What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

[Erica]

Another stinking surgery on the stinking abscess (it started swelling up again), but this time they found a grass awn and removed it. Hopefully it's the only one :/

Delta's kinda woozy and very hungry right now. I'm giving him ground meat for meals for the next couple days because I'm sure his cheek is kinda sore.

Instead of a cone, he has hobbles on his back legs. They are not Delta's favorite, and tomorrow I'm going to take him to the pet store and see if we can get a soft cone on his harness. A cone on a collar would be too close to the sutures, but his harness is on his chest. I think it could work...we'll see. He is just really not comfortable with the hobbles, and after the two weeks they want them on for his fur will be hopelessly matted as I don't know if I can put them back on after I take them off - they're constructed from sticky tape stuff.

The surgeon (not part of the staff at our vets) made me laugh/made me a bit angry when she called after the surgery. She was trying to push me to castrate Delta because "He's a very full-on, dominant dog." It is just...not a description I'd use for Delta. He's energetic and playful and has a lot of personality, sure, but...I dunno. I guess she's just used to suppressed dogs or something, and Delta wasn't afraid of communicating with her. She didn't interact with him at all when we were consulting before the surgery either, just stood there, looked at him, barely touched him to examine the abscess...I wouldn't go back to her if she were our normal vet. (Our normal vet/vet techs spend about five minutes just sitting on the floor petting Delta as part of their exam and just for fun. They love him.)



Here's a picture of the sad dog with his diaper bandage and hobbles.

[JudyN]

'Dominant'? How about 'in a strange scary situation and understandably nervous'?

A few days ago I bumped into a couple of beardie owners I know. One beardie, Groover, sed to bully Jasper when he was a pup. I wish I'd done more to protect him then (the owner did nothing). Anyway, they're OK with each other now. When we met, Jasper said hello to the other beardie, then saw Groover. He turned his head to one side, showing the whites of his eyes, but then approached Groover, tail wagging. I'm guessing he was testing the water, saying 'We're OK, are we?' or 'Please be nice' or something. We walked round together, and all seemed fine. We ended up at the field, and stood chatting for a while while the dogs did their thing - though I didn't stay long as Jasper's 'thing' is to get bored and whiney

But as I walked off the field, he had a BIG jumpy/bitey moment Something that was a daily occurrence when he was young, but extremely rare now. I can only guess that it was spending so long in the company of this dog who scared him when he was younger... even though apart from the initial meet & greet, he'd seemed perfectly happy. You live and learn.

[Nettle]

Was the wag high, or level with the haunches?

High wags are challenging - bum level wags are friendly - low wags are submissive.

[Nettle]

Erica - glad you/they have found the grass awn and hope that is the end of the matter for Delta.


I do so wish vets that haven't studied it wouldn't give behaviour "advice" (if we had you neutered would you stop being afraid of my dog?) Good job this one isn't full time but somewhere she will still be practising.....

[JudyN]

High wags are challenging - bum level wags are friendly - low wags are submissive.

Middling to low. He's too much of a wimp to challenge a dog he knows won't submit to him. He used to hide behind a tree whenever we saw Groover, so he's braver than he used to be

Groover is unneutered and was around 2 when they first met (Jasper would only have been a few months). It's interesting to speculate how that affected their relationship - and whether it's contributed to Jasper's dislike of YUM now.

[JudyN]

We went on a Southern Lurcher Rescue walk today in the New Forest. There were 31 dogs, and it raised £125 for the rescue

One point of the walk, through woods, was rather deer infested. We got Jasper on lead on time, but once we'd cleared that area and were out in the open again, let him off lead slightly too soon, and he was gone for several minutes. He came back eventually, muddy and exhausted. So far I've found a couple of grazes on him and one of his toes looked a bit red, but nothing worse. I've no doubt he'll stiffen up later and some bruising will emerge, but he did enjoy himself and was nice and quiet at the pub afterwards Hopefully there will be photos to share later.

[Fundog]

Today Mr. Fundog took Dottie out for her weekend "Daddy-Dottie Date" (they walked very briskly up a steep hill and back) and I let Annie take me out on our "Old Lady Stroll." It's got to the point where it is very difficult and frustrating for both dogs to be walked together on lead anymore, since Annie has slowed significantly in the past year. When I do take them together, I go somewhere Annie can walk off lead, while Dottie is on lead always.

Anyway, I was just remarking to Mr. Fundog how Annie seems to have become even sweeter and more sociable (if that is even possible) in her old age. A lot of elderly dogs get kind of grumpy and snappish-- probably because they are in pain, but Annie wants to bid every stranger she meets good day. Oh, she's not pushy or demanding about it. Rather she just slowly hobbles over and gives them this big smile and looks at them with the kindest brown eyes, that they just cannot ignore her. It's funny to watch how they all smile and greet her, reaching down to rub the back of her neck, even while talking on their cell phones!

A few weeks ago, Annie and I were coming back from our walk and entering our mobile home park. All of a sudden Annie changed directions, pulling me to something that had caught her attention. When I looked up, there was a lady coming out to her car. This lady made quite a fuss over Annie, rubbing her ears and loving on her, and explained that she had recently lost her two elderly dogs to cancer. She thanked Annie for coming to say hello. (It seemed to mean a great deal to her) I can't help but think Annie sensed the lady's loss and sincerely wanted to cheer her up.

Ever since then, Annie has made an effort to greet every human stranger we cross paths with. I have to be watchful, because some humans around here are afraid of dogs Annie's size, despite how fluffy and kind she looks.

[MPbandmom]

Great to hear from you Fundog! Glad to hear that the dogs are doing well.

We took our two to the battlefield on both Saturday and Sunday this week. Sirius had a little bit of a snark at a guy with a backpack and carrying a camera. OH had moved her off the trail, and I had stopped a little further up off the side if the trail with Sky. The weather was rather chilly and OH had gloves on, so didn't pull the treats out to distract Sirius and I guess he hadn't moved quite far enough off of the trail. When the man got to where I was standing with Sky, he asked if my dog was going to bark at him as he passed too. I said no, this one is friendly.

Well man kept stopping to take pictures, which was interfering with our ability to walk the dogs. Then after we had passed man, for some reason, he started calling out to OH, who ignored man as Sirius had already snarked at man once and OH had no interest in getting her anywhere close to man again. I was further ahead and didn't realize man was calling to OH until OH commented about it.

There were quite a few other dogs around as we had moved or walk from the quiet wooded part of the battlefield, to the open field section that is our favorite cooler weather hiking spot as it allows plenty of room for dog dodging, while giving warming sunshine. This time of year is great there because the fields have been mown and baled and the ticks of springtime are gone.

[JudyN]

That was so sweet, Fundog - how wonderful Annie is

A good (other-forum) friend has just been told that the lumps her dog is developing are cancerous and inoperable. He's had several removed in the past but she doesn't think it's now appropriate to put him through more surgery. What she's finding hard is that it won't be the cancer itself that leads to him being put down - it will be when the lumps ulcerate, and at some point either preventing him mithering them or just leaving him to it will have too much impact on his quality of life.

She also doesn't have much idea how long he will have - a biopsy would tell her more and although her OH is tending towards that, she doesn't think she wants to put him through that either.

[Fundog]

I wonder why the photographer was calling out to your OH, Bandmom? It occurs to me that maybe he wanted him to move so he could take a picture. And yet, he was so wrapped up in his own bubble and what he was doing, that it never occurred to him that perhaps you two were a) actually together and b) needed him to move so you could continue on your own way. People are funny to watch when they are completely oblivious to everything else around them.

I'm not needed at the school today, so I have the day off to do some housecleaning and get some good one on one time with my girls. It rained yesterday, and although the storm has passed and the sun is out, the dirt trails where I like to take the girls hiking are no doubt muddy. So it will be individual sidewalk walks for us today.

[Nettle]

JudyN, my stud dog died of cancer which included an external lump that ulcerated. If your friend can stand it, explain that external lumps don't come alone - there will be big internal cancers too. I had my lovely dog PTS the day after the lump ulcerated - he wasn't mithering it but it stank and was obviously giving him a bad time. But it was the internal cancers that would kill him. He knew he was dying, and I wasn't going to let him carry on with that knowledge.

[JudyN]

Thanks Nettle.

[delladooo]

I'm home! Just been catching up and I'm sorry to hear about your friend Judy, it's really awful to deal with any pet illness but it sounds particularly slow and traumatising for everyone. MPB, photographer man sounds ridiculous, I agree with Fundog that he could have just been oblivious but either way, I don't think it's particularly wise to be calling to a person who's dog has already snarked at you unless it is really needed.

Laufey did excellently whilst we were away. He wasn't happy being left at my cousin's house (I tested it when I had to nip to the car), nor happy about being left in the b&b room when I had breakfast, nor particularly pleased about being left in the car for short intervals (petrol). I pretty much knew this would be the case as whilst he's fine at home he absolutely doesn't like me leaving him in strange places. It wasn't a huge issue as he was mostly loud as opposed to destructive and he's still fine at home. I think the car particularly is something I should work on with him, especially as I plan to compete in agility with him, but it's not really our most pressing issue at the minute. But overall he did extremely well and there were quite a few walking trips where he had opportunity to be really naughty but was an angel. He met lots of dogs, said hi and was happy to move on with us and came away from smells when asked. Extremely impressed with the whole experience

[Shalista]

Bax had a fantastic walk down by the creek. the water is super cold though so i don't think he enjoyed it as much as he could have. Worked on trying to get him through the tunnel for agility class. still no dice =( he REALLY doesn't like that thing.

[minkee]

"if we had you neutered would you stop being afraid of my dog?"

I wish I had the balls to use that line next time someone gave me the frowny face about Breeze's