Postings by Jasper Theodore

Behavior & Training > Odd accidents...?

Jasper- Theodore Mountain- climber.     Barked: Fri Sep 9, '11 4:51pm PST  He is like not at all just leaking. He's awake and it's always probably about as much urine as he was capable of producing during the period of time he'd been inside, so it definitely is some sort of intentional behavior. We've also washed it repeatedly with things that definitely should eliminate any odor for him, multiple products made for the purpose and more, so there shouldn't be anyway he could smell any trace of what was there before. It's just odd because he's pretty good about "holding it" for such a young dog, at least the period of time he should be able to, and sometimes he's only been inside fifteen minutes before he's gone on this thing, so it'd be odd if he HAD to go. And we can rarely catch him in the act, because it's high enough up we have to stand up to see, so I think it'd be hard to get him outside that quick, but we can always try, I suppose. my posts | my page | msg me | gift me | become pals [notify]

Jasper- Theodore Mountain- climber.     Barked: Fri Sep 9, '11 11:44am PST  So we've had Jasper a few weeks and he's still far from housetrained as he's only about 15 weeks, but we're pretty good about taking him out consistently, and noticing the proper signs to take him out if he needs to go as to avoid accidents in the house. However, he has a dog bed in our den, a fairly large one we bought him to climb all over to strengthen his knees and just because he likes to climb. Lately he has been having "accidents" on this bed, and no where else, despite not giving any sign that he needs to go and sometimes having JUST been outside. My mother thinks he does it for attention, but I don't know if that makes sense, and when I was in here today, he really wasn't trying to GET anyone's attention or anything, so I don't know if that seems to be the case always, anyway. But it only happens on this one item as well, when logically he SHOULDN'T need to go. Is it some sort of marking behavior, could it be for attention, or is it something else? What can we do to put a stop to it? The past few days it's happened at LEAST once daily, today it's happened twice and it's not even 2pm. What should we do to remedy he problem? We've been trying time outs but it may be a bit early to see if he's getting the picture. Should we take the bed away or something, even for a few days? I don't know. I'm confused, but it drives my mom up a wall and it baffles the rest of us, so it'd be nice to figure it out. my posts | my page | msg me | gift me | become pals [notify]

Dog Health > Could it be allergies? What can I do to help?

Jasper- Theodore Mountain- climber.     Barked: Sun Aug 28, '11 5:19pm PST  He unfortunately did not come from the most reputable of places. We had no intentions of getting a dog there really, but when I met him, I coukdn't leave him there. Get a lot of crap for that, but I wouldn't have loved any other dog half as much, so what can you do? But yeah, they come from that place apparently with a lot of ailments, but they get out of having to take responsibility whatever way they can, so calling them will do no good. We'll cover whatever he needs to get better, though, and be comfortable. It's just with kennel cough I would have thought it odd since it DID get better with treatment, and that shouldn't, not to mention the vet seemed wary of kennel cough but cleared him of it... Does it often get better for short periods? And is it often missed in diagnoses by vets? We'll probably take him tomorrow if he's not any better unless it gets worse tonight, but he stills seems to be doing okay, maybe even a little better now than he was the past couple of days, which made me wonder about allergies... my posts | my page | msg me | gift me | become pals [notify]

Dog Health > Could it be allergies? What can I do to help?

Jasper- Theodore Mountain- climber.     Barked: Sat Aug 27, '11 10:08pm PST  So Jasper came home with an upper respiratory infection which was treated, and he did better for a couple of days after we finished off the treatment for that, but the past few days he's been incredibly stuffy again, the poor thing. =/ He's mostly just seemed congested. He's been coughing and sneezing a lot, and it seems to disturb his sleeping a little bit, but aside from making him uncomfortable, it isn't anything that is TOO terribly concerning, it just bothers me that it seems like he doesn't feel quite as good as he might could if he wasn't so stuffy. He's still eating, and drinking, and playing, though, and he does sleep, he just wakes up coughing and sneezing a lot. My dad and I both have pollen allergies and ours have been acting up some the past few days, too, and I've noticed Jasper's eyes were sort of red as well, so I was wondering if maybe he just had some allergies too? Are pollen allergies common in dogs or not so much? Could it be allergies to something else? Or does it not sound like allergies at all? He also hasn't really been exposed to any place where he could have caught something since his last vet visit and his treatment for his upper respiratory infection, so unless it was something they missed or diagnosed incorrectly or his upper respiratory infection didn't completely go away, I don't know how he would have gotten anything else. I'm going to call the vet as soon as possible to ask their opinion on it, and maybe take him in, but unless it worsens it obviously doesn't seem like the kind of thing to warrant a trip to an emergency vet, though it's something I'll definitely be keeping my eye on. I suppose I just wondered right now while I was thinking about it what some of you all thought about it, and what I could maybe do to help him out? I found a humidifier and it seems to help some, though I cannot tell whether it's just because of the noise (it's an old one, and it's kind of loud, he seems to sleep better when there is some kind of noise then when it's quiet) or if it actually helps his congestion any. Is there anything else I could do to help ease his symptoms some before we see the vet? my posts | my page | msg me | gift me | become pals [notify]

Dog Health > A pug with congestion?

Jasper- Theodore Mountain- climber.     Barked: Fri Aug 26, '11 12:25am PST  So when I got Jasper originally he had an upper respiratory infection and so the vet had him on antibiotics and so he was a little less congested once he was on those for a bit. We finished some of his medicine(he was on a couple different things, one for a parasite and we weren't told which was for which... one of them he finished, the other we're still giving him, because it hasn't run out yet) a couple of days ago, and today, it simply seems he's back to being just as badly congested again. =/ It disturbs his sleeping quite a bit, because he wakes up sneezing or coughing a lot more than usual, and he seems to have more issues going back to sleep (I can relate, because I have congestion issues, and it makes it hard to sleep for me , so I guess that's why I notice...). So I was just wondering if there was anything I could do to help with his congestion possibly to make him more comfortable? Like do you think a humidifier would help him somewhat? Anything else I could do to perhaps ease his symptoms some? And also, how long do you think I should wait to see if it passes before I take him to the vet again? I don't want to jump the gun and overreact to every little sniffle, and I can be a little paranoid since he's sort of the first small, inside dog I've ever had, and the first dog I've taken care of primarily on my own, so I don't really know what I'm doing. But I figure at some point, even with the little things, you should get them checked out, just in case, and particularly since he's a pug and could have breathing issues anyway, I don't want it to persist too long without being checked out. Though it could also just be allergies, or something they couldn't do much for anyway. So how long do you think I should wait to see if it eases up? my posts | my page | msg me | gift me | become pals [notify]

Jasper- Theodore Mountain- climber.     Barked: Thu Aug 25, '11 12:42am PST  So lately it's been a little hot out during the day for Jasper to be out long, being a pug and all, it's obviously not safe to keep him out in the heat for too long. If it cools down in the evening or it gets cloudy, we'll stay out a little longer, but mostly it's been pretty hot. And I'm not incredibly creative I suppose with thinking of indoor activities. Jasper likes fetch a lot for a pug, i guess, but I think even that gets old after a while, especially in the house, it's not near as interesting. And obviously it's especially important to keep a puppy stimulated and entertained, so I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for games or activities that we could engage in inside while it's still so hot out? my posts | my page | msg me | gift me | become pals [notify]

Small Dogs > Tips for starting out with your first small dog?

Jasper- Theodore Mountain- climber.     Barked: Tue Aug 23, '11 11:56pm PST  So I've had Jasper about a week and a half now, and it's going incredibly well I think especially this early on. But he's the first small dog I've ever had, the first inside dog I've ever owned, and the first dog I've been the primary caretaker of, so I am a bit clueless on some things really. Or to be honest... everything. And then I'm a little worried that maybe there is something I'm failing to do right that will lead to issues later, so I thought I'd ask here. First off, any basic tips on raising or training a small inside dog would be great since I'm a bit clueless. I do have a couple of little specific questions, but then any general advice would also be greatly appreciated. First off, we do have him a crate to spend the night in and he does fairly well with being crated seeing as he likely spent a lot of his life before he got here in a crate, but my parents (who know about as much as I do, or less since they've done even less research and are just guessing, about raising an inside dog) say he isn't spending enough time in his crate sometimes...? O.o Is there a certain amount of time you want your dog to spend in the crate in order to get used to it, or is there some specific method? Like should he ONLY be allowed to sleep in his crate? This seems to be what they think, but then since I sort of got him as a companion since I'm sort of sickly, it seems very odd that we should only let him sleep in his crate, because I find it quite soothing to have him rest with me, and he doesn't seem to have issues. But then, I don't know. >.< I suppose I always could be doing it wrong. Second of all, with house training, do people ever opt for trying to paper train or something to that effect before training the dog to go outside? I imagine it would be confusing to do both, and it makes more sense to just do traditional house-training, but then it's been dreadfully hot out these past few days here, and since he is a pug, and he some of his trips take longer than others, the heat does seem to get to him at points (heck, it gets to the rest of us, too), and it worries me a bit. =/ I don't have him out except for just as long as it takes for him to go potty when it's this hot (there were a couple of days when it got cooler and he could run around for a bit, but mostly, there is plenty of room for him to run around inside where it's plenty cool for the both of us). And then the weather around here can be a bit of a pain in the butt, so it may not cool down consistently for a few weeks, we can never know. So what do you think would be best to do there? And like I said, any general advice about raising small dogs is welcome, because I sort of knew nothing about the subject at all just a couple of weeks ago, so there is still plenty of learning left to do. Heh. Luckily, I got a really good pup to work with, I don't think there could have been a better dog for me. my posts | my page | msg me | gift me | become pals [notify]

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