Oldernowiser

It’s obvious some day we will all be reporting to Claudius...

What an intelligent little face he has! Love it.

@Temperance, I’m sorry you’re down right now. It’s a crappy time of year even when bad things aren’t happening...January sucks. Here...have a Griffey?

Okay, thanks for the information. It’s tough to know what happening without being able to see it. I’m starting to wonder about pain, though...maybe a luxating patella or something that only hurts intermittently? She’s a little past the usual age for seizure disorder onset, but I’d get her thoroughly checked out with your vet. That “she’s in her own little world” suggests a possible neurological cause, but that’s pretty unusual. You do a really good job of describing her symptoms, so that will help your vet. I’m not sure where you live but maybe ask your vet for a referral to a veterinary behaviorist for a consult if she checks out physically. Most vets aren’t all that versed in behavioral issues but if you’re near any of the major veterinary universities many of them have behavioral consultants. Some programs will even do phone consultations if it’s too far to travel and hey, Covid. Some anxious dogs do really well on anti-anxiety medications, so that might be an option. A behavioral veterinarian would be able to prescribe that for her or ask your regular vet to prescribe something in the interim to see if it helps. I’m sorry you’re going through this. Puppies and adolescent dogs usually go through fear stages, but your girl sounds like she’s past that age...although depending on her background and how well she was socialized or not, this could be sort of a delayed development thing. She’s a lucky girl to have you looking out for her. I’d start with your vet and soon. Monday will probably be super busy, it always is after holidays, but be persistent. Tell them she’s refusing to go outside and it’s getting rapidly worse. Wishing you both the best...wish I could help more.

@rue721...While you’re catching your breath with all my nosy questions, here are my initial thoughts, assuming it is a behavioral thing (see below)...first of all, I would give her a respite from repeating the activity that scares her. I would keep her close to home or at your parents’ for at least a week, always on leash. You want her to feel secure and that she can always trust you to protect her. If you haven’t done formal training classes with her and there’s a way to do them safely with Covid, I would really recommend it. It will help her build up her confidence and her trust in her relationship with you. Then take a bunch of great treats, drive to the parking lot near that field, give her a great treat, praise her, then leave. Next day, do it again. If she’s happy and relaxed, then let her out of the car, on leash, treat her, then leave. The idea is to do baby steps, always making certain she’s calm and happy. Then ten feet down the path, treat, praise, return, go home. Then twenty feet the next day. You get the picture. I would always keep her on leash unless she’s actively playing with the other dogs. The leash is communication as well as control and honestly, with a hound mix, if they catch the right scent they don’t always come back. I had a wonderful hound mix and fortunately we lived way out in the boonies then, but if that dog caught a scent and someone left the gate open he’d run for hours while I drove around trying to find him. Nose on, brain off, that boy. If this continues, you might want to have her thoroughly checked out by a vet. It’s unlikely, but depending on her age, she could have a pain issue or even a mild seizure. I emphasize that’s pretty unlikely, unless the freezing activity starts happening elsewhere. You’re probably right and she has some kind of trigger. My other dog is a abused rescue and he has a million triggers...guns, fireworks, men in doorways, flashlights, headlights, cans crinkling, water bottles, rolled up newspapers...the list is endless. It’s a challenge. So the trick is to slowly desensitize her to that trigger, if you can, while keeping her in her happy place. If it turns out to be a copperhead, a coyote, or a holiday pyromaniac with fire crackers and an AK 47, well, then, she’s right and who can blame her! But you have to keep her safe, yes? Freeze is often followed by flight in a blind panic, so a leash could save the day. Sorry, too many words. I’ve worked with lots of fearful dogs over the years, both my own and at shelters, so I’m a bit obsessed on the topic!

How old is she? How long have you had her? Does she ever freeze like that or tremble anywhere else? Sorry, more questions...have you taken her to any kind of formal training classes? Is she good on a leash? Do you live in an area where snakes are a problem? Does she limp or seem painful during these episodes? And yet another question...did you hear anything? Fireworks? Gun shots?

My thought is that RFP (or their brand consultant) believes he looks better if his wife has half a brain and isn’t just a sycophantic, girly-voiced, head-tilted, zoned-out baby factory like her mother. So he’s her ghost writer. Or someone is.

Holy shit. Literally.

Cats always know their priorities!

@Mindthinkr, they’re just beautiful!

It’s my firm belief Jinger didn’t write that. RFP did, but he’s trying to up her brand IQ by these “deep conversations.” Jinger has a newborn, a toddler and a narcissistic husband who supposedly goes to school and has something resembling a job there. When does she have time to write essays on religion? She doesn’t. Would RFP let her write them without his rewriting editing them? He wouldn’t. I call bullshit.

I love Shih Tzus. When I was a tech we had the sweetest shih tzu come in who had demodectic mange which had been misdiagnosed and treated with prednisone, so she had a raging secondary bacterial infection on top of it. She came in every Friday for eight weeks for mange treatments, which involved me bathing her, gently removing the scabs, coating her with nasty-smelling medication and then bathing her again. She should have hated it, but she was sooo sweet. Her owner would open the front door, set her down and that little dog would come racing to find me with her whole body wiggling. Oh and we cured the mange! Your Jasper sounds wonderful. I hope you meet again someday.

Yeah, I thought that, too. Griff was my fifth puppy (of nine dogs) and I was pretty darned cocky. Not my first rodeo, people. Hey, I even TAUGHT training classes at our local shelter. I was a vet tech. I knew stuff. Wrong. He was impossible to house train, hated crates with a loud and endless passion, didn’t sleep through the night for three months, and refused to let me out of his sight. Ever. We’d go to our actual training classes and he’d do everything flawlessly because he was a quick study on anything involving food and we’d be the people everyone else hated because perfect puppy. Then we’d get home. And all hell would break loose. So did I learn from this? No. I am currently scheduled to pick up his distantly-related sister puppy next fall, assuming Covid vaccines, breeding and pregnancy go as planned, and that my friend/breeder determines that one of the girls would be a good fit for us. Did I mention I will be going to Maine for this dog? And bringing her all of the way home to the PNW? Why? Because I’m insane, which should not be news to any of you, and because this breeder is incredibly conscientious about screening for health problems in her lines and because she breeds specifically for a calm temperament. Which Griffey actually has. Now. But I LOOOOOVE him. He brings his chew bones over so he can sit in my lap while he chews them. He watches television...he particularly loves Dogs With Jobs and will sit in front of the television until I turn it on and start that show. He starts every morning by asking to get up on the bed and then going over to my husband and collapsing on his chest for a snuggle. And this is why I’m addicted to Goldens. This little girl would be my fourth over the years. Is there a 12-step program for this?

You are too kind...as long as I’m spamming you nice people with my birthday dog, here’s a puppy photo of him. He was the cutest looking and biggest stinker puppy I ever had... I knew I might be in trouble when the breeder chose him for me, saying, hesitantly, “I’m pretty sure you can handle him...” Fortunately, he grew up. It was close a few times.

@lookeyloo, I’d say Happy Birthday but I know it sounds absurd right now. I’m so very, very sorry. One of the hardest things about grieving is that people do it in widely different ways and often at very different times. My husband and I tend to trade off...he’s a mess and I’m okay. Then we switch and it’s a completely unconscious process. I’m probably the wrong person to weigh in, because my pets are my life, but if you want a pet, by God, you get one. Here...I’ll lend you Griffey for a bit. He’s bit shy at first but he gives great face lick...

Okay, forgive me if this has been discussed to death somewhere earlier but we just lost power and I have approximately seven minutes before I lose Internet access. Let me just say that I have gone through the stages of grieving in multiple permutations over this wretched, wretched season. I have been reasonably sanguine and calm, expecting plot carnage and writer stupidity. Fine. I knew what I was getting into. But today as I was tempting fate and running on the treadmill during a storm hoping the power wouldn’t crap out and throw me across the room, I BROKE. And it’s about something so relatively stupid... Episode 20...Logan’s in the hospital. He even SAYS he’s in the hospital. He doesn’t get discharged from the hospital until Episode 21. I checked. SO WHAT THE HELL WITH ALL OF THE STUPID STUFF FROM HIS APARTMENT BEING THERE??? I don’t care how rich you are, nobody’s going to let you put up a large hideous oil painting, let alone a SUIT OF ARMOR, in your hospital room. Not to mention it was the bedding from the apartment, as well. Why do I find this so insanely irritating? Because it’s a giant FUCK* YOU YOU’RE ALL IDIOTS ANYWAY to the viewing audience. The showrunners apparently just figured no one would notice or care, so why should they. Um, because you’re PAID to care? Because this show made you famous? Because people are emotionally invested and that’s what you said you wanted? I have given up the F word for 2021 and this is sorely, sorely, tempting me to not only fall off the wagon, but LEAP SCREAMING from the wagon. But...SCREW YOU, PALLADINOS. SCREW YOU TWICE. AND YOUR MARRIAGE MUST REALLY, REALLY SUCK. That is all. * Oops.

JT, you share a birthday with my Golden retriever, so Griffey says Happy Birthday,too!

It’s my belief that copious amounts of alcohol were involved...

It doesn’t make sense, other than, “I look so pretty...Jinger, post this.”

@Jynnan tonnix, that’s lovely. And you’re an artist??? How cool is that? I’m 62 as well. It’s not so bad...if you don’t count how every morning starts with “so, what new thing hurts today?” I’ve been watching some of Dr. Robert Lustig’s lectures on Youtube about sugar. They’re quite fascinating because for so many years we’ve been hammered about how all calories are the same and if we were all just more self-disciplined and exercised more we’d all look like whippets. Not true. Our bodies metabolize starch, sugar and alcohol by different pathways and it all leads to more visceral fat, according to Lustig‘s research. So you can be thin on the outside and still have a ton of unhealthy visceral fat, while you can be fat on the outside and if it’s only subcutaneous fat, it’s not as likely to make you ill. Fascinating. Especially when you look at the invention of high-fructose corn syrup and how that correlates with the rise of obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, not just in America, but around the world as they have adopted our diet and processed foods. Anyway, the lectures are really interesting if you’re at all a medical science geek like I am. He’s a board-certified endocrinologist who spent much of his clinical career working with diabetic children. ETA: Here’s his most-watched video on Youtube....12 million views! Sugar...the Bitter Truth

I’m grinding my slow, slow way through the completely unhinged disaster that is Season Six...and they still haven’t CLEANED THE DOOR AT LUKE’S. It’s filthy. I swear, every time someone exits all I can see is a thousand filthy black fingerprints. Yes, I have issues. But seriously? It looks like the men’s restroom of a truck stop off the New Jersey Turnpike in 1963...and it’s supposed to be a restaurant? People eat there? My rule has always been if it’s that filthy where you can see it, imagine what it looks like where you can’t. Shudder.

That was a hoax. Also, it only killed sinners.

All the world’s just one big mirror to that shmuck, isn’t it..:

I’m rich!!!!!!! 😁

Wow. NOT a good plan. If he’s awful (and/or figures out she’s using him as a sperm bank with a bank account) there’s an excellent chance he won’t pay support on time or at all. She’ll spend a ton of time and money on lawyers trying to extract it from him. I just hope she’s infertile or his swimmers are defective. Women like that give us all a bad name. Shame on her.