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[miles]

Shit. Hope he keeps getting better man.

[miles]

Our old girl was having joint issues so they told us to give her these supplements. Since then she's been running and jumping again. Same thing, don't know how long the improvement will last but we'll take it. So nice to see the relief.

[AugustWest]

Very happy the Cattle Shot abides.

[miles]

Why do wombats poop cubes? Scientists may finally have the answer

[theinevitable]

We have adopted a very good dog with one enormous problem. At certain times he decides that he wants to play, and that the way to get us to play is to bite us over and over, grab our sleeves and #####, etc. He has drawn blood and given us bruises but seems totally unaware that we are in distress and is still panting happily and following us as we flee. We have tried more exercise, less exercise, distracting with chew toys, distracting with food, and separating him from us physically to show that when you play rough you don’t get to play. Everything works briefly but does not prevent future biting. Just now after an hour of chill chewing on his chew toy and getting petted he lunged straight for my crotch and grazed my cojones with his teeth. The gutteral scream I let out made him jump back, and then he was right back to lunging at my legs and arms.

The thing is, every other moment of the day he’s very good. Attentive (until he gets into frenzy mode), a pretty good leash walker, very food motivated and interested in learning what to do to get treats. He gets a little frantic and barky when he sees other dogs, but we have had success with getting him to focus on us and ignore the dogs in exchange for treats (we get him to sit or lie down repeatedly while praising him and petting him). The internet seems to say this is the first step— learning that when we see another dog it is good, and that we should be calm and pay attention to Dad.

We are working on learning what the clicker means and his name (Arlo). During the day when we are working he chews a toy or naps or lazes around the apartment. He’s very easygoing about being touched, letting us touch his paws and stomach and face and whatever else (I read we should do this to desensitize him for when we need to trim fur and nails). He has never snarled or growled or bitten in an aggressive way— only trying to play.

Working through a few dog training books. I read Other End of the Leash which I really liked, and we are starting the exercises from The Power of Positive Dog Training. Interestingly, we posted about this on the Facebook group for the rescue we got him from, and his foster mom says he only did biting/crazy zoomies ONCE in the 3 months he lived with her. What the heck?

He’s also incredibly handsome. I feel like a dumb millennial because I can’t remember how to post a picture on here, I guess I have to host it elsewhere?

[wombat]

It is like the stone ages here when it comes to posting photos. I guess some things in life have gotten better.

You are doing the right thing by showing the dog that when biting happens, the fun stops. Your only problem is that you are expecting it to work too fast. You have had this dog for basically five minutes, it takes longer to change behavior than that.

[wombat]

Oh and here's another thing to try. Reward the dog for doing nothing sometimes. Just, you notice the dog is lying there calmly, give it a treat. This is so simple but people find it hard to execute because it's hard to learn to see doing nothing as, like, something happening. But it actually is a behavior and you can reinforce it.

I used to teach this in dog training classes, because it was on the curriculum which was made up by someone I trusted, but I always kind of wondered about it. Then I got Momo and swear to god it saved my life. Initially she had only two modes, locked in her crate and running around acting like a demon. A couple weeks of treating when I caught her doing nothing made a big difference. It really helped to lower the overall arousal level.

[theinevitable]

That’s a good idea!

We also started tying his leash to the coffee table when we play. We do tug of war until he nips us and then we step back a few steps. Part of the problem before is that he did not seem to realize we were upset/refusing to play, because he could just keep chasing us and biting us. Now he seems to get it! He sometimes opens his mouth and lunges for us and catches himself halfway and stops. Also having success with distracting him (asking him to sit/shake/lie down) when he gets too excited and seems on the verge of getting into hyper mode.

He’s so fuck*ng sweet. I feel bad because he is really stressing my GF out but I am getting nothing but good mammal feelings. She was the one who wanted a dog!

[wombat]

It's really stressful to get a new dog! It takes a much longer time to figure out how to make it work, and for the dog to really settle in, than people expect. But it sounds like you are doing all the right things and eventually it will be fine, so fine that you'll forget how hard it was and get ANOTHER dog to turn your life upside down again.

[theinevitable]

Yikes. (Spoiler dog is fine). Today he was sniffing along a fence and discovered a half-full cup of mixed nuts and ate a big mouthful before I yanked him back (we have not gotten to “leave it.”) a little later he sat down in the shade and didn’t want to move, but then eventually got back into it. I didn’t think twice about it at the time.

A few hours later my GF took him on another walk and called me half an hour later saying “we’re stuck a few blocks away, he sat down and won’t move.” I ran towards there and happily he was excited to see me coming his way and jumped up and followed me home. When we got home he was REALLY hot and a few minutes later he was still panting really hard. I googled “dog panting fast” and of course immediately realized that OF COURSE, why would anyone leave snacks sitting out on the sidewalk unless they were full of rat poison (it’s a big weird semi-vacant lot that people park in).  Went into complete panic mode, burst into tears, that whole thing. I decided I would call the emergency vet if he hadn’t chilled out in 5 minutes and applied wet towels, an ice cube wrapped in a kitchen towel for him to lick, and pointed our big fan at him. 10 minutes later he was totally back to normal and begging for dinner.

[wombat]

Yikes indeed and thanks for the spoiler.

One mystery of life that you learn about when you have a dog is how much food is on the ground in urban areas. How does so much food end up on the ground, people??? The danger is less actual poison than all the other ways it can make dogs sick, especially since they will happily eat things that can kill them like chicken bones, oh and did you know macadamia nuts are toxic to dogs? Really it's a miracle sometimes that anyone can keep a dog alive for more than five minutes.

But also, be careful of heatstroke. Dogs just physically don't cool themselves as well as us hairless apes do. It was in the 90s in NYC today, right? Too hot to walk a dog.

[Asherdan]

But also, be careful of heatstroke. Dogs just physically don't cool themselves as well as us hairless apes do.

Always a good reminder. I always really feel for the St. Bernard once summer temps settle in. You can really tell when the heat gets to him because he just kinda collapses into a motionless fur slinky in some shade and looks dead.

I take him out in the mornings when we feed the livestock so he can rampage, but when the t-stat hits 85 I bring him inside until the evening cool-down. One good thing, he and the german shepherd are big enough to stand at the hoss trough and drink from it, so at least they always have all the cool water they can handle.

[theinevitable]

Good to know about the heatstroke. We are working on doing quick bathroom break walks but right now he’s content to walk pretty far before deciding he might need to pee. Lately even on not-very-hot days he decides to lie down on the ground sometimes. Not totally sure what he’s getting out of that.

And yes the sidewalk food is out of control. It feels like every 10 feet I hear him chewing something suddenly, especially at night when I can’t see things and steer him away before we get there.

[wombat]

Do you treat for peeing? Even if he is housebroken and knows to go outside, you could still treat for peeing, if you want to give him a reason to do it sooner. Also, make sure you don't make it obvious that as soon as he pees, you head for home and the walk is over, because he will catch on to that.

There is only so much you can do about the peeing with some dogs, though, especially when they are young. I feel like Momo has finally grown up because she has gotten to the point where she will sometimes just pee to get it over with, instead of saving the pee until she finds the exact, precise, exquisitely perfect spot that needs to be peed on at this special moment in time :eyeroll:

[miles]

Our vet called us last night to tell us our older dog probably has cancer. We take her to see a specialist on Tuesday but it doesn't sound promising. She's helped my wife and I get through a lot of shit. This hurts pretty bad.

She has a heart murmur that has remained stable so I thought we'd have her around for another couple years or so at least. I guess we might still but I'm trying to be realistic about the situation.