Leaderboard

Oh no, poor Abbi! Went through something similar with my Rottweiler Petra when she was almost 11. She started not eating well, and then we did an ultrasound and she had a growth on her spleen which was putting pressure on the stomach making her full fast. On top of this, she was also anemic. We had to give her small meals so she wouldn't feel that annoying sense of fullness. I also had to tempt her with different foods. This seemed to work but only momentarily. What she would eagerly eat one week, was refused the following week. What I think was happening is that she developed taste aversion. Petra would be enticed by new food, but as nausea or a sense of uncomfortable fullness set in, that food would become associated with the unpleasant sensation so she would no longer like it. A new food would then be offered and this situation would repeat over and over again until we exhausted several food options. To further complicate things, switching her over foods creating diarrhea so I had to use very easy to digest foods that wouldn't upset her stomach. We went through a pasta and grated cheese phase, a boiled chicken phase, a boiled fish phase and then we went through a meat-based baby food (types with no onion or garlic). Then she stopped wanting all of that. I did a trial of Entyce but didn't help much. We saw an oncologist who did a CT scan and she was found to also have nodules in the liver. So oncologist said to put her on prednisone to increase her appetite and that worked well although temporarily. She had to take a lot of pills and it wasn't easy. If Abbi was prescribed Flagyl (metronidazole) that pill is notorious for having a bitter taste and it is difficult to disguise the bad taste. I can share here some strategies, but please check with your vet first because some foods may not agree with her or should not be fed or the meds she takes should not be opened. -Cheese Balls In this case, I would roll up my dog's pills in slices of American cheese and closed the edges so the pill is undetected. This works well with most dogs, but at times, the cheese may unroll in their mouth and the dog may detect the pill. Afterward, they may get finicky and will not even want the cheese anymore because they associate it with the bitter taste. As a better option, I then tried making cheese balls. I just came up with this idea one day, as I was about to pill a dog I was boarding and sent him out briefly to potty with the cheese in my pocket. Being almost 100 degrees as it often turns out to be in sunny Arizona, the cheese softened to such a degree that it was the consistency of play-dough. I placed the pill in the middle and made a tight ball. We then did a bit of training exercises, and he was rewarded with the cheese balls, which he readily ate. So if you want to try cheese balls, leave the cheese out of the fridge for some time, and warm it up keeping the sealed slices between your hands. That should do the trick to make it as soft as play-dough. Note: There are some medications that shouldn't be taken with any dairy products such as cheese. This info may be on the label or accompanying medical leaflet, but not always. Ask your vet before trying this trick. -Hot Dogs Most dogs won't turn down hot dogs. In this case, you'll need a big enough chunk to hide the pill. Remember: Should the dog to detect the pill, he may lose trust and then become suspicious of any future tricks you may try. I'll share a trick on how to prevent or remedy this, should this happen, shortly. So back to hot dogs: This works well for dogs who will just gulp down the hot dog, no question asked. However, the disadvantage is that often parts of the pill may stick out the hot dog, which will be readily detected. You can't make hot dog balls like with the cheese, so hot dogs may or may not work out. -Meatballs In this case, you can soak some dry kibble in water and then grind it up until you can make some "meatballs" you can hide the pill in. If you feed raw, just make a meatball with ground meat. Another option is to use some canned food to make the meatball or some meat-based baby food with no onion or garlic in it mixed with some ground kibble to make it more dense. You can get creative here and use anything your dog likes, grind it up and then add the ground kibble to get the right consistency. For a special touch, roll the meat balls in the ground kibble. -.Creamy Textures Foods with a creamy texture can also help camouflage a pill and transform it into a tasty treat. In this case, we're talking about things like peanut butter, plain pumpkin and cream cheese. Veterinarian Karen Becker also suggests using coconut to hide pills. These work well because they are sticky, so it's hard for the dog to separate the pills from the creamy texture. Most likely, the dog will just take it all together and gulp the whole concoction down. One of my friends said the only food that worked for her dog was wrapping the treat in Braunschweiger (liverwurst-type stuff). This spreadable organ meat apparently ranks high for stinkiness. Note: If you use peanut butter, make sure to avoid the sugar-free versions made with xylitol. Xylitol is highly toxic to dogs! -Opening capsules For this option, make sure you read the medication's label and instructions carefully, and if in doubt, ask your vet. Some medications should not be crushed, and capsules should not be opened as they can do harm this way. If your vet gives you the OK to crush the pill or open the capsule, you can sprinkle it on your dog's food in hopes she just eats it all. However, consider that you may lose a pill this way if your dog refuses to eat her food and that he may leave some food behind and this will prevent him from having the full dose he needs. A better option is to mix the powdered pill with the dog's canned food. Most dogs love canned food and since the canned food is sticky, it will be difficult to separate any pill particles from the food. In my dog's last days, the only way I could get her to take her pills was opening the capsules, mixing them in with meat-based baby food with no onion or garlic and smearing it on her gums as she would lock her teeth. - Pill Pockets Alternatively, you can try pill pockets. These are sold at the vet's office or at your favorite pet store. They consist of hollow treats in different flavors that can be filled with the pill and then closed. There are pill pockets made for capsules and pill pockets made for tablets. Flavors to choose from consist of Chicken, Peanut Butter, or Hickory Smoke. When Your Dog Discovers You're Hiding Something So your dog was always great in taking pills well hidden in some cheese, and now, suddenly, she casually discovers that there's a pill inside. If so, she may start getting all suspicious carefully sniffing the cheese as if he lost trust. To help overcome the problem, you can try to give her several pieces of cheese in a row WITHOUT the pill. Start with small pieces that your dog can visibly see there's nothing inside. Then make them bigger and bigger, and then shape them as if the pill was inside. Once she's taking these, then casually add the piece of cheese with the pill inside, immediately followed by one without it. Giving a piece of cheese immediately after the one with the pill, will help her gulp the pill down in her eagerness to get the next piece of cheese. It doesn't hurt to do this exercise sometimes if you have a dog who gets suspicious every now and then. Give like five treats in a row, and then randomly mixed in give one with the pill followed by one without it. If your dog is used to you tossing treats as a game, toss her pill hidden in food as well. Many dogs are so eager to catch the food that they'll just swallow quickly in hopes of continuing the game. If Your Dog Is Sick and Won't Eat This is when things get difficult. One option is just that, forcing the pill down. In this case, you'll kneel down at your dog's level and hold the muzzle with one hand upwards facing the ceiling. With the other hand, you'll pry the mouth open and push the pill as back as possible. Afterwards, massage the dog's throat to encourage swallowing. Praise and pet your dog to reward her. It's very important to check if your dog actually swallowed the pill. Some dogs are artists in this and will hide the pill in their mouth and spit it out later when you're not looking. Alternatively, you can employ a pill popper. This tool is simply a sort of syringe that will deliver the pill without the need to stick your hands in your dog's mouth. There should be videos on YouTube on how to use these. Another option is to contact an apothecary, a compounding pharmacy that formulates and dispenses pharmaceutical products. They can turn bitter pills in tasty delicacies. When we had clients at the vet's office I used to work at, with finicky dogs and cats, we referred them to a pet apothecary. Some had many lip smacking options. For instance, Pleasant Hills Apothecary in PA offers over 100 flavors just dedicated to animals! I hope sweet Abbi will get some appetite back! Keep in touch with your vet on what type of foods you can try and options on giving her pills. With Petra, seeing specialists helped us a lot to make best decisions and get the support we needed. We first saw an internist and then an oncologist once she was found to have cancer. They were always happy to help even when I called them with questions.

Hey; I need help. I have3 doodles age 1 & under. They are all great dogs. They chase & corner my cat, & I’m really afraid they may hurt her. I have started working with them on target training & the airplane.they are doing well with that. But they are digging my yard up. I have put poop in the holes. That works sometimes. They just dig new holes. My 7 month old mini goldendoodle,who I got through Re-homing is doing pretty good with potty training, but still not 100 %. Any advice would be appreciated. On all of the above . Thank you, Emily

Hello and welcome to the forums, I will be providing info about the three issues you mentioned. I will start by the issue number 1, cat chasing. In a household of 3 young dogs and a cat, things can quite challenging, because 3 dogs loose together will form a sort of "group mentality" and they'll all want to join in the fun of chase. Most importantly, with group chasing, there are higher chances for mishaps such as risks for injury or predatory drift. It's therefore imperative to protect your kitty as much as possible, from not just potential injury but also to ensure her emotional wellbeing. Just this past summer I had to work on a case with a beagle who pestered the household cat, he never really hurt the cat, but the poor cat was terrorized of moving freely around the home. She would have to check when he was around to just use her litter box or go to eat. She moved very slowly and lived most of her life walking on shelves, tables and tall chairs. Any time the beagle saw her, he would chase her and try to mount her. I really felt for the poor cat! So to tackle this sort of issue, there is an easy way, and then there is a more involved way that will require training and time. Firstly, let's take a look at the easy solution, that is management. Management is important because it prevents your dogs from rehearsing the problematic behavior (chasing), and it also helps keep your cat relatively safer. Here are some management options: Provide Your Cat With a Safe Area It's important for your cat's comfort and safety that she is provided with a safe place to retreat that is out of your dogs' reach. There are several options to provide such areas that can help you keep your cat away from your dogs. You can for instance, erect a pet baby gate or some indoor pet fence options. Several cat owners split their homes in two areas using such barriers; the cat area and the dog area. Some of these options you may need to adjust adding some additional barrier to prevent your cat from fitting through the bars if you want your cat to stay in a specific area of the home permanently, but there are also some models that can allow cats to fit through them, while dogs cannot, so the cat is free to come and go from the area as she pleases. These latter can work well in cases where dogs aren't really interested in harming the cat and where pet owners can always monitor interactions. Another option is to provide cat trees, cat window perches and condos that are high enough to be out of your dogs' reach. Whichever the means of separation used, it's important to ensure your dogs have no way to jump over, chew thorough or dig under these barriers. This means you will have to monitor these enclosures to ensure they remain effective. If you need to leave the home, it's better to be safe than sorry and keep your dogs enclosed as well with sturdy crates and kennels, which provides a double level of protection. By keeping your cat out of reach, your dogs aren't allowed to rehearse chasing behaviors over and over. Left untreated, cat-chasing behaviors can quickly risk becoming your dogs favorite pastime, and that for sure is not a good hobby. Not to mention, the more dogs rehearse chasing behaviors, the more ingrained the behavior becomes and this makes it more difficult to work on. Chasing is a self-reinforcing behavior in dogs that is ingrained and instinctive. The main advantages of management are therefore that, you won't have to invest much time, your cat can finally feel more secure, your dogs don't get to rehearse problematic behaviors, and if the barriers are sturdy and secure, your cat is also kept safe. The main disadvantage is that, it doesn't do much to tackle the underlying behavior, it fails to give you back-up plan should management fail (many management plans fail eventually for instance, a door or baby gate is left open, a cat escapes etc) and it requires a starter investment cost to cover for the cost of the chosen type of barrier. A Word About Calming Aids for Cats Many cats can become stressed when living with dogs. Separation alone can cause most cats to feel better, however some remain stressed just by seeing/hearing dogs on the other side. If your cat is stressed, you may also want to provide some calming aids. There are several pheromone--based products such as Feliway or Comfort Zone, which are products that mimic a chemical that cats are known to emit through special glands on their faces when they are feeling calm. There are also several over-the-counter supplements that can help calm down nervous kitties. Examples are products containing l-theanine. Now, to the more involved option. The more involved option requires that, you keep your cat safely separated from your dogs when you cannot supervise and as well when you cannot train. Training dogs to stop chasing cats requires a good level of impulse control (which can take time), on top of this, you will need to train each dog individually, unless they are already under good voice control as a group. Training to Stop Chasing a Cat This training requires that you teach each dog individually, and then once your one dog is under good voice control, you can add another dog as a distraction and then you can progress to having all three dogs together. If your dogs guard food from one another, please consult with a behavior professional for safety and correct implementation of behavior modification. Here are three of my favorite methods: Leave it One of the most effective ways to train a dog to stop chasing is the leave it cue, you can find how to train it below. You will have to keep your dog on leash at a distance from your cat in the initial stages of training. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/take-leave-it/ Leave it, basically tells your dog "stop trying to engage with whatever is tempting you". It can be applied to many circumstances where you need your dog to stop in his tracks, for instance, it can be used to tell a dog to not pick up something that has fallen to the floor, or it can be used to tell a dog to not move towards a distraction. You can therefore use it if you notice your dog/dogs are thinking about chasing your cat. Before practicing with your cat, it may help to practice with some intermediate distractions such as practicing leave its with a flirt pole, or a helper dragging a stuffed animal shaped like a cat around attached to a string. To work well, it's important to say "leave it" in advance before the dog is too focused on chasing. Look into My Eyes Another method for stopping dogs from chasing cats is to train a very solid response to a smacking sound made with my mouth that tells the dog to pay attention to me. This can work well with dogs with intense predatory drive because many dogs seem to respond better to a sound we make rather than voice. As with leave it, you will have to train this to all your three dogs. Here is how to train it: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/preschool/look-into-my-eyes/ You can then practice this exercise in more and more distracting areas such as in the yard, then watching things pass by your window: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/university/look-at-that/ Once you have a nice response, you will have work around the cat, but with your dog on leash and at a distance from the cat. This is to keep the dog under threshold. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/ * If you are concerned about your dog potentially breaking loose from your grip on the leash and injuring your cat, by all means, let him/her wear a basket muzzle. It never hurts to add an extra layer or protection and play it safe. If at any time your dog isn't responsive, it's likely because he's too close to the cat (and, therefore, not ready for this level of distraction yet) or the treats you are using aren't high-value enough. Go back a few steps, increasing distance temporarily, and try increasing the value of the treats if your dog seems disinterested. Going to a mat All dogs can be trained to go lie on a mat at specific times when you perhaps may want your cat to be around a bit and you want to keep your dogs all in an area and engaged in some other activity. In this case, you can give your dogs something tasty to enjoy on their mats. Ensure your cat though never goes near them as many dog will resource guard food from cats. Also, keep the mats at a distance from each other to prevent food guarding between your dogs. Here's how to train it: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/video-archive/train-dog-go-to-mat/ A disclaimer is warranted here. Dogs and cats may seem to get along at times, but accidents can always happen at a moment's notice. Always supervise your pets and make safety your top priority. Even among dogs, fights may occur in presence of a cat due to redirected aggression. It's a good idea to have plan to separate dogs in case of a fight (keep an air horn handy, two pot lids to slam together for a startling effect,a bucket of water, etc). If your dogs guard food from one another or show other types of aggression, please consult with a behavior professional for safety and correct implementation of behavior modification.

So, our dog Louie is very smart. He knows all of the basic commands, sit, lie down, give paw, stay and drop it ......he will do any one in a heartbeat when treats are involved. However, if no treats, a 50-50 shot on if he will choose to do it. What does anyone suggest? Lisa

Hi Lisa, Welcome to the forums! This tends to happen when treats aren't faded properly. In other words, the dog has come to associate the presence of the treat with the execution of the behaviors. With no treat in sight, no behavior. To tackle this issue we therefore need to gradually fade the use of treats. If you notice, in the obedience 101 guide there's mention of fading the food lure in several commands. It's an important step to do as soon as possible. Also, following the obedience 101 guide you'll find a special guide called "polishing up training" that goes more in depth on this: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/polishing-up-training/ And here is another guide, specifically crafted for those encountering this problem. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/dog-listens-treats/ You will also find a guide on how to move from a continuous schedule (give one treat for every correct behavior) to an intermittent one (given randomly) here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/polishing-up-training/fading-continuous-rewards/ https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/use-treats-training-dog/ Of course, consider that we should never stop giving primary reinforcers such as treats completely otherwise we risk the behavior weakens and possibly extinguishes at some point. . Let me know how things work out for you! Best, Adrienne