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Has an x-ray of the spine been taken?  My Stella had an injury to her spine while crated that left her paralyzed.  The only thing we could figure out was that maybe she fell off her pillow.

Maple trees are sweet like candy in the spring when the sap is rising.  A red maple won't be as sweet as a sugar maple, but will still be tasty.  Red maples, depending on the exact type, can be very expensive and fragile.  I would protect the tree.  Friends in Wisconsin with sugar maples and a dog who would come home with his face covered in sticky sap.

Zita figured out fast that I will trade her a stick for a treat or toy.  I should take a picture of the box I keep the sticks in until dumpster day...

Not giving the dogs access to the trash is the place to start, IMO.  Setting the trash up as a training opportunity comes next along with restricting access until after training is complete.  We have metal trash cans with the lids bungee corded on until after the newest dog is trained.

Some dogs will never be trustable with trash.  Our Vizsla was stray and eating trash to survive from her 12th to 16th weeks.  

Tying things to strings is a great training method because few dogs ever figure out the relationship between the string and the human holding it.  I once trained a huge Great Dane away from guarding the bed from his owner.  She had already been bitten twice for trying to sleep there.

After tying a clothesline to the dog's harness, we waited for the dog to go to sleep on her bed.  Then we pulled the rope from outside the room causing the dog to land on a pile of pillows on the floor while we practiced our innocent looks.  After about a week of that, the dog wouldn't even go into her bedroom.

I was hoping this was a thread on how to stop people from dumping trash on vacant lots.  A pile of used tires recently appeared down the street.

The laundry room is one of the few rooms here the dogs are not allowed in because that is where all of the toxic household cleaners are kept locked up.  There is also a clothes line in the room and one good shake of a muddy dog and there would be a mess.  They also do not go in the panty or kitchen much since the food is so tempting.

Our house has eleven exterior doors and several of them are on bedrooms.  Two of the bedrooms, the little dog room and the big dog room, have dog doors built into the people doors leading out to fenced yards.  The house is concrete block and all of the floors are tile or concrete for easy cleanup.  In the summer there are misting systems set up in both yards and in the winter the rooms get heated.

If I were going to do anything to remodel, I would have a floor drain and a faucet in the little dog room since that is where the incontinent dogs wind up. 

Got pictures of that sheep herding boxer?  My dogs would think sheep are bouncy fuzzy toys and try to fetch them back to me.

Just looking at the photo, your dog doesn't look underweight to me.  Dogs come in all sizes, even pure breeds.  One of my Italian Mastiffs is less than 80 pounds and is a fine weight for her build.

We have neighbors that the cops don't even go to alone.  I would rather not talk to them about their 24/7 barking dogs.

Here is a pasting of an article from this week's local newspaper about problem dogs.  They make barkers look good.

Dog attack illustrates ongoing WV problem

By KURT SCHAUPPNER / The Desert Trail   Wednesday, January 23, 2008 2:27 PM PST
WONDER VALLEY — Less than a month after moving to Wonder Valley, Bill Carr and his 15-year-old Terrier mix, Samantha, “Sammy,” were introduced to a long-standing problem in this east Morongo Basin community, aggressive packs of loose dogs.

Carr, a disabled veteran, moved to Wonder Valley from Phoenix, Ariz., on Dec. 15 with his 8-pound dog.

They have been staying with a friend, Bill Wetterer, at Wetterer’s house in the 4700 block of Wilson Road.

They were outside on the afternoon off Wednesday, Jan. 9 when Samantha was attacked by five large mixed-breed dogs, Carr said, describing the dogs as not as big as but as tall as Rottweilers.

“They all came over and one of them grabbed her and shook her,” Carr said. “She’s got 45 stitches in her.”

He added that the dog has suffered from infections and other complications since the attack.


Carr and Wetterer took Samantha to the Hi-Desert Animal Hospital in Yucca Valley where a neighbor leant Carr the money to pay for treatment. Carr said he plans to repay the neighbor though he is not certain how.

Carr said he is not certain if the dogs are feral or simply dogs allowed by their owners to run loose.

“They came down one night and aggressively went after my friend,” Carr said. “They are out all hours. I understand that they are all over the area. It might be someone just lets them out at night to go scavenge.”

Carr noted that he and Wetterer have been friends for 30 years. They work together as professional musicians and handymen.

Wetterer noted that he has lived in Wonder Valley for about 13 years.

“I don’t know exactly where they come from. They seem to have packed up,” he said of the dogs who attacked Samantha and others who are known to roam the area.

“People do dump dogs out here periodically. I think some of them are just dogs that are not cared for very well,” he said. “I cannot identify any particular dog with an owner.”

He said he has seen the same bunch of dogs before, usually in a pack of about five.

“I think there are other bunches too. There’s quite a few wild dogs out here,” he said, noting that he has been confronted by dogs acting “like my property is their property. If I get aggressive with them so far they have backed off.”

He described the dogs as ranging from medium to large.

“I think we are going to call Animal Control,” he said.

Wetterer added that there are many Wonder Valley residents with dogs who are responsible dog owners.

Wonder Valley Fire Capt. Starlene Javier on Tuesday, Jan. 22 confirmed that aggressive loose dogs has been a long-running but not frequent problem for Wonder Valley residents.

“There are packs of wild dogs that have been running around here for years,” Javier said. “They have attacked animals. I have known them to keep people from coming out of their homes.”

She noted that residents calling county Animal Control should not expect much of a response unless the offending animal has been captured.

“They are not going to come out and search the desert,” she said. “Unless they are captured or contained they have no way of catching them.”

Javier estimated that attacks are reported three or four times a year.

Sometimes the dogs are those that have been abandoned by people from outside the area.

“People kick their dogs out here all the time,” she said, adding that if nobody adopts the abandoned dog it can be adopted by a feral pack.

“There’s a pack that runs with about two or three pit bulls,” she said.

“Don’t attempt to go near them. They will attack you,” she said, noting that if you are inside and a pack is outside your home, and you don’t have a gun, you should probably stay indoors.

Have you checked the registered sex offender database for that fiance?  I'd also get a detective on him ASAP and see if you can find anything bad on him to tell the judge.

Order in eating and in lines describes behaviors that dogs are born understanding, IMO, so it makes sense to use that when training them.  Making a point of eating before you feed a puppy establishes the pups' status in the pack right away. 

After my pups are about 16 weeks old I stop making that a lesson unless they are showing signs of aggression.  We free feed so their eating manners are a big deal.  Zita, at 13 months and about 5 months of daily lessons, is just now starting to allow Wally to walk past food without the lunge and growl. 

Doorways are good pinch points for teaching pack order.  All my dogs get taught that they cannot go through a doorway ahead of me unless I command them to.  Zita gets a Wait command, then she has to Sit, then more Waiting, then I tell her Shoo to get her to pass through.  There are also hand commands for all of those.  It is really handy when the door needs to be left open and the dogs need to not run out.

It totally depends on the dog.  Zita is my only one who will get pushy and rude if not kept in line 24/7.  Cody Newfoundland never needed any doorway lessons.  Neither did Wally and she is the same breed as Zita, Italian Mastiff.

Good table manners in a dog makes it nicer to be around them.  Nobody wants a guest with a lap full of coffee after the dog nudged their elbow looking for attention.  Our dining room has a smooth floor so the dogs don't go in there, but if they did, they would have to lay down while people were eating.  IRL hubby usually eats in his comfy chair in front of the TV with a circle of staring dogs around him.

They also get petted in order.