The dog musing/vent thread

So I've noticed just in the last week or two Quinn has lost a lot of pigment on her lips/corners of her mouth. Not all over, but pink patches on her usual black pigment. I'm not sure what it is exactly? She seems totally fine otherwise. She gets snow nose in the winter, but that's always been the only pigment change. No change in diet or supplements.

I'm pretty sure she's okay because she's acting totally normal...but man it's so ugly. I don't even want to take pictures LOL.

Maybe it has something to do with blowing the winter coat and growing the summer one? Is she spayed? Maybe it has something to do with her cycle?

Vitiligo?

That's so awesome, Congrats!

Merlin has recently discovered he is an aussie and has a mouth that barks.

I think before this month I would never describe Merlin as "loud"...he barks when playing, barked out of surprise...but hardly ever otherwise.

Lately...he is barking when people come to the door AND barking when he is super excited to see his doggy friends on the sidewalk.

WHY MERLIN WHY

WHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Now every time we see a dog he's like WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF and it's so frustrating. JUST STOP IT. He likes other dogs but now I avoid them because he throws such a fit

Rowan and Riff got in a fight today when Jeromy came over to fix my computer. Sucks, but it wasn't too serious, and the furry idiots just got too excited and over threshold and it turned into something nasty.

The fight part sucks. But honestly I'm glad for the reason: they were both (too) excited to see Jeromy. Rowan used to hate Jeromy because Rowan didn't like sharing my attention, and Riff is afraid of men and has taken a long time to come around to him. Going forward, I'll separate them whenever he comes over until they both calm down. The fact that they're getting attached to him is really exciting, though

Shambles seems to think because the other dog's heads fit in his mouth, they SHOULD be in his mouth. Grown adult, this one.

Need to decide if I want to keep bringing Fiona to this obedience class. Argh. On one hand, it's good for her to be in the new environment, after we are finished the plan is to move on to another facility on Monday nights. But the class is so repetitious, she had us doing 30 sits in a row the first week with a collar grab... (lure them 10 times, keep food in your hand but don't lure 10 times, no food in your hand 10 times). Same thing last week with downs. And then 'mat' training, of which we had to do 10 or more repetitions of varying things. Fi has a snappy sit and down and by the end of that she was so blah. And you know, I know it's not the right way to teach the dogs and I don't know why I am still going.

So don't go. I'm not one to just tell people how to train their dogs... But, if you don't agree with this method, DON'T GO! All you are doing is wasting your time and money.

Also, since you already expressed your discontentment I will voice my opinion. LOL. I seriously dislike constant rep exercises like that. I've seen it turn really good dogs off. No way I would bother... Wait for the class at the other place.

Ha I'm rude, if I don't like an exercise I just start working on something else.

Me, too. Lol That's the only way I survived all of my puppy/basic classes. I was a horrible person and didn't use a clicker in my clicker-oriented class, either, except when we were free shaping new things.

Same here!

Yep, I did a lot of my own thing in the basic obedience class I took. 90% of the material Jubel already knew I'd just never taken him through a basic class and "needed" it to move on to other more fun classes. No one ever really cared, he wasn't bothering anyone or their dogs. We'd do the intended task a few times then work on something else. Either a more advanced version of the current skill or something completely different.

Of course I've also never been in a class where they ask you to drill the same task over and over again. We'd work on a skill for a bit, the instructor(s) would walk around watching everyone work and give tips/praise as needed then move on to something else. The real repetition/practice was to be done at home throughout the week not in class.

I do this too, and from a trainer standpoint, it really isn't that rude! A trainer should understand that you may have different goals, be at a more advanced level, or something else is working better for you. We happily let our students adapt to their goals/needs for their dogs when it is working.

I take puppy classes with my puppies and do stuff like SFE exercises, heelwork, pivoting, stay, drop on recall, etc. when other students are doing sits and touch.

We have some clients who pass on puppy play time with show puppies, do STE exercises instead of sits and downs, etc.

I always maintain that I could get something out of even the most basic of obedience classes. You can work on cleaner/faster responses, verbal only/signal only, discrimination, focus around distractions, etc. I see no reason to drill sit 30 times half-heartedly just because that's what everyone else is doing.

Don't be a distraction, but feel free to go at your own pace and set your own goals, especially if you're performing at a higher level than the rest of the class.

You can't see them, but there are people walking behind me. This is a huge deal for Mr. Impulsive.

She did just come into heat, if that can be factor?

Hm maybe! I hope not! Currently it's just the corners of her mouth but I will have to see if it changes at all.

Thank you for the ideas! I'm totally stumped. I googled and some sites said autoimmune disorders, but she doesn't have any other symptoms. She is totally her normal self. I grabbed this picture of her this morning - this side is far "worse" than her other side.

Could it be something as simple as she got a little too invested in chewing something? Both of mine have rubbed the pigment out of their nose leather at some point (trying to bury something in their crate blankets). No open wounds, just missing pigment. It filled back in just fine.

This. Unless it's a private one-on-one class, why not? I went to a BN/advcanced obedience class last nigh. I watched the other people run their dogs while I was waiting the first time simply because I wanted to get a grasp of how it's done, but afterwards? If I was waiting, my dog was working on SOMETHING. It's even more true for the more basic classes where there are larger groups doing simple things. If one dog needs 10 minutes to do an exercise and all the other dogs get it n 1 minute, I would never expect the rest of the class to just sit and wait for 9 minutes, or even practice the same thing for 9 minutes. That's boring for the people AND the dogs, and wastes so much of your time.



Then why take a clicker class? Was it just what happened to be offered? If I intend to focus on the clicker I always advertise it as such, but I suppose not everyone does. That said, even when I offered clicker training classes, it WASN'T an hour of CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK. It was lecture --> demo -->practice and then move on to something else. And I certainly don't use the clicker for behaviors that are already pretty solid - new stuff only.

You could just send her to me. Then you wouldn't have to look at it.