Danny's back home! His vet called the night before and told me to wait for his call before collecting him. He said he wanted to give him a thorough checkup before discharging him and asked me not to appear first thing in the morning. How did he know that was exactly what I was planning?
Anyway, he opens at 10 but by 10.30 I couldn't stand it and called the clinic. They said he was in the clear so I could come by around 11.30. I left the house immediately after putting down the phone and was there by 11. Heh!
Of course I had to wait. Anyway they handed Danny over together with his cocktail of meds which have super complicated feeding instructions - or maybe I'm just not very smart.
Total damage: $680
Having Danny back from the dead: Priceless.
He's still not 100% though. He is curious about all his usual stuff and poking his nose into garbage cans and trying to sneak upstairs where he's not allowed, just that he is doing everything at half speed. Walking from one end of the room to the other makes him pant and his back legs are quite weak so stairs are a bit more of a challenge than usual.
He seems to have more energy in air-conditioned rooms and pants a lot less, especially when it gets hot, so now from 11am onwards, our friend stays with me in the study. I keep the temp low and wear a jacket.
He drinks copious amounts of water though, which the vet said it's caused by the steriod jab, which means I'm changing his newspaper every hour on the hour.
Everyone at home has come to realise that he's not quite as indestructable as we thought. He now needs more looking after, but we're all glad he's home.
Will take new pics soon!
2 comments:
I just came across your blog page last night and it made me smile, cry and laugh hysterically (the fridge incident). I am so glad you're little boy has come home safe to you. I hope he recovers quickly. I know I'd be distraught if anything like that happened to my little boy.
I have a 1yo Schnoodle who looks a lot like Danny and he can be a right ratbag in disguise too! That cute face is deceiving... Mind you, my partner doesn't help with such things like letting him play rough and making his hands a play-thing to bite! I see you have a similar problem with your family...
I have read about your behaviour and training woes and I REALLY want to help you as there IS a solution. I'm not trying to sell anything, I'm just a devoted doggie mum. And your boy seems so much like mine.
Schnauzers (and Poodles) are known for being very intelligent, so without the right training they'll run rings around you or get so mentally bored they'll find all sorts of ways to occupy themselves - normally not how we want them to!
My three approaches to keeping my little boy under control are:
1. Tire him out with exercise -I walk him morning and night. (He drives me nuts otherwise) But he overheats very easily so I keep him clipped very short in summer and he hops straight in the pool when he gets home to cool down. He loves walking, sniffing and running free (when possible) but most importantly it also satisfies his 100-miles-an-hour instincts for most of the day and happily sleeps the rest of the day.
2. Give him plenty of things he IS ALLOWED to chew such as rawhide and STRONG rubber toys. He now has a super tough fairly large Kong as he destroyed his others! Especially when he learnt the best technique. He also has an endless array of soft toys that are retired once he's managed to rip them open or start to pull off an eye... That saves the rest of the house from distruction. Rotating them also keeps him interested in them.
3. Train with positive reinforcement (clicker training specifically). I absolutely swear that this method will change both of your lives. I can't emphasise that enough. No need for prong collars, no choke chains, no watching him every second to make sure he's not getting up to mischief. Just some dedication to learning on your part and some persistence and patience with the right techniques. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Google the following: Karen Pryor (the clicker training guru)or www.clickertraining.com (her website), "kikopup dog training" on youtube (FANTASTIC VIDEOS - very talented trainer) and "Clicker training - the 4 Secrets of Becoming a Supertrainer". An ebook which is the best $50 you'll ever spend on Danny.
And please believe me that this method is for every type of dog - including Danny. Class enviroments (which you've tried before) are useless for training so please don't let that put you off positive reinforcement methods. You need to train behaviours in non destracting envirnments and work your way up to your dog doing the same behaviours in more and more destracting enviroments. Group classess will set you and Danny up to fail straight away and classes (and even a lot of one on one trainers) often use a mish mash of techniques anyway which reduces any effectiveness. Personally, I've given up on them and have had 1000% better success training myself.
I sincerely wish you and Danny all the best! I hope some of my advice might help.
Kindest regards,
Michelle (Australia)
Hi Michelle,
Hey thanks for your advice! Danny gets 2 walks a day, sometimes with an additional run when I feel fat. With him, all that does is settle him down for the next hour and then he's buzzing again!
As for toys, he has two kongs, rawhide, 2 tennis balls, one rubber ball and another cloth-material toy. I've tried giving it to him one at a time and all at once, but he finds our stuff more interesting. Maybe cos we make a lot of noise when he does and its attention to him.
The only thing I haven't tried is the clicker training you mentioned. I've heard of it before but it's not really big in Singapore. I'll check out the book you suggested though!
Thanks!
Regards,
Angela
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