Meeting With a Stray Dog

[animalobsessed1]

It´s strange, somehow my room never stays my room for long. The same thing happened with my rats.
Today when I got home I found her bones on my bed. I threw them off, then left the room again. When I got back they were there again.
My rats were the same. Once upon a time when we were living in South Africa, I had my own room. Then one of my dads friends and I conspired to get some rats behind his back. (We knew he wouldn´t say yes if we asked him, but we also knew he wouldn´t take them back if we just brought them home.) So then I was keeping two wonderful pet rats in my room. One was red eyed white (not albino!!) and one was siamese (with ruby eyes). I actually wanted black eyes, the fact that red eyes are half blind annoys me, but the pet shop only had those two left. I would have taken the siamese one anyways, because she came right up and sniffed my hands when I held them to the bars, while the other one was just cowering in a corner (the way they usually do at pet shops).
So then I had a friendly ratty named Candy and a shy ratty named Cloud. (I did manage to tame Cloud to some extent.) But soon Cloud died (never buy rats from a pet shop!), leaving Candy all alone. After a while I felt really bad for keeping her alone half the day, and eventually I managed to convince my dad to allow me to get her a companion by reminding him that he was always calling his girlfriend cruel for keeping a lone rabbit, when he himself had another lone rodent in the house.
Because I didn´t want to get more rats from petshops, I went online to find breeders in the Western Cape. I found a total of five. After contacting them, we waited for about a month, but no reply came. I couldn´t stand it anymore. I was starting to feel desperate, so we went to the petshop in our area. They told us they didn´t have rats at the moment, but were going to get some soon, and then they would call us.
When they called us a few days later, we rushed over (with Candy on my shoulder, for some reason,) to get the second rat. When we got there I saw two rats. Wow there are so many to choose from! And that´s how we ended up with a male and a female.
Four weeks later the kittens were born (we had the male neutered by then). I was obviously very glad that nobody died in the process, but this was only the beginning. Not only did Candy drop them all over the place, she also started to bring them in my bed in the middle of the night, forcing me to get up and put them back in their nest instead of squishing the helpless little creatures. Things got really bad once they opened their eyes! They learned from their parents, and soon I had two adult rats jumping all over me and licking my face, plus eleven babies crawling around next to, underneath, and on top of me, also trying to lick my face. After a few nights of this, I was considerably tired, and decided that I would need to sleep at some point. So I fled and started sleeping in the guestroom.

... And that was the story of how my room became the rat´s room.

I do in fact have a cage (three actually), but there is now way I would squeeze thirteen rats in there! Also, Candy doesn´t like to be locked in, so the sound of her trying to get out would also have kept me awake.
Back to Wufi: You know how I said she wasn´t getting the "back" command? Well, I tried it during the walk, and she knows it! But instead she no longer listens to sit or spin... I will have to reteach her.
I think I might have figured out a way to teach her to obey me even without the lead, but then again, maybe not. What I started doing is taking her off leash, but holding the leash on both ends and the capturing her with it if she starts to go too far away. It worked at first, but it seems she is now starting to figure out how that works.
When I got back from school today, I did it for a little while, but then she dodged and ran off again. Then she went to the place where the stray dogs like to sleep. And that is when she got attacked by the alpha... You´d think she knows better. Not only is she a dog, but she also used to be a stray herself, so she should theoretically know how these things work. Funny how I´ve known that dog was dangerous since the first time we met and she, the dog, didn´t. Wufi sometimes seems like a complete retard, then she suddenly does something intelligent, and then goes back to being totally stupid. Luckily she got away though.
Note this is not the dog that charged at her before. This one was the alpha! When the cute, small little doggy is on her own (the one that was with the other dog that charged her a few weeks ago), she is so sweet. She allowed me to touch her, but she actually gets up and walks away when Wufi comes too close. (Wufi is always trying to make friends with her.) So one day she was lying there and I decided to go up to her. Again, she disliked the presence of a strange dog (Wufi), and got up to leave. Then the dog that I believe to be the alpha came around a corner, saw her, stiffened. And guess what? The small ones attitude changed immediately! Following her leader´s example, she turned around and growled. Loud! Loud enough to make even me back off (this was probably the first time in my life that I actually felt intimidated by dogs). Don´t get me wrong, I wasn´t scared of them. I was scared that they would attack Wufi. Had I been alone (they wouldn´t have growled in the first place, but if they had,) I would have taken the challange. I actually really want to meet the alpha when I´m on my own sometime. I am certain that if I can get her to submit to me, I could also make her accept Wufi, and once I have done that, none of the other dogs would hurt her. Meaning I never have to worry about Wufi getting attacked again. (Except for when she meets Monkey, but that would also no longer be a problem after I get Monkey to accept her.)
Anything else? Oh, and I´ve run out of anti fungus tablets, but that´s not really all that interesting. ...And by mistake I told some people at school that I was writing about Wufi on the internet, so they asked me for the website and where they could read it... And I thought I´d never get my internet life and real life mixed up (when I came to that school I also told everyone that I didn´t have Facebook).

[sunny*days*ahead]

Having rats climbing all over me in the middle of the night would creep me out. No offence to you, I'v just never owned a rat or mouse before, and they don't scare me or anything, I just prefer to keep them at a distance hehe.

I trained my cousins dog to sit, then later that day I tried 'lay down' and he 'forgot' how to do sit again. It was frustrating. :3
I think it would be really cool if this were a movie. : D with all the stray dog pack drama and stuff, I would totally watch it.

[animalobsessed1]

Having rats climbing all over me in the middle of the night would creep me out. No offence to you, I'v just never owned a rat or mouse before, and they don't scare me or anything, I just prefer to keep them at a distance hehe.

I trained my cousins dog to sit, then later that day I tried 'lay down' and he 'forgot' how to do sit again. It was frustrating. :3
I think it would be really cool if this were a movie. : D with all the stray dog pack drama and stuff, I would totally watch it.

Yes, I´ve actually been thinking of writing a stray dog book. But I just started on my ratty story and am working on that. Once I get bored of that story I´ll probably start writing something about a stray dog. Then I´ll get a better idea after a few chapters and start writing on the next story...

And about the rat thing, before I got my first rats I wasn´t really that interested in them either. I wanted a ferret. But a friend of my dad (a different one than the one who helped me get Candy) used to breed rats, so she convinced me to get rats instead, because ferrets spend most of their time sleeping. Then they go hyper for a few hours and then go back to sleep. She told me that a rat would adjust it´s sleeping times so it could spend as much time with their owner as possible. And that´s how I got Tipsy and Flocke, my first rats. Ever since then I could never live without rats again. I mean, I could do without dogs, but I would get depressed if I didn´t have rats.

[animalobsessed1]

And now that you mention stray dog drama, I realize there was something else that I forgot.
Start with the pictures:
This is the female that Wufi was scared of:










And this is the puppy that looked like Sky:

[animalobsessed1]

Did I even tell you that she (not Wufi!) was pregnant again? Well, now you know. However, those pups are never even going to be born, because the school principal is paying to have her spaid (she doesn´t want even more dogs hanging around the school).
They where actually starting to form a pack, there was also a male (but I don´t have any pictures of him). But last week both of the females were taken home by other people (who both happen to be in my class!) And I also haven´t seen the male since then. However, while they where hanging around the school, they kept getting more confident around people, and I think that´s why they were eventually adopted. This has inspired me to try to tame the male too, if he ever comes back.
I don´t know how much about how the female is doing, other than that they are looking for someone who will take her when they go away for christmas, but I do know a bit about the puppy. (I forgot to ask what they named her though.) The people who took her also have a red heeler puppy. (One of the reasons they wanted her was so that one had a play companion.) Their puppy was very excited, but she taught him a lesson about respect!
Then, on the first night they had her, she pooed in their shower. Instead of being angry, they were amazed that she was potty trained enough to not just go anywhere, and where very happy with her.
... And that´s all I know.
But when they where still hanging around the school, the two adults both had bloody wounds on their ears (and other places too, but mostly the ears). In fact, it was hardly possible to even touch the female without touching one of her woulds. The male... well it wasn´t even possible to touch him in the first place, so I wouldn´t know. I´m assuming it was because they were scratching so much. The female was constantly scratching, the only time she stopped was when she walked a few steps. I took a picture of her ears for you:

[jay,]

aww... Poor doggies!

[animalobsessed1]

aww... Poor doggies!

I´m not actually that sure about that. Sure, their lives aren´t perfect, but a lot of pet dogs also suffer when their owners aren´t aware of all their needs. These dogs don´t have that problem. They can get all the excercise they want, and they have the companionship of other dogs. Unlike human owners, the other dogs are actually able to communicate with them properly! Miscommunications are much rarer! And they get to do whatever they want all day.
The only things they´re really missing is a stable food supply and vet care, but as you can see, they manage. I definately have noticed that these dogs are much more stable and mentally healthy than your averyge house dog. (Wufi was the exception as she hadn´t been accepted into any pack, which is why I took her home and none of the others.)

I´ve also noticed some other things about the strays. The ones in South Africa almost never formed packs, and where therefore also not territorial. Sometimes I would see two dogs hanging out together, but never a whole pack. I only know of one pack in South Africa, but they´re not really strays. They all have owners who take care of them, but allow them to walk around as they please. In South Africa, I can also walk my dogs there without any agression from the strays. They sometimes even come up to sniff my dogs.
That is something the strays here, who have actually formed packs, don´t do. They will either get up and walk away, or they will try to defend their territory. (The ones I have seen are used to humans walking around and are only agressive towards other dogs, but my friend told me there are also some that will attack humans. More on that later.)
Another thing I have noticed about the dogs here is that the large dogs are usually in packs whithout any small dogs. Not only that, but they are in bigger packs and are normally around the shopping areas. No small dogs anywhere in sight. My theory is that there is probably more food around there, and the small dogs would not have a chance against the bigger ones, who would probably not want to share. That´s why the small ones are scattered everywhere else.
The food in other areas would probably not be able to sustain the packs of larger dogs anyway, but it is enough for the small ones to survive.

[animalobsessed1]

It has now been two days in a row that I came home, grabbed the leash, and went outside with Wufi, not coming back until it was comletely dark. On Tuesday it was because she ran off and got hyper, and after she came back I was playing fetch with her to get her tired. (It didn´t work, she still had energy left after an hour of running. Not just walking!)
On Yesterday it was because I saw the alpha dog and started following her at a safe distance, trying to get her used to Wufi and me. When it was starting to get dark, I was already close enough that I could have touched her, but I have plenty of time and didn´t want to rush things, so I didn´t, because I didn´t want to risk being bitten. I realized how much easier it had been to get Wufi´s trust, because Wufi didn´t have a pack and was just dieing for some attention.
Then my friend came joined me, carrying one of her dogs, Shadow. She hadn´t been able to find her leash, so that´s why she was carrying Shadow. She was able to touch the dog without any problems. She then told me that it was because the dog already knew her and they had already formed a bond.
At the sight of another dog and person she knew, little Wufi obviously got very overexcited. When she had calmed down a little bit, but not completely, I had the idea of using Wufi´s lead on Shadow, and using Shadow to lure Wufi. It worked, and while the two humans and Shadow were walking down the road, Wufi was running around us in circles, randomly jumping into the air like a rabbit every now and then. Every time Wufi got too close to Shadow, who has a severe case of SDS (Small Dog Syndrome), she she would whip around and snap at Wufi. At first her owner kept trying to tell her off, but I told her to just leave it, since she wasn´t really hurting Wufi anyways. (And, what I didn´t tell her is that, since her dog doesn´t respect her anyway, the most she would achieve is teach the dog not to give warnings before attacking.) Apart from that, baring teeth and snapping is just how dogs communicate that they don´t like something. Nobody should forbid their dog from expressing their discomfort. And I actually wanted her to bite Wufi, since the only one who can teach her to behave around other dogs is another dog. I´ve tried, but it obviously didn´t work. Eventually, Shadow joined Wufi for a short time, but then got bored of playing pretty quickly.
When we reached the beach though, we could no longer leave Wufi off leash because she kept trying to run back. So I tied the other end of the leash around Wufi´s neck and held the leash in the middle. This is how I found out that Cesar´s "energy" thing actually worked! (Before that I didn´t believe it, thinking it was just the body language alone.) Shadow was constantly pulling and half choking herself, and Wufi, who I had trained to be extra sensitive to pressure on the leash, actually started pulling too! Then my friend told me to just let go off the leash, since Shadow wouldn´t allow Wufi to lead her back anyway. And when I let them go, the most amazing thing happened! Shadow stopped pulling immediately, following Wufi on a completely loose lead. I only realized what this meant afterward, when I got back home: Wufi is actually more stable and confident than Shadow, otherwise Shadow wouldn´t have followed her so willingly. (And this despite the fact that Shadow is the Alpha dog of their household. My friend even admitted that Shadow only obeys them when they have treats, and that she sometimes even growled at people when they were on her part of the bed and she wanted them to move. Apart from that, she´s also possesive of my friend, though she just says that Shadow "gets jealous" when she tries to pat another dog. Then, when Shadow starts growling, she stopps patting the other dog and pats Shadow instead. Basically, rewarding her for growling. Things like that irritate me, but since it´s not my dog, I can´t tell her not to.)
It only lasted for a few seconds though, because they started getting off course and we had to go back to leading them ourselves. Again, they began choking themselves, and I was really surprised at how strong Wufi is! And that is when we had another awesome idea... We could train ourselves some miniature sled dogs, and instead of snow, we could just use the sand on the beach. Great way to get them some much needed exercise!
I´ve done it with Monkey before in South Africa. There was a guy who had four Huskies that where trained, and he let other people pay him to take their dogs with him to the beach and get them exercised (and trained in the process too). So my dad asked him to take Monkey too, and she pulled even harder than some of the Huskies. The first time was actually really funny because, yes, she was pulling, but not forward! All the Huskies where pulling forward, while Monkey was pulling to the right. By the second time we tried it though, she had already understood and was doing it properly.
Back to what happened yesterday:
When we got to a river that was flowing into the ocean, my friend told me to wait there with the dogs while she went across to look for someone. After a while she came running back, followed by two, big, barking dogs. And that´s how I found out that some of the strays here also attacked humans. They didn´t follow her across the river though. And then she explained to me how "aggressive" and "dangerous" the dogs were, and that she´d seen them actually bite people. Did I ever mention that there is no dog that can scare me? Well, that´s what I told her. (I do respect them, but I don´t fear them. I wouldn´t go up to a growling and and try to hug it. I´m not that stupid, but I´m also not scared of them.) Then I gave our small helpless doggeh´s to her and waded across the river, to prove to her that they weren´t dangerous. Apparently, she trusted me enough to follow, despite my warning that I could only protect myself if they did decide to attack. (That was the whole reason I had told her to take our dogs!) And it turned out that I was right. When I saw one of the dogs that had chased her and walked towards it, the dog backed off. A dog that barks is insecure and will not attack unless you show him that you are even more insecure.(example: running away.)

When I got home, I tied one of Wufi´s small rubber bone toys to her leash and had her pull it around. Because it is so ridiculously small, Wufi didn´t even notice. After about a minute or two, I upgraded to a bigger bone. This one was edible, so she did notice, and I had to distract her with other dog food to stop her from eating the bone. Once she had learned to ignore the bone, I added another bone of the same size. Again, I let her pull it around for a while. Then I took the bones away and tied an empty plastic bottle to the leash instead. Before making her pull the bottle though, I made sure she wasn´t scared of it by putting food on top of the plastic bottle and having her eat with the bottle as a table. Then I let her pull the bottle. She was fine at first, but then I tried going into the living room with her so that she wouldn´t just associate it with my room. And that was when the bottle bumped into a chair and Wufi freaked out because of the sound it made. When she started running, the bottle obviously bumped into more things and I had to take it off. And that was her bad first experience with pulling bottles. I should have waited longer and made sure she had enough confidence, but oh well, it´s happened and it´s too late to change it now. It will just take longer to teach her now. I think that, even though we probably won´t be able to really make them into miniature sled dogs, teaching her to pull things would still be good for her confidence. (And Shadows too, seeing how she is scared of the sound of people moving their chairs!)

PS: Don´t you just love this?

That is why you should never hit a dog!

[FenFen]

i live in england the dog is to prized to be a stay i saw a stay dog once she was the most amazeing dog i had ever seen i bolted out of my house in my p.j s to catch her but couldent keep her now i see the dog i rescued every morning when my naubour takes his new pet out

[sunny*days*ahead]

glad to hear of all the updates!
I really wish I knew how to teach my dog how to pull somthing around like that. He is too little for an actual sled, (rat terrier mix)
but he could pull somthing tiny

Are they wounds on the strays from fleas? You said they were scratching at them, so maybe that could be a possibility.

And the pictures of the female stray look a little like Wufi! (to me, at least ) Maybe they are long lost cousins?