The dog musing/vent thread

Finn made an absolute poop mess of himself and his crate this morning.

Why does this warrant a vent?

Because he chose the day, the ONE day where we're getting the laundry room window replaced, and the washing machine has to be unplugged.

And he messed himself again outside, after I had just cleaned him off. And all of this after giving him a full bath -yesterday-.

It's like they know.

Bamm threw up EVERYWHERE last night...

There is nothing in this world that will wake me from a dead sleep like a dog throwing up... just UGH!!!! I spent forever cleaning it all up and he had it on his paws too.

At least he seems to be feeling better today.

Looks like everyone had messy dogs this morning. Apparently Cajun had to pee really bad when she woke up because she peed a trail aaallll the way to the back door when she got up.

Histamine still has fleas! Ugh!

And I can't use another flea prevention since I *just* applied the Advantage Multi. Ugh. No idea why she keeps getting reinfested! May have to try to keep her in a spare room tonight to see if that helps...

I hate fleas. Fleas suck.

I got a Saratoga Cool Coat for Hudson. I don't think it keeps him cool as much as it keeps him from getting as hot. Like, it doesn't lower his temperature as much it reflects the sun's rays off of him and prevents his black coat from absorbing all that heat. I definitely like it for the days that we are out in a bright, wide open space without much shade.

I used it when we went to Mount Vernon and the strangest thing happened, not once but twice. My mom and I were sitting on a bench in the garden while the rest of the group did a tour of the mansion, and a few people came up and asked if they could pet him. Sure why not, he's friendly, adorable and thinks everyone should be his best friend. One guy came up and asked if he could pet Hudson, I said 'sure', and Hudson gracefully accepted pets. The guy then goes, "oh, this service dog could really teach my mutts some manners" Ummm......service dog....? A little while later a family walks past and the girls kind of 'awww' at Hudson as they walk past and the Mom goes, "girls, don't mess with him, he is working." Uhhh, yeah, he's working the ground with everything he's got.

it was just very strange. We spent the rest of the day trying to figure out what they thought he was a service dog for. He didn't have any sort of vest on, just a front-clip harness and a Saratoga cooling coat. But, yay for the people that are teaching their kids to not bother service dogs

I'm getting sooo sick of the neighbor's dogs. They live behind us and we share a fence. They have 3 lab-type dogs and a rottweiler. And they've lived there for a year or so and have NEVER been a problem, our dogs can be out at the same time and they've never acknowledged each other. All of a sudden the last few days these dogs just want nothing more than to fence-fight, and Juno especially is more than happy to oblige. They literally just stand right at the fence and as soon as one of my dogs walks near it, they lunge and start barking and growling and then Juno lunges back and.... UGH.

I don't know what has changed in their life but it needs to change back and this needs to stop!!

Leo went lame while I was in the room and I have absolutely no idea how it happened :-(

I came home from shopping at 9pm, and he and I went up to my room. As far as I remember, he was moving completely normally.

I read in bed for two hours, while he lazed around the room. Then I got up to take him outside one last time to potty, and he hobbled and wouldn't put any weight on his front left leg.

HOWWW did he hurt himself in those two hours, while I was in the room???

There was some water on the floor from his water bowl. The only thing I can think of is that he must have silently slipped in it and hurt himself, while I completely obliviously kept reading.
To make matters worse, I am leaving to visit a friend for the weekend tomorrow, with my family watching Leo. Its midnight right now so there is nothing I can do at the moment, but I am really really hoping he is feeling better by tomorrow :-(

If it's fine when you get up in the morning it's possible his foot/leg was just asleep. I happens to dogs just like it happens to us. Lay on it a bit wrong and cut off some circulation and the limb "falls asleep." If he's better now I wouldn't worry about it more than keeping an eye out for it happening again.

Does anybody want a Payton relative? Because there's one on the sheltie breeder classifieds right now. And I cannot have him. I sent his listing to my sister because I cannot have him.

But I totally want him.

Oh God he's so cute.

Well, he was limping pretty heavily but putting weight on it when he woke up in the morning, and now he is running around normally baaarely favoring it. If I wasn't looking for it, I wouldn't notice.

So, its definitely something, but I don't think anything to be concerned about, and it doesn't seem to be bothering him much at all.

Which of course, leaves me with the worst combination of border collie, one who has been put on rest but thinks he is totally fine. Poor Leo can't understand why I won't throw the ball for him. He keeps shaking it like a crazy person, and then throwing it at me, clearly saying "LOOK HOW MUCH FUN I AM HAVING. PLAY WITH ME!!!"

Wow. Usually I send bloodwork to Dr. Dodds for titers/testing, but I called my vet today to see what they charge because I didn't have time to hassle with it, and they're actually cheaper (albeit they take longer) which is surprising because a few years ago they were much more expensive, which is why I chose Dodds. $110 for an exam (they require because they haven't seen him in over a year), d/p titers and a cbc. Not bad at all!! So excited for vet appointments. Recon hasn't been in over a year, anxious to see how he handles it.

Having dogs that have a healthy respect for baby gates and have also been taught to only eat out of their own bowl has made making kitty food and litter box accessible to only kitty and not dogs quite nice.

Your dogs have it all wrong. Patton knows that baby gates are for jumping. So are fences and ex pens. I can send him over and he'll show Abrams what's up.

Noooooope, nope nope nope. Baby gates are to be feared, because they fall randomly and make scary noises! Don't undo all of my unintentional traumatizing booby trapping from when he was a pup! LOL It is so nice having an instant barrier. 2.5' baby gate just leaning against the door way, not even covering it all of the way? No one dares enter. Lovely.

I think I'm going to intentionally let some baby gates fall on/near future puppies when they touch it....LOL I'm a horrible person...

I'm to the point where we may be using an e collar to keep him contained, so I can't judge you.

(and I dropped a ton of stuff on him as a puppy, didn't work)

eta; My dog vent of the day. I really can't stand seeing overweight dogs. Not even a little overweight. It bugs me.

I was at the dog park today with Patton and Recon, and was talking to a couple who were younger, very nice, with a pittie mix and boxer/shepherd, around 6 mos and 10 mos, respectively. They were talking about food and it was awesome that they were doing research and fed Orijen, but then they were talking about their dogs' weights and how the pittie was originally neglected and so they had to put a lot of weight on him. He was little on the pudgy side, but not too bad.. he will probably get there soon. Then they said, "and we can't get more weight on Charlie.." to which I *basically* reply, OH GOD NO THAT ONE ACTUALLY LOOKS GOOD.

Then I saw a Bull Terrier who was adorable a heck, but about 10 lbs overweight. Really hyper, I might put weight on that dog to slow it down, too... XD

same. my MIL has a short gate that she uses to block off their hallway when we come to visit. Hudson is a fairly athletic dude, but even though this gate barely reaches his chest, he does not dare to try to jump over it. I'm a little concerned that if I ever start doing agility with him, he'll learn that gates are for jumping.

Recon won't jump over a baby gate, if it makes you feel any better!

And I think Patton's dad respect baby gates just fine, and he's done agility, flyball, dock diving *and* schutzhund - all jumping sports!

(you need to do agility with that dog)

With fleas, comes tapeworms. Eeeeeeeew. Why can they not make a Sentinel Spectrum chewable for cats?!

I have a disease. It's called "must buy all the shampoos."

I know there's at least one not in the picture. And granted, a couple of these bottles were given to me. But who needs this much dog shampoo!!

Picked up some petology honey and oatmeal shampoo at the pet store today. Have Recon a bath. OMG IM IN LOVE.