crumcake

Would they let you foster him?

Thanks LauraV!

Thanks for the great ideas! Zag use to occasionally snap at the windows, but not anymore. He goes with my husband any time it is practical. If I got a dog that wasn't good in the car my husband would blame me. Not that anything bad would come of that, but I don't like to make him unhappy. He would probably be unhappy if I had to put a crate in the car, but I would just have to ignore him.

Zag comes home from grooming so proud of being clean and pretty. He doesn't roll around and get dirty again when he comes home like I thought he would. I don't know what the groomer put on him, but it was persistent.

LauraV, where do you get Tropiclean?

I think this matters more on a smooth coat because the ears are a more prominent feature. My Zag (13.5 y.o.) has thick fine hair around his ears and when he is groomed his ears look big. Zag's ears are mostly folded except when he is excited. His ears are very expressive even though sometimes subtle. Sometimes they are pulled back against his head such that you can hardly see them. I like the alert appearance of prick ears, but I think the folded ears have a greater range of expression. Unless a dog has a valuable career in the show ring, even then, I can't get my head around gluing or messing with puppy ears! Oh, and it is the chewing action that tightens the masseter muscles that change the position of the ears.

I like to use my dog as an air freshener. I would like some recommendations for a dog shampoo that smells really good. Most of what I have smelled in the pet stores doesn't have much fragrance.

I second the massage suggestion. The trauma from whatever caused him to break his tail could continue to effect his body. Having him sit in front of you, start at the neck and work slowly down his spine with both hands. Pressure isn't important, but focus is. He will probably lay down before you get to his hips. If you can, massage both sides of his tail where it joins his body. Be gentle. If you can get him over one knee it may help. And be careful. BC's are rather reactive to pain!

I've been reading in another topic the great advice for the person with the BC who goes nuts in the car and wondering how could this have been prevented?

Gloria, Midge and Ben are beauties!

I would check Poison Control for toxicity. He will probably lose interest in eating them when they are common. Good chance he will be interested again next year. Is he eating the shells? Zag likes to eat things that stick out. The plant that is the tallest or alone. Things that seem out of place catch his attention. He use to sit in the window and bark when he noticed the change in shadows and light in the woods, but he has gotten over that.

To you non-bathers: See how fast you turn if your dog rolls in raccoon crap! This actually is an emergency because raccoon crap is a hazardous material for humans and dogs. If you should have this unfortunate event grab the nearest dog shampoo you can get your hands on and don any safety equipment you have. Oh and don't let go of the dog because he may rub the poo into your carpet. And don't worry about shiny. Not that I know about this personally. MY dog would never do such a gross thing. No. Really. I mean it.

It has often been hard to learn to read Zag: At night he will grumble if we get out of bed in the dark when he is laying on the floor. We use to think he was growling at us, but I realized it was the only way he could tell us he was there. When we came back to bed he would get up so we wouldn't step on him. Not all growling sounding noises from him are aggression based! He "HAD" to jump the cat a month or so after we got the cat. He didn't harm him, but scared the liver out of both of us. It was necessary (in Zag's mind) to let the cat know he could kill him if he wanted to. There was no warning what so ever before he did this and it was amazingly fast. On the other hand, the neighbors had a guest Portuguese Water Dog at their house. Zag saw him and wanted inside, now. (Fear, I believe.) His new "thing" with meeting large dogs is to observe them awhile then attack them from the side and go for their neck. I wonder if he knows in advance that they won't attack back, that they will ignore him. With other animals it seems the most important thing thing to Zag is "who is the boss?" I have always put him in the crate when guests arrived. He gets to come out after my company has greeted us and everything is relaxed. I have to tell people, "Don't bend over to pet Zag." He will jump up and kiss their nose without jumping on them. He will do this to company, but not to friends. I have never seen an ounce of aggression towards people, but I always put other peoples' comfort above my dog's desires whatever the situation.

When I tell Zag "Its the TV" I do it with the tone of "Its nothing, relax." What I was suggesting when I mentioned my "Boom" thing was that with your male voice you want to pull back a bit when you say "Boom" so you don't scare your dog with your voice. I have found it handy with the reacting to loud noises that since I identify most of them with "Boom" my dog seems to take comfort and reassurance quite reliably.

Ouch! I bet that running off felt like a major betrayal! I don't know if you have noticed, but squirrels like to tease dogs and I am not joking here. I have seen them doing that to Zag. They sit up in a tree and get as close as they can and sit there and chuckle at the dog. I am positive it is a two-way relationship involving antagonization from the tree climbing side. Zag likes to chase them away from the bird feeder. He goes out the door at full speed to run at them and this has become such a habit that he won't notice if there is one off to the side of his path. It is a game to him. One day my husband found a dead squirrel in the yard. I could remember from that time that Zag had been acting "odd." I think he got hold of one and killed it. (It didn't really look malled, but what else could have happened?) I don't think he liked this at all. I don't think he tries too hard to get them anymore.