I’m thinking of changing my dogs diet as he does poop a lot for a dog his size so it makes me think he’s not getting the nutrient absorption he needs. But it also made me think about if this is affecting his behaviour- his reactivity is fear based and he often seems to be very on edge.
Interested to hear if any diet changes have helped anyone!
I have a very active 18 month old Lhasa apso/yorkie.
He is currently fed cold pressed kibble twice a day (Cobby dog brand - we are in Scotland) and in the evenings this is mixed with beef bone broth powder, pumpkin powder and a very wee bit of chopped up dog pate roll.
He also gets a probiotic mixed in the morning.
He poos like I’ve never seen for a dog his size. 95%of the time they are really good quality poos but they are really big and he goes nearly every time we are outside, sometimes twice (average about 5-6 poos a day). Between this and how active he is (he gets a min of 2 hours of walks a day) I’ve always struggled to maintain his weight. He’s a very tall boy for both breeds and vet likes him at around 10kg which took a bit to get him to but it finally happened.
He gets a lot of treats because he’s a naughty wee toad and we do a lot of training and he’s also spoiled by a friend who has him 1 day a week (this is where the other 5% of not so good poos comes in - when he’s had far too many treats or whatever she’s fed him that day which is generally good quality raw food that her dog gets).
He’s moving from UK to Australia in 3 months. I like the idea that he’s on cold pressed kibble as the flies and bugs in Australia are gross with meat around (not that there is ever anything left when my boy is served - he licks the bowls clean every time).
I just think with his excessive pooping and how he never ever puts on weight no matter how much I think I’m feeding him, could there be a better option? Or do some dogs just poo a lot?
I’m really shocked right now. I have a small dog (Lhasa apso/yorkie) who has been reactive to much larger dogs in the past - mostly when hes on lead but he’s doing better with this and for the most part I know his triggers.
We were just at a small fenced in park with his friend and they were running around. A man with an Italian greyhound arrived (bigger than my dog but my dog is more solid as iggys are quite fine boned). I called my dog over but the iggy ran past to initiate play and my dog followed playfully and they commenced with a game of chase happily.
My dog then went and did a poo so I was picking it up and he ran off in the direction of the Iggy I assumed to resume play. I wasn’t looking but I heard one single bark from my dog but nothing concerning (it was his bark he makes when he is playing. He does play very rough for a small dog but by this I mean he tackles and body slams dogs and generally they either play rough back or back off if they don’t like that style of play).
I finished picking up the poo and saw the dogs were now not playing, my dog was standing still away from the Iggy and the Iggy was cowering at its owners feet. The owner then knelt down and I could see he was really inspecting his dogs leg.
I was confused so walked up to them and said “did something just happen?” And the owner said “yeah I think your dog bit my dog”. The Iggy was missing fur on his leg and had 2 bleeding marks and was crying and cowering.
Now this is the weird thing: my dog was now standing beside me and was completely calm and ignoring the Iggy. I’ve seen my dog worked up and reacting to another dog and he is NOT standing and ignoring - he is huffing and puffing and growling and barking and lunging and snapping. Not standing there and looking over at birds on the grass.
I said did you see this happen? And the owner said no I wasn’t looking at them, I thought they were playing again and I heard your dog bark and then my dog ran to me and I saw it was bleeding.
I apologised profusely and gave the guy my number and said if he takes his dog to the vet to contact me and im happy to pay. He kept saying it was ok but I think he was shocked and being polite. He picked up his dog and carried it home and I took my dog (and his friend - who by the way was off sniffing in the grass and having nothing to do with either of them so she didn’t do this) home.
I just don’t understand. Do I think my dog could have bitten this dog? Well he has never ever bitten before but he can be reactive so I can’t rule it out. But his completely calm behaviour (the absence of the uncontrolled barking, lunging and growling that he usually gets like when he’s reacting) completely throws me. I would think if a dog had bitten a dog enough to draw blood it’d not going to just stand calmly beside it seconds later ignoring it.
So I don’t know, maybe it was a bite or was it a rough tackle and there was something on the grass field that injured the dog?
I don’t know if I can trust my dog now. I always said if he ever bit then that’s it I’d lose all trust and muzzle him but as i say, up until now it’s been lunging, growling and snapping at a few other dogs and that is an instant dislike reaction - he’s never turned on a dog he’s been playing with and getting along with prior.
What would you do?
I have a Lhasa x Yorkshire terrier. I would say he is more terrier in personality than Lhasa unfortunately as Lhasa’s are a lot more chill!
I’ve had issues with his reactivity - to bigger dogs and when he’s on leash but we have worked well with this and he’s doing great with patience and slow intros.
I’ve never really considered him to have high pray drive before - he will chase squirrels and cats etc but he’s not obsessed with them like I’ve seen other dogs be and for the most part he’s great off lead and interacts or ignores other dogs and has good recall.
However occasionally he will fixate on another dog for absolutely no reason (today it was a smaller poodle). When this happens he gets down low, licks his lips, fixates and stalks towards them and is completely oblivious to anything I say. Then he explodes and charges towards them and snaps and barks. I always thought this was reactivity and trained for this but is this more of a prey drive thing?
I’m moving him from Scotland to Australia in a few months and although I’d be careful with the wild life and he wouldn’t be left unsupervised outside, I wonder if there is any specific training I should be doing for prey drive?
I own a small dog who is half terrier - he’s reactive but also feisty and will take on anything even if he’s scared of it which is frustrating. Being small his reactivity is aimed at larger dogs and we’ve had problems with on leave reactivity but with a lot of work he’s doing well and I know his triggers. Off lead he’s grand and if there is a small group of dogs his size he will happily play with them.
Until this week.
We’ve started coming across a small black poodle (smaller than him) and I have no idea why but my dog hates this poodle and gets so wound up when he sees it. Until today I’ve only ever seen it when my dog was on the lead but we were at the park before and he was playing with a group of small dogs off lead and I didn’t see the black poodle turn up. My dog immediately went for it. (Not biting but he’s aggressive in his chasing and snapping).
I apologised profusely and tried explaining this is completely new and I don’t know why my dog hates her dog. Obviously she took her dog away in a hurry as I would have liked to understand more - ie is her dog maybe not neutered? Maybe that’s triggering my neutered boy. I don’t know but it’s just bloody frustrating that you think you are on top of your dogs triggers and along comes another.
I work for a small consultancy with no HR team. I’m a junior in the team and typically in my company only seniors are eligible to be put on the bonus scheme however last year after my performance review I was put on the scheme (to make up the for the fact the salary increase was pathetic).
At the time I did raise concerns of being put on the scheme as under the eligibility criteria you had to have billable utilisation rate of 85%. As I’m a junior, I do not have any full time billable work like the seniors and I’m at the mercy of being allocated billable work by my managers - I can’t allocate this work myself. They assured me they would ensure I had enough billable work. They also assured me multiple times they were changing the eligibility criteria to lower the utilisation rate but so far the stingy CEO has dragged his heels about signing off on this so it’s not officially in place.
Lo and behold they haven’t assigned me enough billable work despite me asking and explaining my frustration to my boss because I knew it would affect my bonus eligibility. My current utilisation rate is only sitting at 72% and the CEO still has not signed off on the new eligibility criteria 6 months on.
I’m pissed off. I’ve raised this multiple times and worked hard to achieve all the criteria except for the billable rate which I have zero control over.
I know bonuses are discretionary but I do feel my employer has actively voided my bonus eligibility - is there anything I can do?
I have a Lhasa apso who started getting reactive (lunging and barking) to other dogs when he hit the terrible adolescent stage - especially on lead I’ve worked with trainers and vet behaviourists a lot in the last 9 months and he has come so far! We even get comments from people around the neighbourhood about the great work I’ve done with him and how far he’s come. His reactivity has pretty much always been on lead so I do let him off as we have no problems when he’s free and able to do his own thing.
This morning we were walking with our friend and a lady entered the small park. This lady is honestly a misery guts and has I think an unfriendly beagle. We always try and say hello and she just scowls at us so both lady and dog are unfriendly I guess but it’s fine my dog usually ignores hers and we do our own thing before she briskly rushes off.
This morning my dog was off lead and they came around the corner very close to my dog and must have surprised him. For some reason she stopped and her dog growled at mine and that tipped my dog right over the edge - he was barking and charging around her dog and carrying on (my dog doesn’t bite - just lunging and barking). Usually my dog would just ignore a dog who didn’t want to engage in play but something about this dog he hates (probably the bad vibes from its miserable owner).
Of course I ran right over and tried to catch my dog but he has lost all control and kept zipping around so I couldn’t catch him instantly. As soon as I got him I put him on leash and apologised profusely to this lady and of course I got the absolute dirtiest look from her (valid).
I’m just so embarrassed. I really thought we were past this! Yes it’s all my fault but we have worked our ass off and I thought I could trust my dog off lead. It just really sucks going back 10 steps :(
This is just a vent and an “I fucked up” post. Feel free to commiserate (or kick me while I’m down as it’s reddit after all).