Tag: dog rescue

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Stories

How to Take Care of a Shihtzu Dog?

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My coworker gave me a Shihtzu puppy that was two years old.

Now in my care this Shih-Tzu has a lot of habits that I am unable to get him to refrain from.

Guarding his food obsessively. Yes, he will bite and go after your heels. Spent a month getting him to eat from my hand, but when I had to put the food back in the automatic feeder he started his guarding all over again.

Chasing the USPS truck, FedEx truck, and Golf cart that maintenance drives around our apartment complex. (He is usually leashed, but he yanks hard and runs full force.)

Our mailman understands our dog and has become friends with him. However, once the mailman enters his mail truck, my dog views the mail man as a curse.

If a package is delivered to our home he runs to the door, barks ferociously, and if you attempt to move him to open the door he will bite at me.

Attacking maintenance men’s jeans and roofers who have to go in our home to check things out when I was not at home. (We’ve purchased a crate, yet he has to be held when people even knock on the door as he gets aggressive.)

I am unable to take him to anyone’s home because he marks his territory by pooping. He is neutered.

I have a cat and I keep her upstairs because he runs after her and pulls the fur out of her and will not give her any space. We have a baby gate preventing the dog from harassing the cat.

Anything helpful advice would be greatly appreciated.

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Discussions

What is the most child friendly dog breed?

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I’m looking for a dog that would fit my 2 year old boy. I know that all dogs need proper social integration and all, but in general I am looking for a breed that is known to be both tolerant and non-aggressive.

I don’t really care about size, but I work a lot, so it would be very helpful with a dog that is not big size, as others will have to go for a walk / watch it for me as well.

A plus would also be a breed with few genetic health issues and that can get along with other dogs.

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Stories

The experiences in taking care of a puppy

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My friend, Alice got a 15 week old Basenjy puppy 3 weeks ago and it has been pretty challenging so far. She call him is Memphis. She spent the first week crying as the responsibility of owning a puppy fully hit her, She has a 4 year old dog but she didn’t get him as a puppy so She’s still very new to this. She got over that pretty quickly but it’s still kinda overwhelming sometimes.

Memphis is a sweet little puppy, he can be relatively calm sometimes. But other times he is just so damn rambunctious. he gets really bitey and annoying sometimes. When She sees him walk off to go chew on something that he isn’t supposed to chew on, he doesn’t listen when She calls him back (even though obedience training is going pretty well). He’s still having accidents everyday (no more than 1 though). He still pulls pretty hard on leash, and he just straight up ignores me when She take him to new places.

She said “obedience training is going pretty well but some days he’s just such a pain in the ass to train and it’s really discouraging and frustrating because I feel like I’m doing everything wrong. I know Basenji’s are naturally very headstrong but it just makes me feel like a shitty dog owner.

I often find myself thinking “Man, I can’t wait till he grows up and calms down a bit.” But everybody dog owner I know keeps telling me to cherish his puppyhood. It’s kinda difficult to cherish it at the moment though.

My friend also received many the advices of experenced people in animal loving club.

Someone said to my friend “Keep trying! Training your puppy is a year long process. The moment he does something right reward him like crazy. My brand new puppy is headstrong too so when she finally decides to listen in a moment of puppyness, I reward her like crazy and accept that it is going to be a very long time before she is truly “well behaved”. The problem is so many people throw in the towel when the going gets rough. Think of it like parenthood. All children misbehave, doesn’t matter how good of a parent they have. It’s all about not giving up on the training process and accepting that it’s not going to go well at times.”

Another encouraged “I really relate to you!! I can’t wait for my pup to grow up too…. and he’s 7 months old. Puppyhood is hard.

On tough days where I don’t have the patience for my dog (like when I’m working from home and he’s distracting especially) I give him long lasting chews to occupy him for hours. When he was your puppy’s age, he really liked chewing on plastic water bottles.”

And Someone alo shared his experience: “Oh, that was so me the first month I had Loui who’s also a very high energy dog. I adopted him when he was 3 month old, and he’s 5,5 mo now and a lot calmer. I think the key is just time really, and bonding. You’ll always be able to train your pup so just make sure to build trust and confidence and do things together you both like (which of course could be training so I’m not saying you shouldn’t just that you shouldn’t be too hard on yourself). A thing that really helped me calm Loui is capturing calm. I make sure to do this with a high value treat (chicken sausage) and when he lays down on his own initiative and is calm (you know, head to the ground, big sigh haha) I give him a small piece of the sausage. A month ago I couldn’t even cook a meal without him going bananas and doing EVERYTHING to get my attention. Now he’s on his mat waiting for some chicken sausage that I throw him every 2-5 minutes.

Best of luck, Alice, it will all get better!”

And also a lot of encouragement, congratulations, share with my friend. She is very excited and has a firm belief that she will take good care of the puppy.
Thank you if you read the whole read through the whole thing. Any advice is welcome.

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Stories

The untrained dog that is badly treated needs to go to Animal Rescued Center

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I have lived with my friend for about 10 months.

The only thing sadder than my roommates life is the life she gives to her dog. I’ll be honest I absolutely hate her dog, but I know it’s not the dogs fault because she has had such a shitty owner. The dog has no manners because she was never disciplined for jumping on people, she was never told no for being aggressive towards people or dogs (luckily she’s not super people aggressive, but she will bark at strangers and jump at people to knock them down). This dog isn’t even house trained, and her owner literally pretends not to see her piss or shit around the house to avoid cleaning it up. She’s left piss and shit in the living room for over a week before cleaning it up (when she wanted to have friends over to watch film and realized we weren’t going to clean up after her dog).

Eventually she started keeping her dog in her own room when she had to go to work so it wouldn’t go to the bathroom in the common areas. But that was short lived as the dog started just going all over her room. So she started leaving her in a crate- which I’m okay with to an extent.. however, she doesn’t even bother to leave her a toy to keep her occupied. To make it even worse she leaves her in the crate for way too long with the record being 21 hours. She doesn’t arrange for anyone to come let her dog outside. A new roommate moved in and she asked her to do it for a bit before she said she couldn’t anymore (he was only asking her because she’s cute and wanted to get close to her). She regularly leaves the dog in the crate for 18-20 hours so she can go get drunk after work. On Friday’s she will leave the dog even longer. Last weekend she put the dog in the crate at 7am, came home and let her out for 2 minutes at 4pm, then put him immediately back in her crate so She could go party. She didn’t come back until 2pm the next day meaning she was basically in a crate for 30 hours. Another time she left the dog alone for 2 days in her room without making any arrangements to have her let out.

She tries to say the dog has separation anxiety and that’s why she goes to the bathroom inside. I don’t think so because she also pees and poops around the house when roommate is here playing video games, AND roommate has taken no action to help with separation anxiety.

She regularly forgets to feed her dog to the point that my roommate used to give her food and water when roommate was at work.

Her dog is lucky to get one walk a month. I have even timed two of his walks. Once in the fall at 15 minutes. Once last week for 20 minutes. She gets let outside for basically 2 minutes 3 times a day (before roommates work, after work, and before bed). When roommate is home she is either watching video games or getting fucked up drinking and doing blow. Although if it is nice outside (we are in Canada, so almost half the year sucks) roommate will spend time sitting outside and the dog will get to go with her, but she doesn’t play with her or anything, and we have a small yard.

She’s been told multiple times she needs to care better for her dog. We’ve told her she needs to get more walks, she needs more attention, she needs not to be left in a crate for so long. But roommate doesn’t give a fuck. I’ve had enough of seeing her dog treated so poorly, and our lease ends on May 1st, so I figured it was now or never.

I do admit that I feel kind of bad because my dog means so much to me, and I would be so upset if someone thought my dogs needs weren’t being met. But I guess that’s where we’re different.
I finally called the animal helping center for her dog. The dog needs a proper place to live.

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Stories

Chocolate can make dogs very sick or even died

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Chocolate can make dogs very sick or even kill them because it contains a substance called theobromine, which is like a poison to dogs

Chocolate is toxic to dogs (and cats!).Even chocolate ingestion can result in serious illness. Chocolate is toxic because it contains a substance called theobromine, as well as caffeine. Both Theobromine and caffeine are also used medicinally as a diuretic, heart stimulant, blood vessel dilator, and a smooth muscle relaxant. Dogs cannot metabolize as well as people can. This makes them more sensitive to the chemicals’ effects.

How much chocolate does a dog eat will be poisoned?
Depending on the type of chocolate, the amount of toxic theobromine varies . The darker and more bitter the chocolate, the more dangerous it is for dogs. Baked chocolate and gourmet dark chocolate are high in concentration and contain 130-450 mg of theobromine per ounce, while regular milk chocolate contains only around 44-58 mg / ounce. White chocolate poses hardly any threat of chocolate poisoning with just 0.25 mg of theobromine per ounce of chocolate (that said, dogs can still get sick from all fats and sugar, which can cause pancreatitis). To put this in perspective, a medium-sized dog weighing 50 pounds would only need to eat 1 ounce of baker’s chocolate, or 9 ounces of milk chocolate, to potentially show signs of poisoning. For many dogs, eating small amounts of milk chocolate is not harmful.

What is a sign of a dog chocolate poisoning?
Clinical signs depend on the amount and type of chocolate ingested. For many dogs, the most common clinical signs are vomiting and diarrhea, increased thirst, excessive urination, and a fast heartbeat. In some severe cases, muscle tremors, convulsions and heart failure may be seen. In older pets that eat a lot of dark chocolate or high quality baked chocolate, sudden cardiac death can occur, especially in dogs with pre-existing heart disease. Complications can make the prognosis of chocolate poisoning worse. When in doubt, the vet will treat you immediately if you ingest a toxic amount of chocolate.

Signs of chocolate poisoning can take several hours to develop and can last for days, due to the duration of theobromine’s action. Theobromine can even be reabsorbed from the bladder, so intravenous fluids and frequent walking may be needed to encourage urination. It is important to seek medical attention by calling your veterinarian as soon as you suspect that your dog has eaten chocolate.

What should I do if my dog eats chocolate?
If you think your dog eats chocolate, contact your veterinarian to see if a poisonous amount of chocolate was ingested. If a toxic amount is ingested, you should have your dog examined by a veterinarian immediately. The sooner the theobromine is removed from the body of the dog, the better your dog is.

How to treat chocolate poisoning?
Treatment depends on the amount and type of chocolate eaten. If treated early, the removal of chocolate from the stomach by administering emetics and giving activated charcoal to block the absorption of theobromine into the body may be all that is needed. Activated charcoal can be used every four to six hours for the first twenty-four hours to reduce theobromine’s continued reabsorption and circulation. All dogs that eat chocolate should be closely monitored for any signs of agitation, vomiting, diarrhea, anxiety, irregular heartbeat and high blood pressure. Usually, drugs that slow the heart rate (for example, beta blockers) may be needed to treat high heart rate and arrhythmia.

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Stories

My overweight dog need helping!

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I have an fine relationship with my parents, it’s easy to control emotions and sometimes it can be too much for me to handle. Getting into conflict with them is like hitting a brick wall and I’ve kinda have become quiet rather than tried voicing any opinion because it always ends in a shouting match and they never listen anyway. Therefore, I have stayed with my boyfriend and his family, because of the relationship with my parents.

But until i came home that I realised how much they have overfed the dog and gave it little to no exercise and little exercise and I tried to voice my opinion but my parents just insisted that it is ‘muscle’ not fat. They blame for her medication (she is taking an antiseptic for an underlying condition).

Yesterday, We took my dog into the vet for a checkup as she had an operation some months ago and when and when my mom was told her weight she was VERY surprised and unsure of how and she gained just that -althought I had told her multiple of times that our dog was overweight.

Before being locked up, she weighed 13kg, and for a small dog is still quite heavy, but now she is 16.3kg. It made me worry that she was overweight especially because we had a near-death experience with her when she was seriously ill and had surgery.

The dog gets fed wetfood twice a day (in total 2/3 of a whole can of dog food), once at 6am and once at 6pm, and they leave small bowl of biscuits is left out for her to graze on throughout the week. My parents also give her a dental chew for her teeth/bad breath and a cocktail sausage to have her steroid in.

I take her for two moderatly lengthy walks a day and she can go in the garden whenever she pleases- however because of university I can only walk her once on some days. Also due to the dog being pretty elderly it is difficult to exercise her very well because of her arthritis.

I suggested we put her in a caloric deficit but my parents didn’t listen and refused that we should, even though they also told me She’s ‘my dog’ in an attempt to guilt trip me into coming home during a national lockdown. (I’ll go into more detail on this but I feel like this might be off-topic or irrelevant.) And if I try to follow her path as ‘my)’ dog, then my parents would be very funny if they don’t control her treatment and I can’t always be by my side because college (despite going to work every day).

The dog seems happy but, like I said before, I am worried for her health. She’s been my best friend for just over 10 years and nearly my only friend at some points and it’s terrifying that something like this could bring her life to an end way closer than I hope.

If you have any solution that can help my dog, please do share to help her have a better health

Sincerely,

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Adopt

Please send a lot of love for my baby

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I recently adopted this adorable 2 year-old mini Aussie from this couple who no longer have time for him. I know I should have asked for a full vet check-up beforehand, but my heart decided faster than my brain. It was love at first sight. He is freaking adorable, so calm, mild-mannered, super cuddly and just so so so sweet. I took him to the vet the next day and found out he is heart-worm positive.

My heart is breaking and I cried so much. To think this poor little baby is going through this preventable disease is upsetting me so much. I am so worried and scared, this is my first pet so I’m too inexperienced.

Deep down I keep trying to rationalize this situation because of me, this dog gets checked up and will receive treatment, so in a way it is a good thing I adopted him, and now I just need to try my best to help his treatment.

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Stories

My family adopted a dog

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My family adopted a dog from a family member who couldn’t take care of him anymore. He’s a rescue from the south and probably around 3 yrs old, mixed breed (30 lbs), neutered.

He’s had tons of health and especially digestive issues since he was brought up and finally this October the vet did some blood work and said it was heartworm, and more than likely came from when he was a stray in the south (honestly we’re a little sad/annoyed that it wasn’t found sooner, considering all the health issues we’ve brought up to the vet, but now we’re just trying to get him better)

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Stories

I believe in the power of positive thoughts or prayers or whatever you want to call it.

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I can’t begin to describe how this makes me feel. When I was a stupid 24 year old, I adopted an anbandoned dog without thinking about the repercussions, etc. I have had him since, about 8 years now, and have sacrificed ALOT to stay with him.

Iv lived with my mother, been basically homeless, been kicked out of apartments, etc. Leaving him has never been and will never be an option as we are family.

As immature as I was when I adopted him, I understood that he was my responsibility for the rest of his life. A responsibility that I’m incredibly grateful to have. He has done as much if not more for me emotionally, as I have done for him.

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Stories

How much free stuff do you need to keep your dog at home

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I just adopted a dog a week ago. My adoption was free (normally $25, but has been free since covid started). Included neuter, first round of shots: rabies, DAPP, and bordetella, a free initial health exam at a participating vet, and a free beginning training course.

Unfortunately the shelter is 100 miles away from where I live (rural NM, adopted in ABQ) so I can’t really take advantage of the free health exam and training class. But still, I was amazed at how much was included in my FREE adoption.

They also do surrender consultations (saw on a sign) before accepting an animal and I’m sure part of the consultation is “how much free stuff do you need to keep your dog at home.”