mommacat

You need to put it in the dryer with a clean tennis shoe or 2 . That will knock the feathers around enough to get them unclumped and back in place. I used to wash down coats all the time, and they come out fine this way. Works on our down comforter, too.

Thanks everyone for all of the suggestions. I have noticed that she paces more when my husband is around, Courtnek. I talked to him about it, and he is trying to pay more attention to her, he had her come up on the couch and sit with him last night. It was really cute, she is obviously trying so hard to please him, she only "smiles" on command for him, and she gets her tail wagging so hard, her butt wagged her off the couch last night! She only gets allowed into the room with the food 2 times a day, she still steals a lot, but we will work on that. Yesterday morning, after I laid back down to get more sleep (I LOVE SNOW DAYS!!!) she was throwing the ball for herself, and then chasing it. I guess she has decided she needs more excercise, too! I have convinced him to at least keep her until after Christmas break, I will have 2 weeks off and can work with her more. Now, I just hope she's ok at my mom's house, I think I will keep her leashed to me (and then pay to have mom's carpets cleaned :oops: )

Thanks, GSD for that vote of confidence. I think the point missed by most people on here is that I am ok with her, it is my husband that is really frustrated with her, and has gotten to the point where anything she does annoys him. My frustration is that I've had many dogs, always at least one or 2, and have trained them all since I was about 13, and have never had such a problem as I am having with her. She's also very smart, which makes it even more frustrating! I am dissapointed in myself because i did so much research before we got this dog, and we were sure that it was the right type for us. Snow - a few things I would like to clear up from your posts. When I say she won't listen to my children (who are 7 and 10), they work with her in a quiet place, giving her only the commands she already knows, and I have trained THEM in the correct way to work with her. They only did this at first with me in the room, but that proved to be too big of a distraction, so now I go into the next room when they work with her. Now - get this! I was home with Maya and the kids all day on Saturday, and she was fine. Went outside 2times in the morining, then not again until about 3:00, slept for 3 hours in her kennel, and was not hyper at all. But - when she's home with my husband during the day (he works wierd shifts!) she is never like that. It's like as soon as she sees him, she has to go outside, even though he's not usually the one who lets her out! What is up with that? Does she just want to please him so much that she gets WAY more hyper when he's around? I have really started to watch what gets her going, and it really seems to be worse when he's around.

I know I haven't been on here much lately, but to tell you the truth, I have a problem and didn't really want to bring it up here, because I know how devoted you all are to your dogs and I think I know how you would all feel, but I am at my wit's end and don't know what to do. Here is my problem - Maya. Most of you know I have a Japanese Spitz named Maya that we got in June, she is almost 8 months old. She is REALLY smart, and loves to please, and I really love her. The problem is, she is SO hyper, and doesn't really want to listen to anyone but me. She is never aggressive, just hyper. She will jump on the kids when playing, and occasionally scratches them. That's not really the big problem, though. She is always trying to keep herself busy, and CONSTANTLY chews up paper, gets in the garbage, grabs stuff from the kids rooms, and goes in and out AT LEAST 25 times a day! We crate-trained her, and she is fine if she is in the rooms we are in, but we can't trust her to go to any of the other rooms, we have to keep a baby gate up and the basement door shut, which doesnt' work because then the cat can't get to her litter box in the basement. Maya also won't really eat her food until she it has sat for a day or 2, and she is ALWAYS stealing food from us, she gets on the table, the counter, the garbage, and has even opened a cupboard door and taken food out! I have tried a couple of different kinds of food, and nothing really helps. I even bought the kind my mom feeds her dog, because Maya always eats it at her house, and she won't eat it at home. We don't give her scraps at all, so its not that she's waiting for that. We also can't take her places. We go to stay at my parent's house in Wisconsin for holidays, and she gets along well with thier dog (they drive us crazy with thier playing!) but we can't trust her AT ALL there, she will pee on the floor when we are standing right there. I have really worked with this dog, and was hoping to train her for agility. I haven't got her spayed yet, because I read on here that you spay them early to keep the puppy-ness, and since we'd like her calmer, I was going to wait so that hopefully it would calm her down. She hasn't had a heat yet. I know I could handle waiting for her to grow up and settle down, but my husband is getting to where he REALLY doesn't like her, and I am sick of listening to him complain about her. I know she needs more excersize, but we can't have a fence where we are, and I can't trust her to take her anywhere and let her run. I walked her a lot when the weather was nicer, but that didn't seem to help. Like I said, I really love this girl, but I seem to be the only one that does, and I am tired of living in a house where I continually feel guilty for having her. What do I do? do I give in to him and get rid of her? I really don't want to, but I know she'd be happier if she could be somewhere where she could run more, but she also needs humans, as she loves us so. Would i be making it worse for her to separate her from me since she is so attached to me? I don't think it is good for her to live where someone is always mad at her, though. It breaks my heart, because she tries so hard to please him. Don't think my hubby is a bad person, he is a really nice guy, he just likes a clean and peaceful house, and she seems to be always disturbing the house. He also grew up in a family where it was ok to get rid of a pet if they didn't work out, where I didn't, I believe you keep the pet for life. I also don't want to teach our kids that it is ok to get rid of something, but I want all of us, including Maya, to be happy. WHAT DO I DO??????? sorry if I rambled, I guess I needed to get this out. If no one wants to answer cuz I've been gone for a while, I understand. Thanks for any help.

I have a solution that works for kids and smaller dogs, not sure if it would work for big dogs, though. Get some big boxes, and put something heavy (bricks, etc) in them. Then wrap them as you would a present. Set these around the tree, and they act as a barrier so that the kid, animal, whatever, can't get close enough to the tree to bother it. Also, they look really good!

Thanks ! I will show them to him, but I think he was thinking more of a cream that would both protect and help the skin heal. I suggested Watkins salve, but it needs to be unscented.

We just took Maya in for final puppy shots and were talking about spaying - it is $85.00 here, $95.00 if I wait until she is over 25 pounds. Boy, am I glad I live here right now!!

I voted! - There was no contest, he is SOOOO cute!!

Thanks, Kat! Good tip. I will tell him

OOOh, OOOh, OOOh - I knew what they were right away!! We raised and showed rabbits for a while - we actually showed Flemish Giants (we had one over 20 pounds!!) and my daughter showed Netherland Dwarfs (had to be under 3 pounds) - talk about extremes! ANYWAY - at a rabbit show I got to talking to a breeder of angoras, and got to hold some. They are AMAZING - because you think you are picking up this HUGE rabbit, and they are really tiny inside all that fur! They are really sweet, though, and just love to cuddle! Of course, these were show bunnies so they were handled a lot, but as a breed I burss they have really good temperments. If we didn't have the Flemish at the time, I would probably have had one (I'm such a sucker for a cute furry face! :oops: )

That is so sad, but really makes you think. I am soooo crying right now.

Thanks, Aurora!! You are a sweetie! I will give him the info - we were worried that the other dogs that hunt with him (mainly ours!) could get it to, now we know how to prevent that.

I have a friend with a almost 3 year old black lab male. Every fall, after the first couple of times he has been out hunting, he starts pooping blood. The vet says it is coccydiosus (spelling??) and gives him some antibiotics. It seems to be getting worse each year - does anyone have any idea why this happens or what he could do to help prevent it? Any help would be greatly appreciated. When the vet told my friend that some dogs have to be put down for this, it really upset him. Thanks in advance for any help.

I need some help for a friend. One of my friends hunts his lab, and his face got pretty cut up from the long grass. Does anyone know of anything he can put on the dog's nose and eyes to protect them while he is hunting? He was thinking of some sort of salve, but it has to be odor free, or it will interfere with the dog smelling the pheasants. Thanks in advance for any help youcan give me.

Thanks for the advice - He seems much better today, but I will do that in the morning until I can get him to the vet.

Ok, guys, as most of you know, we have a yellow lab named Goose. He is mainly a hunting dog, and this past weekend was opening of pheasant season, so he hunted MADLY for 2 days. My husband has been training and excersizing him quite a bit so that he would be ready. He hunted all day on Saturday and Sunday, Monday morning seemed to be fine, and then on Monday evening he was limping really bad, wouldn't put weight on his front foot. We thought something might be in the pad, and there seemed to be a small cut in the webbing, so we soaked it in warm water and tried to clean the pads the best we could. Now last night, he was again limping, and the joint (wrist?) seems to be swollen. You can touch the pad, and move the joint up and down, but it seems to be tender when you touch the side of the joint. Any ideas? We tried to get him into the vet today, but couldnt, maybe tomorrow. Any help in the meantime would be appreciated, or ideas of what to do to make him feel better. He NEVER wants to be in the house (unless it is summer and really hot out, and the airconditioning is on!! :wink: ) and for the last 2nights he hasnt wanted to leave, just lays his head on my lap when asked if he wants to go back out. He still tries to play with Maya, so he has some spirit, he is just in pain, it makes me so sad to watch him. Any help would be appreciated.

DAL - Please come back. I don't think you realize the effect you have on all of us here - I know that you have taught me A LOT about deaf dogs and the special needs they have, and how to work with special needs dogs. As many people have said, I think that sometimes what we write comes off different than what we mean to say, since we can't see the expressions on our faces like we can when we talk face to face. Please don't be offended, we all want you here.

I have a friend that puts 1 Tablespoon of Tomato juice in his dogs water every day, it does something with the PH, also. He says it really works, no yellow spots.

Funny Dogs!!! We used to have a black lab that could open her outside kennel, unless we locked it with a padlock!! Then, she decided to try to dig her way out, and bent the chain link fence enough to get out. Sneaky girl!

SSOOOOOOO funny!! I can just see Maya thinking that same way!! :lol:

Maya has 2 that are her faves. One is a kids toy from McDonalds - a Furby with a tail that pulls out and then shakes as it goes back in. She played with it so much, pulling the tail out with her mouth while holding it with her paws, that she ruined the tail. She still likes to play with it, just not as much. Her other favorite is a squeaky porcupine(I think!!) that she seems to love to play with best whenever we are watching a movie, and it is real quiet in the house!! GRRR!! She also likes tug - she and my mothers' schnauzer really get going, it its really cute! and Fetch. She also likes to think the cat is her toy, but we are trying to discourage her from that!!!!!

ok - I guess I am logged in, it just says I'm not. Sorry :oops:

I'm a golden Retriever! I dont think that is right, though, I'm not nearly energetic enough to be a Golden!! This is Mommacat - I can't log in anymore. :evil: Can someone help, PLEASE?!?!? :o

OOOHH Courtnek - how maddening for you!! :x :x :x At least for once the police believed the RESPONSIBLE pet owner, not th goof off!! :-?

How awful!! I hope they are not near you!