She vexed me today. We came home to find the dog was doing a little interior rearrangement of her own. A vase of roses toppled, the water spilled on the floor and laid stagnant about and under the TV console. That must have surprised and made her nervous. As I scolded and cleaned, I could find traces of saliva dripped in various corners of the living room and corridor.
“Bad girl. Bad. Bad.” went my almost monotone voice. I don’t scream at her but the human still needed to let out some frustration. And since I was cleaning anyway, my frustration went ahead to wipe the white TV console more thoroughly than normal and of course the floor behind and under it. “Bad. Bad.”
I was at the doctor this morning and tired. So I left her alone after I cleaned up to get my own rest. Perhaps an hour later, I heard strange noises that I thought could be her woofing a little in her sleep. Came out of the room to find her in the toilet puking on the newspapers and pee pad.
The two thoughts – worry and “thank god this dog is smart enough to go do it in the toilet” – occurred simultaneously.
“Good. Good girl!” I petted her gently and clapped, half hoping to lighten the mood so she doesn’t feel so awful and half hoping the praise will cement in her brain that ALL future episodes of puking should happen here. “Good job. Good girl.”
That was before I saw the two more puddles of vomit on her bed and another before her bed. She probably did not have the time to head for the toilet so she threw up all her breakfast, and guess what, bits of dried flowers and rose leaf there. I had mistaken her food tasting and self-intoxication session for interior redesign. = =!!!
She was to vomit 8 times in total. The last time, she set on the pee pad and she struggled a bit, her muzzle pinched looking before she threw up mostly white phlegm-looking liquid. Then it was almost as if she was exhausted, she shook off my petting hand and walked away from me to settled down on her own on the floor.
Her bed, grossly soaked and packed with soggy kibble, canned food, barley and the incriminating dried floral arrangement, was packed and dumped in the garbage. So now my sick dog is one bed short. THIS is the reason my friends why a dog should have at least TWO cheap beds and not one ridiculously over-priced bed from the pet shop. I feel so affirmed. Haha! :P
It started to thunder and rain. So today, for the comfort and ease of my poor sick dog, the forbidden study is not forbidden. (I hold my breath that she does not puke again in the study!)
The scenario is pretty similar to the last time she tried to intoxicate herself with a hydrangea leaf, except that that was one quarter of an extremely toxic leaf. So now on top of instituting the forbidden balcony, Mr P will have to consider more carefully when he buys flowers for his wife in future.
But no, that is not why she is behind bars in this picture. Haha :P
LIFE… as it happened.
Theoretically, Donna should be a forbidden subject since mongrels are not HDB-approved by default. You could seek approval but it is subject to approval on a case-by-case basis. And in the case where the dog is not approved, you need to rehome the dog. – –
On the micro-level, our household operates with similar methodology. Donna knows what’s forbidden about the house – the sofa, the kitchen, the rooms – unless we explicitly lets her on or in them. Barricades, like the child gate we’ve installed, are so effective in communicating boundaries.
I like to think our household governance is more compassionate than…. bureaucracy. Most people would have that preference.
Humans are not so easily deterred by rules and regulations. Our eyes seek out the holes and the cracks that sneaks us a peek into what lies behind the barricade. Sure we read the sign-posted “No Entry” disclaimers. But even before the developer was ready to hand over the keys, some more enterprising future neighbours of ours had already sneaked into the development to take pictures and videos of the corridors and the unlocked units.
The Sign Says… doesn’t mean people and dogs will follow.
Interesting isn’t it, how things forbidden present the most desirable adventures to humans and dogs alike.
That’s the answer to why that dog was behind bars in the forbidden kitchen in the first picture. She sneaked in, but unlike our human neighbours, she couldn’t sneak out again. :P
Reference
– when to take a vomiting dog to a vet
– ASPCA dog care – vomiting
Julianne Victoria
Oh silly Donna, I hope you remember to not eat flowers now! Wooooowoooo! Ku
pjdonna
I hope so too! But I fear she would not learn her lesson :P
Sonel
Shame. I do hope Donna is feeling all better by now and hopefully she will not eat any strange plants or flowers again. Most of the plants or bushes in gardens are toxic to them and all the saliva must have been because of the upset tummy. Poor little thing. I do feel for her. The only boundaries we have for Simba is at the back by the pool because he loves to jump of on the other side of the pool where the steps are high and then he hurts himself. He is only allowed at the back when I am there. The rest of the house and yard is his domain and of course everything “belongs” to him..lol… and luckily I’ve never had a problem with him eating anything. Guess he felt he didn’t need it. Please give Donna big hug from me and Simba. :)
pjdonna
She is. That dog bounces back really fast and was looking forward to dinner, which was not going to happen considering the tummy upset. I hope it starts clicking in her mind that every time she eats something strange, she vomits and she gets no dinner.. One can hope :P On the bright side for her, instead of her usual mix of dry kibble and canned food, she now gets a bland portion of boiled chicken and barley. She of course does prefer the live food versus the dead processed food. So good for her. You guys have something special with Simba. Fourteen years of rapport is hard to beat. Hopefully Donna will get older and wiser about food like Simba too, hahaha! have a great day :)
Sonel
I am very glad to hear that and I do hope so too. Yes, bland boiled chicken and barley is really yucky..hehehe. I would prefer the live food as well.
Yes indeed, he is a really special furry kid and we’re blessed to have him. :D
Have a great day too! *hugs*
pjdonna
: )
Catanea
Does she have enough opportunities to eat grass?
pjdonna
She does have such opportunities on her daily walks and loo breaks but we actively discourage her from doing that actually. Ours is a high dengue risk area, which means fogging occurs pretty frequently in our precinct, so we would rather be safe than sorry when it comes to unknown grass outside that may carry toxins. That said, she does get access to munch on dog-friendly plant food – carrots, barley and the odd asparagus – which we offer to her as an alternative to grass. We live in a flat, so no yard or lawn, but our friend has recently had some success with cat grass on her balcony for her cat so that may be something we could possibly consider. I’m still in two minds as I worry we may send confusing mixed signals to her, since we stop her from eating grass outside.
And since we are on the topic, I’m reposting a link to an old post on “why dogs in eat grass” here – http://weliveinaflat.wordpress.com/2013/05/05/my-crazy-dog-likes-to-eat-grass/ – I have found the video pretty helpful in understanding the possible reasons why dogs eat grass and also its relationship with vomiting. In case anyone is interested :P
dorisdolina
Poor dog…I hope she is okey now.
http://dorisdolina.wordpress.com
pjdonna
Yes she is. Thank you very much :)
Catanea
My two podengos eat lots of grass. The wildest, most-recently-adopted one must stop by any grass source and much for five minutes or more a day (a little dull for the dogwalker). She especially seems to like oats (grain is grown around here – there are always barley, wheat, and oat “escapes”. We have flower pots on the terrace in which the “flowers” have been unsuccessful, but the weeds are fine and grains sprout there, and it is clear that the dogs who spend a lot of time on the terrace are munching them. I am glad, because at certain times it is unclear which areas of uncultivated land have been sprayed with herbicide. All three of the dogs seem to need some grass, though.
pjdonna
Hi Catanea, I have no idea what kind of dog a podengo is, so I googled. Cute. :D
Thankfully, Donna is more of an occasional, let’s pick a blade here and there browser. I can totally understand how dull it would be to have to stand while the dog samples the outdoor greens. Donna spends enough time in the same spot just sniffing while I wilt in the sun :/ It may be a good idea to have some grass available to her at home. Thank you for taking the time to share with me the different grasses you have tried. :) We probably need more time to research and consider what works in our climate and how it can fit in our home set up. ;) Learning more everyday. *Hugs*
rubytheblacklabrador
Have to chip in here and say that despite her awful eating habits, Ruby has vomited only a handful of times in three years. She truely has a cast iron stomach. The main problem for dogs in Sydney is the paralysis tick – awful thing which kills dogs really quickly and you only know they’re sick when they start to keel over and their back legs stop working. Then you have to get to a vet vv quickly. In the summer and esp when it’s humid we check Ruby each day for ticks after her walk and also treat her each month. Fingers crossed all good so far.
pjdonna
You know what, while I was writing this post. I did think about Ruby and her cast iron stomach! *envious* I don’t think Donna’s tummy is weak. The shelter added a variety of different “extra” ingredients – chicken feet, salmon, ikan bilis, etc etc – to her kibble, canned food and rice mixture before we decided to adopt. So it’s not like she was eating only 1 type of food all her life. And for her meals, we continue to try to provide some variety because shelter food has made her snooty. :P Muahahaha! (But yes, I am more paranoid so I make her leave it when she picks up meat skewers and chicken bones off the street.)
It’s just this little girl sometimes gets a little too bored alone at home and decides to sample things she has previously left alone for weeks and even months! But yes, self-poisoning twice in the short span of 5 months with is not a good record :( *contemplates playing subliminal messages to Donna in her sleep…*
This paralysis tick sounds bad. The vet did say we have a lot of ticks over here (not sure what kind) so she sold us Frontline Plus to be used on a monthly basis. Perhaps it’s sheer dumb luck that we have not encountered a tick, because we did not use the Frontline Plus that regularly at first :P We did administer it in the last two months though. Heh~ We wipe her down every time we come home from outside, should probably run our fingers about her body more thoroughly too like you guys.
Which reminds me I totally forgot to give her Heartgaurd at the start of this month since I fell sick! I worry about that more because our hot wet weather is very friendly to mosquitoes.
Fingers crossed for all of us.
artinstructor
We cleaned our home of any toxic material [plants mostly] when we had a cat. Our bird also was a worry. The only one in our home to suffer from plants is me – I have sensitivity issues like rashes. My Chihuahua, Dali, loves to steal the Hibiscus leaves when they fall. When we go out she has a gate system we set up and inside is her kennel/carrier. Because it isn’t in the living room, she doesn’t feel as if she has to protect the whole place and just rests until we come home. Your set-up looks good. Always something new with a pet. It can be a challenge keeping them stimulated and fulfilled. They know how to be happy.
pjdonna
We are still considering eventually baby-gating up the corridor and leaving her there (e.g. when I finally get employed and we have to consistently leave her at home for long hours on a daily basis.) But I wasn’t sure if that can potentially give her separation anxiety issues, since we had already given her free reign of the corridor and living room all along. Would it just make her more pent up and prone to mischief? That’s my worry too. And we do largely trust her. She has free reign of the corridor and living room at night when we are asleep and we have not woken up to any mess of the items there even when it thunderstorms at night. If it happens, it always happens when we are out of the house.
But if we want to truly feel secure in knowing we have done everything to keep her safe, then gating her in that corridor space will be the safest for her since her bed is there and she has access to her toilet and enough space to move around and play without access to non-playthings. Just that it’s a very boring enclosed space. I think there will always be a worry for the living room just because there are more things to be curious about and rearrange and sample there while we are gone and she is active and bored. But it’s good to know that Dali is happy to rest in her gated area with her kennel/carrier until you get home. I’m thinking we should perhaps start with the crate training and slowly get her to be used to being in the corridor for longer periods of time in the day. She is already napping there in the afternoons anyway.
And yes, it is a challenge to keep them stimulated and fulfilled, we have lots of toys for her and we rotate them, etc so that they will still seem new and exciting. And still she mostly ignores them in favour of lying around or checking out non-playthings when she gets extremely bored.
Thank you for taking the time to share what you guys did in your house and how it worked for you. I really appreciate learning from your experiences. Also looking forward to keeping up with you blog. :)
artinstructor
I know about the trouble of taking away privileges. I think that when alone they are happier in their ‘den’. I have had pets that had free rein – lots of potential trouble if you are away for long hours. I think long term it is better that they aren’t in charge of the whole house – to protect.
Since I made the choice to get a dog. I have had to restrict my times away so my dog isn’t lonely. She seems to be Ok with it but I feel badly. Naturally as soon as I got my dog – job opportunities appeared. I had to think about her and arrange evenings or 1/2 days or the best is when I can take her to work. Ask if you can bring a pet to work – more opportunities are opening there and unfortunately those with allergies are closing doors on dogs.
With a cat, or cats, they adjust better to this away time – as I feel cats are more creative. But they still require one on one + stimulation.
pjdonna
Great to know that taking privileges have worked out for you in the longer term. That is something we are certainly keen to try and just work out the kinks along the way so that both the dog and us can figure out the best arrangement possible :) I’ve never had a cat, but our friend’s cat suffered from depression so I guess it really is an individual problem how each of us choose to balance work life and home life with our animals.
I am a very focused person at work so taking Donna to work would not be the best solution for me. And also, job opportunities to bring in pets in our country is probably close to nil unless perhaps if one works in a pet-related organisation. The best I can hope for is a global organisation that allows me to work from home. My job search has been more selective in consideration of the dog, so fingers crossed!
The Sundog Drift
Having had 7 Golden’s over the last 15 years I’ve experience my share of vomit. I respect the rules in your house. Everybody has the. However maybe Donna is rebelling to one of the rules at least. I threw pleanty of rules oout ythe windows over the years. My Dad had hunting dogs who were hardly ever allowed inside so that is how I started raising my dogs. But then my beautiful 2 yr old lab got hit by a car and killed on HWY 1. I think it was because he wanted inside so bad he rebeled and broke out of the back yard resulting in his death. After that NO more outside dogs. And now look at the Sundogs. They practically rule the house. I’ve gone the full spectrum from too strict to probably too lenient. Nicely written blog post. JD
pjdonna
Thanks JD, while I rather this is not the case, over the course of the morning I thought about whether there is anything Donna is rebelling against. The suggestion of course is with regards to two unfortunate cases of eating something she was not suppose to, causing her to threw up more times than we were comfortable with. Truthfully speaking, I have no way of ascertaining if being rebellious is a factor here, unless the dog suddenly manifests awesome speech powers :P
But what I can say is both times, it could possibly occur because certain conditions were not being met. In vomit case #1 (apologies, simplest way to identify the two cases), we had started to feed her dinner later in the day, gradually increasing the lateness over time. We were doing this with the expectation that we will not be able to feed her in the early evening once I get a full time job. That was when the dog was still adjusting to her new life in the flat (we are just 6 months into the relationship right now) and there was no rule against her spending time in the balcony although treats only occur in the house in specific spots as part of positively reinforcing her to prefer the indoors and her bed rather than spending time on the balcony where the dangerous plants and the possibility of jumping to her death lie. But as she is a dog, there must be times she is curious and sniffing about the house and she will wonder to the balcony. Perhaps she felt rebellious about dinner being later. Perhaps she was purely hungry. Perhaps she was only curious. Whatever it was, I felt that the incident could have been prevented and the problem was with me, I should have been supervising her there or I should have gotten her to come into the flat. At that time, I think i was in the kitchen instead, certainly not in the same space as her and I was too late to stop her from sampling the poisonous hydrangea leaf. This is why we later instituted the no balcony unless there are humans there rule. We can’t ascertain what the dog was thinking and no amount of training (especially since we are not professionals) can guarantee the dog will not attempt to poison herself on the balcony again. Perhaps these are similar thoughts you had when you brought your dogs indoors?
As for vomit case #2 described in this post. I had a medical appointment early in the morning so we didn’t have the time to take her out to a longer walk and only took her out for her loo break. While we have morning walks regularly, there have been cases where we did it later in the day instead and we never had an incident before. This incident caught us by surprise entirely. Perhaps she felt miffed that she didn’t go for a longer walk. Perhaps she was just feeling energetic and up to exploring the TV console since nobody is at home to call her away from it. Perhaps as Catanea suggested, she wanted an after breakfast snack. Or perhaps she was feeling rebellious because I was pretty sick over the two weeks and was not able to pay the same level of attention to her that I usually give her. Again, no way of ascertaining, but my heart would break if the dog truly got rebellious because I was sick and not paying attention to her.To be honest, I was already feeling very down and it would feel like my own dog kicked me in the face when I was already down on the ground.
So is she rebelling against the rules? I don’t know but I really hope not. The rules are there for good reason for the humans to follow to ensure the dog stays safe and not because we are trying to dominate her or anything. We do subscribe to positive reinforcement methods which in the best case scenario should influence her to prefer actions and behaviours that will protect her. But in cases where we are not hundred percent sure, it only makes sense for us to rely on barriers and squirreling away things to other out-of-bounds rooms so that she does not get at them. (We are not the neatest people ourselves :P)
But I hear what you are saying about how your relationship with the beautiful Sundogs evolved along the way. Perhaps after a couple of years, when things are more settled and Donna has become accident-free for a longer period of time, we may lose some rules that are no longer applicable. Perhaps after many years, we will grow to have the same comfortable bonded relationship with our dog that Sonel and you have with your dogs. Then rules and what not may not even factor on the blog anymore. Who knows? :P
Thank you for reading and caring enough to post your thoughts. I do appreciate it :D Have a great day! Hugs to the sundogs! (though they may prefer swimming)… I’m really excited about this preview training session we have been invited to over the weekend… Wonder how long it takes to train Donna off-leash manners before we can take her swimming at the beach! She is so totally an on-the-leash dog right now. Although she does walk nicely by my side, I’m sure she’ll head straight for the first thing that catches her interest and totally ignore me when I call! :P
coastingnz
Thanks for liking my blog. Donna is gorgeous. When I clicked on your blog and saw her photo – well it took my breath away – gorgeous! So fill of character by the look of her. Hope she is feeling better now and look forward to following some more of her “adventures” – we’ll call them that eh!
weliveinaflat
She is better, thank you :) She has a snotty character though at times :D otherwise she’s great :D Glad you think she is gorgeous, hers is a pretty common look as far as local mongrels go :P Thanks for dropping by and have a great day :) Looking forward to your posts too!