Malamum

Signed

Aww K, Cymmie is so cute, she can come and "help" me with Indy's fur anytime. :D

Trina, as I said I am definitely no expert - hell I only have one dog, but from what I have read about others with the same issues that you are currently having I do think she is only warning him and putting him in his place at the moment. She is letting him know that she considers herself above him. If Buster does not accept this and wants to fight her for the position of top dog, that is where you may come into trouble. On the malamute board I go to the people who have multiple dogs always say the loud fights with a lot of carry on tend to be more posturing than anything – if they want to cause damage it’s usually quick and silent. If it were me in the same position I would set the parameters of Journey being first and buster being second (again this doesn’t mean that you love either dog more than the other - it's just keeping the peace). With you and your family to enforce it and keep them in their order then Journey will feel no need to keep Buster in line herself and Buster will also accept his place more easily. Keep us updated on how they go.

Just to let you know, I posted a response to the same thread in the "everything about dogs" forum. I pretty much said the same think as KP. Journey has now matured and has decided that she comes above Buster and is letting him know. There is nothing "wrong" with her, you just need to learn how to handle it (see my other post).

[quote]have argued this point repeatedly with the people who think "its not necessary, they're domesticated..." they're only as "domesticated" as you teach them to be...[/quote] Again, I totally agree. Dogs are not little humans walking around in fur coats. Yes they are domesticated, but they don't think the same way we do. I read about so many problems occurring because people believe that if they love and spoil their dog then of course it's going to be all nice and well behaved. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way - we need to teach them in ways [u][i][b]they[/b][/i][/u] understand and I believe that all dogs understand pack rules. I think if every dog owner followed rules like the alpha training tips I posted above there would be a lot fewer people having to deal with aggressive or hard to handle dogs. Granted, not all breeds and not all individual dogs need you to be totally strict on all of the rules, but if you use them as the basis of your training you can't go wrong. JMO. If you scroll down to the bottom of the thread at this link [url]http://www.webrag.com/wildpaw/forum/index.php?showtopic=564[/url] there is an excellent article called "Stopping the Doggy Dictator". It really is worth the read. I haven't posted it directly here as I am hesitant to copy and paste other people's work.

Thanks Courtnek, although I can't take credit for the alpha training rules. I copied them from another board I belong to. I do consider the person who wrote them pretty much an expert and if she gives advice - I listen. I think those training rules are great and I use all of them with Indy. [quote]Now, I know there are alot of people who believe that dogs have been domesticated for so long they dont need pack rules anymore, and to them I say "try raising a Malamute, a Husky, a Dobie, Rottie, or GSD without them, and dont call me when you get bitten...." [/quote] I couldn't agree more. I don't personally know about the other breeds but when it comes to malamutes you are asking for trouble if you don't follow pack rules, both with humans and with other dogs in the house hold. You really need to be very strict and very firm, if not they will walk all over you. They are a classic example of "if you give them an inch - they will take a mile" - well Indy is anyway :wink: Oh - Trina, I also forgot to say that I honestly belive that Journey is at present just warning Buster. If she really wanted to hurt him she could have and would have, but you need to step in and get them used to their places in the pack before it gets that far.

Trina, Malamutes are VERY pack orientated and can also be very dominate. It seems to me she has just began to mature at two and a half and is now asserting her dominance firstly over Buster and also it seems, to the groomer when they did something she wasn

LOL - I know all about the eating of the fur - Indy tries to eat his own. I should have started him on grooming table as a puppy but I didn't so we sit on the floor and I spend half the time pulling soggy wads of fur out of his mouth :x

Kiger, I know exactly how you feel. When Indy is blowing his coat it's a never-ending source of fur. I can keep brushing the same spot for 15 minutes and still keep getting massive wads of fur off him. Once I have brushed him I look like the abominable fur monster - I usually have to vacuum myself. :-?

I am so sorry. :( Sending lots of positive thoughts that the chemo goes well. Hang in there and try to be positive for him.

I'm so sorry HF, poor little guy. I really wish you didn't have to go through this but I can't help but think that he kept coming back to you for a reason. The reason being that he needed someone as dedicated and caring as you to take care of him. I know he will still have a full and wonderful life with you to look after him.

What type of cat food is it? Is it fish based? I don't have any cats so have no experience cat food around my dog but he loves anything fishy. He just loves sardines and he also loves the fish oil capsules I break over his food.

Unfortunately here in Australia we do also have the problem of puppy mills and back yard breeders. Maybe not to the extent that you guys in the US and Canada do, but I believe it's relative to population. Our population is 19 million where as the population of the US is 291 million so of course there are going to more puppy mills in the US than there are in Australia but that's not to say we don't have them.

I am so glad it all went so well for him.

Yay. It looks great.

I can just imagne Snoop sitting there with hubby working on the car. It's sooooo cute. What more could a man want in a dog. :D

Cute :D

Indy sounds exactly like Kobi (though I reckon he'd try for 10 miles :wink: ) - so he also has no bed or lounge privileges. This may change as he gets older and settles into his place in the pack a bit better. At the moment he is going through his teenage rebellious stage. I do think it really depends on the breed though. I think with a malamute (being a very dominant breed) though I would never give them free reign on beds and lounges. It allowed up at all it should only be on invitation and they should get straight down when told to.

Well done, that is excellent.

It's strange how they can be fine with one dog then go beserk with another. It took me a while to figure out what Indy's triggers were. He is ususally fine in training class but there was this one Pug that used to drive him nuts and all poor little thing used to do was look at him. As I mentioned earlier I have figured he hates dogs staring at him and this pug had the biggest eyes I have ever seen so I think that made it worse. :roll:

:o :sabber: :sabber: I can just imagine how that is going to come out the other end :-?

LOL I can almost see all the mischief he is thinking of

Just keep working with her Abker and I'm sure over time it will start to reverse and she will only go off occasionlly and then eventually not at all. It's a slow process (believe me I know) so hang in there matey.

Abker don't stress too much, just keep doing what you have been doing as it seems to be working. As I mentioned before I am working through the same issues with Indy. He is ok if he sees dogs in the distance - he wants to get to them but does not carry on about it. It's when dogs come up close that we have a problem, though I was still stumped for a while because he would go off at some dogs but not others. I have finally figured out that if they make eye contact with him and then stare at him he goes berserk. I guess he sees this as a challenge and being the very dominant boy he is, let's them know he is up to it. :x I have found that if I get him in a sit and then stand in front of him and block his line of vision then he is ok. Though with that said he is still not at the stage of being calm 100% of the time when we see another dog. It's still about 50/50 sometimes he will ignore it and other times he wont. Anyway my point is don't give up and think that what you are doing is not working because it is. I'm sure like with Indy it will take a while for Abby to be consistently well behaved around other dogs.

Courtnek - excellent letter as usual :kciuki: