u/Emotional-Raccoon-67

Our boy Prince struggles with general anxiety, dog reactivity (fear), and separation anxiety. Recently we've been doing more structured exercise and it has helped some, however his overarousal issues with training have gotten worse (he gets, like, practically desperate for the treats and won't slow down and think. Yes he gets fed plenty, twice daily actually, and we train separately, not using meals), as has his separation anxiety.

He has started fully ignoring the things that we leave to occupy him while we're gone. Frozen treats, slow feeder full of frozen stuff, etc, completely ignored. He will scratch the hell out of the floor in front of the door.

Overarousal has also been a major issue with training for... anything. Some things make it better, working on place work and stay has been easier recently, but sometimes he just cannot focus.

I've started to realize he's showing some signs of pain that I have overlooked. I feel awful about it now of course, but they're things that I genuinely didn't think were connected until I noticed all the things together made a lot of sense for physical pain, mostly because I started doing things to assess for pain signals (fingers along the spine, etc). He twitches along his spine, will roll back on his heels with his back foot if I try to position his legs correctly, sometimes gets really worked up during play and will start jumping and nipping (hard), has started blowing off his recall and ignoring my attempts to initiate play, which is not normal. He also fought me over nail clipping last week which has never been normal for him. Theres several other things but I don't feel like listing all of it.

I think its spinal, vet thinks it osteoarthritis (phone call, not physical exam, but I listed all the observations). She also doesn't think its connected to the sep anx and I do. We ordered a genetic test for Degenerative Myelopethy.

As of right now, he's being put on 150 mg of carprofen, twice daily, 300 mg of gabapentin, twice daily, and 30 mg of fluoxetine (prozac), once daily.

I guess I didn't really want anything out of this other than to just... vent. Maybe hear about some other people's experiences with any of these meds. Maybe get some more advice or solace because right now I just feel bad thinking that he may have been in a lot of pain this whole time and I just didn't know.

We have 3 pups and want to attempt transitioning to a raw diet or homemade cooked diet eventually. The plan is to start a homestead and raise enough meat to feed us AND the pups so we can stop buying dog food. I plan on working through a nutritionist and figuring out everything they need before making a full switch of course, plus we don't have the homestead yet.

I want to start integrating some raw components to their diets, mostly just ground meats and maybe some bigger stuff for our golden retriever, but the yorkies won't get anything bigger than small fish/etc.

I am going to start with fish and rabbit to see how they respond to both proteins. I know fish and lean meats are considered safer in terms of possibility of contamination and thats my biggest concern here. The food they are on now has fish as the main protein which is why we're trying fish as well, they've always liked fish.

Here's my questions/concerns:

- how much should I be feeding them in addition to their kibble? It is a good quality kibble. Should the amount be based on body weight or the amount of food they already get?

- what are the concerns with contamination? I've been very hesitant to try anything raw because I'm worried about them getting sick, I would never forgive myself 😅 would this be a bigger concern with the yorkies than with the golden? He has a bit of an iron stomach but I worry the yorkies would be a bit more sensitive to stuff.

- where can I get ground meats/whole fish/etc in the Central US area? I have looked at My Pet Carnivore because that's the only one I can find that does single proteins and whole prey items. I would be willing to go to a butcher, but I don't think I could get the same variety, for one, and for two, I have very few nearby and gas is expensive so I don't know I would be able/willing to travel for it a couple times a month on top of everything else I do.

- will trialing them on a partial raw diet be a good indicator of how they may respond to an entirely raw diet once we're able to switch fully? Thats the whole point but if it won't be a good indicator then I'm not sure if I want to go through with it yet. I'm very iffy about knowing where all of our food comes from, including theirs, which is why we plan on raising it ourselves eventually.

Hi everyone, looking for some advice with my anxious ~7 y/o golden retriever. Here's a little background on him:

Rescued a year and a half ago

Separation anxiety (abandonment case)

General anxiety, medication (150 mg traz/twice daily)

Does not respond well to positive punishment/aversives

Recently been working on a lot more fitness and body conditioning so his energy levels and weight have been fluctuating a lot (managing weight in a senior while also trying to do more fitness work is more complicated than I expected)

Prince does not know very much of anything because teaching him is exhausting and frustrating. He does not like toys and praise/affection causes further overstimulation. He is, however, very food motivated, but on an extreme level. He gets fed meals twice daily at the same time and then we use other treats/kibble for training. He gets FRANTIC over food and basically refuses to process what I'm trying to teach him/reinforce and will only focus on the food. Yes, I have tried rewarding for eye contact/engagement. It genuinely seems to work backwards (look at me, treat, look at me, treat, eventually he will just start looking only for treats and refuse to even look at me even though that's what I'm rewarding for??). At this point I have almost quit trying to work on a lot of obedience type stuff and just focus on practical stuff (recall, sit, down, working on stay) but I want to do more with him so he's using his brain more plus working on having him settle more. We have tried place work. We have been working on stay as I mentioned but even in a "stay" cue he is still purely focused on the food so he's not actually settling. Rewarding him for settling is followed by him getting worked up and shoving himself in my space to get more, and it genuinely does not seem like he's understanding the connection between settling = reward, he just wants the reward. The other day, just for a fun challenge for both of us and because it seemed simple, I wanted to try weaving. He literally wouldn't even follow the lure (something he has done before for "middle") and reacted by crawling in front of/behind me and running around me just trying to get the food in my hand.

I've consulted a few people about this (other trainers plus a friend of mine who's a behaviorist) and as of right now our plan is to attempt a few pattern games to see if repeating the same thing over and over will help him relax some for training, plus we will be doing some more place work with a tether to help add distance (Tether outside because I live in a camper and don't have room inside to practice, start close and reward for settling on the mat, gradually building distance with him on the mat). Another thing I have been recommended is to just stop using verbal markers if it gets him too worked up to focus.

If ANYBODY has any other advice or things they would consider trying (that don't include positive punishment/aversives. I'm not purely against them he just doesn't respond well to them at all) that would be GREATLY appreciated. I love him to death but he's frankly exhausting sometimes lol.

Hi everyone!

I'm brand new to the dog sports world and a bit autistic so I have a hard time understanding rules for sports and stuff without having a very clear example of exactly how it's supposed to go lol. I have read over rulebook and watched some videos to help but I still have a few questions about, well, a lot of it. I have 3 dogs, each potentially doing different events, so I will split this into sections for each of them.

Sherlock (~1 y/o yorkie):

- Fast CAT - we were planning on trying Sherlock in a fun run for Fast CAT at a show last weekend, but we arrived too late and they were no longer accepting fun run entries or day of entries. We wanted to try a fun run because we are attending another show at the end of next month and he will be old enough by then to earn a title. Would it be better to do a fun run the first day we're there to introduce him to it, and then if he enjoys it, try for a title the next day? Should we find somewhere to do a fun run sooner?

- Dock - Sherlock has not taken dock classes yet but we're working on swimming and water confidence at home for now. The training facility does not have their dock open for the season. Would paying for a practice jump during the show be a good or bad idea? He will have to have a life jacket on, so I know he wouldn't be able to actually compete of course, but I would like to see how he handles it. Would it be better to just wait until after classes? I don't think we have any shows over the rest of the summer that are nearby so I'm trying to get all my stuff together for this one.

- Barn Hunt - we want to try an instinct test with Sherlock for barn hunt. He has not taken classes for this either, just want to see if he'd take any interest in it. I know barn hunt is rule heavy, so I printed out and reviewed the rulebook for it last night. My 2 major concerns are: he is potty trained but we occasionally have issues with him marking still (terriers 🙄) I would be mortified if he did this in the ring but I know they don't allow belly bands or antthing of the sort and I won't be able to keep him on a leash of course. Second is that he has very high prey drive which we love, but I'm terrified he's going to grab one of the tubes and manage to hurt the rat. He's tiny and so is his mouth, so I'm probably overthinking it, but I would love some feedback on that subject lol.

Sophie (9 y/o yorkie)

- Fast CAT - Sophie will not be fully competing but we want to try a fun run with her because of her prey drive as we feel she would enjoy it. However, she is rather fearful/reactive towards strangers, but only in close proximity. We are staying at a hotel, so if we do run her and Prince, we will pick her up, run, and then they will go back, so thats not a concern. I just want to make sure that her issues with strangers will not prevent her from running (obviously if she just doesn't want to that's fine. We just think she'd like it and are willing to try)

Prince (~7 y/o golden)

- Prince is dog reactive. We don't know why, he's a rescue. I know that muzzles are permitted for Fast CAT, so he will have one on (basket muzzle from muzzle movement). I'm mostly just trying to see of other people have experienced running with their dog-reactive pup and if it caused an issue. As long as he is not approached by another dog he is fine, and i know most people will have their dogs put away, I'm really just looking for some reassurance and maybe personal experiences with this sort of thing.

If anyone else has some other advice for a newbie, feel free to leave it in the comments! I appreciate all of it! Thanks everyone!