BonBonMom

Background: My Newf is around 18 months old. When he was a puppy, we did all sorts of socialization including with children. But around 6 months old, he developed a fear towards children. We continued to work on it and the problem seemed went away. But around 13 months old, that nervousness/fear toward children resurfaced again. This time is not as easy, because he is a big boy now. Luckily, after long searches, we got to know a very good canine behaviourist. We have been working with her for few months and it's progressing slowly but nicely. We learn about clicker training, we learn about how to introduce him to a children environment and how to break his eye contact constantly to ease away the tension, how to play certain games with children etc.... There is definitely improvement. He is now able to recover much faster when he shows nervousness, couple weeks ago he even played with a kid in the dog park for quite a while. But there are still lots to be done, he is still nervous when kids suddenly approaching him or a group of children running toward us. He never got to the stage that he learns to bite, only warning barks. But barks coming from a 140lbs dog is quite different than coming from a chihuahua. Other than this issue, he is a perfect dog all around...well behaved at home, good with strangers and dogs.

Me and my partner never plan to have children. Not many of our closed friends have young children so he will stay with us forever even his issue with children does not go away. And he did not react to children during walks, only if suddenly they start approaching him before he gets comfortable.

I know lots of people have experience working with dogs that have this issue before. Could you kindly share some of your stories? So I can learn from other people experiences. I know this kind of therapy takes long time and you can't simply push it too quick. I have all the time and love for my dog to help him.

There are different thoughts on this subject in the internet. Even the vets can't really give me a straight answer. Some said no good, some said should be ok.

My dog originally was on Orijen (around 40% crude protein), but I was starting to worry about the high protein content in the kibbles. Orijen white paper said dogs' natural diet (such as raw diet) has similar protein content...so we should feed dogs with higher protein kibbles. But lately my dog creatinine level starts getting to the normal high range instead of the mid range before he started on Orijen.

I am thinking to shift him to NOW! Grain Free which has a 26% crude protein instead. Anyone knows more about this subject.

It seems that my dog's creatinine level always at the normal high range (if 141 is the top of the range, he is around 138 to 140 area). BUN is normal and urine test came back with very good concentration. My dog is a 17 mths old Newfie, with active lifestyle and good diet.

Anyone has similar problem with their dogs? The vet is not too concerned at this stage. He is going to get neutered next month and we will do a kidney ultrasound as well.

Anyone

One of the animal hospitals near my house has laser surgery service. I made an enquiry and they told me they can use laser surgery on neutering. Apparently laser surgery is more accurate and the wound will heal faster. My giant breed dog is going to get neutered in the next month or so. Given his size and age (around 16 mths), I like the sound of the laser surgery. Have anyone used this laser surgery on neutering/spaying? Any feedback is appreciated.

P.S. just in case people are interested why I did not neuter him younger...he is a giant breed and it's better for this breed to wait as closed to 18 mths as possible, so physically he is more mature (bone, muscles etc)

Thanks.

Before people start beating me up on dogs should be with the pack inside the house... :), I work at home so my dog is with me 24/7. He has access to every single corner of the house other than the roof. He sleeps beside our bed. But he is a big newfie and between staying inside or laying at the fenced in backyard watching the birds, chasing the frogs.....no brainer, I can't keep my screen door closed. Now the weather is fine, but I live in Canada. Winter time is brutal but it does not seem affects him at all. -20C and he is still running around normal at the dog park. So I will expect him (15 mths now) continues wanting to go to the backyard in the winter. He is my first dog. Do I need to get him a dog house or some type of set up or don't bother and just trust that he will come in if he feels cold? Thanks.

As a responsible dog owner, I am very big on socializing and training. So tonight's event is very embarrassing and I feel terrible. BonBon is a 13 months Newfoundland. We don't have children, so even we take BonBon out regularly to see kids, he still reacts to kids occasionally. Tonight, we were walking around the neighbourhood and a kid who knows BonBon came over. I gave the kid a cookie to feed the dog. Everything seems OK and out of the blue, BonBon barked at the kid. I recalled the kid was staring at him when this happened. He did not bite (thank god) and no one gets hurt. For sure it's a sign that BonBon needs more exposure to young kids but when you don't have kids, there is a limit what you can do. Since BonBon was a puppy, everytime we saw a kid, I let the kid to feed him cookie....BUT now I don't think it helps much given what happened tonight.

My dog is totally wrong here and I feel very ashamed this is happening especially we spent so much time in training and socialization. To all experienced dog owners, any advice you can give. Do you think this is related to his age given he is still a relatively young pup? Do you think this is something that will get better as he gets older?

Note: Other than this, he is a well socialized and friendly dog that I took everywhere. I took him to bookstore, hair salon, hardware store, even shoe shopping.

BonBon is my first dog and he is a Newf. He does not have ear infection but what are the symptoms of ear infection? I smell his ears regularly. Any other signs I can watch out.

Other than antibiotics, any holistic remedy or preventative method I can try? Thanks.

My Newf is one year old, around 135lbs. His sleeping position is either sleeping on the side with legs stretched out or laying on his stomach with front legs stretched out and back legs to the side.

Should I get a Donut Bed or Big Round Cushioned Bed? Thanks. I am thinking about the Bowser brand.

My dog (1 year old Newfoundland) got diarrhea the night before. Nothing serious and he is on a plain rice and boiled ground beef diet for 24 hours. Planning to shift back to normal diet tonight. It works well, no more diarrhea but it works too well that he has not had a bowel movement for 24 hours. When he got diarrhea I did take him to the vet and he is currently on flagyl.

Is it normal that dogs won't have bowel movement for a day after diarrhea? I guess he pretty much cleaned up during his diarrhea.

This is the background.

Current dog, BonBon (a Newfoundland) is 11.5 mths old, male, quite a good boy 95% of the time :). Because he is a giant breed, he will get neutered when he is closer to 18 to 24 mths. Planning to get a second dog and I want a dog that can take the cold and is sturdy enough to play with him. I like them age wise not too far apart. BonBon's personality is very pleasant, not dominant. I am leaning towards a second newfie instead of another breed. I most likely will get a female, breeder told me this combination is better than two males. No issues on space, time and finance.

In your opinion, when is the best time to get a second dog? Now? Or a bit later?

This is the background.

Newfoundland 130lbs, 11 months old, used to be very comfortable with car rides to the point that he would prefer being alone in the car than being alone in the house.

Last Thursday, I took my SUV (and the dog's car) in for service and changing the snow tires out. They provided me another SUV rental. So whole day BonBon (his name) would get in and out the rental car OK, he wanted to get out faster than normal but I just assumed this was a new vehicle behaviour. At the end of the day, I took him with me back to the dealership to pick up the car. I asked the service guy to put the snow tires on one side and leave room for BonBon on the other side. I put the ramp that I used to load him up down, he got up. But the moment he got up, he just ran out. I figured may be the snow tires freaked him out. So I took them out, and he still would not go in. Pretty much took me 30 mins to lure him in. Since then, he did not want to get into the car anymore, everytime was a struggle.

So during the weekend, I traded the SUV with a minivan. Seems drastic :) but I thought about getting a minivan for quite a while, he is growing and growing, the SUV is getting too small. Plus using the ramp getting him in and out is a hassle, for a minivan, he can just walk in easily.

So get the van home. I threw treats inside and he seems OK going in and out by treats. Then we went for a ride, (to the Pet store to get treats). But then after he realized this "thing, ie minivan" is a car, he does not want to get in again. But at the end, he did get in thru treats. And I find that if I don't make a big deal try to use treats to lure him in, he will eventually walk in. May be he thinks "hmmm, mommy tries to get treats to lure me in too dramatically, very suspicious"

What do you guys think? Is he going thru another fear stage? It seems that I am doing all the right things, treats and going to the store to get treats to make the ride a positive experience. Any extra tips?

We are moving to a new house in few mths. By that time, my Newfie pup will be 13 mths. The new house is in the same neighbourhood, only few houses down the street. He is completely house trained and he comes to work with me. He is not a nervous dog but by nature he takes a bit more time than his littermate brothers to approach new environment.

Any tips to help his transition? I am planning to take him to the new house to smell around often in the next few mths.

I want to read as many books as possible from different dog trainers/behaviourists to broaden my knowledge. I know lots of people like Culture Clash and the Cesar Millan series. Any other recommendations? Thanks.

Thanks.

My Newfie puppy came back from the backyard and dropped a frozen dead frog in front of me and sat SO PROUDLY. "Thanks, mommy will just put the gift in the garbage bin for now and I will savour later" :)

Fellow dog owners, what are your reactions when your dog present you gift like this? I mean in our mind, it's SO GROSS but in our dogs' mind, it is a treasured gift for mommy/daddy. I don't want to hurt his feeling.

Just curious, BonBon is my first dog. He is a Newfie 8 mths old and he is 99.9% house trained, the 0.1% is because of mommy's fault. He does not chew furniture or shoes, but do have the puppy naughty in him such as shredding the paper in the waste basket and pull the tissue out the tissue box... :)

I only feed my dog super premium kibbles...currently I am on Wysong (www.wysong.net). I always add couple tbsp of good human food such as pumpkin, salmon, yogurt etc to the kibbles. I also homebaked all my dog treats. Given all these good things, my Newfie puppy tends to pick up Giardia quite easy. Couple of my friends recommend me to switch to raw diet. I know a lot of benefits (from internet) but I also read stories about the risk. Could anyone give me some reality/advice on their experiences in feeding raw?

This is not a question to draw debate about "intact = irresponsible"

As most giant breed owners aware, there are lots of talks about if we neuter our dogs before they reach their structural maturity, there could be potential issues such as bone problem.

From a physiology stand point, it makes sense. One of the functions of testosterone is growth. But like many medical discoveries, I think we are still in the early stage in this subject. I want to get a sense on how many giant breed dogs who got neutered before one year of age and have seen problems related to bone structure or behaviour.

My puppy is a Newfoundland. His last washroom break is 10pm at night. Proud of him..able to hold so long at night given he is a slowly mature giant breed.