Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've done a whole bunch of research on fruits and stuff and apparently apples are fine, apple *seeds* (and branches, but only at some times of the year) are toxic..

That's a good point about the wolves..

I'm not sure about the nylabones, Kaiser's never had one, but the spearmint *dentabones* last him quite a while..

Why are you supposed to take them away when the knots are gone? The knots on most fabricated bones are so small, you'll end up throwing away 3/4 of the bone.. Is it a choking hazard or something? I can see that but Kaiser is so careful and I always watch him very closely.. I've never taken them away from Kaiser, he eats the entire thing.. I also don't follow a lot of the regular conventions though.. I figure if it works for us, we'll leave it that way.. I asked the vet today about good choices for bones and things, she said that the dentabones are great for ingredients and everything and that as they get older leaving them the entire bone is okay because they have better control over those things..

Now that I know more about rawhide Kaiser doesn't get it any more.. I think we may have different ideas of booda bones.. What are your booda bones? It's just that you said Cookie goes through them in a couple of days. The ones I'm talking about are made of thick, solid rope.. Kaiser never chews on his, ever. It's for fetch and sometimes tug-o-war purposes only..

If yours are different, maybe it's a Canada/US thing? I know Smarties mean different things across the border. Here smarties are slightly larger m&ms.. There they're little round candies in a roll, aren't they?

Well I grew up in Europe so I am educated on both kinds of Smarties. :-P I like ours better. :-P
Booda bones are very similar to Nylabones, they come bumpy and smooth, but are very similar in texture, but I don't think there is as much Variety as Nylabone has. If Kaiser has never had Buddah bones or Nylabones, that might be a good thing to introduce to him, they're pretty inexpensive and the Buddah bones usually last two to three days, and the nylabones a bit longer depending on the type. Cookie likes the edibles (They last like an hour) and the puppy bones, she doesn't care for the really hard ones. Here is the link for the Booda bones with dimples:
http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCTprd_id=845524441775929&ASSORTMENTast_id=2534374302023689&FOLDERfolder_id=2534374302026210&bmUID=1111497882798

And here is without dimples
http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCTprd_id=845524441806302&ASSORTMENTast_id=2534374302023689&FOLDERfolder_id=2534374302026213&bmUID=1111497882911

They just show the corn starch ones here, but they come in packages of three like this and they have different flavors like bacon and peanut butter and chicken.
Thanks for letting me know about the apples. They had turkey and apple baby food and I wanted to get some for Cookie but I wasn't sure if it would be safe or not so I opted for the Turkey and rice. But next time we will definitely try the apple!
As for the knots on the bone, it very well may be just for really young puppies. I just remembered reading it in my puppy book, but I'll have to go back and read the details. I could be wrong about that.

I'll have to try him with the nylabones.. I've never seen those booda bones of any kind here.. I do remember looking at all the different nylabones when I worked at petsmart but I didn't have a dog then so I only looked at them when we had to straighten the shelves

I think Kaiser would do fine with the extra hard kind.. He's a very, very hard chewer.. His jaws have gotten so strong that even Matt can barely pry them apart to take something Kaiser's not supposed to have.. I guess the strength is a good thing, but I'm running out of ideas on how to teach him "drop it".. treats don't work, and if he wants it, he keeps it, that's all.. He's starting to learn with toys though, then I guess we'll move up to other things..

Cookie was really good with learning "Leave it". I don't know why.
When we are playing fetch with her, I throw the ball, and she brings it back but usually doesn't drop it cause she wants to play tug with it, So I'll just sit there and pet her until she drops it, and then I praise her. Eventually she learned that the quicker she drops it, the quicker I will throw it. She is in the process of learning that some of her toys aren't for tugging. And as for dropping things she's not supposed to have, I think she learned that if she doesn't drop it, she is going to get a mouth full of our hands. And she's really good now even with that, I open her mouth and she just sits there with it open, it's so funny. Sometimes when I tell her to leave it, she'll just open her mouth so I can pick it out myself, it's funny to see her sitting there with her mouth wide open. But you said Kaiser has a really strong jaw so I don't know how well that would work, and it sounds like that's what you're trying to do anyways. Have you tried a squirt bottle? We don't do that with Cookie, but it might work for Kaiser. I think distracting him with something else might be like rewarding him for picking up something he's not supposed to, but I could be wrong. It's such a fine line.
Definitely try the Nylabones, and the Booda bones if you can find them, Cookie loves them. And they're really good for "quiet time". When Cookie is acting up, I tell her "Quite!" and give her a bone, and she usually lays down and chews on it for a while. Sometimes I have to hold the bone for her to get her into it lol.

It was strange with Kaiser, he seems to have come to us knowing "leave it". If he's starting to sniff something he shouldn't or getting into it we can say leave it and he will, which took zero training on our part, but once he's got something getting him to drop it is nearly impossible.

We have been using the squirt bottle because if I try to take something he really, really wants, he'll growl and snap. Not at Matt, but at me. However if he even sees the squirt bottle he won't drop it but he'll let me take it without too much of a fight. I haven't had to actually squirt it in a few weeks, he just sees it and knows he needs to behave better.

We walked for half an hour today though and barely had to turn around at all, so he's getting so much better with that. He still tries to jump at anyone who walks by though. But now it seems to have shifted from aggressiveness to "love me! pet me!".. I watch very carefully and keep his leash short but he tries to get to them and whines quietly. I honestly don't know what to do about that though. I usually go off to the side and make him sit and stay, but as soon as they walk by he tries to get to them. Distracting him with food or toys doesn't work either. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that yet..

Oh! I was so excited.. Sunday Matt's parents came to visit. Kaiser has met Matt's dad before but he's never seen Matt's mom. I got a kong ready with a little bit of cheese and lots of kibble and had him on a leash. I took it out just as they came up to the door and knocked. He looked at the door but stayed sitting looking at me.. Then we walked into the living room and I gave him his kong. He was so absorbed by it that he barely noticed Matt's parents sitting nearby. So we were all talking and by the time he finished his kong he was so used to them being there he went over, laid his head in Matt's mom's lap, and just stood there wagging his tail..

He never once barked, got excited, jumped up, or went crazy like usual in any form. And it was as if he'd known them for life, he just went over and asked to be pet. This is unheard of from him, he normally freaks out and jumps and barks and sometimes growls and nips, if he decides he doesn't like the person. I was so unbelievably happy, he was so friendly and happy with them, he even brought Matt's mom a toy so she could play with him..

If I believed in a god, I would thank him every day that Kaiser is so incredibly food motivated What an amazing trick, I was so thrilled..

Thats amazing! I am definitely going to have to try that! Her kong is going to turn from a bed only toy to and bed and people toy! I hope it works! Cookie is the same way when we have people over, she jumps and nips at everyone that walks in the door, playfully, but still unacceptably. She does the same thing when we see ANYONE on the street, even if they're 100 yards away, she just stares and whines and as soon as they're close enough, she tries to jump on them. All I do is stand on her leash and tell her to sit. Sometimes she sits, sometimes she doesn't. Usually she doesn't, not when she's that excited. But I think she is slowly but surely getting better. We had a party Saturday night and I managed to get her in a sit/stay on the couch while everyone was in the kitchen, until I felt she was behaving enough to go say hi. She did really good that night, I didn't have to put the leash on her at all.
Hopefully Kaiser will get better with "Leave it". I think we got really lucky with Cookie on that one. "Stay" too. She's doing great with that. When I feed her, I tell her to sit, then I put the food down and tell her to stay, then I can go in the other room for like 30 seconds and when I come back she is still sitting there. The other day I tried it with putting a treat on the floor and she didn't touch it until I told her it was ok. She didn't even look at it, she just stared right at me. Everytime we go in and out of the house, she has to sit and stay until we tell her it's ok to go through the door way. Even if I am on the back porch with the door open and she could easily come out, she sits in the doorway until I tell her it's ok. Oh and this I think is adorable. Ever since we got her, we have told her to sit before jumping up on the couch and now she sits everytime without us having to ask and doesn't jump until we tell her it's ok. But last night I discovered she does it even if we're not around! I was in the doorway and she didn't see me, and she approached the couch, sat down, and then jumped up. It was so cute! She's such a good girl! It's the little things like that that really make me feel good, especially when I am stressing about another problem she is having or something.

That is so cute, about jumping up on the couch.. Cookie is just so adorable and it sounds like you guys are doing an incredible job with her, she's going to be so well behaved as she gets older. Heh, don't you just feel like a proud new mom?

I know, it's so difficult sometimes not to get upset when they have problems with something specific but then you see all the other things that they do for you. It's hard not to forgive them (at least temporarily!) in light of all the times that they are good. Even better when you see that specific problem slowly getting better, it's just not quite where it should be yet..

It's great that this board is here and we have the opportunity to share these things and ask questions. It's been so insanely helpful, not only in learning some training skills but for support. There has just been one problem after another with Kaiser, although they all tie into the aggression thing. I was horribly frustrated a couple of times, to the point of tears that just would not stop. I was petrified that I would not be able to reverse his problems and in the long run he would bite someone and be euthanized. I felt like a new mother, not sure if I could handle what I'd gotten myself into and thinking things like "What if I do it wrong? Where is he going to end up?".. But thanks to all the encouragement from all you guys, and all the reminders of things that I had done right, we're sticking with it and doing incredibly well

We haven't had an aggressive incident in over 3 weeks now, huzzah for us! I know we won't really be out of the woods for well over a year, but 3 weeks is an amazing start..

That is so great! You and Kaiser are making incredible progress! You must be so proud of him, and yourself. You have done a wonderful job, even though some said it couldn't be done. You do still have a ways to go, but you know how much progress he has made. I am sure there will be an incident here or there in the future, but you are both headed in the right direction and you respect each other, thats the key. With that, you can do nothing but make progress from here on in.
I don't know what I would have done without this forum either. I just happened upon it one day, I think looking up crate training or something and read a few posts and was hooked. We wouldn't have made as much progress as we have without it. It has been a life saver. Jason says thanks to everyone too!! I pretty much go home everyday and tell him everything that I learned on here that day. He knows all about Kaiser and always asks me how he's doing, and he's seen the pictures, he thinks he's gorgeous!
I'll have to get some new pics of Cookie to post. I made a website for her, I think most of the pictures I have posted on here, but there are a few you haven't seen.
If you want to check it out, here's the link
http://www.livejournal.com/~cookie226/
It's kind of cheesy, but it's cute. I still have some tweeking to do with it, but it's viewable.
Give Kaiser a big hug for me and tell him I am proud of him!