krissy
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Posts posted by krissy
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I did spinal surgery for a disc on my 11 yr old. It was a bit of a roller coaster ride in the post-op period, but he has reaped the rewards for 1.5+ years of good quality of life. I don't believe in using age as a reason not to do surgery. I look at what the quality of life was before the problem started. For Summit, it was really really good. And then I look at what the likely quality of life is after the surgery, which was very good (of course there are always risks of complications). And I looked at quality of life WITH the problem - which wasn't great with a herniated disc since that IS a painful disease, but I'd also consider mobility in general even if non-painful. So I decided to go ahead with it. I don't know if we'll get 3 years after surgery, but I'm expecting we'll get 2+ (fingers crossed since anything can happen with a senior).
For me, I'd go to the neurologist. Right now you're completely speculating. We don't even know if surgery is needed at this point. I'd do the consult, and then decide once you have a better idea of what might need to be done for diagnosis and/or treatment. At least then you'll be working with the most knowledge you can before doing diagnostics.
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Pancreatitis is diagnosed reliably by ultrasound, so if the ultrasound was done by a vet competent in the modality, then that probably rules it out. It can be diagnosed by bloodwork as well, though there is more margin of error, which is done with a Spec CPL. Generally pancreatitis dogs are not anemic unless they are having significant blood loss in diarrhea or vomit. They are also not usually hyperglycaemic because most of them are not eating and are vomiting. White blood cells can be elevated because of the inflammatory process. In my experience it would be very unusual for a dog with pancreatitis to not have any vomiting or diarrhea.
Sorry for your loss.
I hope you can find some answers and some peace. -
You can try the Douxo Seb products. I prescribe them for a lot of my dandruffy patients and seems to work really nicely. Generally we shampoo weekly for a month or so, and then every 3rd day between shampoos we use either the microemulsion spray or the mousse (I prefer the spray for large dogs), and eventually back off the shampoo as the dandruff improves.
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Krissy the contortionist! Greyt vids. Did you borrow greyhounds for this?
Back when we only had 2 dogs of our own we fostered quite a few dogs over about a year and a half, so this was a selection of video from a few of them.
And yes, getting down on the ground requires some flexibility, so that's a good point. If there are mobility issues for the humans, you can achieve the same thing by sitting in a chair and luring them under your legs.
I prefer being down on the ground so I'm close to the dog's level, but both ways work. -
Also, just to add....
I usually start with super simple behaviours like nose touch and eye contact. They're simple and fast.
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Greyhounds come in a huge range of motivation levels and work ethic. On the average I would say that most hounds are quite trainable, generally reasonably food motivated, but tend to have short attention spans and are easily discouraged. What I mean by this, is that training sessions need to be kept quite short (especially in the beginning), using very high value rewards, with a high rate of reward (the dog needs to be right much more often than wrong, and wrong attempts need to be ignored or given very minimal negative feedback).
General greyhound training notes that I have picked up over time:
1) New hounds need to "learn how to learn" before the excitement and desire to work really kick in. In the beginning they literally don't know what is going on. Once the lightbulb comes on, the desire to learn and work become much stronger. They will then often begin to try to offer new behaviours during training to elicit a reward.
2) Greyhounds are often quite resistant to having their bodies molded or shaped. They are not the most flexible/mobile of dogs - by comparison to other breeds they can be a bit "stiff" for lack of a better word. Bending in funny ways is often foreign, difficult, and/or scary for them. A lot of body positions require a lot of really tiny steps to achieve... even something as simple as a sit or a down. The larger males tend to be worse for this in my experience, but it still holds true overall.
3) Creativity is important, both in terms of how you teach them new things and also how you reward them. Not every dog is food motivated. Some dogs are toy driven for example. You can improve food motivation by training on an empty stomach (right before breakfast or dinner is due).
4) Keep any negative comments to yourself. Since they are not particularly high drive and can be a bit of a "soft" personality, it can be easy to turn them off. With a new dog I would just ignore wrong attempts, or if the dog is really trying to offer behaviours (they're just the wrong ones) I would verbally praise that to encourage him to continue trying and offering... but only give the reward when you get the behaviour you are looking for. Later on in training once the dog has good desire to work, I will often use a "negative reward marker", which is just a word to let the dog know that wasn't correct, but is given in a neutral tone of voice... or if I'm working my softer dog will actually still be a fairly happy tone.
Here's a video I did of teaching the down to a slew of foster dogs that came through my house. Some of these dogs picked it up right away, some didn't get there in the time that they were with me. You can see that they are getting rewarded for any attempt they make, and for getting part of the way. I don't necessarily wait for the down before I reward in the beginning. This is important. If you push the dog for too much, and withhold the reward, they will give up. And greyhounds tend to give up quicker than some of the more driven breeds. But if you reward frequently for baby steps, the dog will be much more excited to work with you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMXaKbbwu0M
And an example of breaking down a behaviour... this was a blog post I did on teaching Kili how to vault. Most of the training videos for this trick are done with border collies or aussies, and it's pretty much one step: "hold the disc up and tell your dog to take it". Yeah, right. I broke it down into... 7 steps? The videos on the blog show you the entire break down. It took about a month to teach this, working for a couple of minutes 2-3 times a day.
http://apexagilitygreyhounds.blogspot.ca/2014/12/vault.html
Hope that helps!
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This is very strange to happen even when someone else is in the house! My goodness!
I have read Patricia McConnell's "I'll Be Home Soon!" and will begin intensive S.A. training immediately.
It's a bit weird that it was so extreme, but I don't think it's necessarily weird that it happened, and I don't think it necessarily means that your dog has true separation anxiety. Is she okay when you guys leave during the day?
My dogs are fine being left alone when we go out, but when I am away (I don't come home at night), they become agitated. Not to the degree that you described with Lola, but my boyfriend definitely notices that they're not normal. We baby gate the dogs into our bedroom at night, and they will stand at the baby gate and stare down the hallway at the door until he turns out the light and tells them to go to bed, and if there is any noise in the night they will be up and at the gate watching the door again. They could care less if he doesn't show up by bedtime though because I'm their person.
So it could be that your dog has separation anxiety, or it could be that she was upset by a very obvious and potentially alarming change in her life. She is used to you coming and going during the day and maybe into the evening... but not coming home at night has never happened before. Set up a camera and watch her during the day while you're at work. If she's stressed or agitated, you have a separation anxiety dog on your hands. If she's fine... I'll bet it was the fact that you vanished overnight.
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If you are getting a seatbelt for the dogs, make sure you do a lot of research to find one that has actually passed crash testing, otherwise in an accident it may do more harm than good.
http://www.wsj.com/video/crash-testing-pet-seat-belts/CA1B954E-E0A7-4050-95B6-747CF0C62294.html
The safest place for a dog in a vehicle is typically in a crate. I don't have a vehicle where that is possible with the number and size of crates I'd need. The next time I'm shopping for a vehicle though, I'll be taking crates with me and attempting to find one that can accommodate them (and hoping like heck that a van isn't my only option).
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Congratulations on bringing home your new greyhound!
This is very common behavior for a dog new to a neighborhood environment. Until she's a bit more settled in and relaxed, I would avoid or keep meetings to a minimum. Carry some really yummy treats with you (you should be anyway!), and distract her (hopefully) before she gets to the whining stage. This means anticipating her response for a while, so be on alert scanning your route ahead. When you see a dog coming, get her attention by saying her name, then reward her with a smell, really good treat. Continue to walk, and have her look at you until the other dog is out of range. If she doesn't distract easily, up the value of your treat.
If she does end up greeting a dog, try and remove her from the situation before she starts barking. Explain to the owner of the other dog that you're working on training. Call her name and distract her with a treat, and continue your walk.
You may also find this book helpful: "Feisty Fido: Help for the Leash Reactive Dog."
Good luck!
This, but just wanted to add, when removing her from a meeting with another dog, try to avoid pulling her away by her leash/collar as some dogs can be leash reactive and this may make her behaviour worse. Try to just lure her away with a treat or by calling her name if she has a recall (probably not if you've only had her for 2 weeks).
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Maybe, but I doubt it. Both of my girls are under 60 lbs and I've known some very large males that were champion roachers. Roaching is also not exclusive to greyhounds and lots of very large dogs of other breeds will also roach. I think it probably has more to do with individual conformation than size as to whether they find it comfortable.
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I have never had a true roacher. Summit has never roached at any point while we have had him. Kili and Kenna will roach for brief periods of time every so often, but not commonly and rarely for more than a few minutes before they flop over.
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I hate the traditional small field, fenced dog parks. They're very unnatural for the dogs and also can quickly become overcrowded. The only dog parks I typically take my dogs to are large walking trail type parks. It's much more natural and less threatening for the dogs as they tend to meet up with only a few new dogs at a time, they have space to circle each other to sniff properly, enough space to just walk on by if they don't want to meet, and meetings are not typically prolonged as people are walking in different directions. If we meet up with a dog walking the same direction as us that seems to have a similar energy and the dogs are enjoying playing with each other then I'll typically strike up a conversation and walk with the other person for awhile. Unfortunately, most of these types of parks are not fully enclosed. We do have one in the Edmonton area that is like this that is completely fenced, but that's not really common/typical, so sadly this isn't a very easily accessible option for most sighthound owners who do not have the recall training to offleash.
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A dog after my own heart (but don't tell Kenna or she'll be confused about why I was mad at her this morning for chewing the cover off my novel)! Sounds like he needs a job! Have you looked into training for him? I'd highly recommend starting with a basic obedience class right away, and then consider moving on to rally obedience or agility after that. On non-class days I'd suggest taking him jogging or biking, teaching him to play fetch or frisbee, teaching fun tricks (particularly good for winter or otherwise poor weather days when you can't really do anything outdoors), or taking him on field trips to pet stores or other pet friendly stores (I go to the bank, the camping store, the sports store, and the book store with mine). Puzzle toys are also great. This is a dog with energy, and he's still a youngster so he needs to be given an outlet or he's going to find his own.
When you're not supervising your best friends are crates, ex-pens, and muzzles. I utilize a combination of all 3 with my 2 high drive girls. When we're relaxing at home watching t.v. the youngest goes in an ex-pen beside the couch. She usually has some toys in there to occupy her if she wants. When we leave the house the youngest 2 go in their crates. And I use their muzzles in all sorts of other situations. Every dog should ideally learn how to be confined and how to wear a muzzle because these are invaluable skills for a dog to have. Even if not required on a daily basis at home, you just never know when you will be in a situation that requires it.
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If your dog is that interested in inappropriate items and can break into storage, then I would muzzle him when he's not supervised. You may need a "muzzle keeper" as well to help keep it on if he's good at getting it off. Otherwise, I'd crate him when unsupervised if you can. My two younger dogs are crated or muzzled whenever they aren't being supervised. The one just tries to get into food and likes to destroy paper/plastic (but doesn't ingest anything thankfully), the youngest destroys almost anything she can get her teeth on and will often ingest pieces). The youngest is 18 months and the other is 5, but neither will probably ever really be trustworthy to leave loose without a muzzle on. That's just who they are and the safest thing is to contain or muzzle them for their own safety since they will pick up all sorts of random things... and we can't remove everything from our home!
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I am always a huge proponent of training your dogs. Some greyhounds can require a little more creativity to motivate, and especially the retired racers have to "learn to learn" as I say. A 12 month old will probably be easier in that regard... but also maybe not as it sounds like she maybe hasn't really had any form of training that even the retired racers get (leash walking, handling, etc).
As greysmom says, if she's outgoing and confident, I'd sign her up ASAP for a fun, positive training class to start. If she's a bit shy and you have some dog training experience then I'd just start at home. I've fostered a number of dogs, and regardless of personality I always start them right away (that said, I've never had an outright spook who was afraid of me, so that would be a different situation of course) with the basics. I'd start with stay, recall, down, and leash walking as your basics. If she really struggles with the concept of training, then I would maybe start with just a nose touch until she gets used to the idea that you are trying to get a behaviour from her.
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Yeah, three of my four are muzzled. It can be done. The problem with standing is that the object of interest might not move either!
And if it does... WOO BOY!
I do not allow my dogs to stare at prey. Other things that they are interested in (especially if they are a bit uncertain) I will stop and let them look until they are ready to move on. But with prey, you're just allowing them to fixate which generally makes them worse.
I'm not really sure what you would do with a dog that is really not food motivated. I carry a few super high value treats with me on walks (good in case a rabbit appears, good in case there's a loose dog that approaches and need to buy some time to get away from it, good in case there's a leash or collar failure and need a recall reward) and if prey appears, I ask for attention. Generally they are reluctant at first to break their gaze from the prey and just glance at me quickly before looking back again. But once they get a taste of the steak they start to voluntarily give me their attention or at least when called.
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I'm so sorry for your unexpected loss.
I enjoyed hearing about her coming out of her shell. Run free. -
As a vet, I frequently use Metacam and Tramadol for arthritis pain relief (on top of a joint supplement or joint diet and Cartrophen/Adequan injections). However, I think I'm going to move more towards just gabapentin as a first line drug after using it on my own 12 year old recently. He really slowed down in the past 6 months or so, and while his bloodwork is good, his kidney values have been very slowly rising over the past 2 or 3 years so I was reluctant to start an NSAID like Metacam. I decided to try the Gabapentin, and because of his weight and the sizes of capsules I had in stock I ended up deciding to start with a very low dose (typically dose is 5-10 mg/kg every 8-12 hrs, but he's getting about 3 mg/kg every 12 hrs). I arrived home from work about 5:30 pm and gave him his first dose. 2 hours later I decided to take him for a walk, and was amazed that he trotted almost the entire way. A few days later I asked my boyfriend if he had noticed Summit moving better. My BF doesn't really have a whole lot to do with the dogs (he loves them, but he's just not really involved with their day to day care) so he said he hadn't especially noticed anything. 2 weeks later while I was out of town, he calls me and tells me that he's amazed how much better Summit is... that he's running around throwing a toy in the backyard and trying to chase the girls.
So, suffice it to say I'm a big fan and I'm going to try using gabapentin on its own with my arthritic, older patients more frequently.
But that said, Metacam and Tramadol should work pretty great. You should probably notice a difference in under a week.
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Welcome from Edmonton!
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I've raised 2 greyhound pups from 8 weeks for the primary purpose of agility (outside of just being a beloved companion). I always try to give them as much exercise as possible, but it is often broken up into short, frequent training/play sessions. We do lots of training in the backyard and longer running in other larger locations. I try to give my dogs a solid free run at least once a week, but the younger pups are generally daily. I basically allow my pups to determine their activity. The only real restrictions I make are on highly concussive or repetitive activities. No jogging until 12-13 months (with no real distance until 15-18 months), no jumping or weave poles until 13-15 months. Everything else I allow my pups to do as much as they want, but I enforce periodic breaks.
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Seems to me as if the food aggression will vanish once people stop trying to take his food while he's eating.
Is this REALLY something groups consider abnormal? That a dog can "fail" a test like that and therefore be what, unadoptable? As long as someone who understands canines adopts this dog, I don't understand why this is even an issue.
Because you never know when human error is going to come into play.
1. I have a friend over who has a child. I don't have children so I don't really think of the safety issues regarding a dog and child (this is obviously a made up scenario since I'm ridiculously overprotective of my dogs regarding children even though I don't have any) and the child touches the dog's food bowl, or maybe even just walks/crawls by as he's eating.
2. I go to feed the dog, put the bowl down, and just as he's about to start eating I remember "oh wait, he's going to the vet today and he's supposed to be fasted". In the panic of the moment, I forget myself (because I'm human) and reach down to take away the bowl of food.
3. The dogs are being fed apart, but I'm human and today I forget to close the baby gate. The other dog finishes first, walks out of the room where she is because I forgot the gate, and walks by the other dog who is finishing eating.
So many possible accidental scenarios. Yes, understand that a dog may always have food guarding tendencies. But I don't think that makes it acceptable to just ignore the issue if it's possible to resolve it. If attempts are made and the dog can't be retrained, then yes, pure management is the way to go. But personally, I wouldn't want to deal with a dog that guards its food. There are lots of "normal dog behaviours" that we don't accept... I don't see why a potentially dangerous behaviour is any different. I don't let my dogs jump up, I don't let them nuisance bark, I don't let them destroy things around the house, I don't let them potty in the house, I don't let them indiscriminately chase prey. We shape dog behaviour in so many ways for far less. Resource guarding isn't something I would just let slide without having a go at it. I don't think it makes the dog unadoptable by any means, and whoever adopts this dog is going to have to remember that he has a resource guarding issue (or tendency if it can be improved/resolved with training), but that doesn't mean that it's an okay behaviour and we should just ignore it.
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Some good advice so far. This is how I work puppies to *prevent* resource guarding, but it should also work for a current resource guarder.
Place his empty food dish in front of him at dinner time. Place 1 piece of kibble into his bowl and allow him to eat it. When he looks at you like "what the heck?" place another kibble in his bowl and allow him to eat it. Repeat at nauseum until you're bored, then pour the remaining food into his dish and allow him to eat in peace with you standing nearby (at a distance that does not cause anxiety or agitation). Do this as many times as necessary to get him excited about your hand moving into his bowl to place kibble in it.
The next step should only be done once he's really happily anticipating your hand near his dish in the step above. You should also use some caution at first with this one. I recommend starting by just dropping the food into the dish from a safe distance until you can gauge his reaction. For this step you place his empty dish in front of him at dinner time. Place a handful of kibble in his dish. As he is eating it place (drop) a piece of something extra tasty into his dish, like a piece of cooked chicken, steak, or hot dog. This teaches the dog to be happy about your hand near his bowl even while he is eating because you just might be giving him something better. Again, drop the food from a safe distance at first! As he gets more comfortable you can move towards actually placing your hand in the bowl to deliver the treat, but with a known resource guarder I would carefully take my time to work up to this. If you have a fake hand that you could balance the treat on to deliver it into the bowl at first, I'd do that. Do not start to move closer to the bowl until he's totally happy about you getting closer... that means no snapping, no growling, no panic gulping of food, no whale eye.
I also would NOT do treat training - that might reinforce anxiety over food.
I would disagree with this. I would not give him chews and bones that he can guard. But I would absolutely train this dog. Training helps to build a trusting relationship between human and hound, and part of the issue in resource guarding is a lack of trust/understanding regarding the resource. Hand feeding (as you typically do when training) can also be helpful for resource guarders. In general training treats are eaten so quickly and are not eaten out of a bowl, so it is hard for the dog to guard them in the first place. I would NOT give this dog treats in the presence of another dog. I would train him separately and any treats that he gets should be given when he is alone... no side by side training.
A few weeks is not long enough - it may take a few months. I had a food aggressive boy for a few weeks but it was not long enough for him to completely trust me - he would bite the hand. He made progress but, not enough to be adopted by just "anyone" and luckily, he was eventually adopted by a trainer who could deal with the issue.
As Greysmom said, he needs to learn to trust and that means just giving him the food and no testing, let him get comfortable and not feel like the food is going to be taken away. Let him eat by himself and keep everyone away. When you do feed, keep a long leash on him (not holding it) just so you can move him away from dish if necessary. I also would NOT do treat training - that might reinforce anxiety over food.
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Most vets generally recommend around 6 months, prior to the first heat cycle. I don't spay my dogs until after their growth plates close because of agility. Spaying before the growth plates have closed results in them staying open longer, which tends to result in slightly taller, lankier dogs and can change the angle of their joints. This is more pronounced in large breed dogs that grow a lot longer after 6 months. It also delays when I could start jumping full height and teaching weave poles potentially. Kili was spayed at 2.5, just before her second heat cycle. Kenna will stay intact at least as long, potentially longer as I may consider breeding her if I can drag my butt through enough shows to get her championship.
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It depends on the dog. Kenna is 17 months old and she is still crated or in an ex-pen when she's not directly supervised. She is reliably housetrained, but she will get into anything that she can find. Kili can be left out when not directly supervised, but she can't be left loose when no one is home because she will also sometimes still look for trouble to get into. I know puppies that were out of their crates at 6 months old... house trained and reliable to not make a mess or ingest anything they shouldn't. It all depends on the individual. I would say that I wouldn't trust any dog to be totally housebroken before 6 months old though.
I hope you can find some answers and some peace.
I prefer being down on the ground so I'm close to the dog's level, but both ways work.
Hi From Lancashire, Uk
in Introductions & Biography
Posted
A lot of greyhounds go grey very early on. My 5.5 yr old started life with a half mask over one eye. It began fading at 1 yr old, and now it doesn't even cover her eye anymore. Her sister went from a full mask to basically just ear caps in 2 years.
The eyes will tell you more about the age. Noticeable cloudiness doesn't usually begin until after 8-9 years of age. Some dogs develop cataracts, but even dogs that don't will have lenticular sclerosis, a normal age related condensing of the lens which gives a grey-blue cloudiness (compared to the milky white of cataracts).