Rosalee

That’s funny, Katie sounds a lot like Parker. about the same age, just one day freaked out about the nails, no cause I could point to. And she is a total maniac, like full on panic mode. I also try all the tricks, slowly running my hand towards her foot, etc. she doesn’t mind having muddy paws wiped, things like that, but over the winter I wanted to try the mushers secret paw wax on their paws for running in the snow. Major no go with her. she really wants to be “good”, is the other thing. I think it is very distressing for her too to know that she is not doing what is wanted of her, she just can’t help it. I got some sandpaper to try, just need to get a board going and then work on training the scratch command. Will update.

We have had a great deal of trouble with trimming Katie’s nails. as a small puppy, we played around with it, got her used to it, handled her paws, she was bit squirmy but not bad and wasn’t fearful. There was never a bad experience or anything that I could point to. When she was about 6 months maybe, everything changed. I never figured out what triggered it, but since then she hates having her paws touched and it is pretty much impossible to trim her nails. she is now 2 years old and I am still unable to trim her nails with either clipper of grinder (we have tried both), might have to take her to the vet to have it done at this point, just don’t want to traumatize her further. She never forgets anything and if she even know we are planning anything to do with her feet will run and hide. I am still working on training with handling her feet at all in a non stressful way, rewarding any contact, just have been trying this for awhile without much progress. which brings me to the scratch board. Kind of like a giant nail file for dogs, where the dog initiates scratching action against the board covered in sandpaper. Katie does like to dig at things, maybe would have some success training with pawing at the board. I was wondering if anyone has tried this and if it actually works to keep nails manageable. I guess wouldn’t work for back nails and maybe only for the centre nails on the front feet? Does it damage the dogs pads at all? Maybe at least would give us more time between nail trims and time to work on the issues some more. She does wear down her nails a fair bit through daily activity, but we do participate in canicross dog sports and I have read articles detailing the harmful effects of long nails on the dogs gait and posture. also did you build your own scratch board and which grain of sandpaper did you use? thanks!

The coonhound

Both my treeing walker coonhound and mixed breed rescue (unknown mix, perhaps hound/heeler) had white tipped tails. I think it is not uncommon in hound breeds, but I am no expert.

Meet Rover! He is approximately 1 year old, catahoula mix, maybe with heeler. he is a rescue dog from Texas, just arrived over the weekend, what an amazingly sweet, gentle dog. He has been wonderful with the kids, just a great energy to him. Miss Katie adjusting well to sharing her home and humans, a bit of a discrepancy with their play styles, but I think that is working out now. We had been toying with the idea of a second dog for awhile, almost got a puppy through a rescue last year. This dog just seemed like the right one. I have some great pictures of him where he really looks quite handsome, though fairly underweight right now. I wish I could post them, but will not allow me to. It does allow these photos though, so here is Rover.

Good point. Our last pair of dogs were 4 years apart, which wasn’t a bad age gap, neither was a puppy when they met though. She has really matured a lot in past couple months, but there are still a couple things we need to work on. I was planning to start jogging with her this summer since she is physically mature enough now and obviously a puppy wouldn’t be able to tag along. We also have our very first herding lesson for either of us on Monday, weather permitting (fields are nasty right now, freeze and thaw season, like a skating rink some days). I definitely still want two dogs again, but I am thinking of waiting until fall to really start searching, unless the right dog comes along…

Thanks for sharing your experience. the puppy is a male. I wouldn’t do 2 females, I know some people have success with that but I had a really bad experience with my old female dog at a place we stayed one winter with some aggression from other female dogs in the home we shared. Nasty, never again. however, I decided against adopting that puppy. I just felt it wasn’t the right time for a puppy. I think I just got overwhelmed by adorable puppy pictures lol. With more thought I think a situation like you described, taking in another young dog, would be better at this time. Will continue the search!

The other thing I have been thinking is to maybe try fostering. I don’t think there will be a problem finding another home for this puppy, puppies usually seem to find homes quickly. that would give us a chance to see how a second dog might work in our household. problems with this plan, we are not really a great foster home because we have an old cat and 2 young children. Also, my husband might not be totally on board with this, because we fostered a dog for a few months through a different rescue prior to getting Katie after my old dog passed away. The dog was said to be ok with cats and was very, very far from it. She was also not suitable for a home with kids. Not her fault, sweet dog, but not a good fit. I wouldn’t go through that rescue again, though I think it wasn’t entirely something they could predict, but I think it soured my husband a bit on the whole foster thing. I don’t mind working through some things and doing some training with a foster,obviously. The one thing I am not comfortable with is aggression to other pets or the kids.

Hi, this post might end up a little long, apologies… so, we have a female border collie, age 1.5. Katie. Great dog. “We” is myself, husband, 2 young boys, but she is very much “my” dog in her mind. She is my shadow, I have done all the training with her, that sort of thing. we used to have 2 dogs back in the day, first died of extreme old age, second followed a few years later. Then came Katie. I had always planned on 2 dogs again once she was sort of trained up and mature. we have an opportunity at a puppy through a rescue, mom is a stray. Of course the puppy is incredibly cute. Mix breed, mom is a Catahoula, they are guessing dad might be Australian shepherd based on litters appearance. Will be a mid sized dog. katie loves other dogs. She was very shy as a pup, we started sending her to a dog daycare couple mornings a week to socialize and she now loves other dogs. She is the gentle one there, she often is the “intro” dog with new, unsure dogs now. Other than other border collies, she gravitates to other herding breed dogs and small dogs, she is very gentle with puppies as well. but now, I am having doubts. So I will lay out some of what I see as pros and cons and while obviously the decision of whether to adopt this puppy comes down to my family, any input is welcome. main issue I see is that Katie is very much “my” dog and I will be responsible in large part for the new puppy as well who will certainly, like any puppy, need lots of attention and commitment and time and training. Will I be able to give both dogs enough separate time. How can I make sure Katie still feels “special”. I have been looking into starting herding training with her, well an intro session anyways to see if it is something we want to pursue, in the next couple weeks. I guess that could be “our” time? I am just starting to wonder if she would be happier as an only dog. But then I remember the great bond our two older dogs had with each other, I don’t know. When we had two dogs before, they were both adult dogs and we just sort of joined our two households. How do you work out your schedule when you bring in a new puppy? thanks for any input

Yes, she definitely is very sensitive to my moods. So, back to basics and try to stay positive. Thanks everyone!

As far as the classes, I think the point is learning how to listen in that group environment. Even if your dog already knows the commands they are teaching there. i have been thinking of doing a class with our dog, she is one year old. She hasn’t done any classes since puppyclass, but we do a lot of training with her at home and she knows lots of commands and tricks and stuff. I think a class will benefit her, even though she might already know everything they teach, just because she gets very distracted by and reactive to her environment lately (lots of teenage stuff going on with her lately) and I think just being in that setting and learning to listen despite the surroundings might help her. Might help your case too?

Thanks. That’s helpful. We will keep at it and hope things improve.

My wayward child lol

Is there something that goes on at one year old? katie had her first birthday earlier this month, and i have found the past few weeks very challenging with her. Could it just be some sort of delayed adolescent thing? She has shown some teenager tendencies over the last few months, but nothing major, just some minor rebelliousness or scatterbrained sort of stuff. The last couple weeks have been different. It’s like every naughty thing she did as a puppy is back in full force. Like jumping up on people, having hyper leash chewing episodes on her walks, barking at other dogs on walks, barking at everyone who passes our house, chewing on stuff in the house that isn’t hers, etc, etc, I could go on. I find myself getting somewhat frustrated with her as well, though I try not to. It just seems like these are all things we worked hard on at the time, seemed to be resolved or improving and now here we are at square one, but she is obviously much bigger and stronger than she was, so jumping up on the kids isn’t cute at this stage. Thing is she hasn’t jumped up on the kids since she was 4 months old, she knows not to, why is this all coming back? If I tell her “no” I swear it’s like she’s laughing at me and thinks it’s all some great game. Is this the REAL teenager phase, and if so what do I do? Maybe I was sort of lulled Into thinking we were through it because she is generally a real joy and it was just the calm before the storm. Help.

Beautiful! Molly has lovely kind eyes.