This was my intro post: http://www.dogforums.com/attention-all-new-members/196353-new-here-need-advice.html#post2162825
Our new fur-baby, Lyra, may be part Chow Chow, and this may be why she - according to her previous owners - practically house-trained herself. She's only had an accident inside once so far, and I think it was because she was really scared of thunder, and then my husband came home from work and knocked on the door during a thunderstorm. That said, she's TOO eager to go outside. She begs, whines/cries, and scratches at EVERY door in the house constantly. We presume she does this to go "see the bunnies" - we live in a mostly rural area and there are a lot of rabbits that frequent our and our neighbors' yards. When we do take her outside, she wants to walk around, look around, sniff the air, etc. She usually appears to have no interest in doing her business. We're having a very hard time distinguishing between urgent bathroom break-time and urgent bunny-watching time. It seems as though she "gets a bug up her butt" to go outside and there is no end to it. We can't figure out what is wrong. We take her on long walks when we can, but we do not have a fence or a doggy door, so she is not able to come and go as she pleases as she was able to at her previous house.
This dilemma frustrates and exhausts us. We are having difficulty seeing her side of this, other than "I want to go out so you have to take me, NOW." I'm sure there's some explanation and that somehow or another its our fault, it's just really hard to figure it out.
Here is some additional info:
We need to figure out a way to create a more consistent exercise regimen for her. We have been taking her on maybe one or two long walks a day. It's crazy hot here in Oklahoma right now, and we're both also badly out of shape , so we're trying to do the best we can but it's quite difficult at this time. We know we need to do better, but it's also a bit confusing. Should we schedule a noon bathroom break with a long walk every day, in addition to a long walk at another time during the early evening hours, and try to get into a routine like that? That sounds pretty doable, just a bit daunting in the heat and with the bugs.
As far as our outdoor area goes, the options for a dog we have researched are not currently financially possible. We have 2.5 acres, but to fence it all would cost somewhere around $10,000, and doing what we want by creating something like a 'dog run' that would be attached to our shed which would have an A/C and be converted into an awesome dog house, would cost at least $3,000 (it would be a space about 2500 sq ft, so not small by any means).
It's been awhile since we've looked into our options, as we had been planning on adding a dog to our family for awhile, so it's possible there is an option we haven't yet thought of.
Lyra is almost five years old and we've had her for approximately a month and a half.
We will probably get one of those mail-in DNA tests done once we're sure we are going to be keeping her.
We've taken her to the vet once because she wouldn't eat or drink and also had a weird cough/wheeze which may have just been reverse sneezing (this lasted for only one morning and then went away). She was tested for heartworm and is negative. She had a blood panel done and everything was normal. She had been very itchy, and the previous owners said that they had just treated her for fleas, but I know that some dogs can be allergic to flea saliva... the vet prescribed some steroids to help with the itching (which it has, tremendously) and a good side effect of the medicine was that it increased her appetite. We switched her food around the time that we got her, and then modified it again approximately two weeks ago. Her previous owners, while lovely people, bit off more than they could chew as far as pets were concerned, and had too many with not enough finances. The food they considered expensive was what we consider junk, and in addition Lyra wasn't very interested in it. She wouldn't eat it at all for awhile once we first took her home, and we had to add the wet version to the dry in order to get her interested in it at all. (Even the food we have her on now isn't what we would like to feed her, but the vet recommends this brand for both cats and dogs with sensitive skin, and prefers it to the more natural brands for some reason.)
She also has a few additional behavioral issues. She is very uneasy around strangers, to the point where she seems aggressive. She was nearly impossible to bring to the vet. She growled, barked, cried, snarled and just generally freaked out whenever either the vet or the assistant (both of whom were female - so it's not a fear of men) tried to get close to her. They weren't even able to get a temperature because she was so worked up. They recommend that we spend time socializing her, which will include bringing her to the vet frequently just to say hello. The obstacle here is that we live 20 minutes away from the nearest place to 'be social'. Also, if we are definitely keeping her, we will be bringing her to a different vet, because they offer better long-term plans and payment options that include free visits, annual dental, discounts, etc. The reason we went to this particular vet this time around was because we and our family have had positive experiences with them before, and for just a single emergency visit they seemed to be a more affordable option (seemed being the opportune word, as we ended up paying much more there than we would have if we had just started them on the plan at the other place).
Another behavioral issue is excessive barking, and I think this might have to do with her wariness of strangers. She perceives very slight disturbances outside to be threats (at least this is what appears to be the case) and will bark at the house and doors creaking/settling, at bugs hitting the windows, and at shadows shifting outside. When she finds something worthy of barking at, she will usually run to a window and will bark for approximately a two minute period, gradually winding down as she realizes that there is no reason to be alarmed.
We have our own behavioral issues as humans. We're not really sure how to tell her to stop barking, as we would like her to be alert in the case of an actual threat, but there are a lot of animals and insects out here, much more than there are human threats. We're not sure how to command her to stop, either, as we've read that just saying "no" is not ideal because it's not an actual specific command, but it's not a "leave it" issue, either, is it? Perhaps "hush"? And how loudly should we say it? We are also really bad about wanting to calm her, as I've read that what we perceive to be soothing can be perceived as rewarding to dogs.
It's hard to pick and choose which of these are the biggest and most pertinent issue. It's possible that last week she was having some digestion issues and thus asking to go out more often, as well. She did seem to be slightly irregular.
In addition to all this, we have the cat training/integration going on, so it's all quite overwhelming.
I apologize for the enormous post and thank you for reading it!
Our new fur-baby, Lyra, may be part Chow Chow, and this may be why she - according to her previous owners - practically house-trained herself. She's only had an accident inside once so far, and I think it was because she was really scared of thunder, and then my husband came home from work and knocked on the door during a thunderstorm. That said, she's TOO eager to go outside. She begs, whines/cries, and scratches at EVERY door in the house constantly. We presume she does this to go "see the bunnies" - we live in a mostly rural area and there are a lot of rabbits that frequent our and our neighbors' yards. When we do take her outside, she wants to walk around, look around, sniff the air, etc. She usually appears to have no interest in doing her business. We're having a very hard time distinguishing between urgent bathroom break-time and urgent bunny-watching time. It seems as though she "gets a bug up her butt" to go outside and there is no end to it. We can't figure out what is wrong. We take her on long walks when we can, but we do not have a fence or a doggy door, so she is not able to come and go as she pleases as she was able to at her previous house.
This dilemma frustrates and exhausts us. We are having difficulty seeing her side of this, other than "I want to go out so you have to take me, NOW." I'm sure there's some explanation and that somehow or another its our fault, it's just really hard to figure it out.
Here is some additional info:
We need to figure out a way to create a more consistent exercise regimen for her. We have been taking her on maybe one or two long walks a day. It's crazy hot here in Oklahoma right now, and we're both also badly out of shape , so we're trying to do the best we can but it's quite difficult at this time. We know we need to do better, but it's also a bit confusing. Should we schedule a noon bathroom break with a long walk every day, in addition to a long walk at another time during the early evening hours, and try to get into a routine like that? That sounds pretty doable, just a bit daunting in the heat and with the bugs.
As far as our outdoor area goes, the options for a dog we have researched are not currently financially possible. We have 2.5 acres, but to fence it all would cost somewhere around $10,000, and doing what we want by creating something like a 'dog run' that would be attached to our shed which would have an A/C and be converted into an awesome dog house, would cost at least $3,000 (it would be a space about 2500 sq ft, so not small by any means).
It's been awhile since we've looked into our options, as we had been planning on adding a dog to our family for awhile, so it's possible there is an option we haven't yet thought of.
Lyra is almost five years old and we've had her for approximately a month and a half.
We will probably get one of those mail-in DNA tests done once we're sure we are going to be keeping her.
We've taken her to the vet once because she wouldn't eat or drink and also had a weird cough/wheeze which may have just been reverse sneezing (this lasted for only one morning and then went away). She was tested for heartworm and is negative. She had a blood panel done and everything was normal. She had been very itchy, and the previous owners said that they had just treated her for fleas, but I know that some dogs can be allergic to flea saliva... the vet prescribed some steroids to help with the itching (which it has, tremendously) and a good side effect of the medicine was that it increased her appetite. We switched her food around the time that we got her, and then modified it again approximately two weeks ago. Her previous owners, while lovely people, bit off more than they could chew as far as pets were concerned, and had too many with not enough finances. The food they considered expensive was what we consider junk, and in addition Lyra wasn't very interested in it. She wouldn't eat it at all for awhile once we first took her home, and we had to add the wet version to the dry in order to get her interested in it at all. (Even the food we have her on now isn't what we would like to feed her, but the vet recommends this brand for both cats and dogs with sensitive skin, and prefers it to the more natural brands for some reason.)
She also has a few additional behavioral issues. She is very uneasy around strangers, to the point where she seems aggressive. She was nearly impossible to bring to the vet. She growled, barked, cried, snarled and just generally freaked out whenever either the vet or the assistant (both of whom were female - so it's not a fear of men) tried to get close to her. They weren't even able to get a temperature because she was so worked up. They recommend that we spend time socializing her, which will include bringing her to the vet frequently just to say hello. The obstacle here is that we live 20 minutes away from the nearest place to 'be social'. Also, if we are definitely keeping her, we will be bringing her to a different vet, because they offer better long-term plans and payment options that include free visits, annual dental, discounts, etc. The reason we went to this particular vet this time around was because we and our family have had positive experiences with them before, and for just a single emergency visit they seemed to be a more affordable option (seemed being the opportune word, as we ended up paying much more there than we would have if we had just started them on the plan at the other place).
Another behavioral issue is excessive barking, and I think this might have to do with her wariness of strangers. She perceives very slight disturbances outside to be threats (at least this is what appears to be the case) and will bark at the house and doors creaking/settling, at bugs hitting the windows, and at shadows shifting outside. When she finds something worthy of barking at, she will usually run to a window and will bark for approximately a two minute period, gradually winding down as she realizes that there is no reason to be alarmed.
We have our own behavioral issues as humans. We're not really sure how to tell her to stop barking, as we would like her to be alert in the case of an actual threat, but there are a lot of animals and insects out here, much more than there are human threats. We're not sure how to command her to stop, either, as we've read that just saying "no" is not ideal because it's not an actual specific command, but it's not a "leave it" issue, either, is it? Perhaps "hush"? And how loudly should we say it? We are also really bad about wanting to calm her, as I've read that what we perceive to be soothing can be perceived as rewarding to dogs.
It's hard to pick and choose which of these are the biggest and most pertinent issue. It's possible that last week she was having some digestion issues and thus asking to go out more often, as well. She did seem to be slightly irregular.
In addition to all this, we have the cat training/integration going on, so it's all quite overwhelming.
I apologize for the enormous post and thank you for reading it!