Chula

I have used this harness for the last two years with Chula. http://freedomnopullharness.com/ I manufactured my own "training leash" but wish I had gotten the one that can be purchased along with the harness. Because it clips to both the back and the front, it provides various options/configurations for when out walking. If you clip to just the front and the dog pulls, it will give them a squeeze to let them know they're pulling too hard. If you clip to both the front and back rings, and the dog pulls or jumps, it flips them around back towards you. Eventually they get bored/tired of getting flipped around. I prefer it to the harnesses that only have a front clip because I feel this gives me more control over her if she does decide to go after a squirrel.

She definitely does better with dogs her size, and with dogs that are more confident and who want to play husky style. She tends to agitate other dogs into wanting to bite her. The JR is really dominant - as in he pees all over the house if he's not crated if Chula has been there the day before, but he's too little and on edge about her presence to be much fun for her. He is not interested in playing AT ALL. The pit just doesn't know what to do because Chula is so "in your face" so she hides or tries to cower - which only pushes Chula into trying to hump her or get her to play. If Chula wasn't such a spaz, I think the Pit might try to play a little. The Pit has really bad car sickness, and can't walk much - she had her leg crushed when she was a teenager. She's mobile and can get around ok, but she's not going to be able to walk more than a block or two. I can try to get the BF to walk the JR with us. I don't think I could walk them both myself. How do I get her to be less scared at home?

I mentioned in my photo post a few days ago that I've started dating someone who has two dogs of his own. Well, we're having some issues with dogs getting along and I'm hoping someone might have some advice. His two dogs are up there in years - a 15 year-old dominant, male Jack Russel and a 13 year-old skittish, female pit mix. Chula has had skirmishes with both of them. As she's gotten older, Chula has become more jealous and more anxious. I don't know if it is directly related, but a lot of it seems to coincide with my ex moving out of the house last January. She "guards" my house now, and barks at noises and reflections in a way that she never did when the ex was still home. She is more anxious of people, too. That said, she is still the same goofy, playful dog that always wants to run and interact with other dogs. She goes to daycare frequently and I've never gotten a report of her injuring a dog. I stopped taking her to the dogpark, though, because if there were dogs chasing tennis balls she would end up getting into fights over them if the other dog wouldn't retreat. She has no problem with me taking her food from her, or her toys, so it's just a guarding against other dogs type of thing. Because his dogs are old, they don't travel well. That means when we want to spend the night together, or make evening plans, I bring Chula over to his house. His house is quite small, and Chula is quite rambunctious. This has led to a few altercations: 1. All three dogs were outside. Chula was running around, being a husky, and being kind of anxious because it's not her yard. She ran right over the Jack Russel, who jumped up to bite her on her scruff. Chula trapped him underneath her and was bitey bitey. They tussled pretty good, though no blood or punctures, mostly just lots of noise. The boyfriend had to kick them to get them to separate. 2. I was cooking in the kitchen, Chula was standing about ten feet from me, the Pit mix came in my general direction and Chula went after her. Chased her to the other side of the house and bit her on the rump. Again, no blood or punctures, but now the pit is scared of her. 3. Just this morning, because they tend to tussle, I send them all out separately. His dogs, then Chula. As his dogs came back in the house, Chula went right for the Jack Russell with no provocation. She didn't seem aggressive, just that she went and trapped him under her and started to husky mouth at him. No blood, no punctures, ended when I yelled at them. This is a problem for long term. One, because it's so stressful! And two, because he has a five year old son and I don't want him to inadvertently get injured in a dog tussle. The boyfriend's response is frequently "My dogs are old", which is true, but they could easily live another two years as they both seem healthy. I'd like to be able to live together sometime before then! Chula is SO anxious at his house, even more so than at mine. Will this get better with time? At this point, I don't even feel comfortable leaving the three of them in the living room together while I go to the bathroom. What can I do to encourage them to have the proper dog conversations they need to have to establish their relationship?

Hey, y'all. Been awhile since I've posted anything. Here are a few updated pictures of Chula. She's been a real good girl these last several months. She's officially uncrated during the day, now, and has stuck to destroying only her own toys. I've also gotten into a serious relationship with a man who has two geriatric dogs, and that has been trying to say the least. They are 13 and 15 and do not care for Chula's rambunctious behavior one bit. For now we still live separately, we'll have to see how that works going forward. Hope everyone is doing well!

The ONLY way I can get Chula to take pills now is to use actual meat, preferably raw since it seems to have more smell to it for her. She has learned how to eat the outside of a pill pocket and spit the pill out. She can suck the peanut butter off a pill and spit it out. She can smell pills through everything else and will just refuse to eat it. If I try to pill her by holding her mouth closed, she'll regurgitate the pill right after I think she's swallowed. She is truly the most suspicious dog I have ever encountered. She will smell a treat, take it gently in her mouth, taste it, spit it out, taste it, spit it out, taste it again before she decides it's good enough for eating. It's infuriating!

She was professionally bathed and groomed and smell is still there. My poor Chula, so cute and so stinky. One of my colleagues suggested medicated wipes, so I'm going to try those for a week and if it doesn't get better, I guess I have to take her back in.

Yeah, it's definitely not anal glands. I can't imagine it's an infection again already! So many antibiotics. I'm wondering if it's yeast, which would just get worse from antibiotics. Ugh. Stinky dog! She's not peeing frequently or showing any signs of illness.

Chula has had a rough summer, healthwise. We've been to the vet FOUR times, one of them the emergency vet because she randomly started limping on a walk and then laid down and refused to put any weight on it. I was too far from home to carry her, so I had to call a friend to come pick us up. They said her hot spot on her foot (which she gets EVERY summer from allergies to grass or something in the yard, no matter what I do) had gotten infected, so they shaved it, cleaned it and put her on antibiotics. This was toward the end of June. Anyway, while we were on our road trip at the beginning of July, I noticed she was kinda stinky. I attributed it to having been swimming a bunch the week before we left. Then, since we were at a lake, she was constantly in the water, so constantly a little wet doggish. My mom noticed that Chula had been licking at her crotch a bunch, and when I was able to pull back her fur enough, I noticed it looked really infected. Took her to my parents' vet, got her on antibiotics, again. It didn't go away when we got back to Virginia, so I took her to her vet, they put her on another kind of antibiotics, and we just finished that course about a week ago, and she is STILL stinky. The vet said that she has an extra fold in her vulva area, and that she is going to be prone to infections there for her whole life. She has never, ever had an infection to this point so it seems weird. I don't think she currently has an infection, but she still stinks! What can I do? The whole area is tinged red from saliva because she licks at it so much. It's not her anal glands that smell, it's distinctly coming from her lady parts. It's really hard to have her close to me because she smells THAT bad. She's had so many antibiotics this summer, I'm worried that if I take her back they'll just put her on more.

She also might be rolling her eyes at me because I made her wear a life jacket. :) none of the other doggies had to wear one so she was probably embarrassed. Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

I didn't know they could get seasick! She actually jumped off the boat into the water this year. Only once, when I jumped in first, but it was pretty cool that she did that. Usually you have to push her in. Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

Hey everyone! Haven't been on in awhile. Life is busy with work and my new man (woohoo!) But I'll post a few new pics of Chula! Destroying an entire ream of paper! I honestly think she was a little seasick here. Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

I just saw this! It was so fun to meet Jay's boys! Nikko and Chula look like long lost relatives. Wish we could have had more time, but Chula and I were on a long road trip so it was just a quick stop to hang out with the pups. And yes, Jay's house is as clean as it looks in pictures!!

Great pics. Invite them to this board! Then you can keep up with their activities and photos (and so can we!).

Aw, I love the pic of Skyla with the tennis ball in her mouth! So cute.

Is it just the garbage that he gets into? You can get a garbage can with a locking lid. Or else you could try putting the garbage under the sink, or in an area where he can't get to it. If it's just him getting into the garbage, and you'd like to leave him uncrated, I'd try one of those options first.