[nagdu] Stress Issues

[Tami Kinney]

Lora,

Well, it's impossible to say for sure, but the shedding at this time
could be due to the time of year and/or heat. Are you still in the
Pacific Northwest near the same university? I haven't been paying huge
amounts of attention to the weather that far to the east of us, but into
eastern Oregon, at least, it's been a pretty unusually cool and damp
summer. So a lot of people here nearer the coast are complaining that
their dogs are shedding like it's spring now that we're getting actual
summer temperatures. For this time of year, they're pleasantly cool, but
compared to what we were having, it's pretty dramatically hot. So I
don't know if that is affecting your dog's shedding.

As you say, stress can also be a cause of excessive shedding.  Is he
showing behaviors that might indicate he is feeling more stressed than
usual? 

Since letting him run off leash is out of the question and he doesn't
run on the flexi-lead, that does limit your options for giving him
exercise beyond the in-house tug of war and those types of play. Um...Is
it possible for you to take him on long leash walks using your cane so
that he can just hang out with you and stop and smell the flowers or,
well, what other dogs have left on them? Mitzi and I do this sometimes,
just to go out to spend some us time enjoying each other's company.
There's not as much opportunity for walks that I find satisfying, but we
do manage to have a brief enjoy together. /smile/ When we lived where we
had more access to different routes and places and environments, then we
could go out for a walk and even maybe grab a cup of coffee and hang out
in outdoor seating area to see our friends go by. Or have coffee with
them, too, since everybody in the neighborhood, practically, had a dog
and stopped by the same pet shop for food and the same toys, then
grabbed coffee at the same little shop and then wen to the park with
their dog in the same place... In the morning. Evenings or afternoons,
you could all see each other in passing (and dogs, too!) at various
places all around. Loved it! Couldn't afford it, with the medical I
needed to pay out of pocket, but I loved it. Anyway, When we are going
around up at the corner market area here while DD is shopping, or in
various shopping centers or malls, one can see people just hanging with
their dogs enjoying each others' company. /smile/ I'm generally working
Mitzi in harness, but once in awhile we hop up to the corner store
without it just to hang around outside while DD runs his errands. Mitzi
seems to get a lot out of it, actually.

Don't know if your dog would find anything like that satisfying or
relaxing, but it's a thought. In the winter, we do sing/dance/play,
mostly for Daisy's benefit, since she is not the kind of dog you take
out in public to hang around with. She does love riding in the truck,
but DD goes crazy because the silly hound gets so excited about getting
to go that she doesn't so much shed as throw hair into the air in
globs. /lol/ I keep telling him that since he's not working for another
month or so, at least, he should just leave it be and stop worrying
about it. If we want to dress up to go somewhere, we can always put
towels over the seat to keep the hound hair off our good clothes, can't
we? I'm serious, but he is not amused. So when we take Daisy on a road
trip, he spends the whole time complaining about how long it's going
take him to vacuum every last hound hair out of the truck when we get
home... She gets so happy that he's talking to her while she's riding
with him in the truck that she bounces around to get herself more
excited and shakes as hard as she can, sending clouds of white and black
and tan hair everywhere. Mitzi and I just look out the passenger side
window and laugh our heads off, agreeing that they are both nuts.

But I digress. I'm not sure that traveling with Daisy reduces Mitzi's
stress, but it doesn't seem to bother as much as I had thought it would,
either. Well, loner road trips get trying for everybody, especially on
the way home because Daisy can't contain herself and neither can anybody
else, including tranquilizers, so Mitzi just has to stay out of the way
wile DD drives and I keep Daisy from being a safety hazard. She gets a
little grim after awhile but she deals somehow. /smile/

Some people recommend doggy puzzle toys, although they can be spendy.
The idea is that they keep the dog's mind busy figuring out how to solve
the puzzle to get the reward. Fun for your dog for hours! Well, maybe
your dog or somebody else's dog. /lol/ Mine got the most complicated
puzzle I could find out of my hand while I was still fiddling with the
box, trying to figure it out and had the puzzle solved before I had
noticed what happened. Then I was entertained for awhile trying to come
up with ways to make the puzzle entertaining for my dog... Which did
keep her entertained. After awhile, I had to have the neighbor's kid
come over to help me make the puzzle entertaining for the poodle, and
they had a lot of fun together while I gave up ever getting anything
useful done again in my life. /lol/ When we moved in here, I put the
puzzle back together, showed it to Daisy, and she took it to shred it
thoroughly without bothering to solve it. I did manage to save a piece
or two that fell out of it for her to shred over the next week or so
along with all of Mitzi's other shreddable toys. Mitzi seemed a little
sad about it all, but every time I would pull out a stuffed toy of hers
I'd managed to preserve, she would give it to Daisy to shred, so I gave
up. 

Would your dog like a nice coonhound to play with? /lol/ I don't know if
it would help his stress, but it would give me a little peace and quiet
with my poodle. /smile/

Beyond that, I'm afraid I've got nothing. I've used some calming touch
for Mitzi's youthful high excitement and Daisy's high anxiety... Come to
think of it, I work some of the bits and pieces that have worked on
Daisy still in our daily routine. Mostly, I put both hands on her jaws
just under her ears and massage lightly in a circular motion, the rub
her throat an massage her neck a little. I also give her an ear pull,
which she likes, but that's not calming touch, I don't think. Rubbing
the ends of the ears between your thumbs and forefingers is, and our two
dogs both seem to find gently stroking of the ears relaxing. Along with
cuddles and other forms of spoiling. I think Julie has learned quite
abit about Tellington touch. I've just taken bits and pieces that work
with Daisy, along with a lot of guesswork style physical therapy because
I'm pretty sure she has a lot of phantom leg pain, and that seems to
help. Also, I rub her jaws and give her other massages in some areas
because of old injuries. I just stuck with what worked with her. Same
with Mitzi now. I just do what she enjoys. She's grown up enough in her
work, somehow, that she's just pretty easy going about things, if in a
poodley way. Also, I think that I observe and feel for signs of stress
build up I've learned during my time with her since she was a pup, so I
don't even notice what I do anymore. A lot of it is something you
develop over time according to what works for your dog and you.

Best in getting it figured out and your doggy back to normal.

Tami

On Mon, 2011-09-05 at 09:08 -0600, Lora wrote: 
> Hello List:
> I know we've probably had this discussion before but I would
> appreciate it if we could have it again. My dog is loosing a lot of
> hair and I think it is due to stress since he is on a good diet. I
> can't trust him off leash since he doesn't listen at all. I have tried
> letting him play on a flexilead but he won't run around. I play with
> him tug of war and other games like that but I don't think he's
> getting enough stress out of his life. Do you have any suggestions?
> Thank You.
>