FrederykBlot

Hello, I hope you're all doing ok Everything is going fine with Loki, except for a bad adventure we had last time for his vaccines renewal To say the least, he went pretty bad :( To give you the full story, when younger he had no problem with the vet, but at some point (I don't remember well, I guess it was last year vaccination), he was shot badly, cried and whined... At the time, it didn't looked like a big deal to us, but he started to be afraid of the vet office. We did put go again some time, he was always afraid, but nothing that caused trouble. So to us, it was something manageable, and it was no big deal. But last month (or 2) he got an eye infection associated with big conjonctivitis, and the vet wanted to give drops for detection. It was impossible. He was dodging, running away from her... so they wanted to restrain him, and he started to growl and to snap... so they put a muzzle, and it just worsen things, to the point he managed to put off the muzzle and bite a vet assistant... Yep, sweet Loki, nicest and most sociable dog possible, did bite a human being In the end, they managed, with lots of restrain And come the vaccination renewal, without time for us to tackle the issue, and same trouble all over again Besides, now, after the biting, he's categorized as a difficult dog, so they put the muzzle directly, mentioning that kennel cough is in the snout, so they don't want to take a risk doing manipulation close to the teeth Again, lots of restrain, crying, whining from Loki... They even made me leave the room, as I was obviously stressed and sad with how things were going, and the dog would feel it In the end they managed, and after we had a little "scolding" from the vet, mentioning to us that it shouldn't be like that (they even charged us the extra time it took and extra assistant he had to call for restrain). We tried to explain he always behaves good, but it's just fear from the place So, here it is... this is the whole story So what we're going to do, is for now desentization from the place... from time to time, going to the vet office, doing nothing, just wander round and treating, rinse, repeat, just to wash the fear away At the same time at home, work on manipulation, (touch the ears, the eyes, examine, try to do movement around his head without him moving...) and muzzle training (after those 2 episodes, I'm pretty sure they won't take Loki without the muzzle) But except for that, I'd take any advice, or information that may be relevant about this Thank you in advance for the help

Hello everyone, long time no see ! I happened to have trouble with the forum some time ago, and waited a bit, and time went and went, and it must have been months since I last posted The good news it means things are going well with Loki :) and huge part of it is due to the help found here So here I am, showing a bit how little bud has evolved Have a good day everyone !

Hello Thank you for the precision Sorry, I didn't want to spread an idea that could backfire, but just giving a little hint or a lead based on personal experience around me And all is fine Loki, (except for the usual no return when playing with other dogs, the systematic tries of humping during plays, and the pickiness with wet food :)) but overall we're really happy with things are going, thanks for asking

Hi, in our case, we did it officially late, but started training early, with direct training, like going in and out of a room while he's in the same room, for longer and longer timespan but also in an indrect way : I explain : when young, we put our Loki into forced naps, as he would be able to settle alone, but young pups young sleeps for hours, something up to 4 hours if we had a big play / walk session we worked with a little wifi cam to ensure he wasn't in distress during the training and the first several minutes out One important thing is we always made sure it was after a big walk, big session of play : you don't want a just woken up dog / super excited dog being alone in your house If you don't want him to sleep specifically I think the gate would be enough, with access to toys, so he can choose if he want to play alone, of sleep

Hi, I'm not an expert and Adrienne can correct me, or aknowledge, but friends of mine had a similar problem : their house trained dog started to pee in the house... They called a trainer and it appeared the dog was not peeing by need, but for marking What they implemented is to use some kind of tissue with a bit a their dog pee (I know it sounds gross) and apply little touch of it in places where he would mark You still have little bit of pee but at least it's not a big flow made by the dog At some point the dog already sniffed his smell, and stop peeing inside as he recognized it's his place Don't know if it's relevant in your case, just something to think about

Hi I have not much to add as advice, but just know that everything is normal here :D :D The working during high stimulation is the most difficult. Our Loki would be like the best at home, or when we're alone, but as soon he sees another dog, he goes berserk (for playing not fighting), starting to pull on the leash, not listening to cues anymore... It gets better with age, and with consistency. The results won't happen fast, but one day, you will have one "look at me" when he's excited, and that would be cause for celebration :D

Hello Sorry I didn't update much on this subject, but everything is alright now. Giardia is pain though, we hope he won't contract it again as it's a bit stressful and time consuming One of the good thing (at least we think it is) following the disease is the change in the diet : we went from full dry food to mixing wet and dry We found out that less carbs is better to avoid giardia as the parasite feeds on carbs Loki is bit picky, weirdly on the wet food, but we really notice a major improvement in the stools, specially is firmness (almost never soft now except for big heat days) and frequency (about 2-3 times each walk - we do 3 per day - to 1-2 the morning and 1 the evening) we're crossing fingers, specially with big holidays coming for us

Are you therefore asking whether Loki may suffer from not being allowed to play off leash with other dogs since you're planning on keeping him on the long line from now on? Not only for playing specifically, but also walking in general. I still will let him free at some point, but in areas I really have full sight. If I see coming from far enough, I can get him to come to me and tie him. That will also means, it would be less longer. I'm not sure about playing in those areas... We never have trouble in those cases, but I'm pretty sure we were just lucky, because sometimes he went very far and very long with the buddy with whom he was playing. Do you have access to any fenced areas you can take him to play with his buddies? He's friend with some of the dogs of the neighborhood, so sometimes we have them play in one another garden. But this isn't everyday, nor even every week, it's just one time here and there We still go to dog school once a week though, where he can see and be around lots of dogs. He showed improvement there, but is still eager to go to them. Thing is, they are not always allowed to play off leash, for security reasons. As there are differences of sizes and tempers, the instructor is more on the safe side (which is a good thing) and allow it only if he's sure there won't be any slipping (for example, two of them are like worst enemies, and cannot do any exercise implying the owner drop the leash without going to each others throats) I have personally seen the biggest improvements by leash walking around lots of dogs such as by the perimeters of dog parks or in cities, doggy sport events or taking dogs to group obedience classes. It's more difficult for dogs who live in rural areas where they have a strong response to seeing other dogs. Dog trainer Jean Donaldson calls it "suburban dog syndrome." It's weird... because there are so many dogs, and dogs passing in our neighborhood, that I would expect him to be used to other dogs presence. We see less dogs when going to the city, than when we walk around the house. When your dog doesn't pull anymore on leash to meet other dogs, even if they are close, you know you have better control and more chances for him to come when called., versus a dog who pulls and loses it from all the excitement. I hear you. This make total sense. Is there any specific way to train that ? We usually try to do a "sit and stay" with some "look at me" with high reward treats. We also try crossing each but he's often lunging, which is more difficult to control than "sit and stay" Many dog trainers say that it can take up to a good 3 years for a solid recall response to the point of recalling in face of distractions such as cats, squirrels and dogs. I think this makes sense if the training starts from puppyhood since this coincides with the age dogs reach social maturity which is when they are more mature and get a little more aloof towards other dogs. wooow ! I expected it to be long but not this long ! 🙂 Da*n those "trainers" with videos like "Get a perfect recall in minutes !!" on a related subject, we were considering neuteuring him. Not because of this specific incident, but with him showing signs of dominance, and always trying to mount when playing, our instructor mentioned it can be hormones driven sometimes. Like, hormones are working, it gets him all excited, and gets him over threshold, and having those kind of rough play... So for now, we're still waiting how it goes, given he's full teenager mode. If it pass we will let him like this, if not we might actually doing it. What do you think about it ?

Hi ! I must admit I didn't go through the whole history of message I missed, but it seems from the last I read, the times are not easy In spite of being able to do anything, I can still have a little word : GAMBATE !!!! (yes, I'm an anime fan !) After the storm comes the sun !

Thank you for the good advice (as usual :)) We do not plan to go with short leash, except for cities or specific leash walking training as we normally do I'm ok with a bit of frustration if there is this little thing he cant reach because it's a tiny bit further than the xx meters of freedom he would have My concern was more about long lasting frustration because of the change of state, or the change it may imply We just don't want his nature / temper / character to be affected because from what we see, it can last a looooong time ! Loki is so excited when seeing other dogs that every training goes to trash He has way better recalls, and way better "sit and stay" now, but put a doggy friend, and nothing else matters So I think it is something that will still take a lot of time

Hello everyone, hope you all doing ok. I haven't been around much lately, which in a sense is good news, meaning Loki has not have any trouble, and also mainly because of work and other projects that kept me busy... until now... Unfortenately, we had kinda "big accident" with him last weekend We were on a big walk, and came to a river spot, and there were 2 other ppl with dogs. We came across and asked if we could let Loki free. We always do, to ensure other dogs are ok with a newcomer, that they're not aggressive... and as Loki starting a bit mounting on other, we're ok if he can be "educated" by other dogs, of course in a non harmful way. Everything was going fine, they actually played well together, and each time Loki tried the mounting thing, he was growled at, quit it, and went on with the play in the river... Then came the trouble, in the form a another owner, with 3 big sized dogs on the leash... and while his recall is way better when he's alone, seeing new dogs to play with is like the best thing in the world, and he didn't wait for us to put him on leash, nor came back to us. He rushed into them in a playful way, and they reacted in a vigourous way, and the owner (a young girl, 20s) had no control over them when so excited, and ended up falling on her knees... After a few minutes of chase, we managed to catch him, put on the leash, and came to the poor girl, who actually had her knees a bit scorched... We have been vigourously scolded, and I felt really bad, because she is totally right, but this is something we always care for. We always ask other owner before letting him free... When we see a dog he's always on leash... Here he was just playing free with other in and environment we thought safe, without thinking they could be so close so fast (there are trees around, it's not like a field with full view) So to us it was a clear warning that off leash is off the table now, even if we think the environment is safe, until he have a 100% reliable recall, even in difficult environment with difficult stimulation. We bought a new long leash, that we can add to his existing one, giving him about 20 to 30 meters of freedom However we have some questions about this decision : - do they feel the difference between a long enough leash, and no leash at all ? I guess so, because of the dragging of the leash... but do that change the behavior ? would they be more responsive on long leash because they would know they're no totally free ? - can they have "negative / bad feelings" by being always on leash when going on walks, even a long one given them virtually the same level of freedom - should we keep some off leash moment in more secure environment ? because training off leash is not the same as training with leash - is it too harsh to never allow off leash walks ? could he suffer from it ? Thanks for the help Have a nice day

hahaha I laughed with the whistles stories

Thanks for the tips. We actually started to do exactly that, and once again, value of the treat played a major role (it's fun how we can forget important stuff and neglige them once we have the feeling everything is getting better). As we also started learning recalls using a whistle (my gf cannot whistle with the mouth :)) so we started again random recalls in the house : first with him looking at us from the yard while we're in the kitchen so he would think there is a treat involved to trigger, and now going on with random whistle during the day Food is gettiing better as we actually changed. We noticed than the wet food with beef seemed to suit him badly : I was always afraid of giardia about the stools softness but we saw some significant improvement when we switched from beef to turkey. And as the shock was with beef, we solved 2 problems in one hit :) not completely solved though, but better... I guess he's just not a big eater also Yes we made that mistake, but currently correcting this. And specially on the walking part. He took some bad habits because walks were like "freedom walks", even on leash, and we had some pulling, and lack of attention. So we got back to basics with loose leash walking, and also fundamentals, like "leave it", and "look at me" hummmm... thats good to know, because he had some reaction lately that came a bit from nowhere : for example, he's starting the flee when we arrived together with my gf. I can understand the reaction because usually when we "team up", it's for stuff he doesn't like much, like brushing, washing... but we treat those part with high value, so he never fled before... and we were wondering why all of a sudden he would flee. We will also try now to "team up" for good stuff, like playing, or cool training

Clearly a bit less. With him maturing and getting better overall, we may have reduced the training in general, and specially thing we did before. We made more new things / new tricks, than reinforce the fundamentals. And also, using less high value treats, as the best are usually leftover of chicken when we had some, or hot dogs, and lately we were not around much. But we got back into it, specially because for Easter, we're going to my gf family, and there would be lots of people, so we want him to be very responsive. That looks pretty much like that :) To give a bit of balance, I still get a super party when I come back from office (the rare days I'm not home office) Sometimes, when I sit in the yard, chilling, he would come and sit next to my chair And if he sees me moving around with a treat, this little interested b*****d (sorry for the language, but I don't know a good translation for "sagouin" :)) would come eagerly ! Maybe even if it's just aging / maturing, I'll keep with treating randomly and the voluntary check in, just to reinforce my value, and coming to me

Hello, bless you for the rescue ! Welcome to puppy hell, and know that it will pass :) About the sleeping thing, with our pup, the enforced naps were "life saving". Without discovering this, we also try to wear him out, walking, training, and he would just end up more excited, and crankier than ever, until after some point we discover that naps can and should be forced. We put him in a playpen, in a room alone with opague curtains closed. He would whine a bit at first, then crash in no time, and naps for hours. I remember to even start to worry as some times he napped like 4 hours straight. We established some kind of routine, and as for @JMFS, routines are also game changing, because it makes things predictable for him : he wakes up,we let him live his life, then we train, then we play, then we walk, and after the walk => nap. We were so amazed the first time, when he went by himself in the pen after the walk, and settle without whining For the whining in the pen, we used the "10 min rules" like nurses for human babies : if cries are less than 10 min, it's nothing serious, if more, we'll go check But we crate / pen trained a lot in the beginning and then, between 2 or 4 hours, he would wake and whine to warn he's awake, and we'd let him out, starting a new cycle I dont think this is universal for all dogs, but maybe some of this can help at some point !