Humans for Dogs

This kitten is sitting on the slipper to stay warm – the floor is cold.  The picture reminded me of snowshoeing with my dog Teddy.  Whenever we stop for a break she sits on the back of my snowshoes to get off the snow.

Picture by Farl.

Eli Lilly & Co. will be shipping Prozac for dogs under the brand name Reconcile.  According to the press release, it should be used to help dogs who suffer anxiety attacks when separated from their owners – that it will help with panic attacks and the bad behaviors associated with them.  They also say it should be used in conjunction with behavior modifications.

I think you should stick to behavior modifications.  Try crate training or least confining your dog to a single room if he or she has seperation anxiety.

Photo by Altweibersommer.

One of my friend's dogs is the nicest dog ever … off leash.  On leash he takes exception to just about every male dog out there.  If your dog is more aggressive on leash, it's possible that he feels trapped.  Off leash, he can meet other dogs how he wants to – when he wants to, where he wants to, how he wants to and he's free to take off running or to fight.  On leash, his only option is to meet them head on and to stand and fight.  He probably feels trapped and that's why he gets aggressive. When you yell at him for growling or barking, he thinks you are agreeing with him that the other dog or person is bad.

One technique for changing this aggressive behavior is to take your dog on leash to a place where you will find the people or dogs that upset him. (But a place where you can still have space to move away from them and keep everyone safe.) Every time he growls, give him a treat and say good dog! Reassure him that there is nothing scary or threatening. If you do this long enough, he will come to see the threatening dogs or people as a sign that he's going to get rewarded! This worked for my friend. (She took her dog to Home Depot to practice. She got a few strange looks but she kept at it. Just make sure you pick a place where you can keep everyone safe.)

This little pony grew up with dogs and he fetches sticks and frisbees!

The horse who thinks he’s a dog | Metro.co.uk.

This writer wants to know how to teach their male dog how to lift their leg to pee.

I do think it’s possible to teach a male dog to lift their leg or to not lift their leg.  It is some thing that can be learned either way.  I used to raise guide dogs for people with sight problems and we worked hard to make sure the male dogs never lifted their leg when they urinated.  (We didn’t want them marking territory in inappropriate places.)  The way we did it was to make sure there was never a high object nearby when they urinated – it was always in the middle of the yard.

A friend of mine’s granddaughter was just bitten by the family’s chocolate lab.  The baby was trying to grab her toy back from the dog.

While I think this picture is adorable, I don’t think Chase is sharing a pillow with Caleb because he loves him.  Don’t get me wrong – Chase is an extremely tolerant dog.  He let our six year old crawl all over him, shoot him with nerf balls and scream at him.  However, I think Chase is more concerned about using the pillow and getting close to me than he is about hanging out with the baby.  Some of the reasons I think this:

• Chase uses the pillow when Caleb isn’t there.
• Chase is always trying to climb into my lap, baby or no baby.

So as good as Chase has been with kids in the past, I think there’s a much better chance he’s jealous of the baby than he loves the baby, so I don’t leave them alone together.

Why do dogs eat grass?  While there’s a lot of theories, I think the basic answer is "because they like it."  Our dogs will eat not only grass but also wood and rawhide and anything else edible that happens to be lying around. 

Some of the theories on why dogs eat grass (other than because they like it) are:

• To aid in digestion
• To provide roughage. Wolves and coyotes eat the whole animal not just the meat so the theory is, dogs might need something more than dog food.)
• To vomit.  Since many dogs throw up after eat grass, the theory is maybe they ate the grass to throw up.  (Why do dogs throw up after they eat grass?  They throw up because grass is not very digestible.)
• Because they like it.

The short answer is we don’t really know why dogs eat grass but I think they do it because they like to eat and the grass is available.

Our chocolate lab Chase does not like boxers.  He’s very sweet with all people and as far as I know he likes all other breeds, just not boxers.  About five years ago he met a boxer he didn’t like and he hasn’t liked any boxer since.  He attacks them on sight with no provocation.  He recently attacked one at the kennel and the other dog needed stitches.  After that the kennel worked hard to keep him seperate from the other two boxers boarding there but he would still bark and try to lunge at them through the bars.  My guess is that the first boxer displayed aggressive body posture and he’s carried it over to other boxers.  Usually if dogs get in a fight with another dog, they carry that aggression over to most other dogs.  Ours seems to have limited the aggression to one breed.  Here are some articles about dog aggression and some ways you can correct it:

• My dog is dog aggressive – What Can I do about this aggression?.
• Aggression: Social Aggression to Unfamiliar Dogs
• Controlling aggressive dogs

How to Toilet-Train Your Cat.  I always wondered how you would do this …