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philospher77

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Everything posted by philospher77

  1. This came across my Facebook feed, and I figured other people might be interested. Drs. Sue Ettinger and Andy Roark are interested to learn about your experience when you found out your pet has/had cancer. Taking part in this survey is completely voluntary. Please scroll down to answer all questions. You may exit the survey without completing at any time. Your answers will be confidential and at no point in this survey will you be asked to identify yourself. Your survey responses will help veterinarians and veterinary oncologists improve how they communicate with pet owners in regards to cancer, and thus will improve patient care in the future. Thank you in advance for your participation in this survey. http://www.drandyroark.com/cancersurvey/
  2. My Katie was "walking oddly", and I took her to a rehab spot. They diagnosed her with extremely tight hip flexors and iliopsoas (it's the tendon/muscle group that turns the leg in), and taught me some stretches that I can do at home. it seems to really help, and we do the cold laser/acupuncture/PT as well. Today should be our last evaluation and I am going to see what they recommend about maintaining the progress at home.
  3. I've often wished that human insurance was as easy as Healthy Paws! I'm with you on the "knowing exactly what I am going to get back" bit.
  4. My Katie has generalized anxiety. I've had her on Prozac (generic) for years now, and it has made a huge difference. It does take a long time to get to therapeutic levels... I think they recommend giving it at least 4 weeks before you start deciding about whether you need to tweak the dosage or go to a different drug altogether.
  5. It's not something small. Life can be very hard for someone with a reactive dog, especially one that's leash reactive, because a lot of people are going to put the blame on you when it's really their dog's bad behavior that causes the situation. Having said that, here's just a few things to keep in mind. First off, your trainer is quite correct; whatever behavior the dog practices, he will get better at. Barking, lunging, and biting have gotten the scary dog to go away, so he is now much more likely to use those behaviors. If this is fear-based, your best bet is to try and keep as much distance between you and the other dog as possible. Learn to see the small signs of fear: panting, lip licking, sniffing the ground, ear position, and make space when you see those signs. I'd stop trying to get him to walk down that alley if at all possible. You want him to start practicing other behaviors that get him the same result: distance between him and the scary dog. Also, you need to understand the difference between counter-conditioning and rewarding. You reward a dog for performing a behavior that you want. You counter-condition to change a dog's emotional state. Here's an example. Think of something that you find scary. For me, it's heights. I'm the person standing way far back from any edge of a cliff. If someone was to give me really good chocolate whenever I am just slightly closer to the cliff edge than I really like, then I will eventually start feeling the good chocolate endorphins at that distance, instead of the stress hormones, because the body can't feel two things at the same time. So then you move to a distance where you can feel those stress hormones, and start feeding me chocolate there. The idea is that right now Charlie finds dogs scary. You want to change the emotional response to "dogs mean that treats rain out of the sky... I LOVE seeing other dogs out there!" That will take a while, but it can be done. I had a dog who would run and hide when ever she saw the dremel come out for nail trimming. Now, she comes running and begs to be picked up and get her nails done. Charlie may never be that comfortable with other dogs when he is on leash, but you just need him to be comfortable enough that you can manage the situation (i.e. no barking, lunging, or biting). So the short answer is: if he sees a dog and doesn't react, you want to be feeding treats. That can be from the moment you see the dog until the time you are far enough past that you don't think Charlie is going to react. Also, stress hormones can take days to fully dissipate out of the bloodstream. That's why having something set him off at the beginning of a walk is making him more reactive for the rest of the walk. He really can't help it. It's a survival instinct, once exposed to something scary, to be on the lookout for it for some time in the future. In those situations, you need to try and make sure that the rest of the time is as calm and serene as you can make it. Alter you path, or in a really bad meltdown, I might just go back home. And then there is "stress stacking"... the idea that lots of little stresses can cause a small issue to become so big that you blow up at something entirely out of proportion. Think of the day that you snap at someone for not putting the lid on the mustard right, after having a bad day at work and getting cut off in traffic and the waiter messing up your lunch order and the copier running out of ink in the middle of printing the big presentation you needed. None of those things on their own would cause that reaction, but enough of them in a short enough time will make that last little thing just too much. These links might be helpful in explaining some of the concepts: http://www.training-your-dog-and-you.com/Desensitizing_and_counter-conditioning.html http://drsophiayin.com/videos/entry/counter-conditioning_a_dog_to_blowing_in_face (an awesome example of counter-conditioning in action) http://yourdogsfriend.org/spoon-theory-and-funny-dog-gifs/
  6. Ignoring the jumping will help, but you really need to be working on what you DO want him to do instead. Sit? Down? Spin in circles? Dance in place? Whatever it is, work on putting that on cue in a nice quiet calm environment, then work on it in a higher distraction environment, then by the door, so that when you come in and out you can tell him what behavior you want and reward him for that behavior. As to the door dashing: Have your dog sit (or down) and wait while you go through, and then call your dog to you and reward in front of you (petting and praise, if that is what the dog finds rewarding). (Basically, you want the dog to go out and do a u-turn so his head is at your knee/chest.) I'd start that at interior doors and work your way up to exterior ones.
  7. Katie hasn't caught a bird, but did scarf down a dead one that had flown into the sliding glass door. Apparently the feathers didn't agree with her, because she then spent the rest of the night throwing up, and re-eating, the bird, especially one wing that seemed to be the most problematic. And no, she wouldn't let me just clean it up... it was hers and she wanted it! Gophers don't cause as much tummy trouble, but still do a little. She's caught one of those (maybe two... if she did on the second one, she ate it outside), and is quite pleased with herself when she does!
  8. Just a thought about the light: one of my dogs is frightened, as far as I can tell, of shadows. She doesn't mind me holding a flashlight, or seeing the light, but if something causes a shadow, she will try and avoid the beam. Moving it also bothers her, quite likely because that makes shadows. Don't know if this is what happened with your guy, but thought it was worth mentioning.
  9. With this being a sudden-onset situation in an 11-year-old dog, you really NEED to get a vet to look at the situation and rule out physical causes. I know that it may be stressful to do that, but I would rather deal with a one-time situation than to try treating this behaviorally for weeks or months and then learn that there is an underlying medical issue that is causing it. Your vet may be able to recommend someone who could come to your house to see your dog and determine if it appears to be medical or not, if they don't do house calls themselves.
  10. Hello! Katie figured out how to use the dog door! She's still not the fastest at it, but I think that's at least partly because she likes to stop in doorways to scope out the situation before going out. If anyone ever is trying this with their dog, I found the trick to be putting really good treats JUST barely outside the door, on the sill, so that she could smell them and used her nose to poke through and get them. Then it was just a matter of leaving a trail further out, and voila, she walked out. Here's entirely gratuitous video. https://youtu.be/KjpFZgOvdKU
  11. The door is 23 X11, and she will go through it with just a little "gathering of courage" (come up, circle away, come back and go through), for which she is currently getting treats. It's the pushing and the brushing of the plastic that is getting to her right now. And it doesn't help matters that little Pixie has no problems with the door, especially when treats are involved! That makes it a bit hard to get Katie out, since Pix will hog the limelight as much as she can in that situation. But yep, I figure with time, she will get used to it. And Pixie was the one with the issues when the day goes late, so I am hopeful that this will all eventually work out.
  12. Hello! I just recently put in a dog door, since I can work long hours, sometimes unexpectedly, and feel it is unfair to make the dogs wait to relieve themselves on my schedule. The rat terrier has learned to use it to the point where she has actually gone out on her own. Katie-the-greyhound, on the other hand, will use it if I hold the flaps open for her, but doesn't seem to like the feel of the flaps brushing her as she goes through them. I am currently working on reinforcing her for using the door, and doing "touch" at it, to get the idea that she can in fact push it open, and feel that with time she will eventually get the idea, especially if Pixie keeps using the door. Katie is a much less confident dog, so I figured it would take her longer. So... any tips on helping her get used to this? And what's the longest time that it has taken your dog to master this?
  13. My first grey died of osteo. I have't ever actually added up the exact amount I spent on her, but between that and lumbar-sacral stenosis, it was well over 10K, maybe even over 20K. It's harder to track when it's lots of little recurring 100 visits, instead of one super expensive one. So, my second grey I got pet insurance, and went with Healthy Paws because they are one of the few that cover bilateral issues, and Katie had already been diagnosed with pannus in the right eye, but not the left. I debated about putting Pixie on it, because what are the odds that she comes down with something as devastating as osteo, being a non-grey? But I decided it wasn't fair to only cover one dog, so I got her some too. And wouldn't you know it, after waiting out the exclusion time (they delay when the coverage starts, so you can't just sign up right before surgery), I take Pixie to the vet with some concerns about how she's walking, and get told that she needs bilateral knee surgery. At a cost of 3-4K, per leg. I crossed my fingers when I sent that to HP for review to see if they would cover it or not, since I was struggling with seeing how I could cover both legs. One leg... that would be rough, but doable. Both legs? That would start hitting my emergency funds, and I wasn't sure that I wanted to do that. But HP came back, said it wasn't pre-existing, and yes, they would cover both. I figured once that, with something like a 4% increase per year in premiums, it will be 13 years before they get the money back that they paid out for Pixie's surgeries. Add in the emergency visits because she WILL eat things she shouldn't when the regular vet is closed, and the months we spent trying to clear up an eyelid infection, only to find out she had the dog version of MRSA and apparently also has an autoimmune issue going on, and she is winding up to be an expensive pet! But they have been really good about paying what they say that they will, no questions or roadblocks. Just submitted my latest bill today, since she had a skin growth removed that suddenly decided to start getting bigger and changing size. Katie, on the other hand, hasn't ever met her deductible. I'm ok with that, too!
  14. Here's the link to the titer discussion I mentioned earlier. It's interesting, but generally restates stuff that has already been mentioned. Although the blogger does say that generally, a high titer can be taken as evidence of immunity for most of the things that we vaccinate our dogs against. The issue appears to really come down to what to do about dogs with low titers, who may or may not be immunized. http://skeptvet.com/Blog/2014/12/antibody-titer-testing-as-a-guide-for-vaccination-in-dogs-and-cats/comment-page-1/#comment-106378
  15. Just read a fascinating discussion of this. Which has left me even more confused, and I am waiting to see if there is a response to my comment. The issue appears to be that high titers will, at least for some diseases, be evidence that there is immunity. However, for other diseases, it is still possible to become ill, even with high titers. And the flip side is true: some dogs with low titers will be immune to diseases, while others won't. So this vet is saying that they aren't that useful for predicting who is immune and who isn't, so he suggests vaccinating at 5-year intervals. Ok. So, my question to the vet on which I am awaiting a response is, since apparently titer values don't correlate to protection levels, and the only way to truly tell if the dog is immune is to try and infect it and see what happens... why should I trust a 5 year vaccine schedule, or a 3 year one, or a one year one? Since the entire point of vaccines is to boost the number of antibodies, it seems like the same issues hold. If you titer, at least you have some idea of what the antibody levels are. If I just blindly vaccinate, I could be vaccinating a dog that has a high number of antibodies, or a low number. I just don't know. And I have no way of knowing if the dog is protected between the vaccination time points.
  16. I recently posted this to Facebook when someone else was asking about dealing with firework phobias. It's about how one person dealt with a thunderstorm phobia, and gives you an idea of what you can expect, including the amount of time it's going to take. It also has a link to someone else's "bunker protocol", which may also be helpful. http://eileenanddogs.com/2014/04/03/dog-thunderstorm-phobia-fear/ And yes, short term I would see about drugs to get her back to an even keel, and also minimize her stress for at least a week. That's how long it takes for the stress hormones to leave the body, and anything else stressful that happens is going to be felt more keenly during that time.
  17. This may all be covered under that "puppy class" heading, but here's my two cents: How to teach a greyhound to learn. It took quite some time for Katie to get the idea that she could influence my actions. Without the greyhound understanding that, training can be frustrating. Canine body language, including why growling is just another form of communication. I see way too many people treating scared dogs as "stubborn", and think that a session on body language and emotional states should be a part of all training classes. As to sitting... I think that a greyhound can learn to sit. I also think that it is unfair to ask them to hold that position for extended times. They just aren't built for it to be comfortable in that position for a long time, and a down or stand can serve many of the same uses as a sit.
  18. One thing you may want to ask yourself is "why do I want to teach my dog to sit?". If it's just because "all dogs should know how to sit on command", then I might just let it go for awhile and let the dog settle into the house, learn the routines, and watch the pug do it (if you still have the pug). Seeing another dog be rewarded for doing something can be a huge incentive to learning! I have taught Katie to sit, but had the advantage that she was a natural sitter. She will even "sit pretty" (beg) for very brief moments, since I don't want to try and keep her up on those back legs too long.
  19. If you are looking for videos, I like Kikopup. She's got a YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-qnqaajTk6bfs3UZuue6IQ Covers the basics, and then a lot of fancy tricks. I would also recommend finding a good, positive-reinforcement based trainer in your area to work with. Doing things in person can make a lot go smoother, and, personally, I find dog training fun.
  20. Here is a good article about "what to look for in a therapy dog". The comments are also enlightening. The most important characteristic (or at least what most people seem to agree on) are that a therapy dog has to like people... by which we mean all people, not just immediate friends and family. A dog who is "good with people", but doesn't think everyone he meets is an instant friend, can "do" therapy work, but it will be much more stressful for the dog. I think of it this way: I like getting together with my friends, having a good talk over dinner, etc. I will go to work functions and professional society events to network, but it's work... I have to force myself to do it, and am very happy when I can leave. A dog with the same temperament will be able to do therapy work, but they won't love it, and that's what you are looking for. http://www.patriciamcconnell.com/theotherendoftheleash/therapy-dogs-born-or-made Hope this helps!
  21. Always try and watch a training class and talk to the trainer before enrolling. It is entirely possible to have a class with mixed sizes, drives, and issues and have it work out, IF the class is set up correctly and the trainer knows what they are doing and has the appropriate assistance. Visual barriers do wonders, and help the reactive dogs learn to control their behavior in the presence of the trigger. I've been in classes with dog-reactive dogs, high prey-drive dogs, and scared dogs, and never had a problem. I've been in a class with both a dog-reactive pit, and a human-aggressive pit (two different dogs), and not had any issues. I will say that I have not done PetSmart classes... I wouldn't want to try starting an obedience class in an area with such a high distraction level. I'd take private (as in someone not at PetSmart) classes first to get the foundation down, and then use a PetSmart class to help proof the behavior, if you wanted to do that.
  22. High-value treats tend to equal people food. String cheese, bits of chicken, bits of hot dogs, that sort of thing. I have very food-motivated dogs, and they will work for kibble in the house and yard and relatively familiar areas, but I up the value in new distracting ones.
  23. The trainer I use distinguishes between two different recalls: an everyday one and an emergency one. You ALWAYS lavishly reward the emergency recall, which should be some word that you don't use in everyday life. Foreign words work great for this, but it can be anything that you want. The emergency recall is the one you use when your dog is in danger and you need him back NOW. The easiest way to start training this is to have your dog in a stay before mealtimes, release from the stay and say your emergency recall word as you put the food down. The dog comes to you and gets a jackpot reward that way. Then you go through all the steps described above, with the highest value rewards that you can find. The everyday recall is the kind of thing described previously, because you know that there will be some day that the dog just happens to find whatever its doing much more interesting than coming to you, and that way your emergency recall isn't degraded when that happens. And having done all that, it still depends a lot on the dog. Katie will recall reasonably well, but I wouldn't ever trust her off-leash because of her fear issues. Pixie, who is less timid but still somewhat fearful, has an awesome recall, and I am currently working her off-leash in certain highly-controlled areas. She thinks recall games are incredibly fun, which is one reason I am willing to try her off-leash.
  24. HP doesn't cover dental care unless it's a result of accident or illness. And Katie has awful teeth, even for a greyhound. This last time was not "normal", because of the number of teeth that got pulled and which ones: 2 carnassials (which are the really big ones that look like mountains and take a lot of time to pull since they need to be cut in half first), two molars, and two premolars. So I was expecting the bill, but still wish that HP would cover it. They don't, because it's routine care and if they did they would have to raise their rates. So it's a tradeoff.
  25. Alicefish- don't rush step one. Dogs are smart, but it can take greyhounds a bit to realize that they can influence what you do. Once your dog realizes that his/her actions can make you do things (i.e.: reward him/her), the speed at which you can train will dramatically increase. And your dog will start voluntarily doing behaviors to see what will make you react, which is a lot of fun to work with. I would suggest adding a marker of some sort in step 1. So instead of just treating, do a "yes!" and treat. Dog learns that "yes!" means good things happens, and then you can use that marker with other things that you want to reinforce (walking well on leash, greeting politely, sitting, balancing treats on nose, whatever you set your mind to).
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