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Topics - galxe

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Behavior, Housebreaking, Obedience / Housebreaking help!
« on: March 21, 2008, 01:08:48 am »
 Hey all, I haven't been around for quite awhile... but the time has finally come for us to add to our family again and so, here I am!

About two months ago we brought home our baby girl Lucy (photos forthcoming, promise!) She's a 5 year old "border collie/lab mix" (so says the shelter, she looks like a pit with bc hair to me, either way, she's 50% bc and 100% mine!)
She's a great dog that came to us with BAD habits, most of all have been corrected or are almost there. With the exception of housebreaking.

She'll let us know when she needs to go out, and goes outside just about everytime we put her out there and tell her to "go potty". But, she keeps peeing in our house! It's driving me batty! She's crated at night and left out during the day. During the day, while we're gone, no accidents at all. (Except for the day I got caught up at work, couldn't come home for lunch and got home late on top of it. All my fault)

When we're at home at night, she will pee upstairs every chance she gets. Literally! All night she is trying to sneak upstairs to pee! Even right after she goes outside! Unfortunately, with the way that our staircase is, it's pretty much impossible to babygate the upstairs off. (And, she'd jump it anyway) It used to just be the second bedroom, but now she's given that up in favor of our bedroom or the hallway. Every accident has been thoroughly cleaned- soaked up with a towel, doused with nature's miracle. I've steam cleaned with pet odor remover atleast once a week since we've brought her home. (Sadly, out of necessity)

I love her to pieces- but we live in a rental! Our LL has been totally gracious in letting us have her, but I don't want to replace carpet! Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Currently, the only solution I can think of is to crate her while we're home, which seems awful. She's just QUICK and it's impossible to keep my eye on her all the time.

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Feel free to scroll ahead to the issue at hand...

So a little backstory:
Some of you may remember back to the drama of Izzy. My husband's boss and our landlord were one in the same, they changed their mind about Izzy and told us that we had to give him up or we'd lose Sean's job AND our only place to live (I wasn't working at the time) So, we made the terrificly heartbreaking decision to give Izzy up. Well, here we are, only 8 months later, and my husband has been laid off, and we now have to find a new place to live (wish I would have seen this coming in Dec., we would have just told them to go ahead and fire him!) Anyway, we're now finding ourselves looking for a pet friendly rental (we have two cats) and, just maybe, a place that will  let us have a dog someday down the road, when the timing is right. So, I found a cute a little house that was advertised as pet friendly, made a little drive by, and saw a mastiff in the front yard! Yeah for big paw friendly! So that brings us to the present problem...


The issue:
  So, we made an appointment to see the house. We're standing around waiting for the guy to let us in, and I get a better look at the mastiff. She's female, brindle colored, and.. oh my lord. Most of her ribs were visible, she's shedding in chunks, and she has the most horrendous infection in her eyes that I've ever seen. She almost can't see out of them because there is so much goop and puss and Lord knows what else in them.  :'( I can tell that she's an outside dog, which I know is not a crime, though I don't know if she's brought inside in the winter, which would be a crime, since I didn't see a doghouse. She has water available, but no food. Which, I mean, most big dog lovers don't free feed their dogs anyway, so that's also not a crime. So, am I overreacting, or should I call someone? A rescue group? Humane society? Or am I just crazy?

Based on the following, is this reportable?

She's extremely skinny. Ribs are not totally sucked in or overly defined from the top view, nor is her waist sucked in to the point of emaciation. But from the side, nearly all her ribs are visible and more than palpable, when petting her there does not appear to be any fat covering over her ribs at all. Her spine is beginning to be visible from the top view. If using the Purina Body Condition System (that poster in all the vet offices, it's the best visual I can think of)I would say that she's about a two (very thin).

Her eyes are very, very infected. Both of them are full of a  white/green, thick, snot like substance. I would say that each eye is nearly half full of this stuff. There's also some good crust around each eye.

She doesn't appear to be abused at all; she seems to really like her owner and doesn't exhibit any behavior typical of a dog that's been physically abused. But her condition has me concerned.

So tell me, am I overreacting?

And as a quick side vent- who in the world would let their dog suffer like that?! >:(

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Newfoundland Discussions / Izzy update
« on: May 17, 2007, 12:34:38 pm »
   Well, this update is a long time coming. Some of you may remember me, in that many months ago, DH and I had to return our wonderful Newf, Izzy, to rescue for reasons beyond our control. I haven't been around much since, but I figure that many of you would appreciate hearing the happy ending to our less than happy story.

When I first brought Izzy (originally Grizzly)home, he and I had our picture taken and put into the Newf club newsletter. A longtime club member, who hadn't had a Newf in many years, remarked to the rescue coordinator that Izzy had a very sweet face, and that there had been a lot of great dogs in rescue lately. So, when Izzy had to return to rescue, who do you think they called? I dropped Izzy off at their house as a new foster, and got to watch him play with their five Welsh corgis and two cats. If I could have handpicked a couple to leave Izzy with, they would be it. Well, needless to say, Izzy didn't stay a foster for long. He has several corgi sibling, feline siblings, a fenced acre to play in, and a retired dad to hang out with him and take him for walks. He's now going by Grizz, and is incredibly happy.

As for us, we're still in Tahoe, still same old, same old/ To buffer Izzy's loss a bit, we brought home a new cat, that, surprisingly, sheds more than he did. She's quite the character, and in some ways could be part Newf, in that she meets us at the door every time we come home, and loves to play with water. Go figure. Sean and I are moving closer to home ownership, and the idea of our own place with no insurance restrictions has me dreaming of drool and gads of Newfy hair. (If my dream little house can wait on the market for just a few more months, we may be there) But, for now, we're enjoying our current feline furbabies and living vicariously through others for our doggy dreams.

I want to thank you guys so much or your support during the whole ordeal. Losing Izzy was incredibly difficult, but we're so glad to know that he has such a wonderful home. For a long time, it was too painful to stick around here, but now that wounds are healing, you may see me lurking a bit more.

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Behavior, Housebreaking, Obedience / Doesn't like other big paws...
« on: December 02, 2006, 01:27:35 pm »
Well it appears that our little angel's halo is crooked... :-\  Izzy is having some definite issues with other dogs. In his last five encounters with other dogs, Izzy has snapped at four of them. All of them have approached in a friendly manner, and exhibited play behavior. Some of them have gotten a little too personal in his space, some of them have not. Either way, even when the dog is removed from the situation, Izzy continues to try to go after them. It doesn't appear to be dominance related, but I could be wrong. The one dog that he didn't have any problems with was Jake, my parents white GSD. But even then, Izzy didn't have any interest in him at all, didn't want to play with him, etc. Currently, DH and I think it may be due to insufficient socialization with large dogs. (He has had 100% positive meetings with small dogs under 30 pounds. Weird.)

So, my questions for the oh so wise dog owners here..

How can we help socialize Izzy? We live in a rather rural area, and unfortunately don't know anyone within a few hours drive with a larger dog that we can work with.

What should we look for in a trainer? We know that we're not experts, and so we'll be seeking one out. Unfortunately, we'll probably have to drive a minimum of one hour each way to get to any trainer we find, but, such is the cost for our baby.

Any other advice or tips? Noen of these events have changed the way that we feel about our baby, but we want to do right by him and help him get over these problems.

Also, if you have any questions about any encounters, etc. let me know. I just left out details for the sake of keeping the post relatively un-novel-like. Thanks in advance for all of your help.

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Newfoundland Pictures / Izzy at work
« on: November 22, 2006, 01:25:00 am »
So, every day, Izzy goes to work with hubby (the camp office). You can tell that he's a really hard worker...

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Newfoundland Pictures / Ta-Da! Izzy Pictures!
« on: November 20, 2006, 07:35:01 am »
Okay, so I've been bad and haven't posted any pictures of Izzy yet. So, here are a few pics from our hike yesterday. Sorry for the meh picture quality, but that'll teach me to steal DH's camera!

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Newfoundland Discussions / Who said Newfs aren't good watchdogs?
« on: November 20, 2006, 06:45:44 am »
So, Izzy is a barker. He barks when he's excited, when he's curious, when he wants your attention, when the mood strikes him, etc. So, when he started barking in the middle of the night the other night, we thought to ourselves "oh Boy! This should be fun!" But he just keeps barking, and barking, and starts growling.  So we let him out of the bedroom (not outside, just into the rest of the house) and we look out the windows, etc. Nothing. So we're all grumpy and go back to bed. This keeps up randomly close to every night.
Fat forward to two nights ago. 2 AM- Iz is barking and going nuts. We open the bedroom door and nothing is outside but the motion light has been tripped. Ah, so there was something. We're not as grumpy, we go back to bed.
So last night, I go to take Izzy for the last walk before we go to bed. Izzy loves walks, Btw. So we get about ten feet away from the front door and he stops. Won't move. Just stares at me. Finally, I get him to go a couple more feet and he pees. Then, when we get to the edge of the road (about 25 feet from the front door) He absolutely refuses to budge, throws all his weight against me, the whole nine yards. Which is so not like him. He didn't seem scared at all, just kept staring at me with those big eyes and wouldn't move. I walk up to him and look down. Poop. Way too big to be Esther poop. Way too small to be Izzy poop. COYOTE POOP! Quite fresh at that. So finally, dense mom put it all together and headed back home, which he went gladly.
So, the mystery midnight barking is solved! Poor Izzy couldn't know that the coyotes up here are very timid and very small, but he obviously felt the need to protects his family from them anyways. What a sweetie! While the midnight barkingis obnoxious, it sure is a lot more tolerable now!

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Newfoundland Discussions / Izzy is home!!
« on: November 14, 2006, 01:13:54 am »
Well, after lots of time on the road- Izzy the Grizzly is finally home. He and I had a great ride from Manhattan Beach to Sacramento on Saturday night. Then the fun really began. We were going to spend the night in our old apartment, pick up Dad and Abby the cat, and drive the rest of the way to South Lake Tahoe. Great plan, except that Iz is apparently afraid of open stairs. Did I mention our apartment is the third floor? That was fun. An hour later, we finally got him upstairs, where he showed a little too much interest in his new little sister. So, he and I spent the night in the living room, and dad and Abby spent the night in the bedroom. Finally, Saturday morning, we packed up and headed home. And Izzy was in heaven- we had 5 inches of snow and got 5 more or so throughout the course of that day and night. He can walk forever!! We've walked a couple of miles each day, and he is proving to be quite the gentleman on the leash. I imagine it will only be another week or two before we can let him off of it when we go for walks on the property. Walking with Dad is a different story, he drags him all over the place. I'd be lying if I didnt't say that I found that amusing, but we're working on it. Izzy also finally settled down and figured out that he was scaring poor Abby in his frantic desires to sniff her, so he laid down next to her (she was in my lap) and ignored her, letting her sniff and hiss at him all she wanted. So far, he is workign out to be such a perfect fit for our family that it is astonishing!! Thanks so much newflvr!!

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Newfoundland Discussions / We're really, finally, going to be parents!!!
« on: November 09, 2006, 11:21:15 pm »
So, some of you may have followed along with my drama of being rejected by rescue after rescue due to various, petty reasons. So, newflvr put me in touch with SoCal Newf Rescue and today I am driving down south to pick up our new boy! Hi name is Grizzly and he is three and a half years old. He was surrendered by a family due to the daughter's severe asthma. He's very mellow, loves people, and woos for attention. Sean and I are so excited!!
I am going to try to piost some pics so let's hope they work!

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Helpful Groups & Dogs in Need / Another Pyr boy needs a home
« on: October 18, 2006, 11:28:20 am »
Something about his eyes just caught me. He's at a shelter about 6 hours from me, I could pull and foster for awhile if needed. He seems like a doll. The shelter he's at keeps a dog, on average, about 2 weeks before they are PTS, so if anyone is interested I can go get him next Friday.

http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=7167921


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Groans, Gripes, Brags & Boasts / Dogless Blues
« on: October 13, 2006, 08:15:29 am »
 So, hubby and I have been trying to bring home a furbaby for several months now, but to no avail due to...

*flaky people who decide at the last minute that they don't really want to get rid of the dog, even though they don't take care of it now.. grrr. >:(

*animal shelters that get your hopes up by posting the dog of your dreams, only to find out that that particular dog has already been adopted, "but we have an agrresive chihuahua lookign for a good home if you're interested"  ::)

*rescue groups requiring a "securely fenced yard"... we live on a private road on 30 plus acres. we don't let our dog outside of the house without us, period, even if we have a fence, and most importantly, what good would a six foot fence be when the yard sits under 8 feet of snow for several months out of the year? My husband would be be home with the dog mos of the day (or out walkign the grounds with him), wehave the financial resources, time, and love to provde a great home... but that stupid non-fence gets in the way.  >:(

*living in CA, where most of the dogs in shelters are eenie meenies, and most of the big pawsin shelters are halfway across the country.  :-\

Ugh, after the 7th failed dog attempt yesterday, I'm ready to give up. Or atleast wait until I have the chance to go out to Missouri again.  :'( I know the right pupper is out there for us somewhere... but I am just getting so impatient!!!

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Helpful Groups & Dogs in Need / Female Pyr in CA
« on: August 30, 2006, 05:58:17 am »
http://sacramento.craigslist.org/pet/199547450.html

Poor gal. We'd take her ourselves but we're in our apartment until November. We're moving to a place with lots of land then, but no fences and no real way of putting them up. Both situations, from what I understand of the breed, would be less than ideal.   Anyone looking for a new baby? We'd be willing to foster her for a short while or help transport.

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Helpful Groups & Dogs in Need / Wow.
« on: August 18, 2006, 06:33:38 am »
  Normally people's ads to rehome their pets bother me. A lot. Especially some of the ones that I see on Craigslist. But I'm not quite sure what to think about this one. If they really do follow through with what they're promising, I think I have to salute them for being pretty cool folks.

http://sacramento.craigslist.org/pet/195767602.html

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Newfoundland Discussions / Almost a non-lurker...
« on: July 28, 2006, 10:38:31 am »
  Alright. I admit it. I've been reading all your posts for some time and gleanign information from all of you for months. Now, the time has come!
  Currently, we're talking with a lady about adopting her three year old newfoundland. So far, so good and everything is going well. Soooo... cross your fingers because it looks like we're going to be parents within a week!!

I know... nothing is set in stone yet, but I'm just so excited that I had to share with someonelse  :)

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Introduce Yourself to the Forum / Ello!
« on: April 28, 2006, 02:25:58 am »
 Hello, my name is Jessica and I have to confess that I have been lurking around here for some while. You are all such wonderful folks and I have learned so many things from you that it's amazing.

Currently, my fiance and I are dogless.  :'( Which is a very sad place to be. With that said, I was hoping that some of you doggy geniuses would have some pearls of wisdom.

After a lot of thought and financial consideration, we've decided that now would be the right time for us to adopt a furkid of our own.(A decision about 6 months-a year in the making) We've narrowed it down between a Newf or a Saint. (I know, get both right?! If only...) And now we're stuck. Any advice one way or the other? What are the biggest differences between the two breeds, especially in reagrds to temperment?

Muchos gracias! I have already learned so much from all of you guys. And, I'm in love with every single one of your babies. :)

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