dog thread

[paddy-stone]

Still can't post pics

[MEC-777]

11 hours ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

I'll wager you were not all that amused, either. Are her eyes ok? They look OK.

 

A family friend, when I was a kid, referred to skunks as black and white, streamlined fluid drives. I've heard other names for them but Mama told me not to use those words.

 

Skunks make good pets but I doubt Olivia would agree.

No, we were not amused either, lol. Her eyes are ok. They were a little red at first, but after washing and rinsing her face, she was fine. Skunk-off is a pretty amazing product. 

 

This isn't the first time we've dealt with skunk spray, so we knew the drill. We used to have 4 chihuahuas and they used to sleep in our bed. One morning my mother in law let them out in the backyard before work. They then came back in the house, ran up stairs, jumped onto the bed and started rolling on the sheets. Then the smell hit us - literally. 2 of them had taken direct hits. If you've ever smelled actual skunk spray up close, you'd know just how bad it is. When you pass a dead skunk on the road and get a strong whiff, that is NOTHING in comparison. It is indescribable. It sticks in your nose, you taste it and it makes your eyes water. Call it nature's mace, lol. Anyways, long story short; the whole house stunk for weeks. Thankfully it was summer and we could leave all the doors and windows open.

 

Now, we take precautions and are careful to not let them in the house if we suspect they've been sprayed. They get a garden hose wash with skunk-off in the yard first, then it's straight up to the bathtub for a full wash with more skunk-off and shampoo. Just one of the joys of country living. Wasn't the first time and won't be the last.

 

Skunks do make good pets, sans scent glands. Considering how much Olivia loves our pet rats, I bet she'd actually enjoy a stinkless skunk friend.  

[Lady Fitzgerald]

1 hour ago, MEC-777 said:

No, we were not amused either, lol. Her eyes are ok. They were a little red at first, but after washing and rinsing her face, she was fine. Skunk-off is a pretty amazing product...Skunks do make good pets, sans scent glands. Considering how much Olivia loves our pet rats, I bet she'd actually enjoy a stinkless skunk friend.  

I'm glad Olivia is OK.

 

I've heard that even skunks with the scent glands intact still make good pets. Frankly, if I was also going to have dogs, I wouldn't want to also have a pet skunk, "deodorized" or not, so the pooch wouldn't come to think that all skunks, including wild ones, would make good new playmates.

[LukeSavenije]

4 hours ago, paddy-stone said:

Still can't post pics

you should be able rn from what i can see

[Red :)]

@Pascal...

 

[paddy-stone]

16 minutes ago, LukeSavenije said:

you should be able rn from what i can see

 

Yep, can now... woohoooo

 

 

Pic of Dinky and a dog of one of my brothers, called Bella. This is pretty much the first time she got left alone by Dinky, she (dinky) wanted to play all the time and Bella was getting annoyed.

Bella's coming to ours again on Sunday maybe, so hopefully will get better pics then... sorry for the state of my house, Dinky managed to pry one of the hearth tiles off when we first got her... and dismantled some of the rug, LOL... we are going to fix those things, but waiting until she's stopped gnawing on things (hopefully).

 

[LukeSavenije]

Just now, paddy-stone said:

Yep, can now... woohoooo

yeah... it's something the forum has been haunted with for a couple days now

[paddy-stone]

Just now, LukeSavenije said:

yeah... it's something the forum has been haunted with for a couple days now

Yeah, don't I know it, been a pain in the arse for at least 3-4 days now IIRC, might even be longer.

[MEC-777]

1 hour ago, paddy-stone said:

Pic of Dinky and a dog of one of my brothers, called Bella. This is pretty much the first time she got left alone by Dinky, she (dinky) wanted to play all the time and Bella was getting annoyed.

Bella's coming to ours again on Sunday maybe, so hopefully will get better pics then... sorry for the state of my house, Dinky managed to pry one of the hearth tiles off when we first got her... and dismantled some of the rug, LOL... we are going to fix those things, but waiting until she's stopped gnawing on things (hopefully).

 

That belly!!! lol

 

You can stop those behaviours at her age now, if you want to (gnawing, chewing, pulling things apart that ought not to be, ei: rugs and tiles, lol). Here's a super easy and incredibly effective way to stop it: Take a common full-sized towel, roll it up and hold it together with a couple of elastics. When she starts chewing on the rug (or what ever unwanted behaviour), speak (don't yell) "no" in a calm, neutral tone (to mark the bad behaviour), wait 2-3 seconds and then toss the towel at her, firmly. Aim for the head/shoulders. Yes, seriously.

 

Don't worry, it will not hurt her at all in any way (it's a cotton towel). It will not make her afraid of the towel or of you. What it will do is give actual weight and meaning to the command "no", and it will also teach her there is a real and uncomfortable consequence for that specific behaviour. She will begin to make better choices as a result.

 

This is how I stopped all bad/unwanted behaviours in the house very quickly (a few times for each behaviour) with our dogs. They've stopped; rushing the door, barking at the door/doorbell, dishwasher diving, and barking at everything on the TV. Now, they sleep through dog's barking on TV and rarely get up when someone comes to the door. Simply saying "no" is often enough with them now, but following through with a 'bonk' from the towel from time to time just keeps that command reinforced. (To be clear, I never say no or bonk without reason, only if and when actually necessary).

 

At the same time, mark good behaviours and choices with a "yes" in a chipper tone (but not a baby voice) and give a reward.

 

I'm sure you already know this, but just be careful with pups around older dogs and make sure the pup gives some space for the older dog to get away as needed. If she won't stop, you can absolutely use this bonking protocol with her for pestering. You can also use a stockyard whip and give her a little tap on the rump to make her stop.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

15 hours ago, MEC-777 said:

That belly!!! lol

 

You can stop those behaviours at her age now, if you want to (gnawing, chewing, pulling things apart that ought not to be, ei: rugs and tiles, lol). Here's a super easy and incredibly effective way to stop it: Take a common full-sized towel, roll it up and hold it together with a couple of elastics. When she starts chewing on the rug (or what ever unwanted behaviour), speak (don't yell) "no" in a calm, neutral tone (to mark the bad behaviour), wait 2-3 seconds and then toss the towel at her, firmly. Aim for the head/shoulders. Yes, seriously.

 

Don't worry, it will not hurt her at all in any way (it's a cotton towel). It will not make her afraid of the towel or of you. What it will do is give actual weight and meaning to the command "no", and it will also teach her there is a real and uncomfortable consequence for that specific behaviour. She will begin to make better choices as a result.

 

This is how I stopped all bad/unwanted behaviours in the house very quickly (a few times for each behaviour) with our dogs. They've stopped; rushing the door, barking at the door/doorbell, dishwasher diving, and barking at everything on the TV. Now, they sleep through dog's barking on TV and rarely get up when someone comes to the door. Simply saying "no" is often enough with them now, but following through with a 'bonk' from the towel from time to time just keeps that command reinforced. (To be clear, I never say no or bonk without reason, only if and when actually necessary).

 

At the same time, mark good behaviours and choices with a "yes" in a chipper tone (but not a baby voice) and give a reward.

 

I'm sure you already know this, but just be careful with pups around older dogs and make sure the pup gives some space for the older dog to get away as needed. If she won't stop, you can absolutely use this bonking protocol with her for pestering. You can also use a stockyard whip and give her a little tap on the rump to make her stop.

 

A water pistol or similar will also work (I've done that). I have friends that used a supersoaker to train their cats when they were kittens not to climb the curtains (it had better range and the aim was better).They didn't need to get drenched, just a few drops hitting them was enough to get the point across.

 

The meaning of NO is one of the first things I taught a dog. As you said, it's not necessary to be loud but it has to be stern and convey that you are not happy with the dog's behavior at that moment; it's the tone of voice and your expresion that gets the message across. As long as you establish that you and other family members are higher on the "pecking order" of the "pack", the dog will want to please everyone higher up than the dog.

 

Curiously, I've found I'm able to get other people's dogs (and even some cats) to respond to NO. Often, when they do not respond to NO, just sharply saying "ank" (that's a bit hard to spell) will get their attention (it also worked on my dogs) and get favorable results. When my friends' kittens would start to climb a curtain, they would ignore NO from me (after all, they weren't my cats) but would suddenly "discover" something else interesting when I made that sound. 

Edited September 7, 2019 by Lady Fitzgerald
Senioritis induced misspellings

[paddy-stone]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, might try those, even though we've tried almost everything under the sun already, LOL

 

[PlayStation 2]

Luna the Nub outside, laying down because she enjoys sunbathing.

[soldier_ph]

[MEC-777]

Went to a local car show on the weekend. This was Olivia's favourite sighting.

 

 

[TVwazhere]

1 hour ago, MEC-777 said:

Went to a local car show on the weekend. This was Olivia's favourite sighting.

"Can we go for a ride? Pleeeeeeeeeeease?"

[MEC-777]

17 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

"Can we go for a ride? Pleeeeeeeeeeease?"

If it wasn't for the loudness, she would have loved it, no doubt, lol.

[PlayStation 2]

Luna chunk

[lukasprime]

On 9/9/2019 at 2:53 PM, MEC-777 said:

Went to a local car show on the weekend. This was Olivia's favourite sighting.

goodyeardog

[MEC-777]

New phone takes so much better pics. Playing some chuck-it with Olivia while Moses hangs out and rests his sore shoulder this evening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[paddy-stone]

10 hours ago, MEC-777 said:

New phone takes so much better pics. Playing some chuck-it with Olivia while Moses hangs out and rests his sore shoulder this evening.

 

 

I love those chuckit balls, very robust and pretty bouncy to keep the dog interested... I have 4, 2 squeaky and 2 bouncy.

 

Took dinky to the common yesterday.. the common is basically like a piece of parkland/scrub that's owned by the village it resides in. They have trails that are good for dogs/horses, and now allow cyclists too, though personally think it's a bit tough for most cyclists as the trails are just gaps in the gorse bushes, made by tractors with cutting equipment, so they're basically rough uneven grass trails.

Anyway, she loved it, we didn't let her off-lead though as she still doesn't recall well at the moment, but is getting better and is more cognizant of what we want from her. I didn't take pics unfortunately, but we will be going back often so I'll take some then.

Funnily enough, I did do a speedtest on my mobile data while I was there though, just to see.... was getting 90Mbit/s when it errored-out as my datacap kicked in... it was still climbing too. That's better than we get on our home line with VDSL2. I would so go for that if our connection was as good, but we only get like 1-2 bars and much lower speed

 

Here's one from a few days back

 

[TVwazhere]

12 hours ago, MEC-777 said:

*boop*

[Lady Fitzgerald]

34 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

*boop*

Actually, that should be "beep"

 

 

[TVwazhere]

6 minutes ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

Actually, that should be "beep"

-snip-

The current slang for poking a dog's nose (or any nose) has become boop. 

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=boop

[Lady Fitzgerald]

4 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

The current slang for poking a dog's nose (or any nose) has become boop. 

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=boop

"Beep" Was first used by Charles Schulz decades ago, probably before you were even born. I have heard numerous people "beep" dogs, or even cats, and still do but I never heard anyone "boop" a dog.

[MEC-777]

Today, my wife and I received a massive blow to the gut. For over a month now, we've been trying to figure out what's happened with Moses' shoulder and why he hasn't been getting better and is still in pain. Well, today we took him to see a highly renowned surgeon in our area and upon looking at his x-rays, is extremely certain (95%+) he has a very aggressive form of bone cancer. Long story short; we are going to have to put him to sleep within the next week or so.

 

For now, we are just going to give him as much love and attention as we can and keep him as pain-free as possible. Beyond that, I am without words... He is only 2.

 

His sister, Olivia, will be ok, but we've suspected she has known something's up for a while now.

 

This is him with my mother-in-law's dog, Gideon, the other night.