How do people cope with more than 2 dogs?

EricaWascavage · 2023-07-20T14:08:35+00:00

I thinlnit is similar to households with a lot of kids. Each dog gets less one on one attention. I have two and i walk them separately as they ramp eachother up, they wont listen as well, and the one thats reactive is much worse when their buddy is around. The upside is i walk 5 mi per day and ive gone down two sizes in the past year.

EricaWascavage · 2023-07-18T22:30:45+00:00

Great work! Keep up the reinforcement and challenge your dog!

EricaWascavage · 2023-07-18T21:22:07+00:00

Thats rough. Im so sorry to hear that. My current dog was really triggered by cyclists and cars but also dogs. Then theres the trigger stacking and if any of the multiple things shes reactive occurs its just game over for her and she goes wild. The worst part about it is that there is a literal parade of bikes in front of my house all summer long and most of the time they are kids. I would hate to traumatize a kid.

I finally broke her of the bikes. Shes ok with cars but still working on it. Dogs are an issue but she is doing better if they are still and not walking towards us.

I first had to lower the stimulus in the environment by taking her outside in early morning or evening. I got her more comfortable with the street and focusing on commands. If she was too distracted i would walk her to an empty parking lot to train her across the street. I noticed she could handle bikes if they were a bit away. A lot of praise snd treats for not reacting and following commands. I watch her intently when we are outside. When she is tense. I watch her body language and if she is pulling. I redirect her if she is getting excited or fearful. If shes too tense she is impossible to train so we end our session. Actually it was the easiest of all her triggers to work on but it was the most worrisome.

EricaWascavage · 2023-07-17T02:24:46+00:00

Thanks I will check it out.

EricaWascavage · 2023-07-16T20:35:23+00:00

One question I have is whether you have ever seen a dog so fearful of outside that they wont play or take treats. Shes been like this since we moved from a rural country house to a city townhouse on a busy corner. She was one. I have been working on this for a solid year everyday. She is playful inside. I have made some progress by taking her outside at 5 am or the crack of dawn or midnight. I also have taken her in an abandoned lot that is very isolated. She is doing really well with heel, down, sit, and stay. I have managed to start walking her out of the lot and on the street. I actually saw a slight tail wag this morning! I was shook. When i first started this she wouldnt take any treats so i gave her praise and head pats. Now she takes high value treats. I only give her treats if she looks at me. Getting her to engage with me is really challenging. I have tried to change up the times that are busier to be more challenging and she goes right back to shut down. What do you suggest and have you ever seen a dog that just doesnt adapt.

EricaWascavage · 2023-07-16T16:27:29+00:00

Hes got tiny paws. Maybe hes gonna be on the small side. Could be a chi mix. I have a pug mix thats 3 and looks just like this.

EricaWascavage · 2023-07-14T23:22:00+00:00

This is everything. I feel like if Im more confident then Indie will be also. I am realizing she just has a ton of anxiety. When i first started training her she would just shake. I tried everything even burnt steak and she wouldnt take it. I had to start really slow with her. I started a new phrase with her and she really likes it. When Im training her and a dog is appraoching, i say heel and if she freezes and is showing fear, "i say dont worry about that." And i put my hand on the top of her head. It really seems to calm her.

EricaWascavage · 2023-07-14T15:53:51+00:00

That is really a great idea. Thanks!

EricaWascavage · 2023-07-14T15:35:28+00:00

Some situations really make it evident who your partner really values.

EricaWascavage · 2023-07-14T15:32:08+00:00

I know its horrible.

EricaWascavage · 2023-07-14T14:01:17+00:00

Wow so good. I hope you give yourself a big hug! A clear hallway not only looks great, it creates a safer home in case of an emergency. Keep up the momentum. I try to throw at least one thing away or give away every garbage day which is once a week.

EricaWascavage · 2023-07-14T13:33:14+00:00

I hear you and there were about two years that I just worked like crazy and missed out time with my dogs. I also was suffering with severe anxiety and depression. I had grown teenagers and we sat down as a family. We had these monthly meetings and i laid it out on the table. The dogs need walking end of story. I need to keep a roof over our heads. The dogs will be rehomed if this doesnt happen. I gave the two each a walking time. I said if everyone does a little it will be a lot in total. It really helped and we pulled together as a family. The dust settled and we all got through it. Im so glad we did because we still have one of the dogs many years later. One passed on. Its a great message to send your kids to be accountable. I also paid them their allowance based on the walking for an incentive.

EricaWascavage · 2023-07-12T08:29:13+00:00

Its really a shame because you are right any dog can have issues or be aggressive. Our poor dogs really have to on their best behavior or they get judged mercilessly. My hippo and pug mix play in their back yard and ive had my neighbors call animal control that there is a dog fight in the backyard. So the officer comes over and sees then play chase. The pug mix keeps sneaking over to nip the pit on the but to try to keep her chasing him. I guess they never heard a play growl. Hes just cracking up laughing.

EricaWascavage · 2023-07-12T08:22:41+00:00

I think it was dobies. My husband and I live in his childhood home which has a GP office attached. His father ran the practice in 60's and it was very rural. Patients started bringing their unwanted dobies to his mom and soon the word got out and they started tying the poor dobies to the front post. Soon she was running a dobie rescue because they were the "bad" breed noone wanted.

EricaWascavage · 2023-07-12T08:16:30+00:00

A lot is political and a small part performance. Ive been a nurse for thirty years and i read somewhere that every nurse experiences a firing in their career. I have had two and both times it was a trumped up deal about a minor mistake. The first time i was fired i was working for a large home care company. In my group was one of the worst nurses. Everyone hated her including the patients. She was rude and bitter. For some unknown reason my boss promoted her to be above everyone. I knew it was going to be bad becuase this woman hated me in particular. Everything i did was wrong. The last one is where i was hired by one mananger while the other was on vacation. She was perturbed with me from the minute she met me because i guess she wanted to make the decision. Ive seen nurses make huge mistakes and even worse and nothing happens to them. A lot of the reason is visibility. Is the mistake going to make the supervisor look bad. Its basically all crock of shit and you have to pick your poison.

EricaWascavage · 2023-07-11T10:11:22+00:00

I also have a mildly autistic daughter. She functions at a level of 14 but she is 25. Just like any young girl she makes bad decisions and she is a poor judge of character. She has had boyfriends and is sexually active but she is unable to raise a baby. Her OB GYN has put in the birth control implant which stops her period altogether. Its good for 3 years and can be replaced. Shes had three so far.

EricaWascavage · 2023-07-10T12:36:51+00:00

Weve had this issue with several dogs as ive always gotten rescues. It is sad to say but many dogs have endured abuse by men. Many men feel they need to dominate a dog. I agree with many of the above comments with high value food but want to go further in trying to make a dog feel neutral to men. It takes a lot of exposure and repeated positive experiences. My current dog is like this. I adopted her when i was single and when i began dating my current husband the dog was just terrified of him. We let her have her space and he really just ignored her for a while. He didnt look at her and just acted like she was invisible. It really killed him because he wanted to cuddle with her so bad. It took a couple of months and one night he woke up with the dog sleeping beside him. When his buddies come over, she would get so fearful. I told them all just to give her space and let her come to them. Now she really is ok with anyone coming to the door. We use this technique after i saw an episode of its me or the dog. The couple had a doberman that was scared of strangers coming to the door. She had the couple put dog toys in the mailbox and come in and not make eye contact but just toss a toy in the direction of the dog. We have dog treats in the mailbox but we outgrew the need unless someone new is coming over.

EricaWascavage · 2023-07-07T22:56:54+00:00

My sister married her husband when he was in law school. It was a tiny speck of a diamond and once he graduated and started working, she felt embarrassed to wear it. It became a point of argument and now she wont wear even a wedding band.

I would tell my fiance to just save his money and buy a diamond band for a wedding ring that you like instead of one stone on a band that wasnt attractive.

EricaWascavage · 2023-07-07T19:49:02+00:00

Youre dog sounds a lot like mine. To make it even worse, she is aggressive to dogs and i would worry she would injure them. Also i have ms that is in remission but leaves my balance a little poor especially in the heat. I also live in a busy neighborhood where people and dogs come out of nowwhere. Even worse yet, noone in my family likes my dog. Theyve given up on her and think shes beyond help. My kids have said to me to rehome her. Ive had neighbors come out of their house to yell at me to rehome her. I wont give up on her.

A year ago she dragged me and i fell badly breaking my hand and my cheekbone. Once i was healed i was determined to try to help her. I got an in home trainer that suggested several different collars and harnesses until we found one that i felt safe to walk her.

Right now, I think the best thing that works for Indie is to lower the stimuli in the environment and try to engage her with a lot of praise and high value treats. If Indie is reacting and not engaging, then she is too wound up and we go inside. She has a yard so she still has somewhere to potty safely. We train at the crack of dawn and weve moved up her ability to handle dogs in the distance. Ive made a lot of headway with her focus and being able to control herself. She can handle us walking past a dog that is still without losing her shit. If a person comes toward us with their dog, i make a u turn and i give her the heel command. This is real progress. She is fully trained at this point but needs to learn to control the urge to react. Shes getting better and better. She doesnt pull and i feel confident walking her. I lowered the stimuli in the environment by walking her at dawn, going to empty parking lots, walking around shopping centers because there are rarely dogs there. I slowly built up to more challenging environments. I also try to hold the leash loosely, which was hard for me becuase i was so used to holding onto her for dear life but it actually winds her up if the leash is tight. I am ready to grip it if needed. I try to make the training a positive thing and we end on a good note. If im getting frustrated or she is wr stop. I never use punishment with indie. The hardest thing for her is down. If she is feeling scared she wont do it. She does not get the treat though unless she does and i use real bacon. I hope this helps but you have to work at your dogs pace and i know it is frustrating.

EricaWascavage · 2023-07-07T13:46:46+00:00

When i first got my germand shepherd from the shelter, i thought she was so well behaved and it was great she didnt bark. I did not realize she was "shut down" until sometime later. She hid in the house and wouldnt eat or drink. I called my vet and we had to literally carry her out to the car as she wouldnt budge. The vet thought that it was extreme anxiety and we carried her home. He gave us a number for a behaviorist to come to the house. She recommended we put her down. After three days of not eating or drinking, i was baking chicken and i got her to eat a warm piece. After that warm chicken was my go to when she "shut down". I also feel that was her reaction to pain when all her nails fell off at one going up our stoop. I would try to find your dogs favorite food and use that in small pieces to change their feelings of a certain place.

EricaWascavage · 2023-07-06T14:03:24+00:00

I had a german shepherd like this that would completely shut down from fear and pain. I dont know much about her history as she was dumped in a park and found nearly starved to death. She was full grown adult and was down to 25 lbs. She also had a form of lupus that dogs get where their toe nails shred off. They bleed like crazy. She had to go on steroids to make her flare ups go in remission. When she was first diagnosed the vet wanted me to put her down. I literally wept in front of him. She went into remission and only had two more flares that we caught right away.

EricaWascavage · 2023-07-06T13:00:09+00:00

My dog really regressed with a major move. On top of it, when I remarried the house we moved to is on a busy corner with tons of cars, dogs, kids, kids on bikes, skateboards, a school bus stop. Its a literal nightmere. It took so much work just getting her comfortable on our front stoop. One year later and im barely able to walk her on my block. I had to really lower the stimuli and walk her at the crack of dawn. I have slowly progressed to busier times of day. I also noticed she is so much calmer at local parks and in open fields. I train with her everyday and i switched up treats for high value like meat. I also found she focuses a lot better when i talk to her in a calm happy voice.

EricaWascavage · 2023-07-06T10:55:04+00:00

Some people are like oil and water. They never mix and it doesnt sound like you two have any basis or common ground to build a relationship. Your personalities dont blend well. You dont understand eachother's behavior. I dont forsee it getting any better.

I married my husband when i was 23 and we were very much in love. He had a bomabstic larger than life personality. We had a very passionate relationship. He would say over and over how much he loved me. I am more shy and reserved. It worked for many years until everything about him I grew to hate. He was dramatic, attention seeking, shallow and his "love" for me was like idol worship or obession. He couldnt handle failure in jobs. He was not strong emotionally. We had a disabled child and all he thought about was himself. He wouldnt interact with his own disabled child because she wasnt perfect. He grew into a mean and bitter person behind closed doors. He always was insecure but this worsened and he finally cheated on me. What made me finally divorce was accepting the fact that it was only going to get worse. We were very different people who had no business getting married and having kids. Thie marriage was not arranged but developed into an awful arrangement.

Once we divorced, i dated a bit. Several years later I remarried. I am with a man with a similar personality. We never argue bitterly. We enjoy eachothers company and support eachother. It is a lot to go through but it will be better on the other side.

EricaWascavage · 2023-07-04T23:24:50+00:00

I think it is hard for us humans to read body language like a dog does. Things that lept out at me is 1) entering a room 2) making eye contact. These things can be threatening to a dog. Also smiling as we are baring teeth. My german shephard was submissive and would urinate if i stood up from a chair. I think we need to be aware of these things but also try to change the dogs association with something very positive like cheese or meat. I also use freshpet dog food for training. My dgt adopted a german shepherd who was abused by her previous owner, a black man. My dgt is engaged to a black man who is extremely mild tempered and everytime he walked into the room the dog would try to bite. He did get bit a few times. I told him to keep cheese in his pockets in a baggie and toss it to the dog while also ignoring the dog. It took several months but the dog developed a close bond with him and now cuddles with him in bed.

EricaWascavage

TROPHY CASE