Is it common...

[gooeydog]

Is it normal for dogs that have lived the first part (1 1/2 yrs) of their lives without adequate exercise to spend the rest of their lives "trying to make up for lost time"? The reason I ask is because I've heard that all dogs are born with a natural "potential" for drive, but it's important to develop that drive at an early age, or it won't really be reach it's full potential. Annie was crated most of the day, every day, for the first year and a half of her life, and she is the among the most "hyper", driven dogs I have ever seen. If it's true about drives needing to be developed, then why is she the way she is? She was never really "played with" as a pup/young adult, and didn't really have many toys, but within about a week after she was living with us she became a complete "prey" maniac, and would chase anything that moved. Was this just her natural personality coming out, or was it possibly caused from being penned up for so long with no release for her frustrations? She's still "hyper", and still very driven, but it's a lot more "controlled" than it was at first. Now when she sees a dog, cat, duck, kid, or any other fast moving object, she'll look at me, waiting for me to pull out a ball or tug toy and play with her. As soon as she sees that, a bomb could go off beside her and she wouldn't care. When she catches something, whether it's a toy, or the occasional animal that just didn't make it out of the way in time, she's intent on "killing" it, does the shake thing, then sometimes puts it down and waits to see if it will "go" again. Other times she tries to eat it (of course this always happens with really disgusting things that were once alive, and by that point are not something I feel like pulling out of her mouth), and I have to "trade" her for something different. :roll: Anyway, I'm just really curious about the the drive stuff, so if anyone has any input at all (even if you think Annie has serious issues :lol: and needs counseling) I'd like to hear it :lol:

[Hobbit]

Goo --- if a dog has *prey* instincts, genetically, it will always be there. Just because it wasn't nutured when she was young, now that she's free -- it's kicking in. Sometimes, their natural instinct (what they were bred for) takes a little to develope or for them to understand what that internal tug is all about.

It sounds like she would be a great hunter. Hum....."Winner of the Dirt Dog Nationals" has a catchy ring to it! :wink:

[gooeydog]

I'm sure she'd love hunting... but I'm not much of a hunter and nobody else can stand her cocky attitude long enough to work with her. I've thought about earthdog trials, but wonder if the dogs get "disturbed" because they can't actually catch the prey :lol: .

[Hobbit]

Goo -- I've seen some dogs "not quite right" after their owner constantly used a laser light in play. It's the prey that can never be caught. The dog was a not normal after this. And the owner, just kept using the laser light. It's like the dog constantly looked for the red dot prey. Then, some dogs do just fine. Depends on the dog.

[bk_blue]

gooeydog napisał(a):

I'm not much of a hunter and nobody else can stand her cocky attitude long enough to work with her.

Ha ha ha ha! You have just summed up the dachshund temperament! :lol:
Tomson is a lot like that, he is pretty hyper (ok well he's only 1yr old) and will chase anything that moves.

Cats go a bit weird with laser lights too... we used one on Evil Mulder and he was almost hypnotised by it. BK wouldn't even notice, or if he did notice, he wouldn't care. He's not interested in chasing things that don't have 4 legs. :roll:

[gooeydog]

Hobbit, I get this odd feeling that Annie would be like that with "living prey" if we started doing earthdog... and that she'd seek her revenge on me while I was sleeping. Sometimes with her balls/tug she runs around for hours looking for them after they've been put up.
BK, sometimes I wish I could just hog-tie her and put her in the closet for a while :lol: She climbed the lattice on our wall today, to get a ball that was on top of a shelf. Then on the way down she jumped on the coffee table and knocked a few drinks over :roll: While I cleaned up the mess, she kept rolling the ball over my feet, like "throw it. throw it. PLEASE throw it." :lol:

[bk_blue]

:lol: Annie is nuts!!! Meant in the most affectionate way of course... :wink:

Does she have an obssession with people's mouths and heads? Tomson likes to think he's a parrot and likes climbing up on our shoulders, winding his way over our necks like a scarf (if he's not careful he WILL end up being made into one :roll: ) and then going back down the other side. He also likes to try and lick/mouth our mouths when we talk. (we do not let him do this, it's a bit yucky!)

[Hobbit]

OMG .... I just thought about the JRT on Dr. Doolittle (with Eddie Murphy). Throw the ball, throw the ball, throw it, throw it, throw it.......... :lol: :lol:
Obsessive Compulsive! She is one smart girl. She knows where the ball is, you can't fool her! :lol: That is so funny.......laughing WITH you, not at you. :wink:

[gooeydog]

Bk, Annie tries to climb in people's mouths :o I think it's because she smells what they've eaten... because she'll walk up to them, sniff in their face, and try to climb in their mouth. I've heard that it's supposed to be a submissive gesture when a dog sticks their nose in another dog's mouth, but the only dog Annie does it to is Casey (it's earned Casey the nickname "the water-fountain"), which is odd because she's not submissive to Casey, but definitely respects Goo (and doesn't try to lick her mouth :lol: ). She doesn't usually climb around on me, but sometimes she will. Her favorite trick is to come up to me acting all "lovey", which isn't typical of her at all, then when she has my attention, she runs and finds a ball and brings it to me. The first thing she does when she wakes up is find a ball/toy, then she tortures us for the rest of the day :roll:

Hobbit, that's what she's like. I put one ball up and two minutes later she's got another one. Once I got a little tired of her bugging me to throw the ball, so I stuck it inside another toy, which was attached to a doorknob. Then I sat back down, thinking I was smart, and she'd be busy for hours. Next thing I knew, there was a loud crash, and Annie came running into the living room with her toy.... and the doorknob :roll: . Another time we were in petsmart, and I got out one of those cheap squeaky balls and gave it to her to carry. She dropped it and rolled it toward me to throw, and it went under a shelf. I figured I'd just let her go under there and grab the ball, so she crawled under. I heard her squeaking the toy, but she didn't come out, so I pulled on the leash until she was close enough where I could grab her collar. She (and the ball) were stuck to a piece of sticky paper (complete with a little bug) :lol: I ended up having to take her to the bathroom, put her (and the sticky paper & ball) into the sink, and keep her there until the paper got unsticky enough that I could pull her off :roll: She's a lot of fun though, so I guess all the trouble she causes is worth it :lol: