8 PM following her scope and urinary surgery. She had a rough recovery (which is why I now insist on handling all sedation/anesthesia now for my own dogs) but after that I popped her into the car and drove her the 2 hours home. This fall she was sedated for spinal x-rays and then I popped her into the truck and we drove 5 hours through the mountains. They basically just sleep, so as long as it is long enough after recovery that they're okay to go home, there's not really a reason they can't go for a car ride. It's ideal if you can have another person riding shot gun that can poke their head back to check on the sleepy hound and make sure all is well, just on the off chance of delayed complications.

I highly recommend anyone getting a puppy (of their own or to foster) reads Ian Dunbar's "Before and After You Get Your Puppy". Great book.

OMG! Ship her to meeeee! Those hermaphrodites are big medical nightmares, she'll need a vet for a mom.

My boss' dog was (is?) a hermaphrodite. It is important to have any/all sexual organs removed. We don't just spay/neuter for population control - a lot of the reasons are health related, so it still applies to dogs that are hermaphrodites. Any combination of ovaries, uterus, or testes should be removed.

The needle or IV catheter can be perfect and still bruise. I just did Summit on Thursday (needed a mass removed). I placed AND removed his catheter myself, all without any glitches. His leg his bruised. Kili bruises every single time she has blood taken, no matter how clean the draw and no matter how long I leave the pressure bandage on for. We're talking about greyhounds here... they suck at clotting unfortunately. A week and a half is a little long though. I might not expect the bruising to be entirely gone, but I'd expect improvement. Summit is about 5 days post op and he still has bruising, but it is obviously resolving. ETA: Here's Kili's leg from awhile back

It depends on the dog, but if the dog is confident and eager then I see no reason to wait on training. Most of the foster dogs that come through my house have started learning how to lie down before they go to their new homes (which is anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, but rarely longer than 2 months... the ones that I've had for 2 months have their downs and have also started working on sit and stay). If they are very shy or timid, then we just work on building confidence and learning general house manners, and when they settle into their new adoptive home I recommend they start working on their obedience. I start all dogs with hand touches and eye contact to get them playing and interested in the training game. Then I teach down. Then I start working on sit, stay, and come.

I've had fantastic success with Hill's J/D. Beautiful coats (the omegas are good for more than just joint health!) and they never have as good poops on anything else. It's a great active adult food, but also a good senior diet, which is nice because it means no transition potentially. I have my young agility dog on it as well as my almost 11 year old.

Dogs do not generalize. For a child, understanding the concept of sitting in a chair transfers reasonably well from the kitchen to the living room, to school, to a friend's house. But not for a dog. A dog literally needs to be taught each behaviour in a multitude of locations before he understands that "sit means sit, always means sit". This means that most dogs have a pretty solid grasp on a behaviour in the place where they train most (usually home) but not so much elsewhere. However you trained your dog to lie down, you now need to repeat that process in lots of different places until he realizes that "sit always means sit". Secondly, dogs are like small children... they are easily distracted. The home environment is familiar, safe, and generally pretty quiet and boring - it us easy to pay attention when nothing else is going on. It's a lot more distracting when cars are going by, or there are other dogs/people nearby, or interesting smells. Patience and really high value rewards help to overcome distractions. This is not the time to reward with a cookie. This is when you pull out the hot dogs or steak bits. With a greyhound you also have to think about comfort. There is snow on the ground where we live, and chances are slim I'm going to have my dogs happily put their bare chests on the ground right now despite their training. Hard surfaces, wet surfaces, dirty surfaces all might be a problem depending on the dog too.

Just as a helpful tip in case, DOG forbid, you or anyone else on this board should need to try this again... the movies make it very dramatic with the dislodged object flying across the room, however this typically doesn't happen even when the Heimlich is performed correctly. You should thrust firmly, and then you need to open the mouth and sweep the back of the throat for the object as that is typically as far as it goes. If it's not there then of course, proceed to try again. Hopefully no one ever needs to do this, but just in case....

The reality is that opinions are mixed on the research that is out there on NSAIDs. Some say that COX-1 vs COX-2 selectivity is very important, but there is research out there that suggests it's not that simple. The reality is that ALL of them have the potential for side effects, and none have really been demonstrated to have better efficacy than any other. My general finding is that each individual reacts differently to different drugs. I have "favourites", but it's not really because I've had better effects with them than others. NSAIDs demand respect and responsible use - give the right dose, at the right time, for the prescribed duration of time, and stop if there is any sign of an adverse reaction. Onsior is a good drug - I've used it, I haven't had any significant problems with it, and clients have liked it (i.e. it seems to work well and is easy to give). How long he needs it depends on how well he heals, and how much activity he will be doing later.

It may also help if you can have a friend come by with a happy, confident dog that likes stairs. The couple of new fosters I've had that had any trouble with the stairs, really had a much easier time after watching my two doing them without a second thought. It made them more confident to try them. Some still require a helping hand to learn, but seeing a buddy isn't afraid of them has really helped in my house.

It's an NSAID, like Metacam or Rimadyl or Deramaxx. It helps with pain through its anti-inflammatory properties.

Generally Cartrophen is given as an initial series of 4 injections at 7 day intervals, followed by injections every 1-3 months depending on the dog. It has some anti-inflammatory effects and is most commonly used for joint issues (i.e. arthritis), however it is sometimes utilized for anti-inflammatory action in other situations (I've used it for cats with urinary issues for example). It's worth giving a try as there are few contraindications for it.

Not sure, but I would imagine it has to do with the peeing on his own front legs thing. Dogs that lift their legs don't usually pee on themselves. Summit does both and never pees on himself, but I've had a few fosters that would pee on (or almost pee on) their front legs when they just stretched. It's not the end of the world, but it's a little bit annoying to have to deal with that multiple times a day, day in and day out, and if there was a way to avoid or correct it I'm sure most of us would. Unfortunately, I don't think training to lift a leg when peeing is an easy feat. It's definitely do-able, but it certainly won't be easy. It may be possible to use a stick of some sort to gently push his front leg forward a step when he starts to posture, just to get it a little further up. I say a stick because I don't think you want to stick your foot there in case you get peed on! If you're lucky muscle memory may take over and he may start to just posture this way on his own. Maybe.

That's the one I was looking for! Thanks!

A few years ago I think someone posted an image (or series of images) on how to turn a sock into a leg sleeve (that anchored around the dog's neck) for protecting wounds/bandages on the upper leg. I can't seem to find it. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? I would really like to find it as I need to try it with a patient. Thanks!

With foster dogs I have always found it helpful to crate them while I am home and out of sight. Kind of like "just because I'm home, doesn't necessarily mean you get to be with me". I would crate and go do some sort of quite activity in another room for a short time (about an hour typically). Back when I was in vet school I'd go study. Now I'll go read, work on the computer, or pull out some arts and crafts. The dog would get used to settling in their crate while I was out of sight. It was kind of like a baby step to separation.

What about closing your bedroom door or using a baby gate? That's what we do. If I left the door open, Summit would probably be in the living room so he can sleep on the couch, but he settles just fine on a comfy dog bed when we gate them in with us. I prefer to have the dogs sleep in the same room in case there's an emergency of some kind. What does your dog do if you confine her to the bedroom with you?

I've used both Advantix and Nexgard on my guys (not at the same time... different years). I may try Bravecto this year so I don't have to give medication as frequently.