NOT their favorite activity. Picture quality isn't great, sorry. My iPhone takes really amazingly good shots, but not when the subjects are desperately trying to get away, to LEAP from the kitchen sink to the floor, which would almost certainly result in injury….remember, these itty-bitty rat dogs are only 3.5 pounds apiece! So counter height is like a skyscraper to them!
Ronni, I have to laugh at how silly they look. I say "ha-rumph" (silly word, huh?) to get Maya into the bathtub. At 70 pounds the kitchen sink just wont do. She stands as still as a statue while she is in there and as soon as she can get her footing she is off and running like crazy back and forth in the house. It is hysterically funny, really. One day (long story and nothing to really do with my family, but we had a whole bunch of sheriff deputies in my kitchen for an incident not involving us) just after we got her and one of the men told me he had a GSD that had to be tranquilized to get a bath.... I thought "wow!". Aren't you glad you don't have that issue with them?
Ronni, they are cute, even when sopping wet! We had a 75 lb. Golden Retriever/St. Bernard mix who knew if it was his bathtime. I could run the tub for myself, no problem. The minute I started running the tub for him, he'd go limp, dead weight, not a bone in his body. Lugging 75 lbs. of dead weight into the tub made me a strong woman. Getting the towel on him before he shook and wetted down the entire bathroom made me a quick woman.
Awww so cute Angel isnt to thrilled with baths, but shes old enough to realize theres no escape, so shes patient until I let her out. Then she soaks the bathroom by shaking dry (I do try to towel dry her, but her fur is thick and the towel is sopping and shes still wet!)
I've always had large dogs up until these two. With 5 kids, I needed ones that wouldn't break easily lol! Lucky, the family dog we had the longest (longer than some of my kids, before he passed away!) sounds a lot like your GSD. That dog had the patience of a saint! Whether it was baths, or the kids, he was a perfect angel. I mean, what other dog would just take it when a child tries to put a baseball cap on him, or sunglasses? How about a diaper? Lipstick? Paige used to drape necklaces around him, try and put rings on his paws, and clip earrings to his ears (Anyone remember the game Pretty Pretty Princess?) After all the kids grew up and left home, I was finally able to indulge myself and get the kind of dogs *I* wanted. I always preferred smaller dogs…..not THIS small, I wasn't ever planning to get myself a couple of purse dogs!……but when you rescue, sometimes you're the one who gets adopted! Carolyn, your story also reminded me about when Paige used to be a Vet Tech, and the folks who would bring their dogs in for sedation to get a bath, to get their nails clipped, to get mats removed from their dogs' coats, or to get fully shaved! Or she'd fill out prescriptions for tranquilizers for the same things, so the owners could manage their animals. I just really can't imagine this. I completely understand a dog not being cooperative ….. Jane! lol …… but for an animal to become aggressive or to flip out completely to the point that they need sedation... well I just have a hard time with that. I have always worked on training my dogs…sometimes just minimal stuff especially when my kids were little and my time was very tight. But there were some bottom lines. It might take time to train an animal to be still when you're taking care of their nails, but it's worth it if you're going to be doing nails every couple of weeks for the next 20 years. I don't want to have to fight with my dog every time I need to do something to them, I want them to be cooperative. It's definitely harder if you get a dog as an adult, with behaviors already set in. But even then, with some dedicated training, it's possible to reverse a bad situation. I did it with Tango who was a bitey, nippy, growly little you-know-what when I first rescued him at almost a year old. It took a lot of work to socialize him and get those behaviors under control, but I have zero worries now about allowing him around the grandkids for brief periods of time. He's not going to become a little piraña when they try and give him kisses. Sorry…..sorry for going on. I get pretty hot about this subject sometimes. Just ignore me.
Ronni, you are absolutely right--it isn't good for the pet to be "tranquilized" every time it needs a bit of extra grooming, or a trip to the vet. Our dogs loved going to the vet--social time with the techs and kisses on the nose for everyone they could reach! The loved to go see their buddies at the vet's. Feliz doesn't object either. She has to be put into her carrier, but she shoots out like a little bullet when we get to the examining table. Then she purrs and makes goo-goo eyes at the vet and gets lots of petting. First time I took her to our current vet I was worried I wasn't going to get her back!
Last time I took my cat to get his nails trimmed, I had the vet tranq him, because he absolutely cannot STAND having his paws handled. Never has, since the day I got him. Ive tried holding his paws, lightly squeezing his paws, even just petting his paws, he hates it. Cant take him to a regular groomer, he'll tear them up. Its time to get his nails done again, he gets them stuck in the furniture, but I hate doing it to him (the tranq part) but the groomer wont take him because he's so aggressive. *sigh* Angel though is, well, an Angel She's not doing so well these days, sadly. We think she may not last too much longer
Bip, I have very little experience with cats, other than that you can't train them like you can dogs. Paige kept a couple but she took care of them and I didn't interact with them much. I remember her keeping Soft Paws on them so they didn't claw up the furniture. As far as my two go, I've worked hard to socialize them and KEEP them socialized. Chihuahuas have a really crappy reputation as being nasty little things, growling at everyone who comes near, nipping and snarling, which unfortunately is often the case, so the reputation has been earned. Because of their diminutive size, they have a hyper-sensitivity to feeling threatened, and so react accordingly. "I'm bigger and scarier than I look!" is the message they try and convey when they feel threatened. And unless they're well socialized, they see pretty much every human other than their masters as a threat, and will "resource guard" them accordingly. It's a real shame, because they are the most loving, playful, sweet dogs you'll ever find when they're socialized well and those nasty aggressive behaviors aren't allowed. I am very frequently told that my two aren't anything like other chihuahuas. GOOD! That's entirely what I was going for. They are atypical for their breed and I aim to keep it that way. Here's a "Throwback Thursday" photo of them with a relief vet we happened to see a couple of years ago when my vet was out of town. He was so impressed with them that he asked me to take a photo so he could send it to his wife, (also a vet) because neither of them had ever dealt with a chihuahua they hadn't' had to muzzle in order to examine them!
I havent met a whole lot of Chi's but the few I have were decent dogs. I have a photo somewhere of some Chi's I saw on a trip to Mexico of a pup and its parents. The pup was nearly twice the size of its mum and dad! I tried Soft Paws on Beej, but with the whole paw thing...I cant even get them on him :/ Oh well. Ill just call the vet tomorrow and get pricing on a trim.
