Sammie

Sammie is 7 months old and on the 1st of June she lost her BFF neko ( neko is a pug puppy 8 months he died of breed related issues) she has been acting different sleeping lots not wanting to do anything. She's eating but not lots Like before I've taken her to the vet everything's fine. I don't get it.

Now for the past couple days she has been shaking her head making weird noises. It looks like she is trying to push her head into the floor sometimes almost like scratching. She's had an ear infection in the past but she never did this. Her ears look ok to me they aren't red not dirty. Could she just be upset?? She's not in pain and doesn't seem overly bothered. I am taking her to the vet on Friday but I am just upset, I don't want her to be sick

I'm with her all the time and now that neks is gone I spend evern more time with her. What should do? Get a friend??

Also one more question.

I was told by a friend that Bassett are prone to eye infections. How would I no to take her to the vet? Is there symptoms do they act different???


Thank u in advance ( Sammie is my first basset hound) she is red and white and I love her to death

Sammie

I'm also having a hard time house training her. I no that she nos to go out side but some times ( even when out side for hours) she comes inside the house right to the basement to pee in the floor. Any suggestions?

Soundtrack

1) She is probably missing her friend, dogs grieve too.
2) She may have a deep ear infection or other issue (teeth?). A vet check is good.
3) Close the door to the basement/make sure she doesn't go there unsupervised.

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Geekerbell

Completely agree with Soundtrack on everything.

I also wanted mention that I have read on here that many bassets are not completely house trained until 9-12 months old. Their bladder control develops slower than other breeds. My Molly is almost 6 months old and hasn't had a potty accident in about three weeks, but we just have a small area of the house that I will leave her unsupervised. Anywhere else and either I am following her constantly to keep an eye on her, or have her tethered to me with her leash so I know exactly where she is and what she is doing.

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AmyB

Before I had Spencer, Sadie was best buds with my brother's Doberman (he lived next door). The Dobie got sick & died rather unexpectedly & Sadie mourned him terribly. She was just about a year old, so she was still a very active pup. However, after the Dobie died, she became so lethargic & whiny, I thought she was sick. When a vet check ruled that out, I realized she was missing her friend. Some extra love & activities helped until I found her new little "brother," Spencer. From there on out, her life was NEVER boring. Good luck.

Oh, about the housetraining, I wanted to add - you need consistency & patience. Sadie was 9 months old before she was reliable. Spencer was a bit better, at 6 months.

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Mikey T

How! People make this statement all the time and they are completetly wrong. If a dog truely know the expected behavior, ois consitently rewarded for the expected behavior. and recieve no unitinional reward for the improper behavior an continues with the imporper behavior this dog is untrainable. I have nver seen an untrainable dog they simply do not exist. What happens is people assume the dog know more than it does and expect the dop to act like it is flully trained when that is far, far from the case.

While not dirrectly about house training but the more simple and munday task of sitting the follow articles demonstrates clearly the fallacy of the statement above.
Sit Test

I have a few face rubbers that is not linked to any ear infection or other obvious ilness, but it is always a good idea to rule it out. I notice this more in high pollen/allergy times coupled with wether changes especial pressure changes. I my sell am prone to sinus headaches the only occur durring weather changes and more sprin and fall related to typical allergy seasons as well. The sam conditions that bother me tend to bother the dogs it appear. I do believe it could be a sinus type issue give the nature of basset muzzle but given the transient nature never have had it invenstigated.

CatherineM

I've had a couple of bassets that liked to rub their faces, but it was usually on dead fish on the beach, or something equally gross. Is the spot she is rubbing a place that her friend used to sleep or had an accident on?

Lightning&Stomps

The lethargy is probably because she doesn't have a doggy friend to play with; the not eating as much could be because she doesn't have a doggy friend to compete with over food. The face rubbing in the carpet is most likely allergies--Lightning does this ALL THE TIME this time of year. The opthamologist told me that a dog will indicate eye pain by blinking a lot. You might also see gook coming from the eye if it were infected. It's good that you are getting her checked out by a vet, but she sounds pretty normal to me! good luck.

Sammie

thanks for all the replies.

I called the vet this afternoon and was told that she a.) is probably bored... but I cant see that I take her for walks 3x a day and shes always chewing on a bone. B.) she has allergies C.) or there is some type of infection.

I've watched her more today, and she seems a little better. Maybe I am just paranoid, after watching what happened to neko so fast. Every little thing that sammie does that is different makes me freak out.

As far as the house training goes... She was good for about a month and now its back to old ways. She did really good today, inside for most of the day today as I wanted to watch her. And I have noticed that she tends to spend a lot of time where neko tried to hide his toys from her. They slept together on their own dog bed, neko was fully house trained never had an accident so as long as he stay sleeping the hole night sammie didnt wake up and have an accident, so its always been good at night. I no that she will get it and that it will take a lot of time and patience. I just don't no what it is with that one spot in the basement and its always the same spot.

Wworm

Welcome, Sammie, and sorry about losing Neko

Sounds like Sammie & Neko did everything together... has Sammie ever been an only dog in the past? if not, and she went from being in a litter to always having Neko, I'm guessing this is a huge adjustment for her. Also, if you don't mind sharing, what happened to Neko? was it a sudden and relatively quick thing? if so, that would be pretty hard for Sammie to deal with.

I got Worm when he was older for a puppy-- 4 months, instead of more often 2 months. Up until I got him, he spent every day of his life with at least 12-15 puppies and dogs. so huge shock when he became the only dog. it's one reason I didn't mind putting him in daycare (also necessary because of my work schedule), so he can be around lots and lots of dogs, like he'd been used to. and indeed, he plays very well w/other dogs and loves, loves to be around the other dogs. I also sought out some playgroups on Meetup.com. At first, couldn't find any basset groups, so he joined a Beagles playgroup and a Welsh Corgi playgroup (same body type!). Now we finally found other basset people and he has playgroups with them at the local dogparks and off-leash dog beaches in the area. Yeah, and I took him to dogparks, because at this age, he is so active and loves to socialize, run, be mouthy with, other dogs, especially other pups and teenagers like himself. Also when Worm got attacked, I increased the amount of playtime he had w/other dogs, since it was a stressful time for him. And I didn't want him to be afraid of other dogs. I wonder if Sammie would benefit from some of this too?

or if not comfortable with dogparks, then finding other dogs that Sammie gets along with and arrange some playdates for them...? like in someone's backyard or something...?

Re: ear infections, they can be internal so you can't always see anything different looking inside their ears. Also, sometimes they are just generally uncomfortable. When Worm had his ear infection, he was scratching globally, not just his ears. He would scratch his body too, tho it was the ear infections that were causing his discomfort. also, he only scratched one ear. imagine my surprise when they told me he has yeast infections in BOTH ears. meaning it's not always obvious from their behavior what's happening. I had never seen him scratch that other ear. Good to get it checked out by the vet, so they can confirm one way or the other.

Re: eye infections, Worm would get super gloppy, yellow stuff coming out of his eyes. Bassets are prone to dry eye and infections. and ya have to be careful because you don't want an infection brewing too long in the eye, since vision can be at stake. when his eyes looked infected, the vet gave us antibiotic eye ointment. since it still happens occasionally (like when we go to the beach and he gets grains of sand in his eyes), she told me to keep the tube and just use it when i see those symptoms again. also, for dry eye, we have an OTC eyedrops that our vet recommended. I give him those a couple times a week. he seems to find them soothing.

re: housetraining. Worm now uses a bell, so that helps. from what you've described, I would follow Sammie around like a hawk, especially when she comes inside and heads for the basement. (i do think that often dogs like to pee in the same area... Worm definitely has his fav spots. unfortunately, his favorite poo spot is in the parking garage [likes concrete] in parking spot 89. one day, it's going to be embarrassing when our neighbors in spot 89 see Worm going #2. so all that to say, it doesn't seem unusual that Sammie goes back to same spot).

Anyways, i found that one supereffective move in housetraining is to interrupt Sammie while she's going in the spot. As soon as she starts to pee or looks like she will pee, pick her up (usually they stop peeing when you've interrupted them) and take her outside to one of her favorite pee spots. We had to do this a couple times w/Worm, but he got the message quickly. Also, it works because usually the dog hasn't finished peeing and still has to go. And she finishes in the correct spot, and then she will get lots and lots of kisses and treats from you. The key to this is that you really do need to watch Sammie like a hawk or like you're watching a toddler-- know what she is up to every minute, and when you can't watch her, she is confined somewhere (ie. backyard, another room, crate)..

btw, please post some pics soon, Sammie!
--your pal, Worm