[Penny Arcade]

Howdy, ya'll!

Today I will be picking up a 3 year old Basset named Penny (my boyfriend is insisting her full name be Penny Arcade). Now, my experiences with dogs is limited. My roommates and I kept a chaweenie for a while, but she went to live with my roommate's parents a couple months ago. This is the first time I will have ever had a dog of my own.

After reading about basset hounds, I'm a bit paranoid about health problems she may get (like back problems and bloat). What a signs that I need to look out for?

I'm also told that she has a habit of peeing on you when she gets excited. I have no clue how bad the habit is or how to go about breaking it. She isn't spayed yet (working on it!) so I was wondering if that might have something to do with it.

So. Basically. Any advice, tips, or feedback is completely welcomed. Despite my worries I am extremely excited to be getting her and can't wait to join the world of Basset owners.

 

[Annie714]

Congratulations!

There is a search bar at the top near the banner, I cannot tell you how many times that function has calmed my nerves! Use it! You can type in just about anything related to Basset care and get a wealth of information.

Welcome to the forum from Annie Oakley and I in not so sunny southern California

 

[mhvonalmen8908]

Welcome to forum! Please please please post pictures when you can! We love seeing basset hound pictures.

 

[Penny Arcade]

Welcome to forum! Please please please post pictures when you can! We love seeing basset hound pictures.

Oh don't worry! I plan on being a total cheese for the camera once I get her!

 

[Penny Arcade]

Congratulations!

There is a search bar at the top near the banner, I cannot tell you how many times that function has calmed my nerves! Use it! You can type in just about anything related to Basset care and get a wealth of information.

Welcome to the forum from Annie Oakley and I in not so sunny southern California

Thank you very much!

 

[Esther]

you DO realize that when you say new "owner" you are the one being owned, right?
Penny is the proud owner of a brand spankin' new HUMAN.
As long as you don't lose sight of this, there should be no major problems...

~E

 

[Mikey T]

(like back problems and bloat).

Over blown in my opinion, The best thing you do for any dogs back is keep then a healthy weight. Keeping in mind what the average person views a healthy weight for a baset is at least an overweight one and often obese. see corpulent Canines

Bloat what you read most of the time on the net about bloat is more folklure than fact. Bloat is an older dog problem the risk goes up as the dog gets older. it is also comforationally genetic that is it rund in lines but thought to be tied not to a single gener but rather how the dog look basic the depth of the dogs cjhest to it width. Deep narrow chest are more likely to bloat. While basset have deep chest the ratio of width to depth is much less than many breeds in studies on bloat the were not even part of it. Yes the can and do bloat more than the average breed but at the same time a lot less than breed associate with bloat like great danes. The stomach becomes filled with air large and hard adomen is the most obvious learly size the dog is general lethargic as well. Anti gas tablets may help provided that it is caught early and the stomac has not twisted yet. That said ther is no evidence that giving anti gas tabllet propholaxticly to prevent boat in the first place works. Also most of the other so called boat minimizing techniques do not work or are conuter productive. Limiting water intake befor or after meall. soaking dry food, limiting exerise before or after meals , feeding multiple meals, all do nothing to prevent boat. a raise food bowl actual increase bloat risk. Two things that have show to be tied to bloat are the speed in which the dog eats and the size of the meal. Often time more meals mean smaller meal but it is not always the case the size of the meal is what is import if feeding multiple meals mean smaller meals it will reduce risk but feeding multiple meals of a lower cost dog food which you have to feed more over is not an advantage over feed a single meal with a high quality dog food you feed less of. Keep in mind if the dog does bloat it is an emergency situation do not try and treat at home. You mention the dog is not spayed If you have that much fear of bloat you may want to consult with the vet about have the dogs stomach tacked at the same time. It is a fairly common procedure with dogs that have a much higher tendency to bloat like great danes. Remember that the filling of the stomach with air is not the big danger it is when it twists on it self the tacking of the stomach prevent the twisting.


Back problems are well are generally obvious and include bilateral weakness in the back legs upto and including complete paralysis of the hind end

I'm also told that she has a habit of peeing on you when she gets excited ...how to go about breaking it. She isn't spayed yet (working on it!) so I was wondering if that might have something to do with it.

I was going to ask if she was spayed, because it could have something to do with it but not what you are thinking it is actual the spayed female that would be more prone to leaking. The lack of sex hormones can lead to something called "spay incontinence" it general occurs in older spayed females however I have had two beagles with it both under the age of three. The classic sign is puddles where the dog sleeps as they have less concious control then. It is easily treated but obviously that is not the problem.


What you are dealing with is submissive/excitement urniation. While linked together they are treated somewhat differently and it is something puppies general out grow but at 3 year old that seems less likely. It is not something you can break the dog of. Your best bet is understanding the situations this occurs in and working at controlling those situation. As in excited urintion make greates of new people out side so if she leaks no big deal after she calms down ther willbe no prblems in the house. Also work on self control that is teaching her not to get into an excited frenzy. make departure and arravail low key opun return wait until she calms down before acknowledgeing her Theis doe not train her not to pee when excited which simply isn't going to happen but minimized or elimiantes the over the top excited stat that lead to the peeing. Al little bit more round about way to get there but one that has a chance of working

see Any dog can learn to Live Clamly

Impulse Control

Lowering Arousal

Protocol for relaxation
"This set of exercises has helped countless numbers of dogs learn to relax in the presence of various stimulus. It helps dogs that get over excited, aggressive, that are fearful, that have no "off switch and any dog that goes through this. While it reads like a "stay" training drill, that is not the focus. The focus is on the state of relaxation in the dog. If the dog is not relaxed as you work through the steps, don't progress until the dog is able to relax a bit more than previously. The dog is welcome to change positions and even to walk away from the rewards being offered. Some dogs are too stimulated when clicks and treats are used. You may need to use a lower value reward or simply a smile and petting or massage to encourage the dog to relax."

Excitement Urination in Dogs

Wet Greetings

The vast majority of dogs simply outgrow this problem as they become more mature and gain bladder control
...If your pup is more than one year old and is still having this problem, the first step toward solving it is to take him to the veterinarian to rule out medical reasons. If he checks out physically OK, keep reading for some ideas to keep him dry.

While not a relaxtion or calming exercise the following is an impulse control exercise and a very good one for basset give their tendendy toward food motivation. It is a must exercise if you intend to train with food

Keep in mind a couple thing

1. even if she was previously houstrained and very good about it it is likely she will not be housetrained in your house. Dogs are great discriminators and poor generalizers that is that don;t tkae what they learn in one situation and appy it to other. So a dog that learn not to pee in poop in one house learn exactly that not to pee and poop in that house it dod not learn not to pee and poop in other houses. This goes for all training with dogs. a dog that lear to sit in the kitchen may not in the living room outdoors etc it is not because the dog is defying you, because it obviously know what sit mean quite the contrairy it knows what sit means under specific context to have a well behaved and trained dog you need to continue to train the behavior under all the context the behavior is expected to be performed

2. Someone is giving up the dog. The can be all kind of excuse making can;t find a place that takes dogs etc but the bottom line is the number one reason people give up dogs is behavioral. that is a behavior that they can not fix and find too fustrating to deal with. Often time it is not that big of a deal but make sure you know what you are getting yourself into in the forst place and don;t take on a project you are not ready for. You do yourself and the dog a big disservice.

3. Basset are indpendent, stupid and untrainable, at elast that is the persception of many. All to often IMHO problems occur because they are precievied as cat of the dog world. Fiercely independant and untrainable so you don;t even need to try. That is a recipe for disaster. Basset are among the smartest dogs when it comes to problem solving while the were bre to work independantly without look for humans for guidence as a breed they are one of thee if not thee most social breeds then thrive and need social contact. The are not that hard to train if you understand the nature of the breed and what work and does not work for them.
a. the generaly respond poorly to method that involve punishment. That is there nature when face with such adversity is to shut down and do nothing. You will see miriad of acounts of flat basset and immovable basset that is how they react to adversity. This can also become somewhat of a learned behavior as well when it gets them what they were after as well. Basset are general much better trainers of humans than their owners are trainer of bassets.

b. Most of the so called easy to train breed are deemed that not because they learn fast , smarter, worh harder, now it comes down to most traditional training method require that the dog be willing to please. They are bidable. When a dog is purposefully bred to work independently of humans they are not going to be very bidable. A basset simply is not going to do what you ask to please you. No sir-ree bob. They are only going to do what you ask if they have the perception that it is in there best intrest to do so. This is why training with food can be such a powerfull tool with bassets they understand complete their self interest in complying. When training with food it does not mean you always have to have food etc This entire subject get too long to deal with on this type of forum but I would highly reccommend a basic manners (not formal obedience) class that is based on positive reinforcement.

[URL="http://flyingdogpress.com/content/view/39/97/"]Hard to Train?
A look at "difficult-to-train" breeds and the reality of what shapes these canine minds.


and article in front and finsh (dog training magazine) by the former owner of this site that at the time owned both boarder collies and basset hound, review of Stanely Corens "intelligence of dogs" and more specifically the faws in his methodolgy in determining "training Intelligence" and the listing of breeds and intelligence of breeds via this methodology
Media Hound, Front and Finish: July 1994

Coren's analysis of working or obedience intelligence is by far the weakest link in his book. In attempting to rank the various breeds in terms of working intelligence, Coren found no laboratory research at all. He quickly realized how expensive a scientific study of canine intelligence would be: by his conservative estimate, a grant of at least $14 million would be necessary to acquire, house, train, and test enough individuals of the various breeds to make the study useful.

...Unfortunately, the methodology underlying Coren's conclusions is extremely faulty. All Coren has managed to do is to obtain a rough list of the success of various breeds in the sport of dog obedience in North America; jumping from that to the number of repetitions it took the various dogs to learn commands is impossible. We can even use Coren himself to challenge his own methodology. In his analysis of adaptive intelligence, Coren includes an interesting canine IQ test. The "CIQ" consists of twelve separate tests, designed to assess the dog's learning and problem-solving ability. I tested two dogs: Connie, my own basset hound (a breed ranked in the bottom tier of intelligence) and Dream, a border collie (a member of the top echelon). The results were interesting. Connie scored in the "brilliant" category, a group that fewer than five percent of the dogs in Coren's standardization group reached (no, I didn't skew the results!). Dream, on the other hand, scored in the low average range of intelligence, where, according to Coren, a dog will need to work rather hard to understand what is required of it. Connie has obedience scores which range from a low of 173 to a high of 186; she currently has two legs on her UD (and plenty of NQ's in our quest for that elusive third leg). Dream is an OTCH who has garnered many high in trials and placed at this year's Gaines Classic. Clearly, an obedience judge seeing the two dogs in the ring would conclude that Dream was by far the easier dog to train. Yet such was not the case. Connie is an extremely quick study who retains what she learns. Dream, according to her handler, always has difficulty learning and retaining new behaviors. Obviously, only erroneous conclusions could be drawn from their respective ring performances as to the amount of time and repetition it took them to learn the commands.

...The most striking difference between the two dogs is a personality issue, not a matter of anything that can be labeled "intelligence." Although Coren devotes a full chapter to what he terms the "personality factor," he does not seem to realize how critical a role it plays in the obedience ring. Connie is like many bassets: she's bright and happy to learn if you can convince her that the learning was her idea in the first place (i.e., if you train with food). But she doesn't have a strong sense of duty; if she's under stress or a bit distracted, she'd as soon not obey a command as obey it. Let's indulge in speculation and generalization for a moment, dangerous though it might be. Bassets are perfectly capable of shutting down entirely under stress; more than anything else, their tendency toward negative stress management is the reason why judges see so many slow-moving, tail-drooping, lagging bassets in the ring. Border collies are an entirely different story. Once a behavior is learned, most border collies seem to perform regardless of stress; indeed, many respond to stress by getting sharper and sharper. Dream is not such a successful obedience dog because of her learning ability. She has excelled because, quite simply, she loves to perform in the ring in front of a crowd of spectators

When it comes to the trainabilty of basset hound I like to use mine as an example. Most will say it takes 18 months to a year to train a dog before it can have success in the agility ring. Mariah was competing and qualifing with less than 8 months of training. Not because I am some super trainer far from it it all her, An Let us say there is nothing more gratifying than seeing a group of incredulious sheltie owners seeing a basset hound finish first. Admitetly she is a unique one of a kind dog.

mariah

 

[Boomer's Mom]

Congrats and welcome! Penny Arcade is a very cute name.

Yes, there is a wealth of info on this board, a lot of it in the name of MikeyT.

And there are absolutely NO dumb questions; ask anything.

I'm a first time basset owner of Boomer, and we LOVE pictures here. And stories. Anything basset related, thankyouverymuch!

 

[Mikey T]

there are absolutely NO dumb questions; ask anything.

no only dumb answer a few of which I willing to admit too

 

[Penny Arcade]

With the boyfriend~

With me~

She got hyper when she first met us, but she's calmed down a lot. She started whining about a half hour ago, so I think she might be missing her old owners. We're gonna make her as comfortable as possible.

And Mikey T, thank you very much for all the information. Her previous owners said that they found her a stray, so I'm wondering if that's why she still pees when excited. We're gonna work on impulse control. Right now we're focused on keeping her calm and keeping her from jumping all over the furniture.

 

[Soundtrack]

She is very cute! I love the mostly black ones. Good luck with her.

 

[Boomer's Mom]

She is very pretty! With time and patience, you'll do fine.

[email protected] stupid answers.

 

[Annie714]

She totally looks like her name should be Penny! LOL She is very cute. Welcoming to your new life being owned by a Basset

 

[MollyMcFrecklesMom]

She's gorgeous. My Winston's facial markings were similar when I picked him out, but he's since gotten more brown on his head. Oh well.

Congratulations and enjoy her!

 

[Penny Arcade]

Thank you to everybody! Ya'll are so welcoming.

We went on our first walk this evening. She did really well. We just need to train her to manage her energy so she doesn't get into a frenzy every time she meets new people.

 

[mhvonalmen8908]

She's beautiful!!! We wanted a mainly black and white basset hound which is why we picked out Virga. But lo and behold! She's switched her colors on us. She's got brown creeping up into her black. But Penny looks old enough that she won't change her coat (jealous!). Congratulations on your beautiful new addition and just be patient. She'll settle down in time. Congrats again and good luck!

 

[charady2]

Aww, pretty doggy! I love how much variation in colors bassets have. My hubby wanted a tri color but then met flash and preferred him.

 

[Mikey T]

I love the mostly black ones.

that eplains a lot like vina, Leila, Deela, Lenore, macey, ginger, curry, modonna ....
well known for the copious amounts of black blanket tri's she produces. 1 maybe 2 in the last ten years Goes to show when the breeder standard show no preference for coat color a contientious breed does not as well.

 

[Mikey T]

so I'm wondering if that's why she still pees when excited

wonder all you want but you will never know. the good thing is you don't need to know the cause to fixed the problem.

Right now we're focused on keeping her calm and keeping her from jumping all over the furniture

if she is hyper and exvitable at other times than just greeeting you may have another easily solvable problem. That is contrary to popular myth basset are not couch potato's especial smaller females., In reality a basset should be able to chase bunnies all day long. A dog that in understimulated both mentally and physical will seek outlets to gain additional stimulation which can result in destructive behavior and/or hyperactivity. Excercise can b e key but walking at a human pace is not exercise for a dog and walking at a basset sniffing pace certainly is not.

fetch is a great energy burner if you have the rare basset that will return with a toy another much maligned is know become a motivational game in many dog sports, THat is because the critisims of the game are unfounded that game is
Tug of war

Dog owners have been admonished for decades to never play tug of war with their dogs because of the risk of it increasing aggression and/or dominance in the dog. Even many dog resource people such as breeders, trainers and veterinarians caution against this game. This is partly a failure to discriminate between agonistic behavior (conflict resolution & defensive aggression) and predatory behavior. Also, many people have issues about witnessing intensity. Intensity is not aggression, however.​

Played with rules, tug-of-war is a tremendous predatory energy burner and good exercise for both dog and owner. It serves as a barometer of the kind of control you have over the dog, most importantly over his jaws. The game doesn't make the dog a predator: he already is one. The game is an outlet. It’s intense, increases dog focus and confidence and plugs into something very deep inside them. The big payoff is in lowered incidence of behavior problems due to understimulation

bold added by me for emphysis.

link for some other stimulating out lets some physical others mental and some both

Scent Games

Fitness in your Backyard

buster Cube

interactive games

 

[Soundtrack]

I was thinking she looks like a good agility prospect.