gooeydog

Well I see your post anyway :lol: Have you tried kicking the monitor and banging your head against the chair? Sorry... Hope you can get it fixed. Maybe something with your settings?

Hmm... a lot of the recipes say to use blenders.... I see I'm going to have to beg for permission to use someone elses, since last year ours got a bit crazed and had to be disabled :o :lol:

Or maybe they're dual registered (with AKC as AmStaffs & with UKC as APBTs) :lol:

The answer [i]should[/i] change on a case to case basic, but it doesn't. That's what makes it such a hard question, I think. Most shelters only have one "answer", one way of handling the dogs, whether it's euthanizing them all, adopting them out, or whatever else they choose to do with them. It would be easier/better to handle the over-abundance where it starts (the breeders), but instead people end up "cleaning up" after the problem. The thing that gets me about the whole situation though, is that there is no inbetween, and you really can't "win" with any of the "answers". Either good dogs end up dying needlessly, or bad (as in poor tempered) dogs get placed in situations where they should not be. I agree that it's better for the dogs to be euthed if the shelter can't adequately screen homes, etc. If all shelters did that though, where would people who want to adopt pit bulls go to? Many wouldn't want to wait for a suitable rescue dog to find them, so how many would go find the nearest backyard breeder and buy a pup from them? That would bring even more dogs into the shelter, as the BYBs pumped out more litters to meet the demand for their dogs, and dumped the "undesireables" at the shelter. And all the BYB pups that would grow into rambunctious adolescents, with the possibility of dog aggression developing along the way, and the high drive/energy that many of them posses starting to take it's toll on their (llikely) inexperienced owners' patience? In my area, there are only a few shelters that let pit bull type dogs be adopted, and most of the ones that do do minimal screening on prospective owners (at least they do alter the dogs, I think). There are a few no kill shelters, but only one of them takes in pit bull type dogs. I was at that one on day with my aunt dropping off a kitten and they had a young female pit mix in there. oAs I watched, one of the shelter workers opened up the door to put its food in and the dog lunged at her hand. I asked if they were adopting the dog out, and the worker said, "yeah, she's not too bad. She usually only snaps at us when she doesn't want us in there." :o It looked like the dog was just trying to get the worker to drop the food bowl, but the dog had snapped at them before and they were still adopting her out?? The other no kill shelters turn down a lot of dogs due to lack of space, and one won't take pit bulls in because they had one that showed "unwarranted aggression" towards his kennel mate. It seems that the no-kill shelters around here really aren't much better than the "normal" shelters at handling pit bulls. There are a few rescues, but they can only take in so many dogs, and after they're full that's it.

Our dogs don't hide, they all stand by the door and wait for the smoke to billow out, at which point they converge on the oven, I pull out the blackened mass of whatever-I was-trying-to-cook and drop it on the floor for them to eat :lol: newfiemom, I'm sure your dogs are in no hurry for you to go back to work... do you think maybe they've been hiding all the good job leads? :lol:

A couple weeks ago they were comparing cropping docking, and dewclaw removal techniques, which some of them perform themselves... I can see maybe dewclaws and docking, but cropping?? :o

That is a pretty good site. For those of you who like to start trouble... Go to this site: [url]www.usabreeders.com[/url] and read all the breeders' posts complaining about the No puppymills site and it's members :lol: Just be aware that if you post there disagreeing with any of them, you will be attacked by all (the pack mentality kicks in :o ). I don't post there, but I've read posts for about a year, and can't help but question the ethics (however few they may be) of some of the people who post there.

Does anyone here have some recipes for making dog treats? Our dogs aren't real crazy about treats, so maybe if I make some with things that actually taste good, they'll be a little more interested... then again, it could end in disaster as we evacuate the dogs from the flaming kitchen :lol:

The reason everyone here is only looking at the bad things is because you don't seem to be understanding the consequences you/your family could face if something goes wrong. Since you have little/no experience with large guardian breeds [i]or[/i] "attack" trained dogs, your dog is of indiscriminate breeding, and you weren't all particularly commited to the dog in the first place, there is a better chance of something going wrong in your situation than in a situation where the dog owner has carefully researched breeds, found a good breeder of tested dogs, and is taking proper training for themselves and the dog. He very well may listen to you and your wife, but it only takes a split second for tragedy to strike, so what if he messes up just once? What if you mess up just once? If you're that worried about your neighbors, get a home security system. A dog doesn't stand a chance against a person with a gun or (in some cases) a knife.

I guess what would be best for everyone; the breed, the dog, and the people who might be affected by it being adopted out. I'm just looking for opinions here :lol: I'm still a little undecided myself...

I guess this kind of applies to all breeds, but pit bulls more than others... What is the best thing to do with the surplus pit bulls in shelters, rescues, etc? It would be great if there was a home immediately available for every one of them, but there's not, and most of the people who are willing to take a pit bull aren't the kind of owners the breed needs. So what should happen to all them? Is it better for shelters to euthanize [i]all[/i] pit bulls after the legal holding period is over? Sure, great dogs might be killed needlessly, but unstable dogs won't have a chance to cause harm to people and good dogs won't be neglected or have their temperments ruined by people who adopt the dogs either not knowing their problems/needs or because of them (in the case of people who get a pit bull because they're "tough"). Maybe less people would dump off their dogs at the shelter, knowing the dogs' fates are sealed once they're in there (of course this would probably lead to an increase in the # of pit bulls just dumped on the street). Most shelters don't do much screening on prospective adopters, and some don't even alter the dogs before releasing them, so there's no telling where some of the dogs will end up after they're adopted. Some shelters will allow rescues to test/pull some dogs, but rescues have limited space, and can't take on many dogs, so only "the best of the best" get a chance at going to a rescue group. That leaves the majority of the dogs to be euth'ed or adopted out. Is it better for shelters to adopt out as many pit bulls as possible, to whomever comes along, just to get them out before "kill day"? Sure, the dogs will live, at least for a while, until their owner get tired of them, dumps them, and gets another "cheap" dog from the shelter. Or how about if the local BYB comes to the shelter to dump off their old breeding stock, and picks up a few new breeding dogs while they're there because the shelter doesn't alter the dogs before they're adopted. I've heard of shelter workers who had to stand by as dogfighters came in to adopt some new "prospects". The dogfighters of course wouldn't admit to being dogfighters, and it couldn't be proven, so they ended up getting the dogs (again, I've only heard this, so I don't know if it's true). Is it better for the dogs to be placed in "no-kill" shelters, where some may wait years for a home? Pit bulls are active dogs, and need both mental and physical exercise, or their health/temperment will suffer. The dogs are then termed unadoptable because they're too hyper or show what people percieve as aggression (but is usually just boredom). It would be nice if shelters would do more screening on potential adopters of "high drive" breeds, but they don't have adequate staff for the things they already need to do, so more screening isn't a possibility for most of them.

I tried a little in the spring with just making the turns and saying the directions, and all that I got was Goo looking at me with this bewildered/frustrated expression like, "I [i]am[/i] watching you, what more do you want". She was so confused that after about two weeks of trying it I just stopped. I don't use a clicker (too hard for me to coordinate), but I say "good" everytime she does what she's supposed to. I think the problem is that we do a lot of turns when we work on heeling, so she thought that was what she was supposed to be doing, and didn't know why we kept turning in one direction when she was already paying attention. Hobbit, the second method you suggested would probably work, but Goo's not particularly food motivated... or toy motivated, so I'm not sure she'd follow something around the table. She does know "go around", I tell her to "go around" and she runs around me as fast as she can. That's her "energy release" type thing though, and once she's done "going around", she usually wants to fly at breakneck speed back up through the yard. :oops:

[quote]Okay if the dog bites someone or attacks it will be put down.[/quote] If you're lucky. of course if the police get there before you have the dog completely under control, you may not have that chance. All the training in the world won't make a difference if the dog decides not to listen, and nothing is ever 100% certain with dogs, so there is a chance that he will at some point decide to ignore the comand. If that happens, what are you going to do? Stand there helplessly as your dog kills someone who may or may not have been in the wrong, because "he's always listened before", and you can't get him off?

I've heard that one way to keep water from freezing is to smear a thin coat of vegetable or mineral oil on the (in)sides of the bucket/bowl. I don't know if it works or not though. Dogs handle drinking really cold water the same as people do. Drinking cold water or large amounts of water right after exercise can make them sick, and if they're outside in the cold, it'll make them even colder. I've also heard (don't know if it's true or not) that drinking too much really cold water can also cause/contribute to bloat, which can be deadly. There are also heaters that you can buy for in their bowls, and if you can't find one for dogs, I'm pretty sure they make them for horses.

For a while after we got Goo, she was very "anti-duck", which wasn't exactly a good thing because since we live on the water, there are ducks everywhere. She's snatched a few out of the air in midflight (hasn't happened in several years), and used to try to bolt after them if she thought she had 1/2 a chance at catching one. After a lot of training, she pretty much ignores the ducks, but once in a while she just "loses control" and takes a few hops towards them. If you decide to get a pair and have eggs, females can be pretty nasty about their eggs and babies. I've been attacked by several, and had to "save" Goo from one (we were about 20 ft away, but she apparently still saw Goo as a threat) with a death wish that decided to attack her head on (talk about vicious) and tried to peck her eyes out :o We have geese and swans around sometimes too, but the ducks are always around (not as many now though, because the neighbor thinks it's funny when his loose dogs come into our yard and kill them, so they pretty much stay away). In the summer, there was a family of swans visiting our cove, and Goo ended up in a staredown with the male (who probably didn't weigh much less than she does). I had to take Goo up ro the house because there was no way I was going to fend off an angry swan :roll: I would think that if BK is ok with other fowl, he's probably be ok with a duck, but it might not be a good idea to leave them alone together :lol:

I don't know about plane trips being the only acceptable time to "box" a dog... a crate saved Goo from the being PTS right after she went through my window (but left the screen intact and stayed in my room). My dad said, "that's it. The dog just went through a plate glass window, you better find someplace else for her to live because she's not staying here". Goo's noy exactly a good adoption prospect, so either we had to keep her or have her PTS. I ended up digging her crate out from underneath the porch (we hadn't used it since she was about 1 1/2 yrs old, so it had been under there for a while) and she stayed in that while I was in school until she "kicked the habit" of "window peeking". If my mom got home before I did, she let her out, and she was free most of the other time (as long as there was [i]someone[/i] home). It took about 3 months (and a babygate and 2 metal grates across my windows) for me to feel confident letting her free in my room while I was gone. The crate was retired to underneath the porch again until we got Casey and Joey, and it now adorns our dining room, along with Annie's. The only time the doors are closed though is if someone comes to visit and they won't leave the person alone, when they're eating, and if they get "treats" like bones or chewys. I don't think crating is good as a long term solution/containment (or in Annie's case, torture) device, but they can be good for short amounts of time. BTW, we've always called Annie's crate the "see through box" because she avoids it like the plague, and when she's in there, she presses her face up against the side with a pathetic look on it like she's enduring the worst torture possible :lol:

Does anyone know how to go about teaching a dog directions (ie: right & left)? My nephews want to have Goo be like a sled dog (again) this winter and them be able to "steer" her. The way we did the sledding last year was with them in the sled and me running alongside Goo, leading her where she needed to go. I had a hard time keeping up with Goo in the snow, so needless to say, our sledding trips were pretty short. If we could get her to take directions, I can use a longer lead and tell her which way to go, instead of having to be right beside her the whole time. I don't want to try to teach her and confuse her by doing it the wrong way :oops:

Why do so many small dog owners bypass training their dogs? A lot of small dog owners think it's a monstrosity for a person to train a small dog. The other day I had Annie at the field doing off leash work (heeling stays, and other stuff that's a little hard to do [i]on[/i] leash), and a woman came walking through the field with her little dog (looked like a "poo" mix of some sort) hauling her along on one of those flexi leashes. I put Annie's leash back on and had her sit, she was fine until the dog ran up to us, then she broke the sit to try to bite his nose :roll: . I corrected her (verbally), looped her leash over a tree branch, and walked off a few feet to play with her toy (by myself :oops: ). Once she was paying attention to me again and had more or less forgotten about the dog, I untied her leash and we did some more work (on leash). I had her sit while I threw the toy, then we went to get it together (since she was still on her leash), and played tug for a minute. we did this a few times, then the woman walked back up towards us so I had Annie sit again. On the way past us, the woman asked me why I was mistreating my dog. I asked her how exactly I was mistreating the dog, and she replied with, "he just wants to run and be free, but you're so busy with your little nazi doggy training camp that you won't let him do anything" :o . I said, "it's a "she", and would you prefer I just let her run loose so she can bite anyone or anything she likes and get ran over?". The woman said, " well if you didn't play tug of war with her she wouldn't be aggressive, and you shouldn't be playing rough games with a small dog anyway, it's not healthy for them to be flung around like that". When she said that, I couldn't help but laugh... if she had been paying attention, she would have seen that it was Annie "flinging" me around instead of me flinging her :lol: . She was already walking (being dragged) back up to the road, so I let Annie back off her leash and we played for a while before we went home. I just hope she was only walking her dog that one day, and she won't be back often, or we might have to find someplace else to hold our "nazi doggy training camp" :roll: .

Pit bulls don't have "lockjaw"... if they did they'd come with a key :roll: There is a key for anything that can be locked, so unless there was a key produced with a more recent model of pit bull than mine, their jaws don't lock. Seriously though, a pit bulls jaws are anatomically (whoa, big word) the same as any other dog's jaws... there is no locking mechanism. Pit bulls do, however, have a strong desire to never give up. That's where the "locking jaw" myth came from. When they bite something while in drive, whether it's a bulls nose, another dog, or a tug rope, they won't let go until they want, or until you make them. They have an incredible desire to never give up, probably brought on by so many years of battling against species much bigger and in some cases stronger than themselves. Many people think that if a pit bull won't give up a toy, it's "locking onto it", when in all reality, it just doesn't want to let go. Of course, people also perpetuate pit bulls as being people aggressive monsters, when in reality, human aggressive dogs have not been well tolerated in the breed's history, which has led to the being (for the most part) a stable, people friendly breed. A pit bull that will bite (or show aggression towards) people is usually doing so because it is a fear biter, and is biting to scare away something it perceives as a threat. They have the "I'll get you before you get me" mentality.

Animal control came almost right after the police and took all three dogs, even though Annie had been crated when it happened. They had the chow and standard Dachshund PTS, and held Annie in the "biters section" until we came to get her. My aunt knew what the dogs were capable of, though maybe she didn't really even realize it. She carried on for about a month after she moved into the apartment that she didn't want Goo around the baby because she's "crazy" and she might "turn" (even though Goo has been around babies and little kids since we got her, always supervised, and never been a problem), but she let down her guard with her own dogs, one of which had never seen a baby in its life. She never even considered that they could bump into something by accident, or that if something triggered an instinct or drive, they might react in a way she wouldn't expect. My aunt has lupus, and was lucky to have one child, so she and her boyfriend (husband now) are looking to adopt at some point. As kind of a side note, my aunt found the baby at about 1 am sunday night (early morning), and the news reporters already had a story about it for sundays news at noon. They continued to knock on our doors (they didn't even get the right part of the house, my aunt had lived in the basement apartment, and they were at the upstairs part of the house) until the next Saturday. I went back to school on wednesday, and had to call my mother to get me out early because the reporters were waiting outside to "interview" me, so the school ended up giving me permission to stay home the rest of the week. The reporters went around our neighborhood looking for anyone who might know something about what happened, but didn't find out much (most of the neighbors knew what had happened, but just didn't tell the reporters). We had a hard time getting the dogs out to use the bathroom because everytime we tried to walk them there was a reporter outside (imagine if they had found out there was a pit bull in the house :roll: ), so we had to check outside before we could take them out, and hurry back in before one could show up. The news also showed some nice footage of our house :roll: , my window blinds (all broken up from when Goo used to get up there and peek out), and a "beware of dog" sign on [i]our[/i] door. What all that had to do with the accident, I still don't know. What's more, they couldn't even get the baby's name right. They spelled it wrong almost every time, and once they even put the wrong address (you'd think they would know it since they came there to harass us so many times). One story's headlines read "baby eaten by family dogs", another "three month old mauled by family pets". The dachshund was not mentioned in the stories, they either said "three dogs were involved" (it was two), or "a chow and two other dogs". They tried to show a picture of a Chow on one of the tv stories, but I guess got a little mixed up because the dog they showed was a Sharpei looking mix. Sorry I got so off topic, I got a little carried away :o :lol:

My aunt got Annie the Mini Dachshund from a petstore because she was "so cute" and she'd been wanting a dachshund for a long time. At the time she got Annie, she was married and had three other dogs, two Chows and a Chow mix. A few months after she got Annie, she filed for divorce. Her husband took the oldest Chow with him (it was really more his dog), and the Chow mix had been PTS a few weeks before because he had really bad skin problems (they had spent thousands in vet bills, but could not fix what was wrong, and the dog was miserable), and she kept Annie and the younger Chow (who by that time was about 8 yrs old). She also got another Dachshund (a Standard, about 10 yrs old) from a friend of hers who couldn't keep her anymore because she had a child and the dog had back problems. About a year after her divorce, my aunt had a boyfriend and in july 1999 she had a baby. A month after that, she moved into our basement apartment because her boyfriend lived out of state, and came here on his days off, so my mother and grandmother watched the baby while she was at work. She had brought the 3 dogs (and cat) with her, and the dog were kept confined (dachshunds in crates, chow in a room) most of the time because she didn't want them bothering her and the baby or laying on his clothes/blankets. When her boyfriend wasn't home, the baby stayed upstairs with us while she worked and slept, and I walked the dogs once a day when she was at work. Two months after she moved into the apartment, the baby died. He had been napping in his swing in the living room, and my aunt and her boyfriend went in their room (right next to the living room) to watch tv. They left the two older dogs (the Chow and Standard Dachshund) out in the house (Annie was in her crate). They had a baby monitor on, but fell asleep, and my aunt woke up about an hour later to find his body on the floor outside their bedroom door. His swing was tipped over, and the medical report said he died from head trauma when his head hit the floor. He also had bites on him (16 punctures). It is still not known whether the dogs attacked him, or whether the bites occured after the swing had fallen, but the simple fact is that his death would probably (almost certainly) have been prevented if he hadn't been left alone with the dogs. We think the Chow had been sleeping by his swing, and when she went to get up it caught on her and she panicked and ran out from under it, tipping it in the process. There were no loud sounds, so it seems unlikely that either of the dogs outright attacked him. The dachshund had torn up several of his diapers in the past, nobody though much of it because she was always digging in the trash, but afterwards everyone was questioning. I guess the point I'm trying to make is to never take your dogs for granted, and always remember that they're [i]dogs[/i], not furry little people who think just like we do.

Can Duck run in the crate? If you're going to keep a dog in a pen, it should at least be big enough for them to stretch their legs a little. What are you going to do when she gets big enough to "fit" the crate, and doesn't have as much room to move around? Chances are, she won't be any "calmer" by then, so what will you do then? I'm not being mean, but you should consider that now, so you have plenty of time to prepare for it. You never answered whether she could be left in your room alone... if not, then does the yard have a fence? If you can't let her loose in your room or in the (fenced) yard, why not get her a cable run for in the yard? You can either buy one, or make one, and that will give her plenty of space to move around. As other people have said, she's not going to calm down as long as she's kept crated that much time out of the day. Most labs stay puppyish until they're a few years old, some longer. You're going to be dealing with puppy behavior/energy for a long time, so you need to figure something out. You asked for advice, people gave you advice. You don't have to use it, take what you want and discard the rest. You need to realize though, that the problems you are having with Duck aren't going to go away (if anything, they'll get worse), if you want them to get better, [b]you[/b] need to work to make them better. One more thing... if you want her to ever be fully housebroken, it's not a good idea to "put it on hold". If she's going in her crate, you'll have a hard time breaking her of going in "her space", which will probably eventually include the entire house.

Teacup Yorkie?? :o

Depends on the dog and the children. Most dachshunds are not particularly fond of children. Some won't even tolerate them. If the child is (fairly) well behaved, and the dog is from either a responsible breeder or a rescue that thoroughly tests the dogs' temperments, it should work out. In general though, I'd say it's not a good choice.

It's up to you whether or not not to keep the dog... but you need to be aware of the possible consequences of owning an attack trained dog. Are you willing to lose everything you have if the dog seriously injures someone? Since the dog is "trained to attack", that means that you will be held responsible for any damages that it incurs onto a person (whether they're a threat or not). This means that if your dog kills someone, you could possibly be charged with murder. You may also have a hard time finding an insurance company that will insure you, since many are now refusing insurance to owners of certain breeds, as well as dogs that have been trained to attack or "protect". You said that the dog is not fully grown yet. How old is it? You need to be aware that most large breeds aren't fully mature until 3-4 yrs old, so be prepared for some dominance issues and behavior changes around that time. Is your child (for that matter are you or your wife) going to be able to assert dominance over a 150 lb dog? If not, that could be a problem for you. What are you going to do about your child's friends coming to your house? Company? Friends? Relatives? The breeds this dog is descended from are not known for their acceptance of strangers. How much protection is the dog going to offer if every ttime someone comes to your house it has to be put away in a crate or room? That's defeating the purpose a little, isn't it? You said the dog has been trained by a professional... have you also been trained in how to handle a dog with this type of training? Are you willing to continue the training? People who do this type of training with their dogs usually spend several hours a week training in obedience and in the actual attack/protection training. Without this, the dogs would easily become a liability and danger to people. Furthermore, if the dog is still growing, then it's apparently not very old, and it takes years to train a protection dog to be completely reliable. If this person is telling you otherwise, they're either lieing, or have taken shortcuts in the dog's training which could prove to be harmful at some point. You said that you think you can pull the dog off of someone if it attacks them... Could you live with the dog afterwards? Knowing that it harmed or even killed someone? Do you realize how hard it is to get a dog off of something it doesn't want to let go of? Keep in mind that this dog could weigh as much as (maybe more than) you? You might have to kill the dog to get it off the person. If you are unable to remove the dog, the police will. They don't think twice about shooting and killing a dog to get it off of a person. Is the dog trained to attack on command only, or on it's own discretion as well? Dogs can be wrong, they don't interpret things the way people do, so it's not wise to trust their judgement in every situation. I'm not saying these things to be "mean" or to insult you or your family. I'm just don't think it's fair to either you or the dog to go into this situation blindly.