The Official "Dogs of the DMF" Thread

[Stella]

Jack does look like he has setter in him!  Beautiful!   

And RIP AdamX's pup.          No doubt yours is another who was a family member like so many of ours are. 

[Howie]

Oh man, sorry to hear AdamX.

[AdamX]

Thank you to everyone, you really don't realize how close to your dog you are before they are gone.
Had the privilege to bring him to work with me from day one, he became our little mascot at work. Colleagues was always bringing him treats. One colleague even bought him a new bed so he would have his own place at work.


PS!
Jack looking good there, and yes i would definitely say setter!

[triangleforge]

sorry to hear about all the injured and deceased here, but it really shows everyones love for mans best friend.

This is Jack.  They told us lab mix at the pound, but he seems to have a lot of setter in him.  Pretty skinny, and graceful in the woods.

I dunno... looks rabid to me!!!

Just kidding -- he looks like a beauty, and I'm a sucker for snow dogs -- neither of ours quite fits the bill.

[TwoWheels]

Here's another shot of Jack.  He had some health issues a couple of years ago.  We were out on a mountain bike ride and he started limping.  He walked it off and made it home without limping, but after that he would be fine, then limp, then be fine again.  We took him to the vet, and it turned out he had a luxating patella.  The vet recommended surgery to deepen the bone groove to better hold in the knee cap.  This was going to require him to be crated for 6 weeks for recovery, and he was likely to have arthritis afterwards.  My wife and I were pretty concerned as this sounded like pretty invasive treatment compared to the seemingly minor temporary discomfort he seemed to have when it luxated.  We didn't feel the need to do surgery right away so we decided to hold off and look for options. 

My wife found a holistic vet in town and we went to see her.  She was glad we did because there were certainly things to try in our case before resorting to surgery.  One of the first things she changed was diet.  No more kibble (you try eating cheerios for every meal).  Jack now eats raw meat, steamed mixed vegetables, and rice for his meals.  We can prepare several days worth of food at a time and store in the fridge so then individual meals are easy to prepare.  Some of the other remedies included Thuja Occidentalis, Glucosamine, Univera, multi-vitamins, and rubbing lemon grass oil into the joint.  We did this for a few months, and kept him on a leash with short walks to prevent him from taxing the joint.  After a few months we were able to go on longer walks and let him off leash a little.  A few months more and he was going on longer hikes with me off leash.  We were able to stop the remedies and just kept him on the good diet.  Last spring I carefully started mountain biking with him and he went out with me all season.  It's been well over a year now since the last time his patella luxated.

I have to admit I was skeptical at first.  This experience opened my eyes.  I know there is no guarantee that any of the remedies cured his problem and that it's possible it was simply the downtime that helped.  That said, I know we'll be exploring options if new issues come up.

[Pip]

Jack's a very handsome fellow! Glad to hear all is well on the health front.

I have to go clean muddy pitbull footie-prints off of my wood floor. Y'all have a good night.

[duccarlos]

Here's Lexi:



And her being her usual daytime lazy self. She's a bit more active later in the day when we usually go to the dog park:



I apologize for the bad phone photos.

[SacDuc]

Man, you people have little dogs.   



That is Jasper the 2 y.o. Great Dane
Fritz the 1 y.o Dutch Shepard (we think)
and Bogart the 2 y.o Leonberger (we think)

They are all rescues and they are all still growing. And eating. And pooping. A lot.

sac

[Triple J]

Nice Dane!

Here's mine (rescue; 7.5 years old; 125 lbs) hanging out with her best friend (Pit/Lab rescue; 6 years old; 75 lbs).  



...and sitting with me on the couch. She's not allowed on the couch, but really...what can you do? 

[AdamX]

Man, you people have little dogs.  



That is Jasper the 2 y.o. Great Dane
Fritz the 1 y.o Dutch Shepard (we think)
and Bogart the 2 y.o Leonberger (we think)

They are all rescues and they are all still growing. And eating. And pooping. A lot.

sac

Nice little pack there! Got a soft spot for Great Danes, especially when they havent had there ears cropped  

[SacDuc]

Nice Dane!

Here's mine (rescue; 7.5 years old; 125 lbs) hanging out with her best friend (Pit/Lab rescue; 6 years old; 75 lbs). 

She's beautiful!  

I can't wait until our little (80lbs) black one gets a bit older and settles down some.

Our Dane is a big lazy baby.


sac

[Triple J]

Our Dane is a big lazy baby.

Ours too. She'd be happy with pets in place of walks if it wasn't for the black one (Gabby)...especially if its raining.

[AdamX]

Nice Dane!

Here's mine (rescue; 7.5 years old; 125 lbs) hanging out with her best friend (Pit/Lab rescue; 6 years old; 75 lbs).  



...and sitting with me on the couch. She's not allowed on the couch, but really...what can you do? 

Picture of you and her in the sofa got me laughing, she looks a bit cross-eyed in the picture and those ears  Beautiful dog!

[SacDuc]

We got our two big ones from this rescue:
http://www.gentlegiantsrescue.com/
They do amazing work. They socialize all of their dogs with people, children and other dogs as well as teach them to walk on a leash prior to adopting them out. They specialize in large dogs and during the course of adopting out 11,000 they developed a training system that gives the dogs the best shot at staying in the new hom

The best part is that you don't actually own the dog. You sign a contract that says that if you have to get rid of the dog for any reason that it must be returned to the shelter. They have a pretty extensive application (we spent quite a bit of money on fences before they accepted ours) and they don't want their dogs just given away to stupid cousin Eddie who doesn't know how to handle/care for that dog. Its really what is best for the dogs.

They also spend a lot of time training the new owners about the peculiarities of owning large breed dogs. How to feed them in particular.

PLUS it is run by Burt Ward. THE Burt Ward.

Cheers.

sac

[Randimus Maximus]

That sucks, AdamX.  

Hopefully a black lab named Marley is not joining the big pack in the sky tonight.

Stella and I were driving home from the store and I spotted some activity on a side street.  It looked kind suspicious, so I circled the block.

Turns out a guy was walking his dog that took off after a squirrel and got hit by a car.  One leg was badly broken, and it looked to have internal injuries as well.

Being that I had a truck, we offered to take them to the best emergency vet hospital around, which was only 15 minutes away.

Best wishes to Marley!

Update:

We've heard back about Marley.

His left hind leg was too badly damaged to save, so it was amputated yesterday.  A fracture in his pelvis was also stabilized.

He will still have a long recovery ahead of him, but the prognosis is good.