# Health & Training- Does the internet make us paranoid?



## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

I see over and over..."my friend on another forum"....

How frequent is DM, vaccine reactions, bloat, dog aggression, etc? I personally know of one dog that had a bad vaccine reaction and another that died of bloat. Two dogs out of all my friends that I know in real life. 

does the internet make us paranoid? do we all spend to much time listening to people, we don't know, who had one bad experience and then compounds it by being on every sick dog message board in the world?


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## Anitsisqua (Mar 25, 2012)

Short Answer: Yes.

We love our dogs, and we want to protect them from every possible ailment, which just isn't reasonable, but, for the love of them, we try anyway. And trying to prevent EVERY potential problem can make you paranoid and crazy.


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## TimberGSD2 (Nov 8, 2011)

I think the internet just opens us up to so many more people. If all of us know 1 person who had a dog die of bloat, and there are 5000 of us on a site, well then the perception of percentage goes way up. 

I work in an emergency clinic and see vaccine reactions almost every day so that one I do think happens quite frequently. DM not so much.


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## jakes mom (Feb 29, 2012)

Yes Jax I think it does. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

________________
Sue


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## Narny (Sep 8, 2010)

jakes mom said:


> Yes Jax I think it does. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.
> 
> ________________
> Sue


+1 to this!


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## Jo_in_TX (Feb 14, 2012)

I'm positive the internet makes us more paranoid - some of us, anyway. :wild:

:lurking:


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## gsdraven (Jul 8, 2009)

jakes mom said:


> Sometimes ignorance is bliss.


Isn't that the truth. Sometimes knowledge isn't power and can be debilitating. 

I can think of friends that find a lump on their dog (or even themselves) and instantly have them dying of cancer in 2 months time. And then there are other people I meet who tell me things they are doing with their dog or dogs that make me cringe and my heart skip a beat and yet they are living perfectly happy lives and the things I fear never seem to happen to them. 

There's a fine line between being prepared and paranoid.


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## Narny (Sep 8, 2010)

gsdraven said:


> And then there are other people I meet who tell me things they are doing with their dog or dogs that make me cringe and my heart skip a beat and yet they are living perfectly happy lives and the things I fear never seem to happen to them.
> 
> There's a fine line between being prepared and paranoid.


Yep, my fear is that since I KNOW better its more likely to happen to me (what ever it is lol).


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## Shade (Feb 20, 2012)

I'm very 50/50  Ignorance can be bliss, but also being prepared can give you just as much peace of mind


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## Jack's Dad (Jun 7, 2011)

It definitely can. 

I have been raising dogs for decades without any major problems but I see so much fear in especially young owners.

Life is what it is and horrible things can happen to people and dogs but is it as frequent as we would be made to believe.

I'm for reasonable precautions and then let life be.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Jack's Dad said:


> ... but I see so much fear in especially young owners.


I think part of that IS the internet making people unsure of what they are doing. they could be confident owners doing it correctly and then read online how they are screwing it all up, come on here and ask the question and see an online brawl ensue on who is right and who is wrong. I see so many posts that imply, or outright say, "if you don't do it my way" your dog will be a mess or dead.


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## kiya (May 3, 2010)

It can be a blessing & a curse.
I started getting involved with online dog "forums" when I got Apache. My breeder had a yahoo group for her puppy people. It was great. Then when Kiya started having seizures I was beside myself, devastated. I found a lot of support & comfort from 2 online sites. Knowing I wasn't alone and there were so many people going thru the same things really helped me get thru it.
I have "annoyed" my fair share of vets when I question things I have seen online.


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## Caledon (Nov 10, 2008)

I know of two dogs who had bloat. One was a great dane and the other a GSC. One survived.

I like knowing about certain issues and try to educate myself of the ones that may be of concern to me such as:

1. bloat - learned not to exercise before and after eating, no elevated bowels and divide meals into 2 poritons.
2. obsessive compulisive behaviour. Learned what to look out of eg. tail chaising, licking and laser lights.

The things that I can do something about and prevent I want to know more. The things that could happen and I have no control, not so much.

So can the internet make some peranoid, yes. In the end I trust my vet to alert me to possible concerns.


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## Courtney (Feb 12, 2010)

My own dr banned me from WebMD

I found when my boy was a pup I came up with more reasons on why I couldn't do something vs why I could do them. With health & training I was overthinking alot and wasting time and was convinced my puppy was going to be ruined. Hogwash!

I am much better now & that has come with confidence.

"trust but verify" has gone along way with me.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

and food..EEK!!!...that's a whole other issue!


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## Jack's Dad (Jun 7, 2011)

Jax08 said:


> I think part of that IS the internet making people unsure of what they are doing. they could be confident owners doing it correctly and then read online how they are screwing it all up, come on here and ask the question and see an online brawl ensue on who is right and who is wrong. I see so many posts that imply, or outright say, "if you don't do it my way" your dog will be a mess or dead.


I think part of that is people always wanting to be "right". I have been guilty of that.

There are many ways to train, feed etc... and arguments about spay/neuter, vaccines. If you get too caught up in all the varying opinions it can freeze you about making a decision.

It's hard for us humans with our need to be "right", hence the constant bickering which can lead to fear and indecision.


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## OriginalWacky (Dec 21, 2011)

I was already sort of paranoid so it didn't change me much. However, I have learned to take most everything with a grain of salt and do further research.


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## martemchik (Nov 23, 2010)

A large part of it is that people tend to only post questions on negative things. No one is going to make a post about how great their dog is doing, or how healthy it is. But when you have a problem you will ask people about it. It's kind of my pet peeve with dog parks, the only threads we get about dog parks is how horrible they are and how every time someone goes there they get attacked by another dog. I look at my real life experiences at dog parks and there is a fight there less than 1% of the times I've been. The forum is a smaller sample of true life experience, and most of it is negative, sometimes we get the brag here or there, but I think most people look at that as boasting and not just a "look what we did."


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## shaner (Oct 17, 2010)

The internet doesn't make us paranoid, knowledge does. Knowledge can be a scary thing. Ignorance really is bliss. If you don't know what bloat is, you can't be scared your dog will get it. 

Ask your parents or anyone that grew up in the 60's, 70's and 80's how many times they thought they had cancer, or HIV, or MS, or ALS, etc. People didn't worry about those things because society was very ignorant to those things. Society didn't really know what caused them so they just weren't talked about. These days, anytime someone gets a sniffle, they're self-diagnosing themselves with diseases that most doctors have never even seen.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

shaner said:


> The internet doesn't make us paranoid, knowledge does.


I don't fully agree with this. I don't think knowledge makes us paranoid. I think lack of knowledge does. If we don't fully understand something and listen to another filling our ears with fear factors, that makes us paranoid. 

Doing the research, talking to qualified, credible, individuals, making an educated decision based on knowledge does not make us paranoid.


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## chelle (Feb 1, 2009)

Agree, ignorance can be blissful.. til your dog has an issue and you're scared and worried and what do you do? Turn to the Internet, of course! 

And that's a big part of it, people turn to forums and such when there is a problem, not as often when life with their pets is peachy keen.

The internet was a lifesaver for me with two of my dogs and their health issues. But yes, it has also made me more paranoid about neutering and food to name my top two.


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

I am glad for the resources on the net.
I found out tumeric is great for sebaceous cyst reduction. 
I learned how to deal with FA. 
I am not paranoid, but if my dog has an issue, I know google is my friend as long as I am diligent in reading between the lines to be sure what I'm reading is worthy. I don't just clik on any site for information.
There is one fb page I'm on that has so much great info on the GSD, health issues, articles and historical pictures of DDR or war dogs, I wish everyone could be on that page!! Not sure where all this info comes from, but the admin on that page sure has a network of great input. 
I'd be sad if I couldn't access the wealth of knowledge at my fingertips.
Knowledge is power, ignorance is bliss...both are ok, but not sure bliss is all its cracked up to be.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

What is the FB page?


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## gsdraven (Jul 8, 2009)

Jax08 said:


> What is the FB page?


Ditto. The other GSD ones are aggravating.


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

I'll link it, but it is a page that has to be approved invite, not just a like. I hope he doesn't get overwhelmed with requests!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/130851574384/


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