Spooner - our “pound puppy” (shepherd/golden retriever mix, we think) tore an ACL in her left hind leg in April. She was fine when I let her out in the (fenced) yard after work - she came back in limping - we have no idea what she did. (maybe chasing rabbits)
She had the “very expensive surgery” (tho plastic filament instead of steel plate & 8 bolts!) and is doing well. At the follow-up appt the vet said that her knee is stable & she has a full range of motion - we’re just starting to do short walks to build the muscles back up.
I had a friend with a Boxer who’d managed to swallow a couple of balls. Expensive surgery was the result. I don’t see a link for the bit about the tooth wear, but I read that just recently somewhere. I noticed it because my #1 dog loves tennis balls, and I’d never thought about them being bad for her teeth.
And here’s what you do if you find your dog has made a mess on the floor (read carefully…)
Take a rolled up section of newspaper.
Proceed to smack yourself in the head while repeating out loud “I forgot to watch the dog! I forgot to watch the dog!”
Seriously, take her out to pee after eating, after waking from a nap, or after playing. Praise her lavishly when she performs!
Kong toys are good for some dogs (mine didn’t care for them really, and I didn’t like the rubber smell.) My Aussie liked the Buster Cube. You put dry treats in it, and the dog turns it over and plays with it and the treats fall out. It’s a little more interactive than some toys.
mondro, I think everyone else pretty much covered the care stuff, so I’ll just say that there are few things I’d rather do than go pick up a brand new dog from dog jail.
My pound puppy is sitting with her chin on my knee giving me a “don’t even think about it” look, so I’ll just say best wishes and enjoy each other. You are doing a very nice thing.
Well, so far, no accidents or anything. I’ve been taking her out every now and then, and when I do, she will usually pee, at which point I praise her.
I am actually thinking that whoever had her before me, might have been a bit iron fisted with her, as she tends to be really timid. I’m not sure if it is from the anesthesia or not. I led her upstairs twice, and both times, I had to actually grab her collar and gently lead her upstairs, because before doing so, she would stand on the bottom steps, stop, look up, then hurry up and get off the steps, while trying to avoid me.
Like I was going to hit her or something.
She is being quite good though, no jumping up on furniture, no begging for food from people, nothing.
She just seems really timid is all.
I think she is starting to trust me though, she has started following me around the house, and is actually laying down beside me right now. She doesn’t seem overly skittish around people, but she does come across as rather shy. The cats are getting along with her pretty well, and she seems very much ok with the cats, so that much is good.
I really hope she breaks out of this shyness though, I’m just being extra nice to her, and being sure to heap on extra praise when she is good.
Good for you for rescuing the kid. I’ve always thought that the older rescues just “know” they’ve got special parent.
alohaaloha, I think you may just be the coolest person in the world. Not only to do you dedicate your life to the critters all day, you log in here and help the critter’s people…and keep us sane…to try to make our relationships work. You will be richly rewarded for your pro-bone-o work. Oh, my what a bad pun. BTW, did you see my MPSIMS thread follow-up to the pup-rescue? She got the perfect home!
Ditto on the tennis balls. Some dogs can play well with these, these tend to be the same dogs that will not try to pull “eyes” of stuffed animals or try to tear out the juicy insides. I have a lab/dane mix that treats stuffed things like they are babies and carries them around. My boxer mix will destroy anything in about an hour. The boxer doesn’t like the kongs, but will chase a real soccer ball for hours. We’ve also had success with the real bones. They last forever and if they are thick enough, there will be no splintering.
They make an inflatable dog bed with a removable/washable cover. My 100lb girl can’t pop it. May be a good choice if you have a chewer.
If you crate, sit by her for a few hours and then start walking away slowly. Don’t just shut the door and leave. Don’t just tell her how good she is either. Go about your business but remember every to acknowledge her often. Put the crate in a high traffic area, not hidden away in a quiet place.
This sounds odd, but praise the poop. Since the babe is likely being over-loaded with love and attention, she may not quite catch on that the poop on the grass is the “good thing”. Instead of calling her over and praising (may think it’s a reward for come), go over to your new lawn ornament and look at it and look at her and say something like “good potty” then she’ll know the potty word and what you are talking about. This is the reverse of the wrong house-poo situation where you point at it and say bad dog. If she makes a mess in the house, just clean it up and cover with enzyme-based Nature’s Miracle.
Pretty soon, you will “know” when she has to go. I ask my dog if she has to go outside and she runs for the door. Look for sniffing around or if they seem uncomfortable. Look for signs for her training you as well. My girl stands in the doorway and puts her head down and wags the tail when it’s poo-party-time.
Well, today her mood is much improved. Starting last night, she started to get way less timid, and now she is following me around the house, wanting to play, be petted, just be social. I’m sitting on the couch now, and she is just sitting on the floor beside it, under my legs which are propped up on the coffee table. Just a few minutes ago, she was showing me the tricks she knows, she just sat down in front of me and gave me her paw to shake.
I’ve found she is easily stopped from doing anything bad with a stern TASHA, or NO. So far I’ve had no problems as far as accidents, she seems pretty well housebroken. Actually I was at a Car Show today, and since I couldn’t take her (because of her stitches) I took her out to go potty before I left in the morning, then after having been gone for about 6 hours, I stopped back home to take her out again, and I didn’t find any presents left for me.
She seems to be ok with being taken out 3 times a day, in the morning, middle afternoon, and again before bed.
She’s doing quite well, and just loves being around people.
Try not to correct her by saying her name sharply. It gives her name a negative connotation in her mind-- it becomes a word she doesn’t want to hear. The best thing for your dog is if hearing her name is a good thing, and makes her want to run to you.
Regarding tennis balls: The balls for dogs are quite different from regular tennis balls
These dog-friendly balls are also pressureless - this means they won’t pop. Lord knows we see a lot of “broken” tennis balls at the dog park… Also, the inside membrane part is all natural rubber and is way thicker than “people” tennis ball.
When it comes to teeth, yes, it wears a dog’s teeth down. I remember being at a dog show and hearing a judge say something about a dog having “Tennis Ball Teeth” Tennis balls made for dogs (sometimes nicknamed “flyballs” because of the sport) do NOT have sand in the rubber. Regular tennis balls do, and that’s what wears teeth down. The other difference between regular tennis balls and dog-friendly tennis balls is the felts they use - dog tennis balls use a wool/cotton/nylon weave which is a natural blend that your dog can digest if he/she ingests it.
For the medium sized dog, or the lab who won’t choke on them, I highly recommend the rubber balls carried by IKEA (for kids) - they’re very durable, almost impossible to puncture, they float and they bounce!
We’ve had great success with a series of Kongs for our lab-golden mix; he LIVES to retrieve. Personally tennis balls, dog-friendly or not, squick me, since as much as I love our dogs I am NOT a fan of dog slobber.
Labs are just about my favorite dogs out there. I’d be jealous if it weren’t for our Isaac. Have fun!
I heartily second the recommendations on the kong toys. We have a yellow lab/golden retriver mix, Isaac (also a rescued stray), in whom the lab came out about 95% dominant, and I can promise you that NO other toy has survived more than a few minutes. I’ve seen this happen with other labs, too. On the other hand, his favorite kong (the smaller “dental kong”, about 4" long and 1-1/2" in diameter) just had to be replaced after a year and a half. There are also some really durable blinky balls that I can’t remember the brand name of that will survive even a lab’s jaws of steel. (I had a friend with a black lab guide dog a few years ago who called his mouth “the Cave” because it was so big and strong!)
We trained Isaac with his favorite toy, not with food. Labs have a tendency to turn into sausages, so we watch his diet pretty carefully. However, he will do ANYTHING for us to throw his kong, so it works out far better. The only time I use food is for a distraction when someone like the meter reader comes into the yard, to keep him and our golden retriever, Rusty (another rescued stray) sitting quietly and not feeling obligated to protect me from that EVIL invader. We get the cans of meat sticks or jerky strips at Wal-Mart that are inexpensive and plentiful. (If you use food to train with, you can also break them into 1/2" chunks that work great for training rewards.) Also, a basic obedience class is an excellent idea – as long as you’re willing to do the REAL training, which is to teach YOU how to train your dog, and requires you to practice every single day without fail!
Isaac has an intensely strong desire to please us, and is bright enough to catch on VERY quickly. I can’t urge strongly enough to train Tasha to be well-behaved around food, hers AND yours, as quickly as possible. We had to teach Isaac (and Rusty) to sit when putting down his food (he’d jump up on us in his eagerness to get to it). We’ve taught the dogs to lie down while waiting for their food to be prepared, and if they’re in the same room with us when we’re eating, they have to be lying down at ALL times. And we don’t feed them ANY people food except for tiny quantities of meat scraps, often saved and mixed in with their regular meals rather than as a treat. They do much better on a consistent diet, and table scraps are a sure way to gain far too much weight far too quickly.
My dog loves rope toys (the ones which are just a big piece of rope with knots tied in the ends.) She has a great time chewing them in half. (I call her “Mommy’s Scissors” because if I have a piece of string to cut, she’ll happily chew it in two for me.)
Could this be bad for her, if she would happen to swallow ay of the little strings? I try to moniter her when she’s playing with one, but you never know . . .
I’ll remember not to yell her name too sternly, thanks for the heads up.
I picked up a kong toy at the pet store the other day when I picked up some other stuff, and she seems to like it. She completely devoured the one pig’s ear (or whatever it was) within about 15 minutes of strong chewing.
I kind of feel bad for her right now, because I can’t really do much with her until after she gets her stitches out. They don’t seem to bother her at all, as she keeps wanting to go outside and explore, but I can’t walk her very far at all, or play too hard with her till they are out.
Driving her nuts.
I’m noticing that she is a picky eater though. She refuses to touch the dog food that I picked up. The cats are going insane, because Tasha keeps sneaking out there, and eating their food. I called up the HS to find out what they were feeding her, but they won’t be open till tuesday, so I have to wait until then to find out.
Any tips for getting her to eat her food? Or am I gonna be stuck with bag after bag of stuff she doesn’t like.
Dogs love cat food. That’s just the way of the world. In fact, dogs love other dogs’ food more than their own too. The recommendation for dog/cat households is to put the cats’ food up. Most folks put it on the dryer or some such. The dog is probably not eating because there is better food in the other room.
I’m not a lab person, but in addition to the advice above, I recommend that you walk her every day. Many, many behavioral problems can be traced to lack of activity. Large breed dogs are not designed to be idle 24/7. I find a minimum of 30 minutes of activity will do wonders. In addition, walking is a wonderful way to refine your training.
Do you live alone? If you don’t make sure that all of you are using the same commands for the same thing. When I train, I never use the “down” command, mostly because it’s so hard find a consistent use. Lay down, get down, sit down, you get the point. So I use the “off” and the “lay” command. Anyway, the point is, that everyone needs to be using the same commands in the same way. Consistency is the key to successful training.
I second in the strongest terms possible not using your dog’s name in a negative light. I suggest “No”. There are far too few dogs that understand this command. My dogs understand that “no” means, “stop doing whatever you’re doing and look at me for further instructions”. Good response to the no command will make your life much easier. Some dogs respond especially well if you say in a low growling tone.
You need for your dog to understand your alpha standing. This means she shouldn’t sleep on your bed, she should wait for you to eat before she eats, and she should wait until you’re out before she goes through a door. This is especially important if you have small children. However, once your standing is established, then feel free to break all of the above rules. But for the first couple of months, try to stick with them.
I personally don’t find crate training necessary, but a lot of people swear by it. I don’t really need to crate train because in addition to a dog door, my breed (Border Collies) isn’t know for chewing. If you do decide to crate, remember it isn’t supposed to be done for more than six hours at a stretch during the day. Long term daily crating happens to be one of my pet peeves. Also crating is not a substitute for training, and it’s not a punishment.
Good luck with Tasha. Keep us updated, and feel free to ask for advice. There are quite a few of us here who are well versed in dog training.
I’ll make sure that Aloha Aloha gets wind of your kind words, sj2. If she didn’t contribute to your first thread about the pup, please take my word that she would have nothing but praise for your actions.
As to giving your pup real, actual, honest-to-goodness bones. My vet (who is one of the finest human beings to walk the face of this planet) actually advises against them. Rest assured, my wolf-hybrid gets bones occasionally anyway. What you may wish to do is to monitor your animal’s bone-gnawing habits.
There is one problem associated with chewing on bones. This is known as “slap fracture.” It happens when the jaws close abnormally fast after slipping off the surface of the bone being chewed. It can result in cracking of the teeth or chipping of the enamel. If your animal is methodical and not too hasty about crunching on the old skeletal remains, then I wouldn’t worry too much. If you have one of those piranha breeds that treat a bone like a rawhide chew you may wish to rethink your drink.
Again, I myself can only congratulate you upon your compassion and decency for how carefully you placed that dog. Someday a mutt may end up saving your life in return. It would only be fitting.
I’m also going to add some other comments:
DO NOT let your dog eat cat food. Kitty chow has different nutritional components that are not good for the mutts.
Good call Lissa. Don’t correct your animal using it’s name. You want your animal to always have positive associations with its moniker.
When summoning your animal, pat or slap your thigh to give them a “locater” signal. This will always let them know you want them at your side in a hurry. Plus, in other situations you can use the locater signal alone if circumstances demand.
DO NOT let other people call your dog to them. Especially from across the street. Zen, my wolf-hybrid is really popular with the kids in my neighborhood and I have had to make sure than none of them ever do this. It is one sure way to get your animal hit by a car. I also avoid letting other people command my animal. I want him to respond to me alone, especially in security situations.
I haven’t seen any issues with rope toys. Zen is not enamored of them and small fibers shouldn’t be a big problem. Eating the whole budda bone could be another matter. I’ll see if Aloha Aloha can’t step in and address this for us.
Modro, keep up the good work. It seems like your little pup is coming out of her shell. The hard work of training and disciplining an animal pays off in spades downstream. I am now at a point where Zen is well behaved nearly 99% of the time. It is pure bliss having this fabulous companion that only needs to be rewarded and literally never punished. He gets strokes all of the time and it just reinforces more of the same good behavior.
I’m really glad to see that you are not paper training your pup. I feel it is one of the biggest mistakes you can make to ever teach an animal that it is all right to crap indoors. To my great good fortune, Zen arrived perfectly house trained and any exceptions since then have nearly always been my own fault.
On review, light strand also makes many good points. You must be the alpha dog in your house or just plain give up now. I made sure that Zen knew this from the get-go. If he wanted to go outside, before I would even open the door, he had to sit down first. Same thing when putting on his leash. Sit down first, then the lease. Ditto, taking off the leash as well. Find ways to assert your dominance without cowing or intimidating the animal. All of this will pay off bigtime later on.
Although not the best advice, if Tasha is being picky about her kibbles, pour a little bacon grease over it for the first few times. She’ll get used to that being her food source and not require all the trimmings after a while. If she continues to avoid her dry food, inspect her teeth and look for a broken, loose or abscessed tooth. Dental problems can literally cause an animal to starve itself to death.
ONE LAST THING that I do not recall seeing here yet. This is very important. ALWAYS handle your animal’s paws and legs. In addition, get your animal accustomed to having you open its mouth and inspect its teeth. Do this regularly, at least every few days to begin with. It is absolutely critical for you to be able to manipulate your animal’s extremities and jaws. Many animals are skittish about anyone touching their paws for lots of good reasons. You must overcome this natural aversion so that you can remove the occasional thorn, glass shard or burr from their pads and paws.
There’s also a product called Vita Gravy which my dog loves. It’s healthier than bacon grease, and every dog I’ve ever known has loved the stuff.
It comes out of the bottle a little thick. I’ve found that you can water it down, and stir it into a bowl of food. (Make sure you spread it around, or else they’ll sometimes just eat off the goodies and leave the dry kibble.) Gradually water it down over time, until she gets used to the food.
What brand of food are you feeding her, anyway? Some commercial pet foods have some pretty nasty things in them, and some say that, over time, the chemicals in some brands can cause your dog health problems.
If at all possible, avoid giving your pet any foods that contain BHA or BHT. (Check the ingredient label. TRy to find foods which use Vitamin E as a preservative, instead.) Here is a brief page about what ingredients to look for, and what to avoid. (There is a lot of information out there on the web about this subject.)
This is an article which talks about penobarbital contamination in dog food. Some sources claim that a slow build-up of this chemical (which is the one used to put animals to sleep) can eventually lead to health problems. Others say no. Until further research is done, I’m trying to keep my dog from eating foods which contains the chemical. (The pet store my mom runs now refuses to carry any foods which contain it.) I just thought you might want to be aware of it.
Before I go, I wanted to tell you that Tasha may love playing “Flashlight.” It’s an excellent way to give her some excersise on a rainy day. Shine the light beam quickly around on the floor. If she’s anything like my dog, she’ll chase it, pounce, and run around for hours.
Tennis balls made for dogs (sometimes nicknamed “flyballs” because of the sport) do NOT have sand in the rubber. Regular tennis balls do, and that’s what wears teeth down. The other difference between regular tennis balls and dog-friendly tennis balls is the felts they use - dog tennis balls use a wool/cotton/nylon weave which is a natural blend that your dog can digest if he/she ingests it.