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Dogomania

eric

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Everything posted by eric

  1. I hope so. With Sam we had to go back and get some pain medication for him because he was whining alot and you could tell he was in pain. Travis and Zeke were back to their old selves within a day or so. [quote name='mouseatthebusstop']Paddy didn't mind at all- he has not missed his - his recovery was fast too The next day he was back to normal I hope Riley does as-well[/quote]
  2. Not Riley. He has (had) a big dangling pair. My wife did not find them very the aesthetically pleasing. [quote name='Michele'][quote]much like a hockey game, there won't be any balls. [/quote] LOL........ I rremember when JC when in. The vet said they had to use a magnifyig glass cause they were so small......LOL[/quote]
  3. Well, Riley's spending the day at the vet and when we go pick him up tonight, much like a hockey game, there won't be any balls. We probably should of done it sooner, but we wanted to wait until my wife was off for the summer so that he won't be alone at all during his recovery. For some reason, it seemed so hard with him to do with him. I almost felt reluctant to do it, but obviously it has to be done. We had a hard time just getting him away from his bro's. He just sat next to the enclosure we have in the basement where his bro's were locked up and wouldn't budge. We had to put the leash on him to get him to leave. I guess its hard for him as this is probably the first time since we've gotten him that he's been completely alone; we always have at least one other dog with us. I think the technician thought we were a big cookoo. My wife was out and out crying, I was starting to tear up, Riley was whining. I know its a simple routine operation, but still, its hard.
  4. Is it just me? [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v632/felicia24/uglydog.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.formfunctionemotion.net/mt-static/images/yoda.jpg[/img]
  5. I'd stick with beef. Raw pork can contain trichonosis, a type of parasitic worm, which can lead to death in humans and presumably dogs as well. [quote name='Michele']just beef bones? no other kind of raw bone?[/quote]
  6. Didn't think about that, but I'm nervous about giving them the bones completely raw. You never know if they've come into contact with chicken or pork at the butchers. I just throw them on the BBQ for 5 - 10 minutes. This cooks the meat on the outside and kills any potentially harmful bacteria, but leaves the marrow nice and juicy. I don't think the bone becomes that much softer after only 5 -10 minutes. They love that marrow! They start sticking their tongues to get it all out. It starts to sounds like a bad porno in our place after a while. BTW, Michele, the marrow can be fairly messy and greasy so careful where you give them the bones. We never let them chew it on carpet. [quote name='Lucky Chaos'][quote name='Michele']Eric: so, I can go to my butcher and ask for beef bones. Then, I cook them and give them to my dog?....he won't choke on them?[/quote] I wouldn't even cook them. Cooking makes them softer, meaning the dog can splinter them easier and maybe choke.[/quote]
  7. I buy them at the supermarket in the meat section. They are fairly substantial bones, about the size of a can of pop. We let them chew on them until they get all the meat and marrow off, then we take them away. [quote name='Michele']Eric: so, I can go to my butcher and ask for beef bones. Then, I cook them and give them to my dog?....he won't choke on them?[/quote]
  8. We used to get rawhide bones, but lately we've been getting beef soup bones from the butcher. I throw them on the barbeque for 10 minutes or so to cook them. The boys LOVE them. They pull the bits of meat off the outside, then they dig into the marrow. They'll work on them until they get all the marrow out, which is usually a good 45 minutes. We have to make sure we get 4, otherwise fights break out. [quote name='Kat']what sort of bones do you folks give to your dogs? I'm very wary of bones in general but I gave Kes her 1st bone-a parma ham bone and shes loving it! :D I'd like to give her other types like ham bones that wont splinter too.[/quote]
  9. We call them "newfs" for short, otherwise people would get confused. [quote name='behle']:o I had no idea that newfie was a derogatory term in Canada. :o I've always just used it because saying Newfoundland is such a mouthful... [/quote]
  10. Not that I care, but in Canada "Newfie" is a mildly derogatory term for someone who's from Newfoundland (one the Canadian maritime provinces and the namesake of the breed). Do a web search on "newfie jokes" and you'll see what I mean. Funny that they want to give him up because he's too big. 113 would seem too small to me.
  11. Speaking of kitties and girls... When I was young, many a decade ago, I was at my Grandparent's reading the local paper. This was in Quebec, so the paper was French. I never actually lived in Quebec, so I wasn't too familiar with some of the local slang. Anyhooo, I get to the personals at the back and was struck by the fact that the vast majority of women who had posted personal ads had cats and were offering men to show them their cat, let them pet their cat, play with their cat, make their cat purr, kiss their cat and even lick their cat. These cats were apparently very eager to meet that special someone, and rub against them. Some of these cats were even going to be all wet, which I thought was completely odd as everyone knows cats do not like water. It was such an odd thing about these women and their cats that it stuck in my mind for years after. I remember thinking: "Jeez, these Quebec women sure like their cats!" Many, many years, later while doing something utterly mundane, it suddenly occured to me that maybe all these women weren't referring to the 4-legged variety of pussycats.
  12. Am I the only one to whom this appears like a bunch of adults arguing with an 8 year old girl? Anyhow, I like Jerk Chicken. That'll clear the sinuses. :D
  13. I get so frustrated sometimes. It seems like somebody's always eating something outside. I literally say to them: "Drop it! What are you eating? There's nothing to eat out here, so why are you eating?" I know last weekend (the weekend before the test) he ate something and then got sick, so this might be what affected his test. [quote name='DogPaddle']I know this is serious but you got me laughing with this: [quote]There is no food out here - therefore you should not be eating anything! [/quote] Because I have thought this so many times. Zaphod is always willing to try eating [i]something[/i] outside. I hope the next test is normal and its just a little hiccup. I will be wishing good things for you both.[/quote]
  14. Well, we got the Wellness Testing done for Sam and Travis last thursday. Basically its a blood test that looks for heartworm as well as a number of other indicators. The vet called over the weekend and left a message saying that Sam's test showed elevated liver enzymes. She said that we shouldn't get too worried now and to redo the test in a month. Apparently, in the majority of cases when the retest them the liver enzymes have gone back to normal and they just ate something. Between the house and the cottage, it seems like I'm always giving them shit for eating stuff outside. There is no food out here - therefore you should not be eating anything! I hope that all it is. Sam's only 6 years old. Its too soon.
  15. Riley, Zeke and Travis are very bird aware and will chase them even when they take flight. This can be problematic for us as we have a large pond in our yard that attracts ducks/geese and herons. Inevitably, when we let the boys out they will bee-line for the pond, scaring off whatever birds are there, and then chase then to the fence. Riley and Zeke are fine, they just chase, but Travis goes into full GSD Intruder mode and charges the pond barking his head off.
  16. Cute puppy - but the taping makes him look like a Shriner :D
  17. Yeah, one was easy. Two was so easy. Three was a bit hard a first due to Zeke's somewhat intense, high-energy personality, but after a couple of months we couldn't imagine life without him. Now we're at 4 :D
  18. We have some of the same issues, although thankfully our guys are not naturally barkers. When they play, there might be a single bark if somebody gets a little rough trying to get whatever they are playing with. The bigger problem we have is that being in the country, there are occasionally deer, wild turkeys, and of late, ducks and Canada Geese in our pond. Our GSD Travis will inevitably spot these intruders and charge, Woo-Woo-Woo-ing the whole way. Its maybe 10 seconds of barking, then its over, as most animals decide that they'd rather be somewhere else as Travis comes barrelling towards them. It is however, usually 6:30 am so we're trying to put an end to it. My wife now goes out with them in the morning to try and avert this, but its not always possible. The other morning, she went out and made sure there was no wildlife before letting them out. While they were all out, a pair of mallard ducks landed in the pond, which set Travis off. Of late, however, we've been thinking that instead of getting all anxious and stressed about trying to control this, we'll just let it be. Why should we kill ourselves keeping the dogs quiet when our neighbors make absolutely no effort to keep their teenage kids quiet. If I have to listen to screaming profanities and music, then you can put up with 10 seconds of barking.
  19. I was thinking about installing one of those. My fear is that one will get in during the weekend when we're at the cottage and spend a couple days locked in there. [quote name='izzy']Eric you'll become an expert on catching birds inside your house, later you'll be able to do it with chinese sticks :lol: What about putting a metallic web on your chimney?[/quote]
  20. It happened again, two days after the first incident! My wife and I got home the other day about the same time. Let the dogs out, chat for a bit, let the dogs back in. I head to the bedroom to get changed. I come back and Zeke is staring into the fireplace. "Great", I think "another one". I crouch down next to Zeke and we're both peering into the fireplace, side by each. Nothing, completely empty. Figuring the bird might actually be sitting on the stone baffle above, I gingerly open the door, reach in with my hand and give it a shove to try and startle any would be birds. Nothing. No flapping, scraching, nothing. In the meantime, this has caused a bunch of ashes to drop out and onto the surround in front of the fireplace. Satisfied that there is no bird, I fully open the doors and get up to grab the brush and shovel from the fireplace kit. Next thing I know, there's screaming (my wife), barking (Riley), running (Zeke after the bird, Travis out of the room) as the bird explodes out of the fireplace, goes right for the front door and smacks into the window and crashes to the floor. Zeke tears over while I'm yelling "Zeke! Zeke! Off! Off! Off!". Zeke actually manages to somehow restrain himself as he reaches the bird. As I'm running over, the bird takes off again, this time back to the livingroom only to smash into another window and drunkenly flutter down, Zeke in how pursuit. "Off! Off!" again, although this time I manage to grab the bird. I sit down for a sec to recover from all this excitement. The dogs all gather around for the now ritual Sniffing of the Bird, except this time Zeke tries to bite the bird's head off. Luckily, I pulled the bird away as he went to do it so no damage. It was another grackle. The poor bird kept trying to grab onto my finger with his feet, then finally grabbed one foot with the other, almost like a person with his hands locked together in prayer. Took him outside, opened my hands and.....nothing. Didn't budge. Just lay there in my open hand. I nudged his tail a few times to no avail. I thought that I could unclasp his feet and set him on the railing, but he was not letting go. Finally, I did an up and down motion with him, which caused him to open his wings. A few more up and downs, he gave a couple flaps and then finally took off. I hope it wasn't the same one as before.
  21. Its really not that bad once you get them in your hands. They seem to calm down once you get them all snuggled in, and the one yesterday actually let me stroke his back. You just have to be careful when you initially grab them because they tend to flap their wings a bit and its pretty easy to injure them. Once you get the wings folded you just cup them in your hands. I'd be alot more worried about picking up a mammal just for fear of being bitten. I had one of these birds "bite" me once; all they do is grab your finger in their beak. It doesn't hurt at all, they just aren't strong enough. Here's a pic of the first one we had to get out; another grackle. You can sort of see the purple and green colours I was talking about in the picture. They are actually quite pretty. [img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0UwAAALcYfPWrgIZ4v1gw*foM6OExin0ytnmGoQ!opkkAhYfoSkBv8a0h7xq*XyIfovCpvvJPEl0831Wb63RiJGtJoWYNP85fRuZUgV!sjCzGBxmmgRcxHQH3vw0yeOJ9/EPSN0046.JPG?dc=4675516963244201459[/img]
  22. I'm surprised Zeke was able to stay as calm as he did. He jumped a few times into the air, but nothing like you describe in terms of jumping on furniture and stuff. When the bird landed on the screen, it was in clear sight of everybody and the window in question is behind our TV so I was immediately afraid Zeke was going to get in behind the TV and damage something. Fortunately, since the bird was just hanging there I decided to take a second and let things cool down. I was able to get Zeke into a sit-stay, and then the bird just let me walk up and grab it without a fuss (which was surprising). Zeke can be a real killer though. He's the first dog I've known that kills snakes. [quote name='courtnek']I hate to say it Eric, but Free woulda had a field day. not only would she not have waken me up, she would have destroyed the fireplace glass and gone INTO the fireplace after the bird.Once she had caught it (and she would) she would have brought it, very dead, and presented it to me. [/quote]
  23. So I'm dozing away this morning - wife has already left for work (I get up an hour later) when I'm woken up by our GSD Travis jumping on the bed and plopping down beside me and resting his head on my side. "That's a bit weird" I think to myself drowsily. Travis rarely sleeps on the bed. He
  24. I think you have more than just separation anxiety. With separation anxiety, the dog becomes anxious when left alone. This can result in destructive behaviour as you have described. One simple thing I can recommend is to crate train your dog. Crate training involves putting your dog in a plastic/metal dog crate (or carrier) while you are away. This may sound cruel, but it actually comforts the dog. It becomes their "special place" and they feel safe there. This tends to reduce their anxiety and also prevents them from destroying the house. The anxiety can develop for a number of reasons, but basically dogs are social animals and do not generally like to be left alone. Some dogs deal with it, others don't. As for the other behaviours you describe, I would strongly recommend obedience school. A good school/instructor will show you how to curb these behaviours as well as providing your dog with some socialization.
  25. That's just stupid. I have like 4 things I can think of in my house within easy reach that I would use in a case like this, number 1 being a 6" chinese cleaver.
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