|
Has anyone seen dogs become afraid of the dark before? Artemis isn't a big fan of going outside once the sun sets anymore. It was kind of spontaneous, and she's never had any issues outside in the dark (she's never outside without one of us to supervise) so I can't think of any kind of trigger that makes her uncomfortable. She just recently started pulling me back into the house as soon as we get off the porch when it's dark outside.
|
#
¿
Sep 13, 2013 16:33
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 15:09 |
|
|
Dr. Chaco posted:Does she also act differently in the dark inside? Some vision problems start as night-blindness. Not that I can think of. Obviously, we have the lights off at night when we're sleeping and she doesn't really react differently, but she's usually sleeping at that point (and doesn't wake us up if she wakes up in the middle of the night). I don't think she's having trouble seeing in the dark, I take different paths at night (I live in the woods) when I walk them and she always pulls directly back for the house. If it weren't for the fact that she likes me waaaaaay more than fiance, I'd say that she wanted to get back inside to see her.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 13, 2013 17:06
|
|
|
a life less posted:Could be the vision impairment makes her nervous. Could be that the smells of nocturnal animals scare her. Could be something else. Smelling animals wouldn't be hugely surprising considering where we live I see regularly deer and other animals (when it snows, we see their prints on our porch), but that's nothing new. She's walked the same paths and been around the house and in the woods for as long as she's been going outside. Would being skittish because of vision impairment spontaneously come up like this?
|
|
#
¿
Sep 13, 2013 18:09
|
|
|
We've been having some issues with mice as well (not that bad, thankfully. We've caught maybe 8 over the last few weeks) but we got kill traps that aren't as visual as the snap traps. My fiance has ~feelz~ and doesn't want to see the dead mice, so these kill them inside and you just toss the trap. Now that I think about it you said you didn't want to spend $30-40 and having to throw traps away instead of reusing them seems kind of like a waste. Maybe not the best solution for you, sorry.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 15, 2013 01:08
|
|
|
Jada sometimes gets little dirt-flakes in her ears. It's not dirt like I'd expect to see and it's very small volumes infrequently so I can't think of a regular cause. It looks like little snow-flakes but black instead, I can't really think of a better way to explain it. Like I said, too, it's an infrequent issue and we check every few days (at least twice a week). Any thoughts as to what it could be?
|
|
#
¿
Dec 26, 2013 18:11
|
|
|
6-Ethyl Bearcat posted:Sounds like earwax. If it's an excessive amount or accompanied by head tilting/shaking, or a nasty smell, vet time. I've never noticed any bad smell, but I don't usually stick my nose in her ear either. Is it something that would be noticed from a few inches away or am I going to have to nose-spelunk? It's never been a huge amount, maybe if you collected it all less than half the size of my pinky fingernail. I've seen about that much on maybe three separate occasions, with at the least a few weeks if not a month or two between each. No shaking or tilting head that I've noticed. Is there anything I can do to help prevent it or keep it from getting worse?
|
|
#
¿
Dec 27, 2013 13:47
|
|
|
I've been trying to think of a way to wear out Artemis who seems to have an unending supply of energy, since it's cold and dark outside and all wintery. My thoughts are on a spring box kind of thing, does anyone have any thoughts? Basically, get an industrial sized metal spring, attach it to a heavy base, put some sort of box/separator around the spring so it doesn't catch any hairs/toes, and then attach a rope toy to the other end of the spring. Presto, tug toy extraordinaire! Haven't been able to get to the hardware store to look at parts, but I wanted to get the hiveminds thoughts on this kind of thing.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 12, 2014 17:31
|
|
|
Ema Nymton posted:I'm not going to tell the landlord who I am. Similar to me a while back - since I knew most people in the at least by face, and who had dogs (and who I'd seen not pick up after them) I'd just pick up the poop and leave it on their doorstep. No flames, no fuss. Just poop. It's equally as anonymous as not cleaning up after your dog but it makes the poop a direct inconvenience to them. Some people got the picture, some people didn't. Just be aware that you could just as easily be seen doing it as not.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 26, 2014 16:10
|
|
Could he find out?
|
I have the spoon and had one when I was a kid in the Boyscouts that was similar. It works fine for all I've ever had to use it, but it's hard to maneuver sometimes.
|
|
#
¿
May 7, 2014 17:13
|
|
|
Colt Cannon posted:I am thinking about getting a dog from the local pound. I went to the pound, and looked at some of them. I found one who I want to spring out and pay his bail. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3471773 This may help, it has more info than just for puppies. It's for new owners as well. RE: the crate, it depends. You can get wire crates that collapse on themselves for pretty cheap at most pet stores. Some people (paging cryingscarf) have had issues with the dogs trying to escape/collapsing the crate on themselves (I have 2 wire crates and have never had an issues with this. YMMV.) There are also other styles of crates, with frames, less wire etc. Several should be available at the pet store, pick what you think is best for your situation (we travel with the dogs a lot, so a collapsible crate is very convenient). Other things that jump out at me:
That's all I can think of right now. Others may chime in with more suggestions. The linked thread should help if it's your first dog as well! Enjoy your (potentially) new buddy. e: other varieties of crates besides wire. I'm not biased, I swear.
|
|
#
¿
May 22, 2014 15:49
|
|
|
cryingscarf posted:Bite your tongue and when you get away from them call someone who understands and vent away. Come to pifb. We have little hotdogs on toothpicks.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 4, 2014 13:32
|
|
|
HelloSailorSign posted:This so much. Even when it is bordering on abusive you sometimes can't do anything to change someone's mind. All you will end up doing is raise your blood pressure and be depressed and hate the general public, and the animal still ends up mistreated and the owner just gets defensive - depending on how you start the conversation - and might even double down on whatever the gently caress they were doing because... who knows. One of my coworkers has a rott who is obviously reactive and recently got a minpin, who the rott now tries to attack anytime they're near each other. Rather than work on the behavior, when it happens he alpha rolls and smacks the rott, and when "it has to be let out around the minpin" it wears a muzzle etc. I started to say that they should do more, work with a specialist, etc, but I know him well enough to know that if I even tried going down that path it would end miserably. He isn't abusive in the sense that he's doing things intentionally to damage the dogs, but he doesn't know any better and nothing will change his mind. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if that minpin doesn't last long  It helps ease my mind when I go home to my dogs and play with them and see all the improvement that we've seen with Artemis' resource guarding since working with the behaviorist and doing more to train her correctly.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 4, 2014 15:38
|
|
|
There's a toll to cross that bridge though. Photodump.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 5, 2014 15:20
|
|
|
I would probably do some exercises to get them accustomed to being around each other, or start conditioning them to just ignore each other in the house. My dogs at this point can be perfectly fine around each other 98% of the time, and the few situations where Artemis' resource guarding causes her to snap, she doesn't usually get past snarling and snapping, which is a vast improvement over where it started. I only say this because you definitely don't want it to escalate, and just "letting it be" might be enough, but why hope for the best when you can actively improve the situation?
|
|
#
¿
Aug 13, 2014 13:49
|
|
|
Sounds like a good plan. The goal is to get them to not care about being around each other, not overly excited and not overly upset, just "bleh". Feeding separately is probably fine and will prevent food issues between them. I'd say you might want to try some mat work or to go to their bed when the other is around, that way they have something they know to do when the other comes into a room. How great would it be for the cue for your dog to go lay on his/her bed is your other dog coming into the room? Yeah, very challenging to train, especially for newer trainers (I'd say I'm still new, I have no idea if I could train this behavior easily), but if you attempt to get to that point, the result in the mean time would be ambivalent dogs who are fine being near each other. Our behaviorist recommended teaching Artemis a strong, solid "Back up" command - partly to work on our teaching methods but also so that if we're in a position to not physically control a situation (separate the dogs if something happens) that we can use a command to put distance between Artemis and the other dog. She knows the command, and when she's head on with us she does well with it, but it's challenging to teach it in a way where she'll listen when over threshold to just back up and move. That being said, I've learned that when she's at the point of lashing out, that she will try to put distance between her and the other dog before it becomes a problem. Maybe she's just getting nicer? Or maybe it has to do with the training. But, it's definitely improved a lot.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 13, 2014 21:14
|
|
|
red19fire posted:I don't know if this is the right thread, but I have a question about animal control. I called AC on my neighbor in Upstate NY because they left their two dogs out in the freezing cold (several feet of snow on the ground) at seemingly all times. I got up at 5am and walked my dogs and these dogs were in a pretty small dog run. We left for work at 6:45am and they were still out there. On the days I was home (weekends, odd days off) they'd be out there throughout the entire day. Most days I went to be pretty early (around 9:30pm) and they were still out there. Weekends I'd be up until between 11pm and 2:30am and with few exceptions they were still out there barking away. A few times a day I'd here the owners come out and yell for the dogs to stop barking but otherwise I never saw any interaction. For months. Not sure what came from AC, since I ended up moving away from there but I felt bad for those dogs. Not sure they can do much if the dogs are being "well cared for", but good luck either way.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 30, 2014 21:44
|
|
|
Tall enough to sit comfortably, long/wide enough to spread out. If it's going outside, consider a flap/something to cover the entrance from the elements.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 14, 2014 22:05
|
|
|
Rlyss posted:Thanks mcswizzle, but sorry I should have mentioned that we don't have the puppy yet, it's a gift for a family member who is getting one soon. Are there some sort of guidelines like Xcm wide by Ycm deep that I could use? If they know the breed (if it's known you can estimate, but it varies even within a breed) you can build out to the larger expectation (if it's between 40-60lbs, build for 60lbs). If it's a mutt, build for the bigger size of the biggest known breed (rott/chi is obviously not going to stay chi sized, though I now have something to look for in the world) though that may end up being more space than necessary. If you can make it modular enough to have different available space (add a free wall that you can adjust?) then definitely err on the side of larger. Also bear in mind that different dogs are different. Greyhounds are really lanky but large, for their weight. St Bernards are built like brick shithouses and are big everywhere for their weight. My best recommendation is to go out and meet some dogs. A lot of shelters will be happy to have some help walking/playing/socializing their dogs, and it can help you get an idea of size relative to weight in different breeds (depending on your area). If, that is, you plan on adopting. If it's from a breeder, you might see if they have some insight. If they're a reputable breeder, they should be able to easily answer what kind of upper threshold you should see in size from the puppy as it grows. If it's a BYB A. don't get it from them and B. they won't be able to reliably answer temperament or size questions. They'll say "the mom/dad is XYlb's" rather than a reputable breeder saying "Fed properly, previous litters reached XYlbs/size, parent's are XYlbs/size, Grandparents are XYlb's/size" Forgive the site itself, they promote shock-collar use, but this article is unrelated to that and it has some interesting information about outdoor dog housing in winter: Sit Means Sit. edit: I just realized that while I said "build for X weight/Y height" I didn't explain that in relative measurements for carpentry. For reference, I have a 45lb lab mutt who is maybe 14? inches tall at the top of her head and maybe 34-36" nose to tail. I have a 65lb asdflhafl mutt who is maybe 4-5 inches taller and an additional maybe 6 inches longer than the lab. These are estimates from memory, since I'm not home to measure them, but should be relatively accurate (and if I had a dog house for them based off these measurements I'm confident it would be fine for them). So you can see that weight affects the size but it's a more linear growth (in my uneducated opinion) rather than a more aggressive cubic/exponential growth. (Yes I know you don't measure dogs at the head, but at the shoulder normally. I used it this time to help visualize the dimensions). mcswizzle fucked around with this message at 14:25 on Oct 15, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Oct 15, 2014 14:07
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 15:09 |
|
|
You'll want to get him acclimated to booties early - our dogs wore them in UNY because it was sub-zero often and it hurt them quickly. They didn't get used to it very quickly and chewed through/pulled off booties constantly. Either get him used to it or get a bulk supplier. OTOH, winter gear otherwise is dependent. Both of mine did well in that sub-zero cold for short walks to potty, but when we went on long walks (snow shouldn't keep them locked inside, once it got into the teens we took them to the park  ) or were planning on them being in the elements more than a few minutes we put on their winter coats...kind of snowproof warm throw overs.If he's big enough, you might be able to get away with a hoodie, and that would be adorable.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 31, 2014 16:05
|
|