All About Our Pets(Pics, Advice, Etc)

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I got a new baby and he needs an awesome name!! I just ordered him some natural leaves to use as a hammock and some moss balls. Just got him yesterday and he seems to be adjusting well.

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I got a new baby and he needs an awesome name!! I just ordered him some natural leaves to use as a hammock and some moss balls. Just got him yesterday and he seems to be adjusting well.

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Oh he's gorgeous! Where did you get him from?
 
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Gail is being a jerk at the dog park. She loves other dogs, plays really well with them, but once she gets a hold of a ball (possibly other toys as well, she just hasn't had access to them), she becomes aggressive if she perceives another dog as trying to take it from her. I guess just to describe a scenario: someone at the dog park threw a ball for Gail. She catches it and continues running with it. Another dog (or multiple dogs, sometimes) will run after her, not necessarily trying to take the ball, but just to run after her because that's how they play. Gail will start lunging at these dogs, and continue to chase and lunge at them even after the other dogs have decided to leave her alone. A fight will ensue, it gets broken up, and no serious injuries have occurred. Again, this only happens if Gail has a ball. Without a ball, she's perfectly happy being chased or chasing others as a form of play.

As many of you know, she ran off in December and was missing for 2 weeks. Understandably, I don't trust her off the leash in non-fenced areas. She loves going to the dog park; it's a large, safe, and fenced area and she's able to get her energy out. Like I said, the majority of the time she plays really nicely and enjoys the company of other dogs. I would prefer to keep the dog park as an option if I can. I may be moving in a few months to a house with a fenced in yard, but until then, she still needs a place to run around. Regardless of whether we "need" the dog park, I'd rather have a dog that isn't possessive with other dogs in the first place.

She's the first dog I've had on my own, so I'm not entirely dog training-savvy. She's otherwise a well behaved dog and there's nothing really about her that's out of the ordinary. Does anyone have suggestions? Obedience classes, maybe? Should I talk to the vet? Get a trainer or something? We are moving at the end of July, so perhaps I shouldn't start anything major until then. I will likely have August completely off, which would probably be a good time. It all depends on what I should do.

In the meantime, no worries, I am not taking her back to the dog park. There is a non-fenced park around the corner from my home where I will play fetch with her--she doesn't run from me there (or ever, usually..), but of course there is always the risk. I guess I'm willing to take that risk so that she has an outlet for her energy. I don't want to keep her cooped up.

Also, some additional information, in case anyone finds it helpful: she's about 2 years old, 40 pounds, pit mix. I adopted her in August 2016, so I have not yet had her for a year. The shelter she came from did not have any background information on her other than her spay and vaccination records that she had done while in their care. She was found roaming as a stray.

Thanks :)

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She's the first dog I've had on my own, so I'm not entirely dog training-savvy. She's otherwise a well behaved dog and there's nothing really about her that's out of the ordinary. Does anyone have suggestions? Obedience classes, maybe? Should I talk to the vet? Get a trainer or something?


Yes. Look for a veterinary behaviorist or if that's not an option, a trainer experienced in resource guarding, one who believes in positive reinforcement. Accreditations and continuing education credentials are awesome but make sure they are legit and not made up lol

In the meantime, buy a 50 foot leash for playing fetch on.

That being said, I hate dog parks. They are a breeding ground for bad habits and poor interactions. Remember to always set your dog up for success, and control the environment as much as possible.
 
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So I just realized that I've never posted in this thread... time to change that by formally introducing SDN via photospam to my beagle mix pupper, Tucker! My dad and I rescued him last August and he is seriously the smartest and most lovey-dovey dog I've ever had. He is absolutely spoiled rotten.
Ah, time flies by so fast and I can't believe that he is going to be 1 soon! :love:

A couple of photos from the day we brought him home:



Assorted photos from other occasions:




Gah, I have no idea why they posted as media rather than direct URLs. Freaking imgur. Sorry about that.

HES SO CUTE UGH. ILL TAKE HIM PLS.

(And did you click the button that looks like a film strip instead of the landscape? Because I've def done that before and it's given the weird thing like that)
 
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So I just realized that I've never posted in this thread... time to change that by formally introducing SDN via photospam to my beagle mix pupper, Tucker! My dad and I rescued him last August and he is seriously the smartest and most lovey-dovey dog I've ever had. He is absolutely spoiled rotten.
Ah, time flies by so fast and I can't believe that he is going to be 1 soon! :love:

A couple of photos from the day we brought him home:



Assorted photos from other occasions:




Gah, I have no idea why they posted as media rather than direct URLs. Freaking imgur. Sorry about that.

Aww, they grow up so fast!
 
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Dear SDN,
The big dog has left the house with the male human IN A CAR. The end of the world is nigh, I can sense it. Please send help.
Signed,
The tiny dog with a bad case of histrionics
 
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So, remember our little yard friend, Marcel. You know the cat that we absolutely weren't going to adopt. Um, well, it turns out he settled in with our other two cats a lot better than we thought, and we've found plenty of rental opportunities in Melbourne with room enough for three cats to live happily, so right now he's in the laundry with his bed and sleeping towel, a teensy bit of food in his bowl, and a nice clean litter tray, while we wait for him to come back down to planet earth after his neutering surgery this afternoon (vaccinations done as well).

He has tested positive for FIV, but considering his history of being out on the streets it didn't exactly come as a huge surprise, plus I've had an FIV positive cat before so I'm not too worried about it. Now I just have to find him a nice snazzy collar to wear. :)

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So, remember our little yard friend, Marcel. You know the cat that we absolutely weren't going to adopt. Um, well, it turns out he settled in with our other two cats a lot better than we thought, and we've found plenty of rental opportunities in Melbourne with room enough for three cats to live happily, so right now he's in the laundry with his bed and sleeping towel, a teensy bit of food in his bowl, and a nice clean litter tray, while we wait for him to come back down to planet earth after his neutering surgery this afternoon (vaccinations done as well).

He has tested positive for FIV, but considering his history of being out on the streets it didn't exactly come as a huge surprise, plus I've had an FIV positive cat before so I'm not too worried about it. Now I just have to find him a nice snazzy collar to wear. :)

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He has a little mustacheeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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So, remember our little yard friend, Marcel. You know the cat that we absolutely weren't going to adopt. Um, well, it turns out he settled in with our other two cats a lot better than we thought, and we've found plenty of rental opportunities in Melbourne with room enough for three cats to live happily, so right now he's in the laundry with his bed and sleeping towel, a teensy bit of food in his bowl, and a nice clean litter tray, while we wait for him to come back down to planet earth after his neutering surgery this afternoon (vaccinations done as well).

He has tested positive for FIV, but considering his history of being out on the streets it didn't exactly come as a huge surprise, plus I've had an FIV positive cat before so I'm not too worried about it. Now I just have to find him a nice snazzy collar to wear. :)
@Ceke2002 ... he is an adorable little cat!

Very glad he found his forever home with you! :cat:
 
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@Ceke2002 ... he is an adorable little cat!

Very glad he found his forever home with you! :cat:

It's definitely been a process with him, that's for sure. He was very unsocialised when he first came to us, but we've been gradually working with him over the course of a year and now he loves his pats, and laps, and cuddles. We still have to work a bit more with socialising him indoors as well as out. Right now he'll come inside and happily spend half an hour to an hour or so with us, but then he starts getting too restless and freaked out. We were hoping to be able to keep him in for at least 24-48 hours after his surgery, but unfortunately once we knew he had his co-ordination back and was aware of his surroundings again we had to let him outside sooner than we wanted because he started freaking out to the point that we were a bit concerned that if he we tried to force him stay in he'd injure himself in his frantic attempts to try and find a way outside. We've come this far with him though, so we'll keep working with him to get used to having a home and a family. You can tell he really wants to be a pet, and have a family of his own, he just doesn't quite know yet how to go about it (that's where we come in to help him make that final transition from semi feral street cat to much loved house pet). :)
 
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Microchips. I know they're important, and both of my animals are chipped, but I had a question about registration. Which service(s) are the most commonly cross-references when an animal is brought in that has a chip? Is there a free database that I can register in, or should I shell out the money to somewhere like HomeAgain, 24PetFinder, or AVID?
 
Microchips. I know they're important, and both of my animals are chipped, but I had a question about registration. Which service(s) are the most commonly cross-references when an animal is brought in that has a chip? Is there a free database that I can register in, or should I shell out the money to somewhere like HomeAgain, 24PetFinder, or AVID?
I know I've heard of a free service, but I can't remember the name. Might come up with a Google search?
 
Microchips. I know they're important, and both of my animals are chipped, but I had a question about registration. Which service(s) are the most commonly cross-references when an animal is brought in that has a chip? Is there a free database that I can register in, or should I shell out the money to somewhere like HomeAgain, 24PetFinder, or AVID?
Gandalf is registered with HomeAgain, and if I remember correctly the one time fee gets you in the database, while the yearly fee gives you extra benefits (can't remember specifics since I let that part expire, but just additional services for if your pet gets lost I think).
Whenever we had a pet come in we would always search for the microchip on a site that identifies which service the chip is registered with (Microchip Search | AAHA Universal Pet Microchip Lookup), and then use that to go search that particular service.
 
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Gandalf is registered with HomeAgain, and if I remember correctly the one time fee gets you in the database, while the yearly fee gives you extra benefits (can't remember specifics since I let that part expire, but just additional services for if your pet gets lost I think).
Whenever we had a pet come in we would always search for the microchip on a site that identifies which service the chip is registered with (Microchip Search | AAHA Universal Pet Microchip Lookup), and then use that to go search that particular service.
This. For HomeAgain chips, the $25(ish? several years ago) initial fee lets your pet be registered for life and gets you a year's worth of the extra benefits. Initially, I didn't pay the yearly fee, but then Winston got lost in a strange neighborhood for a few hours and being able to pay them the $17 yearly fee in that moment to have already filled out flyers with his info, an email blast to clinics and local pet owners, and I can't remember what else was worth it. I have paid it ever since. And I think if you pay the annual fee you get a "free" (in quotes because you do have to pay the fee) consultation with the ASPCA poison control hotline if you need it. I found that out when calling the ASPCA after a technician's dog at my hospital got into bromethalin rat bait...they asked if the pet was chipped and it was a nice surprise for her to not have to pay that $65 fee for the toxicology consultation. Also it supposedly includes lost pet insurance to help cover medical costs if your pet gets injured while lost, but I have no experience with that on either the other or vet end.
 
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This. For HomeAgain chips, the $25(ish? several years ago) initial fee lets your pet be registered for life and gets you a year's worth of the extra benefits. Initially, I didn't pay the yearly fee, but then Winston got lost in a strange neighborhood for a few hours and being able to pay them the $17 yearly fee in that moment to have already filled out flyers with his info, an email blast to clinics and local pet owners, and I can't remember what else was worth it. I have paid it ever since. And I think if you pay the annual fee you get a "free" (in quotes because you do have to pay the fee) consultation with the ASPCA poison control hotline if you need it. I found that out when calling the ASPCA after a technician's dog at my hospital got into bromethalin rat bait...they asked if the pet was chipped and it was a nice surprise for her to not have to pay that $65 fee for the toxicology consultation. Also it supposedly includes lost pet insurance to help cover medical costs if your pet gets injured while lost, but I have no experience with that on either the other or vet end.
we do homeagain here and the fee to the clinic is something like $17 which we factored into the cost of the chip instead of having a separate fee.
 
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My cat recently presented with tooth resorption (confirmed by oral examination and dental radiograph).

She was anesthetized and treated this morning, with no complications. Everything went well.

Her veterinarian called to report she is awakening slowly; and will remain under observation for the next 3 hours. She should be discharged later today.

I can't wait to bring her home and shower her with love, affection and tender care ... always and forever! :)
 
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My cat recently presented with tooth resorption (confirmed by oral examination and dental radiograph).

She was anesthetized and treated this morning, with no complications. Everything went well.

Her veterinarian called to report she is awakening slowly; and will remain under observation for the next 3 hours. She should be discharged later today.

I can't wait to bring her home and shower her with love, affection and tender care ... always and forever! :)
Yay!:biglove:
 
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Cats and Pills ... Ugh!

Went home to give my cat her oral NSAID medication, following tooth extraction yesterday.

As expected, lots of feline fireworks ensued - struggling, meowing, growling, yowling, running away - you know what I mean: pure feline drama.

Each time I got the little pill inside her mouth, she spit it out. I tried the hide-the-pill in the canned wet food method and the water-in-the-little-syringe method, whatever. Multiple times. Nothing worked. Ugh. She even slyly licked her lips to trick me into thinking she had ingested the tablet. Nope. Wut? The pill was spit out on the floor.

Finally, I packed the pill into a tiny mound of canned cat food that she only gets to eat twice a month. It is an irresistible treat. She will do anything for a morsel of this cat-a-licious food. Anything.

It worked. The pill was ingested, without any drama. Then, she stretched out her paws and started to play with a cat toy. No worries.

Final score: 10 points for cat. [Zero points for me.]
 
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Marcel's gone missing. :cryi: It's been over a week and we haven't even caught sight of him anywhere. I've rung the local vets and animal shelters, registered him as lost with a local petfinders group, we've gone looking around the area in all of his usual sleeping and hiding spots. We're hoping he's just laying low while he recovers from surgery, and also probably the trauma of suddenly being confined in a strange area at the vets, but it's unusual for us not to see him at all. :cryi:
 
Marcel's gone missing. :cryi: It's been over a week and we haven't even caught sight of him anywhere. I've rung the local vets and animal shelters, registered him as lost with a local petfinders group, we've gone looking around the area in all of his usual sleeping and hiding spots. We're hoping he's just laying low while he recovers from surgery, and also probably the trauma of suddenly being confined in a strange area at the vets, but it's unusual for us not to see him at all. :cryi:
I hope he is just mad at you and shows up this week like nothing happened. I'll be thinking happy thoughts for you!
 
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Seeking some advice. I had trained my dogs to not bark or be reactive when in sight of other dogs unless I gave the okay for them to meet. However, my parents neighbor's dogs are animal aggressive and bit at my puppy through the fence (unknown to me, but my mistake as a handler letting him lay at the fence with them), in response my older dog ran over and began barking in defense. Now every time they are outside together my neighbor runs out to bring them inside to ensure it does not happen again. Essentially training my dogs that when they bark at them they go away; the reward. They have now carried this behavior over to dogs we see on our walks. They only do this until they can meet the other dog after which they have no hesitations and initiate play. It is very hard to correct this behavior when my neighbor consistently reinforces it and is not willing to help me in correcting it. We are always outside in the pool and of course have all the dogs outside with us playing, so this happens multiple times a day. Both are well socialized and obedience trained and I was looking into moving on to protection and dog sports, but this has me reserved in doing so. Any suggestions?
 
I hope he is just mad at you and shows up this week like nothing happened. I'll be thinking happy thoughts for you!

Happy thoughts worked. He came back late yesterday morning. :)

I can tell already there's a change in his hormone levels, but while he was still his usual smoochy, loving self, I could also tell he's perhaps not as comfortable being inside as what he was before we stuck him in a cage and hauled him off to the vets. So we've had a minor setback with resocialising him to be an indoor cat, but at least he's visiting the yard again and we can keep working on making him comfortable as an indoor and outdoor cat. The plan is to try and gradually build up the time he spends indoors with us, right now we're not forcing him to remain inside if he doesn't want to, because we want inside the house to have positive associations for him.

If; however, we can't complete the resocialisation process to the point where I'm happy he'll be able to handle an interstate move, then we have spoken to the local animal rescue shelter and they have said they would be willing to take him on as a foster situation and continue working to prepare him for his forever home. Our main focus is to just do what's best for him, although obviously seeing as we've come this far with him we are still really hoping his forever home can be with us.
 
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Seeking some advice. I had trained my dogs to not bark or be reactive when in sight of other dogs unless I gave the okay for them to meet. However, my parents neighbor's dogs are animal aggressive and bit at my puppy through the fence (unknown to me, but my mistake as a handler letting him lay at the fence with them), in response my older dog ran over and began barking in defense. Now every time they are outside together my neighbor runs out to bring them inside to ensure it does not happen again. Essentially training my dogs that when they bark at them they go away; the reward. They have now carried this behavior over to dogs we see on our walks. They only do this until they can meet the other dog after which they have no hesitations and initiate play. It is very hard to correct this behavior when my neighbor consistently reinforces it and is not willing to help me in correcting it. We are always outside in the pool and of course have all the dogs outside with us playing, so this happens multiple times a day. Both are well socialized and obedience trained and I was looking into moving on to protection and dog sports, but this has me reserved in doing so. Any suggestions?

You should talk to your vet and/or a recommended behaviorist about behavioral issues.
 
"Hey mom, oh you're still in bed?? Oh okay... I'm just gonna wait here, okay. Lemme know when you wanna get up. "
*snuggles into me*
 
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