Dogster DebateTethering Your Dog While You Shop: Cool or Uncool?

Dogster

Its been decided

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Primum non- nocere

Barked: Tue Jan 27, '09 7:37am PST


	If Bindi's thyroid comes back normal, she's going on meds. I want to start her now, but in looking up different drugs I saw that they can have an effect on thyroid testing. I don't want those test results skewed in anyway. I could've done the test this month, but Bindi came into heat early, so we have to wait until that's over. Bindi will also be spayed this year, after the vet has had time to research mali's and anesthesia. Bindi is the first mali she's seen, and they need to be treated like sighthounds when being put under. I don't know of any sighthounds in the area either. I wanted to avoid drugs, but if her thyroid is normal, I don't feel I have anymore options. While Bindi is getting better at certain things with all the work we've been doing, she's getting worse in other areas. Men are one especially men built like the guy who owned the boarding kennel the dogs were at for several months about a year ago. Bindi cut her face last week, near her eye and as a precaution I had her eye stained. The normal lady vet wasn't in, and I'm honestly suprised the male vet didn't get bit. Bindi was showing extreme fear and the vet had to get right in her face. They didn't want to muzzle her because of the cut. I think the positive association with the tech and myself helped, we both restrained her. Bindi loves that tech, everytime they've met Bindi has gotten chicken. At home back off displays toward Max are getting worse in the house. She'll lose it if he's laying down licking his foot, smelling something. She's just annoyed at things that you'd think would send the opposite message. He doesn't even need to be near her. Outside with the exception of that one scuffle a few weeks ago, they get along great. "Leave Bindi alone, she's crabby" is said often. She's also starting to show some guarding behavior. This is new this week. When she was about a year old she guarded a bully stick. Bully sticks were put up, and we worked on trading. We'd reached a point where taking anything wasn't an issue, even high value items and I could take them even without having something else. But this week Bindi has guarded a pork hock, and is snatching and gulping food. I feed the dogs in there crates, when Bindi had the pork hock I wanted to grab her kong out the crate. For the first time in forever I was leary about reaching in her crate while she ate. I ended up bribing her out away from the hock, and grabbing both the hock and the kong. Even with the bribes I had a hard time getting her away from the hock. We were doing so well before that dog came after us and my aunt kept showing up with her dog. Now it seems no matter what we do, we get one step forward and 20 back. Its scary that Bindi could be classified as a dangerous dog according to MN dangerous dog laws. What's even scarier is that if something doesn't give soon, and this downward spiral continues I'm afraid that even drugs won't be an option.

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ARCHMX Asher- RL1X RL2X- RL3X RL

we will dance in- the ring without- words

Barked: Sat Feb 7, '09 5:00pm PST


	Bindi, deciding to put Asher on Prozac was one of the best decisions I ever made. I have no issues with the fact that he will be on it for the rest of his life.

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Primum non- nocere

Barked: Sun Feb 15, '09 8:59pm PST


	Thanks Ash that helps. I have been using Rescue Remedy, and have gotten some decent results with it the last couple weeks. We've been able to walk a couple blocks from the house, and go for rides in the car. I take Bindi on errands and do work in the parking lots. We even worked with a dog the last time we were out. I saw someone walking their dog, the dog was sniffing, I pulled over about a block and a half away, Bindi saw the dog but kept her focus on me we did a couple things, hopped in the car and left. This week she's only had one really bad reaction for some reason the neighbor that always walks through alley must die apparently. I was able to get her back, and she ran to the house and went to her crate. Next time I'll get her away from the fence and focus her better until he's out of sight. But she nice when the a dog down the street started barking. She ran for me, did a come front/finish right and just leaned on my leg and stared up at me. The dog finally got quiet and she ran off to play some more. It was neat last week when she added that twist. She gives me focus on her own more now, but when I ask for it instaed of just looking at me she stops looks, comes front looks, and then finishes right and looks. I never asked for it and was just C/Ting for the looks. Of course I jackpotted the twist. There is improvement, some days are bad, some days are good. Bindi goes for her blood draw tomorrow. We're having T3, T4, free T3, free T4 and TGAA done as well her titers. So by the end of week hopefully we'll know if she's thyroid. We'll be discussing happy pills at the visit as well. I may come home with a script to start tomorrow. I'm still looking at drugs even with the progress we've made. What concerns me most now is her acting out for no apparent reason. I know there's always a reason, but this happens when she's in a dead sleep. She'll be laying there sleeping, and I'm not sure if something is spooking her or what, but one second she's asleep the next she's lunging towards Max. Sometimes he's made a noise, sometimes he hasn't. Tonight she was horrible, I put the dogs to bed and sat at the computer and every couple minutes she's was grumbly and lunging. I finally ended up covering those two sides of the crate so the only open side was the side that faces me. She's been sleeping since. I could understand if we'd had day with limited exercise, but we were out quite a bit today. Did a few sessions of focus practice, it was great to get her walking in heel with her 20 foot leash dragging. Although I've learned I need a new hand signal for wait, silly me uses the same one for stay, so she won't budge when I say wait and ask for something else.

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That's MR.- Momma's Boy to- you!

Barked: Mon Feb 16, '09 6:39am PST


	Bindi, I agree with Asher. Putting Chipper on Reconcile (aka Prozac) was one of the best things I could have done for him. He too will be on it for the rest of his life and that's fine with me. I know exactly what you are talking about with her grumbling and lunging for no apparent reason. Chipper did the same thing. There was always a "reason" but they were rediculous. For example, Chipper would be sleeping in his crate with the door open and someone would throw a paper towel in the trash, 10 feet away. Chipper would lunge. Why? I have no idea. The other 100 times this happened, he was just fine with it. Now that he is on prozac, he just seems more relaxed. He sleeps now. He sleeps so deep he snores. Almost every night now. The fact that he can sleep this deep and be that relaxed makes me want to cry. I know snoring is a small, silly, little thing, but it means that he is relaxed. He was never, ever relaxed before. Edited by author Mon Feb 16, '09 6:40am PST

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Primum non- nocere

Barked: Mon Feb 16, '09 10:53am PST


	Chipper that's great, the little milestones they have really are big. I know I was thrilled the other night when for the first time in months Bindi sprawled out on her back instead of sleeping in a ball. I just got back from the blood draw. It went horribly. The car ride was fine, I had my bait bag and clicker, Bindi was doing great giving me focus when I asked, just generally checking the place out as usual. Then a guy came around the corner and she went. He left I got her back. It was instant hate. Come to find out he's our vet for the day, not our normal vet. There was alot of confusion at the reception desk, they didnt thnk they'd seen her before. I requested a muzzle, Bindi was acting totally different, she's never reacted this way at the clinic before. And even lunged at the female tech a couple times. The vet ended up standing in the doorway, avoiding looking at her, Bindi was fine with the lab tech who's drawn blood before. The vet asked me if she's ever bitten anyone before, and then starts going on to say how GSD's are top of the list for bites blah blah. I cut him off, she's not a GSD. He was like are you sure there isn't any GSD in there. I said not according to her registration papers that say she's a purebred mali. For pete's sake it even says that on the very top of her chart. Then he starts in with there are no approved meds for aggression. I tell him I know that, I'm not drugging the aggression I want something for her anxiety. Of course follow that with its a behavior problem and I need to desenitize her. Apparently he didn't hear me when I said the reason I was looking at drugs now was because we've been working on this for quite some time and while there is improvement I want to tip the scales because she's still anxious. Then he asked if I got her as a puppy. I knew where this was going and said Yes, and she was well socialized and started training right away. Then at about a year old this started. He finally prescribed Clomicalm, the pharmacy in town will have it tomorrow. But I left the office with my serum for Hemopet, and a pit in the bottom of my stomach. I'm afraid of what will come in next few days. Not from Bindi, I can manage her. But technically she falls under the Potentially Dangerous dog law here, and I'm afraid she's now going to be legally labeled as such. I just called the vet clinic to make sure our regular vet still works there, thank dog she does, but unless Bindi is having some sort of emergency, we won't be going back for anything until March. Our regular vet is on maternity leave. I'm really thankful that diet didn't come up today, I'm sure this guy would have been totally against it, and decided that it was my whole problem. I just feel horrible after today, my dog wasn't normal, the vet had a holier than thou attitude, the reason I drive 30mins to vet is because with our regular vet its like we're a team. If I'd known I would get stuck with a male vet, especially one with the male body type Bindi reacts to, I would have just went for the blood draw in town. Wouldn't have been my normal vet, but at least a female vet. Bindi's napping in her crate, happy to be muzzle and vet wrap free. She didn't clot up as fast this time, so came home with cotton vet wrapped to her leg. I didn't have her checked for anemia, probably should have, she's been anemic before. Another sign of thyroid issues. I'm going to get the kids some lunch, send off the serum and follow Bindi's lead and taka a nap too. Poor pup.

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Primum non- nocere

Barked: Mon Feb 16, '09 11:36am PST


	I headed out the door with serum in hand to mail and realized, its a holiday, there is no mail today. So back in the fridge, the vet clinic said it should be fine in there. Mondays are not good.

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Self-appointed- Cookie Inspector

Barked: Tue Feb 17, '09 8:24pm PST


	Oh Bindi.. I hope you are feeling a bit better today. You are so much in our thoughts right now. I guess having seen what kind of aggression Snoops can dish out, my heart goes out to you!

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Donovan'sMajesticJet of Solace

Street sweeper!

Barked: Wed Feb 18, '09 8:54am PST


	Bindi, this is my pup 7 or 8 months ago. Hang in there, it gets better, Jet is nearly normal now. I too, had the same conversation with the first vet I took him too. I very specific when I scheduled the appointment, so why did they bother? I found a DVM who is also a degreed behaviorist. Can you control her? If not try an easy walk harness. Go to clickertraining.com, and clickersolutions.com for reading tips.

Primum non- nocere

Barked: Wed Feb 18, '09 2:39pm PST


	In general she walks pretty nicely, we've been doing alot of LLW work, first in our yard and have been expanding on that slowly. I've quit holding onto her 20 foot lead in the yard, she'll follow me all over back there just dragging it. Its been very small baby steps, but we're now able to go two blocks from home without her tensing up and looking for all the bad stuff as soon as we get out the door. We'd even been driving to parking lots and practicing until my car got totaled a couple weeks ago. I have been thinking about getting some type of harness, if for nothing else just for another contact point. That way if she does have a reaction I can still control her without pressure on her neck, which I think only fuels the fire. Two big mistakes were made that day. One not making sure we'd see our regular vet, although it would have been nice if they would have mentioned that when I made the appt. Normally we get Dr. Angie without asking for her. Second I had my kids with which didn't allow for full attention on Bindi. Which probably would have been a non issue with our regular vet, they've gone to appts. before. I'm really hoping to get my results by Friday, but think it'll be Monday. Its going to really surprise me if she comes back normal. I found another article written by Dr. Dodd's last night and it had a more extensive symptom list. I was looking through it and went wow, that's her. I think I picked out at least 5 things on that list that pertain to her. Bindi still hasn't settled down from the ordeal. She's extremely anxious, easily agitated, not sleeping well, even got sick last night. The rescue remedy is helping a slight bit. I had quit giving it to her last week, didn't want anything at all to skew those results. Of course being under high stress can also affect the result.

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ARCHMX Asher- RL1X RL2X- RL3X RL

we will dance in- the ring without- words

Barked: Sun Feb 22, '09 6:11am PST


	Oh, Bindi, I am not a huge fan of clomicalm. I think that when it is effective, it treats the symptoms rather than the cause, and then by making a dog groggy. I am so sorry I had a sub vet when mine was out on leave too. He refused to muzzle Ash, instead, picking him up by the scruff of his neck. Ash was there for back issues (he couldn't walk) and had a slipped disc. I can't imagine how much that hurt him and I was angry. I'd let your regular vet know how much this upset you.

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