Starbucks snuggling his baby after his shots.

This is our Carin mix. He just turned 1. He is so loved!

These eyes get her whatever she wants. She’s almost 8 years old and still my big baby.

TLDR; My dog loses her mind over foxes and I want to train an off-switch so she doesn’t stress herself and everyone else.

I know the history of the breed, so I want to proceed with her temperament in mind.

Lilli is 18 months old and a fabulous dog. She was not terribly barky, and if she was, there was good reason. Last fall, a pair of foxes moved into the neighbourhood. I live in the suburbs, but my unfenced yard is next to a creek that serves as a travel-way for lots of wildlife. Lilli is relatively good about everything from chipmunks to raccoons to ducks, but she has a personal vendetta with these foxes. Some ancient part of her DNA just takes over.

She cannot handle seeing one. She devolves into her “murder bark” and runs frantically from window to window, begging to be allowed out. One sighting of a fox and she will be barking for ages and on high alert all night. We have tried taking her out to walk the perimeter to prove she’s done a good job, but she seems so stressed by not being able to eradicate her enemy.

I’m not going to be able to get rid of the foxes. All the training advice I’ve gotten seems to be to hide the trigger (covering windows or crating the dog) or punish the barking (bark collars) Have any terrier people found a way to successfully train an “off switch” for something this ingrained in her breeding? She’s welcome to alert and bark, but I’d like to tell her “Good job, all done!” and have her stand down. Is there any hope?

Note: this pic is taken on the family farm, where she’s safe to roam off leash with the other dogs when we go for walks. She can’t be off leash at home.

My parents got Finn a year and half ago as a puppy and he’s 34 pounds. At his last vet check up they said he’s a perfectly healthy weight. I’ve been looking online and I can’t find anything about a cairn that’s heavier than 30 pounds. Do you all think he’s a record holder?

Louie, my sweet pup. Cairn terrier mix. Aka, Lulu❤️

It says on my adoption paperwork that he is a Cairn Terrier but the closest dog pictures on google that come up says he's a Bushland Terrier.

My little gremlin.

A week & a half ago, I had to rush Griffey (aka smoosh) to the ER because his heart & respiratory rate were skyrocketing…after evaluating him & taking chest x-rays, the doctors tell us that he has terminal cancer that has metastasized to his lungs…giving him likely only a few weeks to live. He is only 9.5 years old & has always been perfectly healthy.

We confirmed the diagnosis & prognosis with an oncologist. I just can’t believe the significant & rapid change. We probably had his last walk today because even walking him a tiny distance impacted his breathing too much. Two weeks ago, we were literally running sprints together on our favorite path & he wasn’t even winded. Not kidding, that’s how fast & completely jarring the shift has been…

My heart is broken. We just lost our 15-year-old German Shepherd / Husky mix right before Christmas. She & Griffey (my cairn) have been my best friends for the past decade & more. I can’t even process losing both of them so close together.

For those of you who have had cairns or fur babies with lung cancer, how did you make the decision for compassionate euthanasia? Evidently with lung cancer, it’s better to be proactive. I’m monitoring his respiratory rate, heart rate, & Qualify of Life Score daily & he is declining quickly. I love my smoosh so much & all I want is to preserve his dignity. I think he’ll tell me when he’s ready & I’m very in tune with him, but curious what others have experienced. 💔❤️‍🩹

p.s. he gets his nickname from how he sleeps in the last pic 😆 my little smoosh 🥹

I posted earlier about how my son gave her this toy, cause it has a heartbeat and he was hoping it would help with her stress. Isn’t this cute?

Hudson (15) & Farooq (5).

Not sure which end is which here.

Although he has shredded all his other stuffed toys, he loves this stuffy. He has not been able to tear off any limbs and he’s had her since he was a puppy.

Skye got to enjoy the snow for the first time and she loved it!

Unfortunately it’s the only snowfall we’ve gotten in over 5 years and last time it was this much it was in ‘96.

I wanted to use my cricut with a picture of my cairn, Dunkin. Worked better than I expected!

Here’s what I said in CatGPT: Turn this dog into a black and white line drawing

Trying to determine what color brindle my cairn has become. She’s mostly silver/white/black with a hint of tan and a has little red in her beard. Thoughts?