Update on My Puppy

He's doing great! He appears to have completely recovered from his bout with Parvo... if it even WAS a bout with Parvo!!

The lady who I got him from told me since he'd had one set of vaccinations which included Parvo, he would show positive for it whether he had it or not. There was some question as to whether he'd had his first series of shots and he was due for his second set. My friend arranged his neuter surgery with her vet, and we never got it clear whether he had received shots or not. When I finally got to talk to her a few days after he was started on the strong antibiotics and other medications, she said he had had his shots when he was neutered.

He had been acting like he didn't feel well for a few days, so maybe he did have a very mild case of Parvo. Usually when puppies have Parvo they have trouble keeping on weight... not my LJ. He weighed 23.4# at his vet visit on Friday the 19th and today he weighs 31.4#. He was also dehydrated at the vet's office so once he was hydrated he probably weighed more.

He is doing very well, he LOVES boiled eggs. We got overloaded with eggs from our chickens and I decided to boil them all and crush them up and give them back to the chickens. As it turns out, the dogs all love boiled eggs. Usually they get a raw egg every day, but only eat the yolk and leave the white to soak into the ground. We hand them an egg, they drop it to break it. So I peeled eggs and gave them the egg and they dropped it to break it. :-)

LJ is doing very good with his training -- we dropped out of the weekly puppy training classes since the vet says he'll be "shedding Parvo" for 30 days. It has gotten too hot anyway. He sits on command without hesitation, he is doing good on "down" and I am teaching him to lay on his side also. I am teaching him hand commands, and he follows them for "sit" and "down". The laying on the side exercise is because I had an altercation with him the other morning where I wanted to rub his belly (a dominance thing -- he loves it and at the same time I am reinforcining my pack leader position to him) and he growled at me. So I am teaching him to lay on his side for treats. I am also teaching him a hand command to lie on his side, and eventually will teach him to lie on his right side or left side with the hand command.

A few days ago, I had a breakthrough on my worries about his becoming aggressive. I had a vague memory of a dog of ours becoming aggressive and we had to have him put to sleep. I finally asked my sister and my mother what had happened. Fritzi was a daschund. I remembered that he bit me one time on my pinky finger. He was trying to go under the house and I stopped him and he whirled and bit me. When I asked my sister, she said our stepfather had cornered him under a bed and was viciously jabbing a broom at Fritzi trying force him out. Fritzi ended up getting pieces of the broom bristles in his muzzle and got blood poisoning. My memories were so unclear that I realized it must have been very traumatic for me. Then I realized that Fritzi was the last dog I had truly loved. I've had dogs since then... but never really bonded with them. I realized I had closed my heart off to dogs, to prevent myself from being hurt like that ever again. When I talked to my mother, she confirmed my sister's story, and she also confessed that she used to antagonize Fritzi until he would growl and snap at her. She said she would never do that now, but back then thought it was funny. That was a long time ago... 33 years. But it was a very important piece of information, and I applaud her for being honest and sharing with me. Because it helps me understand that played a part in Fritzi's turning aggressive, as did my stepfather being vicious and abusive towards him.

I had been freaking out about LJ, like I tend to do... leaping from A to Z within moments... "Oh GOD, he growled, he's going to turn human aggressive, we're going to have to put him to sleep!" And then becoming depressed and sad, and confused about what to do. Do I correct the growling or not? The positive training people say NEVER correct your dog for growling because then you train them to not growl and that is why we end up with so many dogs biting without warning. But Cesar Millan issues a swift correction for growling. I tend to lean heavily to the "pack leader" theory of dog training. I can see some good in the "positive" training but some of their ideas are flawed in my opinion.

Back to the freaking out -- jumping to conclusions and the worst case scenario -- I have another area where I do this... with vehicles. When I was growing up, between the years of my father leaving (age 5) and my mother marrying my stepfather (age 9), we didn't really have a car. We had to make our way around on public transit, or rely on my grandmother to rescue us when we missed the last bus of the day. We had to walk to the store and carry the heavy bags of groceries home. We had two cars during that time, but when our sky blue Volkswagen broke down with a blown head gasket (costly repair), my mother just called someone to tow it away. Then my grandparents gave me us a car and that one broke, and then it was gone, too. Those four years impacted me to strongly that anytime my vehicle even gives the slightest hint of breaking down, I'm freaking out, gone from A to Z "Oh GOD, the car is breaking, we aren't going to have a car!!" So I have to keep reassuring myself, "When cars break, you get them FIXED. When cars break, you get them FIXED!"

So now that I realize my great fear and apprehension about LJ, when he growls, I reassure myself that he gets a correction and we go on. He isn't going to just turn aggressive. Unless my FEARS bring that about.

When I was growing up, I would repeat two scripture verses to myself to keep from being fearful. One was Job 3:25 "The thing which I greatly feared is come upon me..." that is the part I remember. The rest of it is, "...and that which I was afraid of is come unto me." The other verse was II Timothy 1:7 "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." I still repeat those two to myself, in times of fear. Thankfully, I don't have many fearful times as an adult. I feel pretty safe and secure most of the time.

Fear is not a good thing... and sometimes violent parents can instill great fears in their children. As I was working through my issues with aggressive dogs and violent stepfathers, I realized that my children don't even know the kind of fear I experienced as a child. The unfortunate thing is, because we weren't experiencing broken bones or worse, myself and my siblings didn't really think the abuse was that bad. Looking back on it, it's a wonder we made it out with our minds intact. sigh

Uh, that took a downward spiral... the good thing is, again, I don't experience that kind of fear, and neither have my children. And LJ is doing great and he's going to be a wonderful dog! I am envisioning him being like "Daddy" one of Cesar's dogs that he keeps in his pack sometimes.

Until next time.