Dang! Another long post, but we need help!
We need recommendations for good training sites, books, videos... anything! We started out well, we thought, with Mickey, but, unless there's a trainer or class nearby that we haven't discovered yet, the nearest obedience class is in Phoenix, over an hour's drive away. The county humane society has no building or formal programs; it's basically just a bunch of good folks who take strays home to foster. (Our town's so small that we have one vet, who took on as many of the other, now-retired vet's patients as he could handle and can't take any new ones. A mobile vet clinic comes up from the Phoenix area each Wednesday to try to take up the slack.) So we're trying to do basic obedience on our own. We've gone through all the usual puppy woes over the past month and a half: chewing, digging, potty training mishaps, and, to top it off, the poor thing has demodectic mange, so we're dealing with the shampoo and dip routine every other week. We know she feels icky, so we've gotten lax on the "formal" training. Wrong, I know, but, for the first few weeks after she started scratching, she was so miserable that we basically just let her snooze, scratch, and play.
Now we need to get back into a routine, because she seems to have forgotten what she had learned. Sure, she's a blond, but she's having more than her fair share of "blond moments!" We had worked with her on not confusing us with her chew toys, and she had gotten to the point where she'd mouth our hands but not actually use any pressure. Now she's nipping again. My husband had been taking her on long walks (rolls on his part, in his wheelchair) which she really enjoyed, since there are several horse corrals on their route. There are three miniature horses in one pen near the road, and they and the Mick like to sniff each other through the fence. We think she thinks they're very odd big dogs. Jamus had put the long walks on hold 'til she felt better, but, when he took her out again, she had apparently forgotten all about how to walk with the chair and got her toes pinched a couple of times with the front casters. The next evening, she was near perfect again.
Then, Saturday morning, he took her out for potty time and, because we were going to a "no dogs" event, tried to get her into her kennel. Because our trailer is so small, he uses a cane or crutches in the house. Mickey pulled so hard on the leash that she actually pulled him off his feet. (Which is amazing, because he's 6'4" and over 300#, and she weighed in at 41# a months ago! He's very unsteady on his feet, so that made it easier for her, even as big as he is.) I was here in the computer room and heard him fall in the living room. He has a few bruises and scrapes and suspects he tore the meniscus in his good knee; I can't get Mr. Stubborn to a doctor. He vowed he was taking the dog back to the pound, that she's unmanageable and untrainable.
I've gotten her a reprieve for now, because I refuse to give up on a dog because of our mistakes. But we can't let her cause another fall, either. She's a sweet dog, loveable and fun -- we had snow a couple of weekends ago, and she was a hoot trying to catch snowflakes on the deck! -- and I hate to rehome her. Worse, if she did go back to the pound, no one is going to adopt a dog who looks as if some drunk tried to shave her and left a blond mohawk. I mean, the poor baby's all but bald! When we adopted her, she was only a day or two away from euthanasia, and I won't let her end up back there. My husband told her this morning, "You better be nice to the Mommy Person, 'cause she's the reason you're still here, pup!"
I love the dog, but I love the husband, too, and I'm nearing my wit's end. We've taken to calling her Ms. Hyde, because she certainly doesn't act like the same pup we brought home. She sees the vet again Wednesday, and I'm tempted to ask if the medicine she's on could cause behavioral changes. Besides the dip, she's taking hydroxyzine (Vistaril) which should actually have a bit of a sedative effect on her; when I worked in hospitals, we gave it to alcoholics to help them through drying out. I see, though, that, in humans, at least, it can cause "confusion, nervousness, irritability...." You can bet that I'm going to ask the vet about that. I'm also going to ask if she can be tested for something like hypothyroidism that might cause the immune system deficiency that helped the little mange mites get such a good hold on her. We feed her IAMS Smart Puppy and add brewer's yeast and fish oils, so I don't think her diet's the culprit.
Any advice you kind folks can offer would be wonderful and much appreciated. I love this pup -- my husband does, too, when he's not getting dumped on the floor by her -- and we want to do what's best for her.
We need recommendations for good training sites, books, videos... anything! We started out well, we thought, with Mickey, but, unless there's a trainer or class nearby that we haven't discovered yet, the nearest obedience class is in Phoenix, over an hour's drive away. The county humane society has no building or formal programs; it's basically just a bunch of good folks who take strays home to foster. (Our town's so small that we have one vet, who took on as many of the other, now-retired vet's patients as he could handle and can't take any new ones. A mobile vet clinic comes up from the Phoenix area each Wednesday to try to take up the slack.) So we're trying to do basic obedience on our own. We've gone through all the usual puppy woes over the past month and a half: chewing, digging, potty training mishaps, and, to top it off, the poor thing has demodectic mange, so we're dealing with the shampoo and dip routine every other week. We know she feels icky, so we've gotten lax on the "formal" training. Wrong, I know, but, for the first few weeks after she started scratching, she was so miserable that we basically just let her snooze, scratch, and play.
Now we need to get back into a routine, because she seems to have forgotten what she had learned. Sure, she's a blond, but she's having more than her fair share of "blond moments!" We had worked with her on not confusing us with her chew toys, and she had gotten to the point where she'd mouth our hands but not actually use any pressure. Now she's nipping again. My husband had been taking her on long walks (rolls on his part, in his wheelchair) which she really enjoyed, since there are several horse corrals on their route. There are three miniature horses in one pen near the road, and they and the Mick like to sniff each other through the fence. We think she thinks they're very odd big dogs. Jamus had put the long walks on hold 'til she felt better, but, when he took her out again, she had apparently forgotten all about how to walk with the chair and got her toes pinched a couple of times with the front casters. The next evening, she was near perfect again.
Then, Saturday morning, he took her out for potty time and, because we were going to a "no dogs" event, tried to get her into her kennel. Because our trailer is so small, he uses a cane or crutches in the house. Mickey pulled so hard on the leash that she actually pulled him off his feet. (Which is amazing, because he's 6'4" and over 300#, and she weighed in at 41# a months ago! He's very unsteady on his feet, so that made it easier for her, even as big as he is.) I was here in the computer room and heard him fall in the living room. He has a few bruises and scrapes and suspects he tore the meniscus in his good knee; I can't get Mr. Stubborn to a doctor. He vowed he was taking the dog back to the pound, that she's unmanageable and untrainable.
I've gotten her a reprieve for now, because I refuse to give up on a dog because of our mistakes. But we can't let her cause another fall, either. She's a sweet dog, loveable and fun -- we had snow a couple of weekends ago, and she was a hoot trying to catch snowflakes on the deck! -- and I hate to rehome her. Worse, if she did go back to the pound, no one is going to adopt a dog who looks as if some drunk tried to shave her and left a blond mohawk. I mean, the poor baby's all but bald! When we adopted her, she was only a day or two away from euthanasia, and I won't let her end up back there. My husband told her this morning, "You better be nice to the Mommy Person, 'cause she's the reason you're still here, pup!"
I love the dog, but I love the husband, too, and I'm nearing my wit's end. We've taken to calling her Ms. Hyde, because she certainly doesn't act like the same pup we brought home. She sees the vet again Wednesday, and I'm tempted to ask if the medicine she's on could cause behavioral changes. Besides the dip, she's taking hydroxyzine (Vistaril) which should actually have a bit of a sedative effect on her; when I worked in hospitals, we gave it to alcoholics to help them through drying out. I see, though, that, in humans, at least, it can cause "confusion, nervousness, irritability...." You can bet that I'm going to ask the vet about that. I'm also going to ask if she can be tested for something like hypothyroidism that might cause the immune system deficiency that helped the little mange mites get such a good hold on her. We feed her IAMS Smart Puppy and add brewer's yeast and fish oils, so I don't think her diet's the culprit.
Any advice you kind folks can offer would be wonderful and much appreciated. I love this pup -- my husband does, too, when he's not getting dumped on the floor by her -- and we want to do what's best for her.
