Posts made by listeme

I actually was worried about that with Annie. She is JUST 20 pounds. I might break a lot of it off next month. It seems ridiculous that both of them would get the same dose when Simon is something like 38 pounds. (He is a huge guy, not fat. I always feel like I have to say that, which is probably silly.)

We've just switched over to Trifexis as of yesterday as a matter of fact. I'm keeping my fingers crossed; I hate switching stuff.

I'd be interested in any feedback, as well. (So far so good here, for whatever it's worth. They did hate the smell and we had to do some clever moves to get them to take them – pill pockets AND chinese takeout were involved.)

Massachusetts can (and often does) require child support through college graduation or age 23. Really.

Virginia is through age 18, although there are exceptions for things like disability. Those are the states I have personal knowledge of. I am not a lawyer.

@DebraDownSouth:

Not either lawyer or paralegal, but for children over 18, no legal responsibility to support in any state I am aware of unless the child has been declared incompetent and the parent guardian. Even that can be dissolved. With the gf issue, depends on state, oral agreement laws etc. If you are willing to disclose anything but such wildly different issues, no one can even begin to actually help but if you are in a situation of someone trying to force you to financially support or are seeking their support, my biggest suggestion is== lawyer-up. You'll need it.

@ZolasMommy:

Also….. do your Bs growl at you? Not in a mad or aggressive way.... more like in a, "I am a dog and I can't use words to communicate to you" way? Zola sometimes growls at us when we come home, but it's not like she is mad. What is up with that???

This sounds like it might be chortle/yodel action. The happy sound my two make when we get home sounds a LOT like a growl, but it's a greeting. A very happy greeting

Even with two, I'm running into pure boredom some days (and I confess I don't take them out QUITE as much when it's cold). I have a few tricks up my sleeves: one that always works is putting their toys plus a few treats into a loosely closed box. They take a very long time to rip the whole thing up and get to the treats and then for some reason the toys are very interesting again! That can give me quite a while to get stuff done. (I get plenty of boxes around here with amazon deliveries and so forth, so I consider it pre-recycling.)

I don't know if my situation is typical, but when I have to crate one and not the other, it doesn't seem to make a difference in their interactions. Our boy would chew a sofa to shreds, and Annie the maniac wouldn't consider it. So once in a while we leave her out (especially since she hates the crate.) I'm not positive that Simon even realizes that there's a difference. He's smart in basenji ways, but…

I'm totally going to try that. It sounds perfect for our situation. Fingers crossed!

@krunzer:

As long as he isn't in his crate for 8-9 hours during the day and then again at night. It is hard on them to be in a crate that long…..it would kind of be like you being in jail for 16 hours a day! I used a heating pad underneath my boy's crate when i was crate training him and that worked very well. As does a hot water bottle. I boiled water before bed and put it in the bottle then made sure to cover the bottle up very well and tucked it underneath all of his blankets, that also works well. B's do not like to be cold and they would prefer to sleep in the 'big bed' with you, but I can understand the need to train him. Hopefully some of these suggestions will alleviate the problem. Maybe give him a bully stick in his crate at night too and that is the only time that he gets it, it would keep his mind busy until he falls asleep.

Oh my gosh, I hadn't thought of putting a heating pad under the crate. Annie is COLD at night, and we've been using a space heater, but I don't like that option. Simon still doesn't want to crate up with her; apparently she's annoying and at the moment we have a geriatric cat in our own bed at night, so we've been really struggling to get it right for Miss Annie.

What kind of heating pad do you use? One specifically for pets? Or a regular human one?

Sorry to sort of threadjack, but it's a crate problem, so maybe it's not TOO far off topic

@ZolasMommy:

Thanks for all of the feedback. At this point we are willing to try ANYTHING that we can afford… except drugs. I really don't want to resort to having to drug our dog, but her separation anxiety is insane.

It's such a tough call, isn't it? One thing to consider, just from the other side of the decision process, is to look at a medication that is specifically short term but intended to give you and she the time and head space to do the separation training. I am a human who has benefited from temporary anxiety medicine once (xanax), and it really did what I needed it to: it gave me the emotional ability to regroup, figure out the thing that was scaring me, and work through it. I was only on it for about 10 days. I'm not saying such a thing is the right path for you and your family, just that there other solutions between "no meds ever" and "meds for the rest of her life" Indeed, in the case of separation anxiety, from what I understand, the medicines are only while the protocol is being taught. Something to consider.

Anyway, my Simon has some anxiety issues that are a little longer term, and we decided after a lot of research to try L-theanine. It's herbal, over the counter, and I first saw it on the shy-k9 yahoo group. It is not a miracle fix, but it does what I am looking for: gives him the ability to engage in the training process instead of turning into terrified coyote boy. When they are that afraid, they cannot learn. (Neither can humans.)

Meanwhile, I hope the DAP and thunder shirt do give some relief! Best of luck.

My sister suggested that we use the clicker on each other to get an idea of the timing. We decided it was a little like the "hot/cold" game where you hide something and then the only input you give the searcher is whether they are hot or cold, depending on how near they are. Except with the clicker, you only say when they're getting hot

But if the timing seems hard, practice on a human. It can be hilarious.

As far as the "command" words we say in our house: we have SIT, TOUCH (which is an essential one, in my opinion), MANNERS (which is a complicated sounding thing that basically is what we use to get two at once to stop crowding a doorway or staircase and just means "back up and sit, both of you", HERE, DOWN, NOW (that's our jackpot recall word), QUIT, and LEAVE IT.

That's aside from silly tricks like gimme your hand and so forth

The two we have are just turned 1 and not quite 2, and so we work a lot on impulse control and crowd control. Yes, two young basenjis is a crowd.

@basilboy7:

Okay, where can you find a clicker?

I have picked up several just at the checkout aisle at petsmart or petco. I tend to keep about half dozen around, although these days I can make a pretty decent "fake" sound by clacking my tongue

I love clicker training. It's actually very fun for the humans and the dogs alike.

"In the past few days, while going back to how I was dealing with his problems before the trainer I have noticed a positive difference in his mood and behaviors."

Oh, I'm so glad for you.

@sharronhurlbut:

Dogs sometimes try to "clean" up the messes they make, so they won't get into trouble with the owners.

Basenjis are particularly fastidious – I think they clean it up just because it's messy I've had two do that once or twice.

I'm not very good at links, but I think this should work: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/spt/

I've not used a gentle leader. Did she say why he should have it on all the time? Is it to give you quick or better control in sudden situations?

I think my confusion is mostly that my experience with "earning" stuff (like in the nothing in life is free program) is always, 100 percent instant reward type stuff. So in order to go through a door, my puppy has to sit. In order to get her food, she has to do something. In order to do the thing she wants to do now, she has to do a thing now. Because dogs live in the moment

So I keep tripping over the word "earning". A behaviorist knows that the puppy has no idea he has to do something for a whole week in order to get a reward, so she must be targeting the humans and mean something else than my customary understanding of the word. So I guess I'd be wondering what the behaviorist is expecting of the human here

I'm just musing, by the way. Basil seems like a funny and complex little guy

P.S. Did I recommend the SPT yahoo group? It's been a GREAT resource for me in training the puppies I have in a completely positive way. I love the list owner's approach to both humans and puppies.

"She recommended that all of his toys be taken away and earn one back for every week he doesn't have an "attack"."

I'm still not quite sure what this means. I remember you mentioning this in another thread.

At five months old (approx.), he should have a lot of toys In some ways, this reminds me of the old way of taking a first grader's recess away because he runs around the classroom too much, haha.

But maybe the behaviorist explained the rationale behind this recommendation and I missed it; I've been away a lot lately.

I definitely - extremely definitely no way no how - would not follow the gal's advice to leave stuff around to tempt him into misbehaving. He should not be getting opportunities to practice that behavior. In fact, I'd be looking to avoid him ever practicing it again.

Teaching trade seems to be a top priority, yes.

I have been mostly a lurker on a puppy training yahoo list for a couple years now, and I have learned a TON from it. It's run by an all positive methods trainer, and I think you might like it. I might not have the link completely correct, but try this: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/spt/

I suspect some of the conflicting advice is because some of us are unsure how old the little guy is. There's a big difference between a baby and a preadolescent in the ways you want to approach things – in dogs as well as humans.

Would you be able to take video of his interactions with the older dog and cat? I'm actually curious about what you're describing. If I remember correctly, this is a very young puppy, right?

I'd love to see the body language myself.