courtnek

Free holds her tail slightly curled over her back, and wags both side to side and in circles. Laurel only wags side to side, but her tail is hard as a brick and is crippling if she hits you with it.

I dont use "training collars" on any of my dogs. I prefer "no pull" harnesses. some dogs DO need training collars, but I would only use them as a last resort.

heelwork then is your best bet. Start with a short two foot leash, keep the dog at your left side always, bring treats. the short leash will keep the dog in the heel position (nose at your left knee) and when he walks willingly (without pulling) then treat. if he pulls a strong NO PULL command, and make him sit, then treat. as he gets used to the heel posiiton,and will walk on it willingly, then train him to stop and sit every time you stop. as soon as you stop he should sit at your left side, (and get treated while learning) and not get up until you say GO (or whatever word you decide to use) this takes some time and some effort. dogs naturally want to run off and play when out. keep your lessons to 15mins every few hours, so as not to tire him out. their little minds start losing interest after about 15minutes when being trained for something new. also, one of the tricks to this is turning. if you tell him to heel, and he starts to forge on ahead, turn sharply right, and when he catches up make him sit. keep this up until he realizes that he is Not to outpace you. eventually he will learn that if he keeps his nose to your knee, you wont throw him out of whack by a sudden turn.

well, Free has been mistaken for a Lab, she's a mix but to the untrained eye she could pass for a lab. Laurel no one ever knows what she is, and I get asked a lot of questions about her. well, except for a drunk wandering down the sidewalk who yelled at me for having such a huge Pit Bull......I had to laugh, because Foxhounds are all legs, and PB's usually arent. Laurel weighs less then Free but is taller than she is, and its all legs.

GREAT NEWS FOR HALEY **AND** MEI!!!!

:bday: :bday: :bday: :bday: :bday: :bday: :bday: [size=7][/size]HAPPY BIRTHDAY ILSA!!!!

I voted, but cant from work. we are locked out of a lot of stuff there.

I did lie about my malamute/BC mix....people were afriad of him, and with good reason. He was 100 lbs and had teeth that scared people when he showed them, and he often did when a stranger approached....he never actually bit, or attempted to bite, anyone, but he warned them off pretty sternly unless he was told its ok. that first "greeting" set people off and they would ask if he was part wolf...(even though he had somewhat floppy ears) My vet said she thought he was, a very small part, but I always said no,hes a mutt, and left it at that.

also, you may have run into the unfortunate situation where both dogs consider themselves equal, and they are trying to work out the pecking order, not uncommon in puppies. in fact necessary. however, since Clea was in quarantine and not around other animals, she may be trying really hard to not surrender to any other dog. this needs to be watched, like Kat said, and Clea should be introduced slowly to other dogs. her socialization period with animals may be a little skewed at this point, or she may just be a naturally dominant dog who came up against another one. You just need to watch her and make the determination. One other thing...was the other dog a female as well? (I'massuming because of the name that Clea isa female, correct me if I'm wrong) they are really kinda young for "bitch wars", but it could still be happening

you DO crack me up HF....I gotta agree with the rest. I have a question though....Why do you feed your dogs with the bowls elevated? is this somehow better than having them on the floor? I see people doing this in commercials too, and never really understood why... do you raise the water bowls too? I'd be afraid to do that, mine is a huge old crock pot basin, china-like and would break if they knocked it down, and they ALL insist on drinking out of THAT bowl, and not their own... also, for Peaches, it might help if you moved the bowl to a different location, (like swap it out with another dogs bowl). itmay not be the bowl she's afraid of, but rather that she is associating where it is with the accident. I read of someone where a baby gate fell on the dog while he was eating, and he refused to eat anywhere in the kitchen after that. they put away the baby gate and moved his food elsewhere, and he was fine. maybe move the food and use a different crate? to them I bet all the crates smell slightly different too.and it was crate that caused the problem right? not the bowl?

I have to agree, and I've been saying this for a long time now. You CANT jack with genetics and expect a good outcome. A closed gene pool is a nightmare waiting to happen, and i understand the genetics of inbreeding and linebreeding. What they should be doing is letting the "appearance" scenario slide a bit, and breeding with dogs from outside of their gene pool. that means that some puppies in the litter will not be show material, it may even take more than one litter to get a few, but it keeps the dogs healthier and the gene pool cleaner. I keep harping back to ancient Britain and France, where the royalty was only allowed to marry royalty. what came of that was children with hemophilia, (blood cant coagulate), neurosis, and even the disaese that spurred on the vampire stories. there is a disease that people get (not common now, but occasionally still) where they can not be out in the sunlight, they are extremely anemic, and weak. They are very pale, and look as if they have no blood in them. In the past, people would drink blood to overcome it. people wrote laws a long time ago to prevent this kind of genetic black hole from happening. you cant marry your siste, brother, first cousin, father, mother, etc. thats all because of things that have been attributed to genetic failures in children of people who do. The same logic should be applied to dogs.

Laurel got her collar hooked on the tines in the dishwasher, and we had basically the same scene. she couldnt escape because the bottom doesnt come out of the dishwasher, but she avoided me for quite a long time too. Peaches will come around in a day or two. Put treats in her crate and walk away. dont lay in front of it, just act like you normally do. that will ease her tension sooner. you may be making her nervous by paying so much attention to her now. poor HF....

ok dont chew me up, but I have to add this.... the Iams testing on the website is an issue that is actually quite old. Iams sold their testing issues to a third party lab, and didnt follow up on what they were actually doing., bad, in any scenario, but when you work for a company that big, quite often the left hand doesnt know what the right hand is doing. Thats not an excuse, just simple truth. when Peta exposed them, they promised to stop doing business with this lab, and to find the experimental animals homes. Their contract with the lab has been terminated. I dont know if the "homes" were ever found, I have not been able to find any references to that, but I havent looked in quite a few months either. I work for a company that could compare with Iams (and their affiliates and sub-companies) and believe me, more often than not the left hand really DOESNT know what the right hand is doing...its not like they turned a blind eye deliberately...they trusted this lab to do their testing, and the lab was doing testing that was both completely unnecessary, and invasive to the animals. I am not defending Iams. I am merely stating the facts of the case that I have been able to determine.

there are also websites you can go to (search on cheap neuter or spay) that are affiliated with those sites. I got a neuter for Ford for $20.00. its done by an accredited vet, who has joined the program. I sent the program a check for $1.00 and they sent me a list of names of vets in my area. I checked up on the closest and he had an excellent reputation and no "dings" on his record, so I used him. Many vets join this program simply to encourage people to neuter their pets. I dont think they make anything off of it.

I have never lied about mine because they are not on the current "dangerous dog" lists...a lab mix and a foxhound. But I would, in a heartbeat. if for some reason they became bsl dogs. Well, I couldnt really lie about Laurel, she's obviously a foxhound, and Free looks more lab than anything else, so it probably wouldnt work anyway.

my foxhound was unsocialized when I got her. she had literally no exposure to people except the huntmaster, even the staff that fed, watered and cleaned the kennels were not allowed to touch the dogs. she is very socialized with other animals, since this was a pack environment for the hunt. she displayed all of your mentioned traits. now, over a year later, she still approaches new people with head down, and tail between legs, until she gets to know them, and trusting takes a long time. with me, she is a big happy goofball, but only with me....

I can tell the difference in Free's barks, easily. Laurel's bay, however, never seems to change....now Laurel is not a guarding dog at all, and would probably flee from an attacker, where Free would take one head on....somaybe thats why her bay never changes. But she is very insistant on pointing things out that she hears, or smells, only she points EVERYTHING out and not just the important stuff...oh well. I guess I shold have realized when she wouldnt STOP baying (normally she will) that there was an issue. I'll pay closer attention from now on...

Alex had blastomycosis, a severe fungal infection that lodged in his eyes (it chooses major organs to prey on, in his case it was his eyes) and thats what twigged us to get him checked. he had no other issues, but he was uncurable, and they couldnt guarantee he would ever get well, besides having to surgically remove his eyes as a point of reinfection. I COULDNT see him suffer, he was in pain, so I had him put down.... to this day, I still hear his bark, and see his tail clearing tables and beating up peoples legs...

I think TV upsets dogs, like phones upset small kids (and some dogs) because it takes your attention away from them. My son, when small, could NOT stop interrupting a phone call, and Laurel cant stand it when I watch TV unless she can be up on the bed with her head in my lap. Peaches will be fine in her new regimen....she got spoiled at your friends, and is now "pushing her limits" to see where it will get her. Not uncommon in a spoiled dog. She just needs her rules redefined. since your friend let her get away with so much, she is now testing you to see how much you will give in on...."boot camp" is a good choice of discipline.

Alex went blind shortly before he had to be put down, and even though it was only almost a week, in that time he learned toget around amazingly well. He already knew the arrangement of the house, and was able to get down stairs and outside, with few bumps into anything. I too would take on a blind dog, and even a deaf one, if I thought I could teach it properly.

good job Ilsa!!! wow, thats quite a lunge, to crack a solid oak door... but Dobes are guarding breeds. even being show, with the way you handle her and have bonded with her, I'm not surprised she went on the defensive for you...Good dog!! I have been seeing an argument about this on another Forum. Some people seem to think that a dog with any aggressiveness at all is a bad thing...my take on it is that we aligned ourselves with dogs because they could and would protect us....one of the reasons at least.... I was surprised that it was Laurel making the fuss, and not Free...I tend to listen when Free goes ballistic. Laurel bays at every noise, part of her hound breeding. Maybe Free thought she had it handled? :lol: :lol:

good for Blue! sometimes I just hate this town, there seems to be so many whackos around here....thanks Dog for the two of them. I dont think I would feel safe without them here....

Divine Oblivian (commonly called DO here) has a deaf Boston terrier, that she has trained in hand signals, obedience and as a therapy dog!! I never knew so much about deaf dogs till coming here....

sent. good luck!

Laurel bays to no end. it tends to make you say "SHUT UP!!!!" without checking. She has beenn baying non stop all night. I have been telling her to SHUT UP all night....SHAME ON ME... the police are now in the neighborhood...they came to the door and asked if I had seen a man in the area. seen him? no. he tried to abduct a child..the child escaped, but cant really describe his attacker.. GOD how I wished I would have left Laurel out, and Free, to sniff him down...Laurel would have found him, Free would have held him, HARD... HURT him if necessary.... am I wrong for feeling this way? for not paying REAL attention? I feel so sad...