The dog musing/vent thread

I will follow, and you just reminded me I haven't updated mine in a month...whoops

Unbelievable, a great breeder in one of the OTHER breeds I was looking at contacted me right away after I emailed only last night! It feels like now that one has responded, it's all working. One of the breeds I've been looking into is much "easier" in a lot of ways (pretty much always kid friendly/dog friendly/pet friendly), and the other is...well, we can say "quirkier." But this particular breeder really strives for temperament, and I'd love a pup from their lines.

After getting used to not hearing back, I wasn't expecting to suddenly be faced with choices again. Pretty great problem to have, I guess!

You're killing me with not sharing the breeds you're looking at. :lol-sign:

Added it to my reader

What can I say, the torture will continue for a bit longer! I've only really let on my most recent breed plans to a few people, and only one in real life - the trainer I apprentice for - and she admitted she HATES one of them, it's one of the few breeds she doesn't care for :rofl1:

My dog is being super clingy today. Which is fine, I like snuggling with her lol. But... using the computer is difficult when I'm sitting in a small chair and she's on my lap. I'm not at a desk. The laptop is supposed to be on my lap.

Sure is keeping me warm though.

Frodo is learning how to do a pivot from front to heel position (no idea what it is called), but it is freaking adorable! (and old man slow )

I'm so glad he is feeling better, even if he's not at 100% what he was.

Paco is discontinuing the Veronica, which is the style I've always wanted for Quinn. I'm so torn. I do love it, but on the other hand it's $100 and their tan leather darkens up a LOT.

What to do, what to do

I am an anxious mess today, and Zander thinks that obviously this is the perfect day to lose his mind and act like a neurotic anxious mess too.

Sometimes I can't tell how much of it is just me projecting, him picking up on it, or him actually just being an anxious mess. Which often leaves me at a loss as what to do about it.

I know bad days HAPPEN, everyone and every dog owner has bad days with their dog. But it's hard to think that ON the bad day, when you're wondering if you screwed your dog up somehow or set them up to fail, or if things would be easier if they were on b-mod drugs, or if that is just taking the easy way out and just keep grinding training and setting habits an deal with it. Maybe you are making it up. Maybe they aren't that bad. Okay, they are that bad. Maybe it was a bad day. Maybe it was actually you that set them off. Maybe it was you that screwed them up and made them an anxious dog in the first place.

In all reality, an extremely anxious person + an extremely anxious dog is NOT a good combo. But we're too set on each other a this point to have it any other way. We BOTH get separation anxiety at this point. We're each other's pacifiers. Unfortunately, we can also be each other's triggers, too.

We're both in time out right now. I feel like a horrible dog owner because I get to pop a Xanax and he doesn't. Isn't that a bit crazy?

THIS IS WHY I WAS SO PICKY ABOUT BREEDERS AND TEMPERAMENT. There is zero way I can deal with an anxious neurotic dog again after this. I can take attitude, I can take naughty, I can take challenging. I can deal in the wavelength of normal fear and normal reactivity and normal bitchiness. I can't do severe anxiety/fear/going off food/freaked out by something new every week/xenophobic/mental mess.

I LOVE Zander, more than anything. He is my heartdog. But there are days where I really wish things could be better. Bad days SUCK. SUCK SUCK SUCK.

SUCK.

Well, actually...he can. Chloe is on Xanax. Get a dose for him from a vet, and it may help!

And totally understand the "I can't do this anxiety thing again". That was why I purchased Abrams instead of adopting a dog from an unknown background. I wanted EVERYTHING that was in my power to set him up for a good temperament. He has some mild separation anxiety (normal dog stuff, I'd say, nothing over the top), but compared to Chloe he is a freaking Saint.

My dog has become an obsessive marker in agility. Stupid teenage boys. He will actually leave me, pee on something, then come back. He peed in the middle of a tunnel and while he was going through a tire (it was low so he paused with his feet on each side and peed before we even noticed). It's so bad the instructor wondered if he has a UTI, but he's not like this anywhere else. She also thinks his weirdness about jumping might have to do with the peeing, like he's uncomfortable and has to pee which makes jumping hard sometimes. I don't know.

What a weird problem to have. I'm going to get a belly band, and take him out to pee before every time he goes in the arena. I already can't let him get near any vertical surface because he'll pee.

Maybe it's a stress reaction? That sounds tedious to deal with.

I'm soooo lucky with Cohen. I don't think she's ever left me in the middle of a course. Little thing keeps on truckin'.

Yeah, I thought of stress too, but the instructor didn't really see stress. It's so weird that he took jumps just fine at the beginning of class, but then that last sequence of tire to jumps, he wouldn't jump. He got right up to the jump with his head over it and stood there looking at me, then finally threw himself over. It was really weird. And the tire was resting on the ground, so he just needed to step through, and he is not afraid of going through things. It really did seem like he was suddenly physically uncomfortable and then he peed halfway through the tire. When he tries to mark I pull him off and make him stop, so maybe he has that "I had to stop mid-pee and now I'm uncomfortable" feeling? I'm going to let him empty himself outside before every activity now and see if it helps.

At least he's to the point where he only leaves me at the beginning of class sometimes, and not nearly as bad as he used to (it's a 2 second run off, not 5 minutes of sprinting around the ring). Once he's into it, he's fine and doesn't run off, but he does still try to pee on every single thing we get near while we're waiting around. In our obedience facility, I think he's peed maybe 3 times ever? I get that lots of other dogs pee in the agility arena (almost every dog in our class has at one point or another) and there are cats who use it as a giant litter box, but seriously dog. I forgot to mention he also peed halfway through the weave-o-matics. :rofl1:

After about a month on raw, Ezra's shedding less, his eyes are less goopy, he seems to have more energy, the stains in the corners of his mouth have all but disappeared, he's finally putting on weight, poops are 100% better and NO MORE ROOM CLEARING GAS. Seriously. Heaven forbid I would get stuck in the car when he farted. I think I'd keep him on raw even if the lack of gas was the only benefit.

That's awesome! I'd really like to go raw but just can't get over the convenience and cost factor yet (need to find a cheaper source). Some day I hope to take the leap.

Whelp. The girls are as ready as they can be for the audition. Now it's going to be up to me to keep my nerves down. I keep telling myself that they will either like what they see or they won't. They'll either see our potential or figure we have too much work ahead of us still. One of the people that is watching has seen us play a few times in person though, so I assume I wouldn't be brought in with all expenses paid without having the skills they need. Either that or they haven't consulted her at all and they are going to be sorely disappointed when we get there.

I am so excited to show off their agility though. No confidence needed with that one! Maybe we'll hit agility first boost up our confidence and then move onto disc.

Cost actually hasn't been bad! Considering I was paying nearly $2 a pound for Earthborn Primitive, having issues, paying for supplements, he was pooping most of it out and he wasn't eating nearly enough to put weight on. Right now I shop prices at my local Kroger, specialty market and the ethnic markets. I don't think I've paid more than $1.50 a pound so far for anything I've bought. Off the top if my head, the biggest things I've bought have been pork shoulder for 1.39 a pound, whole turkey for $1.19 a pound, chicken quarters for $0.78-$0.98 a pound.. Just picked up duck wings the other day (new protein) for $1.20 a pound.. And organ has been limited to chicken liver and whatever comes in the whole birds thus far. I've found a co-op that I can get all sorts of stuff from at good prices that has a drop point close enough to me.

As far as convenience, I've been pre-preparing a weeks worth of meals at a time (I still weigh out everything and use that as a base, adding if necessary during the week). One week's worth of food gets put in a Tupperware and frozen. I have three weeks worth already ready to defrost. When we use the last of one week, another Tupperware gets tossed in the fridge. For meals, he eats on a rug (same as before with kibble so no change) and I just pull a piece out of that weeks Tupperware. He's easier to feed than Mimi right now, she's on kibble mixed with water and a little canned. There's a little more time involved with the pre-prep, but it's not too difficult!

Good luck!!

I must have missed it -- what is the audition for? Sounds exciting. I'm sure you guys will rock it.

See, I just know that Watson would grab a chicken part and jump on the couch to eat it. :rofl1: I'd have to feed him in his crate, but that stays in the bedroom and I'm not crazy about raw meat in the bedroom. I've fed him raw before as a treat, but always when it was nice enough that I could put him outside on a tie out.

Those prices are pretty amazing though. The only meat I've bought for that cheap has been chicken livers or hearts - the things that most people aren't buying. Everything else is $3.99/lb or so. Even BJs isn't as cheap as the stuff you're finding.

I was taking a "for-fun" agility class with Squash when he was a teenager and he did the exact same thing. He never went off course specifically to pee on stuff, but he'd stop and pee at the end of the tunnel. He, too, peed on the tire AS he was jumping through (HOWWWWWW?!).

That's exactly what I did, used a belly band. I just couldn't have him peeing on stuff, and I think it was mildly aversive enough for him that it helped nip it in the bud.