RenandTaff

AK dog doc - Ack! The cat book said to wash the wound with hydrogen peroxide. Wonderful. Now I am damaging the poor ugly thing. At least I know better now. On the plus side he is pretty mellow so I should be able to soak his foot. He let me rub the neosporin over the wounds without fussing. (Thank you, btw..I was worried I wasn't getting him in to the vet early enough) Julie - It is always my husband. He finds them at work, or at the gas station, or at a job site, or in an alley he was taking as a shortcut, etc. They come up to him when he is out in the yard. (On afternoon while we were grilling outside a dog walked up to my husband, kinda woofed at him, then flopped down on his shoe and went to sleep) And it is not so much that he finds them as it is that they cost money...in food, in vet bills, in trying to find their owners or new homes for them. I keep telling him we cannot afford to run our own personal 'rescue of wayward animals' farm but he never seems to listen. And (the real reason I complain) -I- am the one that gets stuck taking care of them. You don't suppose I could trade he and Hobo for a few sheep? -Ren

I wanted to title this "Husband for sale-cheap" but decided to control the impulse. Okay, I have this little stray cat. He has been wandering around the place, off and on, for about a week. Yesterday he shows up with three cuts or punctures in his back paw. I washed them out with peroxide and put antibiotic cream on them but I can't get to the vet until Saturday morning. Is there anything else I can do or need to do until then? Thanks, -Ren (BTW - I am selling the above mentioned husband..."oh no honey, he probably just went hunting a female cat..he will go on home"...followed by "you can't take him to the shelter...who is going to adopt a cross-eyed cat? Let me ask around the neighborhood first." And then the inevitable, "But I only fed him a few times because he looked so hungry.") Now we have injured stray cat now thinking we are home and requiring a trip to the vet. Sigh. Does anyone want him? (the husband that is - not the cat. I think I'll call the cat Clarence.) -R

OKay. I am obviously bad at conveying this. (grin) I do appreciate all the suggestions. (Especially the body language and hand signals as he does seem to react more to those than my voice) Unfortunately I have already tried most of the others with no success. I am not new to the boards or to owning/training dogs. Taffy is my soon to be 12 year old (in March) Border Collie and we work well together. Most of the time I can give her commands with just a look or noise in my throat. I can also carry on a conversation with her. My first Border Collie was the same way. I have had other dogs over the years and while some have not been as smart as others (one SamoyedX in particular was just...dim), they were all able to learn basic commands and expected behavior. I am not a professional but I have never met a dog I couldn't train. Until Hobo. I know he can learn. He waits to eat until I tell him it is okay. He sits to be petted. He has this little ball he squeaks when he wants to play. He is housetrained (actually, he is fanatical about picking one spot outside and only going there) and as I said before, he knows he is not allowed in the kitchen and stays out of it when he is inside. He will sit/stay until I call him. He comes when I call his name. He learned all the above in a couple of weeks. This is where we have been stalled for months. In the three months since those first weeks he has learned down (with a hand signal) and has almost stopped jumping on us. (he has bad days but he is learning it is not allowed) I have never had a dog learn so slowly. Am I rushing him? Cholla - I have never had a chow. I thought they didn't like other dogs? Hobo thinks Taffy is wonderful. The 'waking up in a new world' does apply though. As does calm and cuddly. He has a mostly black tongue but I have read where other dogs besides chows can have them so I don't know. Thanks again everybody, -Ren

Thanks D'Elle, I hadn't considered past baggage because he always seems so...goofy. Maybe I should. We got him about 3 months ago when he wandered up in the yard as a stray. He is about 13-14 months old now. We thought he was a GSD mix (maybe GSD and Golden Retriever) but the older he gets the more he looks like he has some Chow in him as well. He is very gentle, but he is big and doesn't have good body sense. (he knocks over things, runs over things, whaps them with his tail, etc) Nothing seems to scare him, or startle him and he does respond well to treats. He learned a few commands right off but then it is like he just..stalled. I worked for over two months to teach him down and he still doesn't know it as a verbal command. (he will down for a hand signal, though..which makes no sense) It is like he wakes up in a new world each day. Thanks for your ideas. I will try to have more patience with him. (and not be so grumpy here..sorry Jen) Ren

***Why does he need to know your kids' or the cat's name? Seems to me basic control is a good start. And body language is much more important to dogs than words. Maybe you're working too hard. Just like people, not all dogs are "studious". As long as he's behaving himself give him a break for a bit.*** That was the point. He does not have a reliable down. He does not have a reliable recall. He is a massive dog and he has to behave. I have a child, other animals, and a whole pasture full of the neighbor's cows and donkeys. I cannot have a dog that doesn't behave. My question was posed because he seems incapable of learning. I need ideas to help, not permission to kick back and relax a while. As for the words question...how can I teach him 'no road' or 'no fence' if he has no clue what the road or the fence is. 'No' alone works, but I have found being able to specify an object by name works much better. Ren

Hey all, We have had Hobo now for over three months and we seem to have reached a standstill in training him. He still only knows a few commands and about 12-15 words. He has calmed down quite a bit and is mainly chewing his toys, instead of everything else but he seems stuck when it comes to learning any more commands or new words. (by words I mean things like his name, my kids name, the cat, Taffy, food, etc) I have never had this kind of problem in training before. I have had dogs that took more time to train but never one that just kind of stared at me blankly. I have (except for a few days when I was ill) been working with him every day and we do not seem to get anywhere. I even tried bringing Taff out to help train him (she had him understanding the 'no kitchen' rule after only two attempts) but that did not seem to help either. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks, -Ren

Cough...er..what Sabreur said. Ren

***And apparently Katz has used it as his jumping off point as a dog expert on radio and tv call-in shows*** And other print media as well. He has an article out in this weeks 'Slate'. Other than the 'dogs have a life span of about 8 years' (paraphrased) the article is okay. But it is not something many people could not have written. It is more of an essay on how he feels about putting an ill or old dog down. (If I am wrong about the age thing tell me. but Taffy was still in her prime at age eight. I thought only the giant breed dogs were old at that age) Ren

Heya, Cyndi - sorry to take so long to reply. I have been swamped. Hobo showed up here one afternoon and after about three days his owners (I assume) drove by, called him to the car and took him home. (no hello, no thanks, etc) He was back here within a couple of hours and has stayed since. AK Dogdoc and others - Well, he was filling out nicely but then he grew taller. Now he is skinny again but his head does look much more in proportion to his body. He is looking less and less like a puppy. I am going to give him another week or so to put some weight back on before I take him in to be neutered. I do have a question. Does anyone have any suggestions for training a er...really slow dog? We have been working on down/stay for almost a week now and while he stays until called he still has no clue what down means. We know he can learn. He has a fairly good recall (even when distracted by cows, kids, deer, bicycles, etc), but he has only learned about 12 or so words in the weeks he has been here. I just don't understand why he can learn "no kitchen" and "find" in a couple of days and yet can't seem to learn something simple like "down". (I also wish we had him when he was small and chewing could have been worked on before he was big enough to maul things - unlike Taffy and other dogs I have had Hobo really, really likes to chew.) Ren

Hey all, Cheri - I didn't get to see the vet. My old vet (somewhat grouchy but sooo good at her job) moved her practice to a location over an hour away. So I am stuck with a three hour round trip or using the other vet in town. I have had animals in three times (for shots,etc) and the techs still don't recognize me or my animals. And I have yet to even see the vet. There is another vet about 30 mins away I am thinking of trying next time I need to take one of them in. North of 49 - no hang up here I was just confused. (grin) I thought they needed to lift their legs. If not lifting keeps him from spraying everything in sight I am all for it. Shawna - We are pretty sure he is a German Shepherd mixed with something fluffy. (The hairs on his tail are so long he looks like he is waving streamers) AK dog doc - thanks for replying. When Hobo goes in to be neutered I will ask the vet about his weight. He stills seems a little thin to me. Taff is at a good weight but I thought GSD's were supposed to be a little heavier. Should he be as thin as a Border Collie? Thanks again, Ren

Okay, couple of questions. I took our stray (named 'Hobo' by my daughter who thinks he hung the moon) to the vet. They think he is around 10 months old. He weighed in at 43.5 lbs. (he is still too skinny but we are working on that.) He is in good health (and my 62 bucks for shots and worming better keep him that way-sigh) and I will be getting him neutered in a couple of weeks. But he still doesn't raise his leg to urinate. Is he not old enough? At 10 or so months how much growing does he still have to do? He has an enormous head and feet. Will he grow into them? Are there ways to tell what kinds of dog he is? He looks like GSD that someone draped a long, silky coat over. He doesn't have an undercoat. (but neither does Taffy in the summer.) I have to brush him daily to keep the fur behind his ears from tangling back into knots. He has some kind of big dog breed in him. Are there any things I need to be doing to help prevent problems with his joints? Thanks all, Ren