Dog!

[FemmeAdonis]

I can talk about dogs for DAYS..my dogs are my kids.

and I agree....the way a dog acts is a result of their owner. ive made sure that my dogs arent human aggressive. only one of them is not dog aggressive. Honestly...pits are just dog aggressive. you're a lucky bastard if your older Pit likes other older dogs (that they havent been around for the majority of their life). they are territorial and protective.

I will NEVER take my dogs to a dog park. cant do the Loose dogs around my dogs thing. I am not willing to take a chance, ya know> they could very well not do anything to any other dog, but Im not stupid enough to risk that.

anyhoo...

dogs OWWWWWWWN

I actually have my 4 full grown and 6 puppies (my doggy had babies in March. they are SUCH a handful.

[Bereta_Eder]

Hey I just got home from some friends, and they have a husky/hunterdog/something else, they don't know really. They took it from Kefalonia, an island of the ionian sea of Greece from some other friends. It was the first time I've seen it. They call it Roxane and it is really lovely.

Now the woman left to get something from the store when I was arriving and I entered the house alone with the doggie. (It is medium build, short light brown hair very affectionate eyes with different colour each one! One blue, One brownish).

Of course the doggie must have thought: WTF? Who's that bloke and what is he doing in my house. So I started carressing it and we became friends. Then I went inside the house to say hi to the kids and it was really noteworthy.

As I approached the children that sweet doggie gave one or two barks. Logical since he didn't know me from before and she wasn't sure if I was cool with the kids. When it saw that they knew me and that everything is cool it started moving its tail again

Then I went upstairs to see the husband of the couple and the doggie followed me right behind! When I approached him, she again started barking once or twice, then she saw that everything was cool and she stopped. After that it was the coup de foudre. I'd just sit there playing with the doggie. It even brought me his plastic bone toy for me to see

Anyway, my friends keep telling me what a drag it is too get a doggie, the same things you tell me and like Pekka said. They say about walking it, chewing everything, ****ing all over the place etc etc etc I think they figure, if he doesn't get discouraged at all this then he might as well get one. I'm not discouraged

[Bereta_Eder]

Originally posted by Pekka
I have noticed that sometimes.. dogs try to boss around little kids.. you know the little ones.

Yep, there's actually a specific referance to how to handle the arrival of newcomers and how to train the dog to realize that he/she is the last of the "pack" so to speak and that he must not think he/she is "above" the little ones.

As I have read the dominance oriented dogs are harder to be trained at that. Also the Golden Retreivers are supposed to be one of the most kid-friendly dogs there are.


Edit: Sloww, thanks for the link.

It is funny. I took 3 different tests and got 3 different top results. So I'll keep the one result I liked

[FemmeAdonis]

ive been fortuinate. my dogs havent been too destructive. my furniture is all still in tact. not if you leave a sock on the floor, or kleenex/toilet paper where they can reach it, that will get destroyed. but for the most part, I kept them with chew toys, rawhides and what not while they were pups and "teething" so they wouldnt look for something to chew on.

and as far as peeing and pooing. yes they had their accidents. btu thats what carpet shampooers are for. takes time to potty train. in the end, all of it is worth it.

dogs rock!

[FemmeAdonis]

ya know how you can really tell if a dog is going to try to be dominant when they're older?

as a puppy, hold them on their backs..kinda scoop em up in your hands with their belly up. if they struggle and refuse to lay back and chill, they'll likely be more..not aggressive..but dominant (will try to dominate anyway). but if they kick back and relax on their bakcs like a baby, you have a submissive dog that KNOWS who the leader of the pack is.

[FemmeAdonis]

dont you just LOOOOVE this cute face?

[Bereta_Eder]

Originally posted by FemmeAdonis
in the end, all of it is worth it.

That's the important thing

Neat trick with holding them on their backs to figure out dominance/submissiveness.

[FemmeAdonis]

its how I picked my dogs....I mean its not a guarantee of course....because you have to take into account how you raise them

my babies are SO good with me, that while their eating, I can stick my hands in their food, or lay next to them get close to their food and they do nothing. my males just eat faster to avoid me gettign their food, and my two females will back away to let me at their grub.

[FemmeAdonis]

and thats one of my girls, Isis, as a puppy in the pic. eating my fingers.

BTW..thats my thumb with the ring on it, in case you're wondering why its so wrinkly and odd looking

[Pekka]

Paiktis, yeah well you know that it's a lot of work sometimes, and sometimes you're pissed and tired and could care less about walking a dog, or dog destroying something makes you super angry, but at the end.. definitely worth it. I don't regret a day with my doggie. I think it's about time that I could think about getting a new puppy.

I have a funny thing I thought I'd tell you guys.. my dog got pregnant by accident (I didn't want it to get puppies), and had 9 puppies. It was huge loads of work, but it was fun to watch all those puppies learning to walk after crawling . Anyway, so I had to sell them when they came to age that I can sell them, and I did.. I checked out every buyer and talked with them, because I wanted to be sure that they'll get into good home so I can be happy about it.. Everyone had my number of course, because you know if something happened and if they had something to ask later.. So this one beautiful day one of the owners called me up, a year after they were born, and she suggested we'd put up a reunion for the dogs in a near by dog park. I agreed, that it was an excellent idea, and I called the other owners too. It was funny, because everyone agreed to come in two weeks notice. One had unfortunately died, but the other 8 made it. I'm telling you it was a day I never forget.. they were having so much fun running in the park and there were no other dogs. I was wondering if they could remember each other, and I can say with high confidence they did! My doggie, the mother then, knew them right away.. it was fun to watch 8 doggies play like crazy and one mother watching it.. she did play with them, but she was more like authority figure there, it was funny too I wasn't expecting it. It was like watching discovery channel..

Then two of them started barking each other in more angry way, not playing any more.. then the most funny thing happened, my doggie, the mother, went between them and gave little GRRRRRRR to both of them and evil eye as a bonus. So she broke it up, and they forgot all about it and continued playing! We had so much fun, though we were little strangers to each other, but it was a day I'll never forget. Just makes me smile even when I write this .

And you should have seen when they were little puppies.. 9 little golden retriever puppies who all want your attention and follow you.. it's funny image when they can walk and all 9 of them follow you sometimes, bumping each other

[Pekka]

FemmeAdonis, That's a cute dog

[FemmeAdonis]

watching a litter of puppies grow up is the COOLEST...from them sliding around..and scooting..to the commando crawl they do when they cant quite walk...to them bouncing aroudn yipping and yapping like little crackbabies.

i LOOOOOOOOOOOVE it

[Pekka]

I agree with the belly trick

[Pekka]

Plus, dogs are cool because you can tell them secrets and everything you want, they'll listen.. .

So, instead of having real friends, dogs are much better!

And also don't worry about not knowing what to do, you'll get the hang of it.. it's not that hard and you'll learn while you go. Just basic stuff like don't beat it to near death for fun, listen carefully everytime you're going to see a vet, if they say something, it should be pretty important.. just common sense stuff. Don't leave the dog alone for too long periods of time, make sure they have enough water, feed them, walk them and run them.. etc.
And DON'T leave a dog in a car in hot day! They freaking die in there. At least open the window and make a quick stop and not for hours. I see it many times in summer time, the doggies are suffering real bad.
I once read from paper that a dog was whining in car, looking really hot and suffering and the owner was not there.. so by stander was waiting a little bit for the owner to show up, and when nothing happened, he broke the car window, and then took the dog to a vet. They said it was about to die, soon! So he was a hero and saved the dog, and the owner was reaaallly embarrased. I can't remember if the owner got charged for animal cruelty or something like that..

Also, it's sometimes tricky to know when the dog is sick for first timer owners.. you gotta learn to read the signs. Some dogs, like mine, didn't ever show that she was sick, she didn't whine or anything.. then I learned, that when she was miserable, she was most likely sick. You know not waiving tail.. So then I knew something is wrong, and that was my sign. You just need to learn to read your dog too. They can hide it pretty well!

[Bereta_Eder]

Cute doggie FemmeAdonis

9 little golden retriever puppies who all want your attention and follow you.. it's funny image when they can walk and all 9 of them follow you sometimes, bumping each other

ROTFL That must have been a sight to see! Cool story too Pekka.

It really must be a treat to see the puppies growing up

BTW about the hurting with their teeth as the puppies get older, there's also a referance about that and how to control it, if you want. You can try to give a light warning then one a bit more stern like giving a small harmless thump on the puppy when it does it. Also Pekka you're right about trying to associate the "crime" with the "punishment" as doggies have relatevly short memory and often, if you delay to scold the doggie about something he/she has done he/she propably wouldn't know why it's being scoled for!!! I know I read too much about doggies and don't even have one, YET!