abandon all hope

cattle dog dante & human bandit art + dogs + cats kodiak (feb 2007 - aug 12, 2020)

[dantesinfurno]

pinned intro post incoming -

i’m bandit & my dog is dante! he’s a 3 year old cattle dog mix (will update with embark results soon) who was adopted may 2019. he was a stray that was fostered at the dog daycare i worked at for over a month before we adopted him!

we also live with our family’s rottie mix, roxy, and a small group of cats (namely cait, tabby of great girth and dante’s best friend)

this blog will mainly be pictures of little dante and notes about training. hoping to start taking some training vids soon!

i also garden and draw! my art (pet portraits & illustration) can be found @banditplanet and my main blog is @weedlovingweed

[dantesinfurno]

vet said it’s a mass in his spleen. low lifespan after treatment and needs treatment to live. sigh. 😢

feels like pure shit lmao. needs surgery to live -> cancer might have already spread to other areas -> might not even stabilize well enough to get surgery to begin with -> max two and a half years on the rare high end after surgery. really really want to be able to get a non emergency vet quote and take him there for surgery and he get all better. most likely he will have to be put to sleep & we will have another tragedy to add to all the other shit! and my dad will lose his comfort animal!

[vidapuppen]

New dogblr game! Tag yourself for your alignment

[coughloop]

puddle water is basically cigarettes for dogs

[sidetongue]

please appreciate how delightful our little friend Lotte is

[dantesinfurno]

dante did NOT overcome his same sex reactivity and be nice to finn... instead he tried to mount him and finn got scared and they locked mouths for a bit. and then while i was talking to the lady who was helping with finn, dante sat next to me and barked nonstop. -_- and poor little finn was just making the saddest face because i (his favorite person) let a mean dog come near him...

does anyone have advice for dealing with SSR/SSA and successfully introducing a reactive male to another male dog? dante will not take any treats when out of the house unless he is in an area he knows well & doesn't want to wander and smell & there are no other dogs there. i brought his most high value treat today and even when just walking he won't take treats.

and the main problem is - dante desperately wants to mount other males & be the dominant dog in the situation, and other dogs understandably do not want to be mounted. and esp in this instance - finn was trying very hard not to fight or bite dante. when they grabbed each other it was one bite and then held, not actual fighting. (they weren't doing multiple bites).

and - dante slipped out of his collar and did not go for finn, he went for where finn had marked and marked next to it then came back to me. so he isn't completely aggressive either.

i just don't really know what to do with them... we agreed to try one more time next week and see if they can be more calm since they met once already, and i will try and exercise dante extra in between so he is less energized but... any tips are welcome! (and it may just not work, which is also okay. but i don't want to give up yet!)

[hazard-and-friends]

you are, with all sympathy in the world, going to want to pay someone.

this doesn't sound unsolvable, but it does sound like dante in general is overaroused or anxious and you need to address that first before tackling any sort of behavior mod protocol for his feelings on other dogs specifically.

it also doesn't sound from your description that dante is dominant, to the extent that that's even a thing in dog-dog interactions. mounting is very often an issue of frustration and overarousal, a dog who doesn't know what else to do.

look at protocols like LAT from Control Unleashed (and CU in general is great for helping overaroused dogs re-focus). because eating is difficult, Amy Cook's Play Way may also be helpful but i'm less experienced with that.

this, minimum, is going to be a multiple week crate-and-rotate situation while you get a trainer (in person or virtually) to help walk you through introductions safely. it's possible dante's welfare would be seriously compromised by the addition of a second dog, at least at this time, even if in future he is able to live with other dogs without a loss in quality of life.

[dantesinfurno]

thank you for the detail! i am definitely going to look into the resources you and others have provided regarding overarousal & will work with a trainer if i feel like i am not able to manage it on my own. he is definitely an anxious dog in many ways so it makes sense to me - i’m just more relieved that his problem is more anxiety and arousal based rather than specifically male reactivity.

dante does currently live with another dog - but she is an older female rott mix. he has never had any problems with females in the same way he has with males, but it may be that when he tries to mount a female dog they take much less offense than males have, and that might be why i have noticed the issues more with male dogs. (often the female dogs just mount him back and then he relaxes into play.)

finn won’t be coming to live with us until we are fully certain that they can live peacefully, and if that can’t happen i definitely will not force dante (or me and my wife) to deal with a crate rotation schedule. i think it would just work him up more. and finn

i’ve got a client dog who dante loves but he definitely becomes too excited around and starts displaying similar behaviors with. she is very tolerant and i think i may try using her to work on his recall/redirection and treat taking around dogs.

i appreciate all the help & will get in contact if/when i need! it’s looking like i will need to work with him for a while before meeting finn again but i am much happier with a workable outlook and finn’s current owner will appreciate it too. my training skill is definitely more in tricks than behavioral problems so i wasn’t fully sure what direction to go.

[dantesinfurno]

also i don't blame dante... he was a stray for his first year and a half, then he lived in a dog daycare with like 90 other dogs every day for 2 months (where he had 4 enemies who would follow him and lick his chin alllllllll day), and then my bitch coworkers wouldn't let him come back while i was working even though he was immediately better behaved once he had a home and wasn't there all the time... and so he didn't get as much socialization as he should have. and he has had a lot of practice hating the neighbor dog (he comes in when asked and does not fence fight if monitored, which is leagues ahead of his former fight on scent mindset), and he is wonderful with female dogs, so he CAN behave with other dogs. he even has gotten along with multiple male dogs in recent years! my aunt has a very abrasive beagle/boxer guy who dante was very friendly with, until the other dog decided he didn't like dante. he was also good with my mom's puppy until the puppy hit puberty and started going after dante unprovoked. so he has tried with many boy dogs who have been mean to HIM too... SIGH! i just wish he would get along with all dogs forever. u_u

[dantesinfurno]

dante did NOT overcome his same sex reactivity and be nice to finn... instead he tried to mount him and finn got scared and they locked mouths for a bit. and then while i was talking to the lady who was helping with finn, dante sat next to me and barked nonstop. -_- and poor little finn was just making the saddest face because i (his favorite person) let a mean dog come near him...

does anyone have advice for dealing with SSR/SSA and successfully introducing a reactive male to another male dog? dante will not take any treats when out of the house unless he is in an area he knows well & doesn't want to wander and smell & there are no other dogs there. i brought his most high value treat today and even when just walking he won't take treats.

and the main problem is - dante desperately wants to mount other males & be the dominant dog in the situation, and other dogs understandably do not want to be mounted. and esp in this instance - finn was trying very hard not to fight or bite dante. when they grabbed each other it was one bite and then held, not actual fighting. (they weren't doing multiple bites).

and - dante slipped out of his collar and did not go for finn, he went for where finn had marked and marked next to it then came back to me. so he isn't completely aggressive either.

i just don't really know what to do with them... we agreed to try one more time next week and see if they can be more calm since they met once already, and i will try and exercise dante extra in between so he is less energized but... any tips are welcome! (and it may just not work, which is also okay. but i don't want to give up yet!)

[dantesinfurno]

last time i dogsat finn i discovered he likes ice! and sloshing gallons of water out of his bowl. i put probably a handful of ice in there and he ate it all 😲

[dantesinfurno]

we call this ‘puppy head’ and he WILL do it on cue ❤️

[dantesinfurno]

this is finn! i’ve been walking/pet sitting/training/etc. him for almost a year now. pending dante’s approval, he may be coming to live with us soon!

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for lying to my dog about food being 'spicy?'

A while back I taught my dog what spicy foods are (by letting her sniff them and saying "Uh oh! Spicy!") and she figured out that it means it'll smell/taste bad and she immediately loses interest. It was initially an accident but it became really handy in getting her to leave food alone if it might hurt her.

Recently though I've started saying "Uh oh! Spicy!" about any food I don't want her to eat. If she's sitting and staring at me eating a regular non-spicy snack and I don't want to share, I'll tell her it's spicy so she'll stop begging for it. She believes me 100% of the time. She does have a 'leave it' command that she obeys as well, but she always acts so sad whenever I tell her to 'leave it' and it's something she wants.

I feel a little bad because she's an older dog (10y/o) and maybe I SHOULD be sharing my snacks with her, but sometimes a man's gotta enjoy his food in peace without a little creature gazing longingly at him the entire time and crying like the world's soggiest beast.

Included is a picture of her making her very best begging face so that everyone can accurately judge how evil I am for lying to her.

AITA?

YTA

NTA

JAH

NAH

ESH

INFO

Uh oh! Spicy!

Voting ended onSep 25, 2023

What are these acronyms?

[ecosystem-administrator]

this is the best possible addition to this post I am losing my shit over here can you IMAGINE

[flower-crow]

[ID 1: a white, brown eyed dog wearing a plaid shirt and looking up at the viewer with a pleading expression.

ID 2: a comment by hedgiwithapen, that reads: i taught my cat 'oh! People food!' meant not for her and then had to use that to prevent her from eating a neighbor's fish. the neighbor was. Concerned. end ID]

[doomspaniels]

"Mine!" is the word for "food dogs can't have," including when speaking of food held by others in the house. Including guests, who have usually been surprised when we serve them food then suddenly snap "Mine!" (perhaps I didn't choose the best word)

Tristan. Eats poop. And the clearest way. To prevent him. When he sees it. Is to say. "Mine!"

Perhaps I didn't choose the best word.

[release-the-hound]

Do y'all ever think about how wild it is that for years there's been this heartbreaking incurable disease that kills thousands of cats. And Gilead Pharmaceuticals found a drug that treats it but won't actually sell it to veterinarians because of patent bullshit? Because I do.

Anyways. I'd never advocate for acquiring drugs illegally to save your cat's life. Which is why if your cat has FIP you should check out the organization I've put in my tags. So that you remember to avoid getting GS-441524.

Capitalism is evil in general. But capitalism in medicine is cartoonishly monstrous.

[release-the-hound]

A Much-Hyped COVID-19 Drug Is Almost Identical to a Black-Market Cat Cure

Cat owners are resorting to China’s underground marketplace to buy antivirals for a feline coronavirus.

[dantesinfurno]

poor beast hurt his back left knee somehow while running down the stairs last night and had to see the emergency vet… they said it is swollen but not broken or torn. but he kept trying to lay on that side and screaming crying from the pain 😭 he has pain meds so he should be feeling better soon but our poor boy!!!!! he is so sad and pathetic looking

[dantesinfurno]

little shoes boy! got him these to protect his feet on the black pavement around us - been having 99 degree days and the ground is HOT

[dantesinfurno]

he looks so cozy…

[dantesinfurno]

roxy, who historically starts baring her teeth as soon as she sees the nail clippers, has finally gotten to a point where i could do 9 nails! at one time! learned that she will keep her paws still for me to cut them without holding her paw and that helps a LOT - she hates having them touched and i think the sensitivity makes her intolerant much quicker.