Jumbo is still constipated, so I gave him a laxative today. Tomorrow I will know if it worked and/or if I gave the correct dose. The Chinese herbal remedy I am using as a laxative is very small and I only gave him 1/4 of a tablet.
He wasn't that hungry tonight, although he ate some food. I suspect he wasn't hungry because he is so heavily compacted.
He has some new skin eruptions happening, although I suspect that it is more from being constipated causing toxins to be stuck inside the body with nowhere to go but out through the skin.
What I've noticed about Jumbo is that he is very good at manipulating the owners to give him what he wants — he's clearly dominating the owners. When he didn't want to eat, it's possibly due to the fact he is constipated, but I also noticed that he was being distracted by other dogs, people coming and going and of course, the bitch in heat.
So tonight, I put Jumbo into his place and I clearly let him know who was boss — me.
I let him know that I was in charge and that he was not. Based on his reaction, whereby he tried to bite me, made a lot of whining and tried to escape, it's a sure sign he thinks he's in charge and was trying to see if he could scare me away. But it didn't work.
To quote the Dog Whisperer
, Cesar Millan, I put him into a more calm and submissive state. I then kept Jumbo's attention clearly on me. Oh he tried to get sympathy from the owner but I told her to ignore him. If anyone has ever seen Season 1, Episode 1 of the Dog Whisperer
TV show, then you will have seen a Chihuahua in that episode have a conniption fit
. This is what Jumbo did too — but with no success.
I wanted Jumbo to eat more but because of all the distractions, he was loosing focus — he was controlling the situation as he has done so many times. Jumbo has many fear issues which, he uses to get sympathy — I can clearly see it but the owner cannot. Ultimately Jumbo's ploy to get sympathy didn't work. His reaction to my discipline was actually a good sign, well, a bad sign too. Only a dog that thinks he is the boss is going to react the way he did while a submissive dog would go straight into submission. But the fight
he had was a good sign. It shows he still has energy and in fact, tonight was the first night he has barked in a few weeks. So it's a good sign even though the barking was due to distractions.
I've noticed, over the time I have spent with Jumbo, that he appears to be a dominant fearful type of dog. He wants to do things his way, on his terms yet he is also scared and nervous. I am not sure if his features have added to his health problems or not. But as I told the owner tonight, it's very easy to get attached to your illness and sometimes you need to change your attitude and stop feeling sorry for yourself — to stop looking for sympathy. So that's why I encouraged the owner to take Jumbo outside, get him off the sofa and help him feel alive. Of course, rest is important for Jumbo too, but so is a proper attitude. The discipline tonight was also to help kick Jumbo in the butt, so to speak.
Tomorrow, we will feed him inside the house with no other dogs around so he is focussed. He's been catered to quite a bit. He's like the King who gets hand fed and while that was important when he was really weak, we don't want to continue babying him — otherwise he will remain in that state of mind.
It's time to change his mindset from feeling sorry for himself and seeking sympathy to a state whereby he thinks he is healthy. There's no point in nourishing the sick state of mind especially since I am officially
declaring that all major healing is done!
He needs to get up and start moving. Of course, he is still weak and thin — there is no denying that, but he's not so weak that he can't stretch his legs. It's also possible that once he has a really good bowel movement and really good bowel cleansing, that his state of being will change. There is no doubt that a clogged bowel can clog your mood and affect how you feel too.