Irresponsible Owners

[fiwen30]

I consider my dogs athletes but I do think a lot of pet dogs seem to have a heavier 'workload'.
It boggles my mind that on a forum where people painstakingly observe their horse's fitness and weight, the same consideration is sometimes sadly not afforded to dogs.

Absolutely this. A large part of managing my senior dog is paying close attention to how I ‘work’ him, in order to maintain his fitness and build small, realistic, improvements where possible. He is not an athlete, never has been, but I owe it to him to take care of his body as it needs more management in older age.

His ‘work’ is not strenuous, but it’s being mindful of his stamina, and doing things like walking down hills to not jar joints, trotting uphill to strengthen legs and back end, making sure he’s doing a quality, 4-beat collected walk, not ambling along with both ends disjointed and tripping or twisting his back. He’s allowed to slow down, stop, and sniff, for as long as he likes on walks; but he also has his fast speeds capped so he doesn’t overdo it, and has all his gaits managed so he’s placing his feet and using his body properly, just as I would for getting a horse fit.

 

[GSD Woman]

. It’s scarily common though. Relatives of mine are very proud of how long lived their dogs are. They are also very anti vets and repeat medications. So their elderly dogs are visibly suffering, they have one now that lies in its own mess as it can barely stand. But they love him so much that it’s ok.

That is so sad.
I have relatives that have said they want their animals to die on their own so that they don't have to put them down. Others have wanted ME to take their dogs to the vet to be put down.

I have an old dog that I have to be careful about how much he does. When we work on getting him back in shape we do more walking than running after tennis balls.
He is on carprofen twice a day and it has made a huge difference for him. If it hadn't I would have had to think long and hard.

 

[splashgirl45]

It’s so sad when people are selfish about their dogs. Some people would have kept my dogs going but I wasn’t prepared to let them have painful investigations or operations when they were old. I have never regretted my decisions to PTS but miss them every day. it’s hard to let them go but IMO it’s the right thing to do

 

[CorvusCorax]

I am so bloody cross.

Currently trying to help home a smashing dog I have put a lot of work into, because dickheads keep allowing their dogs to run up to him, he (always on leash) has a go back and owner has lost all confidence.
He lives across the road from the park where I had that total cluster a week ago.
Beautiful dog, great with people and fine with other dogs he knows/neutral dogs, but just one incident too many for a young person who's nerves are shot to pieces because of absolute tosspots and has decided the dog would be better off somewhere else.

Yeah, I wish people would think about that when they unclip their leash and think little Fluffy is 'jUsT beInG a dOG'....

 

[skinnydipper]

Owners of lame, grossly obese dogs who think they don't need to lose any weight.

So, ignore all the signs that the poor dog is in pain and wait until he is hobbling before finally seeking veterinary advice.

Don't leash walk, because he will run around just as much on his extending lead. Leave him off leash (see excuse) and let him try to run with his mates and exacerbate the problem, that's a good idea .

Stop the Metacam after 2 weeks because you don't want the dog to get used to it. FFS it doesn't work like that.

This is doing my head in. I'll have to walk somewhere else.


PSA, for the benefit of dogs.

Learn to recognise when your dog is in pain:

Facial tension
Panting
Lowered tail
Appears stiff
Slow getting up and lying down
Hesitant to go up and down stairs
Reluctant to jump in/out of the car
Playing less
Walking slower
Lazy sit
Unwilling to be touched
Signs of aggression

See your vet. Get a diagnosis.

If a dog is in pain he deserves appropriate evidence-based pain relief.

Arthritis can cause 3 different types of pain - inflammatory joint pain, muscle and myofascial pain, neuropathic pain/central sensitisation, and therefore could need treatment with a combination of 3 types of medication.

If something exacerbates the problem - jumping out of car, stairs, running after a ball, whatever, then for FFS stop him doing it.

Young dogs can have arthritic joints, they deserve treatment too.

 

[Morwenna]

I recently got into an argument with a lab owner who walks their 12 week old pup for 40 minutes twice a day as “it’s the only way to tire him out and stop him biting but he’s just getting worse so I’m going to up it to an hour twice a day”. Apparently I’m the bad owner as I don’t even walk mine every day (we do other things instead).

 

[CorvusCorax]

So, ignore all the signs that the poor dog is in pain and wait until he is hobbling before finally seeking veterinary advice.

Don't leash walk, because he will run around just as much on his extending lead. Leave him off leash (see excuse) and let him try to run with his mates and exacerbate the problem, that's a good idea .

Stop the Metacam after 2 weeks because you don't want the dog to get used to it. FFS it doesn't work like that.

This is doing my head in. I'll have to walk somewhere else.


PSA, for the benefit of dogs.

Learn to recognise when your dog is in pain:

Facial tension
Panting
Lowered tail
Appears stiff
Slow getting up and lying down
Hesitant to go up and down stairs
Reluctant to jump in/out of the car
Playing less
Walking slower
Lazy sit
Unwilling to be touched
Signs of aggression

See your vet. Get a diagnosis.

If a dog is in pain he deserves appropriate evidence-based pain relief.

Arthritis can cause 3 different types of pain - inflammatory joint pain, muscle and myofascial pain, neuropathic pain/central sensitisation, and therefore could need treatment with a combination of 3 types of medication.

If something exacerbates the problem - jumping out of car, stairs, running after a ball, whatever, then for FFS stop him doing it.

Young dogs can have arthritic joints, they deserve treatment too.

Amen.

 

[CorvusCorax]

I recently got into an argument with a lab owner who walks their 12 week old pup for 40 minutes twice a day as “it’s the only way to tire him out and stop him biting but he’s just getting worse so I’m going to up it to an hour twice a day”. Apparently I’m the bad owner as I don’t even walk mine every day (we do other things instead).

I know people who did this with their GSD pup and his elbows ended up looking like a Jackson Pollock painting.

 

[Errin Paddywack]

Some years back I used to regularly see someone cycling with a very young GSD and not slowly either. Poor dog.

 

[CorvusCorax]

I do (did, lazy bitch lol) bike mine but not until at least 18mo and hips and elbow x-rays already taken.

 

[Errin Paddywack]

Nothing wrong with that as long as dog old enough and yours is. This pup would have been no more than about 5 months.

 

[GSD Woman]

This is so timely. Last night I had a CE webcast on OA. The presenter went over things that can contribute to the problem. Achondroplastic( blanking on the term so I hope that is correct spelling) conformation, too rapid of growth, being overweight, inappropriate exercise. These were some of the top reasons for OA.

 

[Cinnamontoast]

I sometimes see a Shiba Inu on the drive home. It’s very stiff, obviously struggling. Today the owner seemed to be almost holding it up-standard collar and lead (really slow traffic today). I’m hoping it’s being walked gently on vet’s advice, but omg, it looked fed up today. ?

I sometimes see an incredibly obese staffie, teats hanging, they’ve obviously had a litter or more off her in the past. She can hardly move, it breaks my heart. I worry when Bear is a kilo overweight, I don’t know how a dog gets to look like that-zero exercise, maybe a health issue (trying to be fair, I have no idea of her history)? I’m always in the car when I see her.

 

[CorvusCorax]

It's generally too much/the wrong food. Even for dogs that do a lot of running around.

 

[P3LH]

Whenever i see semi immobile dogs it breaks my heart when I think of my lovely rough last year - I couldn’t imagine having him still here hobbling and dragging himself around. As much as I wish I still had him.

 

[Cinnamontoast]

It's generally too much/the wrong food. Even for dogs that do a lot of running around.

That’s what I figure, it’s normally too much food.

Bear’s dropped a kilo recently, I weigh his food and he’s decided following the pups is fun. I’m enjoying watching them run together.

 

[CrunchieBoi]

Our young boy has put on a bit over the past 2 weeks because we've struggled to do off-lead walks with him and haven't really adjusted his food accordingly.

He still looks positively slim compared to half the dogs I see in the city.

 

[GSD Woman]

A vet that I no longer use for various reasons told me that one of my dogs was a bit thin. I looked at him and said the dog is a performance dog and that most pet dogs are overweight. He had to agree I was right.

When I teach obedience classes where there is jumping I insist that the dogs be appropriate weight and I don't care what the vet told them. If I can't easily feel ribs those dogs aren't jumping.

 

[CorvusCorax]

My Mum has always let dogs run to fat (food = love) and therefore I've never had am overweight dog - as I have seen how many associated health issues can develop.

 

[YorksG]

My Mum has always let dogs run to fat (food = love) and therefore I've never had am overweight dog - as I have seen how many associated health issues can develop.

When we were kids both parents were very strict about not feeding the dog/ dogs anything that was not dog food. Their labs were fit healthy animals, however the two they got after just mum and dad were at home, were fat! They were show bred and fed god only knows what rubbish and had toast and bacon every morning from parents plates?. Parents would not be told that their dogs were fat, needless to say none of ours have ever been fat.

 

[fiwen30]

I’m in a WhatsApp group with a bunch of about 20 colleagues who started at the same time. I’m friendly with most of them, but don’t post in the group.

A girl from another team had a female golden cocker spaniel, about 2 years old, and then picked up another female golden cocker of about the same age from the pound, a few months ago.

I’ve been keeping away from conversations about them, since I heard that the two had started out by fighting, before eventually ‘quieting down’.

This girl posted a short video clip in the group chat of one of the dogs, where the cocker is backed against a wall and showing a whale eye, and the girl is saying BAD DOG and pointing a finger at it. The dog then lunges towards her hand, and when she screams, the dog then stands off, barking at her.

I just can’t even.

 

[CorvusCorax]

And then the dog will bite her and it will get put to sleep or moved on.

As an aside, I can't abide pointing at dogs, it's often one of the first things I have to stamp out with new people.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

I’m in a WhatsApp group with a bunch of about 20 colleagues who started at the same time. I’m friendly with most of them, but don’t post in the group.

A girl from another team had a female golden cocker spaniel, about 2 years old, and then picked up another female golden cocker of about the same age from the pound, a few months ago.

I’ve been keeping away from conversations about them, since I heard that the two had started out by fighting, before eventually ‘quieting down’.

This girl posted a short video clip in the group chat of one of the dogs, where the cocker is backed against a wall and showing a whale eye, and the girl is saying BAD DOG and pointing a finger at it. The dog then lunges towards her hand, and when she screams, the dog then stands off, barking at her.

I just can’t even.

Just why!

 

[Titchy Pony]

I’m in a WhatsApp group with a bunch of about 20 colleagues who started at the same time. I’m friendly with most of them, but don’t post in the group.

A girl from another team had a female golden cocker spaniel, about 2 years old, and then picked up another female golden cocker of about the same age from the pound, a few months ago.

I’ve been keeping away from conversations about them, since I heard that the two had started out by fighting, before eventually ‘quieting down’.

This girl posted a short video clip in the group chat of one of the dogs, where the cocker is backed against a wall and showing a whale eye, and the girl is saying BAD DOG and pointing a finger at it. The dog then lunges towards her hand, and when she screams, the dog then stands off, barking at her.

I just can’t even.

That sounds awful. Poor dog.
I have to look away from my neighbour and her dog. The dog spends most of its day chained by the front door about 10m from the road, no fence, and then it gets shouted and ranted at for barking at passing people and dogs. I don't think I've ever heard my neighbour say anything nice to the dog, only crazy rants along the lines of "if you don't shut up at the count of three, I'm going to wallop you!", "I'm going to turn you into a fly and swat you", "why can't you be nice like that other dog". The last one is referring to my dog who is walking past quietly (he knows the dog is chained and can't get to him), but to be fair will be jumping and barking at the gate with the best of them if another dog walks by.
She does walk the dog about 100m down the road once a day until its had a poo (left right where it was produced) and turns back for home. I won't go anywhere near that dog because I'm pretty sure its terrified of humans (can't blame it) and it's most certainly reactive to other dogs and its owner doesn't look like she can hold it. But I feel so sorry for it.

 

[splashgirl45]

I’m glad I don’t have anything like that where I live as I would blow my top and fall out with them….why on earth have a dog if you can’t be bothered to look after it properly. I would be very tempted to take a pic when the dog poops and she doesnt Pick it up and a nice video with sound when she is ranting at it just to illustrate to the dog warden what is happening.

 

[Clodagh]

And then the dog will bite her and it will get put to sleep or moved on.

As an aside, I can't abide pointing at dogs, it's often one of the first things I have to stamp out with new people.

Oh dear! I point at mine sometimes. If they are about to break a stay a point and the hard eye makes them rethink. That is at a distance if that helps.

 

[CorvusCorax]

So it's your eye that makes them rethink?

Yeah a lot of dogs (and humans) find pointing at close quarters confrontational and it's a good way to get bitten by a certain sort of dog (and person ).

 

[skinnydipper]

The situation Fiwen describes is another example of bullying. It doesn't make her colleague look good, rather it highlights her inadequacies.

I think a tough, confident dog wouldn't stand for it and a fearful dog backed up and threatened would feel it had no choice but to bite.

 

[Clodagh]

So it's your eye that makes them rethink?

Yeah a lot of dogs (and humans) find pointing at close quarters confrontational and it's a good way to get bitten by a certain sort of dog (and person ).

If I didn’t point they might hope I was glaring at the others ?

 

[Smitty]

Often went hand in hand with some weekend warrior stuff as well, demanding NSAIDs that the dog hadn't received in the previous 12 months because visiting relatives wanted to go out for a lengthy walk and repetitive ball-chuck and the dog can't move the following day.[/QUOTE]

But, this is what the majority of people think dogs do:. Go for long walks and chase balls.

I can't believe a friend of mine who absolutely worships her 11 yo Weimaraner X and can't imagine life without her, lets her run round chasing balls with 2 young labs for approximately 5 hours!!!? and thinks that's brilliant. Even when it's really stiff the next day.

When I told her about some ball survey where they should have larger balls thrown or something, she said well what can you throw for them then ... Err, well, me nothing. But then I'm mean.

An awful lot of people don't recognize a subtle lameness, never mind when the dogs are totally hopping. I had a brief conversation with someone who was trying to tug their whippet along back in the summer. It was very slightly lame but apparently was lazy.?