A Domino Update
Posted in The Dog by CujoAugust 31st, 2005 - 4:31 PM
It’s been awhile since I’ve said anything regarding the little guy so I decided I would now since it’s been awhile since I’ve said anything in general.
Dom is doing great. He’s getting more energetic every day and I think he’s pretty close to being house trained. He knows for the most part to go to the door when he wants to go outside except all he really does is walk to the door and sit there, it’s up to us to notice he’s there which sometimes doesn’t occur so we have little accidents in the kitchen.
He is now sleeping through the majority of the night with wakeups usually occuring around 2 or 3 AM and then again at 6 or 7 AM. He’s not really sleeping in the crate anymore either as he has adopted a blanket that we used for on the couch and he prefers it over most other sleeping areas in the house - besides behind the recliner.
I don’t think a day goes by where I’m not laughing at him. Just the other day he jumped up onto the dishwasher door while it was being emptied. I don’t mean just two paws up, I mean he was actually in the dishwasher. Just yesterday as well I heard him barking non-stop outside so I went to see what it was and he was barking at his own poop. Not the brightest of dogs yet but I prefer him barking at in then eating it which he seems to like to do often as well. The worst part being when you go to actually clean the poop up he attacks you and starts biting your pant leg (if you’re lucky enough to be wearing pants) protecting his poop.
He’s getting his 2nd puppy shots this Friday which is great as that means he’ll be vacinated against Parvo and we’ll finally be able to try to bring him around for walks and also out camping.
If you have any “puppy advice” regarding poop eating and non-stop eating of everything let me know. He has a million toys but still prefers to chew on couches, stairs, etc.
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August 31st, 2005 at 6:00 pm
Haha. This brings back memories, Cujo. We have a basset, now 10 years old. We brought him home when he was eight months old. He was already house trained, and always eager to please. Like Domino, our pup preferred furniture to chewie sticks. We used to have a big wooden frame set we used for the basement family room. We wouldn’t notice he had crawled behind until we heard knawing sounds. We tried different sizes of chewie sticks until we found one he preferred, but there was no hope for the furniture…now long gone.
Another fun bit was in leaving him home alone — couldn’t do it. If we left him outside, his big barrel-chested belling would sound for blocks around. There are sound bylaws to consider. If we left him inside the house, with all doors and windows shut tight, he would be only slightly muted. Forget about leaving him in a hotel room while you dash around the corner to the drink machine!
All I can tell you is that he grew out of these things. We love our basset. He has the best personality. He’s gentle, fun, and (now) low maintenance. When Domino grows out of puppy food I can give you a recipe for baked low fat dog kibble we’ve used since our dog was three (vet approved). He is still healthy — no problems at all (the dog — not the vet).
Oh — one thing he won’t grow out of is his love of wandering. He will follow his nose forever if he gets out. By the same token, when he is ready he will be able to follow his nose home. Bassets have the second best nose of all breeds (first best is bloodhounds).
I enjoy the pics, and the stories about Domino.
August 31st, 2005 at 7:29 pm
Your dog is almost as cute as my little guy, Milhouse. He’s a Jack Russell Terrier. Talk about hard to train…it was like having three sets of two year old twins running around at all times. He is just over three years old now and has actually mellowed quite a bit.
He also liked to eat everything….except poop, thank God. What ever you do, DO NOT try using that stupid bitter spray stuff to stop him from eating furniture. It will only make you choke, make your furniture stink and it made Milhouse chew the furniture MORE…then again, he’s not quite right in the head.
The only thing I can tell you is try to reward him with a cookie when he chews the chew toy and only scold him when you actually CATCH him chewing the furniture. If you scold after the fact, he just thinks you’ve lost your mind and he’s being punished for nothing.
Try getting him a “Kong”…they come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, are virtually indestructable and you can stuff them with peanut butter and other goodies…it keeps them occupied for long periods of time…dogs tend to chew when they’re bored….and like a baby, when they’re teething. Has he lost any teeth yet?
If all else fails, confine him to one room of the house when you are not home. Gradually start letting him have the run of the house starting with just a few minutes alone. he will eventually get the idea…or grow out of the chewing phase…either way, it should not last forever…
On a completely different note, I will add the Big Suit link to my blog until Friday Sept. 2 in order to give you a chance to investigate, ya computer geek, you…after that I will remove it again…I don’t want to offend anyone… see what you come up with…
Good luck with the pup!
September 1st, 2005 at 10:50 am
Oh, he is quite adorable *envies*. I second the peanut butter/cheese filled Kongs. Rope toys are good, too, pretty durable.
How many collars does he have? I see a red one and a blue one.
September 1st, 2005 at 11:02 am
WOW. Thanks for the lengthy responses everyone. Where to start.
Slackhopper, awesome name with Milhouse, Domino’s initial name was Otto but after we saw him and the breeder’s were calling him Domino it just stuck. We plan on getting a pug in the future and his original name was going to be King Homer but now it’s more than likely Meatball. I also had the idea (before Dom came around) to get a fawn pug and black pug and call them Lenny and Karl.
Bitter Apple Spray: We’ve used it a bit. But yeah the initial smell was horrible. We sprayed his back legs and he stayed away a bit but was right there again at them. I sprayed the bottom stairs and he hasn’t attacked them yet again. I’m thinking possibly the bottom of the couch.
I see him eating the furniture all the time because if he’s not attacking my arms/hands he’s biting the couch I’m on as if he’s pissed off at me. Silly pup.
Jes just bought him a Kong a couple of days ago and he chews it here and there but we haven’t tried peanut butter inside it yet. Maybe today I’ll do that. He’s a nut case without peanut butter I can only imaging him with it.
As far as other toys go he has 2 tug of rope toys, a stuffed toy with rope arms and legs, a bone, a big stuffed toy thing and some other things as well I think but he still likes human flesh and poop.
And to close, as far as the number of collars. He has 1 red collar which is his “real collar” and the blue you see is half of his flea collar as he had fleas when we got him :(. I think they are gone now as we’ve given him 2 flea baths but he still bites his bum area and cries.
September 2nd, 2005 at 6:22 pm
Hey everyone here’s an update.
We brought Dom for his 2nd shots today but the doctor apparently had to leave town and they didn’t have our phone number to call us and cancel the appointment. So we spent 20 minutes on the bridge with a howling dog for nothing. The lady checked Dom over though, and used a flea comb on him to show us that he’s overrun with flea eggs and feces. It was disgusting. She gave him some pill to kill 96% of the fleas in 4 hours and also a free Frontline application so we put that on him at home and cleaned the house from top to bottom. Hopefully now once the flea eggs lift off of him and we bathe him in 2 days he will be flea and bite-free.
And we’ll try the Peanut Butter / Kong thing soon. We also have to give him a Heartworm pill thing….what a busy weekend!
Shot is on Tuesday - then we can take him outside!!!!
Thanks for the posts guys