kendalyn

You could also have a local rescue group adopt her out for you. You could also agree to foster her while they are looking for a home for her.

[quote]my parents said i could get a puppy if i could find one cheap or free [/quote] It sounds like your parents do not want to be bothered with having to pay for a dog, which also means they probably do not want a lot of other hassels that come with dog ownership. For this reason you should not get another dog until they are ready to accept the responsibilities (financial and otherwise) of a new dog.

[quote] i was just wondering if anyone could help me with this dog [/quote] Do you have any specific questions to ask? I'm sure we would be more than willing to answer them. You probably won't be able to find out for sure what breeds this dog may have mixed in, but if you say it looks like a malamute/husky/shephard than it probably is. :-) Good luck with him. Is his foot doing any better? You'll probably want to take him to the vet straight away if he's still limping. Is he neutered? If you're going to keep him you'll want to have him neutered also.

[quote]The question is will we do the breed an injustice by breeding the white female? [/quote] This is not the question you should be asking. You should be asking yourself why you want to breed these dogs. If the answer is, "Because we love our dogs and they are so wonderful that we want to produce more like them." then you need to run straight to the vet and have them all fixed right away. You are considering breeding 2 dogs who are no doubt wonderful pets but are probably no more wonderful than hundreds of dogs sitting in shelters waiting to die. Please don't breed your dogs. If you really want more puppies running around, offer to foster for your local rescue group. You can have the pleasure of bringing up puppies and giving them away to wonderful homes.

[quote]It doesn't work so well for me because, honestly, I get rattled when someone's ill mannered young'un approaches me. I truly don't care to share a positive experience with them as much as I'd like to share NO experience with them. I'm more of a "teach them that all strangers aren't friendly" kind of gal, I reckon. [/quote] And the reality is you shouldn't have to deal with it if you don't want to. It's not fair, but it's one of those things we will always have to deal with. I really like kids and don't mind redirecting them toward more desireable behavior. I get kind of excited when I can share my dog with little kids because Buck does like them and so do I. This is a little off topic, but I've noticed that it's not uncommon for people who love dogs to not be very enthused about little children. Does this ring true for anyone else? The correlation surprises me because I can draw a lot of similarities between dogs and kids.

One way I handle children running up to Buck and doing something obnoxious is to first say, "Please don't do that anymore but if you would like to pet him he would be very happy to meet you." Then I have Buck sit and let the kid pet him. If I've got a treat on me I let them tell him to laydown or shake and then give him the treat. I try not to do that everytime though because I don't want Buck to think that kids are little treat dispensers. :lol: No, of course it's not anyone's responsibility to teach other people's kids doggy manners, but it's one good way to make sure they aren't bothering your dog anymore. And it turns a negative situation into a positive one for the kid and your dog.

[quote]I will not take more dogs then I can care for. At this point I think I could mabye take one more but that's it. I can't take like 10 dogs that I can't take care of the proper way.[/quote] This statement is a little confusing. Don't you have to be prepared to take on more dogs in case any of yours get returned or aren't sold? If you're going to breed I'd think you would be prepared to keep more than one extra dog at least for a while and maybe some permanently in case of an emergency.

This may have been an appropriate step for your sister's out of control dog, but I see no reason to go to such an extreme measure for your typically and happily maturing pup. Your dog is completey normal and will most likely excel at whatever you train her to do. Her dog is not normal and as such required not normal intervention. I would never send my dog away to be trained as you have no idea what is happening to her. This is a place that specializes in aggressive dogs? What happens if one of those aggressive dogs gets loose and attacks yours? As a result your dog could be hurt and possbily defensive around other dogs in the future. Nope, I'd want to be there to supervise at all times. Part of the fun in owning a dog is working together in training anyway. I would much rather do it myself. Edited to add: If you do want to go to this trainer, I would ask if you can attend with your dog. Or at least ask if you can watch. If they say no I'd walk away and never look back.

You can teach your dog to pick up things for you. This is really useful if you're lazy like me! I can point at something and say, "pick it up" and Buck will bring it over to me. :) Some other good ones have been mentioned. Shake takes like 10 minutes to teach most of the time. You can also teach your dog to play dead when you point your finger at him and say, "Bang". That's a really cute one that always gets a lot of laughs.

Woah, I missed that whole thing until just now! I've been really busy lately. All I can say is Wow :o

Yes all dogs should be held to the same standards. Any dog (Pit Bull, Bichon, Lab, Chi, Doberman, whatever) that has bitten someone 3 times should be put to sleep because they are dangerous. Rehoming should not even be an option when there are so many good tempered dogs that need homes.

The ad only states she is "offering advice". It doesn't say she is "offering professional advice". Anyone can give advice, especially if it is free. It's not like someone can ask for a refund if it doesn't work. Admitting openly that she is willing to talk with people about their dogs and give them some tips makes her seem more accessible and willing to help people. It's good marketing. As for the "gentle grooming" thing, she needs a way to make herself look different than other businesses. It's another good way to market and may indeed get her a few more customers. She's not directly implying that there is anything wrong with other groomers, she's just saying she tries extra hard to do it gently. Nothing wrong with that. It's her business strategy.

awww Your son sounds like the perfect Daddy for little Ford! That's very sweet :-)

One of the main requirements for an apartment dog is that they need to be quiet. You could end up with a quiet Beagle, but there is a good chance you may not. I would look for a breed that is more likely to not bark excessively. A Greyhound would be a good choice.

If your vet told you 7 weeks is normal for a puppy to leave it's mother, than I would look for another vet. Puppies shouldn't go home until they are between 8-10 weeks old. And it's better if they're closer to 10.

Excellent posting Carolk9s! :)

Oooh! I love to watch those! Thanks :-)

I know you think you want a dog who would attack an intruder, but believe me, you really don't. It's a HUGE responsiblity and I can almost guarantee that at least once in this dog's life it will attack something that you didn't want it to. Especially if you're keeping the dog outside all the time. You just better hope that whatever gets into that fence when you're not home and is attacked by your dog isn't a kid or something, because you will be held responsible. [quote]How long before i can trust him to run around the backyard without running away? We have a pretty big yard.. it's fenced, but i guess if they really tried and jumped really high.. they can escape. [/quote] Most dogs that want to escape a fence, find a way. And if you've got a dog that wants to get out and run, how good a guard dog is it going to be? The burgler would just open the fence and let your dog out. If you want a larger dog as a [i]companion[/i] please go visit your local rescues. You'd be surprised what excellent dogs and puppies are waiting for you to adopt them.

Nylon will always hold onto smells more than any other material I've found. If you want to avoid it in the future you could try a leather coller. I like the rolled kind the best. Nylon collers do look nicer though.

Yeah, I really think it depends on what you want them to do. I read an article where Standard Poodles were first selected to be guidance dogs because they are so smart and trainable, but they didn't do well because they were too independent. It may be a little tougher to train the Labs and Goldens, but their temperment is more suited for it. Buck is very smart and catches on to things quickly but there is no way he could ever compete in schutzhound or something like that. His temperment is too soft and he would not enjoy it at all. It doesn't mean he wouldn't have the ability to pick it up, but he would still be terrible at it because he would hate it. I would say that we often confuse being smart with being trainable. Cats are really hard to train but I don't think it's because they're too dumb. Most just don't care.

Good job Shara! :P Does Coal sort of pounce on the remote when he goes to get it? I just taught Buck how to bring me my cell phone when it's ringing, but the problem is he's a little too rough with it! He likes to pounce on it when he grabs it and I'm afraid he's going to break it! So I might be untraining this trick really fast. Did you have to teach Coal how to pick up the remote gently? If so, how did you do it?

I agree CC, it's totally awesome and wonderful that you want to help out, but you're just not set up for it right now. Someday you will be ready I'm sure and you'll be a wonderful assett to whatever rescue group is lucky enough to have you volunteer for them. :-) Maybe I'm missing something, but why can't you have a dog?

Ugh, I feel for you! That really hurts! There's nothing quite like getting the wind knocked out of you. I know the first time it happened to me, I literally thought I was dying! I would just be proud of Beau. Unless it's a regular thing and he's actually aiming to take you out! Then maybe teach him to sit when he comes to you?

People who think something like that would work, don't understand dogs and probably weren't going to engage in proper training and socialization anyway.

This is going to sound weird, but from the time we brought Buck home (maybe 6 months old?) he never chewed anything that wasn't his! I don't know if it's because he just didn't want to, or because he never had the opportunity, but he's always been really wonderful about leaving things that aren't his alone :D Learning not to jump was another story... :roll: :lol: