Trixie

[Shamas mom]

Does the vet think she is too slim? She could have a worm burden? Tripe is a good food to put weight on. In UK you can buy it ready 'loose flow' frozen and is a good topper.

Yes, the vet thinks she's thin too. The stool sample is to check for worms. He's not too concerned because she's been on nexguard except the last 2 months.

He says keep her on puppy food till she fills out.

I did read somewhere that cold exposure increases caloric needs....and she romps in the back yard about 6x/day for as long as we can stand hanging out at the door to watch her. She started slimming out when the cold weather really hit.

These photos are from the last week

 

[Stacia]

She looks ok in the photos, maybe you are used to more 'solid, muscled breed' dogs? Cold weather certainly does use up more calories, often young dogs stay skinny and then as they get a bit older, put weight on.

 

[Shamas mom]

She looks ok in the photos, maybe you are used to more 'solid, muscled breed' dogs? Cold weather certainly does use up more calories, often young dogs stay skinny and then as they get a bit older, put weight on.

I definitely am used to more solid dogs. This one is sleek, flexible in ways I'm not accustomed to, and athletic in ways that drop my jaw lol. She doesn't think about jumping gates, she just pops right over them in a fluid motion. The one that's a bit high, she places a foot on it to propel/steady herself for the other half of the jump.

Part of me would love to see her in agility as an adult. The other part just envisions a big shepherd hopping 6foot fences and climbing walls for fun!

 

[Shamas mom]

This dog!

I gave her a KONG, went downstairs to do laundry, and came up to find her taking the label off a can of gravy. Kong is nowhere to be found.

2minutes!

And we wonder why she spends so much time in crate or on leash.....

Oh and Shamas got frustrated with his lick mat and chewed it up. So I need to find bigger ones

 

[Shamas mom]

Sorry, that post was incomplete- she needed to go run it off a bit.

I find she needs to run about once an hour to be well behaved. When I'm home, I just open the door up the the yard, and she's off like a bullet. But inside the house...if I can't directly watch her, she's still got to be confined the same way she was as a little puppy. Crates and leashes. when It's just me, I try not to confine her because I want her to learn. I'm used to being on top of Angel as a pup so it's not a big deal. Yes I miss things...but I don't get *too frustrated that I need to lock her up very often. we have a kind of a fluid crating schedule, so she sleeps still to give everyone peace and quiet when it's needed.
She does spend a lot more time crated when home alone with the teen, because she refuses to heed human words, and gets sassy. So she gets given a Kong, and chews in the crate rather than the human taking being jumped on and chewed on(play-no aggression just no respect). That behavior is a work in progress--she seems to think that human is playmate.

We were using baby gates to keep her in the room we are in until she decided that baby gates are there for her amusement, and indoor physical activity needs. Now they only work if she is calm enough to listen to human words when she nears the gate and we say "no" or "stay here" I actually have some wood to make solid gates, higher to replace the baby gates.



She's really just restless from it being cold, and unsafe to walk outside right now. Inside walks are fine, but don't live up to her needs. She needs a RUN multiple times a day lol

I'll have to get Angel over here again...I bet she's just as restless...

 

[Shamas mom]

Weather was +4today hooray!

We enjoyed a nice walk to timmies with my dad and shamas was even able to come without his hips stiffening up.

On the way, there was a doodle across the street whose owner asked to meet..so my dad walked her over to say hi. On seeing the two together, Shamas decided he would also like to try, and we did treat and retreat until we reached it and he greeted for a few seconds. Then we pack walked for half a block.

It was great- there was no excessive pulling, or barking or lunging on the part of either dog. Very pleased


Later, we discovered that a panel came off the back fence. Trixie got out, but came to call. I had to go down and show her how to get back into the yard. Then I used snow fence to secure the area up by the house until tomorrow when hubby and I can fix it in daylight. We'll also secure planking on either end of the shed, as it always seems to be behind the shed that we lose planks. Eventually we'll get round to replacing the whole thing but tomorrow we'll tug on each plank to check if any more are loose. We have a good dozen spare planks in the shed...

 

[edzbird]

Trixie looks just right in these photos. She's a beautiful, svelte girl. Meg is a skinny dog. She's showing too much rib at the moment. It's really hard to get calories into her, she's so sensitive to many foods. If I just increase the quantity she just responds with massive poos without putting the weight on.

What a super girl she was, coming back to call when she'd slipped out, well done Trixie and massive well done to you.

 

[Shamas mom]

This makes me feel better, if you people say she looks good. With my whole household fussing about her weight, and the lady at the vets chiming in too(incidentally, the vet tech that said she was skinny is a corso owner, so like me, used to stocky dogs)--I was getting worried. I don't want a malnourished puppy- her bones, brains and muscles won't grow right.

I've always had it in the back of my mind that the mother is Very slim. And she's following the weight chart for a MALE GSD month by month. So she can't be TOO bad off. This is the first month she didn't put on weight though. She's averaged 5-10lbs/month up to now depending on growth rate and only gained 2 in December-January. . That might mean she's nearly finished and will start filling out soon?

Angel grew till her first heat, then filled out for 6 months after. Her first heat was 9m

Trixie hasn't had a heat yet, but is starting to smell interesting to Shamas. I'm thinking she'll go in early spring? DO dogs go into season in any kind of seasonal pattern? I only had Angel with me for one heat, so I didn't have her long enough to see a pattern.

 

[Shamas mom]

Did some great practice with Trizie yesterday. I went out with my dad and the pack, and did a socializing walk. 2 hours because the weather was good. We started in a park, and followed the trails to the next little town, and came back. The old dogs held up really well, and Trixie saw LOTS of dogs.

She got to meet a few, and had to walk past most. For the most part she did really well, ut near the end she started fixating again so we called it a day

 

[Shamas mom]

Trixie did well with the trainer today. There was a demo dog involved, and lots of passing by. No outbursts.

I was criticized for allowing her to meet strange dogs..the reason being that a bad/scary interaction can negatively affect her development in that area.

I get that.....but if she's going to pack walk with my dad's dogs, she's going to end up meeting dogs. His dogs are well socialised, and got there by stopping to chat with random strangers, and having a sniff. That doesn't mean long interactions...it doesn't mean allowing them to play on leash. But it does mean that there will occasionally be a few seconds of sniffing as we pass by, or stop to talk to owners. Even Shamas gets involved in this type of social behavior now when the pack goes out.

I don't do dog parks, and I don't do doggy day care. so pack walks, and the occasional new friendly face are the only real dog interaction my dogs get. I like a neutral-friendly dog. One who can walk down the street and "leave it" when told if another dog is coming, and who won't feel the need to tell off a dog who might stretch in to say "hello"

I don't believe you get that by avoiding dogs. I believe you get that by being choosy about the dogs you allow to meet, and the ones you pass right by.

 

[edzbird]

I don't do dog parks, and I don't do doggy day care. so pack walks, and the occasional new friendly face are the only real dog interaction my dogs get. I like a neutral-friendly dog. One who can walk down the street and "leave it" when told if another dog is coming, and who won't feel the need to tell off a dog who might stretch in to say "hello"

I don't believe you get that by avoiding dogs. I believe you get that by being choosy about the dogs you allow to meet, and the ones you pass right by.

Yes, I totally get this. Because of the way Meg is, I avoid dogs. I don't think I'm helping her though, but I am keeping her (and others) safe.

 

[Shamas mom]

Yes, I totally get this. Because of the way Meg is, I avoid dogs. I don't think I'm helping her though, but I am keeping her (and others) safe.

I was always the same way with Shamas. On his own, he doesn't have the confidence to deal with other dogs and could possibly be a threat to them. He looks for guidance on how to respond and if he doesn't get it, he jumps to "the best defense is a good offense "

We found that surrounding him with his own pack of dog-friendly dogs raises his confidence enough to be calm.

We're using the same tactic with Trixie, walking her with my dad's dogs to teach her how to react to dogs. She starts group classes on March 12th, so she can learn how to do her basic behaviors in a setting where dogs are around her but the situation is controlled.

Unfortunately, when we tried her puppy classes at 4m only one tiny pug enrolled so we didn't get the socialization aspect we had hoped for. So we did private sessions until we could get her into a group setting

 

[Shamas mom]

My dad took Shamas back to his house and I'm struck by how calm Trixie is on her own. I think it's good for them to get the overnight trips every once in a while--Shamas enjoys the break, and hanging with the old dogs..and Trixie relaxes on the couch.

I see her behavior when he's not here as very similar to what we saw when we picked her out. so She's obviously a social type, who feeds on those around her. When Shamas is home, she's usually trying to play, or get into things. She annoys him in her attention-seeking behavior and we often have to step in and separate her.


I was very pleased to see that she didn't spook today. we were prepping the floor in one of the rooms for laying a new one. That meant we had a shop vac, hammer and cordless drill in an echoing room. she was interested, but no fear. We'll see how she does when I paint tomorrow. And the floor goes down Monday.

At least this room won't have random paint spots on the ceiling where Shamas barked and I jumped lol! I made a mess of the last room I painted.

 

[Shamas mom]

I'm very impressed with Trixie during this most recent reno. Apart from breaking into the room a few times to see if anything I'm doing is something she can play with, she's behaved very well.

we started the day with a 7am walk because the whole house was still sleeping...and in the living room to boot. I had to laugh. With our room taken apart, hubby and I each picked a couch...we left Trixie out of the crate, as there's not really room in the living room for her giant crate....and the teen came along and joined the sleepover too, setting up on the floor rug.

So Trixie spent the night rotating from person to person for snuggles.

One more night without a bedroom, and the floor goes down tomorrow. It's all painted now. I wanted to do the paint while there was no floor so that it didn't matter if I spilled some lol

 

[Shamas mom]

Well the day went well in spite of Trixie's best efforts to eat everything, steal all of the tape and pencils, and generally cause mayhem. Hole-digging, fence-jumping, tool-stealing mayhem.

She woke up this morning and chose trouble


Of course it has *nothing to do with all of the excitement the last few days, with rooms being emptied, everyone being home, people coming over, and general human style mayhem Couldn't be that all this activity has her wound up lol.


We got my room done in record time. If anyone is looking at laminate-style flooring, take a look at Carlton flooring brand. It went down in half the time any other room has taken. And it's got a cork backing, so you don't need to pay for underlay. The first room was laid by a little after lunch, and the second by 5pm. The second room was a bonus. I'd bought their entire stock in this flooring in the hopes it'd do both rooms, but we're so used to it taking a long time to lay floors I'd figured I'd be storing the floor for the second room. I bought it at $2.00/sq foot due to them only having 209 sqft left in stock. We used all but 4 planks for two rooms, with almost no waste

The only thing that didn't work out was the cold that decided to run around the house this exact weekend. Horrible timing. The first day I had off, instead of doing prep I was in bed. Second day, I'm up and down ladders painting with a clogged head and dizzy spells. Thrid day, I'm on the ment for the floor work but feel like I've been punched in the nose-and eevery time I bend over to get something my head hurts. Plus, today hubby came down too. So he's hibernating in his den in the back of the house, cranky and miserable instead of helping with the dogs so I can work.

That last part may sound odd, but I come from a family of construction/reno workers. He's white collar. If there's painting and fixing to be done, I do that. I also often mow the lawn and shovel snow, because I enjoy it and he thinks of it as a chore. So I figure it makes sense to let the person who enjoys the job do the job lol.

 

[Lisa]

Rotten to be sick when you’re trying to get work done! Hope you feel better soon. Sounds like Trixie did pretty well with the upheaval. Hopefully you can get it done quickly so you all can settle back to a regular routine.

 

[edzbird]

Hope you're all feeling better soon.

 

[Shamas mom]

Hope you're all feeling better soon.

Thanks.

I am on the mend, and back to work but hubby's off til Thursday. For me now it's the post sickness malaise....which doesnt serve you well in a fast paced environment. I'm running around like a headless chicken, and all of a sudden getting hit with dizzy spells and rapid heart rate. Times like this I wish I had paid sick days--I'd take a couple more days to recover. let my luncgs get back to where they're taking in a full breath of air....

 

[Stacia]

Thanks.

I am on the mend, and back to work but hubby's off til Thursday. For me now it's the post sickness malaise....which doesnt serve you well in a fast paced environment. I'm running around like a headless chicken, and all of a sudden getting hit with dizzy spells and rapid heart rate. Times like this I wish I had paid sick days--I'd take a couple more days to recover. let my luncgs get back to where they're taking in a full breath of air....

You don't sound fit enough yet to go to work, take care.

 

[Shamas mom]

Ooooh brave puppy noises! Trixie Finally got brave enough to put her head in the shower while it was running! I was washing down Shamas help em up harness, because he had an accident in the car today. I kept the dogs in the bathroom with me, so Trixie could see Shamas wander into the shower stall, and let her do her nervous reach to see what it was.

They said they bathed her regularly at the farm...but her reaction to the shower stall has been one of such fear that we've never pushed the issue. If she ever REALLY needs a bath, I'll either use a dog wash or take her to a groomer.

We were all pretty muddy after today's long walk, but she seems to do a good job of cleaning herself up.

My dad came into town, and we grabbed Angel too. 5 dogs, two people, at the park, the mall, Canadian Tire, and a few other quick places.

I let my dad take Angel, as she already knows her place in the pack and isn't reactive. And he's not as proactive, owning dogs who don't react. He tends not to think about it until one of them goes off, then he gets them in trouble....so I like to have the reactive ones on my leash whenever possible. I said to him today "You have to tell her how to act before she decides for herself" He was holding Trixie, and I saw the other dog come towards us and we were just getting out of the vehicle with 5 dogs. Trixie was starting to fixate. The other dog, also a shepherd about the same age, was fixating right back. I told Dad to tell her what behavior he wants from her. Don't give her time to think about it. The decision she'll make in this situation will be the wrong one. She will bark at it.

As soon as she was called back in, that was the end of it. The dog passed by a second time with no reaction at all. I told him the trick is to teach her to pay attention to us, and not the dog over there. We can't give her instruction from the far end of a 6 foot lead. I keep telling the family that too. "shortent hat lead- she's got too much freedom to make bad choices. Until she's making good choices, she needs to be close enough for you to lead her"

I'm on the hunt for one of those martingales that's wide, and has two loops instead of a collar and chain. I'm thinking she might feel it better if it's wider. If she can feel it better, perhaps I can get back to the collar. I really prefer a collar and leash to head halters, etc. She doesn't like harnesses, which is fine with me...I only like them for trail walks and I feel like Trixie on a harness spells sprained ankles and pulled shoulders for me.