It's begun - vet/dog questions

[mrs.jacinthe]

Aug 28, 2017 10:47:12 GMT -5 wambam said:

Aug 28, 2017 10:44:55 GMT -5 mrs.jacinthe said:

We did training with Gem City Dog Obedience Club from beginner all the way through CGC.  I highly recommend them.  They are positive reinforcement training, very organized, and exceptionally well-run and clean.  gcdoc.com/  (Not convenient in *any* way to just about anything, but I can't recommend them enough.)

As far as vets go, we used Bailey Animal Clinic in Fairborn/Enon (again, not really convenient, but can't recommend them enough).  They're on Dayton Springfield road, just off 675.  Dr. Heather is beyond awesome - our cat ate carpet and needed emergency surgery and not only did she do the surgery, but when he regressed afterwards, she had us bring him in at 7pm on a Saturday for an emergency visit.  The staff are great, too.

Thanks for this! That's great information. Do you know anything about Train Your Pup in Moraine? That's who I emailed this morning.

I don't know anything about them.  The only thing that would concern me is that they don't say anything about their training philosophy on their website.  Are they cesar's way?  Positive reinforcement?  Some sort of combo?  I have concerns about dominance-based training, especially in rescue dogs, so if they do that, I'd look elsewhere.

[wambam]

Aug 28, 2017 10:53:21 GMT -5 mrs.jacinthe said:

Aug 28, 2017 10:47:12 GMT -5 wambam said:

Thanks for this! That's great information. Do you know anything about Train Your Pup in Moraine? That's who I emailed this morning.

I don't know anything about them.  The only thing that would concern me is that they don't say anything about their training philosophy on their website.  Are they cesar's way?  Positive reinforcement?  Some sort of combo?  I have concerns about dominance-based training, especially in rescue dogs, so if they do that, I'd look elsewhere.

This page says they are positive reinforcement based: www.trainyourpup.biz/classes/obedience-classes.html

Once they respond to my email, I will ask them their particular philosophy. I agree that dominance isn't the way to go with Kappy. He needs love and security.

[mrs.jacinthe]

Aug 28, 2017 10:56:19 GMT -5 wambam said:

Aug 28, 2017 10:53:21 GMT -5 mrs.jacinthe said:

I don't know anything about them.  The only thing that would concern me is that they don't say anything about their training philosophy on their website.  Are they cesar's way?  Positive reinforcement?  Some sort of combo?  I have concerns about dominance-based training, especially in rescue dogs, so if they do that, I'd look elsewhere.

This page says they are positive reinforcement based: www.trainyourpup.biz/classes/obedience-classes.html

Once they respond to my email, I will ask them their particular philosophy. I agree that dominance isn't the way to go with Kappy. He needs love and security.

If they are positive reinforcement, even if Kappy only responds to praise (which is good because you don't always have a treat on you if they get stuck on that), that seems like it would work. I'd start with group classes (for sake of the socializing aspect) and only do private one-on-one if they recommend/require it due to Kappy's response to class.

[wambam]

Aug 28, 2017 11:00:46 GMT -5 mrs.jacinthe said:

Aug 28, 2017 10:56:19 GMT -5 wambam said:

This page says they are positive reinforcement based: www.trainyourpup.biz/classes/obedience-classes.html

Once they respond to my email, I will ask them their particular philosophy. I agree that dominance isn't the way to go with Kappy. He needs love and security.

If they are positive reinforcement, even if Kappy only responds to praise (which is good because you don't always have a treat on you if they get stuck on that), that seems like it would work. I'd start with group classes (for sake of the socializing aspect) and only do private one-on-one if they recommend/require it due to Kappy's response to class.

Okay great. Private is way more expensive too so if we can save money and still get some good results that's great. Like I said, he responded well to meeting small dogs at the pet store so that's a good sign.

[ifElse]

He's so cute!!

I wouldn't worry so much on the treats. My dog doesn't always like them. Sometimes he loves them but more often then not he turns his nose up. He loves cheese and chicken. But give him a milk-bone and he looks at you like you are crazy. Or he'll politely take it and drop it on the floor two steps later.

As others said, give the dog time. He'll come around. He's had a lot of changes recently and is adjusting.

[wambam]

Aug 28, 2017 12:41:58 GMT -5 ifElse said:

He's so cute!!

I wouldn't worry so much on the treats. My dog doesn't always like them. Sometimes he loves them but more often then not he turns his nose up. He loves cheese and chicken. But give him a milk-bone and he looks at you like you are crazy. Or he'll politely take it and drop it on the floor two steps later.

As others said, give the dog time. He'll come around. He's had a lot of changes recently and is adjusting.

I am a crazy dog mom already lol. While I intellectually know that "give him time" is exactly the right answer, I'm very concerned I'm screwing him up and failing him. Irrational, I know.

[nicechicken]

I take my dog to a holistic vet and a regular vet. My holistic does acupuncture and chiro which has helped my dogs immensely. That's all I use her for.

You just need to find what will get him motivated. All my dogs are motivated by food. My foster is motivated by food, but will go CRAZY over a ball.

[wambam]

Aug 28, 2017 14:34:15 GMT -5 nicechicken said:

I take my dog to a holistic vet and a regular vet. My holistic does acupuncture and chiro which has helped my dogs immensely. That's all I use her for.

You just need to find what will get him motivated. All my dogs are motivated by food. My foster is motivated by food, but will go CRAZY over a ball.

Yeah, I haven't figured it out yet. I tried @lemonlover's suggestion and tried to use his dinosaur toy. He reached his neck towards it and then was like "nah not worth it." So we'll keep trying. He did take a couple treats today when I offered after he went potty, so maybe it's just taking him some time to realize how awesome treats are!

[nicechicken]

Aug 28, 2017 14:39:52 GMT -5 wambam said:

Aug 28, 2017 14:34:15 GMT -5 nicechicken said:

I take my dog to a holistic vet and a regular vet. My holistic does acupuncture and chiro which has helped my dogs immensely. That's all I use her for.

You just need to find what will get him motivated. All my dogs are motivated by food. My foster is motivated by food, but will go CRAZY over a ball.

Yeah, I haven't figured it out yet. I tried @lemonlover 's suggestion and tried to use his dinosaur toy. He reached his neck towards it and then was like "nah not worth it." So we'll keep trying. He did take a couple treats today when I offered after he went potty, so maybe it's just taking him some time to realize how awesome treats are!

Could be the treat too! Something high in value like cheese? I use it for agility, but my Golden is like a trash can and will do anything for any kind of food. lol.

[honeychai]

Holistic vets can be wonderful.

As for training, Kappy might be treat motivated in the future. Right now he's probably a bit anxious and has a reduced appetite

[wambam]

Aug 28, 2017 14:41:12 GMT -5 nicechicken said:

Aug 28, 2017 14:39:52 GMT -5 wambam said:

Yeah, I haven't figured it out yet. I tried @lemonlover 's suggestion and tried to use his dinosaur toy. He reached his neck towards it and then was like "nah not worth it." So we'll keep trying. He did take a couple treats today when I offered after he went potty, so maybe it's just taking him some time to realize how awesome treats are!

Could be the treat too! Something high in value like cheese? I use it for agility, but my Golden is like a trash can and will do anything for any kind of food. lol.

I can try cheese!

[ifElse]

Aug 28, 2017 12:44:31 GMT -5 wambam said:

Aug 28, 2017 12:41:58 GMT -5 ifElse said:

He's so cute!!

I wouldn't worry so much on the treats. My dog doesn't always like them. Sometimes he loves them but more often then not he turns his nose up. He loves cheese and chicken. But give him a milk-bone and he looks at you like you are crazy. Or he'll politely take it and drop it on the floor two steps later.

As others said, give the dog time. He'll come around. He's had a lot of changes recently and is adjusting.

I am a crazy dog mom already lol. While I intellectually know that "give him time" is exactly the right answer, I'm very concerned I'm screwing him up and failing him. Irrational, I know.

I've had dogs my entire life and I still feel like that. Don't worry, you aren't actually failing. Give yourself time too.

[Deleted]

Aug 28, 2017 15:09:47 GMT -5 wambam said:

Aug 28, 2017 14:41:12 GMT -5 nicechicken said:

Could be the treat too! Something high in value like cheese? I use it for agility, but my Golden is like a trash can and will do anything for any kind of food. lol.

I can try cheese!

Cheese is about the only thing that worked for my girl for a long time. She's missing teeth too, so for soft treats I give her the blue wilderness bites. It's the only actual treat shes ever liked.

[mrs.jacinthe]

As far as high-value treats go, Missy liked freeze-dried beef liver pretty much from the get-go. Also ice cream (in very small amounts). She was pretty nonchalant about just about everything else for about two weeks, then the garbage disposal kicked in. Now I can go to training class with a baggie full of dry whole-wheat macaroni and she'd perform for them. So yeah. Give her a little time.

And yourself, too. You aren't failing him - you just got him and he's still adjusting to a lot of VERY big changes in the last couple months.

[stephm0188]

We have a lab puppy (whole different beast!) but he was skittish about going outside on his own for awhile. Clicker training has really worked for him. Hearing that click and getting the reward helped him get over it.

He's highly motivated by this stuff: www.petsmart.com/dog/food/canned-food/blue-wilderness-wild-rolls-dog-food---grain-free-beef-35163.html
I give him little bits of it as a treat. He loves it so much he'll run into his crate if you tell him to go to bed because he knows what's coming We offer up plain old cooked chicken as well.

[hamster]

We go to a holistic vet after we had some issues that our traditional vet was unable to resolve. So while it was worthwhile in our case, I don't think I'd opt to go to one without a special need. The only general benefit is that I like that I can trust what she prescribes a lot more than my regular vet (like, my vet prescribed some kind of eye drops that have blindness as a side effect and she basically gave me saline, which worked just fine). She's more knowledgeable on food, but we can help you with that. But mostly it's just a lot more expensive (though that may be practice specific).