Do you have pets? Anyone else have a guinea pig?

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you could try, spraying spots with bitter apple to hinder chewing. but also get the nyla bone, and praise him when he chews it, I mean really praise him, like its the last best thing on earth he is doing, and its an olympic moment of praise.

This too.
@DeborahJane, BCs can be somewhat neurotic, I say that in a nice way.
Look up "separation anxiety", this may be part of Max's chewing behaviour.

And for wannabe dog nerds, google NILIF. ;) This is how I have raised and managed my dogs for years. Decades, actually.
 
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This too.
@DeborahJane, BCs can be somewhat neurotic, I say that in a nice way.
Look up "separation anxiety", this may be part of Max's chewing behaviour.

And for wannabe dog nerds, google NILIF. ;) This is how I have raised and managed my dogs for years. Decades, actually.

Just remembered something. For a couple years the border collie and my first GSD played daily, and the border collie and I were good friends also. One day the owners of Rosco (the border collie ) asks me if I could watch him as they want to go away for just a weekend. No problem I said, they said they would leave him on the deck at their house (a large deck) and it had his house on it, and water. I would just bring up the food. and open the deck gate twice daily for his business. I am thinking that most the time he'd be down playing with my GSD for the weekend. -----WRONG---. That poor fellow was besides himself. When I came up the steps to open the gate on the deck he was off in the back corner hidding and growling at me. He would not come down the steps to go pee. I had to leave his property and watch from far to see him go down and back up the steps, then I would go back and lock the deck gate. He did not even come down for his buddy to play. When his owners came back I told them what happened. I said you cannot ever leave him alone like that again. He missed you so much. As soon as they came home, Rosco did a 90 degree, he was friendly sweet and charming.
 
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Just remembered something. For a couple years the border collie and my first GSD played daily, and the border collie and I were good friends also. One day the owners of Rosco (the border collie ) asks me if I could watch him as they want to go away for just a weekend. No problem I said, they said they would leave him on the deck at their house (a large deck) and it had his house on it, and water. I would just bring up the food. and open the deck gate twice daily for his business. I am thinking that most the time he'd be down playing with my GSD for the weekend. -----WRONG---. That poor fellow was besides himself. When I came up the steps to open the gate on the deck he was off in the back corner hidding and growling at me. He would not come down the steps to go pee. I had to leave his property and watch from far to see him go down and back up the steps, then I would go back and lock the deck gate. He did not even come down for his buddy to play. When his owners came back I told them what happened. I said you cannot ever leave him alone like that again. He missed you so much. As soon as they came home, Rosco did a 90 degree, he was friendly sweet and charming.

Aww, poor boy!

I recognise that some dogs get over-attached to their owners so while I am not a huge believer in doggie daycare and such, I've done it about weekly with my dogs so they realise that I will sometimes leave them in unfamiliar places, they'll have fun in my absence, then I will come back. Also I have a couple of trusted friends who will come let dogs out if I have to work a long day. So they get to be comfortable with new people and new situations. A life skill, if you will. Same with crates. I know they are often over-used, but familiarity and comfort with a crate can be so important, and lessens stress on the dog if they have to be boarded or contained at the vet's office. I think encouraging a measure of independence is a healthy thing. And a confident dog will be a better and more discerning protector.

But still, this was cute: I was about 20 feet away and my friends were sitting on the loading dock with Booker today. And there were red ants, we didn't realise, and think he got stung. He yiped and immediately ran over to me and tried to climb in my lap for comfort while whimpering piteously.. I'm his primary protector I guess! He is so large and sensible I forget he's really still a baby.
 
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And a confident dog will be a better and more discerning protector.
your so right Beth. and confident dog is only achieved by continued training, socialization, exposure, positive reinforcement salted with slight reprimand. It took two years before folks in the stores I went with my last one stopped saying where is your dog. He was always with me. always at heel, always. It only takes that little bit of throat noise to correct them out in public, never had to yell. never smacked. just a look.
 
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Meet Bella, my little garden helper

Bella.gif
 
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Just remembered something. For a couple years the border collie and my first GSD played daily, and the border collie and I were good friends also. One day the owners of Rosco (the border collie ) asks me if I could watch him as they want to go away for just a weekend. No problem I said, they said they would leave him on the deck at their house (a large deck) and it had his house on it, and water. I would just bring up the food. and open the deck gate twice daily for his business. I am thinking that most the time he'd be down playing with my GSD for the weekend. -----WRONG---. That poor fellow was besides himself. When I came up the steps to open the gate on the deck he was off in the back corner hidding and growling at me. He would not come down the steps to go pee. I had to leave his property and watch from far to see him go down and back up the steps, then I would go back and lock the deck gate. He did not even come down for his buddy to play. When his owners came back I told them what happened. I said you cannot ever leave him alone like that again. He missed you so much. As soon as they came home, Rosco did a 90 degree, he was friendly sweet and charming.
How heart breaking. :(. I bet the owners felt terrible.
Blake was away earlier this year for 2 weeks and his wife for 4 and Max didn't go in to a decline thank heavens so I don't expect anything disasterous with their next trip but I do know he'll need plenty of TLC.
My friend and her husband left their beautiful little Ruby with their daughter and family for 5 weeks whilst they went overseas recently. They were very concerned about how Ruby would cope. Luckily she was absolutely fine, cuddles on the couch each evening with the 2 children. Ruby nearly turns inside out with excitement when Holly and family comes to visit, so much so that my friend was a little put out and was jokingly threatened to take Ruby away to their holiday house to show her just whose dog she really is.:ROFLMAO:Mind you she's pretty happy when I visit. A very happy content dog.
 
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my neighbors and I did not think he would react that way. I even recall saying , he 'd be over playing with his buddy our GSD daily as he always did. You never know. After that they only took camping trips and made sure the camp ground was ok with a dog. Rosco never stayed home again without them. My GSD's were good when we went away, I had found a very good kennel, the owner is almost like a dog whisper. And both were good when I picked them up. They just had to chatter away all the way home telling me stories, or yelling at me for leaving them, who knows.
 
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Apparently Max is scared of squeaky toys! Bit of a woose!:ROFLMAO: Hates thunder but runs around outside barking at it if he gets a chance.
 
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I used to keep them sometimes back but I sold them when I moved to another town. They are really beautiful creatures. Some keep them as food. Have you ever eaten guinea pig meat?
 
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I used to keep them sometimes back but I sold them when I moved to another town. They are really beautiful creatures. Some keep them as food. Have you ever eaten guinea pig meat?

:eek:
Well on the other hand, no different than eating rabbit or any other herbivore, I guess. Culturally here they're regarded as pets but apparently they're commonly raised for food in some parts of the world.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt...plates-why-more-people-are-eating-guinea-pigs
 

auntiecindi

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I know that dogs and cats are the most usual pets but we live in a small home so a few years ago when we were looking to add a pet to our family, we choose guinea pigs. We started with 3 but are now down to 1. Sadly, 2 have died over the years. Anyone else have guinea pigs?

When we originally got the piggies, the intention was for them to be a pet for our kids but I admit I immediately fell in love with them! I even surprised myself because I didn't think they were all that cute when we went to pick them out.
We have had Guinea Pigs the first in my twenties Nicky lived 7 years. Then the boy (Joe) I nannied for got a pig who was preggers. So I ended up with Phoebe at 3 weeks she was so tiny. (lived 6 years) Both of them were long haired. We then adopted Muzz because Joe was off to college. Buzz lived 5 1/2 . They were all different. Phoebe loved to sit on top of the back of the couch and take a bite of my juice bar. Pop- corning is the funniest thing to see Pig do! They are worth having in spite of the task of cleaning the cage.
 
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WHEN I AM OLD
When I am old...
I will wear soft gray sweatshirts...
and a bandana over my silver hair...
and I will spend my social security checks on my dogs.
I will sit in my house on my well-worn chair
and listen to my dogs breathing.
I will sneak out in the middle of a warm summer night
and take my dogs for a run, if my old bones will allow...
When people come to call, I will smile and nod
as I show them my dogs...
and talk of them and about them...
...the ones so beloved of the past
and the ones so beloved of today...
I will still work hard cleaning after them,
mopping and feeding them and whispering their names
in a soft loving way.
I will wear the gleaming sweat on my throat,
like a jewel, and I will be an embarrassment to all...
especially my family...
who have not yet found the peace in being free
to have dogs as your best friends...
These friends who always wait, at any hour, for your footfall...
and eagerly jump to their feet out of a sound sleep,
to greet you as if you are a God,
with warm eyes full of adoring love and hope
that you will always stay,
I'll hug their big strong necks...
I'll kiss their dear sweet heads...
and whisper in their very special company....
I look in the mirror... and see I am getting old....
this is the kind of person I am...
and have always been.
Loving dogs is easy, they are part of me.
Please accept me for who I am.
My dogs appreciate my presence in their lives...
they love my presence in their lives...
When I am old this will be important to me...
you will understand when you are old,
if you have dogs to love too.
-Author Unknown
 
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Our daughter, born in 1968 had both rabbits and guinea pigs. She had a caring nature, her elder brothers weren't interested.
Her first rabbit Benji, when she was six, lived in a sturdy hutch with a sleeping compartment on a stand on the patio She was allowed to have the rabbit if she promised to clean out its hutch and feed it every morning which she did.

Here she is in next door's garden around that age.

aaa.jpg


It had a sheet of heavy duty polythene anchored to the roof by a brick, that could be folded down at night to protect him from the rain if he was daft enough to be out of his sleeping compartment in bad weather. But the wind could blow it up so there was no protection.
Every night my wife would say to me whatever the weather before we went to bed. "Can you go outside and just check Benji's flap's down?
Sometimes it wasn't when it was raining and the rabbit was daft enough to be out of his sleeping compartment. It might have been because he heard me coming out, or it could just be he couldn't be assed, after all he was a rabbit.




I got sick of this so a year later I built this and stuck it on the back of the garage. I built it from re-claimed soft wood roofing ply and three of next door's wooden windows which were being skipped when they had double glazing put in.
It had two lines of cages up on long benches I built, with a central gangway.
We still call it "The Rabbit Shed" but it houses my gardening tools now.

P1020443.JPG


Over the years the number of rabbits increased and guinea pigs were added. All the sexes separated so "no funny business," She bought the last when she was fourteen. Over the years they passed away, so she was down to the last when she left home to go to Great Ormond Street to train to be a paediatric nurse at 18.

09_26_0.JPEG


The last rabbit lived for another eight years after she left, apart from a few visits each year. Muggins here had to look after it.
So it was 26 when it died, just before we went down to see her and her partner in their new house in Staines. My wife was concerned that she might be upset about it dying, but all she said when I told her was "Ahh! Shame!" and changed the subject. My wife didn't appreciate that in her job at GO, S the survival rate of kids is about 50% so she'd witnessed a lot of death in her time.
They've four kids of their own now, aged 7,11,17,22. All planed and the births neatly spread out. They did have a couple of cats when the eldest two were young, but both those died over ten years ago.

Here she is this year on a visit at 51, a "high maintenance mum," still the same size, with her eldest. Both tall, blonde with "legs up to here." So no pets at all now, all have far too busy lives for them. I guess it's a generation thing.

P1030172.JPG
 
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