Dog Owner Chat v4

[Flossie]

JJ broke her collar right after I mentioned in a post how happy I was with it *cri*. She really did not want to have a bath, I was holding her by the collar and I guess she pulled at just the right angle to break the buckle, it didn't help that she chewed on it previously. It was a great collar while it lasted, and I managed to get her clean at least.
I was wondering, what time do you guys get your females spayed, if you do? I want JJ to grow as much as possible, but I want her to be spayed before her first heat. Lucy went into heat for the first time at about 8, maybe 9 months, so I'm thinking taking her at 7 months.

Lacey got spayed at 6 months. I think it's a good age, we also wanted to get the spaying done before her first heat.

Considering breeds as a Psychiatric Service Dog. Researching a few.
Opinions on the following, anyone?

- Brittany (Spaniels)
- Miniature American Shepherds

I would also love suggestions. Needs to be averaging 50 pounds at maximum, ideally intelligent, easily trainable.

(Yes, I have a legitimate disability and understand everything that goes into a SD. If you're going to complain about
owner-trained SDs, please don't. I live in Canada, and we have a specific testing and standards program for owner-trained SDs.)

Personally, I would pick a Brittany out of those two options.

[Cardinal]

JJ broke her collar right after I mentioned in a post how happy I was with it *cri*. She really did not want to have a bath, I was holding her by the collar and I guess she pulled at just the right angle to break the buckle, it didn't help that she chewed on it previously. It was a great collar while it lasted, and I managed to get her clean at least.
I was wondering, what time do you guys get your females spayed, if you do? I want JJ to grow as much as possible, but I want her to be spayed before her first heat. Lucy went into heat for the first time at about 8, maybe 9 months, so I'm thinking taking her at 7 months.

Research is showing 18-24 montjs or longer is ideal. Early spay and neuter is now being linked to a host of problems including orthopedic issues like higher rates of acl tears, hipdisplasia, and even doubled risks of bone cancer. Thyroid health is negatively affected by spaying. GSD studies showed a link between early spaying and aggression in bitches. Spaying is major organ removal and the sexual hormones are very important.

Juniper was intact until 4 then died of a blockage. Lucky was spayed at 7 and is 13. Sardonyx is 11 months and I have no plans to have her done anytime soon

[maninkari]

@Cardinal
Can you link me to that research so I can read up on it?

[Roman'sGirl75]

How long is Oppie? if he is still in the stage of teething give him plenty of chew toys or you can add a couple spoons full of cottage cheese to his food every day to help strengthen the cartilage in his ears and make them stand.

[Kasper]

went on a long walk today with lola.
she was super good, actually! on last
week's big walk she got over-excited
about the snow and was a total puppy,
but she seemed to understand that
today was not the day for that. i've
been having silent migraines freque
ntly this week, and she did an excel
lent job stabilizing me and keeping
me calm. for those of you who don't
know, she's an emotional support dog
but with minor task training to help m
e cope until i train my first "official"
assistance dog this summer. as it is,
the dog would be helping just with
anxiety/panic, but if the migraines
persist this often i might add migraine
-specific tasking to our goals list. lo
la already knew how to help me today
because one of her unofficial tasks is
panic attack grounding, and the signs
were the same, since the first migra
ine almost triggered a panic attack
because i didn't know what was
happening. i'm so grateful to have
such a sweet dog, honestly. the pho
to at right is her curled up on my lap,
taken ~5 minutes ago - she knows i
need her. small update on this
summer's sd prospect: they are nearly
guaranteed to be a brittany at this
point. i did try super hard with the
idea of a miniature american shep
herd, but all it took was one dog
claimed to be a true aussie (when
she isn't) to convince my family
that aussies and related dogs are
evil since that one dog has aggress
ion and guarding problems. i star
ted investigating brittanys as a poss
ible compromise and i think it mig
ht even be better, since i know pe
ople on cs who recommend them
highly as psds and all the ones i
know are such lovely dogs.

[Roman'sGirl75]

People keep telling me that since I am training Nyx my GSD as a migraine alert dog and he picks up on my anxiety that because he is a German Shepherd and they are herding and working dogs he cannot be a PSD because he might pick up too much on my anxiety and turn aggressive but he is a big baby and doesnt have a mean bone in his body.

[crabodile]

Hello.
If you remember a while back, I asked for help with a 16 year old Jack russel/Rat terrier
He will be 17 in a few days.

Now, my last probablem was about him getting up and down from my bed all night and barking and scratching at my door.
This is almost the opposite.

He refuses to go outside.
He refuses to tell us or bark when he need to pee.
Hence, my bedroom floor is never safe anymore.

He jumps off my bed, squats, and pees.
He runs into the kitchen, squats, and pees.
He looks you right in the eye as he does it too.

It is like he wants to get yelled at by my dad.

The one time, he came over and peed on my foot.
He just came over and peed on me.

My dad is really mad at him, my mom is stressed, and the girl I live with complains all the time about stepping in it. As well as my brothers, who always leave the puddle and step over it. Yet they compain about stepping in it, but don't clean it up.

I was wondering if anyone else had this problem with their dog or even knew how to help it, if even a little.
I have no idea what is wrong, and I haven't heard him actually bark other than for water for a while.

[Roman'sGirl75]

I would have him checked by the vet for a UTI. I would also go back to housebreaking 101 puppy pads and all. Crate train him so that he doesnt have free run of the house. Little by little as he gets better about going on the puppy pads move them toward the door. Clean the whole house where he has peed on the floor with an enzime cleaner like Nature's Miracle to remove all traces of where he has peed.

[Imzadi83]

I would have him checked by the vet for a UTI. I would also go back to housebreaking 101 puppy pads and all. Crate train him so that he doesnt have free run of the house. Little by little as he gets better about going on the puppy pads move them toward the door. Clean the whole house where he has peed on the floor with an enzime cleaner like Nature's Miracle to remove all traces of where he has peed.

Ditto from me, a dog that was previously housetrained starting to have problems needs to be taken to the vet asap, espically one his age.

It could be that as he is getting older he is having trouble with bladder control as well, he could also not be realizing he needs to go soon enough to let you know. This happens to people when they get old too, you might want to gently remind others at that when they yell at him. He may not be able to help it. You may have to resort to puppy pads or a Piddle Place kind of system indoors to help him out. Belly bands are also another option. They have ones that are washable and ones with disposable liners.

Unfortunately your dad yelling at him is more likely to make the problem worse rather than better. Ignoring the people won't help either, so kudos for you for trying to get some help with the situation.

Here's a link to a housebreaking tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvPiFcG7ROI. A refresher course could help, but really I can't stress enough that he needs to see a vet. No amount of training is going to fix things if he has an underlying medical problem.

Here is a link to the Piddle Place system I use for Chloe http://www.petsafe.net/house-training?redirect=piddleplace_redirect There are other type of pottying systems, and there are plastic holders for puppy pads as well. I've seen puppy pads at the dollar store, but can't speak to their quality. Newspaper is also an option, but pee can run off the edge so the plastic liner used for puppy pads, or a litter box could be used to hold the paper. You could even grow some grass for him in a litter box then toss it when It gets oversaturated (keep another plot growing somewhere else so you always have one to swap out)

Here is a link to show you what belly bands are http://dogquality.com/products/washable-wonders-dog-belly-band

Dogs peeing on people can be a sign of fear/insecurity or excitement, and training and/or a belly band can help with that. Again, though, he could have an underlying medical problem that needs to be addressed.

[maninkari]

Ah, Pete scared a dog who came up to say hi so bad that she urinated on the floor the other day. He growled and lunged at her, since he can be reactive with big dogs if he doesn't like something about them, I had him behind me on a short leash, but it still freaked her out. I took JJ up to say hi to that dog later, without Pete, and they liked each other a lot. From what I gathered while talking to her owner, she wasn't very well socialised as a pup so her reaction to Pete was just fear.