perchie.girl
RIP 1953-2021
Mom raised poodles... One year Babette Had twelve pups... brought our total to fourteen dogs..
The NFC B-Day Chat Thread
- Thread starter sunflour
- Start date
Finona is so gorgeous @Blooie
Wish you could put her on raw food. Seriously it makes what comes out the other end a lot smaller, a lot firmer, and a lot less stinky to deal with.
One of our cats is on raw food, but the other two old girls are on biscuits because sometimes they'll eat the raw stuff, sometimes they won't, sometimes they puke, and it was driving me nuts so it was easier just to put them back on biscuits. But then they start at about 4am wanting to be fed. One has very heavy feet and on the wooden floors she makes her presence known! Anyway, I got sick of being woken up (and if she can she'll go into the kids rooms first, before bugging me, and meow at them to wake them up) and just started leaving biscuits out all night. By day 2 I went back to feeding 1 raw food and dealing with getting woken up at 4am because what was coming out of the previously raw fed cat was 3 times as much as when she'd been on the raw food. They are really good quality biscuits too.
This was on the local news page today:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12161358
My first thought, upon reading the article, was that's an amazingly cheap surgery. We must get charged a lot more in Auckland as our consultation and antibiotics for our little cat was $110, and my sister was quoted around $1,000 at one vet clinic to clean one of her cats teeth. At the place we took our cat to they charged her around $600 I think for a teeth clean.
Wish you could put her on raw food. Seriously it makes what comes out the other end a lot smaller, a lot firmer, and a lot less stinky to deal with.
One of our cats is on raw food, but the other two old girls are on biscuits because sometimes they'll eat the raw stuff, sometimes they won't, sometimes they puke, and it was driving me nuts so it was easier just to put them back on biscuits. But then they start at about 4am wanting to be fed. One has very heavy feet and on the wooden floors she makes her presence known! Anyway, I got sick of being woken up (and if she can she'll go into the kids rooms first, before bugging me, and meow at them to wake them up) and just started leaving biscuits out all night. By day 2 I went back to feeding 1 raw food and dealing with getting woken up at 4am because what was coming out of the previously raw fed cat was 3 times as much as when she'd been on the raw food. They are really good quality biscuits too.
This was on the local news page today:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12161358
My first thought, upon reading the article, was that's an amazingly cheap surgery. We must get charged a lot more in Auckland as our consultation and antibiotics for our little cat was $110, and my sister was quoted around $1,000 at one vet clinic to clean one of her cats teeth. At the place we took our cat to they charged her around $600 I think for a teeth clean.
I used to scrape my dogs(plural) teeth for free. A retiring dentist gave me all his picks, and chisels, and other instruments of pain - just kidding, scalers, scrapers etc. Dogs never gave me any trouble. I was always Alpha with no pecking order.
Would never do a cat unless I was ready to leave this world.
Would never do a cat unless I was ready to leave this world.
Pretty sure they sedate animals to clean their teeth.
I'm sure they do. I just wanted to mention mine because they got exposed to cleaning early in life. Since it was done as often as necessary, it was not a long, nor perilous pursuit.
Never would attempt a cat no matter how well it was sedated
Never would attempt a cat no matter how well it was sedated
I gave up cat grooming after i got a bad infection from washing a kitten. Just a surface scatch, but the infectioned tunneled into my hand.
Of course it did!We were ready for some good news on the medical front!!
All of Cowley’s water comes from a big Artesian Well here. Many years ago there were plans to bottle and sell it, it’s that good! I can’t even drink a glass of water anywhere else after living here.
I hope those fleas bite because what’s happening to her sure does!
@bruceha2000 Like there’s any reason to worry about me - I’m like the Energizer Bunny and a Timex, all rolled into one......like a Timerbunny!
@sourland, happy that you enjoyed your day!
That's similar to how Maine is. Absolutely delicious water. I try not to drink bottled water too much lately (bad for environment, possible chemicals in it, etc.) but I used to all the time and Poland Springs is the only one I'll drink.
Different strokes for different folks...I never thought I'd have a small dog after 45 years of big to huge dogs.
I loveeeeee big dogs but I do think I will have small dogs eventually. There are a lot of breeds I want to try, big and small.
Wow that is a lot of dogs. Although I want to dog sled eventually so I may end up with that many lol well, probably never almost 30 but possibly like 8 or 10 or something. Probably more cause several pets and non sledders. And I'd want a small team. But I probably won't have a sled dog team. Instead I'll probably have 3-5 pets. I want to try a lot of breeds like mentioned so will probably have several different breeds at once. But I also want kind of like a farm/homestead thing so I may have some LGD's or herders. I want to try a lot of the herding breeds anyway as well as some general/all purpose farm dogs like the English Shepherd and Scotch Collie. Herding breeds mostly include Australian Shepherd and Border Collie but possibly others. But this is all just like hypothetical and there's lots of other pet breeds too like Goldens, Labs, Samoyed, GSD, Rat Terrier, Border Terrier, Boston Terrier, some sort of spaniel, husky, Leonberger, etc. Long story short, I don't think I could handle anywhere near as many dogs as you but I do love dogs so I definitely want at least 2-3 or more at once lol plus I want to do sports with the next one so I might need either multiple competition dogs or a competition dog and a chill pet or different competition dogs for different sports and then a pet or something. But I wanna try agility and nose work most of all but then also possibly dock diving, rally, or obedience. Thought about dabbling in flyball but I think that'd be too stressful lol it's really loud and fast. Dock diving somewhat is too but seems fun. I think agility and nose work or even tracking are more my speed lol if I had a GSD or Malinois I may dabble in one of the bite sports but I probably won't get one of those. Although it reminds me of another breed I want: Berger Blanc Suisse (White Swiss Shepherd). Gentler and mellower and not really good for bitework which is fine by me but great pets therapy dogs, service dogs, etc. And gorgeous to boot. And supposedly, technically, the BBS/WSS, White Shepherd (UKC), and white GSDs are all separate breeds and the standards are slightly different and things like back and stance/legs and stuff. BUT. They do obviously overlap some in history and stuff and are very similar and I would be happy with either. But the BBS/WSS has been bred separately for a little while now so they are more separate than the others and I really really really want one one day. But they are really expensive and kind of hard to find so it will probably be a while before I can get one. For now my major contenders for next breed are either a Golden or an Aussie. I think either would be equally suitable for me right now and both are grest dogs. Also love trick training and obedience training. And btw, before anyone says it, no I am not actually going to get a dog right now or try all these breeds or anything and this isn't some crazy whim or gotta have it spree or something like that. I just like planning and dreaming and personally I don't think there's anything wrong with a little dreaming and positivity/hopefulness, especially since I know that it's all just a dream/fantasy and I obviously have other responsibilities first. Like moving out. But I like dreaming/planning. It's fun and eventually at least some of that WILL happen.
You mean a horse?
i told husband when i called tonight that his dog, bud. told me he wasn't getting in the car with me, we took my frenchie, sadie mae, left him home, she didn't come back, took him (husband) this morning and he didn't come back, no way is he going to take a chance
bud is still looking out the window for husband, and then going to the door, waiting for husband to come in, this is the second schipperke we've had and they seem to be one person dogs, oh they loved the cook but husband was the most important thing in the world to them
Schipperke is another breed I've considered. They seem like cool little dogs.
Aw poor guy. You've gotten some good ideas already so I may sound a bit repetitive but I would recommend teaching an "off" command and/or an alternate behavior. You should also teach an appropriate greeting behavior for guests.
To break it down,
"Off": you can try teaching it in another context first or if you think he's smart enough and won't get confused, try it direct right away. What I mean is that you can either start small first, so maybe teach him to get "off" the bed first or something, then apply it to the jumping once he gets that, or you can just start directly with the jumping. Off is a really useful command for lots of stuff anyway, as is wait but that's a separate thing. But no matter how you start teaching off, it is basically the same method either way. Basically, you can put him on the bed and then toss some yummy treats far enough away from the bed that he has to get up to get them and when he does say "off" and those treats will be the reward. He should catch on quick. Or if you don't want to use treats you can try distracting him or having someone call him or something and when he does, "off" as he's getting up/leaving then big praise as soon as he's fully off the bed. Once he gets "off", you can try it for the jumping OR you can start with this first. When he tries to hug you, you can GENTLY push him off of you or even just back up or turn around or something so that he falls off on his own and then when he lets go and is on his way down say "off" and then big praise and/or treats once all 4 feet are on the floor. And that's another thing, no petting unless "four on the floor." Anyway, for training off, I'm not sure I'd say no while teaching it only because 1. You don't want him to think he's in trouble, only learning a new command, and 2. You don't want him to think that new command is "no, off" or no no no, of off off, whatever. Just "off." Now, once you are sure he knows it and he seems to be responding consistently in all situations, you can start to say no if he doesn’t listen to it the first time. So "off", no response after a few seconds, "no, off." But ideally he would respond the first time. It may take time to teach this so patience and consistency are key.
"Alternate behavior": if you want you can teach an alternate, incompatible behavior to jumping either instead of or with the "off" command. If you do it with, I would teach off first then this so it's not confusing. But basically the idea is that if they are doing a completely incompatible behavior, like sitting or laying down, they can't jump. So you could say sit either when he jumps or maybe right before he has the chance to then reward.
Personally I really like off but the alternate behavior can be a good management technique too like you can keep a close eye and give an alternate command before he has a chance to get into trouble.
Appropriate greeting behavior for guests: Does he even do the hugging/jumping to guests? Either way, appropriate greeting behavior is important because Pyrenees can be protective. What I like is not letting them crowd the door to begin with so maybe you put them in a down stay on a bed a fair distance away from the door and they wait for a release before greeting the guests. You can make this easier by not making a big deal when you come home, ignoring them for a few minutes until they calm down, and asking your guests to do the same. If people coming in and out is boring, there will be nothing to get excited or worked up about and it will make staying easier. You can, and should, also practice down stays randomly and build up duration, don't just expect him to have a perfect down stay with guests or otherwise right away, that's just not fair and is setting him up for failure. You may even need some sort of fence, blockade, or gate at first to force him to stay back while he learns. Now, if he really won't stay or is aggressive, fearful, way over exuberant or anything like that, you can crate him in another room or just lock him in another room if you don't have a crate. Just as long as you pick a routine and a word/method and stick with it.
The auto sit or "asking please" is another very useful too. Also sometimes called Nothing In Life Is Free (NILIF) but I don't really use or believe full NILIF, some things can be free, but basically, sit before going outside, sit before walks, sit before meals, sit before pet or throwing the toy, etc. They're basically asking please/politely for all the good things in life. It is also good for impulse control and is somewhat wait but without the word. Libby and Franklin sit before meals and they also sit to go outside and sit for walks. For outside they sit and wait while the slider is opened and they will stay, with it fully opened, until released. Usually we don't make them wait very long but still. I can even open it, walk outside (backwards, facing them, and onto the deck but still) and they'll wait. Walks we sit before clipping leashes on then stay sitting while I open the front door. If they get up, door gets shut. It was easy to teach because the door shutting and silence until they sit again was a very clear consequence. You can say sit again but I personally prefer to just wait and let them think and work it out for themselves, which they all eventually do. Started with door barely open or even just grabbing handle, have worked to door fully open. Screen door still shut but no doubt they would stay with it open too. Franklin took longer to learn it but Libby is an expert by now as she has been doing it much longer and now Franklin is too. Between sitting and waiting and down stays, their impulse control is very good now and this may help him too.
NOW.
IF you would still like hugging occasionally or find it cute, you CAN put it in a cue. So only when you say "hug" or "up up" or pat your chest or whatever word/cue you want and then not acceptable any other time. I would teach off first though before encouraging it so as to not confuse him. But dogs are smart and can learn when something is acceptable and when it is not and with who. If you do NOT want it ever, keep discouraging it and it should go away eventually.
I wouldn't use down for getting down only because it can be confusing for dogs since down is usually lay down. Unless you are saying to give him a lay down command? Which could also work. But I wouldn't give down two meanings. I like off.
Been called worse. Some of my best friends are dogs.
You can alter posts ?
@rjohns39, teaching the 'no jump' command would help - there are several methods using positive reinforcement. Possibly a basic obedience course would help.
Agreed
Good ideas
Hi. Was with dogs late (11:30 to like 3:40) as bathed and brushed them (both rolled in dog poop on walk lol) and FSIL was there today so talked a lot too then phone was being annoying (got slightly wet and dropped in sink, been in rice) so thought I'd use laptop. NOPE. Evidently broken. Managed to find old Samsung tablet so using that so have been able to check BYC but it is soooo snailishly slow typing every single word that it is taking forever to type anything. So on top of trying to solve technology issues (and my dad was working on my computer a long time, couldn't fix it), I also ate dinner (pizza) and had to pack for tomorrow. So yeah. I think I will try to use my phone even though I should leave it till morning because this tablet is VERY frustrating. Or I may just sleep. I am tired and frustrated and we have to leave early.
technology.You have a horse and you are mucking out her paddock
So cute.
And unique and good idea
Phew, was working on that reply a LONG time. Darn snail tablet.
Good morning all.
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