Today's US repeat

Discussion of specific It's Me or the Dog episodes.

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spydre
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Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2009 10:08 am

Today's US repeat

Post by spydre »

This morning at the 10 am repeat of the us season (animal planet, 9 central am) they showed the episode with Samson, a boxer, Delia, an overweight beagle, and an Italian Greyhound.

I almost cried in the beginning. When I was a kid - from before I was born until I was in 4th or 5th grade, we had a beagle mix, that was probably just as heavy as Delia was. It's been so long since I've even seen pictures of patches, I just wanted to cry.

We had Patches about 20 years before a leash law took effect in my suburb - it was considered rural, so they didn't pass one for that area. Patches was the sweetest dog, but she'd roam somewhere in the neighborhood, and lay down in their yard, and not get up. I can't remember how many time I got a phone call saying come get your dog, she's killed a rabbit that was in my yard, but now she won't leave. I lured her home with baloney many a time. My mom said when I was a baby, if I started crying in my crib, Patches would sit in front of my crib and howl, as if to say, "She needs you, come get her." And if someone was walking down our street, once they got in front of our yard, she would howl/bark at them, but as soon as they passed our property line, she'd stop immediately. It was, I guess, her way of telling the world, "this is my yard, and these are my people, leave them alone." But she was always friendly, and if friends were around, she was a sweetie to them, no barking or bothering.

The last thing I wanted to share, well, I can't remember how old I was, but I remember we were all home, and there was a tornado warning in our county, but waaaay south of us. I asked my dad if we should go to the basement, but he said we will if we need to. I asked him what about Patches, because she couldn't walk down the steps to the basement, and he told me he'd carry her. :)
Dodger - 2 1/2 yo American Bulldog Mix
[img]http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd184/Spydre1/Dodger/DCP_0106.jpg[/img]
RIP Loth 10 year old Husky/Keeshond/Shar pei mix
[img]http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd184/Spydre1/Loth/DCP_0039.jpg[/img]
Fundog
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Post by Fundog »

Thanks for sharing, spydre. I checked the guide before going to bed, but for my area that episode wasn't to come on until 11-- I simply could not stay up that late, since I had to get up at 5:00 this evening.

So tell me... what were the recommendations for getting the beagle's weight down? Were the people successful/did they stick with it?

And what were the issues with the other two dogs? What were the solutions?
spydre
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Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2009 10:08 am

Post by spydre »

It was a good episode. For the obese dog (Victoria said that was fattest beagle she'd ever seen), she drove home that the reason the dog was obese was because the owner was feeding her too much food. She was also put into a doggie swim training once per week.

The other main issues stemmed from the Boxer that the woman had gotten. He wouldn't go in the backyard because the woman had used the electric collar/fence, and had turned it up after it had no effect, and it had hurt the dog. The dog park was out, because he attacked another dog. And the owner had problems walking him, not only because of her illness, but because he pulled so hard. She had the owner enroll him in the water exercise as well, and she took all 3 of the animals to an enclosed tennis court so they could run their little hearts out. She also helped to leash train the boxer, and trained him to to stay in a certain spot when people would come to the door.

At the beginning of the episode, the owner was talking about giving Samson (the Boxer) up, because he was so hyper, and played so rough, but by the end of the episode, she had absolutely changed her mind. :)

Another good episode that I saw today had an american couple, and they owned 4 pugs, and they were fostering a 5th that had been rescued from a puppy mill (the wife worked for a pug rescue). The main problems were the dogs eating poo, one dog was jealous and constantly atttacking another, and the husband was not contributing his fair share of the work. When they talked about feeding time, the husband said he had been taking care of one feeding a day, except for the foster dog, because she brought the dog into the home, and she should do everything for it (and that was a dog that had food aggression/no teeth/one eye/and a problem with his back). He out of the dogs, only one he felt was really "his" and that he should only do 20% of the work. Victoria pretty much lit into him, but he came around to her way of thinking.

The solution for the foster dog and his food aggression (since he had no teeth) was to hand feed him - since he was a puppy mill dog, he likely had no human contact during feeding time. The bully dog was almost completely taken care of as well by the end of the episode, and they were working on the poo eating (5 dogs in a yard all pooing - it's hard to get all of the poo up before another dog could eat it). Victoria had worked out a flag system, and had them working on "Leave it" with the flags - the flags marked the poo that hadn't been cleaned up yet.
Dodger - 2 1/2 yo American Bulldog Mix
[img]http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd184/Spydre1/Dodger/DCP_0106.jpg[/img]
RIP Loth 10 year old Husky/Keeshond/Shar pei mix
[img]http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd184/Spydre1/Loth/DCP_0039.jpg[/img]
Kittylove5
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Post by Kittylove5 »

I too remember the pug episode, the woman had trust issues and the husband didn't even want to contribute to helping he dogs. At one point he actually let one of the pugs eat his poo. "Well eat it" :?

I saw some deleted scenes of that too and through it they had more spousal conflicts.
Behind every good dog there is a great owner.
Fundog
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Post by Fundog »

Yes, the poo-eating-pugs episode has been discussed at length. I saw that one online awhile back. I found it interesting that Victoria has had to do quite a bit of "marriage counselling" on several of her episodes. This series is about problems with dogs, but it all comes down to problems with the people, and even their relationships with each other.
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tillyny
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Biggest Beagle in the World?? Well.....

Post by tillyny »

Today was the first time I'd seen this show on the overweight beagle and I had to laugh when Delia was weighed in at 47.5 pounds. I am currently fostering a beagle who was nearly fed to death by her previous owner and she had tipped the scale at 120 lbs when she was rescued. By the time our rescue group took her in in November, she was down to 82 lbs. She is now 57.5 lbs and still losing.

Here is Heidi's story...
http://heidi.maryclarespringer.com

And here is our rescue group's website...
http://www.bonesbeagles.org

Happily, Heidi is in the process of being adopted by a family who has absolutely committed to continue her weight loss regimen.
Fundog
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Post by Fundog »

:shock: Oh my gosh! And I was worried that Annie was a bit fat, at 60 lbs and 21" (She's a large Springer Spaniel). I'm not so worried anymore.

Delia even weighs more than my English Setter, Dottie, who is a bony 40 lbs.
Kittylove5
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Location: Missouri, USA

Post by Kittylove5 »

Goodness! The poor thing, at least she's with people who are helping her get to where a beagle is supposed to be.

Speaking of which, today I saw a beagle almost get hit by a car while driving. I couldn't call a shelter because I didn't know the number and couldn't stop or whe would cause a wreck. :(
Behind every good dog there is a great owner.
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