Posted on 11/27/2012 5:52:50 AM PST by needmorePaine
My wife and I have a 3.5-year-old female English Springer Spaniel. We got her as a puppy from a breeder, and for the first two years of her life, we were happy with her. She's a beautiful dog bred for the field, not the show line of the breed.
Our dogs have all done that with the hose. They're inevitably afraid at first of the hose. After a few minutes they're trying to drink it and purposely getting wet just so they can shake off in front of the screaming grandkids. ;)
>given in a matter-of-fact, unemotional way.
I’d be careful not to use the crate as a punishment.<
Simply placing the dog, without emotion, in a crate when she is in a hyper-emotional (obnoxious) state is not punishment. It is removing her from the over-stimulation, which allows her to calm down.
Keep in mind that every seizure causes some brain trauma.
We went through that with Halla when we first got her.
The vets were more concerned with the possibility/level of brain damage from the seizures than her other issues.
Some trainers resolve to choking the dog out. Not a good method for the unmindful.
Some trainers resolve to choking the dog out. Not a good method for the unmindful.
Some trainers resolve to choking the dog out. Not a good method for the unmindful.
Some trainers resolve to choking the dog out. Not a good method for the unmindful.
Some trainers resolve to choking the dog out. Not a good method for the unmindful.
Some trainers resolve to choking the dog out. Not a good method for the unmindful.
Some trainers resolve to choking the dog out. Not a good method for the unmindful.
Some trainers resolve to choking the dog out. Not a good method for the unmindful.
Some trainers resolve to choking the dog out. Not a good method for the unmindful.
Oops....
Not sure if this is going to help or not... however, we noticed a huge behavior change with our Boston Terrier after she went on anti-seizure medicine. She acted very out of character. She would start chewing/eating everything from her doggie bed, to socks, trash can liners, socks.. if she got a hold of it, she ate it. She also walked around “bug eyed”. I don’t know how else to explain it. If it was a human, I would describe it as giving the evil eye and being paranoid. The other two dogs picked up more on it and there were several tense moments.. simply because the other two assumed she was about to fight them. Long story short with us is we took her off the meds and she had seizures very infrequently. Granted, this is probably not your dog. It doesn’t sound like you can take her off the medications to see if her behavior improves. I guess in the end, you have to decide if this is something you can put up with for another five or six years or not. Either way, it isn’t an easy answer.
***does your dog seem to act out more prior to a seizure or just after one? If so, this may be an indicator of her brain going all bonkers. Not that it fixes anything.. but something to look out for.
You may find it hard to place an epileptic dog. It also sounds like you already invested a lot of time and money in this dog.
What kind of training was tried?
You wrote that she gets a lot of exercise. Is her exercise just being allowed off leash or does someone throw a ball or interact with her in some way?
Many dogs don’t exercise on their own. They crave interaction. Take fifteen minutes and play with her in some vigorous way - throw a ball, pull on a rope, chase her, kick leaves, run with her, or anything else that leaves her panting. You can play scent games with her too.
Crate her for a part of the day, dinnertime would be good. Teach her to lie on her bed for an extended period of time with the down stay.
Set her up when someone comes to your house. Put a leash and prong collar on and let it trail. If she goes to jump, yank on the leash and yell no. You can warn your guest that you will be training your dog.
Keep your garbage covered or set her up for correction if she goes into it. Ditto the counter.
As to the children’s toys I might be on the dog’s side on that one. How is she supposed to know which items left on the floor are permissible to chew? Have your children put away their toys if they are not in the room.
What I am hearing is a dog who is bored and longing for attention. With a little effort her needs and yours can be met.
“Recently heard of a great trick for dogs that jump up on people for their greeting...
Cookie Sheet
Keep a cookie sheet by the door
When you or guests walk in - grab the cookie sheet first and put it up on your body where the dog usually lands, the dog apparently can’t stand it (fingernails on chalkboard)and won’t jump up (praise for ‘down’-’sit’)
It Works! “
****
Interesting.
You had a mostly-trained, young adult dog before epilepsy showed up with its consequent need for monitoring & medications. In the meantime, three very busy little youngins & all their accoutrements have arrived.
In kindness to the kids, your wife & the dog, please reread post 45 because that is what I was thinking: Both WRT to finding your buddy a new home & to asserting dominance. While I respect your commitment to this dog who may have a problem rehoming - I gotta go against my usual reflex here.
I really appreciate your efforts to rehab her behavior, but consider her age & need for those meds. If, as I believe, her impulse control is stifled by the meds, she could end up being a hazard to your children *or their visiting playmates* in the years to come. IMO (whatever a free one is worth, LOL) she would be best off in the home of an adult/s. Young as your kids are, that’s a lot of years of chewed clothes & playthings. Not nice to set up the sick doggie like that, is it?
I’m focusing on breaking bad habits, not lack of respect. In any pet household, covered trashcans too heavy to tip are a great start. Denial of opportunity - good. She’s either outside or crated when she can’t be *prevented* from unwanted behavior. Kongs & other chewies to keep her entertained while within. Cooperative guests ready to put a knee into doggie’s chest when she jumps - good. (Here’s where it gets tricky with small children running about...) Snappy mouse traps set on the counter edge to scare doggiewoggie - good. You can get plastic box types that don’t endanger little fingers, but I warn you’ll end up scaring yourself a few times with the noise. That’s the nature of the beast. See, that’s easier in a household of one adult, if only because there’s nobody else to get mad at after setting yourself up for a scare in a darkened kitchen, LOL.
Anything else you can think of to help her avoid a disciplinary situation altogether?
I mean no offense, but I seek clarification over the following from your post #27: “She walks well on leash. She no longer pulls and looks up at me rather than constantly sniffing the ground.” Sometimes the constant sniffing interferes with a dedicated exercise session. However, the variety of scents outside the homeyard also enriches a dog’s life. You seem to have a good grasp on your dog’s needs, but for whatever reason it struck me funny, as if she’s studying your face to see if she’s goofed up again.
My epileptic’s seizures were completely controlled by phenobarb. Despite yearly monitoring, her liver plummeted quickly once it decided to give up. But she died suddenly before her liver could kill her. The necropsy revealed that she’d eaten a plastic bag (probably former food packaging) which caught in her lower stomach and bound up her system like a drawstring purse. Horrible death. Please learn from my mistake with my dog. Deny the opportunity.
My epi dog was a sweatheart, but sometimes her eyes reflected light in a freaky way. Other ppl noticed that too, not just “dog ppl”. I assumed it was neurons pinging short of throwing her into a fit. Might not hurt to consult human epi patients to get their take on the aftereffects of a seizure. As it was described to me, the after-seizure is very similar between species, right down to disorientation & temporary amnesia.
When she was a pup/young dog, her first instinct was to put her nose to the ground and zig-zag and pull me forward, back, and to the side. That's what a Springer is bred to do, especially the zig-zagging. We now have her walking at heel and periodically "checking in" with a look up at me. I'm not constantly watching her to see if she does it, but I can see that she is doing it from the corner of my eye. Even though there are many distractions, her attention returns to me, which is what I want.
I will stop at times during the walk and let her sniff the ground, fire hydrants, curbs, etc. I agree that she needs to encounter scents outside the home and yard, so she gets short sniff breaks.
The larger garbage can is now in the garage, with a smaller one under the sink, so we've denied that opportunity. We use the yard and crate often, and in the yard, she gets a mix of interaction with us and time on her own.
We've set up traps for her before to combat counter surfing. We tied a piece of bread--which she LOVES for some reason--to pot lids and empty cans and left it on the counter, hoping she would be frightened by the resulting crash on the tile floor when she tried to walk off with the morsel. She of course decided to just leave her paws on the counter and nibble away at the bread until it was gone, leaving the trap unsprung.
Thankfully, she has avoided the plastic bags, but she did down a couple baby wipes, which caused some bad diarrhea and necessitated some "assistance" in getting them to pass, but she got over that. The baby wipes are never within reach now.
Impulse control is probably the best way of describing what we want from her, and I agree it may be difficult to achieve because of the side effects of the phenobarb. Some extremely long stays last night got the incessant pacing under control.
My really hard cases have been terrier mixes and shepherding mixes—both of which need work as stimulus (like field dogs) but terriers and shepherds will also stare at their master for commands—so eye contact works very well with them. No harm trying, I guess. Our Newfie/Lab cross will automatically look away if I tell her NO, but then she can’t look the cat in the eye, and the cat is smaller than her head. Like all labs, she’s kind of dopey.
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