StarFox

I agree with everyones post so far. If you don't have the money to spend on adopting then what about the shots, vet trips, flea meds ect. There are many rescues in the so. cal area, why not apply to volenteer. That way you can be around dogs but not have to worry about money.

I though I had heard every misconception about pits that there could be. -Locking Jaws -people agressive. But look what I found on a differnt forum! "The Petfinder website has a library. Many different breeds of dogs can be looked up. Having been involved with animal rescue locally I wondered about the Pit Bulls. They were originally bred to be cattle dogs. To be able to herd cattle they had to have powerful jaws to be able to 'nip' the cattle hard enough to get their attention. While breeding for these traits they accidentally bred out or mutated the gene that tells the dog when to nip,when to bite, and when to stop. This also mutated or triggered the aggressive gene. The problem is not all Pit Bulls have these genes. However, for the time being they do not have a really good way of finding out which dogs have the genes and which dogs don't. I hope explained this correctly. " :o :o :o :o

Cairn I agree that my dog should be use to children. And he is. He goes with me to my freinds house where they have a very loud, very annoying, very lively child. Zebra gets along fine and when I think zebra is getting tired of having his ears pulled, being layed on ect I take him out of that situation. As I previously stated I have many young cousing aging from 4- 13, zebra has known them since we first got him. He is fine with children. BUT I don't think it's fair that MY dog in a store specificly made for animals gets so scared because a child is banging a frissbee behind him then runs toward him while waving the frissbee in the air that he tries to back out of his collar, with his tail between his legs. It is not my job to watchin Joe schmos little rugrat. If I wanted a kid to me in my personal space I would have some of my own. And why should I teach my dog manners towards children when people don't teach there children any? Also when I was a child if I ran off in a store or misbehaved in any manner I would have gotten a nice hard smak on the rear. Now a nice smack on the bottom is considered child abuse...maybe that's the problem. :roll:

I also agree that people should not take out a people agressive/ dog agressive dog into places like Petsmart and Petco. And Zebra is neither (he is "family" agressive but that's not the point)so I don't have a problem taking him out in public. He loves kids and has had tons on interaction with them (I have lots of younger cousins). I've had kids run up to him all the time in Petsmart or in the park, I put Zeb in a sit stay and get down on the kids level and tell them that they have to be careful when approching a dog and not to pet dogs on the top of the head to be gentel when touching a dog ect. Although I have done that many times before it's not MY job to teach kids this stuff. The main problem I have is that I do not want a stray dog running up to me in Petsmart or in a park, I don't want a child running up to me either. I don't know why it should be acceptable for a child to run around and get into people's personal space and frighten there dog but if a dog does the same thing then people will throw fits. The fact is the reason I told the kid in Petsmart to back off was not because I was afraid of my dog bitting the kid or the kid getting hurt. I didn't want my dog to get anymore afraid then he already was, I don't want my dog, MY CHILD to get hurt. I realy couldn't give two beans about the kid. As harsh as that sounds it's the trush. When I'm out with my dog, my dog comes first, not the child who has no parental supervision.

Uh I hate the petsmart near my house. Actually I hate the people that go there. I took Zeb there today since he hasn't been for a car ride in a while and I know he LOVES petsmart. So my mom and I were looking at the training scedual because we were thinking about enrolling zeb into a class to kind of keep him refreshed on all his commands and to socalize him with more dogs. Zeb was standing next to me like a good dog and not bothering anyone when all of a sudden I hear a loud plastic smack somewhere behind us and zeb freaks out and pushes his way in between me and table where the training info was. He was so scared, his tail was between his legs and he was trying to get away from whatever was behind us. SO I look and there is this stupid little girl (about 5 years old) behind us smacking a frissbee on the ground. And she sees zeb and tries to get closer all the while smacking the frissbee on the ground. I'm trying to calm zebra down who was trying to run away and trying to back out of his collar. When all of a sudden the girl just starts running towards zebra holding the frissbee over her head. All I could think was "oh god she is going to hit zebra with it" so I pushed zebra back into the isle that we were closest to and stand in front of him and look at the girl and go "No you don't!". The kid backsup looking at me like I'm the devil and walks away. Ok I was pissed and I'm looking around trying to find the parents of this kid and they were half way across the store in the check out isle watching the entire thing!!!!! :evil: :x Who the hell lets there kid loose in petsmart and lets them run up to dogs like that! That kid could easily run up to a dog in petsmart and the dog could bite the kid and it would be the dogs fault! SO I was pissed and decided to get into the chekout and I put zeb into a sit stay next to me while I got my money out and someone almost runs over his tail with a cart! Luckily I grabbed the cart in time to stop it and the guy pusing the cart got mad at me! Maybe if he was watchiing where he pushed the cart instead of looking behind him when he is pushing there wouldn't be a problem! Also zeb wasn't in the middle of the isle or anything he was sitting close next to me so the guy would have probably hit me with the cart too. :-? ANd if things couldn't get better while I was paying that damn kid came running around the other side of the counter (they still hadn't left!) and yet again I had to stand in front of zebra and tell her "NO!". Arg! That petsmart is so close but everyone that goes there are just complete morons! I'll go to the petsmart in the "rich" neighborhood from now on even though it's 10 miles away!

I'm going to assume with the info given that this dog had never gone out of it's cage. So I'm assuming that that means that's it's living in it's own urin and feces. I would report them right away. They are not giving the dog proper care at all.

CRESTED!!!! *WAVES* Your back! :D Thought you had left us for good.

We call it Doggy Logs or Shit Service. :lol:

zebra had realy dry itchy skin when we first got him so the vet suggested oatmean shampoo. His skin isn't dry and his coat is brighter. Seems to have worked for him. :D

2 weeks?! 2 weeks!!!!! Who in the world leaves a 2 week alone with a dog! I'm glad they took the kids away from them. What isn't clear is if the dog "mauled" the baby or took her from the bed and dragged her to the kitchen. To me there is a differnce because for a two week old to be attacked by a dog I highly doubt it would survive. I wonder if this dog (which happens to look like a white GSD to me) thought if the baby was a toy or something. :-? Such a shame for the baby and the dog. Two inncoent beings get hurt because of stupidity. :(

Hmm the more I think about it the more I think your mom should get a second opinion. There are great surgons all over the country that will give you a consltations and tell you exactly how your dog is doing. I don't know the vet that your dogs goes to but not every vet is knoledgable in HD. My vet diagnosed HD but said it was only in one hip. But our surgon said that the angel of the x-rays were off a bit and my dog actually had HD in both hips and elbows. Also if the dog is very overweight I would put him on a diet imedeatly if he isn't on one already, I wouldn't recoment exersize since he is in pain but being over weight can make HD so much worse then it realy is and can/will put allot of unnecessary pressure on the hips. One last think I'm not sure what kind of Physical therepy your vet was talking about but my dog didn't need any after the surgery. He actually had to be crated for an entire month and the only time he could come out was to go the bathroom. He spent 24/7 in a crate. It's not an easy thing to watch but it was necessary. Watever choice your mom makes I wish her and you the best of luck. HD is not an easy thing to deal with so my thoughts are with you all.

Zebra- Zeb, Zeba, Zebby, Zebbity Doo Dah, Mooch Pooch, Weiner dog, Lubby Puppy, Stinker butt, Mr.Wagity, Land Shark, Wiggle Butt, Waggity baggity bo, Naughty, Happy boy.

Zebra has HD, he has server in one hip, moderate in the other. He has had one surgery and it has worked wonders. I think if the vet said that the surgerys are out of the question and he is not responding to the medication it's probably time to let the little guy go. If he is barking from pain and not happy then that realy isn't a great life for him. Oh almost forgot, what kind of dog is he? And have you only seen your regular vet for his HD? Have you seen a specalist or surgon?

Ya know I was thinking maybe the inside is swollen because of that ass who stepped on his foot and it's causing the pad to rip like that. :-? Hmm I dunno. :-? Good luck at the vet tomarrow.

Ohh I LOVE that site!! So funny and true. I love the bad bunny page the best. :D

[quote name='Seijun'][quote]I'm sure it's the same person. I'm not part of Leerburg, but I've seen her mention it on the board I know her from. [/quote] Leerburg's crazy. He is a big advocate of a dog training method that involves choking the dog as a means of correction ('choking' as in holding the dog up by its leash until it is ready to pass out). In one part of his website, he mentions training one of his dogs to not be dog/dog aggressive by beating it in the head with a shovel. He also support BSL against wolfdogs and pit bulls. ~Seij[/quote] I agree with you totally about Leerburg. I stumbled across his site by accident while I was looking up GSD agression and nearly had a heartattack while reading his supposed 'training" methods. KP I have to resectfully disagree with your post. I have a huge problem with his "methods" weather they be for the working dog or not. But the fact is he DOES give advice to the everyday average dog owner, and realy bad advice. Like Seijun I've read his method of choking a dog till it almost passes out or has a look of "fear" in it's eyes. How is that suppose to make your agressive/ alpha dog LESS agressive? To me that is abuse plain and simple. I'm not stupid I know what it's like to have a Alpha dog. I know what it's like to have an agressive dog. I've worked for two years trying to make my dog less agressive. My dog had HUGE behavor problems from protective bitting to thinking he was top dog all the time. We now have most if not all of his problems under controll with tons of training and understanding of dog behaviour. I also understand that all dogs arn't the same, that each dog needs to have training methods modified to fit there personality and specific needs.

:bday: [color=blue][b]Happy Birthday BK!![/b][/color] :bday:

:o Umm...Is that a joke? I realy hope it is. :o ANd if your dogs farts smell that bad that you need to buy him/her a dog thong then I think a vet check is in order. :roll:

Oh silly Elmo. Guess he decided that he needed to gain some weight. :wink: Dog will eat untill they explode.. :roll: I'm glad he is feeling better though.

I'm wondering if I should be concerned that Zebra has a drippy nose. Sometimes he has a realy wet nose and a clear watery liquid drips. But today I noticed that his nose is realy drippy, I keep wiping it off but in just a few mins. it gets drippy again. It's a clear liquid, not green or yellow. So is it something I should worry about or is it no big deal?

I wouldn't recoment shaving at all. MY GSD mix got his entire right leg and hip shaved and when the hair grew back in it was much more wiery(SP???) then all his other hair. It's finally going back to normal now, a year later. :roll:

I'm a bit confused. Did cody only start putting up a "wall" after you started to do what the trainer told you to do? Maybe there is something he dosn't like about the actualy training??

:lol: Zebra could miss a hotdog if I put it in his mouth. He's not the worlds best catcher. :lol: :roll:

Oh pish posh! Your not a horrible owner, far from it! What your doing is being responsible, and your doing what is right under the circumstances. Some dogs just DON'T get along no matter how well you train them, or keep them apart. It's in no way a reflection of your abilities as a dog owner.

Arg...well I woke up this morning and looked at the spot where he stepped on me and there is a big blue and yellow bruise the size of his paw on my stomich. :(