My dogs gets into the most unique situations

I admit it. My dog's nails need to be trimmed. Of all the dog related tasks, this is the one thing I cannot do. It gives me the creeps. I have to wait for my brother to come over (the brother Misha likes, not the one that terrifies her). He has the patience to deal with my feisty dog.

So, I was getting ready to eat lunch yesterday when my Mom yells out "The dog's leg is stuck!" I get into the living room. There is Misha frozen stiff with the nail on her back paw caught in the ring on her collar! I tried to help her. Of course, she panicked. That freed her paw at least--no harm done. She was fine afterward.

I have seen her get a duclaw stuck in her collar before, though it's a not a regular thing. She has never gotten the back paw stuck.

I feel like as long as I have owned dogs there is still some new, weird thing my latest dog will end up doing that none of the others ever did. Do you ever feel that way?

 

That must have been a bit traumatic when you first came upon Misha like that? I've never been one to cut dogs claws as it also gives me the creeps. I never know how much to cot thiking I may over do it. Another one is cutting fur with large shears around Mishka's tail and bottom bits. That's a job for my wife. The only thing I can think of when I got a bit anxious was when a stick was caught in her mouth.

 

Argon, yes, it was! My first inclination was "Oh great! How are we going to get out of this one?" I was going to undo her collar since that seemed the easiest way to free her. She could just walk out of it. But, then she panicked. Thankfully, she didn't injure herself. After it was kind of funny because she was frozen in place. I guess we are lucky she wasn't hopping around.

That would be scary having a stick stuck in the dog's mouth. Did Mishka let you remove it?

One of the craziest things that happened was when I was taking care of my brother's dogs. The Doberman and Mini Pinscher played together all the time. In one of the strangest things I'd ever seen, their collars got stuck together, so the Mini Pinscher was hanging from the Doberman. Luckily, I was right there and I was able to free him. It could have been a tragic situation had they been outside.

As I said, the strangest things happen. LOL It is like having kids.

 

Mishka was quite fine about it. I guess she trusted me enough to do something about it. it got stuck sideways each side of the jaw.
I had a baby kid goat with its mum. The kid was tied to a long lead and the knot came undone. The kid and mum went for a walk in the forest. Mum came back and was bleating. It took forever to find the kid which had jumped off a log and hung itself. I don't trust leads and collars.But it happened again. I had a previous dog that was diabetic. The dosage was still being adjusted and she was hypers. I had to tie her up where I was chopping wood but for some reason I didn't see her come away from the anchor point. I searched with my wife and a visiting friend for what seemed forever. I found her in deep forest tangled to a tree. That incident caused her to go blind from panic.She was with us for another year blind but eventually had a stroke because of diabetes. Always take care with collars and leads.

 

A stick has stuck in my Homer's mouth too. It happened a few times already. I was terrified every time! It looked awful, like he was choking and at first, I didn't know how to help. Fortunately my aunt was there and she managed to hold him while I was removing the stick.

 

I'm glad Misha is OK after this. Anything could of happened, such as hurting her leg as a result of this. But I don't think I need to tell you this, no doubt it went through your head while this was happening and after the fact. It can be strange the things dogs get into and sometimes you wonder how in the world did you do this. Then its up to you to get them out of it and hope you don't do any more harm.

 

Argon, I'm sorry those experience happened to you guys. Both must have been very traumatic!

Pafjlh, it is amazing how many thoughts you can have in about 10 seconds. You need to act, you don't know how to act, your hands move of their own volition. It could have been worse, so I am glad that she slipped out of the loop with no harm done. I really need to work on her trust issues. It is difficult when you are trying to help a dog but they see it as an attack. She is getting better, but obviously, not where I want her to be.

This all reminds me of the time I had to take Sierra to emergency because she swallowed a pain patch I used for my arthritis. It fell off my dresser and in a split second she swallowed it. I called the clinic and one of the ingredients could be harmful to her. So, we took her in and they induced vomiting. Do you know what came up? An 8 inch plastic bag! She must have swallowed that when my Dad was taking her for her walk and he didn't see it happen. I imagine some child at the school where they walked used it for lunch food and dropped it with food still in it.

In that case, it was very fortunate that she swallowed the pain patch. The veterinarian was not so sure she would have passed the plastic bag. It might have tangled in her intestines.

Claudine, that couldn't have been easy to do! Homer must have a very small mouth.

 

That was so fortunate. I was only wondering the other day after taking Mishka to the vet maybe the soft poo problem is things she has swallowed. I've seen busted balloons in her droppings and wondered how she swallowed them. We are careful yet she must be so quick as your Sierra.
Ah Doggies don't you just love em.

 

Unbelievably, she got the other foot caught today! This is the strangest thing. She has had long nails before and in 3 years she has never once gotten one caught in the ring on her collar. My brother is supposed to trim them next weekend, so hopefully, he will be able to do it.

In the meantime, I put a smaller ring on her collar. Then, I used electrical tape and wrapped it around the one side of the ring to make the hole smaller. Hopefully, this will prevent her from doing it again.

Argon, Misha is always picking up things, too. She's getting better about it and sometimes will even drop the item. Still, sometimes I look at her stool and think "what the heck was that?"

 

Nothing much dramatic has happened to any of my dogs yet. However I have personally witnessed something very tragic happen to another dog that I knew. It was a German Shepherd. The owner of the company I used to work for bought it, ready trained, to guard the store. Then one morning I found it hung over the fence at the back of the store. Somehow someone managed to entice it to jump over the fence and it died hanging from its chain.

 

Wow! These are some depressing stories. I was thinking more of things that happened that were odd, but turned out okay in the end and seemed humorous afterward.

I'm sorry to hear about that dog, Victor. I've never felt comfortable tethering a dog.

I always worry about Misha's collar getting caught on things. She sleeps in a metal crate with narrow bars. I've heard of dogs getting their tags caught in between these type of bars, so I always remove her collar at bedtime or anytime I put her in there.

 

Yes, I have the same phobia about putting my dog on a leash. Actually, I would prefer to let my dog run free. For Candy, I have even specially made a double gate system so that she can run free inside the house. When I take out the leash, she's very happy because the leash means time to go for a walk.

 

Poor thing, you'd think they would learn after a few times of that happening to be a little more careful about scratching themselves when their nails are that long. There were a few occasions where our dogs got stuck in the carpet because their nails were too long, One time our beagle took a tumble down the steps because of it. Another time we found one of their nails on the floor, which was really weird because none of them were bleeding or in pain or anything.

 

This is so weird. Twice in one thread. It must be a trend. Maybe she got her nails caught in her collar because she scratches them. I also hate cutting their nails but it has to be done so I prepare lots of treats and brace myself. As one of the groomers have mentioned, (if you're a newbie) it doesn't matter if you clip the quick accidentally (because newbies can make mistakes too). However, when you clip the nails, make sure to do it quickly. Clipping it slowly is what drives the dogs crazy that they end up disliking the process.

Fortunately for me, my dog Rin stays on the top floor (roof top) where the area is mostly cemented. Often times, I hear her scratching the roof which is a good thing.