philospher77

Just curious on the "away phrases" that other people use.... am I am the only one who actually tells the pets when I am coming back? My general announcement to the house when I am leaving is "I'll be home at X". I'll be back for lunch, I'll be back for dinner, I'll be back in a couple hours, I'll be home for lunch late (on days that I have meetings that mess with my regular routines), etc. Generally followed by "you all be good girls til then!" I don't know if animals really do pick up on our mental images, but if they do, that is supposed to give the dog an image of when you will be back, so that they don't worry about you just leaving.

I haven't read the other replies, and don't know the whole back-story, but based on what I saw, I'd be looking into getting a doggie-door if I could. I got the impression that she didn't want to go inside the house, but, since she couldn't get out, did. So, my questions would be: 1. Is she getting a chance to fully relieve herself before you leave? 2. Is this new, and has she been checked for UTIs? 3. Does it happen at roughly the same time? In other words, is it a matter of getting your schedules to mesh? You want her to go at 8, she'd rather go at 9... There is some whining on some of the tapes, but I am not seeing a whole lot of stress signs, and the whining was off-camera, so I can't be sure what was going on there.

How long have you had her, and is this a new behavior? If it's "a long time" and "yes", I'd say "vet visit". Rule out whether she is reacting out of pain before simply not allowing her on the couch.

My Katie has a very sensitive tummy, so what I do is this: when I get down to the last third of the bag or so, I start mixing the new kibble into the bag, at a ratio of half a serving size. Assuming I have something around 15 cups of kibble left, it's add 1 C, mix, take 2 C out, then add 1 C, mix, take 2 C out. The first few days, there may not be more than a few stray pieces of the new kibble in the meal. But as the level of kibble gradually drops, the amount of new kibble will go up in each serving, until the last serving is almost all new kibble. It works for me, and is much easier than trying to figure out how much of each to add, especially if the serving sizes are different.

Just thought I would chime in with my recent experience. I adopted a stray rat terrier back in June, and had been debating pet insurance, even before getting her, because of Trinkett's osteo bills. After reading up on several, I decided to go with Healthy Paws, since it will cover bilateral conditions, and Katie has pannus in one eye already. I was, as I said, mostly concerned about the potential for cancer in Katie's future, but, given the costs, decided to cover both dogs. Guess what? Pixie, the little stray that I have had all of 6 months now, just was diagnosed with severely luxating patellas on both sides. The vet (and the two other opinions I got), are recommending surgery, at an estimated cost of $3,800. Per leg! Got the phone call from the insurance on Wednesday: there's no mention of it in her (admittedly skimpy) records, so it's not pre-existing, so they will cover it at the 90% after the deductible. Could I have covered this out of savings? One leg, would have been painful but possible. That would just mean delaying some long term projects even longer. Both legs? That would involve raiding the emergency fund as well. Would I have done that? Probably, since it's better than having a dog with a painful, degenerative condition. But it would mean a huge hit to the lifestyle for the next couple of years as I built those funds back up. I am much happier knowing that the insurance will cover most of it!

You said that she growled when you were "tickling her on her chest". Was this a right-away thing, or had you been petting her for a while and then it happened? I know that cats can get over-stimulated by petting, so I am wondering if that is happening with her. If it is, the only real way to handle it is "pet less". I have taught Katie to give an "initiator signal", so that I can tell if she wants to be petted or not. It's pretty simple: teach your dog the Touch command, where you present your hand and they touch it with their nose. Now, when you want to pet her on her bed, ask for Touch. If she gives it, go ahead and pet. If she doesn't, then (and, I will admit, this is very hard) you don't pet. Stop every so often while petting to give her a chance to tell you whether to go on petting (yes to the Touch) or if she has had enough (ignores the Touch). This may be a useful skill to teach your girl. Here's a relatively short video that shows it in action:

Canned cheese is your friend. Katie has required some serious counter-conditioning to "life" (just about everything was spooky for her), and the canned cheese is portable, easy to use, and apparently very tasty. Name brand is better, in my opinion, to generic. If you are going to be working in your yard, you might try wrapping the leash around your waist. That frees up your hands for rewarding with, and it limits the amount of your tension, etc., that passes down the leash, so it can take that part out of the equation while you are laying the groundwork. As she gets better, it will help reinforce your positive reactions as well, so you will be able to go back to holding the leash at some point without subconsciously tensing up. Or not... I am finding my dogs actually seem to behave better on walks when they are on hands-free leashes, so that's how they get walked. And finally... my Pixie-pup is mildly leash-reactive towards other dogs, and I have been working on "look at that" with her. Which is basically what other people have described. The main difference between that and having the dog focus on you is that you reward the dog for looking at "item that sets them off" and back to you for guidance on how to react. I have found with Pixie that, when she sees/hears a dog that she's going to snark at, there is the briefest glance back at me first. That's when you say "Yes!" reward, continue on Pixie looks at dog back at me "Yes" reward continue. She's learned real fast that looking at dogs quietly is a good way of getting lots of treats for that stretch of the walk. Since yours sounds like a frustrated greeter more than a fearful or aggressive dog, either version (look at that or look at me) will probably work. Look at THAT tends to work better than Look at ME for scared dogs, because if you are scared of something, you want to know where it is so that it can't creep up on you, and thus Look at ME can be stressful for them. Hope that helps!

Have you tried "101 things to do with a Box"? That is a clicker game that teaches your dog to learn, and is what finally got Katie to "get" the idea of training. Part of the problem with greyhounds is that they don't understand the entire "if my human asks me to do something, and I do it, good things happen" idea. The basic idea of 101 things is to take a box (or any other unique item you don't mind your dog playing with) and put it on the floor in a room with you, your dog, a clicker, and lots of yummy treats. Now, click and treat the dog for ANYTHING that they do with the box. Sometimes, to start with, that's just "looking in the general direction of the box". I had to cheat with Katie and actually bait the box with treats to start with. You are NOT trying to get the dog to do anything in particular. You are trying to get them to learn "I do something, and I can make my person click and reward me for it". Once they get that idea, it becomes much easier to train, since your dog is actively trying to figure out what it needs to do in order to make you click. It may take several days of the box game before it really sinks in, and you have to be lavish with clicking anything that the dog does. But it is awesome when you see that "ah ha!" moment sink in. Hope this helps!

I will let others answer in detail, but it sounds like your dog may have separation anxiety. You may be able to teach him that he CAN be alone and survive, which would make him less clingy. Or getting a second dog (particularly a greyhound) might be a solution. You have to understand that these dogs (assuming he's an ex-racer) have never been alone, so they need to be taught that. Some pick it up better than others.

I think that Cesar could be an awesome trainer if he ever got rid of the entire "all dogs are out to rule the world" dominance theory blinders. His timing is excellent, he can come up with some really good ideas, but there is SO much of dog behavior that he doesn't see or get because the dog is not responding the way he "thinks" it should. This link gives an excellent look at one of his episodes, what he did and said, and what a person skilled in reading dogs would have seen. http://wildewmn.wordpress.com/2012/09/16/pushed-too-far/

Just wanted to add, here, that it does depend on why you are at training. For me, it's less about the 'obedience' aspect, as that can be done at home, and more about the socialisation aspect - introducing my greys to the concept that other dogs aren't necessarily food or dangerous. So for anyone else reading the thread who wants to socialise their greys, a good mixed breed obedience class can be a great place as long as the trainer understands that you are just going to be 'hanging around' and doing some of the exercises and not all of them. Yep. I've done both. Privates are great for working on specific issues, or if you need help with major management issues. I used them with Katie at first, since I was having to learn how to handle a spook, and that's not something you can do in class! Classes are great for learning to concentrate around distractions, and for the social aspects. They both have their place.

Unfortunately it's a local class (J9sK9s, down in Canoga Park, CA). But if you were looking for something similar, I'd see if I could find a Control Unleashed trainer in your area. Or at least one that says that dog training should be fun in their ads/websites. And then, go watch some classes, and see if people are having fun or not.

Hi! For people who think that training classes are boring or repetitive, here's what I have done recently in my Advanced "Fun and Games" Obedience Class: 1. Mini agility course 2. "Dog treat race": Owner sucks a light-weight dog treat onto the end of a straw, and walks their dog to an orange cone and tries to drop the treat in the hole in the top. The person with the most treats in the cone in the time period "wins". (Pixie did well with her walking, I did "not so good" with getting it in the hole. She quite enjoyed that game!) The idea is to distract the owner from what the dog is doing, to see how well the dogs do loose-leash walking when they aren't being micro-managed. The answer: very good. 3. Tennis ball catch: Teams of two. Put your dog into a down-stay. Blindfold one owner, and give them a bunch of tennis balls. The other owner stands some distance away, with a butterfly net. The blindfolded person throws the balls, the other person catches them. If a dog breaks the down-stay, you have to stop until they are back down. The team with the most balls "wins". This works your dog on down-stays around some serious distractions! 4. "Bondage recall": the owner is "padlocked" into a chair (rope placed around the legs and chair, and padlocked together) and blindfolded. The trainer takes the dog across the room, scatters toys between you and the dog, and places a key for the padlock on a string around the dog's neck. You have to call your dog to you, get the key off their neck, get them on leash, and un-padlock the rope, all while staying blindfolded. The person who does it fastest "wins". This works your "emergency recall", and getting your dog secured in challenging circumstances. 5. Chasing call-offs: you get your dog to chase a "lower-value" treat/toy, and then use your emergency recall word to bring them back to a higher-value one. This is meant to provide practice in recall even when presented with a highly desired moving item (i.e.., cats, squirrels, etc.) It takes a lot of practice at home, and two people, so I haven't done it as much as a I should. "Wins" is in quotes, because you don't really get anything for being first/fastest/most in whatever. But it is a lot of fun, and takes your mind off of stressing over things like "is her sit straight enough" or "oh no, she took a step out of line when we were doing loose-leash walking!" By distracting the owner, the dogs often do much better. Which is why I try and work my dogs as much as possible in "fun" things, instead of just repetitive drills. Emergency recalls in the yard for dinner, mixing up sits with spins and downs and shakes, etc. So, if you are thinking of training your dog, my best advice is to find a class where people look like they are having fun. If you had asked me, 3 years ago, if I would ever be paying as much as I currently do for training classes, I would have looked at you like you were crazy! But it is really a great way to bond with your dog(s), and can, as I have hopefully shown, be a lot of fun too!

I've had to deal with this issue with my pretty Katie. She is much better than she used to be. Not perfect, but generally happy now. The two big things that I have done that seemed to help the most are putting her on drugs (which may or may not be appropriate for your dog... talk to your vet and trainer about that) and getting a second dog. It's taken me 2 and a half years to get to a place where I can be reasonably confident that she will actually go on a walk. And I still have to drive her off my street, since we have to walk past a gauntlet of barrier-reactive dogs, and she still won't do that. If your dog is not taking treats outside, then you need to either up the treat value so that he is, or else find a quieter spot to work in. Otherwise you can not effectively desensitize the dog, and may be making the situation worse, since the dog is getting to practice being stressed in that situation.

With a 12-year-old dog that suddenly changes eating habits, my first stop would be the vet. It could be her teeth, or liver or kidney issues. Or.... you get the idea. Rule out medical issues first, then start messing with the foods. And, at the end of the day, if she will eat wet but not dry, at that age it might not be a battle worth fighting, and I might just go with the wet food.

I upped her food the half cup, and it seems to have taken off the skin-and-bones feel, without putting too much weight on her. So I am going to put it down to the increase in activity, and possibly the weather getting colder.

Here's my thoughts, based upon my personal experiences. Katie was a spook, who had some serious issues when I first got her. I've been to several trainers, and have worked with a certified vet behaviorist. In my experience, if you work with (good!) positive reinforcement trainers, there is a lot of overlap in what they and the behaviorist tell you to do. As you say, they will be going over desensitization/counter-conditioning and management with you, and the theory is pretty easy to grasp. What's tricky is the nuances: exactly when should you reward, what to use, should the crate be in this corner here or over against the wall there, that sort of thing. And that's something that I would really want to go over with someone in my home. So, if I were in your shoes, faced with $450 for a behaviorist, I would probably see if I could get recommendations to a good, experienced positive reinforcement trainer in your town. Interview several, discuss your situation, ask what sort of experience they have had with similar types of dogs (trainers have strengths and weaknesses, and someone good with spooks may not be as comfortable with aggressive dogs and vice versa), and then get one to come out for a private session at your house. You haven't had this dog long, and I would rather spend 100-200 per session for a good local trainer, who I can have come back for follow-ups, than the $450 for a behaviorist which might preclude me having enough in reserve for follow-on sessions. And one thing you can always ask the trainer is whether THEY think the situation is bad enough to require a behaviorist. Now, if you were thinking of trying behavior modifying drugs, then I might lean towards a vet behaviorist. But if you are just looking for guidance on behavior modification, a good trainer may be sufficient. An initial consult with one will probably run you somewhere around 100-200, and it will hopefully give you the start of long-term relationship with a local person. If they do group classes as well, it makes for a nice continuum as you and the dog progress in your relationship. My personal opinion, from what you have written, is that you have a lot of small things going on, which could get bad if not handled correctly, but nothing so glaringly bad that I would jump straight to a behaviorist. Not being sure where Kingston is, I am enclosing a link which may hopefully help you find a good trainer: http://www.arfontario.com/EndorsedTrainers.asp Good luck and I hope that things get better!

Katie sits. Then again, she was a "natural" sitter, so I just caught it when clicker training. She's also learned "shake", so now she often sits with one front foot just slightly elevated, which just looks so endearing. She also "sits pretty" (up in a begging position) briefly, and generally on her bed so she has some support when she does it.

I will be honest... I felt like you do when I boarded my two for the first time. Interestingly enough, when I went to pick them back up, they were happy to see me, but didn't want to leave! So it was a lot harder on me than it was on them. I will also say, a piece of advice I got which may help you is to tell your dog how long you will be gone, in dog terms. Tell her exactly what is going to happen: "When you wake up tomorrow, we are going to X's house, who's going to be taking care of you while I am out of town. After Y nights and Z days, I will come back and get you and we will go home." If you can, actually think through the day/nights: Friday night, Saturday, Saturday night, Sunday, Sunday night, Monday afternoon I will be there to pick you up. If you believe in animal communicators, that will allow the dog to know what's going on. If they are a load of hokum, you will at least have done your best to let the dog know what's going on. I figure it can't hurt to do it. The best advice I can give you is be very matter-of-fact about the whole thing. If you act all nervous when you take her there and drop her off, your dog is going to be all nervous, and that may make it harder for her to settle in and relax and have fun. This is no big deal, and the dog is probably going to take it a lot easier than you are!

For Katie, it's canned cheez. I go with the name brand, sharp cheddar, since I find it slightly tastier than the generic. It's portable, reasonably neat if you are squirting straight into the mouth, and if they turn up their nose, you can eat it yourself.

I generally try to keep her lean. It's more that she is losing weight when being fed the same amount where she didn't lose weight before. But if, as JJng said, greyhounds lose/gain weight easily with changes in activity level, then I won't be too concerned. She's just feeling a little too bony to me when I pet her. I'll post back in a week and let you all know if the extra food seems to be making a difference. I did forget, until bedtime, that I had given her Xanax yesterday (we were at a big dog event, where she mostly slept in her crate and did very well), and that tends to give dogs the munchies, so that might explain the counter-surfing. And yes, I totally agree: she is gorgeous!

Find a fun class. That's my best advice. I LOVE my instructor, and her assistants, and her classes, and have taken both my greyhound and my rattie. But, I am learning, they tend to do things "differently". First, we have visual barriers between the dogs, to keep down the arousal levels. They will actually create a "room" out of barriers for reactive dogs, so that they can focus, and slowly open up the barriers as the session goes so that they get used to practicing around other dogs. They are very much into "go at the dog's pace". My first class, Katie did nothing but huddle against the wall. The instructor's comment? "She's learning that she can come here, and nothing terrible is going to happen, so that's ok." The second class, she ate. She has turned into a dog who loves training, but it took some time. And they make learning fun by turning it into games. Instead of just doing "sit" twenty times in a row, we walk around hula hoops to music and have to get them to sit in a hoop when the music stops. If you can find a class like that out by you, you may enjoy it better. Look for "Control Unleashed"... that's the best-known for this style of training.

I know that the package calls for more, but she's held a steady (and good, not too heavy not too thin) weight with the 2 cups (sometimes up to 2.5) for the last 2 years. Which is why I am finding this weight loss to be puzzling, unless she's just being more active in general (which is possible... she was quite a spook when I first got her, and now has calmed down and mellowed out, and is being more normal-dog-like).

Hi! Wasn't sure if this should go here or in the Health forum, but thought it is most likely going to be seen in either one. Katie seems to have dropped a noticeable amount of weight recently, and I was wondering what people here think. She is also seeming to be hungrier than normal (tonight she counter-surfed a soy sauce packet from last night's Chinese, something she generally never does.) She had been getting 2 cups of Taste of the Wild a day, and keeping a fairly steady 54-58 pounds (sometimes up a bit sometimes down a bit, but mostly in the middle there). She has been getting more exercise, going from staying at home pretty much all the time to actually going on walks several times a week. Do people think that the increase in exercise is a likely first suspect for the weight loss? The second most likely cause I can think of is hookworms (well, worms in general, but hookworm is the one that she has come down with before), but I am not seeing any of the other symptoms that I have in the past. I am going to up the amount to 3 cups a day and see what happens. If it is just the increased exercise, how long should I give it to see if the increase in food makes a difference? I'd hate to delay too long if it turns out to be something that needs medical care, but don't want to jump the gun if it's just a case of "feed more". The pictures aren't the best, being both cell phone and originally meant to just give me an indicator in X amount of time that there is a difference, or not. And her coloring makes it difficult to tell sometimes, because the brindle runs along her ribs and tricks the eye. Click thumbnails for larger view. Thanks for your thoughts, guesses, and opinions!

Something you might want to talk to your vet about is the tomatoes. There's been another thread recently (something like "another food dogs can't have") with information on problems with tomatoes and dogs. It can cause ataxia, which might possibly be affecting your dog. I am thinking that this sounds like a nerve issue, or else a physiological one. Might be worth seeing some specialists.