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Messages - Rajas Mom

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1
Great Pyrenees Discussions / Re: My dog was murdered last weekend
« on: August 29, 2009, 09:43:57 pm »
I am sorry for both of your losses, no matter how they happened.  It was a loss.  No matter how perfect we are in caring for our babies opportunity slips in, I'm the first to know that during this past year.

I recently brought my only remaining dog on vacation and my family thought I was nuts.  I didn't trust their electronic fence.  I didn't trust her.  Her leash was either in my hand or she was tied up.  But long-term, that would be no way to live for either of us.  In life we all take some chances. 

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I actually have a fear of little dogs (a lot of bad experiences, including almost losing an eye as a child).  When we were living in an apartment we buckled down and rescued one, although I admit I thought she weighed about 10-15 pounds more than she did because of her fluffy coat.  Despite this, and my love for her, I'm still not a fan of the little dog.

We struggled with training her.  I'll admit, I gave up on the no-couch rule for her just as I always did our cats.  She was more cat than dog, and that was the problem.  All of her little annoying problems I was able to swat away like a fly - as you would with a cat.  Of course, she was a schipperke and already over the age of 7 when we adopted her.  There is a reason why people don't know what Schipperke's are, trust me (I say that lovingly with a smile, but mean it!). 

She had the big bark small dog syndrome that many have.  When out in public, it really wasn't a problem.  But people with bigger dogs would literally put their dogs in her face while she slowly freaked out as if attempting to show how superior their dog was.  Or laughing at her bark.  I'll never forget the Boxer that she scratched (while it was trying to bite her) and the look on her ignorant owner's face, "That better not leave a scar, I'm planning on breeding her!" 


3
General Board for Big Dogs with Big Paws / Re: Mourning Bo
« on: August 03, 2009, 09:26:35 pm »
Thank-you, I've been struggling with the "did we make the right choice" for over two weeks now.  It all happened so fast, wasn't like I could go online and think it all over.

I've since read about how treatable Addison's Disease is, and even when the emergency vet initially called it (prior to lab work and all of the other "rule out he ate something" etc. testing) he mentioned this.  However once the labwork came back... I reassure myself in that the vet (who didn't know us) could have gotten thousands more from us, yet encouraged us to put him down.

And while with more research I've learned what a treatable disease it is, futher research has talked about the impact of stress on this disease... Bo was a high stress dog.  He would not have fared well.  I'm heartbroken, but my husband is devesated.  We had both sworn to never get another puppy again, but he has asked me to rescind this policy when he is ready. 

Bo was a high energy dog, his legend lives on with our friends and family.  I'm now convienced that his energy (that caused educated dog owners to have a dog that flunked out of now one, but two obidence classes) was because he somehow knew he had to pack it all in in such a short amount of time.  He wasn't a good dog by any means, but as my husband points out, you had to love him.  He was sweet.

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General Board for Big Dogs with Big Paws / Mourning Bo
« on: July 31, 2009, 11:20:08 pm »
I feel like a doggy mom failure.  We started 2009 with 3 dogs, knowing we had to put one down.  She died in a horrible way before we made the final decision and I experienced a lot of guilt and shame over that.

Two weeks ago today Bo, our Lab and the only dog we raised from a pup, became ill.  I left the vet call up to my husband (they have Saturday hours), but as he was still drinking water and eating minimally we both agreed to wait and see.  Raja gives us so many scares like this (and our vet is great about phone consults and with these positive things in place it's generally agreed to take the wait and see approach).

By late Saturday he wasn't drinking water and his walking was off.  We rushed him to the emergency vet where he quickly continued to decline while testing was done.  In the end it was Addison's Disease and his kidneys were failing and there was suspected heart damage.  We had to make a very quick decision on the spot and put him to sleep. 

The vet was actually great and really stopped us from making the "do anything" rash decision as our credit card was in our hands.  I'll never forget his words, "This isn't like we had hoped, a dog that just ate something, do a surgery, pay a couple of thousand dollars and be done with it, it's going to cost a lot more than that even to find out if he can survive and the other costs will continue forever."

We picked up his ashes today.  We are now a one dog family.  :'(


5
Newfoundland Discussions / Re: bark and bark and bark and more bark
« on: July 31, 2009, 10:58:08 pm »
Have you worked with Rota on any quiet/hush commands?  We struggled with this when we first adopted Raja (who barked for the first 4 days we had her straight - I had a never ending migraine). Nothing would make her stop.  Later learned that she knew "shut up" not "quiet" like our dogs.  Not that it worked all that well either.

We had success with the gentle spray collar (it doesn't work for all dogs, but did for us).  You can't use it all the time, dogs do need to bark, but it saved my life with the neighbors.  And allowed me time to better train her with verbal commands to stop those migraines!

6
Saint Bernard Pictures / Re: Lucy & Charlie The Denver Peanuts
« on: July 04, 2009, 02:01:55 am »
They are adorable!  If we didn't already have our work cut out for us in so many other aspects I would definitely get another Saint.

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Great Pyrenees Discussions / Re: Big white dog for lease....cheap!
« on: July 04, 2009, 01:58:07 am »
How cute, I think I'll pass. I already have a protector doing laps around the yard.  My parents roll their eyes as I validate her, you never know.. that leaf that just moved in the neighbor's yard might be a terrorist.  My only peace is in the house... which is where the lab picks up.  Anything that crosses our sidewalk is cause for him to bark for 30 minutes.

Both know the word quiet and it helps sometimes... :)

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General Board for Big Dogs with Big Paws / Re: Look what we picked up
« on: July 04, 2009, 01:41:19 am »
How horrible!  I have my fingers crossed for them.  Do you know the circumstances behind what caused this (i.e. the scum)?

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Great Pyrenees Discussions / Re: Bark Collars
« on: July 04, 2009, 01:34:05 am »
I don't have a Pyr, just a St. Bernard who thinks she is one (from everything I've read). 

We've had great success with the spray bark collar.  To the point that we didn't even have to use it anymore until this year when my new next door neighbor decided to get a pit-bull puppy and keep it outside 100% of the time (sadder still, she kennels the poor thing who has a huge yard available and I'd socialize him as no one next door is ever home, but can't as he's on the other side of the  yard).  This has been quite disturbing to Raja and barking resumed.  Slapped on the spray collar and she shaped right up.

On the flip side I realize they don't work for every dog.  My brother-in-law's dog actually seemed to LIKE it.  I'd much rather try spray first though than immediately opting for shock.

10
Remembering those no longer with us. / Re: Shadow Died Unexpectedly
« on: February 08, 2009, 10:09:58 am »
Thanks for that.  I know that we have certainly learned our lesson, although sadly too late. :'(

11
Anything Non-Dog Related / Re: The Husband Rant
« on: February 08, 2009, 09:14:51 am »
I really hope your husband doesn't agree with your father that it is okay to beat a dog :-\ They are part of the family and whatever bad behavior that they have reflects upon the owner. We have to be responsible for their training, actions, safety, health...I'm no dog expert but I'm pretty sure that hurting a dog will make it more fearful of humans and human contact and may eventually lead to un-necessary and unwanted aggression :-\

If it was my husband I would beat the sh*t out of him for letting that happen and never let my dad around my dog ever again

I agree completely, and fortunately my husband does now as well.  You can not even begin to imagine my frustration/ anger when I found out about this.  My mother (who is not a red-neck hick) will be supervising all future interactions and I think I actually managed to educate my dad and get something through his thick head for once. 

12
Anything Non-Dog Related / Re: The Husband Rant
« on: February 07, 2009, 01:03:39 am »
I know your pain!  Our problem child, Bo, started presenting with food aggression.  I immediately began working with him slowly (small amounts of food at a time, hand feeding, etc) and was making very slow progress.  I couldn't figure out why.  I had gone over the whole procedure with my husband several times, he nodded and agreed.

The one day an entire bowl of dog food accidentally spilled at my feet.  Bo ate it around my feet as I stood there and he didn't bat an eye.  My husband approached and Bo suddenly went ape-shit.  Then I realized the problem.  That jerk hadn't been taking the five extra minutes a day at morning feeding time.  Then I was gone on a trip for two weeks, returned and it was even worse. 

And THEN (how about father rants while we are at it?) Christmas came and my dad convinced him that Bo just needed, "The s**t kicked out of him a time or two to show him who is boss."  I'm ashamed to say, my husband actually let this happen (unbeknownst to me).  "Well your way wasn't getting results!" he said.

Poor Bo peed out of fear and cowered for the next week when we fed him.  My husband quickly conceded.  For his credit, I think he has some fear of his "manly man" father-in-law (who I'm the first to admit is a red-neck hick) and didn't want to appear weak while my dad bashed my "soft" ways.

Husband made repair, is actively with the program and we have almost no food aggression left.

13
General Board for Big Dogs with Big Paws / Re: 140 lbs of problem
« on: February 07, 2009, 12:15:46 am »
I had a similar problem when we first adopted Raja, and I'm not really sure how we solved it.  Whatever happened, it worked.  Last week she managed to wiggle out of her collar on the leash (again! - she's a master escape artist, no matter what the collar no matter how tight)and just as I began to freak out, "Oh no!  She's making a run for it!" My husband stepped out of the car, quickly opened her door and she was inside faster than I could blink, happier than, well, whatever is happy.

I recall using treats (she's not majorly food motivated either, but her "brother" is and she's competative and wants whatever he has/wants).  Letting Bo or I get into the car first also helped as she loves to be by both of us (my husband will do the trick as well at times).  Beyond that? 

I feel your pain though.  I recall many not so fond memories of us feeling stranded in a parking lot somewhere with a big 100+ pound lug who refused to budge.  You can't exactly pick dogs this size up and put them in there (altough my husband has tried).

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Remembering those no longer with us. / Shadow Died Unexpectedly
« on: February 06, 2009, 11:29:17 pm »
Shadow, our old 15-18 year old rescued mutt (coming up on our 7 year adoption anniversary) passed away. She likely died on Tuesday, 2/03/09, but we failed to notice. I worked late until ten, came home and wrote a paper,slept four hours, went to work at 6am. Shan called me the next morning to say he had found her, while realizing he couldn't remember seeing her around the night before.

She was old, suffering, and a pain in the @ss. We have been seriously talking about putting her down for some time. But we loved her. I feel a lot of guilt now because of how much we complained about her. In addition to that, the way she died shames me...

Several months ago Shan installed a cat door in our laundry room door in the basement. This provided our cat an opportunity to have an unmolested litter-box and cat food dish and a chance to get away from the bigger dogs. Shadow didn't fit when we installed it, but she's been eating less and less over the past few months (and our talks of putting her down have increased). Eventually she started squeezing through.

About a month ago, she became stuck in our sump-pump, totally wrapped around and it was some effort to get her out. We made plans to buy a lid (it's VERY small sub-pump hole and occupied mostly by the sump-pump, how she even got in there...) and even brought it up again this week as we had plans to go to the home improvement store.

Shan came home the night of, and again, looking back, doesn't recall seeing her. I was in no mind for dogs, petted the ones jumping at me, and went to work.  We always said Shadow was more cat than dog, not shocking when she lies low. She has become so incontinent and unable to do stairs or cold weather that we've just being leaving pads for her to pee on, she spends most of her time in the basement (as does my husband, our other living room is down there).

He woke up, realized something was off, and found her inside the sump-pump. He thinks she may have broken her neck from the fall. We're very sad, although mine keeps coming in waves. I'm a late bloomer when it comes to grief. It usually hits me after everyone else is over theirs, so they can look at me and say WTH is wrong with HER?

I still feel like such a bad pet owner! My mom really helped (who knows how weird/quirky Shadow is, or rather was (still hard to say that) - you should see the photos I have of her walking lap around the rim of my mom's pool in her better days. At any moment she could have fallen, and likely would have drowned(sad irony), but nothing, other than locking her inside the house would deter her. Every time we went there she would just go around and around and around and around, her own tightrope act!

My mom, who knows where/how my sump-pump is located (not especially dangerous and/or sticking out) said, "I don't have a lid on mine, and yours is so small...!" Less guilt, but so sad. I just hate to think about her suffering. Everyone keeps telling me maybe it was meant to be as most know how hard we've been struggling with the decision to put her down... but no one deserves to go out like that! I really hope she broke her neck (rather than drowning). I'm thinking that was the case and telling myself it was instant, as Shan would have heard her yelps/barks if she was just stuck again (for a 14 pound dog - likely more around 12 pounds when she went - she had the bark of a BIG dog and can wake a neighborhood). I never was a big fan of small dogs, but she was certainly no yippy little thing and could give it to the best of them in her prime.

The sadness continues to come in waves.  Especially as we cleaned up her pee pads in the basement today (many also known as our expensive rugs, boy did she ever love peeing on rugs).  I felt especially bad last night when we finally made that trip to the home improvement store and bought several rugs while we were there realizing we could finally have them again.  It almost felt like we were celebrating (we weren't, but less mopping will be nice).

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I think their reputation does do damage to them. I was scared to death of them, having never met one, just based on what I had seen on TV and hearing stories about them. Then a friend of ours had one that is one of the sweetest dogs in the world. I did the same thing with Dobermans because I had only seen them as guard dogs. I think the judge's decision is rather drastic but I agree that there needs to be some assurance that nothing is going to happen. I just don't know what that would be since they had gotten out of their pens. You can't muzzle them if they sneak out.

I know some of the sweetest pitt-bulls in the world, and have no fear of those individual dogs when I'm around them.  At the same time, I see one walking down the street and I am much more anxious than I would be if it were a lab.  Far too many of the wrong people have and improperly care for and train this breed. 

I think it is terrible for dogs with no prior complaints who have not harmed anyone to be "proactively" put down.  Should the owners better contain their dogs and be fined and given a severe warning of future consequences, yes! 

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