Question for project I'm working on...

[atghylin]

Please don't get upset about this question. It's only a question and if my project goes in a direction I don't like I promise that I will terminate it immediately. But I don't think that'll happen. (I hope)

First let me thank all who have helped answer my original question about Irish Wolfhounds. I really appreciate it. :D :D

Now for my question... have IW's ever been used in fight rings?

Please, please, please don't get upset and yell at me. :puppydogeyes: I don't mean to upset anybody. My project involves a rescue of one that may or may not have been used in a fight ring. I repeat... I'm not sure where this is going and can only hope all goes well. Okay? :buzi: :buzi:

[Black GSD]

Right off of the top of my head, I would say no. IWs are not prone to dog aggression so what would be the point.
(I'm not saying that they wouldn't fight back if attacked, just that if you put 2 IWs together, chances are they aren't going to fight eachother.)

However, it is totally possible that someone that is into fighting dogs may use an IW as bait. :evil:

[atghylin]

Hmmmmmm.... in that case, what could possibly force an IW to be terrified enough of the human race that a bitch would birth a litter of pups in sea cave as far away from ppl as she could get?

Ugh! That didn't come out the way I wanted. :evil:

Here read this...

Darius would never forget the day he found Lena in that cave. Could it have only been a year and a half ago? It seems like a lifetime. He

[Guest Anonymous]

The dog could have a had dog fight with another dog, but in an actually dog fight. Possibly protecting her young. Maybe she was attacked by another animal. I wouldn't say that she was used for dog fighting just because she was hiding in a cave and "mangled", and being aggressive towards human bit have been due to her puppies. She might have just been trying to protect them, and if she was badly hurt..plus with pups, she could have reacted even more defensively because of the pups and her injuries.

It's possible she was also abused, maybe beaten? Sadly that would certainly cause her fear of humans and aggression.

Also some dogs, if not all will seek out private places to give birth. If she was a stray or was injuried and about to give birth. She might have seeked out the best place she could find at the time.

Good luck :) And poor dog. :cry:

[atghylin]

Thanks :D My brain is working on overload right now and the smallest details are ecaping me. But I need them before I can move on. :oops:

For the record... Lena is a figment of my imagination... she and her pups are not real. :wink:

[courtnek]

A lot of things can cause a dog to be afraid of people, without involving dogfighting at all. She may have been mangled by another animal, but that doesnt necessarily mean the other animal was even a dog. My Foxhound came to me terrified of everyone, including me. She was not socialized with lots of people for most of her life. She was field trialed, and spent most of her time with other dogs, except on those occasions where
she was trialed. So until she was rescued, she had no real active contact with people at all, except during the hunt, and then only with her handlers.
She lived outside in a kennel until she was 6. Your girls snapping was probably just a protective response to her puppy. And if she was running loose for long, people may have thrown things at her, yelled at her, she may have even been shot at....it's hard to tell without knowing her history.

The fear can be overcome, but she needs a vet to tell you if she was fought deliberately (IW's are not prone to this and not normally used for it.
I fostered one - they fall into the hound dog category, and traditionally have not normally been used for fighting, except perhaps as bait as was mentioned).

Good luck with the poor girl...I am becoming newly trained in the world of hounds and fearful dogs, so if I can help I will...

[courtnek]

are you writing a story?

[Black GSD]

Maybe she was scruffy ect... because she was hit by a car. (Or was she too far from cars?)

Being hit by a car would be painful which as you know can make a dog act strangely. Besides, a lot of "moms" don't like strangers to mess with their babies.

(I know this is "pretend" just trying to help.) :D

[atghylin]

Yes, Courtnek, I'm writing a story. :D This is kind of new to me. The last thing I wrote was a college essay on "American Baby" magazine. But for some reason this story is hanging on to me for all it's worth and I have to get a few detials worked out before it will let go. The problem is that everytime I think I'm getting somewhere a new question occurs to me about a certain detail and I'm unable to contiue until it's been sorted.

I know your next question is going to be... why did I choose the IW? I'm not sure I'll be able to answer that until I'm finished. But until then, thank you for answering my most recent questions. And please, be patient with me as I'm sure there are going to be several more that'll need answering. :fadein:

[imported_Cassie]

For one thing if I came across a stray dog which was injured and had pups....I would expect the dog to be aggressive. Most dogs when they are injured are aggresssive due to the pain, this is the only way they know how to keep some thing away which may hurt it further...they have no way of knowing that you may have good intentions....where they dog cannot run it has to fight to protect itself and the pups. I have helped many of my breeder friends with litters of pups...the bitch's are always just a little bit wary of me...and I had a GSD lunge at me once for coming to close to her pups...I was looking after her and had to devise all kinds of sneaky ways to check on the pups and get her out for tolit duties. :lol:
I also live in an area where dogs are dumped quite often...so we have quite a few strays...when a dog has been on the run for awhile with little or no human contact, they are not going to run up to you and want attention like a regular pet dog. For instance in society's where dogs are scavengers and do not belong to any humans....alot of little villages in Africa...the dogs act like pigeons...they depend on humans to survive eating the wastes left over by the humans, and they live within the villages sleeping in back yards etc. but, no human can get near these dogs...they stay just far enough away from humans as to avoid contact, if they are cornered they can become very vicious.
A dog which is exposed to some thing it is not familiar with will react...some in different ways than others...dogs are great hazard avoiders.

[Peng1zrule]

just because a dog is scared of people, doesn't mean it was used in a fight ring...She could have been a feral, or wild, dog. Dumped as a pup, other humans threw things, yelled, and kicked or hit her to run her off, she learned to avoid humans because humans were dangerous to her survival. Once learning that humans are actually kind of nice, she could change her behavior (I had a feral dog for a few months...I beleive her to be a bona fide Carolina Dog, or "Dixie Dingo") Anyway, as for the snarling, it's two fold...one, her pups are in there! dead or alive, she's gotta protect her offspring. two, she is cornered, no escape, humans have hurt her and conditioned her to avoid them, and she's got nowhere to go...she bites to back off the human, not because she hates them or anything...she's scared.

[courtnek]

well Atghylin, I will tell you what I know about Irish Wolfhounds and the one I had for a short time.

They are hounds, who are exactly the opposite of "fighting dogs"...when used for their real purpose they are raised in packs (deliberately) and are very comfortable and usually inoffensive to each other. They literally live by pack rules. In a real wolf pack, dogs dont "fight to the death" unless
someone challenges the Alpha and has to be put down because he wont quit. In fact. most of the upper ranking wolves never even quarrel, you see that in the lower ranking trying to gain a higher position, and even then, it's mostly show and posture. The pack knows instinctively they
cant injure each other unless absolutely necessary, for the survival of the pack. It's pretty much the same for hunting hounds. On the down side, as
I have found out with Laurel, there is usually very little human interaction.
The dogs become bonded to the pack, and not to people. This can cause
fear issues because they are not used to people paying close and deliberate attention to them. I've had Laurel (Foxhound) for four months now...she was lower ranking in her hound pack and is just now starting to come out of her shell.

As far as fear of humans, in your storyline this dog may have been
abused by humans while on the run, kicked, had things thrown at her, all kinds of things can make a dog scared of people. But hounds, raised in a pack society, would not be natural fighting dogs, unless threatened.
They would not take to the fight like a "fighting dog" would.

and I want a copy of the story when it's done!!!


:lol: :lol: