The dog musing/vent thread

Spending so much time around dog people who actually see, understand, and take positive steps to guide appropriate dog behavior sometimes makes me forget how completely inept a lot of dog owners are.

Watching an OES owner whose companion is a shaggy mop with only vague suggestions of a canine shape, much less eyes and ears, being dragged into the room. His dog goes straight up to a pair of women holding three chihuahuas before being jerked to a stop. One of the chihuahuas erupts into frenzied barking. Her owner screaches "Stop that! Do you want to go to the car!?" and shakes the Chi. The OES owner sits a bare two chairs away, despite there being multiple alternatives available. The OES starts barking. The Chihuahua simulatenously hits a higher register and decibal level. Other dogs in the room are becoming uneasy. From inside a carrier, a cat begins to yowl and a languid, incredibly overweight dachshund opens his eyes. A woman in the far corner shifts and pats a strange lump, and I realize her pet is apparetly living inside her sweater. The Chi owner feebly shakes the dog again and repeats the threat of car banishment for the twentieth time. The OES owner stares around blankly wearing a vague smile as his dog continues to bark at random intervals.

An old man sits across the room in worn but neat jeans and a collared shirt, all grey hair and smile lines. We meet eyes. His little mix breed is sitting neatly on the chair next to him, watching the escalating drama with composed interest. At my feet, my dog is doing the same from her down stay. He raises his eyebrows and winks. I give a very small smile in returns. We both lean back, and settle in.

I love how gentle Wesley is with the little critters. Whenever one is being held, he whines until he can give them kisses. The bunnies love it too, it's hilarious.

The other night, the dogs found an opossum in the yard. Bayleigh went after it because you know, she's so big and tough. It bit her. She screamed and wouldn't go near it again. Pirate thought it was fun to bark at but didn't try anything else. I finally got the dogs away from it. Poor thing was terrified and couldn't climb back over the fence. I just left it since it was about 4am and it had gotten in the fence on its own in the first place. Of course, it was gone by morning.

Now, every time they go outside, they look for that poor opossum. They found another one last night. Pirate nearly broke my arm off since he was leashed. He was squealing, just acting like a dog with high prey drive. Bayleigh was loose in the fence but luckily this guy was on the opposite side. I feel like I really should do something about this. I don't mind them expressing their prey drive but the crazy screaming at 4am isn't pleasant. I'm sure the neighbors don't like it. Someday, it'll probably be a skunk and I'll be leaving them outside all night.

I wish someone would show interest in Bena. She's starting to grow on me but I think I'm ready for a one dog house again. I wouldn't mind fostering 'good' dogs, but those aren't the dogs that need fostering. I really don't like puppies.

But, most of all, I want Bena to go to someone who has time for her. Who will train her and love her. I'm just so disappointed in people and their lack of planning when it comes to animals. She's been returned twice, boarded for weeks, fostered and ripped away from her brother. She's adorable and fun and I just want someone to love her.

There is an older, eccentric man who for the year and a half that I lived downtown I would see walking around all day with his two lovely incredibly well trained older collie mix dogs. They are the sweetest things ever and he loves those dogs to death. I often ran into them at the coffee shop where they would wait patiently in a flawless stay on a busy street by the corner of the shop without him so much as uttering a word to them as he went in to get his coffee and they each got a bag with what I assume are timbits in it, he gives them the bag and they carry it to where ever (the park I assume to eat them) I was absolutely heart broken to see them come into the shelter together. Apparently he is extremely ill and had to surrender them. It shatters my heart for him, he spent 24 hours a day with these dogs and it must have killed him to give them up. I worry about them finding a home, as they have to be adopted as a pair and are 12 years old. I wish I had all the money and space in the world and could take them in.

This incident happened on saturday, but I'm still SO mad at myself for not doing anything.
So I brought Smiley to my sister in law's birthday party, and he was a hit. He was really really great, I had him attached to me, but let him off to go over to people who wanted to pay attention to him.
Anyway, at one point, I left Smiley outside while I ran in to get a drink, and I came back out to see this stupid bitch trying to make Smiley sit by pulling up on his collar, essentially choking him, and pushing down on his bum!! I think my face looked like this :yikes: and by the time I caught my breath, all I could do was call Smiley to me and NEVER let him go.

I'm still so mad that I didn't say something to that idiot!! Ugh....

A comment was made today with (I believe) the implication that I should be doing more for Frodo's reactivity and therefore his quality of life. It is definitely true in that I do not have a house for him, and he would function much better in a house. I feel like I can't put myself into a life where I'm living beyond my means for him, and I don't want to be made to feel bad for making that decision.

I'm trying not to let the whole thing bother me, but I'm failing miserably

It is absurd to think one would put themselves out financially for a dog, especially when you have his situation under control& do so much to make him a happy dog. Some people are ridiculous.

You do the best you can for the dog you have. Trey essentially lived at home, in the house and yard where he felt safe. We gave up on his socializing and trying to get him over his anxiety. Walks or any outside world contact made him EXTREMELY anxious to the point of shutting down and getting reactive. So we never walked him or took him places at all. Yeah, it sucks he had such a isolated life compared to the other dogs. But he was HAPPY and content. He had his pack and his safe place and lived 13 happy years. I am pretty convinced most people would have put him down or rehomed him so people who think it was unfair can just stfu. You've done a ton with Frodo and to help Frodo. I don't know who can't see that.

You do what you can to give him a high quality of life but his version of 'high quality' might not be the same as another dog. That's fine.

You know what would help MY quality of life? If idiots would STFU and worry more about falling off their own illusionary high horses than whether other people are not quite conscientious enough for their tastes.* Seriously, you aren't doing enough for your dog if you don't BUY A HOUSE THAT YOU MIGHT NOT BE FINANCIALLY PREPARED TO HANDLE. WTF is even going on in their head?

*Either that, or if it were legal for me to punch them in their taint.

Agreed.



And I just bought 200 pieces of beef trachea on ebay which officially makes me a crazy dog person, I think.

You should not feel bad AT ALL. You have done so much for him, and changed your life around to make sure he gets what he needs. He has a great quality of life because you gave it to him.

And no one should be judging you for what you are or aren't doing. You always do what's best for you and your dog, and what works for you and your dog. And no one else should get an input in those decisions.

I don't know if she did or didn't mean to imply that, but Frodo would have been dead years ago without you. Don't forget to look at how far he's come. I was able to mostly "watch" him while he stayed in your apartment this weekend. That wouldn't have happened a year ago.

I hear that about Gambit, too. How I need to work harder with him, or find him a home out in the country. Neither one of those things are an option.

I get the comments more since Gimmick came, like I've just decided to chunk Gambit over for a better option.

Every dog can be helped, but not every dog can be healed. Period. Sometimes helping them is realizing you've hit the wall and more progress is likely to come at the expense of your dogs happiness.

You've done a wonderful job with Frodo, and don't let anyone tell you different.

PW, you are the best owner for that dog. Seriously. I don't care where you live, what situation you guys are in, you power through it every single time. That's what matters. The ability to look at a difficult situation and say "We got this", to not back down but to work through it together.

So screw them. They don't know ****.

ffhtrhgrh**** Parvo is going around Sparwood right now. I took Panzer to a dog sitter during the weekend and she let me know her dog started throwing up and diarrhea all night, she has not taken her dog to the vet though.

I am not trying to get too worried as Panzer is acting perfectly fine and although he does not have all three of his boosters he has two vaccinations and the last one he got was at 14 weeks so he should be fine, but still. Freaking out a little.

I've been taking Talon to the park to train him with cars and his NEED to stalk, eye, and chase them. >_< He's a real pain to try to walk when near a busy road, it's not fun for him or me! To be honest, we've worked on this before and could never seem to get it under control. We'd see really little progress and then huge regressions.

BUT the last 4 days we've been going to the park, playing frisbee, then sitting in the grass near the road but still at a bit of a distance. I've been using food to reward a down as he watches (intently) as the cars pass and rewarding heavily. Then getting closer and closer. Then rewarding from a distance again as he looks at me after the car passes. I'd reward heavily when he looks at me before the car passes. Then we started a bit of movement, then walking.

He was SOOO great! :hail: We tried this before and we didn't see much progress. It was frustrating so I gave up. But this time he is making such great progress!! I'm so thrilled! We can walk back and forth along the road and I get his attention on ME when the cars go by! :yikes: lol

So ...I'm super thrilled. Except the bee's keep trying to take the dog food. Also, I was stung by a wasp because there was dog food on my hand. Apparently I'm not allergic to wasp stings lol Now I'm terrified to use dog food. >_< Just when we find something that's working and I'm afriad to do it. *sigh*

Switching Smiley to premade raw tonight! I don't know why, but I'm so excited!

Parvo incubation is typically 4-7 days, so if you surpass that, you should be in the clear. It's natural to be wary, it's a scary virus. Shame on the pet sitter not taking her dog to a vet, though.

I talked to the pet sitter and her dog is doing 100% better. So that is good. So I am guessing he dog just had an upset stomach.