chrisandgabe

In the Spring my previous dog and I were involved in the production of these videos for Tawzer dog. Game On! is for teaching obedience classes using games, and has some super fun ideas for any trainers out there. Agility for fun and confidence is a 6 week curriculum for teaching an intro agility class to help dogs build confidence and have fun. Nicole's great to work with, she has great ideas, and Tawzer's having a 50% off Black Friday Sale! http://dvddepot.tawzerdog.com/ My doodle and I make some appearances in the Game On preview also

Maybe some Adaptil to try and take the edge off a little? I think I'd also try bringing some wonderfully smelly food and dropping it on the ground so she can follow it and follow you out that way, and doesn't need to get close enough to you to take it from your hand. Good luck!

I'm a little surprised that he would limp as an indication of having a tick. I would think there's a few days gap in between exposure (getting bit by the tick) and seeing any symptoms of Lyme. We've had some serious tick issues this year, and Gabe also tested positive for Lyme with no symptoms. I try and do a thorough tick check every night, but certainly still find some engorged. Hope Billy makes a full recovery.

Let us know how it goes! One of the trainers I work with recommends it often, and I like to keep abreast of if people have success with it or not.

I think it just depends on the dog. When Gabe sees agility equipment, he's tail up, bouncy, SO EXCITED. We don't compete, although if he can keep his brain we might head down that path one day, but for the most part it's just this really awesome thing he gets to do where he climbs on stuff and runs and jumps and gets treats. I don't really think he sees that as working. However, when we're out on a walk and working on not reacting to other dogs, he's just more "on". He'll look at another dog, and look back at me, and he's just more...serious. In obedience class too, he's not bouncing, he's not excited, he's intense and just ready for the next thing to come and waiting for the next direction. I usually take him to my friend's house for agility, and he'll chase after a ball in her barn when we're done, play with the ball, and then bring it over a jump and onto the table. He just enjoys it. I've done enough training with my dogs that my dog training friends asked me to help teach some classes. My day job is Social Worker. What is "work" to my friends (dog training), is my "break". It's all individual for people, and is for dogs too.

We got Gabe an Adaptil collar when we first brought him home, and I felt like it helped with the adjustment. I obviously don't know how it would have gone without it, but I felt like he settled a little easier with it.

I moved to Philadelphia from North Jersey around 4 years ago, and didn't really know anyone except my now-almost-husband/ boyfriend at the time. All of the friends I have here are from dog stuff. Dogs are really great socialization for people too.

Ditto to the other posts! By pushing her down, she's still getting attention. Stepping on her back paw on purpose seems a little harsh to me, but having everyone remove all attention until her butt and/or all 4 paws are on the ground should help.

Or just make friends with all dog people. And geek out on dog stuff as much as possible!

Good to know I'm not the only one. We have had a soft sided crate we used for travel, until my in-laws Westie destroyed it, and Gabe figured out he could get out through the Westie-sized hole. I may try to invest in one of these though.

Sounds great! Just ordered my copy

Is your sister still letting strangers approach the dog after it bit someone? They really do need a trainer or behaviorist, but also in the management realm, I wouldn't let anyone approach my dog I didn't know was dog-savvy and also would read the dog's signals, and only under really controlled "meeting strangers practice" situations. Gabe is not great with new people- barks, lunges, etc. Strangers on walks admire how pretty he is, and my response is always "thanks! He's nervous around new people, so please don't reach out to him". We practice a lot with people I know, so I can be really clear on the "rules" for meeting him, and he gets some experience with people not grabbing for him when that's scary. They need a pretty good behavior plan in place to work on these complex issues. Best of luck to all of you.

Our last dog was completely bomb-proof, and wouldn't react even if a dog was being rude, snapping at him, chasing us, whatever. I don't actually think that was a great quality, since it kind of left him open to getting picked on a lot, and we were pretty defenseless out in the world. I'd get nervous when we would see a dog that was giving off bad signals, waiting for the day when a dog attacked him and I couldn't do anything about it, which never ended up happening, but it didn't make him reactive. He was fine. Gabe came to us reactive, and I wasn't even expecting it at first. We were told he was dog friendly. And maybe he is off-leash, with the right dogs. He's had social times, but he has a really hard time on leash and with dogs running up in his face. But on his first walk with us, I wasn't expecting the leash reactivity, wasn't nervous about it, didn't tense up on the leash, and he reacted. After his attack, my anxiety increased 100x, and for a good week or so he didn't react AT ALL. Now we're about back to where we were before the attack, where he's good in a lot of situations, makes a lot of good decisions, like looking back at me when we see another dog so he can get a treat, but he still reacts sometimes. I think there's value in dogs socializing with each other, but I need to trust the dog, and the owner. I'm much more likely to let him greet a dog whose owner leashes the dog when asked than one who argues the point with me. I don't love on-leash greetings, so we don't do that often, but we walk in a place where dogs are required to be on-leash, and I don't trust the judgment of people who refuse to do that, even when asked. It's my job to protect him. I'm not trying to make friends for either one of us when we walk. We're getting exercise, doing something we both enjoy, and getting out in the world.

Yeah- plus he was living with another family for 2 years, so who knows if he was symptomatic at some point and treated? My vet recommended Nexguard, or Advantage, but said that's not for ticks. I'm more concerned about ticks than fleas. The hard part is, we don't spend a lot of time in tall grass, and stay on the trails whenever we're in the woods. We just gave Gabe a bath, and pulled off 3 or 4 more ticks (not engorged). I use the Petco natural flea and tick shampoo, which we had a lot of success with on our last dog, so hopefully this cuts it down a little until we find a good alternative. I'm not against using chemicals, but in the absence of a good chemical option right now, we'll try something we've used with some success that also smells good.

So cute!!! Congratulations on your new family member...and since you're so good at posting pictures, we're all looking forward to lots of puppy updates!

I'll check them out. That does make sense about the antibodies vs. disease. I was a little surprised the vet wanted to treat him with no signs of illness, but that's what the recommendation was. I asked for bloodwork shortly after we adopted him, just to make sure everything was okay, and that's how we ended up with a lyme test. I might try and go with Vectra. The vet recommended Nexguard, but I think I'm too freaked out by it. I wish there was just an easy answer to the best and safest way to take care of my dog.

It's good to know people use the seresto collars with success. There was a thread in Tick-L recently that seemed very anti-seresto on my (quick) reading, mostly due to concerns about chemical exposure. Gabe does sleep with us, but he's above the covers and we are under- is it still a risk to be in that close contact or is it just the skin-to-collar exposure to limit? I'm so hesitant to give Nexguard. Our last dog died of liver failure shortly after the second dose of Nexguard. I have no reason to believe the Nexguard caused it, but it was the only big change around that time. I know someone who knows someone whose poodle died of something called lobular necrotizing hepatitis, which also seems plausible for what happened to our doodle, and the timing of the Nexguard is just a fluke, but I can't quite shake that fear.

We pulled a pretty engorged tick off Gabe tonight, and I pull ticks off pretty regularly, but it's hard to get them all before they bite. I'm also concerned that I've found some flea dirt on him. Frontline is clearly not working. He tested positive for lyme disease about a month and a half ago, and finished the 4 weeks of doxy about a week or so before he was attacked by another dog (and started 2 weeks of clavamox). I'm giving him some probiotics to help him get through the insane amount of abx he's been on lately, and his poop has stayed pretty normal looking throughout all of this, which I'm happy about. My biggest issue is- what can I use to repel the ticks? I'm open to any suggestions, I just want to know what people have had success with. I'm hoping they'll die soon, but we've already had some cooler nights (mid 30s or so) and they're still an issue. Apologies if this has been discussed elsewhere, I tried searching a few times with no success.

I think as responsible dog owners, we need to expect and set the cultural expectation that you ask before letting your dog greet another dog, and children should be taught to ask before petting a strange dog. You don't walk up to strangers and start shaking their hands without giving some sort of verbal greeting beforehand, and maybe "hi, can they meet?" should be the equivalent of "hi, I'm Chris with hand extended". Not a perfect analogy, but it's a safety thing, and it's reasonable for some sort of verbal exchange before dogs just meet each other. Also, dogs should be free to exist in the world with their humans without having other dogs coming up and sniffing them. I don't think the requirement for being out in public needs to be "is super friendly with all other dogs and wants to greet everyone" but "can tolerate being near other dogs and maintaining focus on their handler". Not to mention all if this is part of a larger cultural issue where people think their "friendly" dogs can just go up and greet whoever they want, even in places where leashes are required. We hike daily in a leash-required park. This one obnoxious Golden just barrels up to whoever she wants, and completely ignores corrections by other dogs. Her owner NEVER has her on leash, and I'm not really sure she can control her on leash, so she trained her off leash with an e-collar. The dog's recall is spotty at best. I asked the woman to leash her dog the other day and her response was "I don't know what you want me to do".....so I repeated "Put a leash on her". She ultimately did, and I was kind of surprised, but it shouldn't that hard. We're not going to the off-leash park, because that's not a good place for Gabe, but there has to be some places he can exist in the world without dogs running up in his face.

Bacon would make him happy. He's also been pretty thrilled with the 24/7 company he's had the past week. I think we're past the cone now, and he's running around and telling me he's fully recovered. I'm...still pretty shaken up. I'm a lot more nervous around unleashed, unknown dogs, and I feel bad that the other dog was euthanized, and being back at the e-vet was really hard on me. We lost our last dog just 5 months ago, he had gone into liver failure really suddenly, no cause was ever identified, and we spent 5 days visiting him there as much as possible before I just couldn't put him through anymore. He was only 5 years old. And being with Gabe, having someone ask me what his DNR status would be if anything went wrong under anesthesia was hitting a nerve that is still really raw. Gabe's been with us for 3.5 months, and I think has been on some medication, or coughing, or something almost the whole time. I'm just ready to have a healthy dog so I can worry a little less. But aside from all that, I'm blown away by his recovery. He did a little agility on Saturday, and we had a lot of fun....and then got a flat tire on my way home from my friend's farm. So he also got to hang in the Meineke while they fixed it at closing time...and was great! Sort of feeling like we can't catch a break, but we're getting through.

The only thing I may have done differently would have been to use that as a teaching moment for that young girl and said "you should always ask the other owners before letting your dog approach other dogs" which may have been even ruder. I'm pretty over people thinking that their "friendly" dogs are the only ones allowed out in public, and can go up and greet other dogs whenever they want. I just had some people give me a hard time after I asked them to leash their dogs on a leash-required-by-law hiking trail. Their response was "What? Is your dog not good with other dogs?" "He's not great, and he was attacked by another dog on Monday, so I'm trying to limit the unfamiliar dog interactions until I get a good feel for how he's reacting to other dogs, plus leashes are required in this park" They did leash the dogs, but gave us an earful about the dogs being under voice control and we shouldn't bring our dog out there if he's not good with other dogs, etc. I'm sorry, 90% of the dogs that are "under voice control" aren't, I have no reason to believe yours are any different, and my job is to protect my dog, not make you happy. We don't go to off-leash parks, because that's not his scene, and I'm not asking you to leash your dogs where they aren't required to be leashed. But there's no reason we should not be able to enjoy the miles of on-leash hiking in our neighborhood because you don't want to follow the rules, and walking in our neighborhood has proven to not be safe from off-leash dogs either, so does my dog have to just stay inside all day because you don't feel like following the law? This is long and off topic so in sum, you weren't rude, your priority is your dog.

Happy birthday Gibbs!!

He's cute even all shaved and coned.

I feel so sad for the foster family. I can't even imagine going through the emotional process of saving the dog, living with it, and hoping for a great outcome and then this. They were trying to do a good thing for the dog, and they seemed really attached to the dog, and I really don't fault them for what happened. Dogs get out of leashes, things happen, this just had a really bad outcome, and that dog that they love is going to die for it. It's just awful. The better part of this is the Gabe update! He's been moving around the apartment really well, bearing weight on the injured leg for the most part, and has been in fairly good spirits. He's had visits from many of his favorite people, and we've been able to swing our schedules in such a way to be home with him so that's been good. He's getting to a point where he feels good enough to be bored and upset that we aren't doing our usually 4+ miles of hiking/day, but he's getting some good Kongs and other stuff to keep him busy inside. I took him around the block this afternoon, and he was SO HAPPY to be outside. We didn't see any other dogs, so hard to gauge if he's going to be more scared and reactive or about the same. He's been eating, drinking, and pottying with no issues. His wounds are looking okay, he's tolerating meds pretty well, and all that is going okay. I've been blown away by how resilient he is. He's still really swollen, so I'm mandating more rest even though he keeps trying to tell me he's feeling better and wants to MOVE. And now he's telling us in no uncertain terms that it is time for bed. It's only been a few months with him, but I really love this little guy.

Just got the call that they're euthanizing the dog on Friday. Crappy situation all around.