Archive for the ‘tips’ Category

Gida is the proud new owner of this baby-blue crate. Under the pee pad (sad face), there is a comfy chocolate-brown pillow.

Yeah, so, sad face. She has peed and pooped enough times in the house during our workday that this became our most viable solution at, um, containing things. So far, it’s going alright.

She had a soft-shell pet carrier similar to these, but no everyday crate. This is unusual, I guess. Well, when she was younger, she had a crate. My hubs picked her up after vacation to find she’d have nothing to do with it — Gida henceforth did not use crates, and we and our Gida-watchers learned an important lesson: do not force them into these things. We’ve enticed her with treats and she seems to have a decent sense of ownership over it. Our worry, though, is that she’s too old to learn this particular new-dog trick. That she’ll pee and poop all over it, and she’ll therefore hate hanging out in this baby-blue toilet.

Or is that old-dog/new-trick thing just baloney? I mean, we could get her some curtains and a disco ball if you think it’ll help, but…

So far, my tricks for teaching this particularly particular lady:

• TREATS in the cage. Treats from the outside into the cage. Treats + crate = good time. Repeat.
• Don’t make noise. Any noise. I sighed a little when she stopped halfway on the way in, and she reacted slightly to even that. Tsk tsk, me.
• The b-o-n-e in there with her really seems to help, as well as a little rawhide chew. I was only half-kidding about the disco ball, because it has to be as dorm-room, this-is-mine as it can get.

I didn’t enjoy having to get these done. But I have to admit: I love looking at these x-rays. It’s the inside of my dog!

These are the adorable Boston terrier x-rays I mentioned in a previous post. The vet says these x-rays point to a likely congenital back issue — somewhere before the apex of her spine, closer to her neck, a couple vertebrae are too close together.

Despite the so-so news found in these images, I love how much it looks like her. In the image above, note the bones in the base of her — i.e. pretty much entire — tail.

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Gida has, most likely, a congenital, skeletal issue in her back. So says a vet, x-rays, and the pity-inducing way she moves and stands sometimes. When it’s a mild ouch, it seems like she just pauses her gait mid-stride — almost like we caught her doing something bad. At her worst, she painstakingly lumbers like an AT-AT in Star Wars. They said painkillers would help, and they did. They still do, sometimes quickly and sometimes slowly.

I indicated I was a tad testy about painkillers for the dog. Something about the organic chicken she now eats plus bonus drugs didn’t add up. But some combination of these new things seemed to work. She jumps and gets excited (“vicious”) when the doorbell rings. Furthermore, at least two other dog owners told us painkillers greatly improved their twilighting pets’ quality of life.

Is it like “these vitamins really boosted my energy or “this crack is really tasty, can I have some more like NOW?” Is it like waiting until the end of your life to eat chocolate and cookies for dinner every night? I am still considering the answers to these questions. Call me cynical, but I’m unsure the opinion of a vet who prescribed the pills is necessarily the only one I should trust. The opinion of these dog-having friends counts, and so does yours.

If anyone else has experience with doggie painkillers, I’m curious to know what you think. So far, I’m starting to accept them as a new part of Gida’s life: when they work, they seem to do the trick.

Parents, let’s be honest. You probably were a little horrified, but a lot amused, the first time your kid dropped the f-bomb or said “shit.” It’s not that you want your kid to be a potty mouth, but isn’t it hilariously adorable to see a pint-size person say an expletive? The same probably goes for parrot owners, who may have inadvertently taught their feathered friend to curse.

But according to professional animal trainer Barbara Heidenreich, this reaction is probably not a good idea, if you don’t want your kid or bird to make foul language a habit.

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