Bad Hips - Quality of life - Page 6

Ask your vet about administering both Adequan and Legend, with some dogs it works wonders.

Prodogz, Your situation reminds me of a visit I made to an orthopaedic vet because my regular vet was concerned about my GSD's hips. The regular vet was concerned because of the x-rays and felt sure he needed a hip replacement. When I visited the ortho vet he told me that x-rays are like pictures on your camera - just a glimpse into the subject's life. He went on to say what was needed was a "movie" of the dog's hips. So he watched him walk, he physically manipulated the hips to their maximum limits (with no reaction from my dog) and recommended Comfort for his discomfort. He was against rimadyl and other such medications because his approach was based on using the least intrusive interventions first, then proceed to ones with more chances for side effects later. By the way, the Comfort worked great and I didn't even have to hide it in food to get him to take it. I found out later that my dog had issues with spinal disease (after spending thousands to remove two discs) and had to put him down in September at the age of 6. But the hips were never the problem. In fact the ortho vet said he saw many dogs with imperfect hips that lived long lives. So I feel you have every chance to realize a long and happy life with your dog. Keep looking for help and keep loving your pet. MaxVonPotterdam

Blitzen, I had a young dog I played that game with- started with hide in plain sight and moved on. Only problem he never did learn to use his nose. I'm pretty sure tho that what he did was search in reverse order every place it had been hidden before ie. fist time it was under the chair gotta check the chair 2nd. time it was in the tub gotta check the tub. This was a dog that if you did something w/ him 3 times it was fixed for life so you had to make sure WHAT you were teaching him. At one point he was fence fighting w/ 5 little yippie yappies next door. He would go to the knothole and bite at their noses then spin around and bark at them. The barking and spinning( he literally was creating a hole in the ground) had to stop so we worked on it and in a short time the problem appeared to be fixed UNTIL one day I'm looking out the window and there he is doing the entire range of behavior even including opening his mouth as if to bark but not a sound passed his lips. He naturally back chained events on his own - interesting dog.

TIG, yes that was an interesting dog!! When I first started playing that game with Blitz, he would do the same thing, back search from where he found the last treat at the previous session. I have to find new places to hide his treats so he actually has to search for them. I hate it when my dog is smarter than I am. Having owned Malamutes most of my dog life I was accustomed to dogs that were, well let's just say not quick studies for the most part and didn't have a high level of the will to serve. Every now and then one would "get it" in a few tries, but it usually took a lot longer. My first GSD shocked me when I realized he would actually obey a command the second time I asked it of him. I remember calling some of my Malamute friends all excited saying - you won't believe this breed. I said "sit" and Dylan did it!!! LOL.