Designer Dog Blog for sands904

by sands904 on 9/5/2009 at 8:23 AM in Lance

Yesterday morning I was playing fetch in the living room with the three dogs like normal. I threw the toy for Lance and he ran into our coffee table. I made a loud thud so I went over to check his mouth. He wasn't bleeding. I checked his teeth. I chipped his upper right canine tooth. It broke off the tip and a little up the side. You could see just a small amount of red which I believe is the pulp.

I called the vet as soon as they opened at 8am. We went in at 2:45 and the vet looked at his tooth. She said we could put a sealant over it which is a temporary fix and will only last 6 months to a year and that would limit the things he can chew on. He is such a playful wonderful boy I hate to limit his activity. Otherwise he needs to have the tooth removed or have a root canal. I hate to remove his canine tooth since he is only a little over a year old. We have an appointment to go to a dental specialist in a little over a week to discuss the options.

I feel terrible...
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by sands904 on 8/15/2009 at 7:54 PM in Training

If any of you have caugth Animal Planet's latest dog training show, I am very sorry! I just finished watching my first (and last) episode of 'In the Dog House' with Brad (the incompetient trainer). He is a horrible a$$ who jerks the dogs around while yelling at both them and their owners.

I am currently studying dog behavior in hopes of becoming a trainer someday and am appalled by this show and his techniques. If anyone is using such techniques on your dogs I urge you to reconsider.

I have a very fearful dog who *used* to bark/lunge at other people and dogs but with positive reinforcement, counter conditioning and desensitization we have made huge progress. Logan is now walking loose leash next to me 90% of the time and very rarely reacts to people and it getting much better with dogs. I have been working with him for about 6 months but during the last two months I have begun reading about dog behavior and it has extremely progressed our training. If I had tried yelling at him and jerking his leash he would be even more scared, fearful and stressed.

I just don't understand. We stopped hitting children with a ruler in school because we thought it was cruel and didn't really help so why do we use similar techniques with our dogs? People learn better with encouragement and positive feedback and so do dogs!
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