Pets

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BrutulTM

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
<Silver Donator>
14,726
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My border collie used to howl every time he heard the guitar feedback at the beginning of "Lost Keys/Rosetta Stoned" by Tool. It was a sad day when he stopped doing it. Both my dogs will cock their heads and stare at it but they don't howl anymore.
 

pharmakos

soʞɐɯɹɐɥd
<Bronze Donator>
16,305
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My German Shepherd will do a wolf howl every single time he hears the theme song from Law and Order on the TV.
That's funny

My friend's dog howled along with us singing the chorus to Porcupine Tree's "Trains" when we jammed it out on guitar one night haha
 
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Noble Savage

Kang of Kangz
<Bronze Donator>
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Had my Cane Corso for 7 years. About 2 weeks ago he started to get diarrihea, he's had food allergies for his whole life so this wasn't a major warning sign other then it was time to put him on a prescription diet. Brought him into the vet to get the food and they weigh him. He is down 22 pounds since he was in there 3 weeks earlier. I'm thinking no way that can be right. Take him home that night and he stops eating completly. Next two days he doesn't eat at all and he is having trouble breathing. Bring him back into the vet today and they do an ultra sound and find out he has tumors in all his major organs. No treatment options will help. So had to put the big man down today. I sat with him as they gave him the shots and just kept telling him that he was the goodest boy. Sucks man.
 
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Bruuce

Blackwing Lair Raider
1,533
2,672
Had my Cane Corso for 7 years. About 2 weeks ago he started to get diarrihea, he's had food allergies for his whole life so this wasn't a major warning sign other then it was time to put him on a prescription diet. Brought him into the vet to get the food and they weigh him. He is down 22 pounds since he was in there 3 weeks earlier. I'm thinking no way that can be right. Take him home that night and he stops eating completly. Next two days he doesn't eat at all and he is having trouble breathing. Bring him back into the vet today and they do an ultra sound and find out he has tumors in all his major organs. No treatment options will help. So had to put the big man down today. I sat with him as they gave him the shots and just kept telling him that he was the goodest boy. Sucks man.
sucks bro =(
 
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Gavinmad

Mr. Poopybutthole
43,900
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Intrinsic

Person of Whiteness
<Gold Donor>
15,205
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I need to snap some new pictures of our German. She's 6 months old now and about 45 lbs. Sweet and smart as can be. Took her on a road trip to visit family and she pretty much slept in the cab of the truck or kept our son entertained in his booster seat. 7 hours, we pulled over a couple times for gas or bathroom breaks for the family. She couldn't quite muster the will to go in the grass at the stops but held it the entire drive. Wish she could have gone but she didn't seem in distress or anything from not going.

When we got her back from boarding and training for 3 weeks she had barely gained any weight so we increased her food intake a little bit. We are almost having to do 50/50 of "regular" food and probiotic food or her stool is very very lose, not able to be scooped up and just globs on the yard. Luckily everything froze last week so I could pick some up. She's been tested for parasites and another couple of things throughout her puppy vet visits with all negatives. Vet just says to monitor and we'll adjust if needed.

She's becoming more socialized to our neighbors and recognizes them. We take her out in the front yard partly because we want her to see who belongs around the house and to get her used to the people / families walking down the sidewalks, and partly because taking her out the back means going down two levels of deck. The only problem with her recognizing our neighbors is now she gets excited when she sees them and wants to go run and get pets.

Also need to take a picture or update with her kennel. Someone in the Home Improvement thread or something made a comment about me building it and her sleeping in it. She loves the thing. At night when it is time for bed we show her the nighttime treat and she bolts up the stairs and is waiting in the kennel. She'll walk in to it and lay down during the day. Since she did so good on the road trip and slept with us at my Mom's we've even let her have a little bit of free reign at night. She'll start on the bed and hop down and go lay in her bed. Everyone seems pretty happy with the situation. Still not comfortable leaving her out when we aren't home. But it gets real hard to remember she's only 6 months old at this point.

Want to get her in to some more training to reinforce lessons. The no pulling at the leash, getting better at not lifting up off the ground.

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Hah, only recent picture I had except maybe Christmas ones with family. Was trying to snap a pic of her and my cat hanging out. They're getting more comfortable relaxing next to each other but by the time I snapped that one Tycho was like "nope, going back in my apartment." Tycho is 12 now and pretty much just sleeps in there at my feet while working, pops his head out to jump up in my lap for a few minutes then goes back in to lay down.
 
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Gravel

Mr. Poopybutthole
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So we got a dog last year in April. She was a surrender Aussiedoodle. She's the happiest, most playful dog ever, and she loves everyone and every dog. She about 15 months old. For a while we've been talking about getting another dog because she really needs a companion.

We got a male American Shepherd from our groomer, which she breeds. He's a little older than our dog, at about a year and 9 months. The groomer basically said he hasn't been socialized at all (I guess he just stays at home and plays with his parents, siblings, and cousins all day), but is super playful.

We had them meet a week ago and they ran around the groomers yard and had a blast. We got him Sunday, and it's now Thursday evening. He's scared of everything. Every noise, everything around the house. Our dog loves bubbles and one popped near him and he got startled. He'll play fetch a little, but if there are any outside noises he's done and wants inside. And once inside, he basically sits in one 10' radius all day. He will occasionally move around the house to explore the entrances to rooms, but quickly runs back to the safe spot. We were really hoping at some point he'd get used to the new surroundings and explore, but he just seems scared of it all.

I tried doing confidence drills with him by taking food and treats to get him to explore, but it doesn't seem to help. And my wife took him on a walk yesterday that sounded like it went okay, but not much progress today. We probably pushed our luck, because she walked him again today and a school bus's air brakes went off and got scared shitless and he wanted to run back to our house.

Is this dog just forever broken? My wife was always talking about socializing our dog, and I didn't quite grasp how important it is. I'm now seeing what a broken dog looks like. My wife originally wanted to give him two weeks to acclimate, but as he's not even showing small signs of improvement we're worried he's just not going to be compatible (we travel frequently, and for a dog that's scared of everything I'm afraid that'd be torture).

If anyone has any ideas that we can try over the next couple days, I'm all ears.
 

Sanrith Descartes

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<Gold Donor>
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So we got a dog last year in April. She was a surrender Aussiedoodle. She's the happiest, most playful dog ever, and she loves everyone and every dog. She about 15 months old. For a while we've been talking about getting another dog because she really needs a companion.

We got a male American Shepherd from our groomer, which she breeds. He's a little older than our dog, at about a year and 9 months. The groomer basically said he hasn't been socialized at all (I guess he just stays at home and plays with his parents, siblings, and cousins all day), but is super playful.

We had them meet a week ago and they ran around the groomers yard and had a blast. We got him Sunday, and it's now Thursday evening. He's scared of everything. Every noise, everything around the house. Our dog loves bubbles and one popped near him and he got startled. He'll play fetch a little, but if there are any outside noises he's done and wants inside. And once inside, he basically sits in one 10' radius all day. He will occasionally move around the house to explore the entrances to rooms, but quickly runs back to the safe spot. We were really hoping at some point he'd get used to the new surroundings and explore, but he just seems scared of it all.

I tried doing confidence drills with him by taking food and treats to get him to explore, but it doesn't seem to help. And my wife took him on a walk yesterday that sounded like it went okay, but not much progress today. We probably pushed our luck, because she walked him again today and a school bus's air brakes went off and got scared shitless and he wanted to run back to our house.

Is this dog just forever broken? My wife was always talking about socializing our dog, and I didn't quite grasp how important it is. I'm now seeing what a broken dog looks like. My wife originally wanted to give him two weeks to acclimate, but as he's not even showing small signs of improvement we're worried he's just not going to be compatible (we travel frequently, and for a dog that's scared of everything I'm afraid that'd be torture).

If anyone has any ideas that we can try over the next couple days, I'm all ears.
Just keep working with him, playing and showing him attention.
 

Gravel

Mr. Poopybutthole
40,088
132,310
It’s only been a week? I’d worry at 6 months but not already. Just give it time.
4 days. We're mostly going by the rule of 3, where we'd expect him to at least start acting a little more normal after 3 days, but he's regressing.

We're technically on a trial with him right now, and we can take him back to his home at any time.

The concerning part is we've read about unsocialized dogs and most of them never really get "better." He'd probably be fine with an adopted family who mostly stay home all the time. But I don't want to put this dog through mental torture every months if we're going to be on the road or something.

Just wanted to know if anyone else had experience with a dog like this and what worked for you.
 

Tarrant

<Prior Amod>
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9,294
4 days. We're mostly going by the rule of 3, where we'd expect him to at least start acting a little more normal after 3 days, but he's regressing.

We're technically on a trial with him right now, and we can take him back to his home at any time.

The concerning part is we've read about unsocialized dogs and most of them never really get "better." He'd probably be fine with an adopted family who mostly stay home all the time. But I don't want to put this dog through mental torture every months if we're going to be on the road or something.

Just wanted to know if anyone else had experience with a dog like this and what worked for you.

my rescue was like that for 3 or 4 months, he had never even been outside when I got him at a year old.

he’s better now except he’s terrified of plastic bags. 🤷🏻‍♂️ I just worked with him every day, blocked off the room I was in to keep him in it and held him a lot when I was in my chair. When he went outside I had him on a leash and would be with him while he did his business.

if you don’t see yourself wanting to put in that kind of effort then yeah I’d suggest you end it soon.
 
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BrutulTM

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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Border collies/Australian shepherds etc which I think would include an american shepherd, are pretty timid dogs in general. I have a 4 year old border collie that will still head for the basement if there's a dog barking on the TV or I use a power tool or something, although I can call her back and she will come.She loves all people but is generally afraid of dogs she doesn't know well. Of course she's not timid at all around cattle. In fact when she sees two bulls fighting she gets so excited I have to physically restrain her or she will bail off the moving 4-wheeler and jump in the middle of them.

They are pretty neurotic dogs although yours sounds like it might be more than usual. 4 days isn't long though. Have you talked to the breeder about it? You might try to expand on the fetching. They are working dogs and want a job to do. My older border collie loved to fetch and would literally do it for hours when he was younger. They are super high energy dogs and they need a lot of exercise. 10 minutes of walking on a leash probably isn't going to do it. If you can get him fetching seriously just let him run his ass off doing that. Get him a rubber frisbee or something you can throw a long ways. I think your dog will probably get better with time, but he's probably never going to be as fearless and rambunctious as your other dog. Not necessarily a bad thing. I love my border collies, but they're not really very much like the more classic "family pet" type dogs. Even my 14 year old, half deaf border collie will get upset at loud noises or little children that want to hug on him too much.
 

MachRed

Molten Core Raider
177
441
This little guy passed away memorial day yesterday, late in the night. Had him for 17.5 years since college ..feels like a lifetime.

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Conefed

Blackwing Lair Raider
2,850
1,702
Considering a dog
bought a fence
considering installing a wireless electric fence behind it
 
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Control

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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What for? Either the fence keeps the dog in, or it's not your pet to begin with!
Lol, I've thought about the same thing though. Wireless fence to keep him from getting in the habit of jumping against the real one, digging, etc., and then the real fence because the wireless don't mean shit if he really wants to go after something.
 
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Cutlery

Kill All the White People
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Lol, I've thought about the same thing though. Wireless fence to keep him from getting in the habit of jumping against the real one, digging, etc., and then the real fence because the wireless don't mean shit if he really wants to go after something.

My GSD is 12, so her fence jumping days are long gone. But I relied heavily on the fact that she just didn't know she was entirely capable of jumping it. If you don't have a rescue dog who is aware of his own capabilities, you should be totally fine with just a fence.

Furthermore, with my experience with correctional E-collars, I fucking doubt an electric fence would have any impact at all on that dog. If she was intent on doing something, nothing was stopping her.
 
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