I tired of typing about mine (almost but really, this isnt the Cash-pup
newsgroup) and I'd like to hear more about others besides Muttley, cute
though he is.

Add your stories please?

On Mon, 10 May 2010 22:02:09 -0400, "cshenk" wrote:

I tired of typing about mine (almost but really, this isnt the Cash-pup
newsgroup) and I'd like to hear more about others besides Muttley, cute
though he is.

Add your stories please?

I'm not sure what you want to hear, but I'll relate that Nikita, our
newish Borzoi rescue (which I say to distinguish her from our 11
month-old Borzoi pup), has been doing much better with her fearfulness
after being started on a low dose of amitriptyline. The ami seems to
take the edge off her anxiety and give her the boost she needs to do
the things she really wants to - explore the house, get to know the
other dogs, let people pet her. This morning she was not going to let
me approach her, and she sure wasn't going to come up to me, until she
saw a couple other dogs getting loving and decided she wanted some.

I'm glad we decided to try the amitriptyline. Nikita had been in
foster care since November and had hit a plateau, and was with us for
4 weeks with very little (and no consistent) progress. She's getting
less than half the normal dose and is having no side effects that I
can see. In sadder news, one of the Borzoi that was rescued with her
was just diagnosed with bone cancer.

"sighthounds & siberians" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 10 May 2010 22:02:09 -0400, "cshenk" wrote:

I tired of typing about mine (almost but really, this isnt the Cash-pup
newsgroup) and I'd like to hear more about others besides Muttley, cute
though he is.

Add your stories please?

I'm not sure what you want to hear, but I'll relate that Nikita, our
newish Borzoi rescue (which I say to distinguish her from our 11
month-old Borzoi pup), has been doing much better with her fearfulness
after being started on a low dose of amitriptyline. The ami seems to
take the edge off her anxiety and give her the boost she needs to do
the things she really wants to - explore the house, get to know the
other dogs, let people pet her. This morning she was not going to let
me approach her, and she sure wasn't going to come up to me, until she
saw a couple other dogs getting loving and decided she wanted some.

I'm glad we decided to try the amitriptyline. Nikita had been in
foster care since November and had hit a plateau, and was with us for
4 weeks with very little (and no consistent) progress. She's getting
less than half the normal dose and is having no side effects that I
can see. In sadder news, one of the Borzoi that was rescued with her
was just diagnosed with bone cancer.


Oh no! Is that unusual with the Borzoi breed?

"cshenk" wrote in message
...
I tired of typing about mine (almost but really, this isnt the Cash-pup
newsgroup) and I'd like to hear more about others besides Muttley, cute
though he is.

Add your stories please?


Remy is a Shar-Pei my son fell in love with at one of the shelters here. He
hadn't been there long, so the foster hadn't had much time with him. His
shelter name was Franklin, because his foster thought he looked like
Benjamin Franklin with the jowls, I guess. He was 6 months old. I had
reservations of a dog at this point in time, so I advised my son to sleep on
it, which he did. They put a hold on the dog, and we both went in the next
day to check him out. I knew it was a done deal when my son said, "If you
saw him Mom, you'd love him too."

The only experience I'd had with Shar-Pei was they weren't particularly
friendly with strangers, and they had lots of health problems. The lady at
the shelter had us fill out lots of paperwork, and she interviewed both of
us pretty extensively. The gist of it was that he could be a dominant,
potentially aggressive dog with the wrong person, and training was
essential.

Long story short, we brought him home (after he was neutered of course), and
he is the best dog ever. He's super friendly with everyone, loves kids,
loves cats, and loves other dogs. He is protective if a stranger
approaches, but he's trained, so he backs off when given the command. He is
an awesome dog, and with the proper diet, his health is fine. We probably
lucked out, though, too, since there are some serious genetic problems with
lots of Shar-Pei. He's not a particularly "typey" Pei, so maybe there's
another breed lurking in there, which has helped too. I don't care - I'm
just thrilled he's healthy.

My son named him Remy after one of the X-Men. For those of you familiar
with the X-Men, Gambit's name is Remy LeBeau - hence the name.

I adore him, and so does my son. He wasn't the easiest teenager pup in the
world, but we got through it, and he's a fabulous dog.

On Mon, 10 May 2010 22:26:56 -0500, "starcat"
wrote:


"sighthounds & siberians" wrote in message
.. .
On Mon, 10 May 2010 22:02:09 -0400, "cshenk" wrote:

I tired of typing about mine (almost but really, this isnt the Cash-pup
newsgroup) and I'd like to hear more about others besides Muttley, cute
though he is.

Add your stories please?

I'm not sure what you want to hear, but I'll relate that Nikita, our
newish Borzoi rescue (which I say to distinguish her from our 11
month-old Borzoi pup), has been doing much better with her fearfulness
after being started on a low dose of amitriptyline. The ami seems to
take the edge off her anxiety and give her the boost she needs to do
the things she really wants to - explore the house, get to know the
other dogs, let people pet her. This morning she was not going to let
me approach her, and she sure wasn't going to come up to me, until she
saw a couple other dogs getting loving and decided she wanted some.

I'm glad we decided to try the amitriptyline. Nikita had been in
foster care since November and had hit a plateau, and was with us for
4 weeks with very little (and no consistent) progress. She's getting
less than half the normal dose and is having no side effects that I
can see. In sadder news, one of the Borzoi that was rescued with her
was just diagnosed with bone cancer.


Oh no! Is that unusual with the Borzoi breed?

No, it's not unusual in any large breed. It's not as common in Borzoi
as it is in racing greyhounds. Oddly enough, after years of greyhound
rescue, the first of my personal dogs to be diagnosed with bone cancer
was a Siberian Husky.

"sighthounds & siberians" wrote
"cshenk" wrote:

I tired of typing about mine (almost but really, this isnt the Cash-pup
newsgroup) and I'd like to hear more about others besides Muttley, cute
though he is.

Add your stories please?

I'm not sure what you want to hear

I wanna hear about 'Joe's Smiths dog, Benji the Mooch' or 'Sara Janes dog,
Flutter-head' or whatever we have out there. There's more of us than me and
Paul (Cash-pup and Muttley) and I feared we were turning this group, though
re-growing nicely, into the 'Cash and Muttley show'.

, but I'll relate that Nikita, our
newish Borzoi rescue (which I say to distinguish her from our 11
month-old Borzoi pup), has been doing much better with her fearfulness
after being started on a low dose of amitriptyline. The ami seems to

Can you tell me a bit more on this medicine? Reading below she seems to
have almost something a bit like some people have and it's a medication to
help her associate better?

take the edge off her anxiety and give her the boost she needs to do
the things she really wants to - explore the house, get to know the
other dogs, let people pet her. This morning she was not going to let
me approach her, and she sure wasn't going to come up to me, until she
saw a couple other dogs getting loving and decided she wanted some.

Grin, then it's the right thing she needs for sure. To use old parlayance,
I can't tell if it's an upper or a downer but it seems he right thing in the
right amounts for her. I *could* google but i think the human interaction
of talking with a real live person and learning what they have learned is
often better.

I did google Borzoi though some time back. Nifty sort!

I'm glad we decided to try the amitriptyline. Nikita had been in
foster care since November and had hit a plateau, and was with us for
4 weeks with very little (and no consistent) progress. She's getting
less than half the normal dose and is having no side effects that I
can see. In sadder news, one of the Borzoi that was rescued with her
was just diagnosed with bone cancer.

So sorry to hear that.

When I hear the name Nikita, my mind associates it to a lostling Russian
Russian girl who's feeling on the run all the time. As if she's lost and
being chased (or feeling if she is). Probably some movie I watched long ago
improperly recalled.

Thank you!

"starcat" wrote

Remy is a Shar-Pei my son fell in love with at one of the shelters here.
He hadn't been there long, so the foster hadn't had much time with him.
His shelter name was Franklin, because his foster thought he looked like
Benjamin Franklin with the jowls, I guess. He was 6 months old. I had
reservations of a dog at this point in time, so I advised my son to sleep
on it, which he did. They put a hold on the dog, and we both went in the
next day to check him out. I knew it was a done deal when my son said,
"If you saw him Mom, you'd love him too."

Hehehe, hooked!

The only experience I'd had with Shar-Pei was they weren't particularly
friendly with strangers, and they had lots of health problems. The lady
at the shelter had us fill out lots of paperwork, and she interviewed both
of us pretty extensively. The gist of it was that he could be a dominant,
potentially aggressive dog with the wrong person, and training was
essential.

Thats good to know but as you've seen, training and personality of the
*specific* dog can make a huge variation there.

Long story short, we brought him home (after he was neutered of course),
and he is the best dog ever. He's super friendly with everyone, loves
kids, loves cats, and loves other dogs. He is protective if a stranger
approaches, but he's trained, so he backs off when given the command. He
is an awesome dog, and with the proper diet, his health is fine. We
probably lucked out, though, too, since there are some serious genetic
problems with lots of Shar-Pei. He's not a particularly "typey" Pei, so
maybe there's another breed lurking in there, which has helped too. I
don't care - I'm just thrilled he's healthy.

Grin, thank you so much for your story! Yeah, he may have another breed in
there.

Oh, on that we sent off a sample for one of those 'genetic analysis of dogs'
from Cash. They came back with: 'Beagle, possibly some english hound dog,
English bull dog, mastiff, and possible some American lab'. The labrador
seems wrong. He's too small for that. Dunno if their assessment means
anything at all but it was fun.

My son named him Remy after one of the X-Men. For those of you familiar
with the X-Men, Gambit's name is Remy LeBeau - hence the name.

I have a 16 YO, who doesnt do Xmen but Megaman. (grin).

I adore him, and so does my son. He wasn't the easiest teenager pup in
the world, but we got through it, and he's a fabulous dog.

Cool pup!

Can you tell me how you trained him to back off on command?

I don't have issues there but am merely curious on the process. My dog will
just lickify an intruder to death (hehehe).

On Tue, 11 May 2010 18:36:29 -0400, "cshenk" wrote:

I wanna hear about 'Joe's Smiths dog, Benji the Mooch' or 'Sara Janes dog,
Flutter-head' or whatever we have out there. There's more of us than me and
Paul (Cash-pup and Muttley) and I feared we were turning this group, though
re-growing nicely, into the 'Cash and Muttley show'.

This has always been more of a forum for discussion of behavior and/or
training than just people chatting about cute things their dogs do.

, but I'll relate that Nikita, our
newish Borzoi rescue (which I say to distinguish her from our 11
month-old Borzoi pup), has been doing much better with her fearfulness
after being started on a low dose of amitriptyline. The ami seems to

Can you tell me a bit more on this medicine? Reading below she seems to
have almost something a bit like some people have and it's a medication to
help her associate better?

Amitriptyline is the generic name for Elavil. It is a human
anti-depressant which, when used in dogs, helps with anxiety and
anxiety-related disorders such as separation anxiety. Nikita does not
have separation anxiety, she has plain old anxiety resulting from
neglect and abuse.

When I hear the name Nikita, my mind associates it to a lostling Russian
Russian girl who's feeling on the run all the time. As if she's lost and
being chased (or feeling if she is). Probably some movie I watched long ago
improperly recalled.

It is a Russian name; I don't recall what it means.

"cshenk" wrote in message
...

Can you tell me how you trained him to back off on command?

I don't have issues there but am merely curious on the process. My dog
will just lickify an intruder to death (hehehe).


The protectiveness didn't really come out in him until he was about 18
months old, but it became especially apparent with my son. I never really
had as much trouble with him in that way, but then I'm not the one out
jogging with him at 10 p.m., and my son is his primary person. He adores my
son first, and I'm second - or at least it seems he's bonded more with my
son.

We did formal training with him, but the trickiest part was my son and I
getting on the same page with him, since my approach was a bit different
than my son's. My son actually worked with Remy on hand signals and taught
him several of those. With the proper hand signal Remy will stop barking or
wait. I found it worked better for me if I used a vocal command too. Pei
are stubborn, but when they get it - they really get it. They tend to be
quite confident dogs, so you do need to give them guidance.

When he gets too protective he positions himself right in front of you and
starts a particular vocalization that is different than his usual growly Pei
talk. His body language changes too. What works for us is to say his name
and then the word "chill." It's not conventional, but he will turn around
and look at you when you say his name, and then "chill" is the word my son
and I agreed on to always use. At first we would take hold of his collar
too and ask him to sit, but now he will just stop his "I'm the big bad wolf"
routine with "Remy" and then when he looks at you, say "chill." He will
just sit his butt down and wait.

It's not conventional, I'm sure, but it works for us. The big thing was to
take control of the situation and let Remy know the human is in control
before he decides he's going to take control himself and possibly attack.
He's never attacked man nor beast, and I don't want him to ever do so.

The formal training was to help us with the basics, particularly since it
had been so long since I'd had a dog, and my son had never had one. It
helped with the leash training and how to properly use the pinch collar -
stuff like that. It also helped us with the recall, which was harder with
this dog than my first, who was a breeze to train. Then again she was a
Lab-Sheepdog mix, who had the best of both breeds in her.

Again, I'm sure the pros here, like Dogman and S&S have better techniques
for backing off on command, but this is what works for us.

On Tue, 11 May 2010 20:31:55 -0500, "starcat"
wrote:


"cshenk" wrote in message
...

Can you tell me how you trained him to back off on command?

I don't have issues there but am merely curious on the process. My dog
will just lickify an intruder to death (hehehe).


The protectiveness didn't really come out in him until he was about 18
months old, but it became especially apparent with my son. I never really
had as much trouble with him in that way, but then I'm not the one out
jogging with him at 10 p.m., and my son is his primary person. He adores my
son first, and I'm second - or at least it seems he's bonded more with my
son.

We did formal training with him, but the trickiest part was my son and I
getting on the same page with him, since my approach was a bit different
than my son's. My son actually worked with Remy on hand signals and taught
him several of those. With the proper hand signal Remy will stop barking or
wait. I found it worked better for me if I used a vocal command too. Pei
are stubborn, but when they get it - they really get it. They tend to be
quite confident dogs, so you do need to give them guidance.

When he gets too protective he positions himself right in front of you and
starts a particular vocalization that is different than his usual growly Pei
talk. His body language changes too. What works for us is to say his name
and then the word "chill." It's not conventional, but he will turn around
and look at you when you say his name, and then "chill" is the word my son
and I agreed on to always use. At first we would take hold of his collar
too and ask him to sit, but now he will just stop his "I'm the big bad wolf"
routine with "Remy" and then when he looks at you, say "chill." He will
just sit his butt down and wait.

It's not conventional, I'm sure, but it works for us. The big thing was to
take control of the situation and let Remy know the human is in control
before he decides he's going to take control himself and possibly attack.
He's never attacked man nor beast, and I don't want him to ever do so.

The formal training was to help us with the basics, particularly since it
had been so long since I'd had a dog, and my son had never had one. It
helped with the leash training and how to properly use the pinch collar -
stuff like that. It also helped us with the recall, which was harder with
this dog than my first, who was a breeze to train. Then again she was a
Lab-Sheepdog mix, who had the best of both breeds in her.

Again, I'm sure the pros here, like Dogman and S&S have better techniques
for backing off on command, but this is what works for us.

I'm far from a pro, and it seems to me that what you're doing doesn't
need to be improved on. Some people use the command "settle" when a
dog gets out of control - it doesn't matter what word you use, what
matters is that the dog understands what it means and responds to it.
Clearly Remy does. As you said, you or your son take control of the
situation and let Remy know he doesn't need to, and when you tell him
"chill" he settles himself down. It works for you, and that's what
counts.