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

[ZaraD]

Thank you lotsaquestions

I'm gonna ask my uncle how he calmed his Samoyed when he has injured his paw and wasn't allowed to jump, run ect and he found a way of calming him down so I'm going to ask him for you.

I'm having a little bother at the moment trying to figure out what to do with Sampson and his meals ( I made a post in the health part)

[JudyN]

I've just got back from my mum's where we celebrated her 80th birthday this weekend. J stayed at home with OH and of course I missed him (J, not so much OH ) but my step-niece's new puppy, W, helped distract me...



(The one who is even hairier than W is my son.)





W is just 14 weeks old and is going to be huge - his dad is about 46kg apparently I had to bite my tongue several times as the words 'W, NO!!' were uttered about once every 30 seconds. And he wasn't even being 'naughty' - he was just pottering round the place exploring and enjoying himself and seeing what was edible Though I may have given them a bit of a lecture when they told him off for getting a bit growly when overaroused in play. And my niece's partner may have regretted asking me about the benefits of raw feeding

If they had asked, I'd have said that their priority should be working on 'watch' and attention to them, because I felt they were doing a good job of teaching him to ignore them, and he was very happy doing his own thing, focusing on shoes, plants, crumbs etc. rather than people. And then I'd get going on lead walking because he is going to be so strong that once he's full grown, if he was focusing on an interesting smell, he could drag the pair of them along on the lead and not even notice they were there

[ZaraD]

OMG W is soooooooo cute, he is stunning, I'm gonna be honest when I was looking at him my heart was singing like it does with Sampson me and mom have decided on a golden again as four of Sampson's friends are Goldens , it was just trying to find a breeder with good hip scores that we were struggling with but we're not gonna let that stop us as we know it's the one breed Sampson would be happy to live with. I did want ask something but thought no maybe I shouldn't.

46kg for a golden wow that is one big boy Sampson only weighs 42kg .

[Lotsaquestions]

Here I was thinking 18kg was big.

[MPbandmom]

Oh my gosh JudyN W is adorable.

There are a few new Samoyed puppies amongst the members of the Samoyed club of which I am a member. At the past couple of club meetings, we have played pass the puppy. There is a little female who is sooooo mellow. She will just curl up on anyone's lap and take a nap.

I do not want a puppy. I do not want a puppy.

[Erica]

Merlin, who has never been hit or shouted at or anything of the like, and has been heavily conditioned to having his head touched for vet checkups, still HATES his head being touched and dodges everyone but me who tries . Its perfectly normal.

Congratulations on the double auntie!

I am currently losing the will to live. The entire house has been proofed, but Merlin the idiotface decides to do a running leap over a toy into my lap. Everytime I think I've fixed a dangerous bit, he finds another reason to hurt his leg. I don't know what more I can do to stop him from jumping / running / twisting other than locking him in a cage, but that would just make him very, very angry. He's already back to biting my partner's legs for attention. Spend the entire day keeping him calm only for him to come up limping because he got excited by a noise twenty doors down and he just had to spin around.

We've got some Yucalm arriving tomorrow, my trainer said they worked wonders for her dog when he was on four weeks cage rest. Not holding my breath, since absolutely no calming aids have ever worked on Merlin. Even ACP didn't work on him, and he just ran around the house like he was drunk.

I would definitely keep him on leash or set up a covered pen. The more you let him go wild now, the longer rest he'll have to be on. Crack down on it, be strict, and tell your heart that the safer his recovery is, the sooner he can be his wild self again! As much calm enrichment as you can manage will help as well. Having gone through similar myself (Delta broke his neck when he was 18 months old - at the height of his adolescent exuberance), I know it is soooo hard to restrict a dog who doesn't see the need for restriction. But it's for the best!

[Lotsaquestions]

Removed

[ZaraD]

Thanks Erica!

He's confined to one / two rooms (connected rooms) and everytime he's looking a bit energetic I am basically holding him down. He still gets zoomies so as soon as I see 'the look' I grab his collar and just try anything to keep him still until the look goes. Going to get the lead out and try that today, I think he'll get too angry with a permanent pen unless I was in jail with him.

I asked the vet what he's allowed / not allowed to do. She said no games whatsoever from us (no tuggy / fetch) so I specifically asked if he can play with toys himself or if I should just clear them away, and said he picks them up and throws them for himself and runs with them. She said that was fine he could still do that, but I'm not sure she really understood what I meant... I videoed it to ask. My gut says no...

https://youtu.be/MlXYqtOjI3w

Again not an expert but that doesn't look good. Ok so I asked my uncle and he said the fact merlin is still young is gonna make this a little harder but he said he got his Samoyed to calm down and recover by a mixture of things. So you could try some of these.

1) he put a camamile powder for dogs in his Samoyed food as it has a calming effect.
2) brain games he said this one and the next were key ,as tiering the body physically is restricted tiering your dog by his mind is key , do some training , scent work in the garden on a lead, brain games like fill a Kong with something merlin really likes and freeze it so it takes longer for him to finish, bully sticks , a whole butternut squash , veggies like broccoli all these he can chew on to keep him occupied. He said that when feeding these he gave less food on these days so that his dog didn't put a lot of weight on.

3) make all floors slip proof and then sit on the floor with him to try to calm him down.

4) keep him on a lead and only give him attention (eye contact, talking to him, praise, cuddles) when he's calm , ignore the zoomie behaviour, or once he saw his samoyed had the look in his eye he would distract him very quickly to focus on him.

5) he also used a create to get his dog to have bed rest but he slowly introduced him to it and he put a blanket over the create and fed him in the create ect.

6) don't use normal bowls , use puzzle feeders to make him work for his food so he eats it more slowly.

These are some of the things he did. Hope they help.

[Shalista]

Dawww Bax got to say hi. i boarded him and he just was over the MOON with the kennel lady. mugging for snuggles like a crazy man. i really need to get his nails trimmed so i can take him out to hang out with more people. he DOES love those free neck scratchies

[Lotsaquestions]

Thanks Zara, I am doing almost all of those already but I'm going to lead him up from now on. I like the idea of a butternut squash, he would have fun trying to get into that if he liked the taste. I think I've decided to ignore some of the vets advice and just go with over cautious, since so far I think their advice has made him worse. I was led to believe two weeks ago that his cruciate had healed and it was only muscle damage left which didn't need bed rest, now I'm being told he needs up to six weeks bed rest with the possibility of exploratory surgery. Needless to say I'm a bit annoyed.

The vets know how much he jumps and runs, and still they assured me that he would be fine in the house to just be free. At first they were ok with him running free in the garden.

This morning on his pre painkiller walk he skipped twice. I am making a video diary of it so I can compare day to day pre painkiller progress, so far he's not seem to make any.

@Shalista Nice to hear about Bax enjoying the good life.

[ZaraD]

Thanks Zara, I am doing almost all of those already but I'm going to lead him up from now on. I like the idea of a butternut squash, he would have fun trying to get into that if he liked the taste. I think I've decided to ignore some of the vets advice and just go with over cautious, since so far I think their advice has made him worse. I was led to believe two weeks ago that his cruciate had healed and it was only muscle damage left which didn't need bed rest, now I'm being told he needs up to six weeks bed rest with the possibility of exploratory surgery. Needless to say I'm a bit annoyed.

The vets know how much he jumps and runs, and still they assured me that he would be fine in the house to just be free. At first they were ok with him running free in the garden.

This morning on his pre painkiller walk he skipped twice. I am making a video diary of it so I can compare day to day pre painkiller progress, so far he's not seem to make any.

@Shalista Nice to hear about Bax enjoying the good life.

How are you and merlin getting on lotsaquestions?

[Lotsaquestions]

He has hurt his leg a few times today, but less now he's on lead in the house. Once someone knocked at the door unexpectedly then ran off, getting him really excited and worked up so he twisted his knee. Another time he was in the garden (on lead) and a bird flew overhead and he leapt into the air. Other than that I've been able to make him rest more. I still don't think he's making any progress on healing but we won't know for a few more days I assume. I hope it works, I really don't want to put him through surgery.

I've also bought a Planet Dog Orbee thing, which he absolutely loves! He's not got any puzzle treat toy like it so he approached it a bit like 'huh?' at first, but he soon got really into it. We bought him two butternut squashes, but I'm yet to cut chunks up from it (apparently the seeds are bad) since he's so into his orbee. He took the Yucalm ten mins ago so here is hoping that helps him settle!

[ZaraD]

He has hurt his leg a few times today, but less now he's on lead in the house. Once someone knocked at the door unexpectedly then ran off, getting him really excited and worked up so he twisted his knee. Another time he was in the garden (on lead) and a bird flew overhead and he leapt into the air. Other than that I've been able to make him rest more. I still don't think he's making any progress on healing but we won't know for a few more days I assume. I hope it works, I really don't want to put him through surgery.

I've also bought a Planet Dog Orbee thing, which he absolutely loves! He's not got any puzzle treat toy like it so he approached it a bit like 'huh?' at first, but he soon got really into it. We bought him two butternut squashes, but I'm yet to cut chunks up from it (apparently the seeds are bad) since he's so into his orbee. He took the Yucalm ten mins ago so here is hoping that helps him settle!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for him and I'll mention him in my prayer tonight

My uncles samoyed is a very fussy eater , hates nearly every vegetable until he tried butternut squash. Fingers crossed he likes it.

[ZaraD]

Just heard back from my local college and have been accepted for the access to higher education in health science , I'm excited , I start in September so have loads of time to read up on science and health books. Iv also been reading a physiotherapy book.

Sampson went to the vet today for his check up everything seems fine, my vet also takes routine blood tests so they can catch things early, so waiting for the results anyhow I told the vet that I was going to be training to be a physiotherapist and he said that his wife is a animal physiotherapist but she started out as a human physiotherapist and after a few years studying a postgraduate in animal physiotherapist and is registered with the ACPAT. So after doing more research I'm thinking of maybe looking at going into animal physiotherapy after being a human physiotherapist first and I could go back to being self employed as a animal physiotherapist

Only the walk back from the vets the Afghan hound we live near was loose and darted towards Sampson and started humping him , then Sampson was the one humping her once she got off I tried to get them apart but trying to get a Giant schnauzer off an advanced hound is no easy task on your own , after about 10 mins getting tangled in Sampson lead the Afghan owners finally noticed she was missing and came out and helped me and she said I'm so sorry I said its fine , she said daisy's in heat explains why she came to sampsob and why he was a lil more giddy than usual , she said I thought she was in the garden. I helped her get the Afghan back inside and then before I left she said I hope we don't hear patter of tiny paws

[ZaraD]

It's started snowing here I live in between the Staffordshire\cheshire border I live in the middle of both but I'm more near Staffordshire, I live in a little village just outside Stoke on Trent.

Forgot to say Sampson new coat worked he went out in the rain happily yesterday with his hood up