Stitch

If all else fails....Metronide works wonders. We caught him eating something in the paddock. I will try the two small meals though after the Metronide course comes to an end. Thanks everyone.

No spinal nerve problem that I know about. He does have luxating patellas but the vet treats that with injections in the colder months and currently he is managing well. Personally I think he does it because he can....but that's probably a bit harsh of me. Maybe I should feed him a different time??? What do you think? If it takes 24 hours for food to pass through maybe feeding in the middle of the day?

I have a small breed dog that I inherited from my mother. He would be about 13 years old and he is happy to be crated overnight. I have had him for over 12 months now and recently he has started randomly pooing in his crate overnight. There has been no change in his diet all this time but every week or two he will poo overnight. He is regularly vet checked so no obvious unexpected problems other than old age. I feed him every morning about 8am. Seeing as we can't work out any obvious cause I wonder if there is a better time to feed him so that he poos during the day rather than overnight. Any ideas would be appreciated as I am not fond of early morning surprises to clean up.

OK so I have tried on several occasions and mostly all it is doing is delaying the happy dance in some instances. He will be mildly distracted by the high value food but leave half of it so he can leap in the air and lick me. It is very frustrating seeing as I feel there must be a way of communicating with him but in this instance I just can't find it. Problem is I can't be fully prepared for this as he always makes his run up from behind me and it is not always predictable.

Interesting, yes I can do that. Thank you so much.

I have a large breed dog that has come a long way in his training but one issue remains that I have had great difficulty addressing so I need some help from you. He has always craved attention and one of the ways he shows it is to jump up and sail past my ear, giving a lick at the same time. It sounds funny but it ceases to be humorous when a 40kg dog goes flying passed your face. It can be quite confronting and occasionally dangerous. I have done many exercises designed to keep his feet on the ground but there are occasions when he still does this behaviour, in partucular at the end of the exercise when he is released. The release is usually accompanied with a sudden burst of energy on his part, followed by the flying launch to show his joy and affection. Can anyone suggest how I can achieve my desire result of him behaving in a calm manner with his feet remaining on the ground please?

There is a dog grooming product which stains the nose black. It is primarily used for cosmetic purposes but I used it very successfully on a dog with DLE after specialist vets advice wasn't really working. My theory was that it wasn't going to do any harm and that it might just give more permanent protection than was available. Yes it is off label but it is formulated for use on dogs noses and as you have found nothing much stays on dogs noses before they lick it off. I made up a cardboard slide that would stop the tongue licking the nose until the product dried. It worked very well.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. Interesting about Selsum blue. Not something I would have thought could be used on dog skin but there you go. I will get some today.

I have mostly used Aloveen on my dogs over the years but I was wondering if there is a better shampoo to keep away the doggy smell the longest? What do you think?

Dammm....not boding well for the future. Thanks everyone!

I am going to 'inherit' my mothers 12 year old Tenterfield Terrier soon and he has a few issues. A few years ago he had crystals in his urine and he has been on R/C Urinary ever since. I will have to take him to my vet when I get him as I don't rate his current vet but in the meantime does anyone know of any conditions that cause hair loss as he sheds white hairs at a rapid rate of knots. He doesn't have any bald spots but you can always tell where he has been because of the white hairs left behind and I don't fancy them all over my floors so fixing the problem would be great. Can anyone help?

Dogsfevr, agree....after so many years of having to think out of the box with terrier training I have to start thinking differently with this dog. I spent years trying to explain to obedience class instructors that terriers are totally different to train than say a working dog or whatever. Now I feel that those years of training are counting against me as I am stuck in 'terrier' mode....if that makes sense. I have this dog walking calmly on a lead which was my initial goal....but it has to be on lead. I tried giving him a big box to investigate yesterday as I think he needs to use his brain a bit more to tire him out. He really enjoyed it. Your idea of giving him more brain games is one I will start today and see how he goes. Thank you for your help.

OK I watched those videos thank you! Home School the Dog. I have done about 6 weeks of lessons on that but got a bit lost wondering how I was going to adapt it to the type of excitable behaviour he has. We have a lot of land here and I don't have any trouble with his recall....except that I might get bowled over when he comes galloping in!

Thanks for the videos which I will review shortly. I have been challenged with excitable and sometimes aggressive terriers for many years as well as having my share of large dogs so I am not new to this but this particular dog is off the scale with excitability and he combines it with being a 40kg flying missile sometimes, so it's like terriers on steroids but one you can't pick up or manipulate. Eg. yesterday he was doing his loops on/off the dog bed and he flicked the dog bed hard into my shin bone. I have a big bruise today and walk with a limp! Dogsfevr can you tell me how you are training your problem dog? My boy is almost 12 months old now so roughly the same age.

Does anyone have anecdotal evidence that these kind of excitable dogs get over it? I have never had a dog that I couldn't talk to or pat and it's hard. I guess I am asking for a light at the end of the tunnel. It has been good discussing this as I have clarified things in my mind. I can now say that (1) I want the feet on the ground and (2) I really want to be able to pat him and talk to him without him turning into a complete idiot.