Ok so I have a five year old Labrador Bella and I love doing agility with her , when she wants to do it I will tell her to come up to the jumps and she will just sit there’s I have tried treats , toys , carrots all sorts of things but I can’t make her do it but when she is doing it she is very good at it and I have taught her loads of tricks but my parents said if I pick up the pop then I can have another dog that I can do agility with but I am a bit off a germaphobe and I have anxiety and a bit of ocd so picking up poo us a big deal to me I’m scared that it will make me ill so I don’t know if it’s worth it for another dog but I really want to be able to do agility I know it’s a choice that I have to make but does anyone have any thoughts ?
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- Thread starter Emma_1
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Had my first dog at 8 years old im 55 now and I'm still here. Id hate to think how much dog poo I've picked up over the years. Add on top of that mucking stables out every day for years. Dogs and horses, what a life, I've been bitten and kicked God knows how many times by the horses. The dogs are a breeze compared to them.
That’s true actually thank you for putting it into perspective
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There are germs everywhere - which I'm sure you know really - but we have amazing immune systems that can deal with almost everything.
With OCD, though, I guess it's important to manage your anxieties rather than just have people tell you that it's all OK. Now, when you pick up dog poo, you're using a plastic bag and the chances of coming into contact with the poo are very low. But you could also take hand sanitiser with you, or dampened soapy cloths in a plastic container (look for info on making your own disposable wet wipes) and/or use extra bags. You could also look at poo pickers designed for less able people, like this: HandiScoop Pro - Tall Though bear in mind they might make it harder to pick up, and I guess you'd need to clean the poo picker occasionally.
Good luck!
With OCD, though, I guess it's important to manage your anxieties rather than just have people tell you that it's all OK. Now, when you pick up dog poo, you're using a plastic bag and the chances of coming into contact with the poo are very low. But you could also take hand sanitiser with you, or dampened soapy cloths in a plastic container (look for info on making your own disposable wet wipes) and/or use extra bags. You could also look at poo pickers designed for less able people, like this: HandiScoop Pro - Tall Though bear in mind they might make it harder to pick up, and I guess you'd need to clean the poo picker occasionally.
Good luck!
Oh that’s a good idea I didn’t think of a poo picker thank you ! I will order one but I will have to wash my hands well after using it aswell
You could wear a couple of poo bags on your hands as emergency gloves when you use the poo picker.
Regarding the agility - your present dog is politely telling you that she doesn't want to do it. There are things in life that you hate doing too. Which school lessons do you hate? Which house chores? To return the love our dogs so freely give us, we avoid making them do things they hate. So do things with your lab that she loves (e.g. scent trails) and plan for one day having a dog for agility. Meantime join an agility club and help out without the stress of having your dog with you (leave her at home after a good walk). You will learn loads from the other people, what to do and what not to do. By the time you get your agility dog, you will have gained so much knowledge. Meantime enjoy the dog you have, because two dogs are much more work than one, you only have so much free time and energy, and you don't want to make your dog you have now feel left out.
Regarding the agility - your present dog is politely telling you that she doesn't want to do it. There are things in life that you hate doing too. Which school lessons do you hate? Which house chores? To return the love our dogs so freely give us, we avoid making them do things they hate. So do things with your lab that she loves (e.g. scent trails) and plan for one day having a dog for agility. Meantime join an agility club and help out without the stress of having your dog with you (leave her at home after a good walk). You will learn loads from the other people, what to do and what not to do. By the time you get your agility dog, you will have gained so much knowledge. Meantime enjoy the dog you have, because two dogs are much more work than one, you only have so much free time and energy, and you don't want to make your dog you have now feel left out.
Thank you well yes I thought that she wasn’t so enthusiastic about it but she loves playing fetch and finding treats that I have hidden (even though she doesn’t give me the toy back when we play fetch ahaha) I can’t join an agility club because of coronavirus but I will enjoy playing all other games with her in the meantime and I won’t leave her out when we get the new dog I will play with both at the same time
Giving life sceneries to explain the need to get some things done even when we don't want to is commendable.. Take the dog you have through the process and enjoy it, give him some time too..
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Are you seeing a healthcare practitioner for your anxiety and OCD? ('Seeing' could of course just be phone calls right now). If so, it could be worth talking to them, as even though this might seem minor to others, it does affect your life - and your ability to be a responsible dog owner. If you haven't got an expert to speak to, maybe ask your GP. It could be worth asking them about cognitive behaviour therapy.
My only other thought was using disposable gloves that go all the way up the arm, like vets use. And actually, considering that vets spend a lot of their time with an arm inside a cow's bum might help you realise that the risk from picking up dog poo is practically non-existent - but of course mental health issues don't necessarily work like that, any more than telling someone with a spider phobia that spiders can't hurt them would help them.
Do you have any idea what sort of thing might help? Facts and science about the actual risk, or some device we haven't thought of yet?
Yes I am seeing someone but it is a new fear picking up dog poo as I haven’t done it before but what isn’t new is the fear that it will make me ill but I will try using gloves and multiple poo bags see if that helps
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Just do what millions of people are doing right now, carry hand sanitisers with you as well as gloves. I know it's easy for me to say, it's just a thought though
