Big Paws Only Dog Forums

Thanks,  He does do the "bunny hop" thing with his hind legs when he really gets running around.  He's always done it since we adopted him almost a year ago, and at first thout it was a funny way to run, but never knew it was a symptom of HD, untill i started doing some research.  Another symptom i notcied is that he has been carrying his tail down alot lately where he usually carries it up on top of his back.  Something else i didnt even think about,  He used to pounce on the bed when he would get up with me, but the past 2 or 3 weeks, he's been doing this thing where he tries to crawl up on the bed, and i have to help him up.  I thought he was just being a goofball, but now i'm thinking that he was having pain from jumping up onto the bed. 

I know that when changing types of food it is supposed to be done slowly mixing the two foods at varying amounts untill you're at 100% of the new food.  But my question is, what if you're staying within the same brand but just switching flavors?   I have been feeding Eagle Pack Hollistic for Large Breeds, and thought about switching possibly to either the Duck or Chicken formula, simply because the store is out of the Large breed formula.  Since i'm staying within the same company would it be ok to switch "flavors" for say one bag, since i have no clue how long it'll be before they get the large breed back in and since i have maybe 2 days worth of food left in my existing bag?  Thanks

Any BPO'ers in Central New York, near Utica?  Kodiak would love to make some new friends and have someone his own size or bigger to play with.  All the other dogs are much smaller than him in the family, and most are very intimidated by his size so they do not play well with him.

well back from the vet.  The rash she still thinks is ringworm, it looks somewhat better, alot of the redness has gone away, but it is still raised a bit, She said the scab on his nose should heal on it's own, (i left him out of his kennel this morning while at work, and the scab was not torn off again)  so that just makes me think that his escape attempts are the cause of the scab, and she thinks the limp is probably a strained muscle, so she gave him some anti-inflammatory's to take for 5 days, and if he is still limping they will do x-ray's on it.  She said that she wasnt' too concerned about x-rays today because once she got his paw in her hand he wasnt crying or trying to rip it out of her hand so we're just going to go the conservative route and see what happens!!  So all in all, good visit, nothing serious!

Last night i got home from work around 10pm.  When I got out of the truck i didnt hear Kodi barking  (he's always barking when we get home and he's left alone in his kennel).  I was kind of nervous wondering why he wasnt barking, so i hurried inside and opend the door to find him standing there looking at me wagging his tail.  I looked into the other room where his kennel is and both of the doors are shut and locked,  i tried opening them and couldnt.  Needless to say i was very confused.  I took Kodi out and came back in to look at the kennel again.  Upon further investigation i find that the bottome latch on one ofthe doors was undone and he must've squeezed his 65 pound butt out the door with only one lock undone.  Now i'm thinking to myself, did i not get the latch all the way closed when i left for work?    Fast forward to today,  I go over to my brother's house,  put kodi in his kennel,  make SURE all the latches are closed and leave.  Come home .... no barking ...  get inside, there's kodi in the kitchen again.  Looks like kodi figured out how to get the latch undone from the indside of the kennel.  so i've spent some of the day today putting child proof latches on the cupboard doors.  Looks like i'm going to have to figure out a way to hold the latch closed or let Kodi have the run of the house.   He didn't do any damage to the house, no accidents inside, but he did kill 2 blinds in the bedroom, but he's done that before.  Anybody else have a Houdini dog story?! 

The past couple of days Kodiak has been having very loose wet stools.  We changed his food about 3 weeks ago to Eagle Pack and he had been doing fine on it, and his poops were smaller and firm.  Now all of a sudden he's got diarrhea all the time.  About a week ago my girlfriend's aunt sent her a care package with some stuff in it for Kodiak because it was his birthday, and i'm wondering if these new treats are the cause of his problems.  The treats she sent were made by Dogswell.   www.dogswell.c om is their website and the ones she sent us are the mellowmut and the happy heart.  Usually Kodiak gets the large Milkbones and he likes those just fine.  Has anyone used these dogswell treats  with or without problems?  these are basically chunks of meat which he is not used to, he gets the dry food and the dry treats.   Also the girlfriend has recently discovered that he LOVES cheese.  I dont know if the dairy is upsetting his stomach.  So i told her that from now on he only gets the dry food and milkbone treats to see if that brings things back around.  Anyone have any thoughts? thanks!

Kodiak is a young pup, 12 months old ... seems like alot of things make him loose his focus ... especially when outside.  Other dogs dont bother him at all,  usually they bark at him, and he just looks at them like their crazy then keeps going on his way. I guess i'm not really sure where to look for group training in my area,  it's not a large urban setting or anything.  I'm located in Utica, NY its about 30 mins east of syracuse.  If anyone  could suggest a website or something that'd be great!   

When i was at Pet Supplies plus the other day, i was talking with one of the employees who mentioned that he did some training on the side.  He didnt have alot of time to talk as his boss was down this throat about unloading a shipment they just got in.  Anyway, i had been thinking about doing some training with Kodiak for walking on a lead, and just some basics.  He does very well with sit, down, and shake.  He is horrible about Sit and Stay however.  I quickly asked him about his price.  He said $150 for 5 weeks  = $30 per hour, and he gaurentees everything out of the dog.   He said teaching him to walk on a lead is 20 mins tops .... he said it's just directing the attention of the dog to the handler and not the surrounding environment.    i really dont know much about trainers, but how does his price sound?  i thought teaching him to walk on a lead would take a bit longer than that