Dog has LOST HIS MIND!

[chippersmom]

I have a dog of questionable heritage...Chipper...He was a 'pound puppy'. Kind of looks like a lab, but doesn't like to retrieve; Barks like a hound...

Anyway, when we got him at about 4 months old, we enrolled him in a reputable doggie school and got great results after two sessions of training. We trained him that when we (the people) sat down to eat a meal at the table, he should settle on his bed and chew his bone. He learned this well and performed it to a tee for quite a while.

Recently, Chipper was put on steroids (Prednisone) because he developed this weird drooling condition which has only happened three times...so far...March, July and August. The vet was unable to find the cause, but after the back to back episodes of 2-3 days of drooling in July and August, she suggested we take him to a specialist. $1200 later, the specialist could find nothing definitive wrong with him, but put him on Prednisone for an indefinite amount of time. The "roids" have made him very disobedient. He has no regard for his former training and has taken it upon himself to stalk us in the kitchen anytime food is around. He has become so bold as to not only sniff around the table, but to place his paws on a chair and remove anything that he feels is desirable....Because of the steroids, he is always hungry and we have tried to create a new habit of crating him whenever we sit down to eat to deter the "doggie at the table" behavior, but he is sneaky and whenever one of my kids or my husband or I leave anything within his reach and we're not looking, he gets it. He's supposed to be on a limited diet, to determine if he might have a food allergy (the specialist's thinking)...but since we started this in September, he's had a full salmon dinner, honey bun, garlic toast, buttered and jellied toast, almonds, sandwiches...all pulled off the table or counter when we weren't looking.

I know that crating him right after he does the unwanted behavior has no disciplinary effect on him. He's already gotten what he wanted. What can we do to reverse this behavior that is causing me to seriously consider making him an outside dog. (A dog house has been purchased as a "Christmas gift" for Chipper and is sitting outside on the back porch right now.)

Also, he doesn't like to go to the bathroom anymore where he's been trained to go. We have a dog run area on one side of our house with gravel and we trained him initially to go there to poop and pee. He's been fine with that until recently (the roids). Now he poops in the grass AND even on the concrete around our pool! We strive to keep his waste cleaned up on a regular basis, so he WILL go where he's supposed to but it's like he's just defying us. The little booger won't even go outside when it's raining. We got him a raincoat for Christmas, but he just pee'd right outside the sliding glass door on the porch, because it was raining and he refuses to go get wet. Is our dog just a spoiled rotten mutt or do you think the 'roids' are causing him to LOSE HIS MIND and just do whatever the heck he wants?

HELP ME! HELP MY DOG REMAIN AN INSIDE DOG! I think he'll die if he has to adjust to living outside in a dog house.

IS this a behavior question or a health question or both?

[adunphy]

If this were me I would look to a holistic vet. Predisone just treats symptoms and can cause problems. Try to find the reason - have you looked at natural diets / etc?

[Guest]

The specialist put Chipper on a "fish and potato" diet to rule out any food allergies. Since he's been on this very expensive diet, he's pulled a lot of food off of the table/counters and has experienced no drooling episodes. I really doubt that he suffered from any allergies. We haven't seen a holistic vet. My husband keeps reminding me that Chipper is "a DOG"...

I talked to Chipper's regular vet a month or so ago and she said she found evidence of several other dogs having the same sporadic drooling that lasts a couple of days and then disappears (on some info-sharing forum for vets). The vet that treated them found that they were suffering from seizures of the lymbic system and that a shot of valium stopped the drooling almost immediately. She said that if it occurred again, to bring Chipper in immediately and she would administer the valium and see if it helped him.

We are ready to get Chipper off the Prednisone, and so far the specialist has decreased his original 20mg 2X/day dose(60 days) to 20mg 1X/day (30 days) to the current 10mg once a day. January 10 will be 2 months at that dosage and I am all for decreasing it to 1/2 pill every other day. I know Prednisone can't be stopped cold-turkey due to health risks. I just feel trapped and I know it's not that good for the dog if it's changing his behavior like this.

[chippersmom]

Sorry! That "guest" post was from me...chippersmom. I hadn't logged in.