I joined a pug forum and got some pretty good info from people on there who've experienced the same problems with their pugs, and they recommended starting Gracie on joint supplements called Cosequin DS. I searched around online and the best price I found was $39.99 for 132 chewable tablets. Petco have the whole range on sale if you buy online, but even then they were charging $44.99 for 110 of the exact same chewable tablets, and $52.49 for 132. It was worth the extra time to find them for less, especially as the regular Petco price for that pack size is $69.99!
You're meant to give one a day for 4-6 weeks and then you can reduce it to half a day after that initial period. That means 132 tablets will last for at least 7 months, so it's worth the expenditure. Especially if this stuff is as good as everyone says it is - it's meant to be great for dogs of all sizes and ages. If it helps Gracie's knees then it's worth it. Her patella did actually luxate for a short time last night, she jumped off the couch while we were eating dinner and started limping. It went back in after about a minute though. She didn't yelp or anything, but I can't imagine it would be a comfortable sensation! If this stuff is as good as it's meant to be, then hopefully it will help to prevent, or at least delay, the onset of arthritis. It should arrive either tomorrow or Friday hopefully, I paid for 2-3 day delivery.
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Yesterday when hubby finished work we took Suzie and Gracie over to the dog park. We arrived at the same time as one of our friends, who has a pug and a French bulldog. All was well until Jester, the Frenchie, got mauled by a bloody pitbull. The most horrific thing about it was that nobody could get the damn pitbull off of him - it had half Jester's head in its mouth and it was shaking him like a ragdoll. The pitbull's owner was screaming "choke him!" to the guy who was with her, because despite screaming at the dog and hitting it to try and get it to let go, it wouldn't. I didn't actually really see the attack because we were a little way away and there were loads of people gathered around, trying to get the damn dog off of poor little Jester. To be honest I was trying to locate Suzie as well, for a short time I couldn't see her and I was panicking like crazy. Gracie doesn't venture far from our side so I knew where she was. When the dog finally let go, poor Jester had at least 3 or 4 puncture wounds to his head, neck and shoulder. There was one at the base of his ear that I think had gone through the skin of the ear. It was awful. Considering how prolonged and vicious the attack was, I think he actually was very lucky. The pitbull could've ripped his ear off, he could've even killed him... It's just so scary.
Our friend was in shock, she was pretty calm but you could tell it was the shock doing that to her. I'm not surprised - I'd be a total mess if that happened to one of our girls. The fact that there was nothing she could do probably made it that much worse, too. Luckily someone had some peroxide in their car, so he went and got that to put on the wounds. One of the guys there called the cops, and there was a huge commotion with a lot of people yelling at the people with the pitbull because a dog like that doesn't belong in a dog park! Especially when the dog park is in 2 separate sections - small dogs and large dogs. Well, Jester certainly belongs in the small dog side. The pitbull should never have been in that section - in fact, he probably shouldn't even be on the big dog side. At least if it had attacked a bigger dog, the dog being attacked would have probably had more of a chance. I'm still shocked about the whole thing, really. It's just so horrendous. Our poor friend, she must still be in shock over it. I'm glad I didn't really see the attack - the sounds were bad enough. I knew it must be really bad if the owner was yelling "choke him!" - you wouldn't say that if it was minor, would you? The fact that nobody could get the dog to stop is the scariest thing - I know that not all pitbulls are bad, of course; I know they get a particularly bad rap - but when they start attacking there's really very little you can do. I'm seriously considering carrying hubby's baseball bat with me when we go to the dog park from now on - there's no way I'm going to stand by helpless if a vicious beast goes for Suzie or Gracie. I was angry enough on the two occasions that little bastard pomeranian attacked Suzie, and although I think that dog is capable of doing some serious damage (particularly to her prominent eyes) it's nothing compared to a pitbull. At least you can grab the little fucker and throw him if you need to - he's a nasty piece of work but he's small and light enough that you can pull him off relatively easily. A pitbull is a completely different entity and it really doesn't take much for one to severely maul or even kill a dog, big or small. The people with the pitbull's owner were trying to justify the whole thing - well, I'm sorry, but there is no justification. Jester was no threat to a dog that weighs at least 5 times what he does - he's 23 pounds for fuck's sake and he's not vicious! I'm just glad that Jester is OK. I'm sure he'll be in quite a bit of pain, and there's gonna be bruising under there, but the bites themselves look fairly superficial. I guess that being alive and not too severely injured is a good outcome when you've been attacked by a pitbull, anyway.
When the cop eventually arrived, after what must have been around 30 minutes (even though the dispatcher told the man who called that it was a 'priority' call!) the people with the pitbull had long gone. I asked the cop myself what you're legally allowed to do if a dog is attacking your (or another) dog, and he said, "Don't even worry about that, just do whatever you need to do to stop it" - good! So I think the baseball bat idea is probably a good one. I know it's more likely to be effective in a situation like that than shouting or hitting the attacking dog with your hand, anyway. I'd hate to have to hurt any dog, but I'm sorry, if it's attacking my dog, or another dog, then I damn well will.
Funnily enough, on Monday (the day before the attack) there was a man in the dog park with a handgun in a holster on his belt. At the time I thought it was a little odd, only because he's the first civilian I've actually seen to carry a gun even though I've been here over 5 months now, and also because I thought it was strange to carry a gun to the dog park - well, we could've used him yesterday! I don't like the thought of hurting a dog, but really what else could you do to stop such a vicious attack? The other thing is, that there were some little kids in the dog park yesterday - I know people say pitbulls only attack other dogs, but with a dog like that which nobody could control, how do you really know? I bet the police would've arrived quicker if it had attacked a person - of course they would. I hope those stupid people never come back to the dog park, and if they do then that bloody dog best be in a muzzle or left at home. I said as much to the owner - I told her that if her dog had attacked one of my dogs, I would not be as calm as our friend was. I said that dog does not belong here, and if you're going to take it out of the house it needs to be under control and have a muzzle on. I didn't shout at her, she was hysterical too, but it's something that better not be repeated because I swear, if that had been Suzie, and they tried to justify the attack to me like they did yesterday, I would go ballistic. It just doesn't bear thinking about, I'd be devastated if Suzie was attacked like that (I say Suzie rather than Gracie because Gracie doesn't go far from us, but Suzie does, and I think Suzie would be more likely to be in the situation Jester was in yesterday - but of course, if it happened to Gracie I would go crazy too).
I don't want to stop taking the girls to the dog park, because I know it's good for them (especially Suzie, because she plays and runs like crazy every time we go) but it's made me quite reluctant to want to take them without hubby being with us. I already was reluctant, actually, but now I'm even more so. If anything like that were to happen to Suzie or Gracie, I'd never forgive myself (even though it wouldn't be my fault!).
