Raleigh, Archie, Gus

Hi Vicki,

Sounds like you have your hands full. I just wanted to stop by to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope the puppies are feeling better.

Patti, Addy
Thanks. Happy Thanksgiving to you and everyone.

Happy Thanksgiving Vicki, to you and the whole gang!
hugs,
Sharlene and Molly Muffin

Vicki:
Happy Thanksgiving to you and the babies. Hope you have a wonderful day together. Blessings
Patti

Sharlene and Patti,
Thanks
I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving too.

Archie is still having poop problems so they won't be having any turkey. I get so darn worried about things and this problem is worrying me.

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.
This diarrhea problem that Archie has is worrying me. Now Gus has had some the last 2 days also. Archie had been scratching and licking himself for a while. Now he gnaws on himself and pulls his fur. It's in the upper back leg area. He goes after it so bad it looks like it bleeds a bit. The one spot also looked like it was swollen. I took him to see the vet Friday. She doesn't want to put him on anything for his itchiness until his stools are better. That has been going on for 2 weeks. Now Gus has started gnawing on his paw and leg. Sure wish I knew what the heck is going on!

I had a trainer come to the house to see if she could help with a few issues. I am not happy with the way things went. I wish I would have been smarter and done my homework before I made an appointment. She uses prong collars, which she called a "mama collar". Her website says no shock collars but doesn't mention the others. I was surprised but went along with it because it was explained to me how it works. It seemed OK while the 2 people were here but when they left and I had time to think about things, I didn't like it. I tried it a couple of times but wasn't comfortable with it. The one time when the ladies were here I looked at Archie and he had this look on his face that said, why are you doing this? On Friday when I took Archie to the vet I put it on him and asked the vet what her opinion was about them. She does not like them especially on Pugs who can have trachea problems. So I am out a bunch of money and am so very unhappy about it. Sure wish I would have known all this ahead of time but I was clueless. Now I know of a lady who trains without any collars and only charges 1/2 the price of what I paid. She works totally different from the other one. Kicking myself!

Oh I am so sorry about that mess with the trainer. So many out there think "training" equals "dominance" and that is just not right. Caesar Milan has done more damage to the general public's thinking of what good training is than anything else I can think of at the moment. That is always the first question I ask a trainer - "What do you think of Milan?" If they admire him or try to copy his methods - they FLY out the door! You want someone who works from a positive, reward based perspective, who works toward communication between us and our babies, not simply control. The punishment proponents, like those who think shock or prong collars are "fine when used correctly", are nothing more than abusers in my mind. I talked to a trainer for Crys, several in fact, and they all wanted to use things like the prong or shock collars; one wanted me to put her on a 2' chain and basically jerk her into behaving...and I was ignorant enough to consider it. Then Saskia told me about Turid Rugas and her "Calming Signals" method. I bought the book by the same name and it was amazing not only how her methods worked for Crys but the things I learned about how to read her body language and behavior. Turid has a website where she answers questions and there are several YouTube presentations by her. She's in The Netherlands and I would so love to meet her! Check her out and you will have a much better idea of what good, positive training really means.

I wish you the best of luck and hope the itchies cause can be found and addressed soon.

Hugs,
Leslie

http://en.turid-rugaas.no/

http://www.amazon.com/On-Talking-Ter.../dp/1929242360

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj7BWxC6iVs

Valerie:
just wanted you to know that not a day goes past that I don't think of you and Scoop, and the babies. Sorry to hear about the runs with Archie. I hope you had a good Thanksgiving. Blessings
Patti

Oh darn, I was hoping the poo problems were solved. Sorry to hear about the trainer issues. We had a similar experience with Koko when he was small. The trainer said "positive reinforcement" training. I had done clicker training with Zoe, so I had no idea Koko and I signed up for 3 months of tough boot camp with a mean drill sergeant.

I know how you feel.

Sorry to hear about the poo problems and also the gnawing. What you described with the gnawing reminded me of our poodle's reaction when he ate a piece of chocolate cake that I dropped. Just wondering if the two things are related and he's developed an allergy to something in his food?
Also when Hamish had poo problems with Blue the vet said that they can develop an allergy to food that they've previously been OK with.

Hoping that you can get things resolved soon.