Recent content by loren Kristunas

Hello. I posted about a year ago about my now three year old lab/bordercollie mix Sage. I'm happy to say she is doing great behaviorally and her joint issues are causing her no problems at all. We had a health scare this weekend I had a question about. Last Friday we noticed that Sage was a...

Does anyone know about luxation of the patellas? Sage was diagnosed with a mild grade one medial luxation of both patellas's(dislocating kneecaps) last year soon after we got her. We found out because she held her leg up briefly 3 times in a month during play, and the vet said she could feel...

That's like Sage, I've never seen a dog stand on her hind legs like she does, and she's supposed to have dislocating knee caps!

I've tried holding Sage's paws, she pulls and squirms and gnaws at my hand(not hard biting, but still, inappropriate), hasn't learned yet. I don't like when she starts twisting at the elbows because of her minor elbow dysplasia. (By the way, I don't know if you remember our previous posts about...

Yes, we praise her as soon as she stops the pawing, I bet they are connected. She's usually already sitting when she paws us(except when she's jumping up). Perhaps I can put her in a sit stay for a minute, or perhaps a down, sounds like the idea is to praise her for obeying a clear command...

Is it possible that Sage can be misbehaving in order to get praise when she stops misbehaving and behaves correctly? Example, she has a big problem with pawing us when we are sitting on the couch or when the alarm goes off in the morning. She's a fairly tall dog with strong arms, so pawing can...

Great article! I can't wait to try it. Thanks.

Thanks, those are really great suggestions. I've already tried putting other objects down with the identified toy and she pretty consistently picks the right toy, even when I move them around. Haven't tried it with 2 "hot" toys yet. Sounds like we are on the right track. Thanks. Any thoughts on...

I've started Sage on clicker training and she is now responding normally to it after some initial hesitation and guardedness(I think when I was sending her to the target she thought I was sending her away from me as a punishment, maybe her previous owners would do that or something, I changed to...

Our Golden retriever ate huge holes into the drywall when she was that age! I've never heard of another dog to do that. She also ate holes in our carpet. She finally outgrew it in a just few months. It helped to spray cayenne pepper mixed with water on the walls, it may stain but it sounds like...

I saw the episode you are talking about. It was a very anxious, fear aggressive dog. I was really surprised and didn't agree with the flooding approach he used, having the dog jump right into the pool, however, I didn't see him treat the dog roughly in any way. Yes, he used a choker, as he...

Yeah, I won't worry too much about it, as long as she's happy at some things I guess she's fine. I really wanted her to swim because swimming is a low impact exercise good for the joints and she liked it so much at first. I am taking her to the mountains this weekend, it will be a good test, if...

Hi, thanks for the feedback. I didn't meant to imply that she acts depressed or lame, she is very active, runs around and plays with my other dog right after a jog, will play chase me and run for long periods on her own without prompting. It's more that she will be very willingly active for...

Well at first she wants to play at these new things for a long time, I'd throw the ball for fetch maybe 15 times or so, she's swim and catch sticks in the water for about the same. Then she just stops doing it, usually after about 2 weeks of enjoying the same activity. This isn't anything new...

I''ve continued to work with Sage on clicker training. She is picking up on everything very quickly, but still seems very hesitant and reluctant to do the tasks. She is thrilled to get the treats, she is very food oriented, but for example slinks reluctantly over to the target 10 feet away...