Dog Owner Chat! (for-fun poll added) (new chat)

[MacGyver]

Just dropping these pictures of Stitch (our senior Pekingese) and Sid (our Pom that we gave to our aunt years ago. Unfortunately, despite hundreds of dollars spent at the vet trying to make his life easier, he passed away in his sleep last year. </3)

[Saracirce]

It's official. We need moar Stitch on this chat.

[MacGyver]

It's official. We need moar Stitch on this chat.

Wish granted. XD

[Centri]

Centri, your dog is adorable! <3 Love the "hand stand" trick ;D

Thank you ^^

[FuzzyThePunkCat]

@Centri, that sounds like such a fun mix! I have a Papillon and she is like a little Border Collie. Papillons are one of the only small breeds I like and I haven't met one yet, but I think I would like Schipperkes too x3

I agree that this is a debate. The only reason I said you where arguing last time because one of the people who was involved seemed to get very upset and did ask you to shut up about it, and then you didn't c;
It doesn't seem that Fuzzy is upset with this debate, but let's make sure no-one get's left out c:

I went and apologized to that person afterwards because I felt really really bad for doing to them what everyone was doing to me, I wasn't trying to do that...

[Ethulai]

Argh. My Jacques LOVES licking feet. He totally has a foot fetish -.-

True love <3




My friend's dog Mexi (Mexico) being a bee two years ago for Halloween


Her crazy, hyper, lovable Odie being a ghost!

[FuzzyThePunkCat]

@Ethulai Kiba is licking my foot right now xD How ironic lol.

[Ethulai]

Fuzzy, let me phrase it this way as well. My Skoll was a good dog. No, seriously, he was. Anyone who has heard me talk about him at length knows how much I loved, still love, that boy and how pained I was to make the choice I made with him. He was awesome. A total goober, with this spark in his eye and a love to learn. He loved me with his whole heart and I was blessed with every day I got to spend with him. He made so many things fun, even the hard stuff. He made me laugh when I was sad. He even helped me to walk and run on my own again after a very serious traffic accident I'd been in a few months prior to getting him. When it was just me and him, he was every bit what I love about the breed. Every day I woke up to his wigglebutt and his kisses and every night we would relax with him crawled entirely onto my lap while my roommate and I watched a movie together. He was my entire life for the short couple months that I had him. With just our interactions, he was every bit of a model doberman.

I had to put him to sleep because he was completely untrustworthy with other people and I could not risk him biting someone. That is not what a doberman is supposed to be, but it is a sad truth that happens occasionally due to bad breeding or bad training, or just sometimes a well bred dog with their wires crossed wrong (as evidenced by a few dogs from fantastic breeders in fantastic homes has showed me). It's something experienced doberman people have had a brush with and it's something that I sought the advice of experienced doberman people to figure out how best to proceed forward.

And you know, that choice killed me. It did. There are many times when I second guessed myself over the past year that he has been gone. Heck, just yesterday I was talking to Cardinal and Sara about him, and ended up needing to sign off for a little while so that I could get myself to stop crying. Do you know why?

Because he was a good dog. Because it wasn't fair, because he was such a good dog. Because if I could have him in a home that is completely way way out of the city and JUST me there, I would have been able to give him more chances. Because I had to value the lives and safety of the people around me over the value of my beloved friend. Sometimes I dream that I still have him and I always cry when I wake up and I don't see him because it means I have to remember losing him all over again.

Acknowledging your dog has problems does not mean they are not good dogs. It does not mean that they can't be good companions. Even the most badly bred badly trained viciously abused dogs can be good dogs. Skoll was a fantastic dog and it angers me to know that he will never be seen as that by anyone else. There are well bred, well raised doberman that have behaved like Skoll. It's an acknowledged problem within the breed. But I guess it's because folks like us have dealt with the extreme ends of this sort of thing, taken on dogs that no one else would want, made a commitment to these dogs... and we see people saying "it's all how their raised" or "you only say that because your dogs are bad dogs" or anything similar, and we try to reach out and say no, that's not always how it works.

Oh this post broke my heart </3

I am so sorry for your loss.

You are such a strong person for doing the right thing even though it must of caused you such great pain.

[FuzzyThePunkCat]

How isn't it fair? I.. Don't get it?

It doesn't make the dog bad. It doesn't mean the dog can't make a great companion.

But it is not a good example of the breed. There are good examples and bad examples. Dogs who act like the breed was meant to act and those who don't.

Breeders bred dogs over hundreds of years for a reason. To get an outcome that, generation after generation, for the most part, breeds true. True in looks. Health. Temperament.

This really is futile though and I don't get why I keep responding. The problem can't lie with me. It can't just be the way I word things that make it so hard to grasp, because many have told you the same.

Lupen, you summed it up really really well.

Fuzzy, let me phrase it this way as well. My Skoll was a good dog. No, seriously, he was. Anyone who has heard me talk about him at length knows how much I loved, still love, that boy and how pained I was to make the choice I made with him. He was awesome. A total goober, with this spark in his eye and a love to learn. He loved me with his whole heart and I was blessed with every day I got to spend with him. He made so many things fun, even the hard stuff. He made me laugh when I was sad. He even helped me to walk and run on my own again after a very serious traffic accident I'd been in a few months prior to getting him. When it was just me and him, he was every bit what I love about the breed. Every day I woke up to his wigglebutt and his kisses and every night we would relax with him crawled entirely onto my lap while my roommate and I watched a movie together. He was my entire life for the short couple months that I had him. With just our interactions, he was every bit of a model doberman.

I had to put him to sleep because he was completely untrustworthy with other people and I could not risk him biting someone. That is not what a doberman is supposed to be, but it is a sad truth that happens occasionally due to bad breeding or bad training, or just sometimes a well bred dog with their wires crossed wrong (as evidenced by a few dogs from fantastic breeders in fantastic homes has showed me). It's something experienced doberman people have had a brush with and it's something that I sought the advice of experienced doberman people to figure out how best to proceed forward.

And you know, that choice killed me. It did. There are many times when I second guessed myself over the past year that he has been gone. Heck, just yesterday I was talking to Cardinal and Sara about him, and ended up needing to sign off for a little while so that I could get myself to stop crying. Do you know why?

Because he was a good dog. Because it wasn't fair, because he was such a good dog. Because if I could have him in a home that is completely way way out of the city and JUST me there, I would have been able to give him more chances. Because I had to value the lives and safety of the people around me over the value of my beloved friend. Sometimes I dream that I still have him and I always cry when I wake up and I don't see him because it means I have to remember losing him all over again.

Acknowledging your dog has problems does not mean they are not good dogs. It does not mean that they can't be good companions. Even the most badly bred badly trained viciously abused dogs can be good dogs. Skoll was a fantastic dog and it angers me to know that he will never be seen as that by anyone else. There are well bred, well raised doberman that have behaved like Skoll. It's an acknowledged problem within the breed. But I guess it's because folks like us have dealt with the extreme ends of this sort of thing, taken on dogs that no one else would want, made a commitment to these dogs... and we see people saying "it's all how their raised" or "you only say that because your dogs are bad dogs" or anything similar, and we try to reach out and say no, that's not always how it works.

I never said that Skoll was a bad dog or that it was your fault he was like that. From what I have read about them, you said he was abused and I'm not sure if you ever said where he came from originally. Being abused can cause dogs not to trust people. Some can bounce back, some can't. Even if he went a Doberman, being abused could have still caused the issue. It makes sense he was like that if he was abused, if he had come from a good breeder and been raised fine and never hurt and was still like that it just wouldn't make any sense. And I am sorry about what happened to Skoll, I really am. Misty was abused as well and was just a wreck when we got her. Misty was young and bounced back, but she is still always worried she will do something wrong and it breaks my heart when she feels that way. Some dog can't bunce back from it, like Skoll and like my grandmother's English Toy Spaniel who was abused by her horrible breeder and is still in constant terror, even though she has made a little progress with some people over the past four years. I don't blame it on her breed though, a dog being traumatized by being abused can happen to any dog and it is horrible that people can even treat any dog like that. Sometimes it is just so deep rooted that no amount of love, training, or their breed can change their fear and it's really really sad.

[gingertail98]

*claws widely at her own eyes* I'm trying to start doing research now for in 4 years when I get my Mal/GSD for drug detection work, but the only good Mal breeder is, like, 4 provinces over, and there are only TWO GSD breeders who breed working/German lines with the non-sloped back in BC that are up to my standards as a breeder (And one of them currently has a puppy left over from their Nov. Litter, me want! me Want!) Why, why are so many GSD breeders where I live show lines arrrg.