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

[JudyN]

Ah, I know all about dogs with faulty wiring Jasper's fine though, he's 8 now and seems to want longer walks than ever!

[Shalista]

Hahahaha i hear ya on the wiring. if we could have found one that worked Bax would 100% be on some meds by now. given time he seems to have mellowed on his own, THANK GOD.

[Nettle]

Hi GWD - good to hear from you!

[Lotsaquestions]

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[JudyN]

Yeah, but some dogs are the same , LoQ - think of it as fear aggression And if she/he has eggs or chicks, she/he has good reason to want to see Merlin off.

Bax's thread on dog gait got me thinking about Jasper and galloping. It's age since I've seen him really stretch out. I put this down to the fact that he's not into running/playing with dogs, and is only really interested in chasing rabbits, which can disappear down holes before he's up to full speed, or deer - and we've managed to avoid deer for a couple of years now when he's off lead. Even if he sees a treat fairy from the far side of the field, he knows he doesn't have to go at top speed to get to them before they disappear.

But the other day he thought about running with a couple of lurcher friends but as soon as they stretched out, he decided not to bother. I'm wondering now whether (a) he just can't be bothered, (b) he's worried he might not be able to keep up, or (c) it's uncomfortable for him to gallop properly now. If it is (c), I can't imagine there's anything much wrong as he moves very fluidly and easily at other paces and if there was anything that could be tweaked, it would be the sort of tweaking that he wouldn't tolerate from a professional anyway.

I'm almost tempted to take him to the New Forest to find a diagnostic deer If it was on the horizon, he'd have no chance of catching it given his stamina, but he'd certainly go as fast as he could. Not that I would, though, as setting your dog after a deer (or 'accidentally' letting him 'find' one) would be illegal and unethical. I do miss seeing him in full flight though.

Don't get me wrong, he's still fast - just not jaw-droppingly fast.

Nettle, I'd love to have your thoughts (not on diagnostic deer ) - though I'm sure your dogs are run at top speed more regularly so haven't got out of the habit like J has.

[Erica]

Hey GWD! Good to hear from you

Judy -- Maybe he just doesn't have wild adolescent energy anymore? Kids who play with other kids are often running as fast as they can for the thrill of it, and that can carry into teen years. However, unless they're training track and field or doing other specific workouts, few adults sprint full-out without good reason (going to miss the train, dog got out, baby is walking towards the electricity socket with a fork in hand...). Maybe he enjoys his jogging but doesn't feel like he needs to sprint anymore?

Edit: If lure coursing is available in your area, that may be a way to see if he'll run fast? I don't know if you've considered it before or if the atmosphere might be too stressful for him...

Edit 2: After looking to try to find a trainer for a current client's future service dog (as the company I work for doesn't do service dog training for liability reasons and not wanting to deal with sorting fakers from people who truly need a SD) and not finding anything nearby but bad board-and-trains that guarantee a fully trained dog in two weeks (no hecking way) or good organizations that don't take outside dogs and don't raise dogs big enough for my client's mobility dog...I'm considering starting a side business of my own just for helping owner trained SDs. It's still in the nebulous "that would be helpful for people" stage, but I'm going to the Penn Vet Working Dog Conference later this month and I'll be paying close attention to my originally-planned search-and-rescue and human-remains-detection sections and now service dog things. I'll be bringing several pens and a couple notebooks for notes. The topics range from choosing the right puppy for the job and raising them with the best health, to breeding for specific areas (eg detection, tracking, etc) on a national level, to training, to getting dogs happy to go to the groomer and vet. It's going to be a marathon of a "weekend" (there are things on Friday evening and Monday morning as well) but I am quite excited!

[JudyN]

Ooh, exciting plans, Erica

I expect you're right about Jasper just not wanting to go all-out silly any more, given that he was never really one for running just for the hell of it or with his friends. He would love lure coursing, but we tried him when he was younger and it didn't go well - whe first introduced to the lure as a pup he guarded it, and though he did brilliantly on a 'test run' against a lab with OH releasing him, he went absolutely crazy in the 'proper' race when the slipper held his collar and pulled another pumped-up lurcher alongside him

We went to a dog 'fun day' months later which had a race set-up but he had a meltdown when I just led him up to it, so it must have brought back traumatic memories for him. He's a bit sensitive When we win the lottery (which we don't do) I'm going to buy a lure coursing field just for him

[Nettle]

Once adult, mine only ever ran hard for a purpose. I should think it's the same for Jas. Babydog surprised me not long ago by going flat out - at 9 years old and with a long-term injury she doesn't normally run hard - I'd forgotten just how fast she could go.

[Shalista]

Bax does it just running laps around the house when hes amped up but given Jaspers size i think he could do a lap around my house in three steps

[Lotsaquestions]

Urgh, I hate school holidays.

I knew after I posted about how well Merlin was doing in response to Nettle karma would show up. He was reactive to three dogs on his way to the park, and was almost reactive to a young Lab on the way home. A young Lab walked by a kid in primary school.

He had a blast AT the nature reserve though, played with all the different dogs that are out now the sprogs are off... Then he found an ENTIRE chicken carcass someone had thrown out and started to show the early signs of guarding over it. Every time I came near he ran off, so I walked away and he followed. I tried to toss some treats but all I had was chicken and that was clearly not high enough value. Had no choice but to just sit and watch him, hoping he won't need emergency surgery for the splinters. Whenever I moved my hand near him he moved his head away and gave me 'the eye'. I knew if I pushed it further it would turn into stiffening and so on.

I am not too worried about the guarding, I assume almost all dogs would try and keep hold of it and to his credit he didn't escalate it and let me stroke him as he was munching. I am now on the lookout for any adverse effects. What are the early signs that it splintered and hurt him? So far he seems fine, it was about 40 mins ago.

[JudyN]

Thanks Nettle - if it's good enough for your lurchers, it's good enough for Jasper!

LoQ, Jasper once ate a cooked turkey drumstick he found on New Years Eve - he was fine, but I couldn't drink all evening just in case Some people claim to have been feeding their dogs cooked bones all their lives and not had a problem - I'm not suggesting that it' OK to of course, but it suggests that the risk of a problem is fairly low. I'm sure you'll notice if he shows any signs of pain/discomfort and whip him straight to the vet though.

[Lotsaquestions]

I hope so, Judy! He still seems fine and is eating things like normal.

I am a little concerned about his leg at the moment. It is very up and down. This morning he sat down and didn't want to walk on, which is unusual on his way to the field. I stopped and checked him out, gave his leg a massage, and he trotted on. He also skipped a few times, but the specialist said that as long as it is only a couple of times a day at most then it was fine. He's had some days with zero skipping, but the last couple he's been hopping a touch more, always the same leg. Problem is he sits down and panics if a leaf is stuck in his fur, so I can never tell how much it is actual pain and how much is just Princess Merlin thinking something is touching him.

He did also have a meltdown on his way out, just after he sat down and I massaged his legs. I can't tell if that was due to the dogs he'd just seen one after another that he couldn't say hi to, or if he was in pain. I didn't have the tug toy out so he started growling and tugging on my sleeve and running around my legs growling and nipping until I told him to pack it in and wait until I got the tug toy out.

Have ordered some paw protector just incase it is the pavement he doesn't like on his paws (he does have worn pads at the moment on every foot - so he isn't favouring any). He is fine when he's off lead and runs constantly. He shows no reluctance to play with me or dogs (and he did show reluctance for both at the start of this knee journey when he stretched his cruciate).

I wish I could speak dog language for a day and ask him. I can only assume I have overexercised him (mum has had time off due to easter so we've been going out on longer walks. Four hours off lead with a picnic break has become common the last two weeks). He had a shorter walk today (1.5 hours) and he's only doing brain games this evening when he's raving around. He did act in a similar way on our holiday last year. Two days of hiking, then the third he just sat down and asked to be picked up. A day break and he was fine again. He never did any skipping back then though, however he was also lead walked ALOT less. It was almost all off lead charging around on soft grass but now we're walking further to get to the nature reserve as our local park was just making him nuts and overexcited with all the dogs.

Part of me wants to just ring the specialist and ask for further tests just so we know for sure exactly what is up. The Luxating Patella was his very educated guess since he couldn't actually feel or see anything wrong in Merlin's joints, only in his walk.

[Nettle]

Re: the chicken carcase, I'd give him a handful of big plain biscuits (such as Bonios) to eat. I used to give bread after an eating accident, but that was old-fashioned bread made with wheat and no additives. I suspect modern bread with its chemical raising agents would do more harm than good.

Whether you do that or not, it's unlikely to do much harm as a one-off. Good for your self-control not stressing him so he swallowed it in lumps. Well done!

[Lotsaquestions]

Re: the chicken carcase, I'd give him a handful of big plain biscuits (such as Bonios) to eat. I used to give bread after an eating accident, but that was old-fashioned bread made with wheat and no additives. I suspect modern bread with its chemical raising agents would do more harm than good.

Whether you do that or not, it's unlikely to do much harm as a one-off. Good for your self-control not stressing him so he swallowed it in lumps. Well done!

We do have some puppy milk bones we keep in stock for whenever we're short on higher quality treats. I'll give him some of those.

Yes it took him a while to finish the whole thing and the ground was too muddy to sit down on. I made him follow me into a back bit that is not very well trodden, as the other way lots of children / dogs frequent and I had images of a rabid Merlin telling everyone the carcass was his. He had a lovely little picnic as I stood there twiddling my thumbs. He then happily finished off all the scattered bits of chicken I had tossed around in vain hoping he would leave the carcass behind.

He used to swallow high value things quickly when he was a really young puppy so I am pleased he was comfortable enough to at least take his time with it, even if he wasn't going to give it up. Really bugs me people just toss things like that out. They think they are 'feeding the wildlife' but in reality they are feeding the rats. We've found an entire trifle once... Luckily Merlin called away from that.

[Lotsaquestions]

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