Carolk9s

I believe most dogs come through treatment just fine. Important to follow vets advice to keep your dog confined and calm during treatment. My sister adopted a corgi mix who was HW pos, he was treated and is fine. He was VERY thin and had a poor coat when adopted, he's fat and sassy now. Eons ago, before much was known about heartworms, our family dog was INFESTED. Had quite a load. He was successfully treated and from there on, we used preventative.

I want to chime in here, I too have seen temperament issues cropping up in Labs, so many pet buyers want a Lab, therefore so many people just throw two Labs together so they can sell puppies. I am also seeing some freakin HUGE Labs, very tall and rangy. There are two that I have seen where I practice agility, both are as tall or taller than my Jesse who is just under 27 inches at the shoulder. Both are yellow, both have issues. One of them tried to nail Candy, he snarled and lunged at her. Luckily his owner was plugged in and quickly corrected him. The other, also a male, also yellow, has been diligently worked with by his owner to correct his anti social tendancies. She has made HUGE strides with him by working tirelessly to keep his focus on her and by preventing ANY interaction with other dogs for a time. She has progessed to allowing certain interactions with known calm dogs under strict supervision. I once briefly worked this Lab on the agility course to demonstrate a handling move to his owner, the dog was eager and biddable to me. Of course I had food! As far as I know, both of these dogs have only shown aggression to other dogs, not people. There is another Lab I have run across at the dog park, he is not aggressive just untrained. He will lunge at and onto people to snatch a ball or toy out of your hand. Once he gets the ball, he works on destroying it. He pulled this on me once, I grabbed his collar to get the ball back and accidentally pinched his skin in the process. He cried, his owner said DON'T HURT HIM. I apologized as I had not meant to hurt the dog but was gratified to hear another person say 'maybe your dog will think twice about lunging at people next time'.

heehee, we got a what??? Went to UKC agility trials this past weekend, going for qualifying scores or 'legs' in AG3. This is the top level of UKC agility competition. Candy and I have, er, struggled to qualify, finally our 8th attempt paid off. We NQ'd both trials on Saturday, in the first one she looked at the weaves poles like 'what ARE those things again?' Second trial, she blew off the AFrame and ran over to visit the judge. Wasted precious seconds getting her back, finished the course without further trouble. We must get at least a score of 196 to qualify, lost two points for the runby on the AFrame, and were 2.12 seconds over time. Our score was 195.88. A mere 12/100's of a second faster and we would have qualified. First trial on Sunday, all was going well until I revved her up a bit TOO much, she blasted over the AFrame and jumped OVER the swing plank instead trotting across the surface. This was a VERY technical course with lots of trappy areas and hard turns. No one in her height division qualified on this course. Even so, I was happy with her performance on the whole, her attitude was improving with each run. I decided going in that we were NOT going to qualify and that was ok. I was determined that no matter what happened, she was going to be praised and I was going to keep it fun. Sounds simple but its too easy to get a little frustrated at mistakes and of course most dogs pick right up on that. Candy got MAJOR cookies after each run and MAJOR praise. None of that aw dang stuff at all. Sunday afternoon it all came together. We had a minor bobble and lost just 1 point and actually finished under time. We got a second place ribbon and that coveted 1st Q. We only need 4 more for her UACHX title. A friend said he took some pictures so hopefully he will send them to me soon and I will share.

Not all rescue orgs require a large fenced in yard. The situation I described above with the woman who had an elderly lab lived in a townhome. Rescue was perfectly fine with that as the woman said her dog got multiple daily walks on leash. The reason she didn't get the Mal is because of lying to the rescue about vet care. If you are interested in adopting through a rescue org, be able to detail how and how often you exercise your current dog(s). Some rescues use a fenced in yard as a guideline but will make exceptions if they feel the dog will be adequately exercised without one.

Courtnek, Those busybodies need to find some real abuse to report! It should have been obvious once they saw your dogs up close that there was no abuse going on there! Geez, I'd be in the slammer quick if they overheard me telling Brittany to kick Candy's arse once and for all! Candy wrestles and bites and plays HARD with Brittany, I encourage Britt to put that little yella dog in her place. I guess I am 'just' as abusive as you huh? :wink:

[quote name='Dog Lover']At least they don't announce that Pit Bulls have LOCKING jaws like the Animal Police from Miami Dade did. [/quote] I absolutely agree, it is irresponsible and harmful to the dogs to quote such nonsense. People hear that on TV and think well gee it must be true if the animal cops say it is. I hope those of you who feel this must be addressed are continuing to write AP and Miami Dade to set them straight. Include any factual articles and supporting documents that you can and be persistant. Remember, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Breed rescues also want to be very darned sure the dog is going to a FOREVER home, not one that will discover that are not prepared for the dog after all and it ends up back in rescue or on the street or in the pound. I'm sure there are those groups who do push the requirements to an extreme but most truly have the dogs best interest in mind. For instance. Belgian Malinois rescue is not likely to place a high drive young dog in a home where any adults are going to be gone all day or there are young children that are not taught to respect dogs or the dog will not get adequate exercise etc. I once did a home check for an elder Malinois male. The woman was very nice, her existing old female Lab was nice and I thought the home was a good possibility. Turns out, she lied to me and to rescue about vet care, her old arthritic Lab had not been seen by the vet she supplied as a reference for over 2 years. She did not get the Mal.

I for one am sick of the rescue org's getting a bad rap. Do their job for a while, especially in Detroit and then form your opinions. As DP said, the actual villans are the low life morons who promote the bad reputation of the pit bull and the 'looks like a pit bull' dogs in fighting and guarding their drug stashes. As the 'true' pit bull is SUPPOSED to be friendly and sweet with humans, using that arguement holds no water. I have seen more than a couple dogs brought into the shelter who are wiggly/giggly with people but seriously want to attack another dog. As soon as the other dog is out of sight, the aggressive dog is wiggly/giggly again with people. Any rescue org that seizes a huge number of dogs, such as Detroit, does NOT have the resources or ability to ensure that these dogs go ONLY to a home with no other dogs and one that will NEVER allow said dog to meet another dog on the street. I am sad to see dogs slated for euthenasia for being food aggressive but part of me does understand the reasoning. A dog that is seriously food aggressive is a tragic event just waiting to happen. There are very few adopters who would have the knowledge and steadfast attention to detail to ALWAYS ensure that everyone, especially children, are kept away from a dog while it is eating. I do believe food aggression can be managed and trained out of most dogs, but it is NOT a simple quick process. Nor is it foolproof, few dogs can be completely flipped the other way if they have food aggressive tendancies. Many of these dogs have been starved and like Scarlett O'Hara, vow to NEVER go hungry again. I have said it before and will say it again, while I love ALL dogs, including pit bulls, I would NOT want to have one living next door to me that not only was capable of easily killing my dogs BUT had a strong desire to do so as well. Dogs that have been trained to fight and have taken to fighting will CONTINUE to seek fights. Ok, I'll add, not all but I would imagine a fairly large percentage of the 'street' fighting dogs. Do the rescue orgs have the money and manpower to invest in each dog to rehabilitate them into non dog aggressive family pets? No. If you disagree with what is happening, then stop complaining about what others do and DO SOMETHING FOR THE BREED YOURSELF. Scrape up the money and know how and start rehabbing street fighters. Get to work changing how the public views pit bulls by CHANGING the propensity of the breed to be dog aggressive. I don't agree with every situation on the shows but I WILL NOT be simply critical without walking in their shoes. You must try and imagine the horrors these folks have seen, over and over and over. These folks also put THEIR skin on the line to rescue these dogs, yes some are rescued only to die, that is a sad fact that is perpetuated by the morons who continue to back alley fight and breed more dog aggressive dogs.

Oh my dog those are nasty looking scratches! Poor you and your brother and poor Rome! Baaaaaad Eli! Keep a close eye on your scratches in case of infection. Hope you cleaned them up good and put lots of antibiotic cream on! Have you found Rome yet? Even if no blood, want to make sure nothing in his throat was crushed. Baaaad Eli!

Jesse has been on Rimadyl for 6 weeks now, he was on Etogesic prior to that. ALL NSAIDS can cause problems in some dogs. Jesse is also on 1500 mg of glucosamine and 1000 mg of MSM daily. Jesse had a blood panel done 3 days after stopping the Etogesic, all clear. Then 30 days after being on the Rimadyl, another blood panel was run, again all clear. He will have another blood panel run in 6 months unless I see any signs of a problem. My vet DID tell me of potential side affects to watch for as I started him on Rimadyl and told me to stop it immediately and bring him in if he experienced any of them. My vet would only write the initial prescription for 14 days so if he did have any problems in that time, I would not be paying for a longer prescription. I will be keeping a close eye on him for any potential problems, jaundice, refusing to eat, vomiting, etc. I have seen DEFINITE improvement in his physical abilities AND his mental state since starting the Rimadyl. For quite a time, he would look longingly at the couch but would lie down on the floor. Now he is back to jumping up on the couch to holler at our mail lady or to just flop down on it to sleep. He appears more relaxed, more inclined to be playful, and less snarky with the girls. He stills gets cranky when they romp about the living room too much, thats the 'boss' dog in him. I certainly support exploring more natural methods on controlling a dogs pain. I personally decided that as long as the drug does not cause him more pain or trouble, I am willing to possibly shorten his life if it means what life he has left has less pain.

Nothing beats :roflt: right before :sleep2:!

What a beauty! It's amazing that no one has fallen for that lovely hound, hope he finds a great home soon.

Glad to hear Kavik has put on some weight! Jesse was a walking skeleton until he passed his 2nd birthday and slowly started filling out. How old is Kavik?

[quote name='"Dog Lover'] But if this Pit Bull wanted to really attack the guy and do some serious damage it would have.[/quote] But the dog DID attack the man and DID damage his arm. How severe does the damage need to be? Sure, could have been far worse, it could have been the kid that got bit, but this should not have happened at all. Please know Dog Lover, I realize you have already said the dog should be put down, something I totally agree with. I agree also with Kat, the dogs owner bears a burden of guilt. Even though the dog WAS leashed according to the story, the leash broke, ok that could happen unexpectedly to anyone. I have to wonder, had this dog shown aggression to other dogs in public before? If so, the OWNER failed to take proper steps to KNOW that her dog was secure and controllable in public. I too am sorry that a dog may pay with his/her life due to the owners negligence, there would have to be some pretty strict and enforcable limitations placed on this dog and owner otherwise. Even then, what kind of life would the dog have? As usual, there are far too many aspects that we do not know about this situation. Perhaps this charge and attack DID come totally out of the blue and caught the owner off guard. Perhaps the owner is horribly shaken at seeing a behaviour never seen before in this dog. I notice however, the story mentions a total stranger helping get the dog off of the mans arm, NOT the owner. Whats up with that? If I was in the shoes of the man who got bit, I would want the dog that bit me destroyed. BTW, this is based on what we know of the story, we all know there may be other factors we are not aware of. I would not want the breed banned, but I would want THAT dog destroyed.

But did the woman SAY anti PIT BULL? Or just anti vicious dogs. I can understand her fear, if ANY dog attacked me like the one dog attacked her husband, I'd probably have to consider if I wanted the dog put down as well. I do not believe in giving biters second chances as a rule. If the dog had NOT bitten the man in it's attempt to get at the little dog, that is one thing, but the dog apparently did bite the man rather severely. If any one of my dogs did this, I'd kill them myself, I would not need a court order.

Belgian Malinios Rescue is quickly becoming overwhelmed with wonderful dogs who need a home! Here is the link to the main page of Malinios Rescue [url]http://www.malinoisrescue.org/home.shtml[/url] Here is Poppy, she is a 3 yr old spayed female located in Central VA. She is UTD on shots, is crate trained, and knows very basic obedience. Poppy likes people and was fine with children, also ok with cats. She is fine with small dogs. [img]http://www.malinoisrescue.org/dogs04/poppy1.jpg[/img] Here is Cay, a 1yr old neutered male located in Arkansas. Cay is a friendly boy who loves to follow his foster mom around, but may appear shy with strangers at first meeting. He loves squeak toys and tennis balls and is learning to retrieve. He loves other dogs and plays well with male and female dogs alike. He is learning to leave cats alone in his foster home, but chased them in fun when he first arrived. He is moderate energy for a young Malinois and very submissive towards people. Cay's only real flaw seems to be that he is a fence jumper. He can clear a 6 ft fence, and will jump out of a fence to go be with his people. He doesn't seem to have an interest in running away, but just doesn't see any reason he should be on one side of a fence and his foster mom or other interesting activities on the other. He will stay in a fence if his foster mom is out in the yard with him. [img]http://www.malinoisrescue.org/dogs04/cas1.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.malinoisrescue.org/dogs04/cas4.jpg[/img] This is Abbey, a 2.5 yr old spayed female in Indiana Her foster home continues to work on her socialization and she has improved greatly since she first came in to rescue. Abbey seems to warm up to woman faster than to men, she is good with children and loves other dogs. Abbey will alert to strangers yet shows no aggressive behavior. She likes to find a comfortable spot and stay there but she will come looking for company. Abbey is not a lap dog and will need a home with a lot of love and affection. She will need a home willing to continue socializing her and building her confidence. She loves to play outside with other dogs and does well in an outside kennel. Abbey rides well in a car and is crate trained. [img]http://www.malinoisrescue.org/dogs04/abbey1.jpg[/img] This is Geno, a 2-3 yr old neutered male in New Jersey Geno was abandoned by someone who left him tied to the fence at the SPCA. When rescued he was only 55 pounds. Geno plays like a young dog - tossing his beloved squeaky toys up in the air and catching them with glee! He also loves tug and fetch. Geno has gained weight and built up his muscles while at his foster home. Geno gets along with all of his foster's dogs but he does like to play roughly with body slams and face mouthing (typical of many malinois). He's a little too interested in the foster home's parrots and we think he should not be placed in a home with small animals or cats. He loves to be with people and when not playing, snuggling on the couch is one of his favorite activities! Geno also enjoys going out for car rides! He rarely barks, but when he does alert and bark it is with authority!! [img]http://www.malinoisrescue.org/dogs04/geno5.jpg[/img] Here is Lucy, a 1.5 yr old spayed female in Illinois Lucy is about 1.5 years old and on the small side, 20.5", 37 lbs. She gets along well with other dogs & enjoys being part of a play group. She is very, very food motivated and has grasped 'sit' & 'down' with treat motivation. I can't tell if she really wants to please or just wants the cookies. She is very shy with strangers, but we're working on that. Her activity level is medium & her drives other than food drive are low to medium, but she has her moments. She has shown some drive for running, jumping (agility-maybe) mostly reward based. She doesn't have a lot of toy or prey drive. She's calm in the house and crate trained. She's up to date on shots, heartworm neg., and spayed. She could be easily ILP'd. She has been around older children and is fine. Her feeling is anyone with a treat can't be all bad. She would also be suitable for first-time Malinois owners because she doesn't show the usual drive and activity levels of Malinois. [img]http://www.malinoisrescue.org/dogs04/lucy3.jpg[/img] There are MANY MANY more lovely Mals looking for their forever homes, if you are interested in finding out more or know someone who might be interested in a Malinois, please visit the rescue pages at [url]http://www.malinoisrescue.org/home.shtml[/url] for more information and photos of other dogs waiting for homes.

Pretty boy! It is possible the guy was worried that you would not let his dog stay if he said the dog WAS part pit, with the anti-pit hysteria that some folks exhibit. The dog does look like he has some bully breed in him to me. Even if you were smiling and excited to meet his dog, he could have even thought you were trying to 'trick' him into saying the dog was part pit. Hard to tell but anything is possible.

heehee, lucky you dodged that stinkbomb!

With a prong collar, Brittany can CHOOSE whether or not she wishes to be uncomfortable. She learned VERY quickly that if she leaned into the prong, she did not like how it felt. Therefore, she RARELY leans into the collar anymore. She will attempt to shove her head into her prong collar and prance about when it is on, therefore I seriously doubt she is in pain or is fearful of a correction. Different strokes for different folks.

A VERY good point was brought up regarding looking for the salt free beans, if not available, rinse and rinse and rinse! I forgot to mention that, all I buy is the salt free beans. If your dogs get a cup of food, you could substitute 1/4 beans for 1/4 cup food. Over time, that should suffice to reduce their weight gradually.

Make sure Jetta has not been getting into something in the yard that perhaps you are sensitive too, such as poison ivy or other plants. Perhaps she is getting the pollen on her fur and then when she is near, you are reacting to the pollen and not her specifically. Othwerwise, try an over the counter remedy such as Benedryl or get a prescription from your dr. If you are truly allergic to doggie dander and the allergy becomes severe, you might be able to get shots to desensitize you to the allergens. Good luck!

Replacing some kibble with green beans can really help your dogs lose weight. Another food you can use is canned pumpkin, not the pie filling, just straight pumpkin. Be aware that this will add a good amount of fiber so you would want to start slow and add it gradually. You must also take into account any treats your dogs get. My sister is famous for saying her dogs do not get much food at mealtime but she doles out treats in much larger quantities than she should. Her BF also gives the dogs frequent treats, all that adds up. You could give your dogs carrots as treats instead of store bought stuff loaded with salt, dyes, sugars etc. Look for a GRADUAL slimdown, you don't want your dogs dropping a large amount of weight too quickly. Patience and persistance will help you reach your goals.

Poor Jada! Poor Kara! Please dont beat yourself up, it was an ACCIDENT! I have poked my dogs in the eyes more times than I can count. They still love me. I think the idea of getting Jada to lie down with you and put her head in your lap is your best shot at putting the frozen pack over her eye. Hope you are both feeling better today!

First must admit, dont know a lot about breeding. The only thing that came to mind was that you could end up with a puppy that is 4 days younger than it's siblings. I don't know if this is a big deal or not, perhaps others more knowledgeable can answer that.

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