AmaCam+Digby

I have heard lucas paw paw works wonders, AlSo we had a seriously scratchy puppy, hair loss the whole deal, turned out to be fox mange, might be unlikely if you are in a city area, but I would take a trip to the vet cause it could be something completely unmentioned here, and he is obviously experiencing some Discomfort

Omg.... 9-16 months... I had read this post and am now reading it again, hadn't realised the 2nd fear period was QUITE that long! We have a deaf blue heeler who is very much in this phase- 10 months old. You may have seen some of my posts about all night barking- quite literally ALL NIGHT... We are now utilizing a crate, in our bedroom , which mostly works, still a few barks or inadvertent noises, licking/slobbering noises, creepy heavy breathing lol, It's really not ideal, we have tried leaving lights on, exploring the yard with him in thr dark, taking him out for calm night walks, it's a real challenge, but still barking at the nothingness. . He gets daily walks too He is also showing signs of being fearful of dogs he doesn't know; maybe aggression? Hackles, barking, pulling lead, but once he has a good sniff of a calm dog he seems to calm right down... Will these two issues pass when the fear period ends? What should we be doing to ensure a smooth transition away from these behaviors? Or is it something that we will need to get one on one help with to rectify? We haven't had an uninterrupted sleep since a week before new years eve.....

oh.... only 100 to go for me then.... LOL

wow that post was longer than I thought.... sorry

Showdog, I did a unit on gender and discipline this last semester at uni, and while it was in regards to children, your post here made me think of an article that we studied... its main idea was "the rise of the expert and the fall of the mother"...... basically outlining how with so many experts available, on the internet, in books and on telly (such as Supernanny, or in the case of Dogs Ceasar Milan etc), mothers (or in this case dog owners) begin to doubt their own instincts or things that they know. Its quite transferrable to pet owners too. When Digby came to live with us, we had been planning and looking into getting a puppy ( we were looking into getting a Shar Pei and had done a lot of research into the breed and care for it, Digby the Australian Cattle dog is a long story!) , I felt I was pretty abreast of the whole idea. Then along came Digby, a shoe eating, non sleeping, night screaming, carpet weeing, garbage bin raiding bundle of joy. I felt awful because Ian Dunbar told me that if he even thought about having an accident on the carpet he would toilet all over himself forever, I was a failure because I let him sleep in the bedroom next to our bed cause he screamed all night the first three nights and I was tired. and I stressed because I didn't know 100 people to introduce him to in his first few weeks, and many of the dogs in town were not very well mannered, or farm dogs who could have any response to a puppy, some of whom I doubted would be vaccinated at all (on top of that there was parvo going around the town.) I also felt very guilty cause I could not stay at home with him, or visit him at lunch time) entirely on the first few weeks home. (I work three days a week 50kms away) I was proud that I made it to 2 (out of 4 that I paid for) puppy school classes an hour away with him screaming and barking in the back seat of my car. I was petrified that I was "ruining" this dog who was in my care. All because of things that I had read or been told. I admit that Digby still needs some work (he is 8 months old and a nutter still), but he is toilet trained, is well on the way to being crate trained (after 3 days) and he has met a few people who love him, and we have successfully worked on car obsession and a few other ticks he had. He sits and does a few other tricks to hand signals. We even have a second (older rescue) dog now to keep him company. I may have gotten a little bit OT here... sorry alternatively, perhaps as a forum of people whom are dog people, who are knowledgable and smart about dog stuff, newbies like me are attracted to get assistance for our seemingly problematic pooches who are not Lassie from day one. : who then learn to love Dogs as much as the rest of the DOL crew and stay for the awesomeness. and cute doggy photos!

Perrin...where is "Off Topic"? I can't seem to find it

WOOHOOO with only the tiniest amount of treat rewarding quiet relaxed behaviour Digby slept silently in a crate for the first time ever. After a week of all night barking it feels like Christmas again!!!! Lol.

BLERGH its been a week and he is still at it.... my neighbours are going to kill us....or him... I have gone to work today and I am absolutely wrecked cause I am so tired... and I have two more days to go until the "Weekend", when I can sleep in/in the day when he is quiet..... am waiting for a new crate to arrive...... am potentially going to order a real ThunderShirt too..... Contemplating paying for him to have a holiday at the "local" dog boarding kennels so our town (and me) can get some rest...

Ps I made a imitation thunder shirt from a cut up pair of tights which he is wearing right now - asleep with the lights on in the sunroom. Could be the lights, or the thunder shirt, I'm not game to test either hypothesis. He is sleeping so I am going to sneak off to bed now too lol- further suggestions are welcome incase its a once off though!!

Thank you for your quick reply riverstar-aura. He is not crate trained, as he flat out refused to go anywhere near the crate as a pup, and it is now used by our other dog. I am considering buying another for him. He does have free reign of the yard at night time, though he generally sleeps in our sunroom, exiting via a doggy door at will. He is quite big and can jump high with quite some strength so I have a feeling a pen wouldn't hold him (he learned to open sliding doors if unkatched to get where he wants to be so quite willful too). Crate training with a blanketed crate seems like the way to go.

Hello DOL Crew! We have in this past week fallen quite hard into Fear Period two. Our pup Digby is barking quite fearfully at what seems to be the tiniest of things - a flash of light on the wall, a plastic packet of whipper snipper cord which fell on the ground, plants- and more often than not nothing at all. Mostly this happens after nightfall. For the past four nights Digby has barked - at nothing- continuously. For the first night it was only until 2am, then the second night til 3am, I cannot sleep while he is at it. I do eventually have to get up and see what he is barking at and give him the sign for no and be quiet (and tell him too with a cross face). The third night I was ragged and completely caved and did what I thought was unthinkable, after 6 months of puppy ownership for the first time he was allowed to slip onto our bed. Even then we had to have a night light on for him, and still he was startled by nothing and barked. Yesterday (yes New Years Eve) we took him for a long walk, and a swim, played fetch for a good 45 minutes afterwards in an attempt to tire him out. I gave him a kong to occupy him with when it was time to sleep, and scattered some extra food around the yard to distract him further. Stilled barked. It was 2am I was by then beyond overwhelmed and all logic and reasoning fell out of my brain. I went out to calm him, I refilled his kong, I moved our other Dog from her crate and put Digby in there with his Kong. He stressed and sucked the kong empty and whimpered loudly in the crate. (it was dumb but I think I may have fallen asleep at the kitchen table while he was in there.) we then moved to the lounge where he lay and then barked. Then back into the bedroom at around 4:45am where he lay down, then barked fearfully, then wanted to play. All while my poor husband was trying to sleep before work. by 5:30 I had given up on getting any sleep until the sun was up. So Digby decided to lay and only fidget a little and chew his tail. The sun came up, my husband got up and went to work, Digby and our other Dog Tilly went outside and hung out and played QUIETLY. I slept with the whole bed to myself. I was desperate, agitated and frustrated , and I am aware that this would have rubbed off on Digby and would not of helped him settle at all. What I need some advice for the coming days (weeks?Months?years). I am wondering whether any of these ideas might assist: - today I have not allowed him to sleep to much during the day, this feels like torturing him, and is not maintainable -Thundershirt? - Re-atttempt crate training? (I am thinking to do this anyhow for safe moving in case of emergencies) (We have also tried Rescue Remedy) He has some basic obedience and some trick training, we are planning to begin formal obedience training when our "local" obedience club. Is there anything else I should try or is this something we will just have to wait out - (and buy our neighbours ear plugs, chocolates, TVs or winning lottery tickets?) - just to add an extra bit of challenge for the DOL crew - Digby is deaf so his barking is SUPER DOOPER LOUD Thanks so much in advance for your help, Amanda

I am not a breeder, and have only owned a cattle dog for a few months now, but as our ACD puppy Digby is deaf I did a lot of genetic research before agreeing to take him on, in order to understand why he is deaf and how to best look after him. Apparently the deafness is caused by a link back to Dalmatians who are apparently often deaf (?) perhaps this whiteness you have described is another throwback to dallies? I would love to see a picture of the pup... sounds very interesting!

Frustrating and Devastating are two words for it!! I had a beautiful ginger cat with a person-personality, great foot warming and listening abilities, collar, microchiped and on the register at the Cat Protection Society and local council so he was basically a boomerang if ever he ever got lost (which he didn't - he loved food too much). Then one day he never came in for dinner. With all the precautions I know that if he was handed in I hoped I would have been contacted pretty much straight away. I figured that even if he had died I would have been contacted if he was taken to a vet? It has been six years and I still wonder about him. People have to know that there is a difference between a LOST animal (as in someone has lost it, is lost from somewhere) and a feral/stray animal (who has no one missing it), and the only way to figure out which the animal is is to take it somewhere that can check for them and take the proper steps. Otherwise they run the risk of having STOLEN someones family member (and to put it bluntly, someones property). Argh rant.... sorry, still hurting I guess...

yes...., I think there was a serious chew party going on a my house last night, cause I just found 2 chewed zucchinis and a demolished steel capped volley in my vegie patch along with the pool

Yeh its only just gotten hot enough to let them use it (althought it was scorching just after Digby was neutered and he couldnt use it cause of the stitches) I originally thought one of them had stood on it when it was upside down, but we do have a 8mo heeler pup and a 2 yo rescue chew-a-holic heeler x and the teeth marks pretty much say it all... .It could be digging as well though and they were only just getting the whole concept of "swimming" in the water too...

(excuse the dirt, the pups like to swim then dig, then swim, then dig..... unfortunately this hole is a bit to big for me to electrical tape up......

That's it- half past 11 and she throws a chucka, great. I am not sure if our town vet is even open tomorrow so if anything goes haywire its a 45 minute drive to the nearest vet... And to top it all off I'm on edge listening out for Till and the neighbors dog is carrying on like the sky is falling or a cat has his tail.... Lol.

So we're getting ready to turn in for the night, dogs are outside toileting before crate and quiet time, and I hear a squabble break out... Turn large lights on over dogs and they freeze, right next to a white lump which I though may have been a small rabbit that they were fighting over, on (too) close inspection it was a pile of vomit. Had to get a torch to figure out whose it was (they are on different food adult/puppy) eventuates its tilly, who is off in the corner of the yard eating a pile of grass. She then vomits again. Awesome. So here's me stressing about every possible reason for her vomiting, then I remembered the dogs had been in my vegie patch and eaten most (demolished) of my zucchinis this afternoon, so obvioulsly her tummy was a tad overfilled after dinner. (will keep an eye on her tomorrow though) the one time feeding dogs vegies has backfired on me.... So instead of getting to bed pretty early, ended up cleaning up vomit, stressing, then struggling to get sooky Tilly to bed... Lol Just a rant....

I'm with you, Pebbles, wish I had that issue here, in a town with 800 people ( or there abouts) there are not a lot of people around to meet. And being a farming community there are not many "pet" dogs around with which to socialise, or people that know how to treat "pet" dogs.... which isn't helped seeing as we have a traditional working dog, a blue heeler, we have had well meaning elderly people pick him up by the front paws (at about 9 weeks), and had people smack him in the face with a hat for being obnoxious/noisy in public same person also yelled at Digby, which didnt really bother him as he cannot hear.. but still not nice...

Love the variety and breadth of the responses here!

I also considered gettting a second quite close to little Digby (I was asked to take on a second deaf pup - a gorgeous choc BC) however decided against it after consulting the DOL oracle. Aside from what has been mentioned here - you also have to consider double food bills, double repair bills, double training/behavioural bills, double kennelling bills and double vet bills - vax, desex, etc. all adds up quite quickly! and with them being the same/around the same age the vet bills will be at or around the same time. You also have to consider the other end of the timeline - when these two pups are old, needing "old dog" medical attention, and sad to say the possibility of them both dying in quick succession of each other. The emotional burden of this would certainly overwhelm me... not to mention the possible costs involved when a doggy friend passes away. just another level to think about when considering a duo.....

didnt see it on the morning show... more of a "the circle" girl myself (when I'm ever at home at that time :S ), came across it in a youtube-vortex, I really like it too.. its more of a light way to get the message across, especially at this time of year....

Just came across this...a different take on the topic..... thoughts? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4au5bIOc4Kw

Sorry to photobomb you all, but thought I would put a Tilly Post in too! This is Tilly, our rescue babe, only months ago, before New Beginnings picked her up from Mildura Pound, (sorry its sad and fuzzy) (this is from the new beginnings facebook page) She is about 2 years old and we have had her for near on 3 months And after a few months with the lovely ladies at New Beginnings, hardly recognisable as the same pooch... Today, sleeping on "comfortably" with a massive smile..... And with her little (big) brother, Digby.....

One of the things I really love about cattle dog puppies is their almost constant colour changes! Digby is still transforming before our eyes! This is him at 1 week old with his mumma (thanks to his breeder) he is the one second on the left with the left eye patch! And again, a little bit later, little white wiggle with black patch and tan freckle. This is him after we got him home at 8 weeks, our little black pudding piglet..... More blue coming through around 10 weeks - but still a bit pudding-y! And this is him all ready to visit the vet for desexing...... note the look of terror in his eyes, 25 weeks Still Growing!