JMFS

Hi Mona! At 2½ months old not pooping in the house is a big step! Peeing is tougher because their bladders are so very small. When mine were puppies I would give them all the water they wanted when I was home, but I would take it up 20 minutes before I left and then let them outside right before leaving. I would give them just enough to wet their tongues if I was going to be gone for a while. When I was staying home I would take them out every 20 minutes or so and I taught Gertrude to ring a bell to let me know when she needs to go out. Adhering to a schedule with feedings will make potty training much easier so good work on that! Taking up water an hour before bed won't cause him any distress and may help get rid of that 3 am potty break, especially if you take him out right before bed time. He's still pretty young, though, so it may take a bit of time before his bladder can hold the liquid for longer periods of time. Where does he sleep? Momo was crated throughout his puppy years and never peed in his crate. The fact that he's stopping when you yelp is encouraging. Restraining him passively, though, is actually rewarding him for the behavior. He's possibly putting bite + petting together so it's a good thing when he nips. The growling could be his way of telling you he's frustrated at being restrained. You'll see the methods here are "force free," meaning it's up to us to teach the pups to make the "right" decision (in our human opinion anyway). When you yelp do you also turn your back on him and / or move away so he understands you're disengaging? Since he's not continuing with the nipping after you yelp and he takes a second to think about what's happening it sounds like he'll get it eventually. Australian Shepherds are super smart. They're also super hyper and I don't know about prey driven so much as herding. He's going to need some games to challenge that clever brain of his. One of my favorites is the "find it" game where I put treats around the house for Gertie to sniff out. It started out Really easy. A treat in front of her followed by "find." Then a treat a little further away from her, again followed by "find." Each time we reset the game she had to sit and stay. Since River is good at 10 seconds you're already on your way to teaching him this game. :) Slowly we increase the difficulty and eventually you'll put the treat out of his line of vision so he has to work a little to find it. Over time you can make it harder. I have put treats on top of boxes, behind dresser legs, on window sills, under her blanket (that didn't work out well for the blanket, lol, and I haven't done that one again but our other dog, Abbi, is excellent at finding those without doing damage). Sometimes I make the game really easy and sometimes I make it pretty darn tough, which is a big part of what I like so much about that game. Anyway, I thought I'd throw my ideas out there since I'm awake and I know I appreciate quick answers so I gave it a try. And now I go get sleep myself!

I used to try to pet Momo while he was eating to show him I was just being friendly. I believe it was Adrienne who gave me perspective on this. I'm going to tailor the example to your situation. So put yourself at the dinner table and you're in the middle of eating and suddenly one of your friends starts brushing your hair, fixing your shirt, maybe touching your hand. At this point you might be feeling a little bristly because this is odd behavior and you're just trying to eat. Very similar for a dog. And heaven forbid that friend stick their hand in your food or try to take your plate away while you're eating. I don't know about you, but I'm going to say or do something about that situation. Now think of a dog, who isn't as well equipped as we are to logically reason out this situation. Now think of that same friend coming by to sit down at the table, or just walking by, and they put bread down for you, or maybe a dessert. We're feeling a little warmer and fuzzier about this interaction, yes? Dogs, too! When I was working with Momo my trainer had me walk past his bowl and toss treats into it. We saw his whole attitude change by the end of the 5 weeks we worked together. We still had a Long way to go because this was an 8-years-in-the-making issue, but me understanding his take on it, and him learning that me + bowl = extra food made our lives together far better. Over time the treats were phased out, but never completely - he still needs reminders and I am the bringer of happy times and he wants me there. Even 2 years later (I think it's been 2 years . . .) I'll go through most of the steps for a couple days to reinforce the idea that he can trust his food around me. I don't know that we'll ever get him to trust other animals, or even people other than me, but as long and he and I are square then life is good. We caution our guests that if food has dropped on the ground and he's going for it, just let it go. We haven't gotten to that point, though, as the dogs aren't allowed around guests when food is out and I feed him before guests arrive (less hungry, less likely to be on the hunt). For the most part the dogs aren't allowed around guests, food or not, but they manage to squeeze themselves into the conversation here and there. Anyway, I wanted to share that perspective because it really helped me understand what Mo was thinking when he was getting all upset with me. I was not minding My manners so he didn't mind his.

That all makes perfect sense! Thankfully Gertrude is far more mellow than Momo so this should be more manageable than his case was. He's doing pretty well, btw. He and I haven't had an incident in ages and when he and Gertie got into it he ended up tucking tail and trying to run. Poor guy was slipping on the LVP flooring and didn't get very far in reverse. Gertie stopped pressing the advantage once I told her whatever I told her (it was so shocking I can't even remember!). I always suspected his aggression was fear-based and with as quickly as he attempted to retreat from, rather than escalate to, a true confrontation I'm thinking that's a good diagnosis. I am quite good at anthropomorphism. Probably because these guys are so good at imitating behavior! I watched a video of a dog who was limping all of a sudden, no known injuries. Turns out he was copying his human who was on crutches! When his human wasn't around the dog would zip around the yard, no problem, but when that particular human came around on the crutches the dog would begin limping. Paw raised an everything. Here's the video, hopefully it works: Billy the Lurcher Limping Counter-conditioning / desensitization with Monkey is moving right along. Gertie is so smart she's picking up on it quickly. Monkey = promise of good things to come. She got a wee testy the first couple times and pushed towards him as though he was going to steal the treat. It only took a hand on her chest and a showing of the treat in my other hand to get her butt planted on the ground. By the end of session 2 she would watch me give Monkey a treat and then stare at me as though to say (anthropomorphism incoming), "and just where is mine?" We'll keep working on that because poor Monkey doesn't deserve to be nipped at. He just wants lovin'. Training husband is tougher. He's not as quick to intervene as I am and he's let Gertie into Abbi's area a few times. Thankfully the food dishes were empty each time, but it only takes one altercation to set us back. He's kind of oblivious to Gertie's presence when he gets home and that's going to be the opportune time for a fight. For now I'm watching like a hawk so I can recall Gertie before she reaches Abbi's space, but dang dogs are quick when they're excited!

Thank you, as always, for the extra insight. I kind of thought that may be the case with Abbi. I'll continue to manage and hope I don't slip again. As I was reading I remembered another situation where Gertie and Momo were let in at the same time and came upstairs with me. Gertie went to her bed, as usual, and I approached with Momo. Mo got a little ahead of me and started sniffing Gertie's bone. All of a sudden Gertie lunged at Momo and, for the first time in his life, Momo was on the run! Now I'm trying to recall if he's ever come that close to her food before. He's aggressed on her when she's approached his food and she's looked at him kind of the way Monkey looked at her. I'm trying to recall, though, if Momo has ever gotten that close to her food in the past and I'm thinking the answer is no - there's always been the "raised crate" effect. I have these two window areas that are about 20" off the ground and we turned those into crates by installing gates at the front. Perhaps with her being higher and set back a bit Mo was at a distance she considered comfortable. The snap at Monkey (when he came up behind her, not the dremel instance) definitely surprised me as I've fed them treats together before by placing the treats on the ground. She didn't mind one bit and ignored him. I can understand the dremel instance because she still was in alert mode after her tussle with Abbi. I think I'll need to observe more and for now with Momo and Abbi it will be management. With Monkey I'll give counter-conditioning a whirl since she responded well to that yesterday and today with him. Teach her that Monkey = treats. Those two are buddies. He accompanies her on her potty breaks and runs back to the door with her when I whistle. He rubs against her, walks under her and slides his tail along her as he passes under, lol. He even "cleans" her when she's standing still and doesn't bite her. With Abbi those licks are preemptive of a bite so he's not allowed to lick Abbi, especially now. Abbi used to harass the heck out of Monks, poking him with her nose trying to get him to run so she could chase, and biting his ears. He'd just sit there and take it, going so far as to stretch out on his back while she was doing it. Such a pacifist! With him being almost 2x her size it was probably like a massage or any attention is good attention. For the last couple years she hasn't had the inclination to bother him and I think he knows this so he's getting his payback. It's always a comfort to hear that even dogs who live with people massively in tune with their nature can be buttheads (my human opinion). I would so love to have my dogs love each other and share, though! Max, our granite folks' 120 lb Rottie, is more than happy to share his bully sticks with human or canine, and I think that's just the sweetest thing! Love that boy! I got to see him the other day and when he put his paws on the counter he was almost as tall as me! Little toot nearly knocked me over he was so excited to see me after all these months. He's normally pretty calm and somber but this time he was popping all over the place, play bowing and jumping up. Tsk tsk tsk, Max! I turned my back on him and "boom" his butt went to the floor as he waited for more attention. Then he dissolved into wiggles when I turned around, haha.

Google wasn't entirely helpful and I didn't find an answer here for this specific question. I Kind of know how to go about correcting it, but it's going to be challenging. Can dogs learn behavior from other dogs? My answer is yes, but I'm not sure to what extent. They learn it from their litter mates, but in those cases it's more of a correction of a bad behavior rather than learning a bad behavior from their litter mates (bad being our human interpretation). Here's the issue. Abbi is mean to Gertie when Gertie is simply curious. Gertie used to not have an aggressive bone in her body (unless you happened to be small, furry / feathered / twitchy and not a dog or cat). Gerts used to sniff around Abbi when Abbi was eating. Treat, toy, or food, didn't matter - Gerts was curious. My theory - she ran the streets with her brother and they shared everything so Gertie never learned Not to share. Until Abbi. When Gertie would approach Abbi Abbi would go absolutely stark raving mad. Biting Gertie's throat level of insanity. Good thing Abbi is only 10 lbs on a good day! Gertie used to back away and consider what happened; however, recently Gertie has started aggressing back, and worse she is now resource guarding! You know how I went through that with Mo and I am stressed out considerably that I'm going through it again with a dog we Thought was neutral. Poor Monkey approached her from behind the other day while she was working on a treat and she snapped at him. He used to be able to rub up against her while she was snacking and she didn't care. I'm afraid Abbi has spoiled this once docile pup of mine. So, Momo is a resource guarder. Abbi is a resource guarder. Gertie is becoming a resource guarder. How the heck do I train it out of her if I don't have a neutral party to work with?! I simply will not stand for this nonsense again. She's 150% trusting of me with taking treats or her food, thank goodness. I used to roll her toy away from her then roll it back, roll it away, roll it back, to get her interested, but now I'm calling a halt to that. I don't want to compound the issue and have to work with her like I did Mo in regards to humans. If she's not interested then she's not interested and I'll leave it at that. Yesterday was the worst. We were outside, I was doing Gerts' claws with the dremel and had treats next to us to reward her for being excellent. Abbi's dang nose starts working and she begins meandering over to us. She gets too close for Gertie's comfort and it's on. We're not sure if Gertie lunged for Abbi, if Abbi managed to make it to the food or just get close, but what we are sure of is that both girls were fighting and neither was backing away. Gertie had her mouth on Abbi's head. Abbi was knocked over immediately because she's weak and tiny, but we're not sure if Gertie did it or if Abbi simply lost her balance in her state of infirm. Abbi was snapping and snarling even after I managed to pull Gertie away (I know, I know, don't get my hands involved, I know!). I grabbed Gerts by the scruff and pulled her back to me, then let go of her scruff (she's still got a ton of loose skin) and put my arm in front of her chest to hold her back. She calmed down quickly, but Abbi was still pressing forward. She's out of her mind, even after getting her butt kicked she's trying to get to Gertie, snarling and snapping. Husband finally scoops Abbi up, I move Gertie, and the treats, away. Everyone's back to normal, no marks or wounds on Abbi. I start dremeling again and the treats are on the windowsill Well out of Abbi's reach and husband has Abbi 20 feet away. Gertie starts jerking her foot like she wants to be released (not because of the dremel - she actually falls asleep when I do that). I look around and the flippin' cat is stretched up, sniffing at the windowsill. GAH! So I shoo him away, Gertie kind of moves in and I push her away with my leg then we move further on down the sidewalk away from Everything. Including the dang fire ant pile I was stepping in <sigh>. 🔥 I am struggling to think of how to accomplish peace in the household when Abbi is psychotic (lol, I know she's not but that's how it seems!). We do practice management by feeding them / giving them treats away from one another and never leaving them together with food around. I didn't think that Abbi, in her weakened state and being 15 feet away And being such a brat about wanting Gertie to stay away from her own food, would have wandered over to Gertie's territory to sniff out that food. I was wrong. Now I know Abbi can't be outside with us if I'm giving treats. Gertie is less aggressive with Monkey - probably because Monkey is like, "duuuude, chill, I was just gonna rub on ya', man. Didn't know you had food, it's all yours, bye." when Gertie turns on him. But, cats aren't into training so I can't really use him. Why oh why can't I have dogs, like one of my brothers, who play tug of war with rawhides or toys and don't care if the other one wins?! What magic spell did they cast on these animals who weren't even raised together?! At some point I start to think it's me! I know it's not, it's more usual for dogs to guard than to share, I just Really thought Gertie was a sharing pup and that's changed. I've started having the husband work with her because she doesn't trust him as much (possibly because he's always near Abbi when she goes Code Cujo?). He thought he could take things from her but a) he oversells it making a big deal of the action and b) he is not very good with doggy body language. He was being all chipper about trying to take her Dentastix (super high value to her) then being hesitant about taking it and when she pushed her head forward and down on top of the treat he kept approaching. I told him to stop and back away. I've got my work cut out for me. I started him today with putting beef lung (gross!) into her bowl while she was eating her breakfast. We'll work up to trading low value items for high value. We were at a restaurant Friday and there was a chip on the ground. I told her to leave it and she did. I immediately rewarded her and she didn't go near the chip again. She and I are pretty solid. Had that been chicken I think she may have snatched it quickly, I'm not sure, though. We do need to reinforce the leave command as we haven't worked on it in quite some time. Do you have any words of wisdom beyond management? I don't want to end up with a trip somewhere ending in some sort of contention if there's a tasty morsel around. At the very least I want to ensure My dog is the one with manners.

I'm not going to go too much into it as Adrienne is Far more experienced than I am in this, but I can give some information to get you started. We're going through something somewhat similar and I'm going to be digging through the archives momentarily for answer of my own. :) Thank goodness you have roommates! That means extra trainers. My suggestion to get your started is this. Have your roommate with their respective dog (and I would try this one dog at a time). The larger dog may be easier because Dachshunds are kind of . . . jerks (that's who I'm having issues with). So have your roommate with the larger dog sit with their dog and, at a safe distance, walk your puppy past them. Every time the larger dog doesn't react, or reacts Positively, have your roommate give him a treat. Rinse and repeat. When the larger dog consistently doesn't react (or reacts positively) at that distance, shorten the distance and do it all over again. It's boring, trust me - btdt with Momo and his food aggression. The first week's training was me touching his bowl and giving him a treat to form a positive association with me touching his bowl. <yawn> A little boredom for a peaceful household is worth oh-so-very much, though. Omg, the fights, break-ups, and resentment that can result between the humans when it comes to their dogs . . .. Eventually the older dogs will form a positive association with the puppy and will Want to have him around because he is the bringer of yummy treats. If the other two dogs tend to lunge it would be best to have their collars on, and probably a leash, for better control. Eventually those could be phased out (dogs are weird - they may also associate leash + puppy as a good thing and no leash + puppy as bad).

I'll chime in. I have used the Gentle Leader, martingale collar, and front attachment harness. Out of the three the front attachment harness is my favorite. It took no time for my dogs to get used to, their necks are safe, they're securely restrained, and I have my choice of where to put the leash for control. I have a leash that snaps around my waist and has a bungee type of design to it so my dogs feel the resistance slowly when they pull. This means less jerking for me and having the leash around my waist gives me greater stability. I have a plethora of neck, shoulder, and back issues and any jolts can spell big trouble for me ranging from pain to limited mobility / range for several days. The martingale collar is brilliant as well. I call it a safety choke collar. It will only choke so far and you set the limit; hence safety. When they're walking loosely the collar has a nice amount of give, but if they pull or jerk it tightens to the point I've set it. This works nicely for Gertie, whose head is smaller than her neck. She has slipped out of normal collars. This type of collar is also commonly seen on Whippets, whose heads are narrower than their necks and whose necks are reportedly delicate. The cost is less than a front attachment harness and it works equally well with my bungie style leash. The Gentle Leader (a head harness) has the greatest degree of difficulty and the largest margin for error. Owners can damage their pups as this head harness is designed to go over their sensitive noses. The instructions say to use only a slight pressure with your pinky for corrections and I've seen folks yanking the things. Dogs also don't like the feel of the strap across their noses, and it can slip up into their line of sight which is likely annoying. Mo has been known to slide his face in the grass for the better part of a city block trying to dislodge the thing from his face. I didn't know back then, but if the pooches are slowly introduced to the harness with treats and praise there is a larger success rate. I did use only pinky pressure so I got that much right, but simply slapping the thing on his face saw resistance. Much like we all felt about wearing masks for the first time! Most people were fidgeting with the things constantly, and many still do. However, when done properly it's a viable solution and we did get to a point where it worked well. If interested, the leash I have is Kong brand and it is solid. You can also search Chewy or Amazon for a bungee leash and come up with numerous options. I am forbidden from posting a link to the search with the filters I selected so I'll give the details: dog with 4+ stars, sort: most reviews (on Chewy) or average customer review (Amazon). This is one place I don't skimp on price. The last thing I want is my leash to fail! I did find the Kong bungee leash on Amazon: KONG Traffic Handle Reflective Bungee Leash The snap is metal, though the piece that snps in is plastic. I've used the leash many times and it's just as tough as it was on day 1. If the dog is small the leash may be overkill, though. Momo is 34 lbs, Gertie is 42. Equipment aside, if you have the room, you may consider getting that initial burst of energy tamed. Momo is a horrible walker because he's über hyper and the first 15 minutes of our walks, even after 8 years, consist of stopping, turning around, stopping, turning around . . .. He's exhausting! So, to tone it down a wee bit I'll play fetch with him, or send Gertie out to play and chase around (but then she's too tired to walk, lol - that old man has some energy and even a young pup can't keep up with him!). We play "in the lanai, out of the lanai," where I step inside the lanai, he runs around to the doggy door and comes to me. I step out of the lanai and he runs out of the doggy door and around the lanai to come to me. Rinse and repeat about 10 times (I'm not even kidding). Then he Might be calm enough to go on a walk.

BTW, pee pads make Excellent water absorbers for those dogs who splash and drip (ahem, Gertrude).

We took her to the UF hospital again after her bloodwork from the Vet's office showed a steep decline in red blood cells. UF is thinking there was a false result, or another patient's records got mixed in with Abbi's last week because a 40% increase and then 30% decline is unusual. So frustrating! That happened once with Momo's weight. Someone marked him down as 42 pounds. He's normally 34 and at 38 he looked like a plump sausage that would burst the casing. No way he's Ever been 42! So, a wasted trip to Gainesville (45 minute drive, 3 hours of waiting for results, 45 minutes waiting for check out), and wasted money. I'm keeping it to myself for the husband's sake, but inside I'm Fuming over the mishandling and increased cost. If it had been a necessary cost, fine, but money spent on someone else's mistake boils my blood! She's still weak from all the muscle loss and healing. Still toileting fine so that's a relief (ha, pun!). Thankfully she's always been good at vocally alerting us to potty needs and continues to do so with her little, "errr," sound. Eating like a little piglet, too, which is encouraging. Husband acknowledged that we're at the point of spoiling her and making her as comfortable as possible, but isn't ready to let it play out entirely so I can see more trips to Gainesville in our future. I can agree to a point - she's alert, oriented, and doesn't appear to be in pain; her body just isn't cooperating with her will. His thought is that if her life can be extended without pain, why not do it? With Brownie being taken from us without warning I'm letting him work through this on his own time on the condition that he continues to keep Abbi's best interests at the forefront. It's too easy for we humans to be selfish with our emotions. Our hearts are in the right place, but it's unfair to our furry companions. If only we humans had the rights animals do when it comes to these things! It's easier for me than my husband because Abbi and I never really bonded. The mister and I have very different views on raising dogs. He says they're family to be spoiled, I insist on at least a moderate degree of training and manners. He doesn't mind if they stare or beg while we're eating, for example - I most certainly do. Gertie and Abbi sit on the couch with us while we eat (we're living room eaters, complete with TV trays, lol). Abbi stares at him while he's eating, Gertie ignores me and usually opts for sleep while I eat. All that is to say because she has no manners, and because he refuses to let her acquire them, Abbi and I are often at odds with one another. She's staring at me now . . .. Good thing I like dogs, even those lacking manners! I will continue to update and I hope this information helps someone in the future with decisions for their own pooch. I'm being candid about all these feelings, costs, and events with the goal of helping others with their own decisions when the time comes. I'm trying to strike a balance between logic and emotion and it's a tough stretch of road to navigate. My hope is that at least part of our journey will resonate with someone and help them work through the process. I keep the thought that dogs have such short lives because they learn everything they need to know about love far quicker than humans do. Cats live longer than dogs because . . . lol! Had to cheer myself up.

She's been back a week and life has been its usual whirlwind of events. She was at UF Veterinary Hospital for 5 days getting poked and prodded. They had her good 'n drugged up for her anxiety. She's chewed the plastic wall anchor on her gate and left enough blood behind to make any of the horror movie masters nod in approval. She was still very subdued last Monday when she came home. They gave us mostly drugs that can be crushed or are suspensions, but there's one important one that's time release. With all the steroids she's on, and the prednisone, this hasn't been an issue - she's famished! I'm even giving her dry food during the day as a snack! I was carrying her upstairs and had Gertie's food in the other hand. Abbi stuck her little snout in the cup and started wolfing down Gertie's food! Plain ol' dry food - shocked me. She's down to 8.4 pounds from her regular 10 - 11. Purina i/d is what she's been prescribed so I got Chewy right on that for us. She's still lacking in energy, but that's a tough tell because she's been low key for years now. We just need her to keep eating and getting some meat back on her bones. Her little arthritic legs are even sadder these days, but she's mentally alert and doesn't seem to be bothered by it so quality of life is still present and when the weather cooperates I hold true to my promise of allowing, and encouraging, sunbathing. The best they can figure is that it was (is) some type of immunosuppressant disease. The blood tests weren't in favor of cancer, but the docs haven't ruled it out entirely. They skipped the bone marrow test, opting for comfort rather than putting her through that at the age of 13. Even if it was cancer it's not as though we're going to put her through chemo and whatnot. We feel that would be selfish and instead we'd opt for a hospice type care, giving her whatever she wants / needs in the time she has left with us. For now, though, she's doing very well and after 2 transfusions, an iron shot, and goodness-knows what else (the bill was 5 pages long) she's on the mend and doing far better. Yesterday's blood test showed her red cell count was back to normal, woo hoo! I did have a gentle talk with my husband, trying to get him in the state of mind to accept that she is aging and 13 is an accomplishment for this little puppy mill runt. Brownie was taken suddenly and there was no time to prepare (he was also 13 at the time, but still ornery and doing fine). The man was a wreck - that was his buddy - for a month so I'm hoping with Abbi he'll have the time he needs to come to terms with what's eventually going to happen. I'll be here for him through it, as much or as little as he wants (he holed up in the bedroom with Abbi for the first 2 weeks after Brownie and didn't want me seeing him in that state). He says he never wants another dog because it's too painful when they leave. I'm the opposite, I think my pups would want me to rescue another pooch from the pound and spoiling them instead of being sad so when it's Mo's time I'll adopt another dog to turn my attention to right away. I can't think of a better way to deal with the loss than to have a fluffy friend there to help me through it! Mo is going to outlive everyone, though, lol, so that's a day I may never see! 11 years old and still a puppy, running circles around Gertie. For now we focus on the positive! Abbi just started crunching on her dry food again. :) Hopefully some of it will start sticking to her ribs soon!

Thank you, as always, Adrienne, for your thorough response. It's so very much appreciated! She turned her nose up at Everything today. All of her meds can be crushed so my husband did that this morning and gave them to her via oral syringe. Chicken, beef, sweet potato and chicken baby food, jerky, Zuke's (now we Know it's dire that was more a litmus test than an earnest attempt at getting food into her), oatmeal, trying to think of what else we tried. Going to have to return some of the baby food - husband grabbed fancy stuff with leeks. Bless his heart, I say plain, he wants to give her gourmet. He's trying so hard to make her happy he kind of misses details sometimes. I had him look up all the ingredients and leeks are on the no-fly list for dogs. I'm going to suggest apple juice to him instead of water so it takes the edge off of the bitter taste of those pills. She's got 6 or 7 medications, including prednisone. Maybe even sugarless apple sauce, hmmmm. That should pass through the syringe and it's no thicker than the nasty paste medication she gets. Or perhaps pumpkin puree with apple juice to thin it . . .. We'll just have to keep playing food roulette and getting imaginative. The sonogram came back with no blockage but an enlarged gall bladder, numerous ulcers, and a slightly enlarged pancreas. After Mo's bout with pancreatitis I was suspecting that because Abbi was exhibiting the same symptoms, but Doc thinks it was only a small part of a (to use one of your favorites) multifaceted issue. Her red blood cell count is lower than it was and she goes back Thursday to see if she needs a blood transfusion. We're over $1000 now and no real answers. The money isn't a big problem, the lack of a game plan in exchange for the amount spent is frustrating as heck. Her Vet is an excellent one so I have faith he's doing all he can and this is just one of those really difficult to diagnose and treat things given how many maladies are contributing to her condition. I keep taking her outside - she seems to be reveling in sunning herself in the yard and if we are towards the end of her journey then I can at least afford her that joy. The weather is warm but not hot so she has that small grace to enjoy. We moved our office upstairs and I can see 80% of the yard from my "perch" so I can keep an eye on her for the most part. I'll keep this updated as we get information.

Been super busy - our work is exploding with people wanting to move out of the city and into a more rural area. Good for us, but holy cow it's nuts to find myself working at 3 am! Just popping in for an update and some advice. Momo's doing great. Got him on a glucosamine supplement called GlycoFlex that has 3 stages - have him on the 2nd stage. No more medication has been needed since finishing his loading dose. He's back to running circles around Gertie. Peppy old man. :D Gertie is my heart and star. I am going to attempt to train her to get my slippers. The idea struck me this morning when I went to put my foot in my house shoe and there was a Gertie paw in it already, lol. Her recall is getting better and better. I believe if I stay on top of it I will be able to recall her off all manner of things. She ran up to me with a headless bunny a while back (poor bunny mama - that's the 3rd one that's met it's doom, but then again rabbits are über prolific breeders). Gertie hasn't killed one (this one had perished before she got a hold of it), it's Monkey (the cat) or it could have been dropped by one of the hawks who had loftier goals than it could handle. I'm thinking Monks, though. I swear he has a sacrificial altar made of squirrel and bunny heads somewhere on the property, the little sicko. Horrified and not knowing what it was (it was dark) I said, "Gertie, drop!" And she did! She'll crunch down harder on whatever treat she's found in the yard instead of dropping so this surprised the heck out of me that she dropped such a unique trophy. I really need to work her over on the "drop" thing in the yard. One of the multitude of workers we've had over lately left pizza crusts in our yard (I was Livid - who does that?! There was a trash bin 10 feet away And littering in my yard, are you kidding me?!). Well, Gerts found those and now everything she finds in the yard has increased in value. /sigh Gerts has also earned her freedom while we're out of the house. She's been left outside her gated area 7 times now and the house has been fully intact upon our return. Watching her on the Furbo she seems to wander up and down the stairs. Likely lying on My chaise lounge, which she is not allowed to do, but occasionally gets caught doing. I love my dogs, I despise the hair, sand, and drool. So, Abbi. She's not been eating well the past 3 weeks and I finally convinced the husband to take her in to the Vet In his defense, she's prone to hunger strikes and is a super finicky pup so it's tough to tell when it's an emergency. Momo or Gertie not eating? Instant trip to the Vet. Abbi - 90% chance she's being picky. She has a mass on or around her stomach - I'm hazy on the details. She goes in for a sonogram tomorrow morning. As of Friday she'd lost 10% of her weight and I'm fairly certain she's lost more since. We're trying to get her to eat but she's not interested. Yesterday she devoured the chicken and rice (husband cooked it up last night with bone broth and I helped him package it into several servings); today she's not having it. I got her to eat a beef jerky but that's full of things a bad belly ought not to have, though at this point it's almost like even a bowl full of sugar would at least give her energy and weight. She also gobbled down half a chicken jerky (that one's just chicken, no other ingredients) but with it being so tough I didn't want to feed her too much of it. She's on two antidiarrheals, which I couldn't get down her this morning (I don't blame her, the consistency and smell were offputting). I did get the hunger-inducing pill down her so will try the food again later today. I'm thinking it's going to be like someone who gets bariatric surgery - she's going to have to have numerous small meals rather than two big ones because with that mass her stomach has less room. I offered cheese, Cheerios, whipped cream . . . we really don't have much on hand at the moment and those seemed somewhat safe, though I'm dubious what with the diarrhea and dogs tending to be intolerant of dairy. Husband got sardines and she gobbled that up the first day but now she just licks them. They're supposed to be good for producing red blood cells - she's anemic currently - and all sorts of other things. If anyone else has had experience with a dog who wouldn't eat, I'm open to suggestions. Or how to get these nasty pastes down her gullet. His daughter came over yesterday to spend some time with Abbi, just in case. She's got no energy, doesn't really want to move around and only seems happy sitting outside in the sunshine. I'm about to take her out again because if that's her last joy in this world then she's sure the heck going to get as much of it as possible. We tolerate one another, but damn if I want to see the poor old girl suffer and I'm going to do what I can to ease her through whatever is down the road. I told her yesterday illness enacts an automatic truce. 😆

She really is proud - that's how she behaves after she does anything I ask her to. Roll over? She gives me Three of them, lol. She's so adorable and good-natured. Nothing gets her down. Einstein's light trick is what gave me the idea to train this. I've watched that video of him several times and it always put a smile on my face to watch that big ol' paw smack the light. I also love how he looked at you each time after he touched it, "did I do it?!" His focus was so solid throughout! I'll have to try the sock idea - that sounds funny. This girl is the polar opposite of Momo when it comes to bites. She chews Every bite of food, even something as small as a Zuke's mini. We're working on "take" because she's reluctant to mouth things so I think she's a perfect candidate for this idea - just have to reinforce "take." She's got "touch" down pat so the door thing would be easy, too. She already opens the gate and a door is simply a bigger solid gate. Once they learn "touch" it's kind of up to our imagination.

I'm trying to think of new things to teach Gertie to do. The most useful thing so far has been her turning on the lights for me. Momo is 10x smarter than Gerts (he's downright brilliant where Gertie is smart), but Gertie is calm enough to train (Mo gets overly excited and we can only train for a few minutes at a time). I shot a short video of the lights. I placed these all over the house and she'll go to them when I say "light." I adore how she looks at me after each success - she's so eager to please. ♥

Hi Fran, I sometimes watch aggression modification videos and in the most severe, or uncertain, cases they use a "stand in" dog. It's a stuffed animal that they use at a distance. Throwing that out there as an idea. What about barriers? Windows / gates. Is there a place you could work with those for the protection of other dogs and to give Shadow a fair chance to acclimate to their presence? Adrienne can weigh in on this one - maybe items scented with other dogs? Without knowing her specific trigger and coupling that with dogs' sense of smell I'll put that one up for discussion, too. Sounds of other dogs? I'm trying to think of anything that may be useful. As the companion of a grouchy pup (his is food-related) I understand well the nerves and stress involved with taking on this personality. The best advice I can give is patience and determination. You'll have set backs, oooooh, curse those set backs! We had one, so very minor but a set back nonetheless, when it was pouring rain a couple months ago and I had to feed the medium dogs inside (Momo usually gets fed outside). Mo did not mind his manners and air nipped towards Gertie (he was a foot away) while I was preparing their food. I guess he didn't like her being closer to me than he was. Please don't be discouraged by steps back you may experience - it Does get better! It seems to me each stumble seemed to reinforce the training, though, because our communication is better and we know how to get back on solid ground faster now. I reinforce the training daily and every time I think we've made it to our best possible "agreement," he surprises me by calming a little bit more while I'm around his food. No way will I reach for his toys just yet without a solid, "leave," "back," and trade for something more valuable, but maybe one day we'll get there. We just have to go at their pace.

Thank you for the explanation about the neutering - that's interesting information! In the States any dog adopted from a shelter will be fixed before they're sent home, and most breeders will do the same. Here's one for helping overcome fear after being attacked. Not exactly applicable in your situation because you're reporting he's not showing any signs of trauma, but something in here may help: And another post that may have tidbits of info for you: The thing I would find most useful is the emergency turn around. That's where you suddenly change direction and walk the other way. Useful for if your dog is about to approach something you don't want him to get to (maybe someone dropped their sandwich on the ground, for example) or if you notice something that may be an issue (an aggressive acting dog perhaps). I use this when we're approaching something that gets Momo excited. I use the turn around several times as we inch our way closer. Each time he starts pulling on the leash I turn him around. Eventually (ever-so-frustratingly-eventually!) he'll get to a calm enough state of mind for us to progress. Another suggestion is hyper vigilance in reading other dogs' body language. You don't want to be tense and distrusting of every dog because yours will pick up on that, but instead aware and confident. When it's thundering our senior dog comes to me instead of her favorite person (my husband) because I'm calm and confident and that's what she needs in that moment. My husband isn't what you'd call a quivering mass of fear, but he gets anxious about her being anxious and they feed off one another. Management would be a good tool - walking him at times when there are less dogs out and about. Or, if you know certain dogs are going to be on your route, go 15 minutes earlier or later than the time you usually see them. Failing that you could walk on the opposite side of the road from them - distance from triggers (whether your dog's or another dog's) is a great tool.

First off, color me jealous! I have 3 and I can only imagine how much joy (and excitement and challenge) there is in your household. I keep trying to convince the husband we need 2 more. I dug up a couple posts here: If you have lingering questions after reading those, maybe something specific to your situation, let us know. 🙂

To add to what Adrienne said, dog parks usually have a rule that intact males and females in heat cannot enter. The reason for that is to prevent attacks for the reasons Adrienne listed. Is there a reason you're waiting for 1 year of age? For the being attacked part I'll share that any time an intact male entered the dog park, we left. This is because Momo was targeted by them. Most people don't notice, but he gives off many signals that say, "I'm insecure, which makes me a good bet for a winning fight." Intact males always tried to mount him and they would follow him everywhere to do so. It was not playful mounting (which some dogs do - they tend to switch who's mounting who as part of their play). This is because Mo wants to be top dog, but he lacks the confidence to pull it off. Other dogs sense that, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that your little guy is having a self esteem / confidence issue as a result of that attack. One thing Mo will do is puff up to make himself bigger and that alone may be enough to make other dogs think twice. Where he goes wrong is pushing against me and tensing up while he's doing it. That's telling other dogs he's not entirely sure of his bravado. Momo also lacks a tail, which is a Huge communication device amongst the canine world. They can't tell if it's wagging, and if it is, whether it's hoisted high and proud or if it's sweeping low and defensive. As a result there are likely a Lot of confusing signals coming from Mo. Think of it this way: what do humans do when we can't understand someone who's speaking a different language and giving off weird body language? Well, we may ignore or avoid while the lesser amongst us may bully or attack. A select few of us may be understanding and try to communicate, but I'd say the majority fall into one of the two other camps. That could be what's happening with your pup. There was another post here that I'll try to find (I have to wrap up and get to work now) about another pooch who was attacked and who needed stitches. There is good advice there on how to help rebuild confidence in a pup who's been on the losing end of an argument. Oh, another thing to consider is whether that German Shepherd was intact. Two intact males can spell disaster, or (and Adrienne can correct me here if I'm wrong) I think a female in heat who picks up on an intact male with a confidence issue may be inclined to have a go at him. Dogs are so simple, yet so very complex!

Yes, the muzzle punch! He still does it, lol. It's soft now, but wet - yuck! I'll tell a funny (to me) about this muzzle punch. When Mo was but a wee pup my ex-husband came over to drop off my daughter and he exuberantly greeted Momo. Well, Mo is Just the right height to do some damage to a guy and I hadn't quite broken Mo of the crotch sniffing bit, yet. With my ex doubled over in pain and me trying to suppress a guffaw (I'm going to Hades for that, haha), I managed to get Mo, and myself, under control. So, yes, it's important to curb that behavior. 😉 When I describe our air snapping it's what he does instead of a bite - it's like a warning shot, "hey, I don't like that, next time you won't be so lucky!" With Gertrude I can get as excited as I want to be (she just enthusiastically followed me downstairs because I was running away from a roach and she knows I don't run unless something bad is around, lol). Momo is trickier because that boy is wired for sound. It seems common in the smarter dogs. Brains = energy = need brain games 🙂 Sometimes I wish he were a little dumber! It sounds like Molly is more like Gertie and doing it out of joy rather than annoyance like Momo. I do have a suggestion. I believe Adrienne has a lesson on this, in fact. We play a warm up, cool down game. I will start moving erratically and jumping or making high pitched nonsense sounds and as soon as Gertie starts jumping I freeze and turn my back to her. When she settles down I tell her, 'yes!" and give her a treat. I repeat that until either she stops getting excited when I start getting hyper or she shows signs of getting bored with the game. The great thing about this lesson is you can control the level of enthusiasm. Since Molly already reacts to excitement you might start training at a lower energy level and as she gains an understanding of how to play you can ratchet up the energy. This Should help to desensitize her to all the hub bub going on. I really do need to practice this with Momo . . .. Congrats on the move into your apartment. Did that bring any new challenges with Molly, or did she adjust okay?

This one I think is often overlooked and undervalued by we humans, yet it's so simple. Once I started following this advice I found my dogs coming around often to "check in" with me. Even when they're tearing through the yard, romping and chasing one another they'll come over to me and pause for a moment. I reinforce the heck out of this visit. Eye contact / visibility is another key factor for us. Gertie can be sniffing around in the yard and I'll call her, she'll ignore me. But if I wait until I catch her eye (sometimes I'll make motions to force the attention to fall on me) and call her once she see me she comes running 9 / 10 times. I have my back up plan, too. A silent whistle. I like this for evenings when I don't want to disturb neighbors by shouting for my pup (I'm a night owl and it's not uncommon for me to be out at 3 am). Silent whistle training is all about repetition and reward. I do recommend buying a high quality whistle like the Acme brand whistle. I tried the Petsmart $4.99 whistle and it's about half the volume of a normal whistle - not very quiet at all. The nice thing about whistles is that they Should carry further than our voices. I have not attempted to recall from a mile away, but it's comforting to know that if one of my pooches gets out that I'll have something that reaches further than my voice as I'm walking or driving around looking for them. Thankfully the One time Momo got out of the yard he went straight to the front gate and waited to be let back in. We're still mind-boggled as to how his arthritic old self got out - a walk around the entire fence line revealed no points of exit without an impressive jump.

What does she do once you're gone? Does she eventually settle? Both Abbie and Gertie bark when we leave, but Gertie eventually settles. You wouldn't know it because when we get home she starts barking again. Without our camera we would have thought she carries on the entire time we're out. Abbi, on the other hand Never settles, and ends up harming herself. We now leave her in the bedroom because she (at 11 pounds mind you) chewed the plastic screw cap on her gate down to the metal. Even with the sharp plastic pieces poking her she continued to chew. It looked like a murder scene - blood droplets on the floor, a 1' x 10" section of the wall smeared with blood, and a pool of blood under the screw cap area.

Hi Brandon, I can tell you the methods I was taught by our Behviorist worked very well. The part where she had me working with an empty bowl especially makes me think of your situation. The idea was to form a positive association with the bowl to replace the association of anxiety / stress. I understand, fully, the feelings and concerns involved with a reactive dog when it comes to food or toys and we work on it Every single morning (he takes a glucosamine supplement that he finds tasty so I use that as his training treat to keep it fresh in his mind that hands next to bowl = good things to come). I think of it this way - it was 10 years of a habit forming and it may take 10 years to completely replace the behavior. What I can tell you is that we are leaps and bounds from where we were the day he launched that attack. I can touch his bowl (but not him) while he's eating and he's okay because he knows I'm only touching it to put More goodies in the bowl (don't try that right away, please! It was part of our training at the very end after putting in hours upon hours of empty bowl work). I only share this to encourage you to put in the work. It's really not bad, just boring, lol. There is a Ton of repetition. The other thing I want to prepare you for is backstepping. It can and will happen. It happened each time I went too fast for Momo. Given that it's their personal issue it means we're on Their time table, not ours (much to my annoyance). Patience, deep breaths, and not fearing temporary setbacks are required. The best part about having a professional work with me was that she saw things I missed and she was able to tell me to slow down or embolden me to push a little. That was key to our success.

Hi Judith, Your previous question regarding the same thing was answered here:

Am I bad if I giggle at that? I'm sure it's annoying, but it's kind of cute. Many people name their dogs Bandit, but your pup would own that name. She sounds like quite a character! Other than ensuring that she's restricted to a certain area, or on lead when not being directly supervised, I'm not sure what the answer to this one is and I can't wait to read what Adrienne has to say because Momo actually got out last night. First time in 7 years he's even bothered to escape. There Had to have been something on the other side of our fence that enticed him - we have a stump where we chop wood and we think he was able to jump the fence from that stump as we couldn't find any holes or places in the fence he could have escaped (we had our fence redone in November as well). He has a strong prey drive so a squirrel, rabbit, raccoon, or anything small and moving, must have encouraged him. I'm especially surprised because he's arthritic so it had to have been something grand. All that is to say, I feel you on this issue because even restricted and infirm these guys find ways. My brother has a GPS collar so he can track his short-haired pointer on hunts and on their land (similar set up to you - they have fenced in areas but most of it is wide open). His neighbors have threatened to harm poor Gordo if he gets on their land again so the collar's shock function is used (I'm not a fan of that, but I'm less enthused about his slimy neighbors' threats). Hopefully your neighbors are kinder hearted and more understanding. If this were happening regularly with my dog, I would have a discussion with the neighbors to let them know that I'm working on the issue and to provide suggestions for what they should do if my pooch come around their property, and to please be patient while we work on correcting the behavior as well as giving them my number so they can contact me if my fur ball ended up in their vicinity.

Ireland?! I may be asking you questions in the future (if you don't mind, of course). 😄 What a happy girl she is, that's fantastic recall from such a great distance!