"Suja" wrote:
Dog in question is a neutered Great Dane, who will turn 4 this year.
His mom runs a petsitting facility from home, and he as well as his
Dane brother have both been okay with all dogs. ...In the past few
months, he has become grouchy towards
the other dogs, even ones he's known for a while. He's generally
become non-playful, grouchy towards dogs that approach him, and
occassionally aggressive towards a new dog or even ones that are
minding their own business and playing together.

When something similar affected Sam, it seemed to be alleviated by
glucosamine/chondroitin supplementation. Sam wasn't sore enough to be in
obvious pain, but the grouchiness towards other dogs disappeared when he
got a daily dose of Liquid Health K-9 Glucosamine (I think it used to be
"Level 100" or some such). I tried the "Level 5000" because it was more
concentrated, but it didn't work as well.

http://www.liquidhealthinc.com/prodI...r.php?prodID=6

NFI, YMMV, and all that. Dogs may respond differently to the various
formulations / varieties of glucosamine, MSM, chondroitin available.

Dog in question is a neutered Great Dane, who will turn 4 this year. His
mom runs a petsitting facility from home, and he as well as his Dane brother
have both been okay with all dogs. Generally, they tend to be submissive,
rolling over for new dogs, and otherwise not challenging. In the past few
months, he has become grouchy towards the other dogs, even ones he's known
for a while. He's generally become non-playful, grouchy towards dogs that
approach him, and occassionally aggressive towards a new dog or even ones
that are minding their own business and playing together.

He has had a recent blood test within the last month, and is normal as far
as energy level, appetite, behavior around people, etc. goes. He has been
more clingy than normal, and is seeking out pets when other dogs are being
petted, which is unusual for him. In the last year, he had been bratty
towards her kids, and rank reduction by the loss of couch privileges seems
to have worked. Every time he earned his bed/couch privilege back (3x) ,
his brattiness towards the kids resurfaced, so he's lost it for good, for
about a year. The visiting dogs as well as the other resident dog are
allowed on the furniture, and this appears to be a selling point for the
dogsitting business, so banishing all dogs from furniture probably won't
work.

Mom has made sure that she spends alone time with her dogs and that the dogs
have a place to get away if they want to. According to her, he has become
mopey, and she's not sure what to do to make him happy again.

Suja

Has he been checked for arthritis? It's not an impossibility at the age of
4 with a dog this big. Grumpy and being snappy was usually the first sign
with my dog Barney that his arthritis medication was not working and we
needed to increase his pain medication. Once we'd get the pain under
control he was back to himself.

I'm dealing with the very same thing with Buddy right now. He has a tear in
his acl and he snapped an bit one of the cats last week. He's been to the
vets again and is now on Rimadyl and he's back to his happy self.

Celeste



"Suja" wrote in message
news:cPerg.62812$ZW3.37820@dukeread04...
Dog in question is a neutered Great Dane, who will turn 4 this year. His
mom runs a petsitting facility from home, and he as well as his Dane
brother
have both been okay with all dogs. Generally, they tend to be submissive,
rolling over for new dogs, and otherwise not challenging. In the past few
months, he has become grouchy towards the other dogs, even ones he's known
for a while. He's generally become non-playful, grouchy towards dogs that
approach him, and occassionally aggressive towards a new dog or even ones
that are minding their own business and playing together.

He has had a recent blood test within the last month, and is normal as far
as energy level, appetite, behavior around people, etc. goes. He has been
more clingy than normal, and is seeking out pets when other dogs are being
petted, which is unusual for him. In the last year, he had been bratty
towards her kids, and rank reduction by the loss of couch privileges seems
to have worked. Every time he earned his bed/couch privilege back (3x) ,
his brattiness towards the kids resurfaced, so he's lost it for good, for
about a year. The visiting dogs as well as the other resident dog are
allowed on the furniture, and this appears to be a selling point for the
dogsitting business, so banishing all dogs from furniture probably won't
work.

Mom has made sure that she spends alone time with her dogs and that the
dogs
have a place to get away if they want to. According to her, he has become
mopey, and she's not sure what to do to make him happy again.

Suja

"Spot" wrote in message:

Has he been checked for arthritis? It's not an impossibility at the age
of
4 with a dog this big.

She did have him at the vet recently, and she has also checked him out for
signs of soreness. None.

Now, does anyone think that it is possible this dog is feeling unsettled
because

a) his "pack" and his status within it is in constant flux as dogs come and
go
b) new dogs and other visitors are given privileges that he does not have,
therefore reducing him to a rank he is uncomfortable with

If it is the case where he is confused about where he stands among all these
dogs, is there anything that can be done (short of quitting dog sitting) to
assure him of his position in the pack?

Suja

"Suja" wrote in message
news:9pirg.62829$ZW3.31623@dukeread04...

"Spot" wrote in message:

Has he been checked for arthritis? It's not an impossibility at the
age
of
4 with a dog this big.

She did have him at the vet recently, and she has also checked him out
for
signs of soreness. None.

Now, does anyone think that it is possible this dog is feeling unsettled
because

a) his "pack" and his status within it is in constant flux as dogs come
and
go
b) new dogs and other visitors are given privileges that he does not
have,
therefore reducing him to a rank he is uncomfortable with

If it is the case where he is confused about where he stands among all
these
dogs, is there anything that can be done (short of quitting dog sitting)
to
assure him of his position in the pack?

Suja

The problem is that is the owner is viewing and treating this a rank
thing and its likely not so she's probably making the problem worse and
confusing the dog and making him feel insecure and exacerbating the
problem.

You could try posting your question here.

http://www.takingthelead.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl

Alison

"Suja" wrote in
news:9pirg.62829$ZW3.31623@dukeread04:

Now, does anyone think that it is possible this dog is feeling
unsettled because

a) his "pack" and his status within it is in constant flux as dogs
come and go
b) new dogs and other visitors are given privileges that he does not
have, therefore reducing him to a rank he is uncomfortable with


I don't know much about this stuff and of course have never done daycare,
but I can tell you that as Zoe has gotten older (she's 4.5 now), she's
really lost interest in playing with other dogs. She will run around with
Queenie when we go to an off-leash park, but she doesn't wrestle with her
or Max or with any new dogs. She will play with me, but it's still of the
"chase around" variety (well, I was never much of a wrestler anyway).

She has always been the most bonded to me and follows me everywhere.
She's the most well-behaved generally and so I have to make a point of
singling her out for attention -- the more squeaky wheels are indeed
getting the grease, and I sometimes find her looking dejected.

Because of her good behavior, she has certain privileges that no one else
has -- and she relishes these. Maybe your friend can find or accentuate
some kind of special privileges for her dog? Also, you mentioned that she
makes time to spend with her dogs, but it was unclear whether she spent
time with the dogs individually. In my house, Queenie doesn't care too
much about this, Max gets a lot of it naturally because he can sit on my
lap, but Zoe cherishes our alone time and I have to really make a point
of finding that time for her and letting her revert to the days of just
her and me for a while. I think she likes having the other dogs around
when I'm not there, I do think she likes having some company and having a
bigger pack than just me, but it's like we're connected in a literal
sense, by a strong cord, and if I forget and don't spend enough time with
her, one on one, she does get sad.

However, I must say that with everyone else's responses, I'm thinking a
trip to the vet might not be a bad idea just to check out possible pain
-- although she does like all-over pets and doesn't seem to have any
tender points.

--
Catherine
& Zoe the cockerchow
& Queenie the black gold retriever
& Max the Pomeranian
& Rosalie the calico