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New Rescue Dobe

7K views 82 replies 14 participants last post by  modm 
#1 ·
Hello Everyone,
Long post - introduction and a few questions.

I have been looking through the forums for a couple of months now trying to absorb some of the information. Quite a bit here!

My wife and I got our first Dobermans together over 12 years ago now. Molly and O.D.(Other Dog - only in name :2smile:)they were sisters. We lost O.D. 2 years ago at 10 1/2 yrs. March this year we lost Molly almost 12 1/2. Both were huge losses to us (50+ yr. old crying for doggies – for me they were more akin to children). After Molly the house was very empty.

We had been looking at Dobermans and thought when the time was right, we would get one from a rescue. Surprisingly quick we brought one home 6 days ago. Her name is Mila and is approximately 5 years old and a blue. You can see her story and some photos here: https://www.doberman-rescue.com/dogs/profile.php?id=382 . We had a great experience and the owner was very supportive and understanding. Mila is great, very loving and getting more confident around us each day.

We know she can jump/climb a fence so as the Rescue owner suggested, I have walked the fence-line with her on leash quite a bit trying to establish the boundary. I believe I also read here a similar suggestion. However, the back fence is only 5 foot so I will be adding another 2 feet this weekend. When we let her off leash, she hasn’t tried but she does eye the fence and looks up a lot. She gets quite excited about the woods behind us and is on alert. Squirrels, bug noises, etc…

Reading all the posts about the potential relationship between DCM and ingredients of dog food seems a bit overwhelming. For now, will stick with the food that Mila was on at the Rescue - Solid Gold Mmillennia. Owner has not had any problems with the feed and DCM.

I do see a number of people on the forum using Proplan Sensitive Skin - Salmon. Will that cause more odorous gas? At times the lamb did keep giving with our previous dogs but worried fish may be more.

Mila is also on melatonin and omega 3 to support her being a blue. From what I see the care, feed, and the supplements her coat is very nice. I definitely want to try and maintain this and do what is needed.

One last question - While it is early days, Mila does get me up quite a bit in the night. I ignore her as long as I can but then she gets insistent. I take her out and she does go pee....then looks for the rabbit that ran in front of her the 2nd night. Appears she pee's but not a lot each time. Any thoughts? Could be just a ploy to get out and pretend to squat to satisfy me she isn’t out there just for the rabbit.
>:)

Next step is to find a good obedience instructor in our area. She doesn't know commands very well - although we found she will sit without asking when we brought out the cheese for omelets.

As I am about to post this, I see another with similar question about blues and food - hopefully not too redundant and in the correct forum.

Thank you,
 
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#40 ·
For a few weeks now, a strange reaction from Mila. I thought she would grow out of but hasn't.

When I come home from work in my uniform, she seems almost afraid....not quite but her tail tucks a bit. But once I change out all is good again. Tail happy ready for hugs, petting and some spins. I still have the T-shirt on and I haven't showered so the "work smell" should still be on.

Is it the uniform or the length of time I have been gone? Thinking of this weekend just putting on a uniform for the day....would that help or at least narrow down what she is unhappy about? :|
 
#58 ·
For a few weeks now, a strange reaction from Mila. I thought she would grow out of but hasn't.

When I come home from work in my uniform, she seems almost afraid....not quite but her tail tucks a bit. But once I change out all is good again. Tail happy ready for hugs, petting and some spins. I still have the T-shirt on and I haven't showered so the "work smell" should still be on.

Is it the uniform or the length of time I have been gone? Thinking of this weekend just putting on a uniform for the day....would that help or at least narrow down what she is unhappy about? :|
I meant to update on this - It does appear she is anxious of my uniform mostly. For a week or so now, I take off my shirt prior to coming into the house. That seems to have done the trick. She doesn't appear afraid or anxious....happy to see me. Early on I had shown her the shirt in my hand and she backed a way a bit. Strange. But 2 days ago she was up in the morning when I left to work and didn't seem to be as much of an issue. Maybe combination of time and shirt....

Anyways I will keep an eye on this and see if I observe anything else. :2smile:
 
#41 · (Edited)
Dogs are generally more comfortable having their nails dremeled than having them clipped. Dremels don't seem to pinch or squeeze the nails the way clippers do; you can get a nice smooth edge to the nail; it's much easier to avoid hitting the quick. But they do make noise and vibrate the nail as they grind it, so you have to go slow introducing one.



I pulled up this old post to give you a little intro to the process:

Here's a nail trimming demo we put together a long time ago. I really recommend using a dremel...it's easier to control how much of the nail you are taking off and you can get a rounded smooth nail instead of one with sharp edges.

https://www.dobermantalk.com/doberm...ns-nail-trimming-dremeling-demonstration.html

Here's another. I had asked for a picture of the underside of the dog's nail, because that's how I tell how much to take off. See post #21
https://www.dobermantalk.com/doberman-health/27115-nails-how-much-dremel.html (Unfortunately, this is an old post, so some of the links to pictures don't work anymore, but the picture on post 21 is still there, fortunately.)

This about how to get your dog used to a dremel:
"Just take it slow...depending on what she will allow...you may even need to start with rubbing it all over her with the motor off. Then with the motor on, but just somewhere in the room at a distance, then touching a nail for a second or too, then grinding one nail, then a whole foot and so on.

And of course, lots and lots of treats---sometimes even after every toenail when you get to the full foot thing.

Go ahead and start getting her used to the thing. Keep clipping if you need to until she is OK with the grinder. But, of course, do the grinder introduction randomly throughout the day and not in the same session as clipping time.

Two hints...

1. Always support the nail with a finger or thumb as you grind . That lessens the vibration on that toe, and I imagine makes it less tickly for her.
2. Never grind on one nail for more than few second at a time. The area you are grinding can get quite hot. If you need to do more grinding than that, just go on to another nail and come back to the first."
I use a cordless Dremel multipro--the rechargeable battery doesn't have a super long running time--if you're doing multiple dogs in a row, that could be a problem for you--but a corded dremel is rather a pain to use (for me, anyway)

Dremel style tools marketed specifically as nail grinders for pets often don't have enough power to do tough dobe nails--it's really better just to use an ordinary hobby dremel with the coarse sandpaper roll.
 
#42 ·
Dogs are generally more comfortable having their nails dremeled than having them clipped. Dremels don't seem to pinch or squeeze the nails the way clippers do; you can get a nice smooth edge to the nail; it's much easier to avoid hitting the quick. But they do make noise and vibrate the nail as they grind it, so you have to go slow introducing one.



I pulled up this old post to give you a little intro to the process:



I use a cordless Dremel multipro--the rechargeable battery doesn't have a super long running time--if you're doing multiple dogs in a row, that could be a problem for you--but a corded dremel is rather a pain to use (for me, anyway)

Dremel style tools marketed specifically as nail grinders for pets often don't have enough power to do tough dobe nails--it's really better just to use an ordinary hobby dremel with the coarse sandpaper roll.
Thanks melbrod - my wife says we have a Dremel somewhere from when we tried to do stained glass.....I will have to find it to see if it is still in good shape.!:2smile:
 
#43 ·
I bought a regular hobby dremmel.......opted not to get the one with an LED light........

So now in the house I have to sit near a lamp.....and shadows irritate me during the mani - pedi process.

IF you buy one .......yep get hobby dremmel........suggest the one with the light..........nice to be able to see what you are doing !!!! Pup will appreciate that also !!!
 
#49 ·
Maybe your wife will have a change of heart. My hubby was like that with Coco. I let her on the couch and bed but he didn't. Now with Sugar it's a whole new world. They lay on the couch together and every morning when I go to work (he works afternoons) Sugar lays on the bed in my spot until they get up for the day!! I don't mind but quietly giggle to myself about 2nd child syndrome and all the rules going out the window :grin2:
 
#53 ·
Today we had our last of 3 in a series of training. Last time we worked on having Mila do the behavior (sit, down, etc...) with out saying sit or down, use lures. This week we will now put the cue(command) in front of the lure to have her go into position.

We brought up to the trainer our experience with walking on a leash - Mila pulls constantly, we had a martingale collar on so I tried to pull and release (was shown that by first trainer many years ago). But that may be more of an interruption. In any case it did nothing to keep her from pulling.

So we worked on being able to turn her in a circle. First step was to put the collar up under her jaw (higher up on the neck)- like I see with show dogs etc... Control the head control the dog..... Mila did not like that at all! Would not move for anything - even just sitting still she would not even eat a treat. The trainer brought out cheese.

Trainer said I could take a small bite - as it is a good place to hold treats at times. I had a piece of cheese in my hand and she did walk. I bit another piece off and took it out to give to her and she shut down. Went into a sit mode and backed away. Trainer commented on that was strange - the moment my hand went to my mouth is when she reacted. We do not know what occurred with Mila prior but a supposition is perhaps she had experience where previous owner pulled up on her neck with the collar high and pulled her off her feet. But do not know.

Thus we will go baby steps to get her confident that it is not a bad experience. Slowly adapt go get it with collar high up with no tugging, toss the high value treat and let her go. Another exercise is to sit on a chair and show the treat in hand then close it to the "no" hand reach for her collar and then give "yes" hand letting her have the treat. Again working up to where the pressure on the collar is not a bad thing.

Otherwise she is doing good with training. I can do almost anything inside. That environment doesn't hold any distractions. I have worked out in the back yard. She can be lured into a down from stand. Easily sits. I can get her to come with just saying her name (now I have to say here first). Even at times when she is in full run. Not always but she is more often than not returning to me - particularly since I have the treats :grin2: Understanding this is just the beginning and working with treats a lot.

Anyways - if any have other thoughts how to change her poor experience with a collar high up let me know. Also she definitely has been shown the wrong side of an electronic collar....we put that on her once and she sat down and trembled....so took that off. :|
 
#54 · (Edited)
Will she follow you without you pulling on the leash? In terms of getting her to move on the leash when she shuts down and won't move, you may be able to just start off, don't look at her, don't pull on the leash--just invite her along, start walking away and see if she will come with you/behind you. Hold the cheese in your hand at your side, sorta behind you (where she is), let her see it but don't make a big deal of coaxing her--let her sneak up and nibble if she will. Or you can try sorta moving/bouncing backwards in front of her with a "come on" invitation like you would to ask her to play to get her started up again.

If you can figure out a way to get her to move without you having to pull, then it'll be easier to begin the leash guiding thing.

I've had to do the showing that a grab for the collar and pull is not a bad thing with HDD--he's a little head and leash shy, and snatches at your hand whenever it goes past his head/ears to snap the leash on. We've done pretty much what you describe. The trainer told me to hold the bait in front of his nose and let him nibble at the same time as I'm holding the collar and putting some pressure on it, tugging on it (not trying to get him to move, just enough that he can feel it tightening and loosening a bit), reaching for his collar, petting the top of his head, sides of his nose, etc. He doesn't get the whole treat at a time, he just gets to nibble on it while I'm handling him. The treat goes directly with the pressure--to him, a pull on the collar isn't so bad if he gets to nibble on something yummy at the same time. His focus goes to the treat, and whatever else is happening around his collar and head isn't quite so important.

Or I might be reading everything you wrote wrong. :) And your trainer is right there with her eyeballs glued on you--it sounds like you're on the right track.
 
#55 ·
Will she follow you without you pulling on the leash?
I believe she will follow with out tugging on the leash - But when we started I only had my hand on the collar and tried to walk with her with some slight pressure. If I had a leash, she probably would have moved with me.

Hold the cheese in your hand at your side, sorta behind you (where she is), let her see it but don't make a big deal of coaxing her--let her sneak up and nibble if she will. Or you can try sorta moving/bouncing backwards in front of her with a "come on" invitation like you would to ask her to play to get her started up again.

Those sound like good ideas - Trainer did have me put the treat down by my leg....but since I was holding her with my hand - no room to let slack/pressure off her much, only the length of my arm. But will try with a long leash.

If you can figure out a way to get her to move without you having to pull, then it'll be easier to begin the leash guiding thing.
I agree!

The treat goes directly with the pressure--to him, a pull on the collar isn't so bad if he gets to nibble on something yummy at the same time. His focus goes to the treat, and whatever else is happening around his collar and head isn't quite so important.

So far for the most part I have been giving her the treat directly - Will try the nibbling a bit more so her attention stays there longer vs. why do I have my hand on her collar. Plus once I give it to her I take my hand off then repeat. I can hold my hand there a bit longer with this technique as well.

Or I might be reading everything you wrote wrong. :) No I think you got it....I may have left a few details out as I was getting long winded. What you mentioned the trainer conveyed some as well. Plus you added a couple of ideas to try.

Thank you for some good ideas to try!:2smile:
 
#56 ·
I know I'm a bit late popping into this thread, but I think Mel is onto something - I'd really want to start working with her on the idea that touching her collar/pressure on her collar isn't a bad thing. Have you tried any clicker training with her? It might be very different/new to her and so it might not have any prior negative associations. If it were me, I would give it a shot - even if you didn't want to use a clicker, even something like "touch her collar, "Yes!" (in a happy, excited voice) and then treat, and working up to a little pressure, with the same "Yes!" You'd work from just a touch, to a little pressure, to slowly more, sustained pressure.

Personally, I probably wouldn't use collar pressure as a way to teach loose leash walking with her, because she has such a negative response to it....you might get better results by simply using a LOT of rewards with her for being near you. I've often found that using canned food in a food tube so the dog can get fast, easily delivered rewards work really well - you can buy food tubes online at places like Amazon, or at camping stores like REI. For a dog that needs a really high rate of reinforcement it works well, plus a lot of dogs like a REALLY high value reward, and canned food can really fit the bill there.

Just throwing it out there as an alternate idea.

You might find with some of the other training that mixing up your rewards helps, too. Kind of a "trail mix" bag can keep dogs interested and working harder - some cooked chicken, steak, braunsweiger....when dogs don't seem motivated I try to really increase the value of rewards, go through a lot of different things to see what really gets them interested and wanting to work with me, and then I also try to have a mix, so they never know what they'll get. I find it makes them work harder, because they don't know if this time it's the piece of steak, or the piece of cheese, or the cheerio, or....

Just some different training thoughts that might help. Throwing them out in case they do.
 
#57 ·
Thanks MeadowCat - good ideas!

I will have to bump up the treats. Although she is a delicate eater. That is to say my wife gave her a couple of raw tenderloin scraps from last nights supper prep. Mila was easy to take the meat. I was thinking if that was Molly - might have lost a finger or two >:) But she does respond better with the higher value such as cheese.

This morning, I sat on a chair and kept putting my hand on the collar and moved it up her neck as I let her nibble on the hard cookie type treats. Seemed ok. Repeated this quite a few times.

But when I stood up and had her on my left side she was sitting and with my hand on her collar up high...I could sense she was not very happy. So I dropped it and had the treat low and took a step. She did not move....I took a few more steps and she finally came and got the treat.

Personally, I probably wouldn't use collar pressure as a way to teach loose leash walking with her,
The trainer actually had us start all the training with no leash. Only time we put it on her was when she became stressed. Once leash was attached she actually would calm down a bit. Then when we discussed issue with leash walking - as we will have to have on a leash if we are in public places - is when we tried to understand the issue in our last session.

So I will look into the tube and better treats to keep her happy and interested to be near us. As she progresses from the back yard(fenced) then the front yard(non-fenced and new sights), and neighborhood walks....will try more public areas again.

I like the "trail mix" idea....time to do some cooking. We did save the rest of the meat scraps as well so I can start with those :2smile:


Thanks again!
 
#59 ·
Another update on Mila :grin2:

Today we took her to the vet to get her nails trimmed. Wanted to have a professional work with her first. Even with all the good information, I was a bit nervous to do it myself.

We have been squeezing and tapping on her nails last 2 weeks or so. Brought out the Dremel and left on floor, then moved up to having it on while she was in the room - and of course yummy treats while doing so :2smile:

The nail trimmer person, also owns a dober so was very familiar with them. She sat on the floor with Mila first and talked and petted her and looked her over a bit.

Then she took her out to the other room to get her nails done. I could hear the Dremel at times and "good girl".

Procedure used to trim Mila's nails (as described since wasn't in the room).
1. She had Mila laying in her lap.
2. Used nail clippers to just nip off the tips - staying away from the quick.
3. Ran the Dremel on the nails briefly to get her used to it without a lot of discomfort.
4. Secret weapon! She covered Mila's head with a towel while in her lap....guess like a bird.

She said after a few times and Mila becomes more comfortable then we could try at home. :2smile:

Mila seemed good so we were happy!
 
#60 ·
A few more photos of Mila.

We are still working on a number of things - basic obedience, kennel training, and leash walking. I have at times been putting treats in bowls and hiding them around the yard. I think she enjoys this. Although, I think she is seeing the bowls first before smelling the treat. Is this ok for first steps....then maybe ramp up the type of treats? I assume in the end the treat will just be the item hidden about?


My wife made Mila a coat - Matches her own spots (Freckles) - her skin is covered with them. :grin2:



Another angle - if look closely can see some of her spots.


And here she is a lapdog - 79.6 lbs of her :laugh:
 
#62 ·
Silly Girl ! That's NO man chair ! Heck , a blind man could see that ! Look again Di ------ First off there are NO remotes on either of the arms !Number 2 - There is NO stack of beer cans next to the said chair in question ! Number 3 - No end table next to the chair to put his Doberman Mag. 's on ! This is just a start . Poor Scott ! >:)
 
#65 · (Edited)
Dremel - what we did to get Mocha used to it was this:

Had her lay down, and I sat down on the floor next to her. Had some kibble for treats. Started out with Dremel in low power so she would get used to the noise then gradually turned power up to the setting I wanted to use. I started out real slow, with one nail at a time, and just a little bit at a time, and she would get a treat after each nail. Just a second per nail at first. We did all 4 paws that way and yeah she got a lot of treats LOL. We did that every few days for a couple of weeks, than started with the treats after each paw was done and that's where we are now...all I have to do is say, "let's go do your nails" and she immediately goes to the container where her kibble is to make sure I get some :grin2: , then she goes to my home office so we can do those nails.

I never have learned the trick of getting the nails show dog short...her quicks refuse to back off and I'm not going to hurt her to get short nails...so we put up with the clicking on the wood floors. No biggie to us.
 
#66 ·
Dremel - what we did to get Mocha used to it was this:

Had her lay down, and I sat down on the floor next to her. Had some kibble for treats. Started out with Dremel in low power so she would get used to the noise then gradually turned power up to the setting I anted to use. I started out real slow, with one nail at a time, and just a little bit at a time, and she would get a treat after each nail. Just a second per nail at first. We did all 4 paws that way and yeah she got a lot of treats LOL. We did that every few days for a couple of weeks, than started with the treats after each paw was done and that's where we are now...all I have to do is say, "let's go do your nails" and she immediately goes to the container where her kibble is to make sure I get some :grin2: , then she goes to my home office so we can do those nails.

I never have learned the trick of getting the nails show dog short...her quicks refuse to back off and I'm not going to hurt her to get short nails...so we put up with the clicking on the wood floors. No biggie to us.
Aye - that will be the plan...I like the idea of just one nail at a time....keep her stress down. I am ok with the clicking on the wood floors. They are scratched from Molly and O.D. as is so also no biggie for us either :2smile:

Only issue I have seen with Mila - treats even fairly high-value treat if she doesn't want to do something or is a bit nervous the treat doesn't work. Even if I just give it to her....she won't even eat it. Just stares....so I back away and try again a different way...
 
#76 ·
MOD - with all out Dobers - when they were pups - I would at like the vet , I would work and work with them - I would tall them I was going to check there teeth , look in there ears , check there paws , everything but checking there temp. lol it really did work , the doc would always say something about how good they were when he did a checkup on them , now Kasia was the best at this , one day at the vets office , ole doc came and started to check her out - I asked if I could help , he laughed , he has knew us for a long time , he said sure , I looked at Kasia and pointed my figure at her and said show me your teeth and she peeled back her gum's and showed them to him - she really looked mean when she did that , then I asked her to show us her belly , she would lay down and then roll over with all 4 paws up in the air , Doc was about to bust a gut laughing , He said he wished everybody worked with there dogs like we did , it would make his job a lot easier , lol It just takes time working with them Mod , and I can see you two doing the same thing + it is so much fun to do .
 
#77 ·
Ha that is funny Doc. I did try some of that - probably not as much as I should have. I have thought to ride her over to the vets periodically even if not an appointment and just sit there in the waiting room with treats....just for a bit. Then take her back home. Get her used to it and not be a once in a while trip.

As I was reading and typing a thought came to me about Molly and O.D. - I think they know where we are going. When we would drive 8 hours to Mother-in-Laws, a few miles out or the turn down the road and they would start whining - a happy whine - and get excited. They knew where they were 8 hours later. When we would take them to the park 2 miles down the road - when we turned down the park road same thing happy happy happy.

Now go to vet and not so happy. Go to the Kennel we would drop them off while out of town for a week and not as happy. One time we got there opened the hatch they jumped out and immediately jumped back in..... And this was a pretty good place for Dobers. Just not with mom and dad.

Good advice from all - which reminded me I still need to read the post Rosemary did about the crate training website!
 
#79 ·
Keeping stuff concerning Mila in one post so I can find it for reference if needed :2smile:

We took Mila to the vet to have her anal glands expressed - 2nd time since we have had her. I have read a few posts concerning this. Read where pumpkin will help with firming up her stool, which seemed ok prior but decided to try.

However, with her second time to the vet for similar issue a couple of questions come to mind:
1. How much pumpkin? We are giving her a couple of tbs approx. with her meal.
2. We give her recommended amount of food for her weight approximately 4 cups per day (plus treats :2smile:) over 2 feedings. She has lost some weight from 79.6 to 77.5 or so. I notice she may not have as large of stools as previous dogs with same amount of food. Could this keep her from expressing naturally?

3. Also the tech at the vets said that having them expressed via them could cause problems down the road? I think she was saying Mila would always have to have them done this way if she doesn't. So trying to head that off.

Any other suggestions?

Otherwise she is doing great - she is definitely a Velcro dober!!! She really loves to play and run. I think she has more exercise with us which I think is one reason for her drop in weight. We have had her now for 3.5 months or so. I do not think 2lbs is too much but let me know if it is?

Could do with a bit later sleep in than 4am but in reality it is good for me to get up and do a few things before work! :grin2:
 
#80 · (Edited)
I think increased exercise is supposed to help with anal gland problems, as does weight loss. Since you've changed those things from her previous life, maybe this problem will start to ease up? I sure hope so.

(Though I don't think she is the overfed, lethargic couch potato whose anal gland stuff improves when diet and exercise is better--I'm just trying to spread a little hope :))
 
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