new pup

That's awesome - lucky boy! I heard if you want to change an older dogs name to say tem both for awhile... then drop the old name.... not sue it would work with ne that is a bit hard of hearing, but worth a try! Good luck!
 
Congrats on the new addition! My sister adopted an older dog, Bailey, who was the sweetest thing, except when people got too noisy around her. Then she would bark. We called her the "fun police!"
 
so lucky said:
Hmmm. Maybe the added exercise will help with the stiffness and pain.
Click to expand...

Many years ago I had a dog that developed muscle pain. The vet that I took her to suggested some Digestive Enzymes (in pill form) to ease the pain and strengthen the muscles. The information I read on the product indicated that "the lame would walk and the blind see" or nearly that. There was info about old dogs acting like puppies, a dog born with no motion in his rear legs being able to walk around. For my Annable, it worked like a dream! For some reason the muscles in her shoulder atrophied. After a few weeks on the enzyme (he never called them meds) she was running around and the once flat muscle tissue was thick and strong again. I've never had another Vet use or suggest anything like that and I never got a product name that I could look up on-line.

Still, I would do some looking into it if I had a dog with pain in its back or legs. Digestive Enzymes is the closest thing I can help with other than the Vet ran(still runs?) a clinic in South Beloit, IL.
 
Well it hasnt been quite a week yet, but i figured it was time for an update. Things have been...challenging, with Scooby, to say the least. We've been attempting every solution i can think of, and i've been in constant contact with his caregivers from the shelter, who are giving me lots of good advice.

Our challenges mostly have to do with him peeing in the house, sometimes right after coming in from 15 minutes in the backyard, and me (and everyone else in the house) not getting enough sleep because its such a process to get scooby up, guide him to the backyard, wait a while, guide him back into the house, then coax him to lay down and sleep instead of pacing around the house for an hour. We have an extra large wire kennel that he's confined to when we're not home, but he barks incessantly in it, so its not an option for overnight.

I expected the occasional accident in the house - it certainly wont be the first or last time that happens at our house. But when we're home and awake i make sure to get him outside EVERY HOUR for potty breaks - but he will still come back inside and pee on the floor. Argh! Same at night - i will get up once or twice in the middle of the night to get him outside, but will still catch him peeing on the floor when he comes back inside!! We do have a doggie door too, which he uses to go outside on his own, so he has had PLENTY of opportunity to do the right thing. I think it comes down to the conditioning he's had the last 5 years while living at the shelter - its ok and normal to pee inside.

I'm pretty patient, but there is the possibility that Scooby may fray my last nerve (one night i only got 2 hours of sleep, that came close!). His shelter caretakers are perfectly willing to take him back, even happy to drive the 4 hours round trip to pick him up, if it doesnt work out, which is really nice of them. We're going to give it another week or 2, i know it takes a while and i want to give him every opportunity. I think if we decide to have the shelter take him back, it will mostly be because he doesnt seem all that content or happy here - i'm not sure if his behavior was that much different at the shelter - they did mention that restless pacing was normal for him there. But if he's not happier being in a home environment, then i can't see any reason to be loosing sleep and constantly cleaning up pee! :idunno I'll let you all know what happens.
 
Not wanting to steal your thread, but I'm attempting to turn an outside cat into an inside cat and it is not working well either. Bell came to us at about 1.5 years old because she wouldn't use the litter box and sprayed the furniture. It was us or euthanasia. I tried to retrain her, but was unsuccessful so for the past 10 years or so she has been a declawed outdoor cat.

Now that she is getting old (like me) I hoped that she would take kindly to a warm bed and TLC. So far she hasn't had an accident -- or a purpose -- in my bedroom, but the food, water, and litter box is in the basement. She used the box once and the cement floor several times. Easy for me to clean up, but NOT what I was hoping for. I haven't been able to track where the pee has ended up, but I fear it is on the small piece of carpet I was planning to cut up for weed smothering. Otherwise, like you, I am the one who is house trained. I watch the time and put her outside or down in the basement on a regular schedule. Sigh! She could be more appreciative of my efforts.
 
Does he have potty accidents indies he have urine accidents in his wire crate? If he holds it there I'd start crating him there and try to rehouse break him. It might work it's work but it might be an option.

To help the transition to longer crate times you can go with a citronella bark collar which I've used in the past with great success. It's harmless, and is activated by the dog not you. When my younger Golden was around 6 months old he would bark in his crate constantly. He'd been crate trained from 9 weeks and never had an issue before but for some reason at 6 months old he felt the need to bark his fool head off anytime he was crated. Put that on him he barked 2x and that was it.

Took a while to wean him off the collar but for a while he wore it every time he went into his crate to condition him not to bark in the crate. It's been quite a while now & he hasn't it worn it since I was able to wean him off of it. It's easy to refill, and worth every penny.

If he can't be supervised Id have him in his crate with the citronella collar on to help him hold it. First thing when he's out of the crate he goes out to go pee. Might be a few trips too but it's better than pee in the house.

Just some things to hopefully curb his behaviors & make the transition to home life a little easier.

Please keep us posted.
 
He does pee in the crate. He's on prednisone and theophylline for some breathing issues, the pred makes you have to pee all the time, and apparently the theophylline can be a stimulant. So i'm going to talk to my vet at his appointment tuesday about trying to get him off those meds. The longest he's been crated so far is only 4 hours too. We've been arranging our schedules so someone can let him out at lunchtime - even had a friend do it for me yesterday.

I know people who have used those citronella collars - everyone says they work great! Good recommendation.
 
Ah that makes more sense then with the accidents. Will be interesting to see what the vet says.

They also make citronella collars with a remote so you can hit a button & trigger a spray to curb behaviors too. Never used one but supposedly they work quite well too.
 
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