pyrless

o my!!!!! :D I started with the "on by" last night, and Taz is doing pretty well, he seems to get it, beginner's luck maybe? However I have another question. He marks alot on walks. Anything I can do about that? (I'm trying to get him used to walking in a straight line). If nothing else, this is really making our walks interesting! Thanks again for your insight and your stories-I appreciate your experience.

hillside, there's no need to get snarky with me, i was expressing my own opinion on the matter and I don't know your past with DAL. Although, whoever said (sorry, i forgot :roll: ) that the EAD section is not the right place for this topic has a point...i don't think DAL meant for this to escalate in this manner, however. At any rate, it may not be as simple as who wants/doesn't want/can or can't take the dog. Unfortunately in most states dogs are "property" and as everyone knows division of property can be very contentious in a divorce. Ultimately this will probably be for a judge or mediator to decide, as tasteless as that may seem, based on who bought the dog, who provided most of its care, etc.

congratulations, very nice!

I agree-he is a food hound anyway so that would NOT be a good thing! I do have to watch him constantly to make sure he doesn't eat whatever detritus is on the ground (he likes gum-eeewwww!) so I should, with some practice, be able to correct him accordingly. He is pretty smart and will pick up on that readily. I will let you know how it goes!

"On by" is great! Simple, short, can be said in a growly manner... :D I am going to try this, tonight will be good as it is garbage night... I am also going to start running with him as part of our walks. Good for me, good for him... Thank you, PTM! (If nothing else all of this new stuff gives him something to learn, which he needs...)

DAL, you need to take care of you right now. Everyone. This woman is making a life-altering decision after living apart from a husband who is in the crosshairs of death every day. Cut her some slack. Cut her a lot of slack. I know this is going to be hard for some of you to hear, but the most important thing right now is NOT THE DOG. DAL, you are going to want to discuss the ownership issues with your lawyer, anyway. Each state is different. I am sorry you are not getting the support you need here. Good luck.

Just wanted to let you know that Taz and the whole dog-scootering thing is going to have to wait until I hit upon a surefire command for "DO NOT CHASE THAT SQUIRREL. DO NOT WRAP MOM AROUND THAT TREE!!!!!!" Everything else he has been brilliant at on walks-right, left, stop, wait, cross, heel. However if there is a squirrel forget about it. I have tried everything to call him off and he just won't, or can't, or whatever... :D Thank you for answering my questions though!

in most civilized areas of the world vivisection is illegal. what the h*** happened here? we had to dissect grasshoppers in high school for god's sake and i had enough of a moral objection to that.

that is like having a bobc@t in the house...

why wasn't maggie sold on a limited registration? (not venting at you, just curious, her breeder should not have let her go like that).

well, i have three barkers! :o the best advice i can give you is exercise exercise exercise. i don't know what kind of exercise the shar pei needs, but my pyr is the worst offender (barks at low-flying aircraft, i am not even kidding!) and a half hour walk will keep her relatively calm. This is a weird trick i use with Sasha. I was out of work for six weeks last summer after surgery and was flat on my back for most of it. So, I watched alot of TV, and because I am such a dog geek, mostly dog and other animal shows. She would go running to the back door every time she heard an animal. So after a couple days of this I kept her by me and said "Sasha, TV" every time this happened. It still works in desperate situations! ( i don't know if that specifically will work for you, but it just goes to show, every dog has that "clicking point" inside their head that gets them understanding us despite the communication differences!) :D

oboy. i'm out you guys, i'm gonna go look at other topics for now... :(

I do believe you, Crystal. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? Everyone, she is trying and doing the best to her abilities. What one of us can judge? These experiences, or trials by fire, as they may be, make us better dog owners in the long run.

Hi K- Actually we must have posted at the exact same time, my last post! :wink: At any rate, I was not here when Crystal was here "before" so I cannot speak to those things you mentioned specifically. Of course I do not agree with wanton breeding and the concept of the "outside" dog, but I did not read those prior posts myself and was not involved in those discussions, so I will defer comment to those who were. Regardless, Crystal deserves perhaps the same second chance we are all so willing to give our beloved dogs. Having been in her shoes, I feel her frustration.

K, with all due respect, Crystal is going through a time and she is here for support, and I believe, just venting. I believe Crystal is committed to this pup but what one of us can say we have not gone through this frustration? Sasha, my Pyr, is the most similar to me personality wise, and probably the best suited to me, but that doesn't mean my bond with Taz is any less, or any less amazing considering how we started out.

:D oh, MAN does he sound like a clone of Taz! Taz also ate the sides off two couches, a $300 rug, about 87 socks, some blinds, a plastic food bowl, a chair leg and a box spring. And yes, my husband was ready to flip out as well. Honey, Toby is only four months old! Puppies are nuts! I have since of course fallen in love with Elkhounds in general but i will never get another puppy! What I learned from raising Taz also is that with some dogs, you need to earn their respect first, then they will get all lovey-mushy sometime after that. The funny thing is in my house I am alpha to that dog, not my husband! :D He is also fiercely protective of me and gets upset if my husband so much as tickles me in front of him. He knows when I am sad and attempts to comfort me. It took me three years to teach him how to heel on lead, but now he walks alongside me proudly. (This is a dog who was too stubborn to turn the corner when I leash-trained him!) Remember, too, Boxers and Pits love people, love to love people, love to be around people. Labs do too, from what I understand. However, a husky is not gonna be a hand-licking lap dog, you know? :D Love him for his strengths and exercise the hell out of him. Also think about the dog he will be, not the puppy he is.

that is not only really cool, i can really see it happening!

Crystal, trust me on this. Taz was EXACTLY the same way. He refused to "cuddle"-i would pick him up and he would grunt and wiggle until i put him down. He ambushed our ankles like a c@t. Play biting does [/b]not[b] foretell a future problem, the dog is teething, and at that age they will put their little mouths on anything they can get away with. A potentially aggressive dog will not "play". It will stare you down. Taz chewed a chunk of plaster off the wall and ate part of the garage. I didn't feel a bond with him until he was at least a year old and it might have been longer than that. Have you tried bitter apple spray? I used to have to spray it on my hands and feet. Also, a training class doesn't have to be the be-all and end-all. I trained Taz myself. Some dogs are "harder" (temperament-wise) than others. To stop the play biting on our skin, I would press my thumb firmly under his tongue, look him in the eye and say "NO". Over and over and over. Walk him every day. This is not only a great way to bond with him, it puts you in a leader position, and it tires him out. I don't know what kind of dog McKenzie was, but you have a mix of two extremely high-energy, driven breeds. Ceasar Milan, "The Dog Whisperer" goes by the mantra of "Exercise, discipline, THEN affection", which I wholeheartedly agree with. Another thing you can do is learn as much as you can about both breeds, and see where his personality falls in that continuum. Talk to breeders, show people, pet owners, mushers, whatever. Taz is half Elkhound and half Rough Collie. Trust me, he wouldn't know how to herd something if you gave him a manual! His personality is Elkhound through and through, and once I understood that, it helped immensely. Sorry this is so long. I am just trying to say, don't give up yet. My bond with Taz is amazing. It can happen. (and look how pretty he is!) :D [/i]

just in defense of (my) otherwise well-trained and socialized dogs-Sasha hates the feel of that metal scale under her feet and she is 100 pounds, so it can be difficult to get her on the scale too and takes some "cajoling" (read, pushing ) on my part. Just my $.02... :D

i always thought that the AmStaff owed some of its lineage to the Staffordshire Bull Terrier?, like the American Foxhound to the English?

it's a good idea. pyrs dig just because they can, and sasha likes this one spot under the deck. other creative solutions are stone or brick paths through your yard, not only does it look nice, it gives them somewhere to run and wear down their nails AND limits the digging area! otherwise our yard would look like a gunnery range... :D

mouseatthebusstop, great idea! no weapon. and yes, no contact with the dogs. i once had to put the fear of God in my untrained hellion nephews after they slammed a bedroom door on poor Taz's nose by roaring (!) and asking them how they would like it if someone did that to them. good luck. kids are infinitely harder to train than dogs.

Crystal, that is great news! Look, all of the suggestions and comments here are wonderful, intelligent and insightful, as always. But sometimes you just can't read into it too much. Puppies are nuts, and sometimes it takes quite some time to learn each other's rhythms and style of communication, and you know best about that because you live with him. Taz was absolutely impossible to deal with as a puppy. He refused to turn the corner on leash walks, for god's sake! :D Be gentle, be yourself, be positive. I know how you feel about the husband situation. Mine works 60+ hours a week, I work 40. He's a steelworker, I'm a legal assistant. So despite the demands of my job, I can never "win" as far as who had the worse week, etc etc. I love him more than he knows and respect his work ethic, but when he is sitting on the couch with a beer and it is 6 p.m. and he goes "The dogs are probably hungry" and then just SITS there and LOOKS at me until i FEED them :o it makes me nuts...

They do go through a fear period. He's a Lab/Husky, right? The one thing I know about both those breeds is that they are "people" dogs. Don't give up on him, hon. You will find a way. Also, you might want to talk to your husband about helping you train him?

oh, honey. i know this is hard. first things first. the urination is likely submissive urination, and the barking and jumping is likely play behavior (it's hard to tell without seeing him). the nipping is completely normal for his age. you may be inadvertently sending him "threatening" (to a dog) body language when you call him in. are you leaning towards him, looking him in the eye and standing in the doorway? to him that is confrontational. the best way to get him to come to you is walk away from him, clapping, calling his name. food usually helps too. also, if you have "added" something to your shape, ie a hat, umbrella, bag, whatever, some dogs are sensitive to that. i know what you are going through. taz (the gorgeous grey dog in the photo) was an absolutely awful, incorrigible, stubborn, bull headed little tyrant. Plus, my husband had picked him out. He did everything you just described from Toby, except the peeing, and seemed to adore my husband, who was never home, while I did all the work,feeding, grooming, training, vet visits, you name it. I felt the same way you did, I love this puppy but can't bond with him. (he was our only dog at the time). Things started to change around the time he was 1.5. Suddenly I had a protective, loyal, calm, watchful eye on me. He sees me as alpha. He knows when I have attacks of depression and stays with me accordingly, notifying my husband by barking and pawing at him. I don't know what happened, except for I was patient and consistent. If Toby is an alpha wanna-be, this will take time. Trust me, it IS worth it! :D (i know you have heard that from me before but it is the truth!) I got a lot of great information, some of which you see here! ;-) in Patricia McConnell's book "The Other End of the Leash". It is the only book on dog training and behaviour that ever made sense to me. Good luck! I hope we on Dogo can help you, or at least help you to feel better.