Is it harmful for a big dog to be crated 9 hrs on a hard surface?
dustien
11 years ago
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Comments (7)
gardenandcats
11 years agoRelated Discussions
New dog and old dog not getting along
Comments (10)Fl-CountryB, You are in a difficult situation. You miss Rocky. You miss her more than Holly does. Holly misses her but dogs seem to have a sense of acceptance about death that we as humans don't. I suspect bringing Buddy home was more for your comfort. This is okay. Thousands of dog lovers do this. We can't help it. We love our dog packs. I have had the good fortune of always adding a puppy to the pack. The puppy has to work for and learn who is boss. I will say I have one male who still tries to challenge the top female. She is old and frail but she is still top dog and number 2 knows this. No one has ever bitten. But there was plenty of wrestling, playing and at times a nip would occur that would make someone yelp. Biting means they have forgotten you are the TRUE boss. It's easy to do. You had two old dogs and they knew the routine. Now, you have to start all over. I would not fret too much. Things will work out but you have to be the Top Alpha in this pack family of yours. Hard work but you can do it. There are two ways to go with this. Different dog trainers use different paths. 1) The first path is You are the alpha who choose the totem pole order.... Holly needs to respect your orders not act like she can push Buddy around. This does not mean that Buddy should not be pushed. He needs to learn your top dog. Buddy is trying to find his place and push her to the max. He wants to find his boundaries. All new dogs and puppies do this. And you can decide which should be number 2. If you decide it is Holly. Buddy will need to visit the crate more often for time outs, he will need to be fed 2nd, get in the car 2nd, he will need to be leashed more and respectful of his place. Since you are the alpha you dictate who does what, where, when, how. Holly will feel happy not to be displaced. She might even be nice to Buddy when you are not looking. And in time she may come to take a nap next to him. Give her time to realize her place will always be #1. Buddy will have to accept this and he will come to respect Holly or he goes to the crate. I personally think this path is the best in your situation because Holly is older and needs your support being top girl. And with her happy, Buddy will fall into acceptance. he is the new roomie after all. 2) The second path or dog training option is to let them work it out.... ( I do not think this path is for you but let me explain so you can decide.) This may be the most difficult . It hurts to watch nature. This is easy to do when adding a new puppy. Puppies never challenge an alpha so the order is set. 2 adult dogs vying for the Alpha spot. Holly has a lot to loose and Buddy wants to survive. All interesting dynamics with a violent nature. If you have a big yard that is the place to "fight it out". Have a friend nearby to help watch them play and possibly call 911 if you get hurt separating them. They COULD work it out. I say COULD because with two adult dogs the fighting could start up again a month from now. Or even 6 months from now. The unknowns are there. If Buddy does win you need to let him be the new top dog. This means Holly has given up. She may be injured when she does this.. I must warn you it is painful to watch. It will be very hard because you are still mourning Rocky. We mourn our dogs centuries later. I still miss my first. But this is the nature of canines. If Buddy becomes number 1 he will need to be treated as such. You will mourn this change terribly with Holly. This is my personal reason for thinking you should go with number 1 path. You are the Alpha in number 1 and making a natural pecking order. Easier to do. Best of luck and don't give up on this. You can make a great home for both. Sorry to be so long, but I truly understand your woes. ~boxerpups...See MorePlease help me with my Dog..
Comments (16)Don't know that much about JRT, but my labradors' breeder has Jack Russells as her pets. She is a very discipline oriented person. She has these dogs trained very well, but has commented on the committment and time is tremendous to train properly. It is really funny, I just said to my husband that I wasn't sure if I wanted another puppy from Diane because my boys jumped up and down for months when we first got them (a total JRT trait). If you decide you can manage keeping this dog and committing to training him maybe an obediance class with the participation of all family members would be a good thing. I know people who do this off premises like at Petsmart and the like for not too much expense. We use a private trainer in our area who has classes, but we like her to come to the house a couple of times to deal with issues directly related to us. It was so worth the charge for her to come to the house once or twice for an hour. She could observe us and the dogs, the dynamic and give suggestions (all of which we have implemented). There were also no other distractions we got individual attention and that was good for us. We also work on socializing our dogs with people and other pets. We are a big family of dog owners and we all have each other's dogs at one time or another sometimes up to 6 at a time in my yard. No issues, they chase each other around and the like, but never bite or hurt one another. The just play like they have been living together their entire lives. My youngest lab chases every cat that we have. The youngest who just arrived in July was scared of him at first and I gated my daughter's room so that he had a place to escape to, but now that he's older when he is being chased he doesn't run he stands up on his back feet and hisses and swats at the dog, the dog always gives up. Telling my dog no to chasing the cats would definitely fall on deaf ears. Is the pooping thing a diarreha situation or just plain pooping? What did the shelter tell you about the dog's history. I know alot of times they either don't know or the person who gave the dog up doesn't give all the info needed for fear no one will adopt their discarded dog. As for leashing. I am all for that. I use gentle leader when I train my dogs. It is very funny the difference in behavior once you put it on. Crazy dog becomes calm dog. I don't believe in the choker chain. I know alot of people use them, just have seen bad things happen with misuse or uninformed use. Our trainer had us use a harness on the puppies with a lead about 6 foot long for beginning training. My guys were stuck to my side when I didn't have them out playing or exercising. It can get crazy when you are attached to a dog for that number of hours, but it was worth every minute because I have 3 wonderfully well adjusted, well behaved big dogs. Maybe you could do some research on how much exercise a JRT needs. I think probably alot but I don't agree that every dog needs to run every day. My guys dream day is to lay on the couch and eat bon bons. I exercise them to keep them healthy but I don't run them. When they are done playing with the frisbee, they take it and go lie down in the far end of the yard like I'm done with that thank you very much. If you think long and hard and want to commit I think you can bring this guy around. You will need to use the crate until he is fully housebroken, you will need to train him, leash him to you and spend time training him. It won't happen unless you make it happen. Do you have kids who would be willing to get on board with the training. My daughter always loves getting into the training because my guys really did learn fast once we started doing the things the trainer told us to do and stopped doing the things we were doing wrong. If in the event you don't feel up to the committment, I think you should not feel badly. He may be more than you bargained for and that doesn't make you a bad person. I guess there is a rescue for JRT's? Someone on this forum must know if there is. If that is a possibility I would rather see him go to a rescue rather than back to the shelter. Lastly, how is he with your other laid back dog. Do they get along or does the new guy growl or act agressive with the established pet? Best of luck to you whichever way you decide to go....See MoreOT - How to keep house smelling fresh w/ a dog
Comments (32)Thank you ALL !!! It was so fun to read your posts, I found myself smiling often :-) I will give a few things a try. He goes to the vet this afternoon, so will ask about food and of course be sure there are no health concerns causing the doggy smell. Its not a pungent odor, just dog smell. Like many of you said, we have been without a pet for the nearly 14 yrs we have been married, so its a noticeable change in the air :) To all you Weim owners out there specifically, I welcome ANY and ALL advice! In fact, feel free to email directly at mvandemark001@woh.rr.com since this isn't a pet forum. We didn't take this decision lightly and frankly, came up against some opposition in choosing this breed because of their physical demands. But, we felt all the great benefits of Weims outweighed this potential "con" and we could put the time and training into him to get the great family pet we wanted. He will start puppy kindergarten the first week of Nov (because that's when the next session starts). I work about 6-10 hours a week, and all three kids are in school full time now, so I am confident we have the time to train him. Thank you all, I appreciate it!...See Moredo you think repeated tilling is harmful?
Comments (52)Lauren, If I could go back to the beginning of my garden, I would have hired somebody with a tiller to break it all up once. This would have collapsed the gopher holes, loosened the dirt, etc. My vegetable garden is done in a potager style with permanent beds. Most are not technically raised because I could have spent a small fortune on wood for the size of garden I wanted, not to mention the cost of soil amendments. My beds are double dug and lined with hardware cloth to keep the gophers out. Digging those beds out would have been much easier if the area had been tilled first. We are currently expanding the garden and the good news for me is I have 2 teenagers to press into service when it comes to the digging. I will agree that there can be more flexibility without permanent beds, should you desire to change the design of the area on a whim. The Art of the Kitchen Garden is a wonderful book where they show some different design possibilities. The authors actually till it up and do a new design each year, so it may be something to look into if you like the aesthetics. Part of me would like to do it, but I have enough going on that I may not have the mental energy to devote to a new design each year. I have checked that book out from the library many times so your library may have a copy as well but I also see Amazon has a used copy for less than $1. Have fun in the design process....See Morebetsyhac
11 years agonycefarm_gw
11 years agoemma
11 years agoryseryse_2004
11 years agoLizRVT
10 years ago
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