Meet Lady and...doggy troubles :(
Hmmm well I'm having some dog problems, so this might be a long post. But first I'd like to share this pretty little lady with you. :) My friend, Melissa, just got her. She is a 10 week old german shorthair pointer. Her name is Lady. She's a big girl, huge paws...as big as Reggie is right now. I was hoping that Melissa would adopt a medium sized dog from the shelter, but that didnt happen. She bought the first dog she saw, some guy had her at a store. She really is pretty though, and a real sweetie. I'm just not sure how she's going to take her anywhere because she has a small 2 door car. I hope that she will train her well. And NOT let her dad/brothers touch her or try to teach her to hunt.
That brings me to another problem. Her other dogs. There is Bear, a very large black lab that I believe is around 7-9 years old. And Trusty, another pointer, who is probably around 12. Melissa loves these dogs, but she wanted to get a dog of her own. Those 2 dont even live at her house right now, they live at her old house with her brothers. Her dad is a hunting fanatic, and he has always believed that the dogs were his, and he would never let us touch them. Even when Bear was a puppy we couldn't play with him or we would "ruin his training." He does not believe dogs are pets, he believes they are property. So we really never got to do anything with the dogs most of their lives.....well now her dad doesn't care about taking them hunting anymore. They are WILD, and are not trained on a leash or anything. Ok we've tried training them, and it took us 2 hours just to get a harness on Bear (they have no fenced yard either...) And he chewed it off about an hour later. He is a real sweetie, but well, he's not an average sized lab...and we are both short.......5'4" and about 5'2".....he is not easy to handle. Her dad/brothers just laugh at us. Plus, (believe me, this sounds incredibly stupid lol) that dog has something out for me. He umm...goes after my leg, ALL the time. He wont stop, so I can't get within 3 feet of him. And Melissa just spends all her time dragging him away from me. When Trusty gets on a leash he just lays down and won't move. Uuuugghh........Melissa thinks she is giving up on her dogs by getting her a dog. I don't blame her for how they act, it was her dad and brothers. They need a firm handler, a male, they just ignore us. Oh, and they definitely need to be neutered! But getting Bear to a vet could be a real problem. Anyway..........sorry for that incredibly long story.......any advice is appreciated.......
Another problem that is freaking me out. My Reggie baby. :( A long time ago Reggie did this thing one time when I took him for a walk. He kind of got stiff, stuck his neck out, and made these strange snorting/honking noises, and breathing really hard like he couldn't breathe. I read in some magazine that dogs can have some problem (dont know what its called) where collars make their trachea flatten and cause them problems. So we bought him a harness, and he hadn't had a problem since. That had to be 6 years ago or more. Well when I went camping this weekend, he slept in the tent with us. When we woke up he started doing it! I don't know what caused it, I thought maybe he slept weird and his collar choked him or something...and then he did it again this morning! He did it for quite a long time, pausing in between for a minute or so. His collar is not tight at all, and I don't even know if that is what is causing it anymore. I'm going to start taking it off before he goes to bed but still.........does anyone have a clue what this is?
And now Smokey.......he is an old dog, 16. He gets aches and pains a lot, and I've seen him kind of hurt himself going up the stairs several times. Well last night he jumped out of a box, and must have landed weird. He hurt his leg, and he wouldn't even set it down. I wanted to take him to the vet last night, but it was late and my parents said to just give him a day. Today he has been putting weight on it, and he can move it and everything ok. I don't think it is broken, but he's limping........I feel so bad for him..... :( :( He acts normally besides the leg, and I can't get him to stay down. He's running and going down the stairs and everything. Also (I know you'll love this topic) he peed a huge puddle in the house yesterday, and it wasn't very yellow...looked more like water. I don't know if that means anything.
Oh, and my little puppy McKinny is gone! *sigh* I was getting so attached to that little pooch! My sister came and got him after I watched him for about 3 weeks. He even came camping with us. I love that little puppy! He was doing a lot better at the potty training too. Still not completely trained, but he had decided that he didn't *like* to go in his crate anymore, and was getting much better at going outside.
