Fun FurBaby Thread, Anyone?

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
Lala has more than made up for her missing eye with her hearing. I can (silently to me) pick up a tub of treats (dog or cat, matters not), and she can be upstairs AND at the opposite end of the house... And be at my side within three seconds.

Icicle found a particular type of treats she really likes. I had to put them in a plastic container after she shredded the bag they came in... Around 2:00 in the morning (a few days ago), I woke to a weird noise that sounded like someone had knocked a large baby rattle off the counter. I went back to sleep, figuring it was some part of my dream. Nope, this morning the container had been pried open by sharp kitty teeth and she was asleep with her nose inside the bowl. It was, of course, empty.

And Fido. OMG. He KNOWS his family. Rose started to fuss in her sleep about 3 this morning... He began barking and nudging Bill until he got up, and checked on her (she was cold). Fido then came up and snuggled in bed with me.
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
LMack, I don't know what I would do without my little guys! Every year my son and I drive to my daughter's house for four or five days at Christmas. We leave out really early so the dogs go to the puppy sitter the day before we go. And that dog-less evening before we leave is just creepy weird! I keep feeling like I should be refilling the water bowl or taking somebody outside, and it's waaaay too quiet without them! The trip gives me a little break from them but I miss them terribly!

I have very labor intensive dogs. They don't all get along so playing "musical crates" is my only altetnative. We're on a schedule and they take turns being out of the crates two hours at a time. Any longer than that and they're napping anyway. No fence so they all have to be taken out on leashes several times a day. Trace and my mixed breed, Freebie, get along fine so they get out together. I first got Katy when she was two and Ragan was four and for about six months they tolerated each other. But then the fight was on and I've had to keep them separated ever since. Ragan is a total brat and Katy has no use for other dogs at all. It's extremely difficult to bring two adult females together and have them get along. So all day long I'm tending to dogs. I retired five years ago and my youngest "child" is now 35. So there's a lot of things I could be doing or should be doing, but honestly without those dogs I would probably never get out of the recliner! They keep me busy and entertained.
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
It would be awful if they didn't get along! Mac and Suzie are litter-mates, we got them at 8 weeks and they shared a crate until they got big enough that they would get upset at being crowded at night. It was wonderful though. The first night at home they cried to go out at 2 a.m. After that, they slept through the night! At 8 weeks old! Crazy, huh? But no whining and wanting mommy, because they had each other. Now though, they don't really know how to be away from each other. When one's at the vet, the other is just so sad!
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
I overslept today. Woke up with a jolt, opened my eyes, and saw nothing but a green blur (I am extremely nearsighted).

It wasn't until my nose was licked that I realized that the green was Thomas' eyeballs and that he was staring at me from about an inch away from my face. (and purring his brains out)

Once he realized I was (semi) conscious, he expanded his attentions from my nose to the rest of my face.

Helluva way to wake up: being stared awake, and then having your face sandpapered.
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
With Katy and Ragan, it would have been OK if one of them had been a male. Or if Katy had been a puppy when I got her instead of two years old. I first got Ragan as an 8 week old puppy when my first Boston, also a female, was 11. They never really played together but they got along fine because Ragan came in as a puppy. Ragan tends to be the alpha dog type, a pushy little booger. And Katy has never had anything to do with other dogs. It's really not her fault though. I'm her third owner. The first one decided to make a breeder out of her and separated her from her mother and littermates way too early. They need that time with their litter to be properly socialized with other dogs. And then this woman raised her alone in a pen with no contact with other dogs at all. All the attention she got and all her socialization was with people. As a result, she absolutely loves people, friendliest dog on the planet. But she never had the chance to learn to play with other dogs, she sees them only as rivals and has no use for them at all. It's funny but she is curious about my outside cats and will tolerate them as long as they don't annoy her. But she has no use for other dogs at all. It does complicate things a lot but it's not her fault. I just wish I had been able to get her when she was a puppy. That crazy woman that first had her bred her way too soon and she had already given birth to two litters of puppies before her second birthday. No more!
 
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GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Hanni, the GSD that Stu got me, and that bonded to him and became his (personal) working dog, hated other females.

Until we took in an ancient lab/wolf/who knows what hybrid. The neighborhood kids found her lying, half starved and covered with sores, in the gutter during a downpour, and came and got Stu.

We got her to the vet, where we found out she was around fifteen years old, needed groceries and antibiotics, and amazingly, had healthy teeth other than several being worn to the gumline. She was also half blind and as we found out later, mostly deaf.

When Hanni first confronted Lady, Lady, who was very arthritic, couldn't submit by rolling on her back for fear of being unable to get back up, so she sort of hunkered down, twisted her head to to expose her throat, and luckily Hanni understood her.

Then, Hanni, after accepting her into the pack, took over Lady's daily care. Making sure she ate and drank, came to our call, etc.

Then came the big shocker: turns out Lady was pregnant! I figured this out when I fell into a huge hole in the backyard next to the garage. Checking things out, I realized that said hole ran under the garage slab, and that Lady (with Hanni's help) had dug herself a den.

At my insistence, we took Hanni in for x-rays. 2 puppies, term pregnancy, and a pelvis so badly healed from a fracture that there was no way she could deliver normally.

We scheduled a c-section spay.

One puppy was DOA. The other was alive and obviously half GSD. Lady had no milk. We bottle raised the pup, and Hanni and Lady handled all other motherhood duties, up to and including throwing up food for the puppy when it was old enough.

We placed the pup when it was 12 weeks old. Beautiful pup, but with the sort of temperament that i started basic training as soon as she could walk on a leash.

Lady lived about 2 years with us. She went "down in back" due to something going wrong in her spine, and it was determined that at her age, she was too infirm to tolerate surgery. She was also completely deaf by that time.

Wonderful dog and I'm honored that we made her last couple of years happy ones.
 

pigless in VA

Well-Known Member
GN,
My brother-in-law loved GSDs. He loved the incredibly large long-haired variety. He owned several throughout his life.

Once, brother in law was driving ahead of us in his car. brother in law had told us that the dog had some intestinal issues. It was warm out and both vehicles were traveling down I95 at about 60 mph. All of a sudden, we got a wiff of a terrible odor. husband says, "What is that horrible smell?" I offer that perhaps the GSD has maybe had a recurrence of his issue although inside the car. husband does not believe me. We continue to follow brother in law's car for maybe another mile. husband is suffering mightily, but decides that perhaps I am onto something. husband whips into the left lane and zooms past brother in law's car.

Let's just say that the air was much fresher ahead of brother in law's car. And brother in law? Didn't seem to bother him a bit that the dog had emitted a stench so foul that it could gag us at 60 mph. "I just rolled the windows down, and I was fine."
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
It just is an acronym from German Shepherd Dog, which is a direct translation of the German name for the breed: Deutsches Schaeferhund.

There are so many "Schaeferhunde" in Europe that they are all named by country of origin. You have three types of Belgian Shepherd: the Malinois, the Teurveren (The black Belgian Shepherd is nothing more than a black Teurveren) and the very rare, wire-coated Lakenois. There's the Dutch Shepherd. Bouvier means cowherd, and while we are familiar with the Bouvier des Flandres, there are actually several different types of Bouviers, each again named for country of origin.

Most European breeds are named for where they come from and what they were originally bred to do. The GSD was originally developed to herd sheep while being strong enough to protect the flock from man or beast.

I have had the good fortune to watch a few GSDs working sheep and it is something to see, but in actuality, there are many breeds that are better for the work, and are also bigger and stronger and better at herd protection.

Luckily for the GSD, by the time it was found that only a couple of bloodlines really excelled at herding work, and that imported dogs were actually better at it, people had discovered that when it came to protecting humans, working as part of a human/dog team, and working independently, the GSD excelled. Otherewise, with how high maintenance the breed is, they might well have died out.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
GN,
My brother-in-law loved GSDs. He loved the incredibly large long-haired variety. He owned several throughout his life.

Once, brother in law was driving ahead of us in his car. brother in law had told us that the dog had some intestinal issues. It was warm out and both vehicles were traveling down I95 at about 60 mph. All of a sudden, we got a wiff of a terrible odor. husband says, "What is that horrible smell?" I offer that perhaps the GSD has maybe had a recurrence of his issue although inside the car. husband does not believe me. We continue to follow brother in law's car for maybe another mile. husband is suffering mightily, but decides that perhaps I am onto something. husband whips into the left lane and zooms past brother in law's car.

Let's just say that the air was much fresher ahead of brother in law's car. And brother in law? Didn't seem to bother him a bit that the dog had emitted a stench so foul that it could gag us at 60 mph. "I just rolled the windows down, and I was fine."

Well,he had what was called a "Shiloh Shepherd"and they are not recognized as a pure bred GSD.

ALL GSDs are prone to intestinal and pancreatic issues. It is something that should've been bred out of the breed a hundred years ago.

As a result of this, they suffer from overgrowth of "bad" bacteria in the small intestine, which at best leads to some horrible gas, and at worst can lead to life-threatening malabsorbtion and diarrhea

IME, putting the dogs on a properly balanced raw diet and probiotics seems to take care of the intestinal issues in most cases. I suspect this is a modern issue that wasn't a problem before the invention of modern dog foods.
 

pigless in VA

Well-Known Member
That's actually encouraging to read, GN. brother in law was a pitiful dog owner; his dogs never had any manners. I had always assumed that maybe brother in law fed him a large can of beans or something. Did I mention that brother in law was driving his company vehicle during the odiferous incident?
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
I love dogs, but can't stand a dog that is ill-mannered after "toddlerhood", so to speak.

My GSDs were always trained, and even dear old Lady learned the basics with Hanni's help. We used to take the two of them out together to train, and Lady would imitate Hanni and learn the commands and responses that way.

Funniest thing I remember from those days is that Lady couldn't sit down properly due to the old pelvic and leg fracture. She sat on one hip with the other hip and bum leg stuck out semi-sideways.

Hanni used to fuss and try to shove Lady's bum leg into the proper position.

We never took Lady to any classes or anything, but she did get her Canine Good Citizen award shortly after her puppy left once we found a trainer who would test her with use using hand signals. We taught her to walk on heel, including patterns, to sit and down on command, and that was about it.

Enough to make her civilized in polite company.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Hmmm..I'm sitting in the living/dining area at my "dining table" and Squeaky is sitting on the edge of her light fixture staring at me.

Thomas, on the other hand, is in the easy chair doing a very credible imitation of a dead cat: flopped on his back with all 4 paws in the air, his head flopped back, and his eyes half open with the third eyelids up. Makes me really want to go over there and poke him one, but I can tell he's alive because I can hear him snoring.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
If the odor was that foul and lingered that long, I suspecte something frightened the dog and he evacuated his anal glands. That is a stench that has to be smelled to be believed, and good luck getting it out of the vehicle.
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
I love dogs, but can't stand a dog that is ill-mannered after "toddlerhood", so to speak.

You'd probably not like ours much. They are jumpers. We've never been able to break them from barking and jumping on people and we've tried, really. But they're too cute to stay mad at long. :)

That is a stench that has to be smelled to be believed

We call it "fish butt".

Boston's are flatulent little dogs, that's for sure. They're incredibly sensitive to food and we have always kept them on a pretty high price food to be sure. Very limited and non-stink inducing table snacks. They love fruits and veg, but we don't dare give them much. They could clear a room.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
The main reason Bostons are so gassy is that due to the structure of their jaws, they swallow massive amounts of air while eating. All of the brachycephalic breeds tend to be very gassy.

And the stench still isn't as bad as that produced by a GSD with a brew of bacterial toxins in its small intestine, especially if that dog has been fed any sort of grain.

...or has swiped a hardboiled egg off the counter and eaten it, shell and all. OMG!
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
...or has swiped a hardboiled egg off the counter and eaten it, shell and all. OMG!
Eggs. The one thing that dogs LOVE that ... well, WE pay a bigger price for than they do. Eggs as part of a regular diet will give the dog a beautiful coat but... works better with "outside" dogs for obvious reasons. :D
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
On Sunday AMs, when the weather was nice, Gryphon and I used to split a bacon and cheese omelet for breakfast.

We'd wait about an hour for food to settle and then head out to a state park about 20 miles from home. We'd hike and play, and Gryphon, who was fully trained in off-leash obedience, got to run around like a maniac and fart his brains out.

Couple of hours of that and usually he'd gotten rid of the gas by the time we headed back home.

He didn't much like raw eggs, but loved them most other ways. In later years, as his back troubles grew worse and he was no longer able to run around over very rough ground, the omelet turned into 1/2 of a scrambled egg with some grated cheese mixed in. I ate the other egg and a half.

He still ate a raw diet, but I had to cut his food way back in order to keep his weight in the "lean" range his vet wanted it at due the spinal arthritis and and old hip injury (dislocated right hip and torn ligaments when he was 5 mos old)
 
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