I would talk to the father about rescue and offer to help get the dog into
rescue
TODAY, if possible. Hopefully Lab Rescue would have a nice
foster family that would be more than willing to do the training, love, etc that
you would do if you didn't have Daisy. The only way I'd bring the puppy
into my home is if I had a secure facility where the pup would be safe.
Also, remember, Daisy is still ill. No telling what the pup would bring
in, too--or get from Daisy.
I sure hope this little pup gets to a family while there is still time to
salvage his little brain. As we know, the early weeks and months are most
critical for developing a reliable pup.
Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2000 10:26
AM
Subject: [pyrnet] This and That -
long
Hi Pyr Types!
I haven't been on in awhile so I look forward
catching up with everyone's posts. Since I was last on, I've been busy
with my pyrs who seem not able to stay out of the vet's office! Daisy
went back yesterday for blood work so I checked with the desk nurse to see if
we'd made it a whole month between visits. We had not but she wished us
better luck next time ;-) Back in July Daisy tested positive for whip
worms and was treated. For the first time ever, she actually had normal
stools. That only lasted a week or two and things slowly began to go
down hill and for several days in a row, her stools were bloody. We
retested several times but each time the results were negative. The vet
even retreated her just in case. She's gotten to the point where she has
chronic diarrhea and leaves presents for me in the house every day. Her
blood work yesterday was for a pancreatic condition and overall health
profile. The funny thing is, she's not losing weight, she has a great
appetite and seems to feel fine. She's back on a rice and hamburger diet
with no snacks whatsoever. We've broken down and clipped a lot of the
fluffier bits around her tail for hygiene purposes. Badger had the ear
surgery back in June. His right ear has completely healed up but the left
still tends to have lots of gunk and be soupy. We're back to cleaning it
twice a day. He'd had his head shaved for the surgery and looked pretty
odd ... big fluffy body and tiny little bald head ... so we went ahead and
clipped the rest of him. He actually looks pretty good! He looks
like a white lab with a turkey wattle and froo-froo tail!
On a topic other than health, Daisy is my
dog-aggressive pyr. The other day she very nearly pulled me off my feet
and dragged me down the street after a stray dog that got too close. It
was scary as you-know-what and left me weak in the knees (and really
ticked!) I got two sprained fingers, a pulled back, and a lot of
irritation to an already painful arthritic elbow. That was it! I
went out that same day and got one of those Halti head harness things.
It works!! I felt bad at first because she looked so sad with it on ...
it does rob her of her dignity ;-) but the thing works! I have wanted to
take both dogs to obedience since we got them but it's depended on Bill making
time in his schedule to go with me. I just can't handle Daisy on my own
when she's bent on attacking other dogs.
In other dog (but not pyr) related news ... the
people across the street got a Lab puppy over the summer. As far as we
can tell, the principle residents of the house seem to be a man and his
hell-raising teen daughter with different faces coming and going on a weekly
basis. But anyhow ... when the puppy was really little, no more than a
few weeks, we would see it wandering unattended with no collar in the front
yard, crying and yapping. Then it - she - got more adventurous with age
and started coming across the street. A few times Bill took her back
over and knocked on the door. Sometimes someone would answer but when
they didn't, he just put the puppy in their back yard. The other day my son
and his friend were going out the front door and the puppy was on our porch
(no, we've never fed it!) and the teen girl was across the street on her own
porch with her friends. She yelled across to my son to just "kick" the
puppy out of the way. "Just kick the stupid dog." He then went
into his speech about how she should keep the puppy on a leash and that
someone was going to eventually call animal control or else the puppy would
get hit by a car. Her response was that she didn't care and she hoped it
would get hit. Naturally, when I heard this, all I wanted to do was
scoop up that puppy and bring her to my house! I'm still half tempted to
walk across the street and tell the father that if they're tired of caring for
her, we'll take her in. The biggest problem is if Daisy will treat her
as a new chew toy. I've got my hands full with my own two dogs but I
would be willing to keep the puppy long enough to housebreak her and leash
train her and then look for a good home or contact Lab rescue and foster her
until a permanent home could be found. I suspect the novelty of the
puppy has worn off due to messes in the house, etc. No one is home
during the day to properly train the puppy and believe me, these are not the
sort of people who would do their research and crate train, etc. The
messing in the house would explain why the puppy is kicked outside all of the
time. (True, Daisy poops in the house but it's entirely a medical
condition. When she doesn't have loose bowels, she never has
accidents.) What are everyone's thoughts on this situation? What
would some of you do?
Kim