krissy
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Posts posted by krissy
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Thank you Krissy, your post made me feel a lot better. I think the problem is that I tend to over think things way too much. I've just been feeling really guilty about leaving her alone so much, but I guess the truth is that most people work full-time and leave their dogs home. My next door neighbors are at work all day and their labrador just sits in the backyard, even when they are at home. I'm going to give her more time, because I know a lot of other people in my class that have dogs and make it work. Thanks again!
We all over think things... I think it's the one commonality among vet students. Of course, thinking too much can be bad... probably the number 1 reason I get questions wrong on exams. It can be tough to juggle everything... you just need to decide what YOU want and what your priorities are. If you want an internship and to become a board certified surgeon and it's all about being the most amazing, well-known vet ever... well social, romantic, and outside of work life are going to suffer. But some people want that and are willing to accept the sacrifices. Personally, I want to be a good vet. It's very important to me. But I also want to enjoy my life. I want to be an all rounded person. I want to spend time with my family and friends, I want to go places with my dog, I want to play sports, I want to read a book that has nothing to do with medicine every once in awhile. So I'll take a tiny hit to my marks by taking time out from studying to do some of the above. An hour a week for dog classes, an hour for hockey, an hour to watch t.v. with my boyfriend... to cook dinner....
I've had people tell me that they won't have a dog until they retire because it's not fair to leave one at home for an 8 hour work day. That's how they feel so they have to do what's right for them. My point of view is that most dogs sleep most of the time and if no one had a dog unless they didn't have to leave it for more than 1 or 2 hours a day... well, we'd have even more dogs in shelters needing homes. Just try to enrich her life as best you can. There are some dogs that are high energy and demanding and may not be the best choice for a working lifestyle. There are also many dogs who are fine with it, and many more that can adapt to it given a bit of work. We're not there to see exactly what she's doing but it sounds like she just needs a bit of structure and a bit of time that is especially devoted to just her. I love training, so I'm a huge proponent of taking classes or even just doing it at home yourself. I think it's the single most important thing for a dog... possibly even more so than exercise.
Bleh... can you tell from my long winded posts that I'm procrastinating? I really can't wait to get this exam over and done with. If only they told you sooner than February whether you passed or not.
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Thank you for the replies everyone. It sounds like there is a simple fix for her aggression, which is to stop taking her to the dog park. What troubles me is that it seems like many of you are coming to the conclusion that I'm not spending enough time with her. Unfortunately with my demanding schedule, I'm doing all that I can to make her happy, and it seems like it still isn't enough. I really don't want to do this, but does everyone think it would be better for her for me to find her a different home? Thanks again to everyone who replies!
It all depends on the dog and your living situation. Do you have roommates? Friends or family who live nearby? I got my dog at one of the worst times. Start of third year. Start of surgical exercises. Start of having to be at school at 7 AM for surgery, stay until 5:30, back to check on surgical animals at 8PM every night before and after surgery (apparently animals have to be fed and walked
).I think you need to take a deep breath, calm yourself for a moment (I know that state of panic... I've been there) and try to reflect on the situation objectively. Is she truly too high energy? Or is it that even with the amount of exercise she is getting she needs some other outlet? Maybe a walk isn't enough for her. Try jogging with her. Trust me when I say that vet school (not so much first and second year) totally obliterates your exercise time. I used to play varsity frisbee, now I'm lucky if I can make it to intramurals once a week. But I HAVE to walk my dog so I'm guaranteed to get that exercise and I make the most of it (very brisk walks, long hikes when I can afford the time). I wish Summit would jog with me but he doesn't particularly enjoy it. My point is that if you HAVE to jog your dog for 20 minutes, you will, and not only does it benefit your dog, it'll also benefit you.
Take an hour out of your week and go to obedience class with her. You will build a better relationship with your dog, enforce that YOU are the leader, and give your dog mental stimulation. An hour a week for obedience class is nothing (trust me... it may not seem like it right now but we did classes all last year and it was the highlight of the week for both myself and my dog). See if one of your classmates has a dog they want to do classes with and go together. You don't really get to talk and socialize during obedience class but it sort of fulfills that social need as well. A friend of mine a year behind me in vet school took obedience and agility classes with us. Then every day use her breakfast or dinner kibble to work for 5 minutes on what you learned in obedience class. I still do this with Summit. It's fun to teach him new tricks... even useless ones!
I don't know of many greyhounds that are so high energy as to be demanding. There are some, but I think they're pretty few and far between. Are you spending enough time with her? That depends on what her needs are. If you devote a bit of time every day and every week to doing an activity that is just about you and her, then I think that's fine. I mean, how much time do I spend with MY dog? I walk him for 45 minutes in the morning, work on tricks for 5 minutes with his breakfast and then go to school and he sleeps all day. I leave him Kongs and other food dispensing toys as well. Even if I'm home like this week (study week!) he just sleeps in the bedroom while I study. He stays there until I tell him it's time for a walk. When I get home from school on a normal day I say hi to him, take him for a quick pee, and then I sit down to study. I feed him dinner at 6PM (5 minutes of tricks again) and then take him for a 30-45 min walk before bed. A few times a week I take him to the ball diamond to play a hard game of fetch or to run with another greyhound we know. Once a week we meet up with a larger group of greyhounds for an hour long run (and about 2 minutes of that are spent actually running).
You made the right choice of breed. You may have just gotten the wrong individual. Or you may just need to make some minor adjustments to channel her energy. It CAN be done. Vet school is not the end all of life... though it sometimes seems like it, and first year is the best year to add a pet and work out the details. Of course, if you really feel like she's too much and you're not spending enough time with her then let the school know and maybe they'll have some suggestions or another home waiting.
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My Mojo is not a good dog park dog. He's way too dominant with other breeds and is definitely not small-dog safe. However, he is a wonderful therapy dog. Even when he is working among other dogs, like at the library and kids are reading to the various dogs, it's a whole different situation. We have all different sized dogs there and it's in pretty close quarters, but IMHO it's because therapy dogs are confident and well-behaved and that attitude is just 'in the air'. You don't often get the dogs that are super-excited and in-your-face during therapy dog sessions. I don't know if I'm getting my point across very well, but it's just completely different.
You know, I really do think this is true. I also think that a dog knows when it is "work time" and are automatically focused on their jobs and not on the dogs around them. Summit has some reactivity to large, dominant non-greyhounds when we walk or go to the dog park (we go to walk the trails, he doesn't run around off leash with the other dogs most of the time). He just doesn't like rude behaviour or the automatic assumption by the other dog that they are more dominant than him. He also has a totally irrational aversion to huskies with blue eyes.
We went to Woofstock last weekend which is a huge dog fair in Toronto. Lots of vendors, TONNES of dogs, close quarters. One of the therapy dog groups was there so we stopped to discuss with them. They thought Summit was wonderful. Then much to my horror another volunteer showed up at the booth with... a husky with blue eyes. Normally Summit goes berserk as soon as he can tell they have blue eyes... he seriously turns into Cujo. I'm thinking "well here go our chances of being a therapy dog" but Summit sniffed the other dog and then actually wanted to play with him! I don't know if it was the change in scenery or this therapy dog's "air" but I have never seen him want to be friends with a blue eyed husky before. Throughout the course of the rest of the day we met several more blue eyed huskies, and wouldn't you know it he was fine with them to. Bet you the first one we see back at home again he goes crazy though.
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I sympathize. I adopted Summit at the beginning of last year when I was in my third year of vet school. I chose a greyhound because I wanted a quiet, low maintenance dog, and that's just what I got. Don't get me wrong, he's got some energy. He'll go for a 3 hour hike with me (you know, in the summer when I actually have time) but if I have to study he just sleeps. Which is great because final year is killer (I write my NAVLE next Tuesday so studying has been top priority).
Summit has some issues playing with non-greyhounds. I don't like to think of it as aggression. Most of the time his "aggressive" outbursts are simply appropriate responses to inappropriate behaviour. There are a lot of "friendly" dogs that are just very rude (innocently so in some cases) and Summit will tell them off for it. But he also doesn't understand that for other breeds the physical contact and bumping when running is perfectly normal, appropriate play. He doesn't often get to run off leash with non-greys for this reason. With the wrong dog he would end up in a fight. Do you have any greyhound groups in your area that could set you up with some other greyhound owners for play dates? We have a group that we meet up with every week.
You can also teach her to fetch. That'll give you an easy, quick way to burn some energy. I had to teach Summit from scratch about toys and fetching because he wouldn't even touch one when I got him. Now I take the Chuck It! out to a fenced ball diamond and we play fetch. If you check out my blog I have a post with videos showing how I taught him to fetch.
Best of luck! I totally sympathize. I don't know where you are but I assume the States. I'm not sure how it is down there but here first year vet school is when you will have the most time to do things and have fun. I remember being pretty stressed about grades and such at this point of first year but I also learned that my entire life didn't have to be studying. After first year all bets are off though!
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We walk first and eat later in this household. Well, *I* eat my breakfast first... the dog has to wait for his. If he's particularly frisky on our walk I'll often let him tear around in the backyard when we get home, or I'll play fetch inside with him for a few minutes. As such I don't like him to have eaten before our walk in case I decide he needs some exercise. If I do let him tear around a bit then I let him stop panting and then I wait another 30 minutes to feed him.
I have on occasion fed him first before a walk. There's usually a pretty specific reason though. If it's 8 AM on Sunday when I get up and I know we're going meet up for an off leash run at 1 PM then I feed him first so that I get the maximum amount of time between him eating and his run. If I fed him after our walk I'd be losing 45 minutes or an hour of digestion time. And our walks aren't usually vigorous anyway. Brisk, but certainly not strenuous.
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(of course, if I look at any dog or horse long enough I can make them lame).
My husband says the same thing about me
ha ha, I swear I must shoot laser beams from my eyes or something because they're not lame for anyone else.
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Are you sure she isn't limping at the walk? Summit has an on-again-off-again limp. It is mostly noticeable after a run (and only sometimes) but the very practiced eye will pick it up on certain days at the walk (of course, if I look at any dog or horse long enough I can make them lame). Just the slightest bit of a head bob. He also limps on it worse when it is cold I find. I've chalked it up to arthritis at this point because I have been unable to find anything in any of the joints including the shoulder. Of course, he's also so stoic it's hard to tell if I'm really getting no reaction. Just something to consider.
I hope the x-rays come back clean. Keep us posted!
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You can try taking him for short car rides on an empty stomach to try to get him used to the sensation... and with nothing in his stomach he should be less likely to actually throw up. I wonder too if you were to cover some of the windows if that would help at first. You'd think he must be used to car rides from being on the dog haulers, but they don't have windows for the dogs... do they?
You could also give him a bit of Gravol before a car ride. It'll make him drowsy and settle his stomach. If you call your vet they should be able to give you an appropriate dosage.
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I agree with those saying you shouldn't wait to start obedience training. You don't need a trainer or to take a class to teach basic obedience. I taught Summit all his basics and then enrolled him in a level 2 obedience class because I wanted to eventually do agility with him. I've never had a dog before I taught him to down, sit, wait, watch me, come, fetch, and roll onto his side all before I ever took him to class. If you've had dogs before you've probably had a trainer or been to a class before so you already know how to teach these basic commands. Just start working on them at home until you can find a class you want to go to.
We did level 2 twice. We did it here at home once and then over the summer we were out of town for a few months and I was looking for something to do with him, so we took another level 2 which ended up being a heck of a lot tougher than the original. We haven't done an obedience class since then but I continue to teach him things. Learning is life long.
Good luck!
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Summit has had one bath in the year that we've had him, right after we got him because he smelled like the kennel. He had a "half bath" in the spring when he lay down in a mud puddle and got his belly all covered in dirt.
Once a week is WAAAAY too often. If you want to bathe them more frequently than every few months make sure you use cold water. Aside from this being preferable for greyhounds because they tend to faint if you wash them with warm water, using cold water will also prevent their skin from drying out. Use a moisturizing shampoo/conditioner as well.
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So, should I be removing the boys' martingale collars? Right now they are the only collars they have and I haven't noticed anything that would warrant them being removed.
We do have tag collars on order, but planned on them wearing both. We take them in and out a lot so it never occurred to me to take the collars off!
A lot of people (myself included) remove the martingales in the house as a safety precaution. Martingales have a choking action in order to prevent them from slipping off, however, if that D-ring gets caught on something in the house (hounds have even been known to get a toe or foot caught in them when scratching) the dog will panic and pull away from whatever it is stuck to... but the collar will just get tighter and tighter. There are dogs that have strangled themselves to death after the martingale got caught. For that reason the martingale is only worn on walks and in the backyard when I am out there with him. He has a break away tag necklace that he wears 24/7 with all his tags in case he were to get loose. However, if it were to get caught on anything it will come apart so the dog won't hurt himself. My dog is microchipped so even without his tags he should be able to find his way home with the help of a vet clinic or shelter.
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Summit usually downs in almost perfect unison. But when he's being lazy he will go into a bow first in order to get a good stretch first and then drop his bum. Getting up is almost exactly in unison. He literally just pops up. Occasionally he'll come up bum first... again in order to stretch. Lazy dog.
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Summit stretches in both directions (front and back) at least once every time he gets up from a nap... sometimes even just to change positions. He stretches many times a day as a result.
Oh yeah, and sometimes he lets one rip while he's stretching. -
Guns and fireworks. We have tried thundershirts, rescue remedy... and I'm currently trying to find a desensitization cd.
Oh, and helium balloons.
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Summit gets a dehydrated duck or chicken foot every night, and has for the last year. We have seen no ill effects whatsoever. It's his special bed time snack. He gets his teeth brushed, his eye drops, and then he eats his duck foot and goes to sleep. I usually give the duck feet because they're a little more substantial, but I also buy the chicken feet from time to time to mix things up a bit.
I have no experience with overly sensitive tummies. Summit has never had a problem with these and absolutely loves them. We get them from Nothing Added.
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Every large to giant breed dog has an increased rate of osteo as compared to a miniature dog. Yes, Goldens get osteo. But 1/3 of Goldens don't get and die of osteo. They have other problems and other cancers that get them. Goldens just seem to get cancer in general, as do many other purebred dogs.
It's not like selecting for speed is the only way you can select for osteo. Golden Retrievers are one of the poster children for hip dysplasia. Something in their breeding has selected for hip dysplasia. But lots of other large breed dogs get hip dysplasia.
Many blue eyed white cats are deaf. Something about white coats and blue eyes is genetically linked to deafness. But not every blue eyed white cat is deaf.
Does that kind of clear up what I was saying? It is a POSSIBILITY (there is no paper out there with cold, hard facts yet) that in selecting for the fastest dogs, we have also inadvertently selected for dogs with a predisposition to osteosarcoma. It's just a theory right now.
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Dick I don't think anyone meant to imply you or other race owners do not care about these dogs.
There is though as was mentioned a business element to dog racing and if it was determined that specific lines had a marked increase in cases of osteo, but they were also known to produce top racers do you think that those involved in the breeding would do their best to stop using those lines or would the desire to produce a top racer win out. Taking it from the adopter's side I'd be interested in knowing if there were specific lines predisposed, but I hope I would not let it be a deciding factor in adoption. I think of all the greys on this board that have been lost to cancer, each one of them was loved dearly by someone. Every greyhound deserves a person who cares about them during their career and someone who will love and care for them in retirement no matter what kind of racer they were or how predisposed they were to certain ailments.
Actually, you may be on to something there. OSU is doing some studies into the genetics of osteo. One thought at the moment is that the genetics that predispose to speed are linked to genes that predispose to cancer. By selecting for dogs that are fast, we are also indirectly selecting for dogs predisposed to developing osteo. It has been shown that other traits are "linked" so it's not a crazy idea that speed is linked to osteo. We'll just have to stay tuned to find out.
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It was actually dribbling out? What was the quantity?
Male dogs have smegma. It often gets mistaken for pus. It's a yellowish-white colour and is often seen on prepuce (sheathe that hides the penis). But it doesn't really dribble. You just sometimes see a tiny amount stuck to the hair at the opening of the prepuce. This small amount is normal. Larger amounts, dribbling, bad odours would be abnormal and you'd want to get checked out by a vet.
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Wow, thanks everyone, lots of great advice here. Just to add a little information, this is not an established behavior but a new one. Maggie does get pretty excited when I first get home from being out in general but it has gotten a lot better in the last 6 months or so. I do the ignore, turn my back, etc. and that is slowly but surely helping to improve her behavior. So walking in the door after returning from a trip to the store or something is fine & improving. The NEW behavior is walk in the door after work only (she has been home alone during my 9-5 job time) is not too bad. The next step in the routine is to walk downstairs to the back door to let her out to potty. This is when she gets crazy. She is between me and the door and I stop, turn my back, and then just one little step towards the door sets her off. I have tried not letting her out right away, go upstairs to get changed first, then insanity happens upstairs in my bedroom. Then charging down the stairs...
@kudzu, I think you nailed it as far as understanding my situation and what I need to do. I think you are saying I should pretty much completely ignore her before letting her out in the yard until she is calm, however long that may take. FWIW, I am certain that this behavior is not due to an urgent need to potty since often she doesn't even do that on the first time letting her out.
Hi Meredith! Thanks as always for your ongoing advice. Umm, yeah, we have a long ways to go before that "go to your bed when mom gets to the door". That is extremely impressive though... *sigh*
@Brian, that your Daytona LIKED the spray bottle totally cracked me up!
@ greysmom, you are exactly right about my daughter. She will be doing this on her own next year so we definitely need to work on this together. We have about a year though so I think we can get through it just fine.
OK, long post from a newbie, I certainly appreciate ALL of your replies and any further comments are welcome. I agree with the no squirt bottle anymore, although I did get that idea from a GT post on a similar issue
Christine
Hmmm... does she know any behaviours you can ask of her? If she gets really excited I would ask her to lay down and wait. Then I'd open the door and tell her "Okay, go outside". The door only opens when she's laying down quietly. At first you might literally have to put her in a down and whip open the door as you say "okay" because she might not hold long enough. After a little while you can start to open the door slowly and if she pops up then you shut the door and put her back in a down. If you work up slowly you should be able to have the door wide open with a dog laying in front of it waiting.
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I agree with what everyone is telling you.
The thing about greyhounds (in my limited experience...we had a foster right before Summit) is that they don't know how to learn, at least not in the way that we mean it. Obviously every animal is always learning things for themselves and our dogs learned many things at the track. But they've never learned obedience and it's a whole new way of thinking. I find once they get it a little lightbulb goes on and everything becomes a lot easier. You just need to get that first behaviour under your belt.
For us we started with down. Sit is difficult for a greyhound to begin with, and especially one that doesn't understand what is going on. Teaching Summit to down took about 2 weeks to go from luring him under my leg to being able to just look at him, say the command, and down he went. Teaching him sit which was the second thing took him about a week to get pretty consistent with it. This summer when I taught him to shake a paw I literally did it in the 10 minutes before I had to leave for work. He's a pro star now and when I teach him something new (right now we've started "spin") I can see the little wheels in his head turning wondering "okay, what is she trying to tell me?".
Have you read the blog Never Say Never Greyhounds? She has some great posts on teaching a new greyhound how to lie down and sit. Never Say Never Greyhounds
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Your vet does know that greyhounds have low thyroid hormone levels, right? Did your vet run a TSH in addition to the fT4? That's very important in greyhounds since the fT4 is normally lower.
ETA: Weight gain is of course a sign of hypothyroidism, however, lots of other things cause weight gain.
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I've never used a squirt bottle on my animals, but I've also never had a behaviour that would have made me even have to entertain the notion. "Ah ah" or "tsssst" are usually discipline enough in this house.
The other thing I'm not sure was mentioned (I skimmed the other posts quickly) is that this is a happy, "good" behaviour. You WANT your dog to be happy, you want her to be excited you're home, you just don't want her to go totally nuts in showing that emotion. When I get home Summit jumps off the bed and comes out into the living room to greet me and say hello. He is happy I am home. He's excited I'm home. He doesn't jump, bark, or scratch me up. That is what you want. A CALM but happy, excited dog. If you start punishing your dog every time you walk in the door she may stop jumping up on you, but what you want is to stop the behaviour and not the emotion (for lack of a better word) that is causing the behaviour.
I think you'll get better results by ignoring the behaviour and rewarding her when all 4 feet stay on the ground. If that isn't quite working then you could add a verbal "ah ha" or "off" but that is as far as I would go with the "negative" training aspects. The squirt bottle will give you a faster result maybe and it can feel like it is taking forever and nothing is happening when you try to ignore an excited dog, but in the end you will have a calm dog that will still be happy when you walk in the door.
But I'm not expert because my dog is perfect (cough cough). lol
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After reading your post I got curious and googled "headphones for dogs", not really expecting anything much. What got me thinking was if your dog wore headphones you wouldn't have to hold the ipod all the time and also not worry about other people being bothered by the music. So I found these specially designed dog headphones: http://www.earplugstore.com/mumufordo.html. The headphones serve as noise reducer. While it's probably not the solution for your problem, I still thought it was at least an interesting idea. It would look silly, that's for sure, and it may not even be safe for a dog on a walk since he'd not hear things he needed to hear in an emergency nor your commands... however, I wonder whether this could help dogs indoors when freaking out over thunderstorms/fireworks/gunshots etc.
That's really neat. I think they'd be cool for dogs with thunder phobias when they're in the house. Summit could care less about anything when he's in the house.
I don't mind holding the ipod... it's kind of nice to have music on our walk, and there's never anyone around when we walk because it's usually at off hours from most of the other dogs in our neighbourhood (plus now that it's getting cold and dark a lot of people don't walk their dogs anymore... just let them out in their backyards).
I had thought about putting cotton balls in his ears, but I didn't like that idea because then he can't hear me either. And then that's when I got to thinking about music.
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Sorry, there's a lot of background to this before I actually get to my point....
Summit has this horrible gun and firework phobia. We adopted him a year ago in late October so both fireworks and shooting seasons were done. There was this one weird noise that happened in our neighbourhood from time to time that he was initially very frightened of when he heard it, but with a bit of training he came to not care about it. Other than that he was bomb proof.
Then the May 2-4 (Victoria day in May, for non-Canadian friends on the forum) hit and we experienced firecrackers for the first time with him. Complete, sheer, utter terror. Trying to run for home, pulling on the leash, refusing treats, not listening to simple command... your typical greyhound statue. Got a DAP collar... which if anything seemed to make his terror worse.... I'm not really sure how that is possible and maybe it was a coincidence but it sure didn't help. Got a Thundershirt which didn't seem to help much either. So when Canada Day (July 1) rolled around I just tried to not walk him after dusk to try to avoid possible firecrackers.
Fast forward to August. I take him to agility class and I hear the popping of distant gun fire. Summit doesn't seem to care. So I keep reinforcing his not caring by giving treats. about 15-20 minutes after arrive he SUDDENLY hears the gun fire and starts losing it. Total melt down. Puddle on the floor.
Moved to a different trainer in the outskirts in the other direction. Turns out there's a gun club there too. Again, total panic. Trainer suggests we try Rescue Remedy. So we do. That seems to decrease the need for flight but not much else. It basically just took the edge off.
But does he respond to the sound of fireworks or guns in the house? Nooooo. Guns on t.v., BF playing video games. Could care less. So much for my idea of playing YouTube videos and desensitizing him. But take him for a walk and now he hears things that sort of sound like gun shots (car doors shutting, that "popping" noise that car tires make on even spots in pavement, basketballs being bounced) and while he doesn't melt down you can tell he hears them and they get his attention. And sometimes he goes into flight mode over things I didn't even hear. The ears are straight up almost ALL the time when we walk.
When I worked in animal hospitals before I got into vet school I would sometimes sing to the recovering surgery animals or other animals that were really timid/scared/anxious. I'm no American Idol, but I've got a decent voice and like to sing. I found it really seemed to calm a lot of animals. So I started singing to Summit on our walks sometimes. But we walk briskly for up to an hour, which is really not conducive to singing. It did seem to make him less alert to his surroundings though, so I've started carrying my IPOD on walks. I hold it in my left hand with the leash so it's right about ear level for Summit. I crank the volume as loud as it'll go (which isn't very) and we walk. Amazingly he is SO much less at attention. The ears spend most of their time back in their normal neutral position as is more typical for him, and he hasn't freaked out over anything that I can't hear... yet. So my question is this... is there really a calming influence of music? Or am I just masking really faint sounds that only he could hear before, and now that he can't he has nothing to freak about?
P.S. I play random music on our walks. Most dance music and rock and roll, but sometimes musicals. I stay away from the classical just because it's not as loud, and not as interesting for me on a walk. It doesn't seem to matter what kind of music I play though.
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Turkey Neck And Giblets
in Food and dietary discussion
Posted
If you boil it make sure you strip the meat off the bones and don't give her the bones. Cooked bones splinter and can potentially cause serious problems.