Thank you for all the welcomes and good thoughts. I did go get a
snuggly jacket for her, and a larger crate, and will try this. When
we put the jacket on she did go outside and go potty. She's got such
long legs that I needed to upgrade her crate anyway, she's probably
about 14" from floor to top of head, standing, and about 12 - 14
pounds. She's hopefully fully grown now (she's about 7 months
old...) as my daughter wanted a lap dog. This dog can leap onto our
bed (which is a raised platform bed) with ease. She truly reminds me
of one of Santa's flying reindeer. I'll have to send a picture. We
just love our little Gabby!
Lynn
On Oct 9, 2011, at 8:28 AM, [email protected] wrote:
Sorry your Chi has had so many problems. I have no advise to
offer. All I can say is how lucky he is to have found you and your
daughter to love him and try to help him.
Gloria
In a message dated 10/8/2011 10:38:08 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
[email protected] writes:
Hi everyone,
I've been a member for awhile but have not posted much, just
following the posts. I wrote in for advice over a year ago about
my chihuahua who is somewhat disabled and received so many helpful
replies from so many of you but you may think this is weird but I
was so overwhelmed by all the responses that I just sort of went
into hiding, lol. It was too stressful for me and still is. I
changed to daily digest but today, changed back to traditional and
am able to read all the posts.
My chihuahua is about 10 years old and we got him when he was about
two years old from a man who said he found it abandoned. He has so
many problems but as you can imagine, we love him dearly. He has a
humped back which the doctor said is from some condition of the
spine and surgery is the only thing that might help but even then,
they couldn't guarantee it would help and we really couldn't afford
to pay $8000+ not knowing if he would come through. When he was
neutered, he ended up not being able to bark for over a year and I
was so upset with my vet that I changed and here he was our vet for
over 20 years. They had several doctors on the staff and I just
felt like they were taking our money by repeatedly taking xrays and
other tests and he wasn't improving. Then he began having trouble
walking, and for a year, his front paw turned inward so he had to
walk on his knuckles. I put a bandaid on there so walking on the
concrete wouldn't hurt him. Then a year later, I changed doctors
and it was the same thing, they wanted to do more xrays and my
daughter refused, saying he already had enough xrays and what were
they doing for him. He did have a cyst on his back but the doctor
fixed that and where they shaved the hair, it's funny because the
hair hardly grew back and you could see the partially bald spot.
Just lately I notice hair growing back and it's strange that this
hair is longer and softer than the rest of his hair. Well, the
strangest thing happened on this visit. When we took the bandaid
off his paw for the doctor to check him over, when we left the
office, he was able to walk normally on that foot again, we just
couldn't understand it. After about a year, he is now walking
again on his knuckle. In case you're wondering why we never had
anything done for him, it's because our first vet (his assistant)
just couldn't find out what was causing the problem which is why we
changed vets. And we weren't happy with our second vet because
they again wanted to do nothing but take more xrays. Anyways, I'm
so sorry for this detailed email but this is why I stayed away from
this group because I didn't think there was anything that could be
done.
He's a strange dog, he comes to us on his own terms. When my
daughter is holding him (it's her dog), no one can touch him, he
bites. Then when I'm holding him, my daughter ca't touch him. In
the ten years that we've had him, he has always barked at my
husband and is not friendly with him. But in the past year or so,
when he needs to go potty and my daughter or I are busy and can't
take him out, we can give him to my husband and he won't bite
although he makes a soft growl, we have to laugh. That's the only
time my hubby can touch him. Or when my hubby is sitting on the
sofa and we place our "Chucho" on his lap, he'll stay there. When
I try to cuddle him too close, he'll turn his head and try to
attack me and it's lucky my relfexes are as quick. Only a few
times when he comes to me on his own, he can be cuddly and put his
face next to mine but rarely.
I meant to say when he walks, his back legs spread apart in a ways
so it's hard for him to walk. In our house, we have to have rugs
down the hallway, otherwise, he'll slip.
Thank you so much for listening, I'm glad I got this all off my
chest. What prompted me to write was about the potty thing. Our
Chucho is very well trained and looks at us in a certain way when
he has to go. When it's raiining, I'll use an umbrella but now my
daughter puts an old rug near our front door and he knows to do his
business on it. Once in ahile he might have an accident in the
house but it's usually when he can't get our attention, we might be
napping or something. He's good in holding his poop though we notice.
Thanks again for listening,
Violet
--- On Sat, 10/8/11, Joan Croft <[email protected]> wrote:
From: Joan Croft <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: [Chihuahuas] new member
To: [email protected]
Date: Saturday, October 8, 2011, 7:41 PM
My two use puppy pads – usually during the night, or if I am sick
in bed. They both go outside also. We had a few very warm days
and Dolly didn’t want to go outside, but she is too proud to go
potty inside when it is daylight. So she started going out the
door and walking behind the patio furniture to right off the
concrete and then would run back the very same way. Desi was doing
OK in the heat, but when it was raining here a couple weeks back,
neither wanted to really go out…they would cry by the door but when
I opened it they would sniff the humidity and turn around and stay
inside. I had an empty space right outside the door against the
house, so I put a puppy pad there (it was too far in to get wet
from the rain) and they actually went on that puppy pad. I have
one of those puppy pad holder trays, so I am going to put that one
outside so that the wind doesn’t fold up the corners. Maybe
something like that – a compromise – will help.
Joan, Dolly Dee & Desi Lou
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Pam Dean
Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2011 4:16 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Chihuahuas] new member
I am a big fan of wee pads. My two are both wee pad trained in
addition to going outside. Expecially the 3lb one, his bladder is
so little, he could not last eight hours for sure. But both were
crate trained and x-pen trained. It sounds like the honeymoon
period is over lol and u must go back to basics. She must not be
allowed free access to the house until you have this under
control. If you don't want to confine her to a crate for 8 hours,
perhaps an x-pen with wee pads and a bed. And frequent trips
outside with treats and praise, praise, praise when she does what
is expected. Start from the beginning, like u are training a
puppy. They are very smart and when they know what the rules are,
they will be equal to the task.
Pam
From: Lynn Galliano <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Saturday, October 8, 2011 2:27 PM
Subject: [Chihuahuas] new member
Greetings,
I joined this group because in July we adopted a rescued Chi mix
(don't know for sure but we think terrier) who was 4 months old at
the time. She is super smart (her name is Gabby) and funny,
talkative, has very long legs and can jump over our basset hound like
a reindeer, she's wonderful in every way. We potty trained her in
one week's time. Then last week it began raining here (Northern
California). She refused to go outside through the dog door, and
though we still walked her, has now "forgotten" how to go potty
outside. She is going all over the house. She never had other
issues either until the rain, but we came home to our leather sofa
torn up and unstuffed and the kitchen wall chewed and plaster all
over the floor. Has anyone else experienced this? Do I need to
make her "warmer?" My husband hates dogs in clothing, but I need to
do something because she won't go out now even when it's not raining
and 70* outside :-( I notice she shakes a bit when its cold and
loves the sun. All advice welcome, our 6 year old basset hasn't
been as challenging so I'm not up on training as much as I should be.
Thank you in advance,
Lynn
