Other ear this time - luckily, was in Cornwall, so took him to Kate's vet on the way back to London this morning. Apparently, his self cleaning ear mechanism is not up to scratch so he has got to have twice weekly ear washes with a special stuff, and he will probably always need this doing. Thornit powder won't help (or harm) as it's probably not ear mites (or an allergy). (Kate - saw Clare, who gave Charlie loads of cuddles and told us all about Dave - and she nipped back out to give Charlie a big sea jerky treat because he was sitting quietly while we were waiting to pay the bill when other dogs were having a barking match in reception. She's lovely.).
Re: Ear infection - again! Murphy my old lab had a similar problem. I had to wash his ears out regularly with special stuff can't remember what called. He did have ear mites at one point though. A lot older than you would've expected. Don't know how he'd picked them up unless he'd had them from being a pup without problem. The vet said the other way was if he was in close contact with cats. Murphy, my big wimp, was terrified of the farm cats. Kept as far away as possible from them. One used to come for a walk with us in the evening. To murphys horror it would rub itself against his legs like cats do while he stood rooted to the spot.m ;D ;D They certainly didn't get near his ears.
Re: Ear infection - again! Oh Julie , what a pain, pardon the pun , poor Charlie, looks like its just something possibly inherent that he will have to cope with, but at least treatment is there and helping . Shall be seeing Clare this Wednesday when we take Sam for his Lepto shot, she is so sweet and has a real soft spot for Sam too , loves Labs with a passion , Dave is a star
Re: Ear infection - again! Well, if it stops these dratted ear infections, I don't mind doing a twice weekly ear wash. At least he sits still now - the result of much roast chicken for sitting still while people poke at sore ears. Poor boy. Kate - I loved Clare, she seemed geniunely pleased to meet a new labrador!
Re: Ear infection - again! Ah sorry Julie,hope the washes fix it and he's not too bothered by it, Glad he got an extra treat for being a good boy x
Re: Ear infection - again! Julie I am sorry to hear poor Charlie has another ear infection At least you know now that this is going to part of his life and you know what has to be done. Well done Charlie for being such a good boy at the vets. Helen xx
Re: Ear infection - again! Just cleaned his ears, dosed him up with ear drops etc. He promptly ran into the front room and wiped and rubbed his ears, leaving greasy streaks from the products, all over my silk rug. : won't make that mistake again...off to google silk rug cleaning....
Re: Ear infection - again! Sorry to hear about the ear situation......and the rug!!! I hope that Google name up with the goods on rug cleaning....
Re: Ear infection - again! Oops Charlie. Hattie had an infection in both ears a few months ago and left greasy antibiotic streaks all over our oak flooring and wherever she slept : Good luck with the silk rug. Helen x
Re: Ear infection - again! Sorry to hear this, Julie, but as Helen said, at least you have a plan of action to deal with it, and I know you'll keep on top of it. I'm envious of how well Charlie did at the vet....last time for us was a complete nightmare...hoping for better next time.....
Re: Ear infection - again! Sorry about the ear infection... At least you know about it now, and can keep it in check. My old Billy had lots of ear problems, starting with mites when he was a pup. He was very sensitive about having his ears touched all his life, but we did learn to check his ears on a regular basis and to recognize the warning signs (which with him was that his inner ear would become pink and sore looking).
Re: Ear infection - again! Thanks all, I do feel better having something to do as a preventative measure, and I'll soon get into the routine of the ear washing (ie doors to carpet areas closed!). [quote author=Lisa link=topic=2806.msg28941#msg28941 date=1381207633] I'm envious of how well Charlie did at the vet....last time for us was a complete nightmare...hoping for better next time..... [/quote] Charlie was a nightmare at first - a small waiting room full of dogs, cats, rabbits etc! Sent him crazy with excitement. We didn't know that it's not really possible to clicker train for sitting still (I read that it isn't recently on here), we've always done C&T for "stay on your mat" - although we don't click anymore now he has the idea, it's just a bit of kibble every few minutes if he hasn't moved. So I just C&T for sit and stay where I've put you in the waiting room, short gaps if it's difficult, longer and longer between clicks and treats if it's easy. It seems to have worked. All I might be doing is charging my clicker, of course! Well, whatever, it gets us through.
Re: Ear infection - again! For us it wasn't so much the staying still...it was the issues Simba had with being grabbed or manhandled, especially if there was a collar pull involved. They had to muzzle him to do the pre-op physical Then when I took him back to get his stitches checked it was a bad scene. Trying to restrain him so the vet could have a look.....basically two people holding him down and he was crying at full pitch the whole time :'( It was truly awful...... But.....he really has relaxed a lot since those days and I have been doing some C & T, trying to replicate things the vet might do, like lift up his ears to take a look, or squeeze his body, or lift up legs, etc. He's doing really well with this, and he is definitely getting lots of hugs from us which I think will help with the restraint issue. Hopefully...... :-[
Re: Ear infection - again! Ah Lisa that scenario makes me so sad for your boy,it's all related to him being dragged around by his collar by his previous family isn't it ?I hate to think of that beautiful dog just being locked outside because he was doing stuff he hadn't be told or shown wasn't acceptable.......I'm sure they never meant to be unkind to him,they just couldn't cope but I'm so glad he's come to you.You don't know truly what goes on in their heads.....I hope he understands he's safe now.....even though he can be a little divil ...I've just replied to the bacon grease post! X
Re: Ear infection - again! Ah, poor Simba. It sounds like he is coming on though, I'm sure the C&T for examinations will help...I'm having to do that for ear washes now, which Charlie informs me are worth THREE times the chicken as for just ear drops.... :
Re: Ear infection - again! [quote author=editor link=topic=2806.msg29283#msg29283 date=1381407324] Have you got a link for that Julie? [/quote] It was here: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/forums/index.php/topic,2612.msg26933.html#msg26933 I thought from this that I had being doing it wrong, in that I wasn't using a C&T to end the behaviour - I was C&Ting throughout the sit / stay on mat.
Re: Ear infection - again! OK, sorry Julie, I didn't make it very clear. There are two approaches to this. You can keep repeating the C&T whilst the dog maintains his position, and some clicker trainers do this - I think Emily Larlham (kikopup) does it in her 'stay' video. Using this approach, you then stretch out the gaps between the C&T, and the C&T is not acting as a release cue I do it by releasing the dog each time I C&T, and gradually spacing out the amount of time I make the dog wait before releasing him. The C&T functions as a release cue, and is then replaced with a verbal release cue such as 'get on' or OK Neither is right or wrong, just a slight difference in approach. The benefit of using the C&T as a release when you are teaching a new skill, is that you can then set the dog up to repeat the behaviour, such as going on to the mat again. The benefit of Emily's version is that it is better when you are trying to avoid unwanted behaviours (such as jumping up) because it prevents the dog entering a cycle of bad behaviour/good behaviour/reward/bad behaviour again. It is interesting to compare Emily's video, of mat training, with the Learning About Dogs version. I'll dig it out. Am going off topic a bit here, so will add to the other thread.
Re: Ear infection - again! [quote author=editor link=topic=2806.msg29296#msg29296 date=1381409100] You can keep repeating the C&T whilst the dog maintains his position, and some clicker trainers do this - I think Emily Larlham (kikopup) does it in her 'stay' video. Using this approach, you then stretch out the gaps between the C&T, and the C&T is not acting as a release cue [/quote] Yes, this is what I'm doing - I do it a lot as it works really well for Charlie when we have a new distraction to cope with - so am glad to have it straight in my mind now, thanks. Was obviously getting muddled, plus was a bit bemused why it seemed to be working really well when I thought I'd been wrong! I use my release word at the end to say ok, you can get up now (or whatever).
