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

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

Post by JudyN »

I think we need photos, Shalista! :D Any excuse :wink:
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
Shalista
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by Shalista »

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You can clearly feel individual ribs and the little bumps all down his spine but he does still have a bit of padding on his hip bones. he's currently 11 pounds even. He also felt like modeling today i guess :lol: usually he's much more of a butt when i want pictures :roll:
Baxter (AKA Bax, Chuckles, Chuckster) Rat Terrier, born 01/16/13
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Nettle
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by Nettle »

He looks great. I recommend you do not try and get more weight on him :wink: He'll last a lot longer in good health if he is not overweight.
A dog is never bad or naughty - it is simply being a dog

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

Post by JudyN »

Aw, he's so cute!

Jasper's photos:

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And when he decides we need to enjoy the sunshine:

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Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
Shalista
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by Shalista »

lol thanks judy that makes me feel a lot better. i think hes built similarly to jasper just... miniature. like hes very leggy and has a nice big chest
Baxter (AKA Bax, Chuckles, Chuckster) Rat Terrier, born 01/16/13
JudyN
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by JudyN »

I mentioned Jasper's OTT greetings with my friend a while back, and here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTdq6dN ... e=youtu.be Don't listen to my voice - I hate my voice - but it's worth having the sound on to hear how desperate he is to meet her.

At the start, he's looking at the wrong car and is trying to drag me in that direction, then he spots my friend. She avoided putting hands on his head this time, but she does do this at the end, just before he decides he's finished saying hello and now wants to go & sniff.

He seems to want to rub himself against her, along the length of his body - could the muzzle make this worse as he can't make as much contact as he'd like? I could try without the muzzle next time & see if it makes a difference. And is there any way of encouraging a calmer greeting while letting him 'express himself', given that he doesn't particularly want her to pet him, even if not on his head?

Why he's always so excited to see her I don't know. She doesn't treat him very often, so I think he just associates her with a nice walk with a couple of dogs he knows. And when he likes someone, he really likes them!
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
Shalista
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by Shalista »

He looks like a dolphin nosing about like that :lol:
Baxter (AKA Bax, Chuckles, Chuckster) Rat Terrier, born 01/16/13
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by MPbandmom »

JudyN, that looks like a pretty calm excited greeting to me. :lol: Maybe not a relaxed greeting? Maybe toned down a bit by the friend being non threatening with the backwards approach? (wild speculation on the part of a relative newbe to dogs. :lol: )

My dogs tend to be all wiggly and practically bending in half when they do an excited greeting. Sky has a tendency to plow between a persons legs and then wrap herself around one leg so that her head is back to the front and in petting range. :lol:
Grammy to Sky and Sirius, who came to live with me, stole my heart, and changed my life forever as I took over their care and learned how to be a dog owner.
DianeLDL
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by DianeLDL »

Shalista,
What a beautiful dog! I agree that you do not need to add any weight. Look at his legs. He couldn't handle more weight.
And, to add what Nettle mentioned, extra weight affects the dogs joints. If he likes to jump around like our dog jumps up on furniture, you need to keep his joints healthy.

And, as you may have noticed even in us humans, extra weight can lead to bad joint problems with knee & hip replacements. You don't want your dog to suffer.

Diane
Sandy, Chihuahua mix b. 12/20/09
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by DianeLDL »

It's good to be back with all of you.

Our world has been a bit topsy turvy since I was last on here.

Last summer, DH had Sandy 24/7 by himself here in Maine, while I flew to Israel for a month to visit my son, dil, and then two lovely granddaughters. Since then, they have given me a grandson who just turn 1yo but I haven't seen yet.

We were back in Albuquerque by end of October 2015, when my mom started having more problems, fell, his her head, was in hospital, then rehab then home with home health care. It was the beginning of my sister finally communicating with me via texts (thanks to Whatsapp with no charges to Israel or anywhere). In February, mom was placed in a memory care facility in the San Francisco Bay Area near their home. Mom has vascular dementia due to strokes. They affect her right side so she is in a wheelchair, and her speech so she can only say yes or no or make noise. We visited her in May. The great thing about the facility is that ALL DOGS are welcome. It was getting warm outside, so they said no problem bringing Sandy in. Well, he did try to attack a cocker spaniel in the lobby, so we decided to carry him, and brought his travel crate for him into my mom's room while we ate lunch. We didn't want someone opening the door and him running out. It was nice as mom recognized Sandy, and he seemed to feel comfortable with her smell in the room. So, every day for 3 days he came in. It's called Kensington Place in Redwood City, and they get kudos from us! :D

In the meantime, DH began having blood in his urine in March. In April, with CT scan & cystoscopy, they found two 2cm growths in his bladder. We didn't want surgery in Albuquerque since I can't drive there with my eyes, and the Veterans Administration would have done the old standard of removing the bladder, and sticking a bag on his abdomen. And, with 3 months of rehab, we decided to come to Maine in July, and he had surgery August 1, 2016. The urology surgeon removed 2 1/2 growths that pathology said are cancer and the aggressive and invasive kind. They had entered the first lining of the bladder, but thankfully not in the muscle.

So, although they did chemo right after surgery, and had a Foley catheter for week, it didn't stop OH from taking Sandy out at 3 or 4 am as usual. One night or early morning, they were in the way back from walking down the streets and OH noticed what appeared to be a black cat but had a white stripe down its back. Thankfully, Sandy didn't notice the skunk which happened to be standing right in front of our door. Here is OH at 3am, in bathrobe, leash in one hand, and urine bag in the other, standing in neighbor's driveway praying the skunk doesn't sense them. :shock: After what seemed too long, the skunk sauntered into the shadows away from the door. OH with Sandy went as fast as possible to get inside. Whooo! Close call.
Can you imagine the two of them in one bathtub of tomato sauce, and OH freshly post op? :lol:

Then, OH had 6 weekly treatments of bladder washes with BCG. Those of you in Europe, and I believe the U.K. as I Know Israel also uses BCG as a TB vaccine. A French researcher developed it to create immunity in the cells of the bladder. Thus, ready to protect and fight new cancer cells from attaching. It's the standard used by Sloan Kettering cancer center in NY, and the east coast is using it. The west coast led by USC (University of Southern California) believes in removing the bladder and creating a "neo bladder".

OH finished the bladder treatments last week, and his follow up cystoscopy will be Dec. 16. That means we will be here with snow! Yes, Albuquerque at 5000 ft elevation gets 2-4 inches of snow and gets below freezing. But, Maine can have foot or more of snow, and can get to 0 F and below.

We still haven't had luck getting Sandy to wear a jacket against the cold. We gave up after two years in Albuquerque with him just shaking to get it off him. The question now will be will he get cold enough especially when he is in the car to agree to wear a jacket. I haven't even tried buying one, yet. I left the old ones since he has grown since we bought those.

We will need to have our plow guy who also does our walkway to clear some grassy areas by the walkway for Sandy to potty. He got used to making yellow snow in Albuquerque. I know he won't wear booties. So, I will be asking in the training area later, how to get him to wear a jacket when he won't even wear his harness.

So, we will be in Maine at least until after Jan 1st. Not everyone knows about my husband's condition, basically my sister (who would be dancing for joy, yes, she is that cruel) and mom who doesn't need to know. My dad knows. We still haven't told his half siblings since their mother, Oh's stepmother would be dancing with my sister.

Sadly, this is a result of Agent Orange when my husband was Marine recon for 3 years in Vietnam. He is on the Agent Orange registry for his prostate cance (which has been cancer free nearly 15 years), cellulitis, and skin cancer he had removed last year from his arm.

By the way, to add more dog to this posting, I had remembered reading about a dog, I believe in the UK who could smell bladder cancer. Well, Sandy was doing quite a bit if sniffing before OH's surgery. Sandy knew something was wrong. Of course, with the chemo and the BCG, we had to be careful that Sandy did not sniff. We didn't want him exposed. I myself being an RN, wore gloves & protective gown just to change the bedding which consists of rubber sheet with another sheet, towels, and those disposable pads. His laundry including clothes he wore had to be washed separately. And for 6 hours, after using the toilet, he had to put bleach for 20 minutes to kill bacteria so it didn't get into the sewer system. Quite a job. And now, it will most likely be repeated every 3 months with 3 weekly treatments for 3-5 years! We hope he can get one of those treatments in Albuquerque, otherwise we will be spending more and more time in Maine.

Glad to be back and as you can tell, training with Sandy has not progressed as well as I would like. He walks well with me, but he is still reactive especially since the dog next door has twice run into the street off leash and tried to attack Sandy who was with OH on leash. He picked Sandy up, and their dog a Jack Russel (sorry Jacksdad) who has never been on a leash does not respond to either the wife or the kids when they call him. This last time, he actually put holes in OH's jeans as he tried to climb up for Sandy. The neighbor boy, early teen had to physically release the dog from OH by believe it HITTING THE DOG IN THE FACE! :mrgreen: :twisted:
Then, they called the sheriff (our house is in county and not city) on US! :twisted:
Earlier in the week, someone, and had to be human, placed a frozen turkey or chicken on our back porch. We called the sheriff just to get a report. This second sheriff said we should have been the ones to call. These neighbors are used to us leaving by end of October. But, if they read the report they know we are going to be here longer. We have found dog poo :x which we know is not from Sandy, but we can't prove it's their dog. They are used to letting their dog out to run wherever he wants and do what he wants. There is a picket fence between us, but their dog can get under easily. One day, I was bringing Sandy back inside, and their dog followed us along the fence barking and growling. You can imagine Sandy's fear. :shock: And, this is real fear for a fear reactive dog!

If I know they are home, and I take Sandy out, I carry pepper spray which is legal here. It's up to them to control their dog and obviously they cannot. So, I've stopped walking him down our road which takes us to a nice grassy area (radio control plane field). And I just run with him in the backyard. At least, we have a half acre. And one day, we were at the very back which is another road where the next door neighbor's house faces. It was after a big rain, and the boys deliberately had their radio control car go through the puddles within 5 yards of where I was with Sandy. I said "those d***m boys!" This was a few days before the frozen turkey showed up in our back patio.

Perhaps, snow will be our only saving grace for now as their dog won't be roaming in the snow especially if it's a foot or more.

So, if Sandy was fear reactive before this, he is more so now. So, I will be asking for help on this one, we may need to contact animal control. Even though, we aren't here year round (usually) we still pay our property taxes.

Thanks for listening and your support, glad to be with friends again! And all prayers for complete recovery for OH are welcome :)
Diane
Sandy, Chihuahua mix b. 12/20/09
JudyN
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by JudyN »

It's lovely to hear from you, Diane :D I;m so sorry to hear about both your OH's and your mum's health problems, though - it must be a very stressful time for you.
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
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Nettle
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by Nettle »

Yes indeed - I have been wondering how you all were. Sorry it's been such a trying time for you.
A dog is never bad or naughty - it is simply being a dog

SET YOURSELF UP FOR SUCCESS
MPbandmom
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by MPbandmom »

Good to hear from you Diane. I wish your news were able to be better. I had been wondering how things were going with you. Hang in there. I hope things find a resolution with the neighbors dog.
Grammy to Sky and Sirius, who came to live with me, stole my heart, and changed my life forever as I took over their care and learned how to be a dog owner.
JudyN
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by JudyN »

I was walking up a quiet road with Jasper this afternoon and a van pulled up on the other side of the road & wound the window down (oops - showing my age, we don't wind windows down any more do we? :lol: ). I assumed he was going to ask directions but instead he asked me if Jasper was an Irish wolfhound. I explained he was a deerhound x lurcher, and he replied, 'I had a Suzuki once but it kept running off and not coming back' :lol: :lol: :lol:
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
Erica
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Re: What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

Post by Erica »

sounds like a sighthound to me :lol:

It's good to hear from you, Diane, even if life's been rough lately :( Sending you all the best wishes!

I think Delta's used to having a thick padding of fluff on his hips, because he just went for a standard curled-stand-to-down and really slammed his hip into the ground! He made a big noise, haha.

Del decided to chew the middle of his bully stick yesterday. I don't know why. I guess you can do whatever, it's your toy, but...most dogs eat from the ends...
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Delta, standard poodle, born 6/30/14
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