Taking Sophie to the vet Tuesday
I have Sophie scheduled for a vet visit this coming Tues. For one thing, she's a year on Tuesday and it's time for her check up, but really, there are a couple of issues that I need/want to discuss with the vet. I'm just posting here to try to draw on all of the sheepie experience so I can take a complete set of questions to the vet. 1. Sophie has had problems with urinary incontinence, mostly when she's asleep. She's been on 60 mg proparin 2x day for several months and until recently, was doing very well--no wet spots. But in the last week or 10 days, we've had a couple of wet spots, once when she was lying on top of me and my husband. Obviously from her behavior, she did not deliberately pee and she always has many, many opportunities to go out. Walks 5 times a day, and she's good about asking to go out when she needs/wants to go out. Sophie was spayed at 6 months. Also, at the beginning of March, we had a couple of very deep snows leaving our neighborhood blanketed in 30 inches of snow, plus whathever mounds the plows and snowblowers and shovels left. She could and did climb in the snow to do her business, but preferred lower areas. At this same time, she began to have accidents in the house again, which seems to have almost completely disappered now, but still, she had been absolutely reliable for a long time before the accidents in the house. As a younger pup, she sometimes wet as a way of manipulating us: she would have come inside after a nice long walk and play, with plenty of times to pee. After a short time, she wanted to go out again, and if we said no, sometimes she'd walk to a particular corner, look at us, pee and then run to the door, knowing she was about to be let out. But it has been several months since this occurred. There is a tiny possibility that she wasn't responsible for all of the wet spots, but none of us really believes it wasn't her. Suggestions? Behavior vs physical? This is not an issue I've ever had to deal with before, with any of my other dogs. I know I sound ignorant, but what can I say? I'll have her check for UTI (she doesn't seem to have a lot of urgency and seems to feel well) just in case. Any thing else I should have the vet look for? 2. In the last week, she's seemed to have a slight limp in her front left leg. No injury to leg or paw that I can see, no tenderness when I touch or even probe a little with my fingers. Comes and goes, worse in the evening. Doesn't seem to slow her down and she doesn't seem to feel bad. I am guessing it is just a pulled muscle. She's 15-20 lbs smaller than Sherman, who is much rougher than Archie, who is also 15-20 lbs heavier than Sophie. Suggestions? 3. Sophie continues to have some recurrent behavior problems, almost all having to do with food agression and agression/dominance with her littermate Sherman, who is beginning to stand up to her. It's mostly just noisy and unpleasant--no actual physical contact, or injury. Other than that, she likes to play with both Sherman and Archie, and any other dog or person she can get to play with her. Most of the time, she's very sweet and loving. She would like to rule the entire world, and is willing to settle for having all of the toys, food and attention. We don't allow this, of course, because it isn't good for any of us. I would just like to get her to a place where it isn't a daily struggle. She's done basic puppy classes and is good with basic commands. In our area, there are no more advanced classes available. The person who taught the puppy classes I've taken my dogs to can do one on one consults, at $50/hr, with a one hour in home and a follow up the next week. I want to be present for this training and my work schedule hasn't permitted me to schedule this so far. Does this sound reasonable in terms of price and the possibility of accomplishing much? I am willing to invest the time and money if it seems like a reasonable chance to help us learn to deal better with Sophie. Thanks for taking the time to read through this. Any and all advice is very much appreciated. Sophie's a great little girl, and in many ways very sweet, if also full of attitude. She's very smart--learns what she wants to learn very quickly. The boys are very mellow, which is good because I don't know how we'd cope with 3 dogs with Sophie's attitude. Lots of meds, I expect. For us. But the easy going nature of our other dogs has left us with less experience dealing with 'issues' than we would have otherwise had. |
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| First I think its smart to make a Vet visit. With a UTI, it is possible she cannot really control her bladder which would explain the accidents in the house. Could cause behavior problems as well. So, smart to go to Vet and rule out anything medically... that should always be the first step.
The private training is probably better than none but it is important for the owner to be doing the training. Most training is teaching us humans how to untrain the bad habits we taught our dog unknowingly  Do they have classes on Saturday perhaps so it won't interfere with your work?
I think the $50 for an hour of private lesson at your house sounds reasonable. But then again, I've always gone to group... Good luck and hope Sophie gets a clean bill of health so you can start on the behavior. |
| Unfortunately, the one on one is the only option I have aside from the puppy beginners classes Sophie has already passed. Sat. works in with both the trainer's schedule (she's also a vet tech at my vets) and mine, usually. And yes, she'd be training me to train Sophie. She's also the person who worked with my group puppy class.
Sophie adores other dogs and doesn't show the same sorts of aggression towards other dogs as she does with her brothers at meal time. She does tend to try to be possessive of other dogs' attention. In fact, ideally, she would be at the center of attention at all times, in her own little mind. This is improving as she's learning that the world doesn't work that way and that she gets more in the way of attention from humans, at least, if she behaves nicely. Mostly, she just wants first pick at everything. She doesn't get it. For one thing, it doesn't improve her behavior; for another, it's neither practical nor really fair. We expect her to wait just as the other dogs wait their turn. I am checking for UTI, although she's never had a positive urinalysis before. Urinalysis was done before putting her on the proparin, to rule out UTI, but was negative. She also isn't really acting like she has a UTI--on walks she'll pee once or twice, good amount, but not enormous like her brother. Not very frequent, small outputs. She has always needed to go out more often than her brother or any of my other dogs. I'm fine with this--we can accomodate her. Just thinking she picked up a bad habit when we had so much snow. This truly is improving, but honestly, I want new carpet and don't see the point if this is going to be an ongoing issue. |
| Hi,
So sorry you are having to go through this as it's hard when we think something is wrong with one of our furkids. It may be territorial peeing although not in common in females as in males. However you mentioned the youngest dog possibly challenging her status. You never said what the feeding arrangements were - if they aren't fed in a seperate room I'd highly suggest it. Some can handle eating in the same area while other dogs can't. That's all I can think of at the moment. Sending best wishes to you. Marianne and the boys |
| Good luck at the vets tomorrow.
Definitely sounds like an infection or incontinence problem. I had a sheepie with both of those issues and it was a problem that needed to be managed and at times was worse than other times. Definitely does not sound behavioral or on purpose in this particular instance. Sorry, I have nothing of value to offer regarding the aggression. Only that sometimes when they play they can be quite rough and noisey and sometimes sounds aggressive when in fact it is normal play. But only you can be the judge of that since you are there. Good luck! |
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