Two dogs two kids

[AllieBaba]

Well my little family spent the weekend at my mother's home some miles away. My initial plan was only to take the saint pup but at the last minute we decided to take Mylo the Terrible as well. My kids have been bugging me because we take the pup everywhere but we always leave Mylo at home (and for good cause..she's a pain in the butt when it comes to travel.)

She's hyper, she can't be left in the car safely (for fear of shitting, puking, and tearing the car apart). She barks and pants and exudes nasty smells. Car trips heighten her anxiety to the nth degree, and she's not that great in public, either. She wants to fight with other dogs, she runs away if she gets the chance, she barks insanely and a LOT....

But the vote was in, I am a neglectful and cruel mother for leaving the frothing lunatic at home when we go hiking, visiting, etc. So I stuck her harness on her (she gets out of collars) and off we went.

And really, she was quite good. Having another dog seems to make it less stressful for her, though she still was a little anxious in the car. I'm sure she has a good reason for being stressed in vehicles, but it makes it quite difficult. And when she's stressed she's stinky. I don't know why. I think it's the dog equivilent of fear sweat.

In fact I accused my poor son of being the source of the stinkiness on this trip, poor kid. I gave him a 15 minute spiel about how important it is to take charge of the state of one's underwear and act upon it...and in the end it wasn't him at all! And Mylo just sat there and didn't say a word, naughty girl.

We went to my mom's house, and she has a huge fenced yard, though with lots of places for any motivated dog to get out; Mylo doesn't challenge fences, though. The only way she'll get out is if there's another dog on the other side of the exact spot where the fence has a gap or hole.

Mom also has 2 poodles, one of which can't spend any time with Mylo because they fight (female of course) so we have to keep them separate. The first night, I slept in the living room because my sis was also there, so Mylo was completely wired. Mom has two housecats and Mylo would like to hunt them all night. So she quivered like a tight strung bow all night on the couch (and I kept ahold of the leash). The next night we had the bedroom so I could just shut the door and let her go, that was much more restfull.

She did chase down one of Mom's cats and flip him on his back but she didn't hurt him. He's a particularly crazed animal anyway, I can't help but feel it's poetic justice that he was flipped like a pancake and ruffled. Nobody can do anything with him, my last close interaction with him was when he was a baby and he attached himself to my face with all 20 claws; it was like a painful cat mask. Not pleasant. He's scratched all the kids and the dogs as well. You can't pick him up or pet him...though he will come to you to be petted, but even that is scary. So I didn't feel too bad about him getting his fur messed up, it was funny and since he wasn't hurt, no harm no foul.

Mylo was surprisingly good while out and about on the leash, I was quite happy with her. So we are ready to take Mylo into the next stage of her dog life, which is the stage where she gets to go everywhere we go. It's a stage I've avoided until now based upon her neurotic nature, the age of the kids, and the fact that she does quite well just staying at home when we go; I have someone who lets her out several times a day and she's a little dog so that's enough exercise...but since we're training Klaus we might as well drag Mylo along. She's 7 years old now and I've noticed that tho she's still an obsessive compulsive pup, her anxiety level has decreased noticably over the last year; most of that within the last few months, even. Having the other dog seems to keep her grounded, I don't know if she feels more like she's got a pack around her or what, but she seems a lot calmer now. My daughter let her off the leash at my son's new place and she immediately charged the fence to fight with the neighbor's dog, so that's still something we will deal with. I have yet to see if she will ever be a dog that can be around OTHER dogs in public; when we took her on vacation a couple of years ago, she never quit barking at and trying to run after strange dogs, and there were A LOT of strange dogs. She'd go nuts from the balcony at dogs on the beach and being on the beach with her was a flipping nightmare. It was all a nightmare. But this trip, she really didn't do that..though honestly, the situation was a little different.

So we'll keep pegging away at it. By the time she's 15 or so she might be a really good pet! Right now it's sort of like having a semi tame weasel or raccoon!

 

[Grace]

Loved reading this, Allie. You have a great gift of making me BE there just by your words. I laughed out loud, smiled a lot and nodded my head. Great story teller, girl.

And yes..Mylo now has another of her kind in her pack. My rat terrier is always wanting to charge the fence, too. But when the other two are out there...even the cat...he ignores Willow and Tippy (the neighbors two dogs) and just chases the ball around. Before I got the other two, it was just him and the cat. When we go on walks (rarely now, unfortunately), they all go. Cat too. We walk the block and the cat stays in between two huge shoulders of the lab and the australian shepherd. The rat terrier is led with my left hand. The two big ones, my right hand. Get to a field, I let them loose so they can run their brains out. Cat joins them. It's a riot to watch.

 

[Grace]

And if I let her, Molly the red chicken would probably go too. She follows the dogs around like she is one. Just like the cat does.

 

[ABikerSailor]

You people do realize that dogs are telepathic, right? Scientists have proven this now......

It's a question that has perplexed many a pet owner - how do their dogs seem to know who is most likely to pass them food under the table?
Now scientists think the answer lies in their willingness to accept us as social companions.
A team from the University of Florida found dogs who had more contact with humans were far better at picking up on physical and verbal cues, suggesting they watched and assimilated human behaviour.

Mind-reader? Dogs know which diners are more likely to share their food

This could explain why your pet is more likely to misbehave when you're not looking.
Lead author Monique Udell carried out two experiments comparing the performance of pet domestic dogs, shelter dogs and wolves given the opportunity to beg for food, from either an attentive person or from a person unable to see the animal.

They wanted to know whether the rearing and living environment of the animal (shelter or human home), or the species itself (dog or wolf), had the greater impact on the animal's performance.

They showed for the first time that wolves, like domestic dogs, are capable of begging successfully for food by approaching the attentive human.

This demonstrates that both species - domesticated and non-domesticated - have the capacity to behave in accordance with a human's attentional state. In addition, both wolves and pet dogs were able to improve their performance rapidly with practice.

But the authors also found that dogs were not sensitive to all visual cues of a human's attention in the same way.

Dogs from a home environment were more sensitive to stimuli predicting attentive humans that those from a shelter. Those dogs with less regular exposure to humans performed badly on the begging task.



Read more: Telepathic dogs: How man's best friend seems to know just what you're thinking | Mail Online

Telepathic dogs: How man's best friend seems to know just what you're thinking | Mail Online

 

[AllieBaba]

Dogs are pretty astute. I am too, but I wouldn't say I'm telepathic, lol.

They can smell illness though...dogs can sniff out cancer...and they can tell what a person's blood sugar is doing, too. I know Mylo gets all agitated if she smells blood...her own or somebody else's. Klaus has an extremely sensitive sniffer; this winter I'm going to take the kids up to the snowline and have them bury themselves so he can find and dig them up (no we won't be burying them under feet of snow and it won't be anywhere out of my sight).

 

[Trajan]

Well my little family spent the weekend at my mother's home some miles away. My initial plan was only to take the saint pup but at the last minute we decided to take Mylo the Terrible as well. My kids have been bugging me because we take the pup everywhere but we always leave Mylo at home (and for good cause..she's a pain in the butt when it comes to travel.)

She's hyper, she can't be left in the car safely (for fear of shitting, puking, and tearing the car apart). She barks and pants and exudes nasty smells. Car trips heighten her anxiety to the nth degree, and she's not that great in public, either. She wants to fight with other dogs, she runs away if she gets the chance, she barks insanely and a LOT....

But the vote was in, I am a neglectful and cruel mother for leaving the frothing lunatic at home when we go hiking, visiting, etc. So I stuck her harness on her (she gets out of collars) and off we went.

And really, she was quite good. Having another dog seems to make it less stressful for her, though she still was a little anxious in the car. I'm sure she has a good reason for being stressed in vehicles, but it makes it quite difficult. And when she's stressed she's stinky. I don't know why. I think it's the dog equivilent of fear sweat.

In fact I accused my poor son of being the source of the stinkiness on this trip, poor kid. I gave him a 15 minute spiel about how important it is to take charge of the state of one's underwear and act upon it...and in the end it wasn't him at all! And Mylo just sat there and didn't say a word, naughty girl.

We went to my mom's house, and she has a huge fenced yard, though with lots of places for any motivated dog to get out; Mylo doesn't challenge fences, though. The only way she'll get out is if there's another dog on the other side of the exact spot where the fence has a gap or hole.

Mom also has 2 poodles, one of which can't spend any time with Mylo because they fight (female of course) so we have to keep them separate. The first night, I slept in the living room because my sis was also there, so Mylo was completely wired. Mom has two housecats and Mylo would like to hunt them all night. So she quivered like a tight strung bow all night on the couch (and I kept ahold of the leash). The next night we had the bedroom so I could just shut the door and let her go, that was much more restfull.

She did chase down one of Mom's cats and flip him on his back but she didn't hurt him. He's a particularly crazed animal anyway, I can't help but feel it's poetic justice that he was flipped like a pancake and ruffled. Nobody can do anything with him, my last close interaction with him was when he was a baby and he attached himself to my face with all 20 claws; it was like a painful cat mask. Not pleasant. He's scratched all the kids and the dogs as well. You can't pick him up or pet him...though he will come to you to be petted, but even that is scary. So I didn't feel too bad about him getting his fur messed up, it was funny and since he wasn't hurt, no harm no foul.

Mylo was surprisingly good while out and about on the leash, I was quite happy with her. So we are ready to take Mylo into the next stage of her dog life, which is the stage where she gets to go everywhere we go. It's a stage I've avoided until now based upon her neurotic nature, the age of the kids, and the fact that she does quite well just staying at home when we go; I have someone who lets her out several times a day and she's a little dog so that's enough exercise...but since we're training Klaus we might as well drag Mylo along. She's 7 years old now and I've noticed that tho she's still an obsessive compulsive pup, her anxiety level has decreased noticably over the last year; most of that within the last few months, even. Having the other dog seems to keep her grounded, I don't know if she feels more like she's got a pack around her or what, but she seems a lot calmer now. My daughter let her off the leash at my son's new place and she immediately charged the fence to fight with the neighbor's dog, so that's still something we will deal with. I have yet to see if she will ever be a dog that can be around OTHER dogs in public; when we took her on vacation a couple of years ago, she never quit barking at and trying to run after strange dogs, and there were A LOT of strange dogs. She'd go nuts from the balcony at dogs on the beach and being on the beach with her was a flipping nightmare. It was all a nightmare. But this trip, she really didn't do that..though honestly, the situation was a little different.

So we'll keep pegging away at it. By the time she's 15 or so she might be a really good pet! Right now it's sort of like having a semi tame weasel or raccoon!

Doll, U make me soooo happy my kids are grown

......( and my dog to, well up until maybe 12)

and anyway, just think of the memories you'll have....

 

[Truthmatters]

Fun story AB.

I have found dogs are easier when there is more than one. The really do love to have someone who understands them instictually and has the same needs. They will entertain and teach each other so much.
I bet your little guy feels pretty good having a Big Guy have his back. The first time I took my dogs to the dog park all together you could physically see the impact on the two lilittle ones. They would run back over to the 90lber whenever the felt a little insecure. It was so much easier than I had anticipated a dog park trip with three dogs to be.

Your little guy will get better and better every trip I bet.

 

[AllieBaba]

Mylo never met a dog she didn't think she could whip....Klaus tends to follow her around to see what she's doing, and runs to me to get HIS back when she gets snarly with him (which is less and less frequently now). I've had Mylo 5 years now and she's always been the only dog and in fact came to me because her previous owner was getting married, and his new family had other dogs and she wasn't *social*. In fact, she's a huge pain, especially with female dogs. But I think Klaus is a good pack for her..she can't hurt him, he won't hurt her no matter how whacked she gets...win/win.

 

[Truthmatters]

I have found that lying them down ( like ceaser does) works really well.

my neighbors have a jack russell I did this with and it worked.

I had to lay the little sucker down for 20 minutes to get him to chill.

 

[AllieBaba]

I have found that lying them down ( like ceaser does) works really well.

my neighbors have a jack russell I did this with and it worked.

I had to lay the little sucker down for 20 minutes to get him to chill.

My son, who has a wonderful pit, swears by laying them down and actually spitting in the mouth, lol.

He's always been Johnny on the Spot with his dog, though...he's very obedient and sweet, I've never seen any aggressive behavior from him.

I do lay Mylo down...we've also been working on getting her to come when I call her, even if she's running the fence barking and trying to get at something. Because the pup comes to me, and she's more concerned that the pup may get some attention that she won't, he's been helpful in this area too. When she starts that craziness, I either call her into the house (I used to have to run her down and carry her, barking and slavering) and we work on things like sitting (she is not consistent if there are distractions) or something that will distract her. It's a work in progress...as I've said often, by the time she's in her teens, maybe we'll see a difference! Though she is quite a bit better all around now..even with the fence thing. There are certain people/animals that still get her really worked up, and she doesn't mind when she sees them; but the frequency of that has reduced drastically. I'm hoping that by next summer she'll be able to hang in the yard during the day while I'm at work, with Klaus.

 

[AllieBaba]

Something else my son always has done with his dog...he used to lay down with his face by the foodbowl when Snoop was eating, and would take food out of it, and move his dish around.

The result is absolutely no food anxiety...any baby can go up to Snoop when he's eating and eat out of his bowl without tragedy...

 

[Truthmatters]

Cool tip.

Food agression needs to be taken hold of.

The little rascal I trained this way for the neighbor was real persistant.

these little ratters ( the tiny terrior kind who were bred to go after small creatures in dens) are naturally VERY persistant and take alot of training and reinforcement.


with hounds its much the same, their noses are so good they are overwhelmed by this sense and you have to work at them.

 

[AllieBaba]

Hounds follow their noses period. Even my saint pup had that tendency but I didn't encourage it (he isn't an avalance rescue dog, so I figured it was in his best interests, if he starts getting out of fences we're in trouble).

Mylo is ferociously terrier..she's not mini, though. She probably weighs 15 lbs...she can take kids down to the ground and you seriously can't tell how she does it, she's so fast. And when she's doing that she's quiet as well...she goes around BEHIND things to get them. Her behavior issues are just terrier personality issues; some of them you kind of live with (though we do work on them all the time...) I do not anticipate a time when I will ever be able to let her off leash when we're outside our yard, if there is the chance of any other animals coming within sight.