Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Helping Sampson, the Holistic Response

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When our vet examined Sampson and diagnosed him with a partial ACL tear, she also suggested he see our Holistic vet for a spinal adjustment as his spine was out of alignment.

Dr. Landau is the Holistic vet we use and he is based out of Massachusetts, for a travel fee he will come directly to your home and treat your pet there.  My friend Jo-Anne has her dogs see him every few months and it’s cost effective to split the travel fee.

Our appointment was last Thursday.  I had mixed feelings as it approached, I mean I’ve gone to a chiropractor myself and I know how they manipulate the body around.   I wasn’t sure how a chiropractic adjustment on a dog would work.  Would Sampson tolerate someone manipulating his spine?  What if something went wrong?

Landau - 1

First Dr. Landau examined Sampson.

As you can tell, this didn’t bother Sampson in the least.   After checking Sampson thoroughly, Dr. Landau gently made the required adjustment with minor pressure applied with his hands.   Truthfully, I’m not even sure Sampson was aware of what was going on.  To the casual observer (me) it looked like he was getting a thorough petting.

Then Dr. Landau pulled out the big guns.

Landau - 2

Hey Doc, what’s that contraption?

Landau - 3

 The laser treatment was painless, but the machine beeped every few seconds with one long beep at the 30 second mark.    Which caused Sampson to turn around and look.  After a couple of beeps, he relaxed a bit and finished the treatment with no issue.

Landau - 4 That’s right Mama, keep rubbing my chin, it helps take my mind off the laser.

Once the spinal adjustment and laser treatment was completed we discussed Sampson’s prognosis and suggested treatments.  In general it was all around good news.   The DM diagnosis is (in Dr. Landau’s words) thrown out the window.  He agrees with Dr. Soutter that it is an ACL injury.  He is suggesting joint supplements and Chinese Herbs combined with a once a week cold laser treatment over the next four to six weeks.  He’d also like to see Sampson off the anti-inflammatories and pain medication.  Which is what Dr. Soutter wants as well, and it is something we will be working towards.

I asked about a brace for the leg and told him I’d heard mixed reviews.  Some say it is a good thing while others say it is detrimental to the leg.  Dr. Landau says with the correct brace it can be helpful.  But we are going to try the supplements and cold laser first.

He is very confident we can get Sampson through this without surgery.

He did give me one very important insight though.  He pointed out Sampson’s big barrel chest doesn’t mesh with his smaller back end.  As he stated, “This dog is not made for jumping.”

1-30-14 Notice the narrow waist and smaller hips?  Yup, his front end is much bigger than his back end.

Which makes me glad we bought steps to use for our bed.

Now if we could only get him to use them.

Le sigh.

(Special thanks to my friend from The Dog Park for the awesome title!)

Stairway to Slumber

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Reinforcing good behavior is an important part of dog training, which is why the dogs at Stone Manor are constantly being put through their paces.

They need to sit when Mama’s in the kitchen working, they lay down when we eat dinner.  We practice recalls in the yard and when we’re walking we work on heeling.

Delilah and I take the occasional training class just to keep us on our toes and help keep her mentally sharp.  So when the Train Your Dog Challenge, hosted by Something Wagging This Way Comes, Rescued Insanity and Alfie’s Blog came up, I wondered, just what exactly am I going to train the dogs to do?

Train-Your-Dog-Badge-150x150

 

Some of you may remember that last year, I heeled Delilah with a chick pea.

I know right?  Amazing the things you can do with a highly food motivated dog.

But this year was a bust.  I had no idea what to do.  And then Sampson came down with a partial ACL tear and my vet suggested pet steps for the bed, couch and car.

How hard could it be?  We use stairs every day.  There are stairs into our house.  Stairs down from our deck.  Stairs up into the back yard.

The dogs use stairs in one form or another every single day.

This was going to be cake.

It took a while but I finally found a set of stairs that could hold a dog over 50 pounds and I set them up in front of the bed.

 

Step 1

I called Sampson in and using some treats coaxed him up the stairs and back down.  I did this about three times and each time I did it I said, “Stairs.”

The next time we went into the bedroom I said, “Stairs.”

And Sampson jumped on the bed.

I asked him to get off the bed via the stairs.

He jumped over them.

I’d bring his night time treat in and hold it in front of the stairs and he walks past them and jumps on the bed.

I’ve seen him use the stairs on his own without being coaxed, once.

ONCE!

Dammit, this is my easy dog!!

So once again, we busted out the treats.

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

He does fine when I’m coaxing him with treats, which I will continue to do at least three or four times per day.  My goal is to get him so comfortable he uses the stairs without being coaxed.

Hubby and I have decided that even when Sampson’s restrictions are lifted, we will keep the stairs.  Sampson will be ten this year and Delilah will be nine and odds are at some point the stairs may be permanently needed.

Did you participate in Train Your Dog month?  What were your goals?  Did you succeed or did you struggle like I did?

You Make Me Laugh – February 2, 2014

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You make me smile (or laugh) the silly, funny, loving things my dogs do that put a smile on my face or a laugh on my lips every day.

Delilah, the brazen way you steal food…..

Feb 2 2014  Makes me laugh.

Backstory:  Late yesterday afternoon Hubby and I ran out to do some errands.  We were a little late getting home and I was rushing around getting the dog’s dinner ready and filling their bones for snack.

As is my habit most days I leave the refrigerator and freezer doors open when I’m going to be in there frequently.  While I’m doing this the dogs are usually hanging around the kitchen.  As I put the filled bones into the freezer and shut the door I noted that Delilah was not in her usual spot.  So I went looking for her.

I found her in the living room where she typically goes to eat her snack….snacking.

On a frozen bone she’d carefully and meticulously removed from the freezer.

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