hortfurball

Hard to give any advice without knowing what's actually wrong. Definitely push for an Xray to be done so you know what you are actually dealing with. My girl Ella has calcification in the lower spine. It was horrible when it first started playing up, she hobbled around all hunched up, yelped if she moved and if you so much as touched her. At age 2 she had the back of a dog that had been chasing a ball for ten years. It showed up in the Xray. She was put on anti-inflammatories for a short while and we stopped throwing the ball for her (she was ball obsessed) to stop the leaping twisting actions compounding the issue caused by her long back. We then took her to a cranio-sacral therapist for manipulation. Later we tried a frizbee and a soccer ball instead, but unfortunately it was no better. Up until then we'd been discussing flyball or agility for her. She would have adored flyball. Hypo dog that can't do vigorous excercise...mmmm...great! Ebony is Ella's gift from the angels, it just took them 3 years to get around to creating her!

Sorry to resurrect another old thread, but regarding the bolded bit, I was just reading another thread in which it was pointed out that putting a dog under anaesthesia comes with it's own risks. Have to wonder if the suggestion to do this twice is really any safer than early desexing. On the point of early desexing, someone said they dreaded the idea of a law coming in for mandatory desexing at 12 weeks of age. An idea has been slowly forming in my head (no doubt discussed before but I haven't read it) that it might not be a bad thing if a law came in banning the sale of pups (and kittens for that matter) under 12 weeks of age. This would certainly help reduce 'impulse' buys in pet shops, and from the sounds of it wouldn't affect most responsible breeders who home their pups at a later age anyway. Pups are still cute at 12 weeks, just not the fluff bundles that entice impulse buys. This would also ensure no further necessity to desex as young as 8 weeks. Just an idea.

Kadbury, I have a car harness I bought especially for her because she's so much smaller than the others that my other one won't fit her. She's none too keen on that either! Sas, I think you may be right about her having me wrapped around her little paw ;) but you haven't met her! She's too endearing for words! She follows me around the house and just flops at my feet wherever I am! (when she's not playing chasey or wrestling with Ella that is!) I am still putting the leash on her at home, inside and outside, but not for too long each time.

Well that was interesting, to say the least! Flatmate took Ella and I took Ebony. Took about 10 minutes to get her away from the front door even with Ella waiting on the lawn, and being led back to Ebony and away again. Once I got her down the steps and about a metre away, she walked...or more like crabwalked without lying down again down to the end of the street and back (baby steps). Was she straining towards Ella? No! She was straining toward every house we passed like she thought they were all 'home' and wanted to go there. Silly me went to the right too so it was a constant tangle with my legs! My left shoulder is still aching from just trying to hold her slightly away from my legs so she'd get the idea and walk on that side! The way back was easier on the shoulder! Just totally bizarre behaviour! I'm so confuzzled!

Update: Ebony has a lovely new comfortable well fitted collar, no probs there, she doesn't mind her collar at all. I clipped the lead onto it to let her drag it around...well, good in theory but it's hard to drag if you don't move! Basically she still just doesn't move, occasionally will follow me to another room, then flop. She moves such a minimal amount with it on it is so hard to get her comfortable with it. I've tried in the house, I've tried in the yard, no difference, she just lies down and belly crawls to me for the treats. And after a while she lies there and chews it, so she'll kill it before she gets used to it! In the couple of weeks since I posted, there's been no change. I was hoping she'd be ready by the next puppy playdate, but she wasn't, so it took us 15 minutes to get to the car! I thought puppy playdates might put a positive association to going out on leash too but still no luck. So I stepped it up a bit on Sunday, treats in hand, off we went out of the front door. I live in a cul-de-sac so nice and quiet. Just thought we'd go three or four houses down and then come back, and up it a house a day. Half an hour later we got to house number four! I spent most of the time on my knees! But I have my solution I think! By house number two I could hear Ella howling because her friend was gone. I'm going to try them both together this evening. (weather too horrible the last couple of days - hopefully the rain will hold off) If she'll walk with Ella she'll get the idea. She's copied so many things from Ella I think it just may work! If she sees how excited Ella is to be on leash then hopefully she'll think it's a good thing!

It's ok, Sas, I forgot in the heat of the moment to tell her to give anyway! It was more like sharp intake of breath, "NO!!", grab collar, drag to bathroom.

Ta for your responses. I haven't worn those thongs in about 6 months so I'm not sure how strongly they'd smell of me, they probably smell more like vanilla wardrobe sachet! Then again, that's to a human nose. She seems to really like the toys I've given her. I thought 20 mins was good too, that it means she likes the toy. Other than this latest spree she is a pretty trouble free pup, and very quiet and calm, especially for a b/c cross. She can be out in the garden for three hours unsupervised and not dig a hole...or out there for ten minutes and dig one! Ce la vie! 9 times out of ten she won't dog though. She was playing with the new toy this morning when I went to the loo at 7.30am, then after I'd gone back to bed flatmate must have left the loo door open and gone out and another two loo rolls bit the dust! The spare loo rolls are now out of the basket where they normally live and stacked on a higher surface seeing as the new flatmate is less trainable than the pup! I do a bit of training with her most days, just really short sessions. Yesterday we just practiced drop, stay and come, oh, and lots of 'out of the garden'! (They have a large area of lawn and lots of paths to do a circuit of the garden, they don't need to be in the beds too! In terms of exercise, she's still not really happy with the leash yet (just lies down and won't move) so I'm working on that with treats, baby steps and lots of encouragement. Ella and Ebony tear around the garden playing chasey and wrestling most of the day though so I would have thought that would be heaps at her age. Ella thinks she's christmas in a dog skin so that's fantastic! I can't throw a ball much unfortunately as Ella's back is cactus and she's ball obsessed. We had to confiscate the ball three years ago. I did get the ball out last week and throw it just for about 15 minutes, then silly flatmate didn't listen to my "only once or twice and only gently, she's had enough for today" so Ella was in pain for two days after, even with anti-inflammatories. I put the ball away as soon as I realised he was still throwing it 20 minutes later, and wasn't throwing it gently any more. It's not fair on her to get the ball out if people ignore your requests to go easy. Ebony didn't get a look in with the ball anyway. Ella also grabs one of the toys and makes Ebony chase her round and round the house! I guess I thought with Ella and Ebony playing for most of every day that exercise wasn't that big an issue. Maybe I need to do more brain work with her. Once I can get her happy on the leash and start walking that should help I would think. And as soon as she'll walk on the leash we'll start obedience every Monday evening. ETA: Rats, I knew I forgot something...I have taught her 'give' - to give up whatever is in her mouth! I didn't just substitute the thong with a dog toy, I put her in the 'time out room' (bathroom) for 5 minutes because I caught her in the act.

Ebony has obviously reached destructo-pup age. I woke up this morning to an entire loo roll spread all over the lounge room like snow! New rule, loo door closed! But this evening, I gave her a brand new toy presuming she must have got bored with the others, it squeaks and it has rope bits hanging off it, so really good fun! She was playing with it for about 20 mins on the dog bed near me, tossing it around, making it squeak, chewing on the rope. Then she wandered off so I presumed she'd put herself to bed (she does that) but NO!!! Silly me had left my wardrobe door open, and now one half of my fave pair of exotic thongs is minus a whole lot of beads and tiger eye, all carefully removed by little puppy teeth! (All in under 10 minutes too!) Why is this? I could understand if she had no toys! Surely a new one should hold her interest longer than 20 mins! And her other fave three were lying around the lounge room. She does have a bit of a thing for rocks and stones I have to say, but I'm pretty certain all of her adult teeth are through now so she shouldn't still be teething. She's nearly 5 months old. I think my thong is salvageable though, for a destructo pup she's pretty gentle, the thong itself is intact and not even chewed, just all the beads removed which I have collected.

Thanks for your responses. I'll just treat it as if she's an uncertain pup then and not presume anything about history! Baby steps and praise and treats when she does good. I'm not too worried. I've just always had super confident dogs so I'm unfamiliar with this behaviour. She's my first submissive one. With Ella, I just popped the chain over her head and away we went. No reaction at all!

Thanks Sidoney. By fabric lead, do you mean the woven ones? That's the sort I have. Will buy her a collar on Monday. I definitely want to take it slow. Until she's happy dragging the leash around home I wasn't planning on taking her out or anything (Wasn't even going to put any pressure on until she'll drag it on her own). At this stage I just want her to get to the stage where she sees a leash as a perfectly harmless non scary item. She already comes when she's called when loose, so we're past that step, but if she sees the leash in my hand, she comes running then skids to a halt just out of reach, eyeballing the leash! Her tail instantly goes down and she gets a worried look on her face. Definitely a bad memory there of some description. I was kneeling BTW! Crouching down with the treat only about 20cm from her nose. Didn't stand up until after I took the leash off. For her, there is no higher value treat than dried liver treats! I went straight to the top!! (She spits Schmackos out, weird pup!) She's very smart, took her three x 3 minute sessions with treats to learn 'drop' and she now drops with no treat in my hand. I don't think this is just a case of not having been on a leash before. One question, if you don't use a check chain, aren't you worried about collars slipping over heads if the dog gets a bit headstrong. I've always found a check chain to be reassuring (to me) because I know my dogs will never slip their collars. Obviously I'll avoid a chain for the next few weeks/months/however long it takes for her. Just did a quick (2 or 3 minutes) session with the looped on itself leash. Still nervous but a lot better than with the chain. Actually had her moving for a reward, but she dropped as soon as she had her treat! Sometimes she just belly crawled to me! One week of two short sessions a day should see a vast improvement if she goes forward as fast with this as she has with her other training. Thanks for your advice , good to know I was somewhat on the right track.

I have a 17 week old little kelpie x girl (Ebony) who is my foster failure! She came from the pound at 14 weeks and no idea what her life was like prior to that. I arranged to take her on a puppy play date last weekend (10 days after her shots), went to put the leash on her and she balked. Her borrowed collar is a little too big so I won't just clip a leash on in case it slips over her head and haven't got around to buying her her own collar yet as I only adopted her a few days ago. In the meantime I clipped the leash onto itself to create a loop. I ended up picking her up, carrying her to the car, and carrying her at the other end. I wondered if it didn't loosen enough for her so today I got Ella's check chain and Ebony backed off at the sight of it, wouldn't come close enough to put it on her. I tempted her with treats and put it on her. She tried to squirm away from it and when it 'followed' her, she just flopped. Told her she was a good girl, gave her treats then tried calling her from about half a metre away with liver treats in hand. Apparently they are not enticement enough to actually move so I took the chain off her after a minute or so as I didn't want to make her worse. I can only guess she's been chained up and left for long periods Will really appreciate advice on how I can get this girl used to a leash of any description. Any ideas?

A big thanks to all who replied, so sorry I didn't return, I'd forgotten I'd posted it :rolleyes: I put her on chicken and rice and it went away after a day or so. Was very worrying at the time though.

My little foster girl has slightly runny stools with a hint of blood. Her diet has changed, her environment has changed.(she only came to me three days ago) Could this be as simple as worms or a change in diet or home? How worried should I be?

Thanks, much appreciated. Off to have a read and look see now.

Could someone please either describe and put piccies of a prong collar, or if this has already been done, put a link to the thread for me please? I have absolutely no idea what one is, but have been reading Ernie's thread with interest. Thanks.