Papillon Kisses

If you own your own home please have a kennel made that matches. :D

I've occasionally seen large custom dog kennels on Gumtree.

Which course? We finished Intro to Nosework two weeks ago, that went great. He's a lot more confident now and has moved onto Intermediate. The dog reactive stuff is not until this afternoon. :) His anxiety used to affect his appetite in the opposite way to Thistle! He ate everything immediately and very very fast. He became more relaxed on Prozac and decided it was ok to leave his food. Here's a cute photo from the other week. We were playing LAT in the cemetery with a young exuberant border collie who was playing fetch. That's a biggie for him as he can get compulsive about chasing and barking at dogs playing fetch. It's like he's fetches them, then trots back all proud of himself and excited to go again. It's probably his favourite game, especially when it's German Shepherds he's chasing, but again, it has a compulsive edge to it. Side note: cemeteries = good places not to encounter any dogs except those under effective control! Anyway, after playing LAT he dove through a bush and came out like this. HIS EYES SLAY ME. This is his puppy dog eyes for sausage look. :laugh: (You should follow us on Insta for more photos. I've only recently started using it but I've basically made my account his. :laugh: ) Edited to add that I get embarrassed posting pictures as I have no idea how to resize them on my phone, and that's where all my photos are!

When he's resting he seems more relaxed, but he's also more energetic, sprightly and playful the rest of the time and I think happier too. However, he's also been more reactive recently so we're trying to work out whether that's linked with the Gabapentin. Our VB has never seen that reaction, usually it makes dogs better or does nothing. If it's not the Gabapentin it might be related to him recently hurting his neck (pain decreasing tolerance) and the time of year bringing more dogs past our house on walks: the small white fluffies a few houses up have been yapping more too. Not that Mal yaps, he does the dog equivalent of swearing, but the SWF'ies do a great job of alerting him to potential issues. He's also seems hungrier in that he's eating his food faster again, being a bit of a food pest and chomping at my fingers in non-relaxation training (painful!). This too is a reaction our VB has never seen, lol.

It is easy to do, especially when it is with someone we love so very much. It is so lovely to hear that the vet was lovely and gentle with your dog. He sounds like a keeper. :)

How's he going? :)

How did it go Sars? I hope the consult was not too stressful for you and your girl. xx

Lol lol lol So tomorrow we start our course of reactive dog sessions (waves to Corvus). And tonight we pass by another small reactive doggy, Malcolm giving a look of concern but concentrating on his sniffing, the other dog working on sitting and paying attention to his human after initially arcing up, and both of us calmly praising our dogs for being wonderful little boys. Then he came home and did multi-storey zoomies (well, it is wet out there!)

Hmmm... our papillon was on Loratadine (Claratyne) as prescribed by the vet. This was for the rest of his life. He had a very itchy nose and would sneeze a lot. But as a human with wicked dust mite and grass allergies, Loratadine might as well be a sugar pill. I need the highest strength of fexofenadine and have taken that nightly for years as prescribed by an allergy specialist. So I'm not sure where this five day thing comes from. When I've been on prednisolone (steroids) to hit allergies/eczema on the head it has been for 3 days max at a time. Are you thinking of that?

Yes! My parents' puppy was originally trained to go on fake grass when he didn't have access to the lawn. He is now heavily praised and rewarded for going on the grass outside so he now he goes there. Can't miss an opportunity for chicken. Here's a project (below) that you might like to do since your dog won't ever have free access to your grass. Another option is putting fake grass over a large cat litter tray. (This is if you don't want the fake grass directly on the enclosed area.) If the dog is struggling to make the switch in the future you can gradually move the fake/real grass structure/mat to the real grass until he's just going on real grass. But he might just make the leap with positive reinforcement.

Hi Sars, I'm so glad you posted. :) My dog has back issues, and they actually stem from his anxiety. He spends so much time in a tightly wound, crouched position that when he finally stretches out beyond his usual range of motion he hurts his back quite badly. It was explained to me as being similar to how humans can reach for something in the back seat of the car and hurt themselves. And then being in pain makes his anxiety worse. My dog has been in agony from this. As in totally shut down, frozen, shaking, crying and refusing to be touched/carried. My GP vet thought it was a slipped disc from jumping the wrong way or falling, but there were never any triggering events as such. They prescribed pain relief, strict rest and sardines to avoid ummm straining, then a gradual return to walking... but we never got to the cause or how to prevent it happening again. Which it did. So, I recommend seeing a specialist whatever the result is from your consult. We saw Dr Jaime Jackson (Jumabaar on DOL), who gave my dog a thorough work up and it was clear that it was a muscular-type issue and not a disc thing. (I might be saying this wrong but hopefully the gist is there). We have exercises to do now that have improved his range of motion a lot. He hurt his neck recently and the difference in him from the start to the end of the session with Jaime was amazing. Massive drop in anxiety and heart rate, more stretched out instead of hunched up, and not so reactive to minor noise disturbances. Every little thing was bothering him, as happens when you're in pain. Anyway, this is just my experience with my anxious dog and back pain. As Perse says, keep your dog warm and try to prevent her from jumping and going up/down steps. Also try to keep her calm if you can: obviously this can be hard, I totally get it as someone with an anxious dog, but if any of her triggers can be avoided do so. For example, with my dog I kept him away from loud noises where possible (no lawn mowing!) shut the house up and played calming music. But try not to freak out, ok? Because while the pain is real, the cause from a physical perspective may not be as bad as it seems. :)

That is... weird.

Thanks TSD & Thistle! We had a go at it today. :) First I had the recording at a volume just under threshold and we practiced going to his crate upon it sounding and receiving direction from me. He thought that was a fantastic game! I then turned it down further for the protocol. He was reactive with the protocol: not barking, just fussing and moving around, but the reactivity was more about the longer waits and changing task requirements than the doorbell ringing. Standard practice when going up a task. He's sound asleep now processing it all, lol. I should probably have left more of a gap between training sessions... that probably didn't help with the reactivity. I'm wondering if I should change it to go to your mat upon it ringing vs. go to your crate. I like the idea of him going to his crate but I think it may be confusing for him with the protocol being predominantly mat-based for now?

TSD & Katsin, those stories are too cute!

Not necessarily. My dog used to wake up to any little sound and pace at night because he had undiagnosed and untreated Generalised Anxiety Disorder. He was unable to sleep / sleep soundly due to the extent of his anxiety. Now that he is on medication and less anxious he can sleep through, apart from needing a toilet break on the odd occasion. Other dogs can wake up at night and pace and bark due to Canine Cognitive Dysfunction (Dementia). Or they may get up due to an illness increasing their need to pee, perhaps as a result of increasing their water intake. something else increasing how often the dog needs to go out. By all means look at what other things you can do (i.e. do you feed a salty treat before bed that increases water intake then increases need to pee? Does the dog need a quieter place to sleep so as not to be woken as easily?), but a vet check would be wise. A vet check is an excellent idea of course, though because this dog can sleep for 8 nights in a row in the laundry without having an accident, there may be some level of comfort there. Maybe we are speaking at cross terms, lol, as that actually proves my point rather than goes against it! The flipside to "some level of comfort in the laundry" would mean there's some level of discomfort in the bedroom. For whatever reason. The main one that sticks out to me is that a dog could be hearing something in the bedroom that he is unable to hear in the laundry. Like Apple2 getting up, as mentioned in the first post. :) I just think it's overreach to say a dog is trying to manipulate... I don't think a dog is being manipulative if he is easily woken and unable to settle (pacing) and needs to pee, especially if there's a health condition behind it, and being shut up in the laundry probably does feel like punishment to the dog right now even if he does settle afterwards. Perhaps all the jostling from pacing brings on the need to pee. ----- Apple2, I would still get the dogs crates and crate train them in the sense of making the crate a wonderful place to be, but I would remove the door (or roll it up if a soft crate). The idea is that the dog has a safe den to retreat to at their own will once the baby comes. The baby should not have access to the crate including as he or she gets older. Are you doing other training to prepare the dogs for the baby's arrival? There's CDs / DVDs you can buy ("Tell your dog you're having a baby" etc) and also an app called "Sound Proof Puppy Training" which can be used to desensitise dogs to babies crying. Getting in a positive reinforcement-based trainer to help can also be a great thing. Just helps set everyone up for success. :) And absolutely tell your vet what you have said here. Main summary being, your dog wakes easily, paces a lot afterwards, then urinates if you don't let her out. This means she needs to be let out multiple times through the night. Sleeps through if in the laundry. So you're wanting to rule out anything that may cause an increased need to pee. The vet may just say put her in the laundry but there are other solutions. And if the laundry ends up being the solution so your dog can get a good night's sleep, you can ABSOLUTELY change the way your dog feels about the laundry using counter conditioning and positive reinforcement. The laundry can be a veritable doggy oasis. A good behavioural trainer may be of help here, as well as with the 'preparing for baby' work.

What IS that, Alibi? Mal finds all the food and is getting better at this with his noseworks training. ???? There's a street near us with a whole bunch of paw prints in concrete in a 'walking along' fashion. Not sure whether real or fake, and if real that surely could not have been good for the dog?! but it looks pretty cute!

Oooh! That's a brilliant idea that it will make it much easier to do the rest. Thank you!! Editing to add that I'm excited about this challenge now as it seems a lot more doable. :D

He's running around barking his head off and remaining keyed up for a while afterwards. He doesn't have to hold a sit as such, more just be relaxed. I ask him to sit on his mat but he can lay down if it wants, I don't mind. Main thing is to be calmly attentive and zen-like while I've gone out of view, rung the doorbell, waited x amount of time and returned. Ha! He has become better with the doorbell in other circumstances since starting medication. He was down to just running to the door and giving three alert barks! (Which I'm fine with.) But apparently we're back to flipping out. He was more reactive to other dogs today too. Side note: trying another med but very early days, he also recently hurt his neck, both of which could contribute. Back to more CC/DS/teaching alternate behaviours I suppose, though I'm unsure how to mesh it with the protocol. Hopefully he'll learn faster than he has previously with other things. I spent some time today ringing it with him right near me/his mat and tossing him a rapid fire of high value treats while it played. Got him down to inhaling treats while still disconcerted but not running around in circles or barking. I guess I'll see tomorrow whether any of it has stuck. Excellent thought Thistle about muffling the sound. The issues with the doorbell are (a) the element of surprise and (b) how loud it is, so muffling will help with the latter. Increasing distance will require another person to help but I can start there. In some ways it seems so arbitrary because I don't mind him running to the door and doing a little alert bark so long as it's a short, gather-the-troops reaction. But this is over the top again. I guess I'm just having a little whinge because I'm so over CC/DS every damn thing and thought I, and he really, had caught a break.

They look so soulful. Are they soulful? Or do your photographs mostly captured that side?

AHHHHHHHHH. Sorry, just had to get that out. We have been making great progress sans Trazodone and are up to Task 11. But Task 11 involves doorbell ringing. Kill me now.

What sort? I originally got THIS SORT for my dog and it did absolutely nothing. I had basically ruled them out until someone put me onto THIS ONE which works quite well and comes in other designs too. The Buster Dog Maze is another one.

I got theirs from Vebo pets. Good reviews on DOL and good prices compared to pet stores... there are cheaper crates around but they don't seem to be as well made based on reviews. I also stalked Gumtree for ages but one didn't turn up in the size I was after. http://www.vebopet.com.au/dog/dog-cages-and-crates/

I got my parents an airline crate for their puppy so they could use it in the car. :)

One of the issues you're going to have is that low maintenance often correlates to higher shedding.

Oh my Perse, what a cutie.