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

[Satiine]

A dog topic! <3 I'm not sure if there's a certain form I have to fill out to join...?

[Keletheryl]

The world is harder for dogs with aggression. That's just the way it is. End of story.

And, yeah, it is fair for us to say that Piper MAY develop behavioral issues. You don't know the father either. You never met him. The mother was just a farm dog. Piper's not being socialized or exercised enough and your mother won't let you train her. You really think you're going to get a perfect, well-behaved dog? And wouldn't matter if you had gotten Piper the way you did or if you'd found her in a shelter as a puppy. We would've said the SAME. EXACT. THING.

And wow, yeah, I'm so mean and such a bully. How in the world do I even have friends? How does my family put up with me? Like, wow.

The world wasn't hard for my last dog, Boomer. If you think I haven't lived with an aggressive dog, I have. He had possession aggression, and dog aggression.
My dad should have trained him better, but he didn't. I'm over it. But just because he was aggressive at certain moments, didn't mean he always was. He was still a loving dog that would let children climb all over him and get scared if my cats kittens would touch his paw xD

I'm going to ignore the middle bit because i simply don't care.

I didn't say you didn't have friends or that your family hates you, I don't target people like that.
I'm saying, from an outside and inside perspective, you seem to want to argue with everybody on everything. Like as soon as somebody says something you don't like, you target at them. It's fine to make a suggestion (like, your dog is having possession issues? Have you trained her when she was a puppy? No? Okay. Have you tried etc? No? You should try that.) but what you do is you seem to get all offended when somebody says, for example, they haven't trained their dog and you go off about how they should have done that and they should have done this because now their dog is going to be horrible.
Just let things go. If they make you mad, or whatever, take it to pm or just ignore it and let somebody else deal with it if you know you're going to end up going off on an angry rant.


Now, I'd like to end off on a good note, so Piper has been getting better on her walks! She's getting better with the gentle leader and she saw a group of teenagers and another dog and she didn't go to jump on them! I'm so proud of her!

[Jazi]

I should just throw it out there that not every aggressive or fearful dog can "get over" their issues. For many, management is the only option, and that is very very hard for some people and dogs. It's not "giving up" or "feeling sorry" or "making excuses"; it's realizing that not everything can just be "fixed" and instead sorting out ways to manage their issues and not set them up to fail.

At this point though, I think any further explanation will fall on deaf ears. Lord knows why I still try.




@Piper's owner; NONE of us are speaking in absolutes. We're saying that the possibility is there and is spoken about by professionals that really do know what they're talking about. If someone says something and we disagree, we all try to bring up sources to back us up. That's, well, just how a discussion of two different sides works. What you're seeing is a lot of us getting frustrated because no matter how many times something is not only explained but also given sources from those who far more experience, we continue to get the same excuses or refusal to believe parroted back at us. It's frustrating, especially considering many of us who disagree with some things said on here DO have more experience than the speakers, occasionally leagues more (like MalfoyQueen and asian spitz breeds), and we are still (rather rudely) told that we are wrong and it's just something wrong with our methods or something. And that gets incredibly frustrating after a while.



Anyway, in a little bit I'll be dogsitting for my sister again, so hopefully I'll have some more photos of Baby and Buster and Titan soon.

[Keletheryl]

I should just throw it out there that not every aggressive or fearful dog can "get over" their issues. For many, management is the only option, and that is very very hard for some people and dogs. It's not "giving up" or "feeling sorry" or "making excuses"; it's realizing that not everything can just be "fixed" and instead sorting out ways to manage their issues and not set them up to fail.

At this point though, I think any further explanation will fall on deaf ears. Lord knows why I still try.




@Piper's owner; NONE of us are speaking in absolutes. We're saying that the possibility is there and is spoken about by professionals that really do know what they're talking about. If someone says something and we disagree, we all try to bring up sources to back us up. That's, well, just how a discussion of two different sides works. What you're seeing is a lot of us getting frustrated because no matter how many times something is not only explained but also given sources from those who far more experience, we continue to get the same excuses or refusal to believe parroted back at us. It's frustrating, especially considering many of us who disagree with some things said on here DO have more experience than the speakers, occasionally leagues more (like MalfoyQueen and asian spitz breeds), and we are still (rather rudely) told that we are wrong and it's just something wrong with our methods or something. And that gets incredibly frustrating after a while.

I'm not saying you guys are wrong, and I never was! You guys are most of the time very right! Please try to understand this.

I'm just saying, and I learned this from personal experience, if they refuse to change their minds, let it go! Because they obviously aren't going to change their mind and even if they are quite bluntly wrong, there is nothing you can do. The more you pester them about it the angrier they get and the more they will stick in their ways and the more they will feel drowned in what you are saying. You guys might think you are trying to educate them, which is what any person would do, but trust me, being on the other end really isn't fun and it doesn't come across like that at all.

[Saracirce]

I should just throw it out there that not every aggressive or fearful dog can "get over" their issues. For many, management is the only option, and that is very very hard for some people and dogs. It's not "giving up" or "feeling sorry" or "making excuses"; it's realizing that not everything can just be "fixed" and instead sorting out ways to manage their issues and not set them up to fail.

At this point though, I think any further explanation will fall on deaf ears. Lord knows why I still try.

Well, I wasn't going to make another reply today but Jazi <3. I never said my dogs were miserable. Not once. If Lolita had no joy in life, she'd be put down. But because she still has a spark, even if it's only shown to us and even though she has her bad days, it's not even an option right now. And it's ridiculous that you guys think that I think Clemmy is miserable when almost every single picture I post, she's happy. When I share so many funny stories of the things she's done. When it's obvious how much I enjoy being with her. That doesn't mean their lives aren't still harder then a 'friendly' dog's. And, no, my complaining about their lives being hard does not mean I don't actively try to work with them. Lolita has made great progress but that doesn't mean she'll ever be a dog who is even okay with strangers.

Which, by the way, I never once signed up for an aggressive dog. That never even once entered my mind as a child and getting Lolita. That never once entered my mind when I agreed to Clemmy coming to live with me because her owners told me she wasn't. I never signed up for this. However, because I had already committed to them by the time this issues reared their ugly heads, I stuck with them. I tried to help them. I did my best to manage Clemmy and still do my best to manage Lolita. Fuzzy, you signed up for dealing with breed discrimination. You knew those things would happen when you decided to get an akita. Your whole reason for getting one was 'to change people's minds'. That doesn't make it any more fair to Wolf or to you but it's something you signed up for.

EDIT: I have been on the other end of things. When I was in high school, I was just like you guys. And no, it's not fun but when people are spreading false information, it needs to be stopped. It's not fun or nice for us either. I don't like coming off as the person you guys think I am. I actually greatly appreciate what people on this forum did and I'm a better person for it even if it was hard and annoying and difficult in the beginning.

Honestly, if you think someone is incredibly out of line, report them. All your doing by jumping in as a third person and telling them to stop is getting them more riled up.

[Cardinal]

EDIT: I have been on the other end of things. When I was in high school, I was just like you guys. And no, it's not fun but when people are spreading false information, it needs to be stopped. It's not fun or nice for us either. I don't like coming off as the person you guys think I am. I actually greatly appreciate what people on this forum did and I'm a better person for it even if it was hard and annoying and difficult in the beginning.

Pack Leeder. Much dominate. So pack leeder. Wow.

I think we've all been there about something, pertaining to dogs or other. Ideals change as you age, concepts differ depending on your experiences in life. I know I was on the CM train and thought training collars were magic, even if I didn't use them myself. Now I'm not even fond of anti-pull harnesses.

[Jazi]

Oh god in high school I was just plain awful Dx

I wanted a male black oversized GSD and an all black male oversized doberman. I wanted to breed the biggest and darkest doberman I could possibly breed and then win all the AKC shows and really "show" those "snobby show breeders" that dobes even in non-standard colors and sizes were still awesome. It was all how you raise them, I would keep repeating to myself. My doberman would be "good dogs" and have not one aggressive bone in their body. I had a breeder lined up and everything- said breeder appeared great on the surface but when you looked further you would see the bad. Like you guys, on a game that I played I found a dog owner thread and I started making these posts on it. And, like you guys, the good people there called me out on it and smacked some good sense into me.

I was pretty mad at the time. How dare they tell me my ideals were not only poorly researched, but very damaging to how the public perceived dogs as a whole. I stopped going there for a little while.

A couple years later and what they said still bothered me, so I did my own research, trusting professionals instead of biased websites for or against the breed. And you know? They were right. Everything they said was right. And then I graduated and became an adult. I still wanted a dobe though, so I joined my doberman forum, where they are all about education and not about covering up the bad in the breed (like a few other not so great dobe forums). And I learned and learned and learned and learned... and now I have mentors, people dedicated to teaching me everything they know, going out of their way for it. I have a couple lunch dates this summer hopefully with breeders that KNOW I'm not interested in their dogs, just so that they can teach me more about the breed. There are dates marked on my calendar to go to shows and trials to be taught how to handle their dogs. I even have that job offer in TN, solely because of all of this research and hands-on experience that I've gained.

As I grew and learned, my views on things changed. I have that forum to thank for getting the ball rolling. If I can do that for someone here, then I consider everything worth it.

[Lupen]

Oh god, don't even make me relive what I was like before. I could have been worse I suppose, but I could have been far better as well. I was naturally clueless when I got my first dogs as I was so young. Nine, in fact; my two BYB goldens, Lacey and Lucky. And I can't really speak for my mom. Like most kids I just wanted puppies. Puppies to me were just so cute and fun. I didn't know enough to care about the work, or where they came from.

But even after I got Rylee, which was only four years ago, I did plenty wrong. I at least knew then not to buy from BYBs. I learned that the hard way when one of those goldens died at five, and I started to look into breeding practices. However, I still fed the wrong things. Was lazy with socialization and training. Even though I didn't use it, I thought the alpha theory was a completely viable training technique and watched Caesar Millan >.> And this time, there is no excuse for any of it - I should have researched far more than I did before I adopted her. Unlike before, age isn't an excuse.

I think it was when Rylee was about a year/year and a half, when I finally started researching in depth. That's when I started teaching her all of her tricks. I researched food. Training. Socialization. I looked more into breeding. And over the past three or so years I have learned more than I had my entire life. Now, with a fresh plate so to speak - with Koda coming into my life... I'm trying my best to do right this time.

As soon as we got him we socialized him. With family, different objects (like the dremel or tub - even though he still hates baths), we carried him into pet stores. Once he got his parvo shots it was time for him to walk on leash into town. We walked around the beach and parks, past the various stores, into pet stores... We came across trains, bikes, kids, men, women, small dogs, large dogs, skateboards, strollers... You name it. We took him in the car (and still do) every time we were able to take him with us. I taught him the basics - bite inhibition, sit, stay, lay down - right off the bat. With a puppy that loves following you, stay was a pain. But we managed.

Potty training with him was a breeze. No pee pads this time - I took him out regularly.

It all paid off big time. I can't even tell you how much I regret not doing all of this ASAP when we adopted Rylee. I doubt it would have eliminated it completely - but how much would it have helped with her fear aggression if we socialized this extensively early on? She was always a shy and fearful pup from the time we got her, but I know I could've done more. Shes a great dog though, really. I just have to take precautions sometimes. Luckily with her she doesn't react if people just walk by her, only if they approach or pay any mind to her.

Obviously, I still have a lot to learn. I don't know nearly as much as some of you guys do on plenty of subjects. But at least I'm willing to learn. To admit that I don't know everything and accept when I'm wrong, as long as proof is shown. I'm not going to get angry or remain closed minded when I am proven wrong. And this is how I learn. How I have learned everything thus far. And my dogs are better off because of it.

[Keletheryl]

When I was younger I wanted a Pomeranian and a chihuahua... Never again.
Then I went through a bunch of big dogs I wanted.

Now, if I could choose any dog, I would get a Shetland sheepdog, a bulldog, a husky, or a chihuahua.
My sister has a chihuahua and they aren't as bad as one would think! And not all chihuahua owners keep them because they are considered "floof purse dogs".

[Joe Kerr]

Oh goodness. When I was younger,
I bought a Husky from a horrid breeder.
No mom or dad on site, the pups were
terrified of us, except for the one we ended
up choosing; Bo. Bo died at 7 1/2 from what
we can only guess as heart failure. After that,
I started looking into breeders in general, and
decided I was more of a 'rescue' type. Of course
I'm alright with breeders who love, care and treat
their dogs good. The ones who breed not for money
but for the preservation of the breed. And especially
the ones who do a complete health check on both
parents before breeding them. <3 Those are
alright in my book. Dog shows, however, bother me.
I don't know why, they just do.

I'm not going to buy a dog from a breeder again.
Just rescue dogs for me.

When I was very young, I wanted to breed all white,
also known as 'lethal white' Australian Shepherds. I
thought they were gorgeous! Now, I know how dangerous
it is. I also don't agree with any unlicensed breeding.
Thank goodness I got some sense knocked into me by my
rough around the edges best friend, or I might still want
to breed Aussies!
<3

I still don't know a huge amount about specific dog breeds,
I know much more about animal rescues/rescuing.
<3