gooeydog

No advice on performing dogs, but you do need to be careful with Hazel if she's aggressive with people. Even if you have [i]her[/i] under control, you can't (necessarily) stop a screaming child from running up and grabbing her face, and if you're even a fraction of a second too slow, both you and her will be in trouble. My advice is to put off the crowds, performing, etc until she's more comfortable with people she doesn't know. Once you've overcome her aggression problems, or gotten them under control, then you can worry about working in front of crowds. Even if you do agility, there are still judges on the course, and people/other dogs all around the grounds, so it's not the best atmosphere for a dog with aggression problems.

Here's the explanation I've heard/read as to why blue eyes or too much white are faults. Blue eyes are a fault in both AmStaffs (AKC) and APBTs (UKC), over 80% white isn't really a fault, but is not preferred. The reason for blue eyes being a fault is that many (not all) blue eyed pit bulls also have hearing problems, and there appears to be a connection between the blue eyes and the deafness in those dogs. It is the same with dogs that are mostly white in color, especially those with white around their heads/ears. I've read that the lack of pigment around the ears affects the dogs hearing (not sure how exactly it works). Also, white/light colored dogs are more susceptible to sunburn, and skin cancer is fairly common in pit bulls. I've also heard that allergies are more common in the white dogs, although I don't know how true that is.

The other 3 pics of her didn't show up for me... :( Pit only has one "t" in it, not two... and some pit bull owners get a little "disturbed" when people put two in it. I think it stems from the way "pitt" is usually used by ignorant people who also think that pit bulls' jaws lock and that they have 2 sets of teeth :lol: Not saying you think that, but that's the general impression I've gotten from [i]most[/i] people:roll:

[url]http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1429&dept_id=185489&newsid=6184933&PAG=461&rfi=9[/url]

There was no "adoption agreement" from the vets, I think they were so glad they wouldn't have to have her PTS that they just assumed we knew she was a good home. At the time, I hadn't known the friend for very long, didn't realize their other dog had problems, but knew she liked dogs, so I figured they'd give the dog a good home. My mom felt the same. Right now, we take the dog in once a month to have her sugar checked, and make sure everything else is ok, and when the vet asks her about the dog, she just says "everything's fine" even if it hasn't been. If my mom or I bring up a problem she had mentioned to us earlier that week, for example, she either denies it, or makes an excuse for it (ie: the dog was puking up bile the other night because I left her loose in the room and she ate part of the table :roll: ). Before we realized the dog had diabetes, she started dropping weight really fast. She literally went from a little underweight to a skeleton in a week. I noticed that she was dropping weight, mentioned it to my friend, and she said "no she's not. She's fine". The dog was wasting away, so I kept suggesting she bring her down to let my mom look at her, and she kept replying with , "She's fine". By that point, you could see the dog's hip bones and every rib, even her head was bony. She was also peeing everywhere and was unsteady when she walked, but of course, when I brought that up, all I got was "she's fine", or some other excuse. When I told my mom about it, she suggested my friend bring the dog down so she could see if she noticed anything, but my friend said she was fine, and that there wasn't anything wrong with her. About a week after I first noticed the weight loss, I had Goo in the backyard (we were roasting marshmellows :lol: ), and my friend came running down there crying and saying "there's something wrong with Haley, she can't walk, everytime I try to get her to move she just falls over, and she looks like a skeleton". I walked up to the house to put our dogs away and she brought the dog down. I haven't seen my mom that mad in a [i]long[/i] time (to be honest, I wasn't exactly happy myself :roll: ). The vets weren't open that late, and there's no emergency vets nearby, so the dog stayed at our house until the next morning, when we took her to the vets. What I don't understand is how a dog could be wasting away in front of someone, and they wouldn't even realize it. Even now, my friend still doesn't notice when something's wrong with the dog, and has no common sense about dogs at all. She would take the dog for walks in the middle of the day in summer, and just walk until it couldn't walk any more. Then she'd come to our house panicking because the dog couldn't stand up. I have brought up the cost of medical care (if my mom couldn't get it anymore), and she says her parents would "just have to find money, because she's not getting rid of her dog". I don't think she realizes how expensive it really is, though, because whenever she wants something, she just whines until they give in and pay for it, so she thinks they'll do the same for this. I get the feeling that if they couldn't pay for it, she still wouldn't give the dog up, but would just do what they could afford, which would leave the dog suffering. I've pointed out that the dog may be better of with someone who has more funds and time for it, but she won't even consider it. (On the other hand, I've also pointed out that if the dog jumps on someone and mouths them at the school, she'll probably be going for the "big sleep", and her response is always "they can't do that. She's my dog, not theirs." or " no they won't. She's friendly"). She has no clue about how to read a dog, even after countless "lessons" with Goo (and the other dogs), so if the dog ever does start to show signs of a temperment problem, they'll be ignored/un-noticed until it's too late. I don't see much chance for the two dogs getting along together, and have even offered them some babygates so they can keep the dogs seperate, but there's always some excuse for that ("Oh, Manson (the lab x) won't like that, and he'll bust through them".... or "they'll probably get along ok, once Manson stops trying to hump her and she stops trying to bite him in his face" :roll: ). There's no way we could keep her (Annie wouldn't tolerate her at all, even Casey doesn't much like her, and Goo doesn't really like the dogs we have, nevermind bringing in another one :wink: ), but if my friend would agree to give her up, we could at least foster her if we had to, until she found a new home. I've shown my friend all sorts of things.. websites for diabetic dogs, dog aggressive dogs, dogs that bite (more for their other dog, but still...), and none have really done anything. I don't really know what else I can do to get through to her. Rowie, I'll put some pics of her in the pics section.

[quote name='Hobbit'] Three days later, the bitch drove back up to our gate, this time she didn't open it ---- she was calling our dogs to her Jeep as I was coming out of the house. I saw her bend over and pick up a female Kelpie pup (just happened to have been Guy's sister, Kiley). [/quote] Does she have her dogs listed on a website? Or can you get someone to go "looking for a pup to buy" at the woman's house, and see if she's there? I'd check any kelpie or kelpie mix litters I saw advertised or heard about, that way if someone's breeding her, maybe you can find her. If you can find her, you can prove it's her by tracing the DNA back to your dogs (assuming the parents are still around, or I guess any close relative would work?). I couldn't help but think about how nice it would have been if your fence was "hotwired" when she leaned over it to get the dog :lol:

Last summer my friend adopted an 8 month old pit bull from the vets my mom works at. The dog was found wandering the streets with it's leg all taped up with electrical tape, and someone brought it in. The techs took pity on the dog because she was so sweet, and got her out of animal control when her holding time was up, had her leg amputated, and were looking for a home for it. My mom asked me if I knew anyone who was looking for a dog, and I in turn asked my friend if she knew of anyone. The next day she came to my house and told my mom that she was allowed to have the dog, so we went to meet it. The techs seemed to be happy she had found a home (her time there was about up), and my friend took her home that day (she was spayed the next week). Since then the dog has been living (what I consider) a miserable life. The dog is dog aggressive (not too bad, and she'd be fine with an experienced owner, but my friend has only made the problem worse), and they have another dog (the psycho lab mix I posted about on the other board), so the dog is crated in my friend's room all day, except for walks and at night (she used to let the dog loose in the room, but it tore everything up and "pottied" on the floor). The dog goes out a few times a day for bathroom breaks, then back into the crate. The only time it gets any real exercise is when there are people at the school and my friend takes the dog up there and lets it run loose :roll: , as if to show them that she has a "cool" pit bull. Last winter the dog was diagnosed with diabetes, and now it has to have insulin injections twice a day. They're supposed to be within an hour (at the very most) of the scheduled time, and her feeding times are also scheduled. Last night, my friend called at 10:30 and asked if I could go give the dog it's shot because she was at a party... the dog's supposed to get it's shot at 7:00. This happens all the time. I don't mind having to give the dog it's shot, but she never even asks until it's already past time, and I'm worried about what it's doing to the dog's health. I've also been wondering what will happen if my mom decides to quit working at the vets, since my friend doesn't have a job and her parent's can't really afford to pay the vet bills for the dog. My mom just takes the dog in to work with her, so she gets discounted/free care for it. Also, this is the same person who told me she wished her dog was more like Goo (defensive with strangers), and when she takes the dog for walks, if it strains to go "visit" with someone, she yells at it and jerks it back. She's conditioning (not intentionally, but due to her lack of patience) the dog to associate people with punishment. Then she takes the dog to a nearby school to let it run loose, when the dog has absolutely [i]no[/i] recall, and it jumps on people, and mouths when it gets excited. If the dog jumps on a little kid, knocks them down, and starts mouthing them, the news will have a new "pit bull attack" story, the dog will be dead, and the local government will be pushing for BSL again. I've tried to talk to the friend about it, but she either denies that there's a problem, or gets defensive about it. I feel horrible that I had something to do with the dog being in this situation, and I don't want to see it (or anyone else) suffer because of my friend's ignorance & stubborness. Is there any way to get through to her that she's ruining a wonderful dog by treating it this way?

Goo makes strange noises while she sleeps... she whines, and makes these little "whoop, whoop" noises sometimes, she also shakes or "twitches", yelps occasionally, and there have been a few times when she's bolted out of a sound sleep and ran through the house with her tail tucked under like something is chasing her. Usually when she starts acting strange, I just reach out and nudge her, and she wakes up, then falls back asleep. I think they do dream, though maybe not in the same capacity as humans.

Are you sure he doesn't have an allergy to something? Maybe grass or some sort of plant outside he's not usually in contact with? Or mold from all the leaves? I would think that if there was still glass in his foot, it would be irritated looking. The feet are easy for a dog to reach, so if they have a cut on them, they will lick a lot.

Never. I do sometimes borrow a bike and have Annie or Goo run alongside (Goo only up and down our driveway), but I can pick Annie up when she's tired, and Goo doesn't go far, so if she gets tired, we just stop. I also check their pads often to make sure they haven't ripped them or worn them down. There are to many things that could go wrong having a dog run beside a car... you can't see them clearly, so there's more chance of running them over; they can run under the tires; you can be so busy watching them that you crash; they can be attacked by another dog and you won't be able to help them in time; they could get wrapped around a tree; or they could step on something you can't see. If she wants the dog to be fit, she should do something with him, not just make him run alongside the car. If she's too lazy to work with him, she can play fetch with him for an hour a day, or even get him a treadmill.

[quote name='Rowie-the-Pooh']APBT are supposed to be tall, not squatty! [/quote] Well, not so much tall... they are supposed to give an impression of strength and athleticism, which means they should look imposing, but not imposing to the point that it compromises their structure/movement. [quote]Gooey is a great example of a APBT, they should be breeding for HER kind, not squatty, health problem dogs! :cry: [/quote] Goo isn't the best example of a pit bull either :wink: ... she's more "terrier-ish" than most, although a lot of gamebred/performance dogs tend to lean more towards the "terrier side" than toward the "bully side". Actually, I've had people tell me that there's [i]no way[/i] Goo is a pit bull, because they're so used to seeing the short, dumpy dogs around here that they don't even realize those are not what a pit bull is supposed to be. She also doesn't have the most stable temperment, and a stable temperment is (IMO) at least as important in a pit bull as structure. There are great looking dogs with horrible temperments, just as there are hideous looking dogs with wonderful temperments. That's why pit bulls have such a problem... most buyers look for a dog that [i]looks[/i] tough/impressive/mean/whatever else, not considering the dogs' actual structural/mental soundness, and some may even want a dog with an unsound temperment, so there's no incentive for breeders to "produce" (I really don't like using that term for dogs, but it's the only thing I know of that fits :x ) sound dogs, unless they are doing so for the good of the breed, which most aren't. [quote]Oh yeah, is this female's color right? It looks like a Beagle's coloring(I'm not saying she is one!) but she has GOT to be from a breeding gone wrong or a mix or som'n like that... [/quote] APBTs [i]do[/i] come in tri-color, but I don't it's an acceptable color for showing (I don't know for sure about that though). The tri-colors can be either blue, white, & tan; or black, white, & tan.

[quote name='Johnny']keep him as secure as possible(they now have collars w/ locks on them).[/quote] And how long does it take for a dog thief to cut through the collar and walk off with the dog? Not to mention the health problems that can occur from having the weight of the lock on the dog's neck. A dog on a chain (even if it is locked onto it) is a much easier target than a dog in a house, secure kennel, or (in some cases) fenced yard.

[quote] it is caused by a dilution gene and can be "created" in one litter, if they knew what color to breed to what color and what those colors contained![/quote] But they don't know. They probably think they have to keep breeding light blue dogs to each other to get the "silver" color, and so they think it [i]has[/i] taken years to produce. That's probably part of the reason they aren't able to produce them regularly. I've seen dogs advertised as having 28" heads and being 17" tall... with that type of structure (of lack of), the dogs probably can barely move. Of course they're popular though, because people think that the bigger (chunkier, more mass) the dog's head is, the harder/better they can bite (even though exactly the opposite is true). And as long as they can walk 1/2 a block, their hips and elbows are fine :roll: [quote]At the Goodfellas site under male pitbulls the dog named Gino looks as though he has some raw scarring on his chest. Can anybody else see this?[/quote] I saw it, but it looks like either rub from a harness, or maybe he's broken out because of allergies (blue pit bulls are notorious for having skin problems).

I could see the pictures, but not anymore. His leg looks really awkward(sp?), but I bet he'll be glad when it's more normal :) Could he maybe do water therapy (or whatever it's called)? That way he could still keep some muscle tone, and maybe release a little energy.

I find it a little disturbing to see the trends in the pit bull breeds... it seems everyone wants either a huge dog, or one so short and stocky that it looks more like an English Bulldog than a pit bull (don't get me wrong, I think EBs are adorable dogs, but years of breeding for extreme looks rather than ability to function have made them rather "un-athletic", and the pit bull breed's main characteristic is athleticism). Look at the dogs on these sites... [url]http://mobsterpits.com/index.htm[/url] [url]http://www.southtownpits.com/home.htm[/url] [url]http://www.goodfellakennels.com/home.htm[/url] One of the dogs on third site is supposedly 16.5" tall and 85 lbs... is it just me or is that a little disproportionate? Goo is 21" tall and about 58 lbs (she's not fat, but not underweight either). I know there are differences in structure in pit bulls, but people like this are breeding for things that are detrimental to the breed, as well as the dogs themselves. The short muzzles one breeder advertises, the big heads they all advertise, and the touting of certain colors as "rare" or "special" are not in any way things of great importance to the breed. They're supposed to be proportionate and athletic, not short and fat. :roll: I love the way that one the "white dogs" page of the first site, they wrote, "Of course like in any white breed you must remember that sometimes a few do come out hard of hearing, but we can guarantee that there is no other kennel in the world that can compete with our Solid Whites!" :o And if the "silver" dogs are technically "blue", then why do they have pink skin/noses? :roll: I can't believe they charge $1000-$5000 for their dogs, but it's actually a little amusing to think that people will pay that much for them. Of course, you'd think that with them making that much money, they could afford to do at least some health tests, and maybe offer more than a 2-day guarantee :x

[quote name='sashagirl']I was thinking Chow too!!! Looks like Lab/Chow to me![/quote] Me too. Or maybe lab/Sharpei.

My mom had a Datson about 12 yrs ago, then the motor died so it visited the "big junkyard in the sky" :lol:

Bk, Annie tries to climb in people's mouths :o I think it's because she smells what they've eaten... because she'll walk up to them, sniff in their face, and try to climb in their mouth. I've heard that it's supposed to be a submissive gesture when a dog sticks their nose in another dog's mouth, but the only dog Annie does it to is Casey (it's earned Casey the nickname "the water-fountain"), which is odd because she's not submissive to Casey, but definitely respects Goo (and doesn't try to lick her mouth :lol: ). She doesn't usually climb around on me, but sometimes she will. Her favorite trick is to come up to me acting all "lovey", which isn't typical of her at all, then when she has my attention, she runs and finds a ball and brings it to me. The first thing she does when she wakes up is find a ball/toy, then she tortures us for the rest of the day :roll: Hobbit, that's what she's like. I put one ball up and two minutes later she's got another one. Once I got a little tired of her bugging me to throw the ball, so I stuck it inside another toy, which was attached to a doorknob. Then I sat back down, thinking I was smart, and she'd be busy for hours. Next thing I knew, there was a loud crash, and Annie came running into the living room with her toy.... and the doorknob :roll: . Another time we were in petsmart, and I got out one of those cheap squeaky balls and gave it to her to carry. She dropped it and rolled it toward me to throw, and it went under a shelf. I figured I'd just let her go under there and grab the ball, so she crawled under. I heard her squeaking the toy, but she didn't come out, so I pulled on the leash until she was close enough where I could grab her collar. She (and the ball) were stuck to a piece of sticky paper (complete with a little bug) :lol: I ended up having to take her to the bathroom, put her (and the sticky paper & ball) into the sink, and keep her there until the paper got unsticky enough that I could pull her off :roll: She's a lot of fun though, so I guess all the trouble she causes is worth it :lol:

Hobbit, I get this odd feeling that Annie would be like that with "living prey" if we started doing earthdog... and that she'd seek her revenge on me while I was sleeping. Sometimes with her balls/tug she runs around for hours looking for them after they've been put up. BK, sometimes I wish I could just hog-tie her and put her in the closet for a while :lol: She climbed the lattice on our wall today, to get a ball that was on top of a shelf. Then on the way down she jumped on the coffee table and knocked a few drinks over :roll: While I cleaned up the mess, she kept rolling the ball over my feet, like "throw it. throw it. PLEASE throw it." :lol:

Or maybe you could breed "Border Jacks" (Border Collie/JRT mixes)... I hear they're the "in" thing at flyball matches right now :roll: Of course I wouldn't want to live with one :lol:

I'm not sure if this counts as problem solving, but it definitely seems systematic... sometimes if I'm really late getting home from school, or if I stay somewhere else for a night, Goo decides to "redecorate". I come home to find most of the clothes that used to hang in my closet laying on my bed, the pillows that used to be on my bed on the floor, and sometimes Goo stretched out on top of the clothes :roll: My closet door doesn't close all the way, and there's a crack about 1 1/2" wide, so it appears that she digs at it to get the doors open, then starts "rearranging". She also "collects" things from around the house (usually in my room) and drags them under the bed (her hiding place). She's never chewed any of the things up, so I think maybe she just gets a little bored if I'm not home on time, and decides to occupy herself. She's also opened the rubbermaid tub I keep all the spare toys in and helped herself to them. She doesn't usually play with the other dogs, but if she wants me to play and I ignore her, she'll start crashing into them and get them all mad and fighting with each other, then when I get up to yell at them/seperate them, she runs over and crashes into me. I usually end up playing with her after all that :lol: Annie "plots" ways to get her toys when I put them up... I sat on on a big shelf by our shed once, and she ran into the shed, climbed some junk, and came out the window, grabbing the toy as she went. Other than that, she doesn't really do much out of the ordinary (she'll do [i]anything[/i] to get a toy though, so sometimes it's interesting to watch her trying to figure it out). I think Casey and Joey are to lazy to plot.

Obese pugs are very popular here, people seem to think that "if it's gut doesn't drag on the ground, it's not a pug" :lol: BTW Hobbit, when are you planning on getting a teacup Aussie? I'm sure it would make an absolutely [i]splendid[/i] herder... well if you can pull it's little teeth off your ankle before then, and if the goats don't step on it :lol:

[quote name='deepseasnake'] DUDE, what is it with little dog owners and obesity? I see fat little dogs everywhere I go! I think ALL toy breed owners have social and psychological problems.... :lol:[/quote] :lol: Not ALL little dog owners.... just most. You won't find obese little dogs in our house. Casey (medium dog) isn't exactly "trim" , but she's not obese, and it's hard to motivate her to lose when the only thing that motivates her is food :roll: Annie doesn't sit still long enough to gain weight, and people always used to complain that she looked starved. Now her muscles have filled in along her backbone and they can't see it, so they usually try to be subtle and say "she looks like she could stand to gain a few pounds". I don't have any good pics that show her "weight-wise", but you can see in this one that she's not fat (or "starved") :lol: ... [img]http://seemesmile.com/photos4/2373950a.jpg[/img]

I'm sure she'd love hunting... but I'm not much of a hunter and nobody else can stand her cocky attitude long enough to work with her. I've thought about earthdog trials, but wonder if the dogs get "disturbed" because they can't actually catch the prey :lol: .

[quote]My dogs aren't really ever out in the yard and never alone but when you combine drunk hunters and damp, foggy mornings...it is a recepie for disaster. I always have my dogs on leash when they are with me and I do plan to be personally out there in the mornings so I think that the orange collars (very thick) will be okay. My friend who mentioned it said that even when they are drunk, once the hunters see orange, they won't shoot.[/quote] You're right. I meant to say out in the yard alone, but it didn't quite come out that way :oops: Even if they do think they're bears, they'll be so shocked that the bear is obedience trained that they'll just stand in shock, giving you plenty of time to escape :lol: .