Rescued Sheltie questions

to answer about food- I have noticed that on raw food diet dogs tend to contain their weight much better, if you not averse to giving raw, depending on how many teeth are missing you might give her chicken necks which have pretty soft cartilage and which my boy just swallows whole, or prepare ground meat mixed with grated veggies and fruits. I make hamburger like patties, put them into sandwich bags for single portions and freeze. This way I could make a month supply in one setting and then just thaw and give to pup. Anyway, no matter what you do, you can not let dog loose way too fast too soon so it will take few month to get to proper weight. Here on the forum we all love Vibrant pet supplement which is terrific help for doggies nutrition. They have had 20% off recently so you might want to try.
Regarding activity level- when we got Sammy from CISR she wanted to play with Che but she would run few minutes and then lay down for few minutes and then run again. She obviously was not given a lot of space and did not have enough stamina to keep up with my boy. Now after 2 months she is just about even, in great shape, very playful and active. If you have space and other active dogs it might be all you need and she will pick up as she goes along, providing she has no physical problems.
Regarding teaching to play, some dogs are just not retrievers and need to be taught to do it. IS there something she likes to pick up in her mouth- any toy, chewy, stick? This is where clicker training would be great. First you teach her respond the clicker and then the moment she picks anything in her mouth you click and treat. After she does it reliably you can add command " take it". Start from object next to you to putting further to throwing it away and asking to take it, then adding command bring it etc... slow baby steps are usually best with clicker and it is easy to use.
 
Cmentzell80 said:
Lol that is a cute elephant. I got some tennis balls last night, and she acted like she didn't know what to do. Today I tried again, and tried to "demonstrate" chasing the ball etc.. she acted like she wanted to play, but I don't think she knows how. I don't think her previous owners ever played with her at all. I've never seen a dog not already know how to at least chase the object.. honestly I have no idea how to teach a dog to fetch.. lol. She'd do the excited head down splayed front legs, butt in air tail waggy dealie, but then just seemed like she didn't know what else to do. She won't take toys into her mouth at all, so tug o war is out too. Honestly.. I've never had to teach a dog how to play before, I guess I'd better start researching heh.
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Hang in there and keep trying. She will eventually get it. I had one the same way. It took us months but then balls became her favorite thing. :smile2:
 
also if you did not have her for too long she just may be adjusting, sometimes they need time to figure out rules of the house. Encourage any puppy like activities and games hide and seek, tugging, chasing. Acting totally goofy like a pup who is trying to irritate older dog by barking, nipping, tugging the tail etc might help if you ok with being labeled loonie by your neighbors :wink2:
 
I tried rubbing a piece of cooked chicken all over one of the tennis balls to get her to take it in her mouth, but instead she just went nuts trying to find the chicken lol.

I do have another question though-
her fur is still super short from being shaved. On her back half, the mats had been so bad it made her skin raw, and the lady had gotten skin cream from the vet to heal it, and it's looking better but it's super dry. There's alot of..what looks almost like cradle cap on babies, and the groomer told me it was reeaaaally dry. Is there anything special I should do to get it all off without hurting her, and can I put lotion like Aveeno on it to help? I don't wanna just try something and find out after that I should have done something else. I've tryed just looking it up, but have found nothing helpful.
 
Does anybody know how to get rid of what looks like cradle cap on dry skin? It's healed up where they had to put ointment on the raw parts, but now she's itching like crazy. I have oatmeal conditioning shampoo, but was wondering if I could also use Aveeno Skin Relief lotion on it. Haven't had any luck finding an answer on the web. Any thoughts?
 
Cmentzell80 said:
Does anybody know how to get rid of what looks like cradle cap on dry skin? It's healed up where they had to put ointment on the raw parts, but now she's itching like crazy. I have oatmeal conditioning shampoo, but was wondering if I could also use Aveeno Skin Relief lotion on it. Haven't had any luck finding an answer on the web. Any thoughts?
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Get CC clean start shampoo. Give her a bath in it , lather let it sit for about 10 minutes repeat if needed and follow up with a conditioner like CC after bath. My Justice used to get a funky oil build up on his skin and this did the trick. Another option if it is really bad is a antiseborrhic shampoo medicated shampoo like Sebolux. You can get it from your vet or online. Follow that up with an oatmeal conditioner for example

http://www.cherrybrook.com/index.cf...Start_Clarifying_Shampoo_by_Chris_Christensen
http://www.allivet.com/SEBOLUX-Shampoo-p/26894.htm

Don't put Aveeno lotion on her too greasy for dogs.
 
Awesome. And sorry for the double post, sometimes my posts don't make it at all, so I'm never sure if it got eaten or if a mod is waiting to approve it :smile2: Thanks all.
 
Cmentzell80 said:
I don't think her previous owners ever played with her at all. I've never seen a dog not already know how to at least chase the object.. honestly I have no idea how to teach a dog to fetch.. lol.
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Unfortunately, some of my fosters and one I adopted were either abused or neglected and didn't know the first thing about playing. It might take awhile before they take an interest in play. If you have other dogs that play, they might learn by example. The ones who never would play with toys would after awhile play by laying on their side while I grabbed at their mouth. They would then kick their legs in a playful way. That's about all I could get some of them to do.
 
Cmentzell80 said:
I was told she's about 2 yrs old. She keeps going for the cats food, so I'm going to have to find a new place for it she can't reach. I looked in her mouth a few minutes ago, because she always seems to have her mouth a little open, looks like she's "smiling". She appears to be missing a few teeth as well, so I'm wondering if she's just preferring the cat's food because it's tiny kibble. It could possibly just smell/taste more like what they were feeding her before as well. Either way, no more McDonald's or White Castle cheeseburgers for her. The lady said she was constantly on the go and getting fast food, and getting some specifically for the dogs or just sharing. We have a long road ahead of us ugh. She'll feel much better though after it's all said and done.
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I'm so glad to hear that she's made such good progress since you made this post.

The reason she's going after the cat food is that cat food is very oily and rich compared with dog food. Because its oily, its also VERY fatty. This would definitely compare to the table scraps and fast food she was being fed by the 'rescuer.' Although I'm sure she had the best intentions, it sounds as if your girl was just as bad off with this lady, just in a different way.

The Vibrant Pets supplements are supposed to be wonderful, I'd definitely consider using it to improve her skin and coat.

I can't really recommend any shampoos, but if you do some looking around I'm sure I've seen some that are supposed to be soothing to the skin and help stop itching.

Looking forward to hearing more updates!
 
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