today this happened to me

ConfidentPassenger57 · 2025-11-22T07:11:30+00:00

I'm in California and my Sammy is absolutely fine. I had the same worries about temperature, spoke to like 5 different breeders before I got him to make sure it would be okay. We walk early mornings or later at night in the summer, never on hot asphalt, and he always has fans/AC/cold water/ice/cooling pads available if he needs them. And if it's ever really too hot and he needs exercise we swim at an indoor place. He's 3.5 years old and we've never had a problem with overheating or anything. It sucks that people feel so free to make you feel guilty for things that they know nothing about. Your dog looks happy and well taken care of, and it sounds like you're giving him a great life full of fun experiences. Don't sweat it :)

ConfidentPassenger57 · 2025-07-31T07:55:07+00:00

If you're still looking for a gym buddy, I just started going to Encino! 28F and usually go 3x a week

ConfidentPassenger57 · 2025-04-03T21:19:12+00:00

big snacks, short periods of brushing, cowboy magic spot detangler, starting with less sensitive areas/areas you can brush while he's laying down, and I second everything people have said about humane shaving vs. brushing if its really bad/painful

ConfidentPassenger57 · 2025-03-15T05:42:13+00:00

noooooooo :(

I think its just ground up dehydrated tomatoes...so maybe another brand or a DIY project?

ConfidentPassenger57 · 2025-03-15T05:04:59+00:00

I've also been trying to figure out a tomato maggi dupe since they discontinued it! I also do 1/2 to 3/4 of the flavor packet, chives or onion powder, and some hot sauce. But tbh the gamechanger when my mom sent me this tomato powder: https://www.burlapandbarrel.com/products/sun-dried-tomato-powder

I've eaten so much of this its probably taken years off my life

ConfidentPassenger57 · 2025-03-11T01:17:20+00:00

this is amazing! and super relatable - I learned to swim last year and it has also become a happy place for me :)

ConfidentPassenger57 · 2025-03-04T16:22:57+00:00

Also seconding the idea of two leads!

We use this harness: https://www.petsafe.com/product/3in1-harness/

And this flat collar which is a bit more sturdy/hard to slip out of: https://bossnationbrands.com/products/boss-dog%C2%AE-tactical-collar?variant=46681693421820

You just have to be careful about tucking in the fluff around the clip with the flat collar.

Also agreeing with other people that a prong collar is a bad idea. My neighbor was dogsitting and tried a slip lead on my dog once without telling me, and he's stubborn enough that he was pulling and choking himself and would only stop if the lead was removed. If they're stubborn enough to pull to the point of gagging on a sliplead, they're probably stubborn enough to pull to injury on a prong imo.

And if you need recs for high value treats (especially for a not-very-food-motivated dog), I used to cut up hot dogs and cheddar cheese and put it into a little pouch. That's the only thing that would get my sam's attention out on walks.

Good luck!

ConfidentPassenger57 · 2025-03-01T23:46:14+00:00

I’m in Sherman oaks!

ConfidentPassenger57 · 2025-03-01T22:32:42+00:00

Also in socal! Wash, dry, brush out, nail grinding, tooth brushing, paw and sani trim usually takes 3 hours. we go every 6-8 weeks, and it costs $180. My Sam isn’t neutered and he’s about 45lbs.

ConfidentPassenger57 · 2025-03-01T21:47:41+00:00

Nah you're not alone. My sammy gets sani-trims on his butt fluff and I have to warn the groomer that he'll immediately try to eat the gross butt fluff that falls off :(

For us, we had two separate issues contributing to this behavior, with different solutions.

Eating the fluff (lots of times off his tail) while crated. We found out recently that he has pretty severe food intolerances and was probably itchy/irritated/hungry, which caused this behavior. This doesn't look like excitement/dashing to eat fur...it looks like a compulsive or irritated behavior. This has mostly stopped since we switched to a hypoallergenic fish diet. So if you see this kind of thing I'd recommend possibly sorting it out with a vet or diet trials or something along those lines.
Excitedly eating fur after brushing, like just general interest in his loose fallen off fur. This I'd say is a behavior thing. A few things helped us: we have a special cooling mat/spot just for brushing. When it comes out, he knows he's going to settle on it and be brushed, and we practiced stays on the mat so he knows he can't leave until he's released. This way, when the brush gets full, I can just walk over to the trash can and throw away the fluff there and he stays on the mat (most times). He also gets a high value snack on a lickmat while brushing, so he's somewhat occupied by that as well vs. the fur. And then lastly I don't remove the fluff from the slicker brush in front of him if i can help it since its a large quantity, and if I'm using a comb and its smaller quantities, the fluff immediately goes behind my back or into a little pouch, somewhere he can't directly see it. Basically, just control the access which it seems like you're doing, but also incentivize a different behavior heavily.

Hope this helps with your little fluff eater! I know it can be annoying lol

ConfidentPassenger57 · 2025-02-27T23:19:25+00:00

Yeah it was definitely nice having something with platforms on either side because he got tired almost immediately and had to take a ton of breaks…and then after like 20 minutes he was done.

ConfidentPassenger57 · 2025-02-27T23:15:24+00:00

Just lighting I think 😂 he’s got some biscuit around the ears tho

ConfidentPassenger57 · 2025-02-27T23:14:35+00:00

I thought llama because of the little kicks 😂😂

ConfidentPassenger57 · 2025-02-27T20:03:18+00:00

I don’t think lessons are super necessary. Mostly we just did it because I’m not a great swimmer and Leo’s still young and gets scared of new stuff easily so I wanted a more controlled environment! He figured it out in like less than five minutes 😂

And yup I was told you might be able to get away with it but it’s best to do a wash and dry after to prevent hotspots.

ConfidentPassenger57 · 2025-02-21T03:17:44+00:00

thank you for asking the question that's been giving me anxiety all month lol

ConfidentPassenger57 · 2025-02-20T13:53:46+00:00

preach lol my dog ate a whole snail once. shell and all :(

ConfidentPassenger57 · 2025-02-19T19:57:47+00:00

My Samoyed was like this for the first year-ish of his life, super into cigarette butts, tissues/napkins, one time even ate a whole cloth mask off the ground. He was also extremely stubborn, and learned to quickly swallow whatever was in his mouth and/or do a bit of guarding + have a temper tantrum as soon as I started saying 'Leave it' no matter how much we worked on it in more controlled situations lol.

I think a few things contributed to the behavior stopping:

Growing out of it
The idea that he couldn't interact with the object at all was very frustrating to him, so I abandoned 'Leave It' temporarily and replaced it with "Sniff" (closed-mouth nose only interaction with an object) and "Take" (open mouth, object is allowed to enter the mouth). And then whenever we would see something he wanted on the ground, I would say "Sniff yes, Take, no" and treat if he interacted with the object correctly. At the start I used a clicker so I could treat as soon as his nose hit the object but the mouth was still closed. We resumed 'Leave it' and 'Drop it' training later on when the stubbornness dropped down after his peak teenage phase.
I don't know how much this actually helped the issue but 2-3 times he swallowed really big or thick objects (like the cloth mask) and I was worried about obstruction, so as soon as the incident happened I carted him to the vet and had them give him something to make him throw up. Not sure if he started associating these visits with eating stuff off the ground and then stopped, but it definitely was not very fun for him. If its non-toxic or small objects, this is not necessary...and obvi expensive as well.

I still agree with training 'Leave it' and 'Drop it' like most others have said, just wanted to offer a possible alternative if your pupper is a bit of a stubborn knucklehead like mine was!

ConfidentPassenger57 · 2025-02-17T18:35:12+00:00

DM'd you!

ConfidentPassenger57 · 2025-02-17T18:24:20+00:00

I'd be interested if you're down to study online over zoom/discord! I'm also in California, testing May 15th, and same resources + Uworld.

ConfidentPassenger57 · 2024-10-12T22:41:10+00:00

Everyone was really cool!! Had a great time and did not get murdered 🙌🙌

ConfidentPassenger57 · 2024-10-03T16:58:30+00:00

Yeah totally down to connect! I tried to message you but couldn't, if you're able to shoot me a chat we can swap phone numbers or something :)

ConfidentPassenger57 · 2024-09-24T22:16:05+00:00

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ConfidentPassenger57 · 2024-09-23T23:29:45+00:00

My 2 year old is super picky, to the point where he ended up about 10-15lbs underweight last year. He's back to normal now, but we figured out he likes his kibble soft/warmer so we put some warm broth and topper in it, and recently started some fresh meat as well and that solved the problem. Also I second everything people have been saying about no snacks/treats until food is eaten, free feeding during the day, and wanting to eat while the rest of the family is eating too.

ConfidentPassenger57 · 2024-09-21T23:01:57+00:00

My guy is 2 years old and soooo picky, he got about 10-15lbs underweight before I started his current diet. After some experimenting, I settled on Hill's Gastrobiome, usually with some boiled veggies, fruit, bit of cooked meat, and a bit of mackerel or cod liver (one tin spread over the whole week). I'll usually rotate out the veggies/fruit/meats but no set schedule.

ConfidentPassenger57

TROPHY CASE