DOGS

dunno what half these look like

someone do a pictorial guide

this really hasn't been done before?

where is the Shiba Inu?!

Write-in votes also accepted

oh God you just reminded me that I had a dream last night in which I had a dog but really didn't want it and kept asking myself "why the hell did I get a dog?"

The Shiba Inu is looking sad at its exclusion from the poll. As is the St Bernard.

http://seattlest.com/attachments/seattle_courtney/st-bernard.jpg

:(

SO SAD!!!

OK out of the choices listed here in no particular order

pug
corgi
boxer
old english bulldog
husky
akita
lab

I'm just going to use the Swiss mountain dog as a stand in for the Bernese but I do so under protest.

I had a Jack Russell growing up so I suspect mine will be the only vote.

http://cdn-www.dailypuppy.com/media/dogs/anonymous/3542/200805083542_1.jpg_w450.jpg

I am so gay for Jon's dogs :'((((((((((

and and write ins for shibas and bernese mountain dogs

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44426000/jpg/_44426529_flag_dog_credit416.jpg

http://www.alphadogcoats.co.uk/Staffy_Hoodie_Burberry_-_Large.jpg

WRITE-IN VOTE FOR SHIBA INU

my mother's dog is a tibetan spaniel, where are they?

http://my-doggy.com/images/articles/Tibetan-Spaniel.jpg

OMG WAIT

I can't believe I forgot a very important one

FRENCH BULLDOGS

Let's just petition for an "all" option

ok so my list is actually

pug
french bulldog
oe bulldog
shiba inu
akita
husky
bernese moutain dog

x-post

no way

some dogs suck

for example - really small rat-like yapping dogs. they suck.

dachshunds are pretty incredible, so ridiculous. i always wonder whether they realise it.

That's right E, I forgot about chihuahuas. My sister had one that you couldn't even pet and it just pissed everywhere. Useless animal!

Write-in for "non-Border" Collies.

http://images.paraorkut.com/img/wallpapers/1024x768/c/collie-1352.jpg

Even prick-eared ones. ^^ <3

oh but I remembered two more

brussels griffon
affen pincher

LOOK AT THIS RIDICULOUS BEAST

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c287/expatrica/Brussels.jpg

Yeah I'm not too keen on chihuahuas

I was in the park with Benson the other day and this little asshole chihuahua came out of nowhere and started barking and nipping at him. The thing was so nasty! I had to pick B up because the little jerk was really starting to bite him.

That last dog looks like a German politician.

LOLLLLLLLLL

Shiba Inu stans can vote Akita Inu if they want, it will be counted. I went via images on Wikipedia so obviously the whole size thing got a bit confusing.

i'm not going to stan for small yappy lapdogs but i feel they often get unfairly slated cuz of their rep - cuz they're such girly dogs, and have those associations w/being kept in handbags etc

way prefer them to pitbulls or whatever

See, okay, that ridiculous beast is actually a puppet/mask from The Dark Crystal. Look, you can almost SEE where the hairs were glued on around the eyes. DQ.

lol laurel

Yeah I hear you Lex but I've just never really met a little yappy one that I loved whereas I have met some really awesome pitbulls (who also get unfairly slated).

English Bull Terrier is surely the worst dog. I saw someone walking a huge one the other day, it was about the size of a small pig.

http://mywhitepaw.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/bull_terrier_h03.jpg

I also automatically assume that everyone who owns one of these is a racist.

Small dogs: I really really hate the lack of dignity in the small dog that insists on bullying and shouting down all other dogs. Some people think this ridiculosity is "cute," apparently? I think it's repugnant, and my first reaction is to want to hurt them until they get a better idea of their place in the world.

I also think "ugly" means "ugly," and not, "Gather round and pity this creature before we put it to death for its own good."

Yeah Yorkshire Terriers are nasty little shits.

http://www.greatdogsite.com/admin/uploaded_files/1191990474pembroke_welsh_corgi.jpg

Corgis though, all the awesome. Too good to be associated with the Queen.

lack of dignity in the small dog that insists on bullying and shouting down all other dogs

Yeah, I know. I don't think I'd ever really noticed this before recently but it's pretty horrible when they do this. I hate Yorkies.

Also I know you hate ugly dogs but the thing is that I don't think pugs, frenchies or bulldogs are ugly at all - I think they're adorable. You want ugly?

This is ugly:

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/12/16/article-1339113-0C81AC84000005DC-395_634x908.jpg

I really really hate the lack of dignity in the small dog that insists on bullying and shouting down all other dogs. Some people think this ridiculosity is "cute," apparently? I think it's repugnant

i think it's sweet!

i like bolshy attitudes

re: pitbulls — There's this awesome pitbull I would visit every day in the summer who lives down the block who would always have his head stuck through the bars of the metal fence in front of the building. Once I was walking to the bus stop and I saw his owner walking him and the doggie recognized me instantly and jumped onto me, mortifying his owner.

"i hate yappy dogs" is just a bit of a let-me-prove-my-manliness/coolness cliché to me

It's Little Man Syndrome. If they were human those dogs would be like particularly repulsive contestants on The Apprentice.

I think it's more that people dislike things that show their fear so blatantly. Like a giant Great Dane is probably the most loving thing ever but probably not afraid of anyone.

Stayed with a friend in Spain who had a Yorkshire terrier, a German Shepherd and some kind of bloodhound, and the Yorkshire terrier was the undisputed leader. It was weird but possibly not uncommon.

http://www.we-love-dogz.com/boxer.jpg

Repping for boxers here. They're like a pug's older cooler brother. Manly without being thuggish.

I LOVE boxers (but the pug is just as cool ;p). There is one who lives next door and he's the cutest thing ever.

I esp love boxers with normal flappy ears like that one. :)

Love boxers as long as they belong to other people. :D I just couldn't make room for that much drool in my life, but I'd like to visit it occasionally.

Like when they've just been at the water bowl and then you sit down and they trot over to put their chin on your knee and gaze up at you...and that's the end of whatever your knees are wearing.

I think it's more that people dislike things that show their fear so blatantly. Like a giant Great Dane is probably the most loving thing ever but probably not afraid of anyone.

― mauricio kagel exercise (corey), Friday, December 17, 2010 10:03 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

otm

Since moving in with my gf and her Dane I am continually amazed what a giant lovey doofus he is, but some people are just fucking terrified of the dude. I don't know if it's possible to be licked to death but that's probably the extent of the damage he could willingly do. He does tend to knock things over occasionally.

also otm wrt drool

and yeah write in vote for Great Danes, I mean look at this guy

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs033.snc1/2593_1077365584842_1547316516_208999_4396073_n.jpg

My parents had to put their all-black standard poodle down yesterday because of lymphoma and total system failure, at only about 6 years old. He wasn't the best dog in the world, but he is grieved.

RIP Jackaroo.

Great Danes are fucking amazing. My uncle breeds them and has raised two regional champion dogs; they're just the best dogs.

my favourite BIG DOGS are newfies

http://www.jklgrooming.com/Images06/Photo22/Newfie_After_Groom.JPG

(American) Cocker Spaniel. I had mine for fifteen years, spanning my childhood through adulthood, and he was just the sweetest, most personable dog. Little lacking in brainpower (had problems with concepts like "glass is transparent" and "things that fall on the floor aren't always food", but he made up for it in temperament.

http://www.dogcastradio.com/images/AmericanCockerSpaniel.jpg

i grew up with shiloh shepherds, they are the fucking bomb

http://www.shilohshepherdtssr.com/images/Chewie-1.jpg

also huge

Yeah, have always liked the looks of your family sheps, gb.

Would bro down with that newfy. It'd be like having a small domesticated bear round the house.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1016/1286957573_671bbcd91a_o.jpg

motherfucker @ 6 months

no way

way

http://lossmaignewfoundlands.co.uk/images/family_144.jpg

OMG!!!

He's great.

<3 newfies too

awwwwwww they love each other

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5249/5268490339_e4f9489916_b.jpg

aaaaand here he is on thanksgiving

awwww

Would bro down with that newfy. It'd be like having a small domesticated bear round the house.

when i was 13 or so we stayed in vancouver w/family friends with a newfy puppy, and it kind of was!

I want a tiny house bear.

newfie = house bear
dane = house horse

I like dogs that galumph. I'd also like to be able to put lamps and ashtrays and things on tables, though. With a Great Dane, do you pretty much have to give up on things on tables?

food things (unless you are there to keep watch): yes
other things: mostly OK, his tail is not the destructor it could be, but there are infrequent collisions

keeping him off the couch/bed is a pain in the ass, esp since he grew up with a dedicated twin mattress to chill on that we don't have room for these days

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LTWqGVqO5uQ/TNhXBVUY6SI/AAAAAAAAADc/7oh0wwS1VJ8/s1600/Afghan_Hound.jpg

This dog is such a loser. I bet it likes Vampire Weekend.

http://www.thecinemasource.com/moviesdb/images/Sarah_Jessica_Parker%20-%201%20-%20The_Family_Stone.jpg

my old dogs basically just hung out outside all day, tbh. my parents were really good about training them not to beg or get crazy food ambitions, so the only time they ever sniped food was if you really made it easy/tempting.

the only time it ever seemed like an issue was when they'd get all riled up and start jamming through the house, back and forth from the kitchen to the porch, because my mom had a china cabinet and i swear i could hear things breaking whenever they'd go by it. clancy, on several occasions, also beelined right for it if you made the mistake of putting a toy in front.

NB---we only had one dog at once, if that wasn't clear

http://www.independent.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00226/16-foonew-ashdown_226884t.jpg

also tully, the new one, is really dumb, esp compared to the old dog (who figured out how to open the back door). plus i honestly think he might have some bizarro brain damage. he refuses, REFUSES, to use stairs (really), and is occasionally terrified about passing through doorways. i actually turned up a possible neurological explanation for this while studying for school once but forgot it :-/

he's a sweetheart, though

Most favouritest dog breed

Corgi
Pug
Basset hound
Pittie bull
Staffy bull
French bulldog

Someone needs to post the Buzzfeed Top 30 Dogs of the Internet here

On yr computer, planning ILX takeover:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/146/354111117_1d2127ab94.jpg

The bulldog gets my vote for his PATCHWORK REPRESENTATION here:

http://www.muji.eu/pages/online.asp?V=1&Sec=21&Sub=87&PID=4836

Muji, all my hats, they are yours.

Also write in for SHIBA INU!

I am now about to spam you with baby wolves! ONE MOMENT PLEASE

baby wolves!!! yes.

lurcher or weimaraner, I think

the noble samoyed imo

http://i.imgur.com/nZWuv.png

they're fun to brush, afterwards you have what amounts to a trashbag full of teddy bear stuffing

I have a shameful amt of dog photos favourited on flickr
https://img.skitch.com/20101217-a31ag2sxbdqcdbk4p84nr84tw.jpg

https://img.skitch.com/20101217-nut9uatq269s9n9u9qe5tn2idq.jpg

https://img.skitch.com/20101217-8a2dqst2bjf43bmir6aine9bmf.jpg

and of course this lil guy
https://img.skitch.com/20101217-g3dqj8ya6ax1f84jx59fepd89n.jpg

https://img.skitch.com/20101217-8rxurm8yhfqgcx1aucht17shge.jpg

forgot about the samoyed

here is my favorite one ever:

http://cdn-www.dailypuppy.com/media/dogs/anonymous/tintin_samoyed03.jpg_w450.jpg

his name is tin tin. he says hi to you.

sad sweater pug yes!

That is the indiest pug ever.

Oh man I can't work ilx these days. Anyway, please watch this video (you'll have to sit through a few seconds of cute Japanese popstress but I promise you a PUPPY that is worth it!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkY2CShbIog

And here are some shiba inu pups:
http://www.littlewolf.com/3redpupsMarch06.jpg

Would... it be wrong of me to sign up to puppy forums on ravelry when I have no dog? I would just be signing up for the pictures? But, heck, knitters know how to take good photos!

My favourite pugs are still the Bloomsbury Pugs - they walk around Bloomsbury in pairs with their owners and they wear necklaces! I have deduced they are from somewhere east of Liverpool Street as ONCE I SAW THEM ON THE TUBE and it was very exciting!

Wait - what's this about necklace pugs? I used to live not far from there and never saw any pugs in necklaces. Not fair.

Here is a place I would like to visit:
http://www.dog-cafe.jp/

Their slogan is "with dog, with eat, with drink, with relax, with enjoy"!

Of course it is!

Just look at all the happy dogs!

http://ameblo.jp/mfukuoka/image-10537262685-10545868954.html

xpost: ENBB! They get taken on walks in the general Bloomsbury area! I work around there and have enjoyed spotting them for years. I have even given one a surreptitious cuddle when the black one was tied outside Boots on Tottenham Court Road one day. It was a highlight of my year!

I work in Holborn and have never seen these Bloomsbury pugs. Do they venture that far South?

x-post awwww. I am jealous! I would like to see these sharply accessorized pooches. My pug would let you cuddle him. He likes that sort of thing. He doesn't have a necklace but he does have an awesome dog tag that says "wiggle butt".

I don't think so - I've only really seem them in the triangle between Torrington Place, Busaba on Store Street and the Fitzrovia Tavern on Goodge Street.

Here is a photo I took of Sidney standing on a stump and looking particularly silly. She is GRATE. Her powers of eating EVERYTHING are something us humans could really aspire to, in your face that woman from 'love food hate waste' who was on ready steady cook earlier.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/robot_starry/4827962972/

I like Sidney.

And this is when Sidney met a pug!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/robot_starry/4827351835/

xpost: oh dear this is what people with babies are like isn't it... *sigh*

awwww and yes, it totally is but don't worry I'm exactly the same

I grew up with toy poodles -- my grandparents had a pedigreed female, Jody, who they later bred, and they kept two of the litter and named them Mork and Mindy. (LOL 70s.) When I was 10, we got a toy poodle of our own, Cherie, who lived about 11 years. So I still totally rate toy poodles.

When I was in college, I got a pug, who I eventually had to give to my grandfather. Love love love love pugs. But I'm still voting for poodles.

superpitching - I've already posted about 100 too many pics of this guy on ILX but here's B being caught eating something he shouldn't be: http://i53.tinypic.com/4ku0dl.jpg

Obviously voting for poodles.

My inlaws have a mastiff, a german shepherd and a Pyrenees cross...I heart big dogs!

Before the mastiff and the Pyrenees they had St Bernard siblings, a brother and sister. They are beautiful-tempered dogs. The sister, Mina, was mad as a march hare. She acted like was a puppy even though she was the size of a shetland pony. She'd try to walk under the coffee table, or walk up to the couch and sit on your lap...she crawled into the drivers seat of the car once and got her head stuck in the steering wheel.
Best story is the day she met face to face with a goat. She decided that she would play with it so she starts barking and jumping around and the goat rears back and headbutts her full in the snout. Poor girl, she looked like she was going to cry. Like "Ow WTF dude!!!"

So many beautiful dogs. I like mine handsome with short fur, I voted Foxhound:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/English_Foxhound_portrait.jpg

love the dogs with dreads
komondor aka mop dog

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3d/Komondor_Westminster_Dog_Show_crop.jpg/548px-Komondor_Westminster_Dog_Show_crop.jpg

Bergamasco

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e4/Ortensia_di_Valle_Scrivia.jpg/728px-Ortensia_di_Valle_Scrivia.jpg

Dudes, we have a 17 year old Yorkie who is awesome.

I will not hear of this categorical besmirching of Yorkies.

Forreals.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Baxter says vote King Charles Spaniel!

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss71/fabrickd/DSC02454.jpg?t=1293052955

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss71/fabrickd/DSC02454.jpg?t=1293052955

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

where the fuck is the golden retriever

Short leg dogs forever!

Pepper the dachshund mix barks his approval.

DOGS ARE RATIONAL.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FtB9pAMNBBw#!

Also, possibly have a sense of self: http://animalwise.org/2011/08/16/the-yellow-snow-test-for-self-recognition/

I've heard interesting anecdotes about dogs using pretty complex cause-effect logic.

Well just one: A border collie has a favourite spot on its master's bed, but, because numerous other dogs also live in the house, the spot is often taken by another dog. The Border collie goes to the other side of the house and starts barking at nothing until the other dogs come to join and start barking (at nothing) too. The border collie takes back its spot.

I am really, really easily amused:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/540807_10150628087901596_681036595_9797585_1837607381_n.jpg

http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxy7nca1Qq1r124gko1_500.jpg

wd've voted schnauzer if I'd seen the poll

I think we need to do one of those more complex polls where you list your choices in order.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/522560_10150631080631596_681036595_9810157_867359608_n.jpg

i met a dog yesterday named "Sniffy".

No bearded collie, no Tibetan terrier, no credibility.

Also, possibly have a sense of self: http://animalwise.org/2011/08/16/the-yellow-snow-test-for-self-recognition/

I don't think I understand how the pee test relates to self-recognition? Hasn't it always been assumed that animals that mark their territory know their own markings?

Look who greatly improved my typically dreary walk to the tube this morning!

http://soupofturtles.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/der-pup.png

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lti6a4tQwB1qzofaho1_500.jpg

English Bull Terrier is surely the worst dog. I saw someone walking a huge one the other day, it was about the size of a small pig.

I also automatically assume that everyone who owns one of these is a racist.

― Matt DC, Friday, December 17, 2010 8:54 AM (1 year ago)

I must say this doesn't make a lick of goddamn sense.

It is a handsome and noble dog for everyone on the spectrum from anti-racist to racist and in between.

they're weird in that they combine the most non-human head shape of any dog, with some of the most human-like expressions.

This is more or less the best thing I've ever seen, pug related or otherwise:

http://vimeo.com/39808960

NB: Familiarity with this is recommended:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpBP9dALcWw

lol one of the pugs in that belongs to a friend form college. Isn't it awesome. My favorite is the one with the knitted Yankee cap.

Oh wait - 3 of them are wearing Yankee hats. I mean the one at the bag in the shots where they're sitting around the table.

my brother now has four dogs apparently, as well as two or three cats icr

English Bull Terrier is surely the worst dog. I saw someone walking a huge one the other day, it was about the size of a small pig.

I also automatically assume that everyone who owns one of these is a racist.

― Matt DC, Friday, December 17, 2010 8:54 AM (1 year ago)

I must say this doesn't make a lick of goddamn sense.

― and i don't even care, similar to how a badass would respond (Abbbottt), Friday, April 6, 2012 3:59 AM (11 hours ago)

this is totally true

not all of them are racists im sure, but if u wanted to create a heuristic for a certain type of person in a certain type of london suburb, it would be 'english bull terrier owners'

i was quite surprised to see a young black women with an EBT (xref with EBJT), except no, she was just walking past and the actual owner was a middle aged white dude who was trying to get it to shit in an underlit area of pavement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZWrVQTlonc

What happened when Shellac showed up on "Dogs 101"

come for the dogs, stay for the "math rock" jokes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6ZF82lcG4o

http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/web03/2012/4/10/16/enhanced-buzz-10143-1334089850-5.jpg

Galump galump galump

Taz is awesome.

not all of them are racists im sure, but if u wanted to create a heuristic for a certain type of person in a certain type of london suburb, it would be 'english bull terrier owners'

I went through Penge the other day and I swear that like 90% of the dogs I saw there were English bull terriers.

http://m.gawker.com/5902367/bad-to-the-bone-bordeauxdog-challenges-self-to-stare+down-contest

Lunkhead pooch gets in staring contest with self, loses

Teufel the rescue mix is approaching 1 year with us at the end of the month. He loves his car rides to the dog park.

http://i42.tinypic.com/n1tg9h.jpg

oh. my. god.

River Tam, corgi extraordinaire
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7213/6940226834_cb92f3b6fc_b.jpg
River Tam by celluloidpropaganda, on Flickr

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7203/7086300439_b58278a311_b.jpg
River Tam by celluloidpropaganda, on Flickr

If dogs have such sensitive noses, why don't they seem to mind when I fart in their faces?

Unless you're eating remarkably sulfurous food (onions, garlic, egg whites etc) which emit the universally (among animals) reviled hydrogen sulfide upon digestion, the distaste for manure smells is largely just cultural.

Dogs, you've probably noticed love smelling (and among German Shepards, eating) feces. It is a marker of identity as well as signal of what's on the menu locally. I've never lived with a dog that didn't love smelling about the toilet seat to gather information.

This is a very bizarre website. That said, it's probably among the best things on the internet I've seen in some time, if only for the pug portraits.

A man is fighting for his life in hospital after he was mauled by two savage dogs on a beach.

The unnamed victim, 30, was severely bitten all over his body by a pet mastiff cross and a Staffordshire bull terrier on Brighton beach, East Sussex, on Friday morning.

A 40-year-old man believed to be the dogs' owner was arrested at the scene on suspicion of assault and possession of a knife and Class A drugs.

Remember that pic of the older pony-tailed dude cradling his dog in his arms while they float in the lake so the dog can sleep?

WCCO did a segment on him, which CNN picked up.

Warning, this vid will make you cry.

http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_c3#/video/us/2012/08/13/dnt-wi-man-and-dog-floating.wcco

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/523545_10151058823328208_1399077819_n.jpg

"Yaaaay! Another march!"

Despite my handle, I used to be mortally afraid of dogs and I'm still fairly jumpy around some of them. But I found in recent years that I'm allergic to cats. I'm now much more partial to well-behaved dogs than any cat.

Damn you Kingfish! I just watched that video and sure enough oh the tears. At my desk. At work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAuvzeoNpe0

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9swz6TMtN1re4ne0o1_500.jpg

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9snfuoRl61re4ne0o1_500.jpg

http://dog-shaming.com/

all time classic site imo

Today's Unconvincing Ghost costume:

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb86nstI131rrcie9o1_500.jpg

via DOGLR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRsd6ekwN9I

This beagle has lemon issues

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_md4ydaKrSV1rrcie9o1_1280.jpg

ahhhhhhhhhhh

what a happy fellow

who will one day be trained to remove people's throats from their necks

Who's a little killer? Who is?

http://i50.tinypic.com/344vyg2.gif

My British lab ROCKS, when I had surgery he had to poop inside, and being a high class well bred dog has never done this. I mean, this dog never does anything wrong. He felt ashamed about it. So did I.

I had to explain to the super snooty and Japanese home "inspector" that we are normally very clean people but are sick, I am sorry. It would have been nice if he bitched about my extremely brave and well-behaved dog to my face, it's too bad his superior breeding as a human doesn't allow for that.

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/394988_10151255474044277_123105046_n.jpg

MERRY CHRISTMAS :p

ridiculous

his tongue!!

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8345/8233182268_8048342f31.jpg

This is Kenny, who stays at mine once a week. He's a 15-year-old lurcher.

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/14461_10151158541101130_901833703_n.jpg

OMG <3 <3 <3

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_me32pb8z8R1qzfuqqo1_1280.jpg

dog photobomb win

No one voted for German Shepard or Doberman Pinscher! Granted, these are quite large dogs who require a lot of space and exercise, but in the 1980s and 1990s, these were among the most popular dogs in the universe. Lo! How the mighty have fallen.

I hate dobermans

Hi Mike!

My dog was really ill all day yesterday and we were finally able to get a vet appointment this afternoon. I hope and pray that everything is okay, but he's nearly ten.

Here folks, this shiba inu blog should pick you up a little:

http://shibanomaru.blog43.fc2.com/

http://blog-imgs-45-origin.fc2.com/s/h/i/shibanomaru/IMG_1198.jpg

Kenny is beautiful. I love long-legged "curl up in bed with you" dogs like spaniels! My dog "Stan" is 9 and extremely healthy but I do have to start thinking about what I'll do when he is gone...another sporting dog, I think.

My siberian is sick today, but it's clear he just has a cold or something. This is extremely healthy breed.

this puppy belongs to a friend of a friend

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A-KwZBBCYAE2asC.jpg

OUTWARD HOUND

I love German Shepherds, they are geniuses and so "don't fuck with me." If you want an entertainer though, you should get another dog. I had a half Shepherd, loving and fierce but very reserved.

Only thing about the Husky is He has a problem / habit of eating blue jeans when he is frustrated! He had the same issue with shoes when we first got him...he ate all of our crap shoes, never the nice ones.

All my favorite jeans eventually succumbed to Husky frustration. Except for the 501s. Shows his mind is working.

The last German Shepherd I encountered was at a dude's house in India, and the thing was tied up but came fucking flying at us. My gf was all "I sure he's not dangerous" and the owner dude was like "no, he is dangerous, I bought him to scare off robbers". In Britain dog owners will fiercely and loyally deny that their dog is dangerous even if it clearly is, so this perspective was kind of refreshing.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mattbellassai/the-40-greatest-dog-gifs-of-2012-6z51

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8ys92aL4M1r5c792o1_400.gif

I don't think Buzzfeed are dog people. The dogs in those gifs nearly all look stressed/hot/uncomfortable/in pain. Their cat list was better.

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/75215_10151258837858208_1628850323_n.jpg

Kenny, again. Still life with paws:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8107/8455851490_209f204044.jpg

LEX I NEED PHOTOS OF YOUR MUM'S DOG

erm it died last august :/

he was very old, 18 i think, had a good innings and tbqh about as charmed and spoiled a life as it's possible for a dog to have

:(

I love tibetans.

there's a picture of him from a couple of xmases ago on the OLD DOGS thread i think

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/528530_10151411634294277_621110438_n.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/WOc30Qn.jpg

was on my bike today when a car pulled up next to me. gruff middle age/old man with his super duper friendly lookin dog sticking his head out the window. i straight up asked the dude if i could pet the dog. i scratched it behind the ears for a little, then the light turned green and we parted ways. not sure what was better, petting a random dog at a stoplight or finally getting a damn job today.

Always the dog! :-D

jobs can buy dogs!

was on my bike today when a car pulled up next to me. gruff middle age/old man with his super duper friendly lookin dog sticking his head out the window. i straight up asked the dude if i could pet the dog. i scratched it behind the ears for a little, then the light turned green and we parted ways. not sure what was better, petting a random dog at a stoplight or finally getting a damn job today.

― cocktail onion (fennel cartwright), Wednesday, February 20, 2013 12:45 AM (20 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

how to live imo

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/208863_390198327746063_1827191525_n.jpg

OMG.

DOGS WOLFS

see also

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/482045_389789447786951_1703934322_n.jpg

That first dog wolf looks like a motherfucker with some dark secrets.

pants

(not like a dog)

Christ it's 7am on a Sunday and I've been an awake for an hour wtf is going on.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f2/Wolf_Dog_FilmPoster.jpeg/220px-Wolf_Dog_FilmPoster.jpeg

On a vaguely related note:

Game Of Thrones fans can now buy their own direwolf. Kind of. Eventually.

http://media.avclub.com/images/426/426985/16x9/627.jpg?4690

....As detailed in this interesting piece from Wired.com, the breeding project isn’t concerned with bringing back true, prehistoric direwolves, for which there’s no remaining genetic material, but rather with creating a domesticated, “wolf-like” companion dog breed that has the look of a direwolf, but with a more gentle temperament (and, presumably, without telepathic connections to their owners). Topping out at 130 pounds and selling for around $3,000—there’s currently a long waiting list for pups—Direwolves v.2.0 look more like adorable cuddle monsters than regal killing machines, but that’s probably for the best. Consider them the canine equivalent of GOT cosplay.

oh, pretty much just American Alsatians

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4017/4715794905_79aa43bb4b.jpg

http://www.punjabigraphics.com/animals/images/9/american-alsatian-85.jpg

look like Shiloh shepherds

http://i.imgur.com/l704qMF.gif

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

I went with my girlfriend while she looked for a dog this weekend - she wound up adopting a neurotic 8-year old weimaraner. He's pretty cool, very friendly but kind of 'off' - doesn't appear to know what a ball or toys are, etc.. There's a chance he was the stud dog for a backyard breeder/mill in his younger days.

I wanted to adopt this little basset/shepherd mix if I felt better about being responsible for a dog right now:
http://photos.petfinder.com/photos/US/TX/TX309/25631177/TX309.25631177-2-x.jpg
http://photos.petfinder.com/photos/US/TX/TX309/25631177/TX309.25631177-3-x.jpg

the shelter has a crappy pic of him but I also <3ed a retriever/schnauzer mix.
http://photos.petfinder.com/photos/US/TX/TX309/25915099/TX309.25915099-1-x.jpg

http://packlove.com

new dog-based social networking site that's apparently been blowing up lately

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8541/8714513280_8c9d8ae7c3.jpg

http://instagram.com/p/Y-2C5Ilywr/

our new dog Wu (always had cats till now) who is like a Pomeranianish mutt.

I've been wanting a dog really hard for the last couple days, but so much responsibility! But also, so much kisses!

crap, how to embed from instagram.... he is a very cute and well behaved dog anyway, so many people think he is a puppy.

http://distilleryimage7.s3.amazonaws.com/bc239d42b68211e2900c22000a1fb715_7.jpg

Looks like a puppy. CUUUTE

Thanks!

omg that dog is ADORABLE
look at that snout
look at that tongue and those white little teeth!

i love having dogs, it's good for my general well-being

We just got our big guy back after he spent a week with my wife's mother, it was the longest they'd ever been separated (he's 6 and she's had him since puppydom). Such a happy reunion!

My new company recently launched. We are making a wireless dog activity monitor that syncs your dog's (or dogs') activity through Bluetooth (to your mobile phone) or (through WiFi) directly to our servers.

Cool! When I get a dog eventually—and that WILL happen—I may get this gizmo.

Hang on, $10 shipping? That's nuts.

(I realize you probably have zero to do with pricing, but that seems high.)

I think that's just a placeholder. Note: "Actual shipping costs will be confirmed at ship time."

i appreciate this tech but i would just have a long list of

*henry is lying down*
*henry is lying down*
*henry is lying down*
*henry is lying down*
*henry is lying down*
*henry is farting*
*henry is lying down*
*henry is lying down*
*henry is lying down*

awesome. good luck

I would find this handy. One of my dogs has joint and/or muscle problems and his mobility is limited. However, I'm well aware that he plays up to me, and I'd be curious to know how much he moves around when I'm not at home or after I've gone to bed.

This could also be a good thing for dogs with separation anxiety, to see if their dogs do settle down and go asleep after they've gone out or remain active (and possibly distressed) for the whole day. If I hadn't had noise complaints from my neighbours some years ago, I never would have known how much the dogs hated being left alone during the day.

What I'm really holding out for, though, is a microchip with a GPS tracker in it, so that I can find my dog if it ever gets stolen.

Hahah JJJ otm. Benson's monitoring would be pretty damn similar, I think.

yeah but if you synced it to a twitter feed it would still be more interesting than the 77 updates thread

this is benson, benson, after all

xp XD

where was the option for 'mongrel'?

i'd almost go as far as to say 'dog breeds: dud' these days

'dog breeders: hitler'

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1001027_10151487093070938_428552576_n.jpg

Just checked the Whistle promo vid. Looks useful. Do you have a Portland distributor? Want one?

Msg me and I'll pass on your info. Not sure if we've settled on a distribution strategy yet (retail vs. online, etc...). Thanks for the interest!

http://icanhas.cheezburger.com/share/8060596992

https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/8060596992/h3B61E996/

https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/8092574976/hF34E7D13/

hahaha

https://scontent-a-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/t1.0-9/47389_10151956309866596_82139675_n.jpg

fuck tha police

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEQXeLjY9ak

ha i was gonna post that

dogs in consternation are the best

Always

Dogs in 'leave me be, evil wizard' can be just as good

https://www.flickr.com/photos/55613968@N00/13405401144/player/b44a95c88b

Let's try this again (mods, could you please remove the previous post because I can't actually see the pic?)

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/t31.0-8/q88/s720x720/1781833_10151935619086949_1013247182_o.jpg

OMG Suzy. Yours??

No, that's the dog Suzy babysits for sometimes iirc!

Kenny is on that sofa RIGHT NOW (he belongs to my friend James, but I'm looking after him for a few days).

One of these days, I'd like my own blue brindle whippet (or whippetlurcher).

kenny!

architecture for dogs: http://www.dezeen.com/2012/11/07/architecture-for-dogs-curated-by-kenya-hara/

Ken's here until Friday, and as I write, is passed out on my bed, back legs twitching away because: dog dreaming.

We got a teardown, if you'd like to see my handiwork: http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2014/03/26/whistle-dog-activity-monitor-teardown-wearablewednesday/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vCbPq_orXI

STOP IT

i love him so much

http://i.imgur.com/2oTQTq5.gif

Hahahah.

http://i.imgur.com/yK2bhJ9.jpg

http://news.sciencemag.org/brain-behavior/2014/08/wolves-cooperate-dogs-submit-study-suggests?rss=1

http://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2458956/dog_chart_2.0.png

i would like to point out that the siberian husky is not dumb, just bored by your stupid tests

aha confirmed -- i looked at the data sheet and "intelligence" = "trainability" which is not exactly the same thing

lol, the cat

moving stealthily

what precisely is the purpose of that hideous chart

To troll dog owners.

Yeah I kinda wish my husky was dumb. He figured out how to open a push button microwave/oven and stole half a rack of ribs. He can now open any door in the house - in and out (including his crate). At this point I've given up on discouraging it and I now use him as an in-house herald; going before me opening (and holding! trainable!) doors, announcing my imminent presence.

i would like to point out that the siberian husky is not dumb, just bored by your stupid tests

lolz i was about to post this too then i remembered how my husky fell off the bed this morning while cleaning her butt

she def only does stuff that she's trained to do when she feels like it

Went to classes and was assured that after a year of consistent practice desired behaviours would become second nature (even in a Husky). A year later and still always the 'what's in it for me?' look.

All four of my dogs (three mixed breeds and a jack russell) are like that. No, we're not coming back. We can't hear you. We're busy over... BISCUITS! Why didn't you say so before? Hello! Look how good we are.

haha you're both otm!!

tbh we haven't been *that* consistent with training, but she's such a brat, and just won't concentrate if she doesn't feel like it. after a year of sleeping on her bed (...mostly), in the last couple weeks she has now become a permanent fixture in OUR bed, bc she's a pro at being a dickhead all day then getting on the bed and acting absolutely pathetic and cute.

that was my dog as well when I had a dog

I could not hack the bed thing with all the shedding. Him in my room wasn't even supposed to be a long term thing but with his mastery of doors, the only way to keep him out is to start locking doors which isn't really an option.

I break training the moment he appears restless but now he sees or hears the clicker and immediately goes into play mode even if I'm holding kryptonite (chicken). For now I'm asking other people to do it while I give them instructions to throw him off.

i'm now used to waking up with fur in my mouth :/

Fur in the mouth? I can live with that. Fur in the hair? Nope. No can do. The pain of combing it out brings back traumatic memories of Sunday mornings at grandma's house.

hmm that hasn't been an issue for me, although my husband always has neko's fur stuck in his beard.

Do your huskies hate being brushed? Mine gets bored after a while. He also hates that I LOVE picking out all of the puffy white fur. I gave up on keeping fur off everything, esp. me.

They want to be good, but where food is involved there is no logic in it.My favorite was when he just had to open a bag of coffee to see if it tasted good.

neko is ok with being brushed, depending on how antsy she is in general. but she def doesn't mind my plucking her loose tufts, which i find incredibly satisfying.

Whippets aren't stupid. They are not really big on performing on command but have a lot of emotional intelligence; if I've ever shouted at Kenny I've regretted it because he is visibly upset by angry human voices.

xp
Max hated it and used to fuss like crazy. Nowadays I wait till he's just woken up and do it in tandem with his morning self-grooming routine and he's fine. Found a missing brush buried under a bush in the garden so I'm probably reading too much into his compliance.

Poor bulldogs, big loveable dullards they are.

Aren't German Sheppards widely considered to be among the top 3 most intelligent breeds of all (along with poodles and border collies). Having them that far left seems blatantly contrary to everything I've heard. In sum, "trolling dog owners" seems OTM

I had a shepherd / lab mix, he was very smart, but aloof and a little boring.

Another thing the husky did was find a bottle of ginseng (not mine) somewhere. Woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of pans crashing on the floor. He had taken every pot and pan out of the cabinets and threw them on the kitchen floor. Ten feet away was the bottle of ginseng, which had made him sleepless and hyper, poor baby.

siberian ginseng, siberian husky, what could go wrong?

Aren't German Sheppards widely considered to be among the top 3 most intelligent breeds of all (along with poodles and border collies). Having them that far left seems blatantly contrary to everything I've heard. In sum, "trolling dog owners" seems OTM

― ed.b, Monday, January 5, 2015 2:54 PM

you're reading it wrong

Yeah both grooming and food costs are deducted from the score of the dog so basically big furry dog is going to not make it into the right side of the graph

Which is of course why this graph is garbage and dumb as shit

really angry with my older larger dog rn because i was trying to brush him and he attacked my hand
he didn't bite me, i know he was just trying to get me to stop doing something he didn't enjoy, but his teeth collided with my bony knuckles and now they're purple and swollen and hurt. something changed in him after he was attacked last year and now he hardly will tolerate being touched at all without growling.

New husky in the family!! She's purty and super sweet!

http://foreverhusky.org/index.php?option=com_sfg&formid=10&RescueAnimalID=135&iframe=1

My dad just texted me this photo he took of their Bassett playing in the snow this morning. You are welcome.

http://i.imgur.com/RGPU93u.jpg

yesssssss

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39RYrucTvGo

Aw JF, he loves it!

dogs in the snow are always reliably excellent

the fever family bassett is a very big hit at my house.

It's just the best picture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb5UQJ__omM

I was all set to go "Awww poor doggie" but then I got to the end and all was well! ^_^

@maymothedog is unstoppable

ok, i never wanted a dog, but my gf is pretty serious about a new dog era. the ideal dog would be small, hair-not-fur, and super chill (like bichons, cotons, javanese, etc). however, we both work 8 hour days, and the first adoption place she reached out to said no dice, that won't work.

is there a dog that would work for our situation? any stories of dogs that can be left alone in a crate or house during the day? how do people even have dogs then?

I personally feel that a working couple shouldn't own a dog unless another person will help out. I mean could you imagine having to hold your piss in for 8-9 hours every working day?

fair

i mean, if i didn't drink coffee i could probably manage. do dogs drink coffee?

Small dogs can be trained to use pee pads or even a litter box, but I'm talking ankle biters like chihuahuas and pomeranians.

maybe a nice relaxed older dog would be a good fit?

big reason why our household only has grownups and cats

dog walker or doggy day care seem to be the only (expensive) options

srsly I have lost more happy hour comrades to dogs than spouses/children

You would need to be Barbara Woodhouse to train a dog to use a litter tray. I mean I'm not saying it would be impossible but that would take some considerable work.

Yeah, dogs really are a lot of work unless you can throw away cash on day care or dog walkers. Cats, otoh, are almost self-sustaining except for being unable to open food cans.

maybe a nice relaxed older dog would be a good fit?

definitely open to that.

we already have a cat, it's perfect except for the cat only loves me, not her.

if one of you has a weird schedule (in my case, it's me) it's not impossible to have dogs and also have a job. one thing that is a monster PITA is traveling though, even for the weekend, unless you have a very generous friend.

unfortunately we both have pretty strict schedules. well, mine's more flexible but i'm too far away to come back in the middle of the day, and she doesn't have time.

Run past all the distractions test:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iTTNRE-njM

http://dogs.petbreeds.com/stories/3667/least-intelligent-dumbest-dogs?utm_campaign=rec.465.3667.detail.#Intro

this stupid test again? the smartest dogs know what you want and just don't care

^^^ i'm not sure my dog is all that smart, but she def only does what she's told when she feels like it. she knows what i'm asking but if she's not in the mood, she's not in the mood.

Our jack russell has made friends with the family next door, who are not really in a position to have a dog of their own. Several days a week, the kids call for her about 3pm and she usually stays in there till about 7pm. Yesterday, she heard one of the kids crying in the back garden and she ran from me to the front door about ten times, jumping at the front door and looking at me. I told her that there was nothing I could until they called for her, but she was very insistent. So I (like an eejit) went round there with her and said that she really wanted to come over and make sure everyone was okay. They were all delighted to hear that she wouldn't stop pestering me till I brought her round. She was dropped back by two very reluctant kids in their pyjamas at bedtime. She was full of pasta.

<3 !!!

That is ADORABLE

awwww it really is!

I <3 Social Worker Doggie!!!

What is this? I want 3.

http://i.imgur.com/Z6T3VQ7.jpg

It's not a full set without 9. And a cue ball.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w2UxDdhZPk

I dig the vid and the tune

here's the response version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz7EpGEYOZs

Wheelie dogs!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3q118uhKJM

http://iheartdogs.com/badly-disabled-dogs-get-a-chance-to-run-and-play-for-the-first-time/

oh i forgot there was a dogs thread!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CNwhEOJUAAAp4mA.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CF7aw0yWIAEjjcK.jpg

i love dogs

http://imgur.com/gallery/fTjWBjG

Best story all week:

http://www.nbcnews.com/slideshow/lazy-dog-crashes-half-marathon-finishes-seventh-n504091

http://media4.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2016_04/1389746/160125-elkmont-half-jsw-02_d47058a4bbf2d58398f1872d832c3050.nbcnews-ux-1024-900.jpg

http://media2.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2016_04/1389721/160125-elkmont-half-jsw-07_d47058a4bbf2d58398f1872d832c3050.nbcnews-ux-1024-900.jpg

She decided to join the race and came in 7th.

http://www.werunhuntsville.com/Other/2016-Elkmont-Half-Ludivine/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb60E4uY_vg

Watch out for 3rd place, too

https://media.giphy.com/media/xTiTnuhyBF54B852nK/giphy.gif

I enjoy the zen stillness of the watering immediately cutting to the happy frolic to the garbage bin

:D

that half marathon story was amazing

thought this bump would be for eric the pekingese at cruft's but this is better tbh

Eric the Pekingese does need to be highlighted.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03594/crufts-pekingese_3594063b.jpg

(I was rooting for the whippet, obvs)

lol that dog's name is Eric

Eric doesn't even look like a dog! He looks like a. . . super fluffy monkey?

Kennel name: Yakee's Ooh Ah Cantona
Pet name: Eric

LOOOOL

https://www.instagram.com/p/BKGoImmgghF/

wake up guys

at least it's friday

My dog may have torn his ACL. My vet checked him out and can't quite pinpoint why he's limping, so we're going the conservative route for now and giving it time to heal on its own with rest, but it's a bummer, seeing my normally frolicsome dog reduced to just lying around.

Anybody ever get their dog ACL surgery? How bad is the recovery?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD-xLU5sp70
my dog has never been to a pool party :(

Benson has! He sort of stayed around the edges but it was hilarious to watch all the doggos especially the ones who really went for it.

Love those retrievers just plunging in and swimming in circles, brings back so many memories of my childhood dogs, a Chesapeake and two black labs.

Other day I was listening to lean on loud and a dog tried to attack me. Told the owner to control their dog. Today I see the same dog and confronted the owner and said that dog tried to attack me. He said I was mistaken. In less than a minute the dog tried again to attack me. Advice??

Pitbull fwiw

murder the owner

murder the dog

quit your job

burn down your house

start a new life in a new town

I just reported the dog to spca but your answer was better tbh

can i ask for some dog advice?

we've had an adult rescue dog for a few months. he's a beautiful, sweet, polite, absolutely 100% (well, 99%) well-behaved and wonderful mutt. we love him to death.

the only "problem" is that he doesn't know how to play with toys, probably because he spent most of his life basically fending for himself in a rural area, without much human attention. we have tried to get him to learn to play by combining toys with various treat games, but once he's finished the treat he shows absolutely no interest whatsoever in messing with the animals, pull toys, balls, etc. etc.

inevitably, we have to leave him alone in the house sometimes, or i'll be home but i can't devote my attention to him. he's happy to nap some of that time, but most of the time he follows me around looking at me longingly. he's a glutton for affection and attention, which is fine most of time, and at least he doesn't exhibit any of the "bad behaviors" sometimes associated w/ emotionally needy dogs.

but i wish he had something more to "do" to keep him a little stimulated when we aren't attending to him. i don't like to think he spends a huge chunk of his day just bored.

any suggestions for getting an adult dog interested in playing on his own/with toys?

I've never been in this situation, but you may want to look up how some stuff kibble or peanut butter into a Kong toy. For some dogs, this prevents them from scarfing up food in a few gulps, but its also used to keep dogs busy while their human companions are away.

And of course, dogs are happiest when they have their own companions. My 50 lb 8 yr old rescue mutt Teufel begs me for car rides to visit my stepmother and her 5 lb puppy. In my experience, caring for 2 dogs takes about 10% more time than caring for 1 (though the vet bills scale linearly).

i'd love to have a 2nd dog, for many reasons, but our lease prevents it. our dog is a bit weird with other dogs -- not hostile, but 9 times out of 10 he's just wary and/or uninterested. he lived with another dog as a foster, and apparently they barely interacted. so it's not clear that getting a 2nd dog (even if we could...) would answer the problem.

xpost

we have a kong and use it a lot... it'll keep him busy for maybe 10 minutes, tops. if something is stuck in there and he can't get it out after 5–10 minutes, he just gives up. hard to know how to help him get more sticktoitiveness.

i fostered a dog who had had a hard life and had all the traits of being very needy, not playing, and being disinterested in other dogs. never really figured out what to do about it tbh so i can't be of any help. he was small enough that i could just sit him next to me with his paws in my lap when i had to do some work on the computer or whatever. he enjoyed walks so tried to focus on doing as much of that as possible

It’s early days, especially for a rescue. My rescued whippelurcher Kenny was not a big toy guy, and according to my friend J (who adopted him at 18 months) it took a while for him to settle down and just relax around people. All kinds of weird idiosyncrasies: apparently he was a bit racist (he barked at men with dark faces) and would run away from anyone holding a broom. After a few years, Ken blossomed into a dog who was friendly with people and gentle with children, while always being food-oriented (although that didn’t make him trainable beyond walking to heel, sitting and giving a paw). You could always play Which Hand? by hiding a treat and encouraging him to choose, and go from there? Ken liked that game a lot.

I find it quite sad when when I see dogs that can't have fun or play with other dogs. There is this crackpot plumber who I know from my local park who fancies himself as a mystic dog-whisperer, and he is an obv dog-lover who takes his two springer spaniels Bill & Bob to work with him in the van every day tbf. But he comes out with some fucked-up advice. He was telling me how he converted a violent, dangerous Alsatian into a nice playful happy dog. One of his techniques was (apparently): if he bit him he'd pin him down to the ground and bite him back on his nose until he yelped. Hmm .. I'm not sure Barbara Woodhouse would have approved.

the dog whisperer fellow basically advises you to dominate the dog. always makes me feel a bit uneasy as a tactic

(i mean the one from telly)

the only toy our rescue pays attention to for longer than it takes to 1. destroy the toy or 2. empty the toy of any included treats, is an actual cow bone that we got from a "feed & seed" store in a farming area. sure, it's kind of a treat in itself, but she will sit there and gnaw on it for long periods. if you make sure it's not choke-able size-wise it seems like a good thing to try?

That guy is full of shit and has been discredited everywhere.

That guy is full of shit and has been discredited everywhere.

― suzy, Friday, February 8, 2019 6:36 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

new board description

the dog whisperer fellow basically advises you to dominate the dog. always makes me feel a bit uneasy as a tactic

My dogs have always been so grimly food obsessed that a treats regime to encourage good habits has worked for me so far. Sometimes you have to let them know you da boss, or tell them off (like when the little bastard has just ripped the arm of your best winter coat!) but the alpha thing is some 4000 bc throwback, just abuse really.

Suzy OTM re: that Milan asshole.

My favourite dog tip/training site is Dogstar Daily, and I also like Victoria Stilwell.

My own personal mantra for dogs has always been "a tired dog is a well-behaved dog", and walk the absolute legs off them whenever possible. If you have to go out during the day and you're sure that your dog is bored while you're out (can you set up a camera to confirm this?), can a dogwalker come in?

Sometimes dogs are just "on" when their human is around because they know that's what's expected of them. It's like they're waiting for you to tell them what to do. It's possible that your dog shuts down completely when you're not there, and just goes to sleep, or thinks "oh, thank god, now I can relax". Like, it's possible that the dog is not looking for you to entertain it, but is waiting for you to tell it what to do, and it just needs to learn that you don't need it to do anything, just hang out and snooze or listen to the radio or something. Routine plays a huge part in this, as does simply ignoring the dog, putting it back in its bed when it comes to you for attention. That kind of thing.

It's possible that this is not what's happening either, but it's just another way of looking at what might be going on.

I have been taking my 16 week old pup for 3-4 15/30 mins walks a day. I don't know if I'm going too far for such a young un, but he causes absolute mayhem if that energy isn't burnt off in a more productive manner.

Are you doing training with him while you're out for a walk?

I saw a guy recently who was lead training his labrador pup. It was painful to watch, and I could see how people would be put off doing it because it makes you look just ridiculous, but I was so impressed with his consistency. Every single time the puppy pulled all the way to the end of the leash, he just stopped until it came back and stood beside him again, and then he started up again. He made no progress at all, but v valuable for the pupner.

A good metric for walking young dogs is five minutes per month of age for on-lead walking, but there’s no limit other than what you find sensible if he’s off lead/sniffing around in a garden. For your guy, this month you should do 10 minutes to somewhere grassy, let him play there at least until he craps or pees, 10 minutes back.

xp
I give Douglas a treat when he get's on the lead and off the lead because he was getting into this dangerous habit of playing come and catch me, but he's really good on a lead and loving socialising with older dogs, he's not presenting problems yet so that is about the extent of my training. But if I'm honest there are probably some behaviours I'm letting go will become problematic when he gets bigger (he's rapidly growing as well - something like 3.5 times the weight he was before xmas) and probably should start using strategies like the painful to watch guy you described at some point.

douglas lmao

och it's a braw name! well probably better than Ruggles which was plan A.

we’ve got two rescue dogs. One just spends all his spare time curled up napping; the other one is a bit more nervy and when my wife was out of the house, she would spend every single second sitting at the bottom of the staircase staring at the front door waiting for her to come back. She’s only just growing out of this now after two years of living with us, and now she too is starting to take herself upstairs for a nap (mostly on my pillow which now smells of mutt the whole time, ugh). They do seem to play by themselves sometimes as occasionally there are toys strewn around, but they most often use toys to engage us in games - chase me round the house is their favourite, followed by a bit of tug of war. I do worry about them leading fairly boring lives, but compared to what they would’ve had pre-rescue it’s not really so bad.

(Pre-rescue lives = both strays in an Irish dog pound, both due to be killed if no one claimed them within a week)

What kind of dogs?

some weird mix of Irish farm dogs, mainly terrier in both though

these dicks:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BbKL3yGA5AX/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=ub4ny0pckcub

just wanted to add that i love dogs so much.

they are the best

Oh man, your short-haired dog on the left there has a look of my Milo. Now I'm a bit teary. He was the best dog in the world. (I am sure your dog is also very nice.)

calm I’m very pro-human names for dogs

calz*

lol! my last dog was called Dogsby.

Oh man, your short-haired dog on the left there has a look of my Milo

that's pepper! she's a bit nervous and tends to bark like crazy if she gets even a teeny bit excited about something. also she sings along to the radio in the car if like ellie goulding comes on. think she might be a jack russell x collie but who knows?

earlier my daft young dog vomited up a whole sock. Luckily quite a small sized ladies sock. But ffs it was at least as stressful as the John Hurt scene in Alien at the time. It reminded me of the time when poor Dogsby once swallowed a small bouncy ball a kid threw at him to fetch, and for a short period I thought he might choke to death. But at least that horrible incident had a very short moment of grim comic relief when he did this cartoonishly exaggerated scooby doo face - looking in both directions and where's it gone huh? Before he realised it had bounced straight down his gob.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFju6GSS9Xk

seriously cute!

omg the bowing and the puppies.

Hopefully this sort of televised segment reduces demand for bosintang.

Oh god. meongmeongtang

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ERz5o0LXYAAhFab?format=jpg&name=4096x4096
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ERz689IXsAUDcJH?format=jpg&name=large

a very brief interaction with a cow and her calf, at times like this I'm tempted to go vegetarian again.

<3 Douglas

Man, Douglas is ready to be friends with those cows and that is for sure.

He's been obsessed with horses since puppyhood. He's always peeping over walls to check for horses and cattle. Although I wouldn't want to test if it is a gun happy farmer who owns them fine beasts! Also have to keep him on a lead where there is barbed wire, he has some foolish determination to run at barbed wire as if it was just string or something.

Oh, Douglas. Our black lab once ran full tilt into a fence post and properly stunned himself. Big eejit.

It's funny how some dogs are into other animals and some are not. I don't think our two original collie crosses ever saw a farm animal in their lives, but one day I walked them past a field of sheep and they were very, very strongly determined that they were going to get into that field and chase those sheep. Whereas the collie cross we have now doesn't even chase birds or rabbits, bless her.

poor Douglas ran into metal bin in the dark a couple weeks and it made a right sickening clunk and his nose was bleeding a bit, never felt so much pity for him since he ate a sock!

I suppose a lot of how they interact with other animals could be do with early exposure, but Douglas isn't too interested in humans when we are outside, he's totally focused on meeting their dogs though. He does take to people indoors and does the standard lab excitedly jumping up at guests greeting, but outdoors rules for him are basically bollox to humans! It is quite funny sometimes when other dog owners reach out to stroke him and he totally snubs them for the dog.

I’ve had Wilf to stay for most of the past week. He is very narrow and slinky, loves meeting people, and is indifferent to non-dog animals apart from SQUIRRELS. He likes nothing better than to curl up in a chair in the café while you are out having a coffee. This allows passing humans to fawn over him, because he really is gorgeous. He only likes other sighthounds and is otherwise indifferent to very small dogs. Three of the days featured play dates with other whippets and lurchers, with wildly different personalities, as follows:

Percy - a blue whippet who has been buddies with Wilf since he was a puppy. Percy is very butch for a whippet, which his owner claims is due to being Scouse. He barks to initiate play. He ‘hugs’ humans and tries to nibble their ears. Wilf LOVES Percy’s style of play, but would probably avoid other dogs.

Iris - small brindle whippet. She’s three. Lives for her frisbee, but while on lead loves to lick Wilf’s face while they walk together in lockstep. Very happy little girl.

Wolfy - larger shaggy fawn lurcher, rescue dog who can be quite aloof but not a nasty bone in his body. Happy to have Wilf alongside while they sniff every square inch of Hyde Park. Not happy for Wilf to sidle up to his backside and attempt to hump him - Wilf got loudly told off. I had to confess to my friend that Wilf tries to hump anyone who sits on the bed next to him.

so the rest of my family have decided we are getting a dog. i've never had one. but if these things go the way they usually do it will end up being my responsibility for deciding how we get one, how to train it etc. frankly i'm a little mortified and slightly skeptical. we live in london and have a little garden out back. when lockdown ends we'll be going to work and school. we have family who live outside the country who we (usually) visit regularly, meaning this dog would need somewhere to go for a couple of weeks at a time.

anyway, i'm sure all this can be sorted out. i guess i'm writing this to ask - what sorts of things should i keep in mind as a neophyte dog dude who doesn't know wtf he's doing or how to go about it?

get a dog that doesn't need to be walked for miles and miles each day (if you watch old episodes of the uk it's me or the dog on youtube 90% of dog problems boil down to people not walking their dogs so they have too much energy)

you are much more likely to get volunteers for doggie babysitting if the dog is on the smaller side

all dog breeders are scumbags. get a rescue dog

that all sounds v sensible

yeah avoid Kennel Club wankers, they are scum of the earth. I always recommend Labradors because they are most beautiful dogs in the world, but they are maybe not a practical option in London and they tend to push that human/dog bond to the limits if you ever leave them on their own in a house!

by the sound of your circumstances a small dog might be a good option, but not a small one like a springer spaniel that can go on a 10 mile walk and still be up all night!

I am biased but WHIPPET (or a lurcher that is mostly whippet). No grooming bill, not horribly vocal, doesn’t shed a lot, really good around kids and a champion sleeper indoors who needs two proper walks a day (in the morning and after work). If you have a nice park nearby, you’re sorted. Rescues have loads of lurchers and many of these are puppies. And it could always come stay in Bloomsbury while you are away (although they can still be passported and you can take dogs on certain car ferries - my friend took his to Amsterdam and Berlin for writing residencies).

kenneling/boarding expenses ADD up if you're going away for any amount of time. we were being charged around £25 per night I think, and that's cheap. imagine london is probably closer to £50? not sure but with a two week holiday that woud make it 700£ so basically paying for another person to go on holiday w.you

The other thing to do is join a holiday dog care swap group on FB or make friends with others with dogs in your area with a view to looking after each other’s pets when they go on their hols. I reckon summer hols are on hold this year if furlough is happening through October.

My friends with whippets pay me £20 per day (really easy breed and Wilf just sleeps if I have to go to the shops or out for a couple of hours) but a married couple I know use a posh doggy daycare/boarding centre in West London which is in the £30/35 range with a little discount for weekly holiday rates.

I once paid a couple I know a hundred quid to look after my dog for a week and they didn't want to give him back to me. I sent him to kennel twice and never forget the sad and betrayed look he gave me when I lead him to his prison cell and he slowly trudged in there.

I solved the ‘not wanting to give Wilf or Kenny (RIP) back’ issue by putting myself down for a rescue whippet/lurcher at the end of February (one that doesn’t mind an occasional whippet buddy staying over).

any dog who gets to stay with suzy has won the doggy holiday lottery

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EX5XwlRWsAMt2DG?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

this lad has grown a bit, he's quite big by lab standards but there is a chocolate lab I see in the park who is even bigger than him.

I have to admit I do love labs. My best friend growing up had two and they were always just so solid and friendly and fun to play with. Maybe a bit big for the house though.

Consider fostering for a rescue, too. Then you get to give the dog away if it doesn't suit you! It's also a good idea to get a dog from a rescue that uses fosters, because that gives you a much better idea of what the dog will be like in a home environment. I have heard many stories down the years of rescues persuading/browbeating people into taking home unsuitable dogs, and then the people feel like they're failing the dog if they give it back to the rescue, and then nobody is happy.

Like, people will tell you all kinds of things about particular breeds of dog, but we've got a Jack Russell terrier who loves cats and small children and wouldn't chase a rabbit if her life depended on it, and we only know all that about her because she spent months in a foster home before we got her.

thank you trishy! very good ideas there

but if these things go the way they usually do it will end up being my responsibility for deciding how we get one, how to train it etc.

maybe one thing you should think about is which breeds can bear up best under simmering resentment

lmaoooo

yeah i was pissed off this morning. they all cooked it up without me and then it's like 'what will daddy say'. so i either go along with it or i'm like the meanest daddy ever. BUT I'M OVER IT NOW. MOSTLY.

OR you could look for a breed that would serve as a loyal recruit in the eternal domestic struggle for power!!!!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EX5yb2BXYAEGAYm?format=jpg&name=medium

talking of simmering resentment I'm planning to get this beautiful young specimen frolicking in the bluebells castrated at some point and i'm his supposed best friend.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EX5yb2BXYAEGAYm?format=jpg&name=medium

talking of simmering resentment I'm planning to get this beautiful young specimen frolicking in the bluebells castrated at some point and i'm his supposed best friend.

you could both get it done, out of solidarity

I would do it but the NHS are only strictly doing castrations on members of tory govt rn!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EYuMt2KXYAEeY9B?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

you ain't speaking to this branch manager, he's the boss of branch managers!

He's got some neck muscles, bless him.

Having a very difficult time finding a shelter that has dogs that they say are suitable for a house with children.

Pets4Homes appears to be an aggregator website that pulls in animals advertised at various shelters, but also pets from breeders, 'cat wanted' ads etc. Absolutely astonishing the prices breeders want for their puppies.

It's a right racket and apparently The Rona has inflated prices and the RSPCA are anticipating a huge spike in abandoned dogs post furlough.

Pets4Homes is not an aggregator - people have to submit their ads, as with Preloved or Gumtree. Try dogsblog - that is the rescue aggregator. Or there are a few good rescues near you eg. Wood Green, All Dogs Matter (named years ago), or you can wait until Battersea re-opens to the public and go visit as a family in person. Dogs Trust is worth a call too - they have a centre in Essex. Most rescues I’ve mentioned will home to families with kids over 5 or over 10, and RSPCA gets puppies.

Also prices for puppies are insane right now. Looking at just whippets, which normally range from £400 up North/without papers to £900 papers/near London/Crufts winner in bloodline, most whippet pups are now being sold at special lockdown prices of £2000/£3000. Everyone familiar with the breed says it will calm down eventually, and the kennel club are fuming at the opportunism.

it's not just the KC assured breeders at it as well, there was something on R4 a couple of months back about criminal gang owned puppy farms going 10 to the dozen to meet lockdown demand

Yeah, you won't get a good dog from a reliable source at the moment. The stories circulating at the moment about people showing up to car parks and handing over €2,000 for a puppy that they KNOW has come from some awful situation, and then the puppy turns out to be only six weeks old, or have parvo, or is absolutely terrified of everything and everyone because it's never even been outside... It's just awful. And in six months there'll be an absolute tsunami of badly behaved juvenile dogs looking for homes. Ugh.

Thanks all - as usual I'm learning a lot!

It's complete carnage out there. Have spoken to a couple of reputable breeders on the phone and they tell me - wait.

may be an idea to adopt one of the lockdown puppies that will inevitably be abandoned when furlough ends / full recession hits :/

Yep :/

my arsehole neighbour who I often exchange loud pleasantries with through the walls along the likes of "STFU Dickhead!" "No you go fuck youreslf" has got a dog recently and is a lousy dog-owner. The poor creature howls and sobs in the house on it's own all afternoon and then does the same at night. The noise doesn't bother me in the slightest and I only notice it when I've got insomnia, it is just a bit upsetting that he's such a shitty dog owner. When I was cutting the hedges it was growling at me and he was saying "good boy" - he's an absolute weapon who wants his dog to be tough and scary but he's making an unhappy animal even more confused and unhappy. I've seen it all before, this brain donor around the corner had a "blame the owners not the breed" pitbull sticker on his car, but got rid of his own pitbull after it bit one of his children!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ed7t4TQWkAAvmZF?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

Douglas on his afternoon nap makes feel more chill and like all is well with the world.

“Stunning LAB ready to go £3,500”

damn my pets4homes account exposed on ILX!

I don't think you can overestimate that once you get past the troublesome puppy to vgb stage, a dog can be great for your mental health. There is a few times I've felt like I might go into a black hole of depression but Dougie always cheers me up. I wouldn't even sell him for a mill.

Dougs who have worked out how to live

douglas is a mood

Looks like we have a new member of Terrier Club:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ed8RR5wXoAUw8WO?format=png&name=small

This is Kit. He was found near a local rural carwash about six weeks ago. No chip, no collar, no body fat, plenty of parasites. He was a poor little sausage. But the local rescue fixed him up, and they were happy for him to come to us because we are a Good Home.

He's only been here a few days, so he might turn out to be a cheeky fecker, but so far he is a very good boy.

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh v.cute

poor lil vagabond. I can see mischief in them eyes!

oh man. dying of teh cuet.

We adopted a dog about 2 months ago. We had started the process of applying with a local shelter shortly before the time the lockdown started, and made it to one adoption event before they suspended them. When the initial shelter in place order came out, they suspended all adoptions, but after a few weeks they started doing "virtual" meetings where you would have a Zoom call with the dog and the foster, and then if you liked the dog you could go to their house and pick it up. The only problem was the demand for dogs was soaring. They would send out an email with new dogs available and by the time you emailed them back all the dogs would be spoken for (except for maybe one or two of the older ones or ones with health or behavioral issues). After several weeks of being too late on dogs, one of the people at the agency I think kind of took pity on us, and offered to pick out a dog they thought would be suitable for us, before it was sent out in the email. So they picked out a dog, and we adopted him. He's a black retriever mix originally from a shelter in Kentucky, about 3 years old, they estimate. In 2 months, he hasn't been left alone once yet. I imagine it will be a difficult transition once we have to go back to work, but that won't be for many more months.

Awww, good for him. I bet he's delighted with life at yours.

My parents’ oldest dog (18.5 yo) suddenly can barely stand on her own, has lost appetite, her breathing is shallower, and she has trouble controlling her bowels. This after a month or so of not having the strength to go on walks as long as she used to. My parents don’t want to take her to a vet because she hates going, but the thought about the discomfort she might be in makes me think we should put her to sleep. Does anyone have suggestions, either on how to decide whether it’s time or to convince a reluctant parent what we should do?

when my last dog was in that position and I knew his condition was terminal despite being slightly deluded about it and kidding myself he was in remission. I got the vets to do a home visit to first confirm he wasn't going to get any better and then it was time to put him sleep. It wasn't cheap and I had to leave the house I was that upset, but it was better than bringing him to a vets - which he also hated.

xp we had that with our dog, he started falling over and the vets couldn’t see anything wrong with him, and then he got worse. We all hoped it would get better, but it didn’t. My parents took him, because they knew he was in pain and they couldn’t put him through that. It’s a horrible call to make, but that’s how you have to see it.

Thanks, they're looking into a vet who can make house calls (her regular vet apparently retired).

Kenny was pts at home, by a vet who did house calls. There were two or three occasions where J booked a vet to come out but Ken would have a Miraculous Recovery of sorts (all of a sudden doing food dances at mealtimes, etc after a few days of difficulty with his legs). It was almost funny, because the vet would be like ‘nah, he’s tired but not that tired’ when treated to these performances. Finally, one morning Ken was sleeping so deeply he didn’t even raise his head at breakfast time or respond. That’s when J made the call.

I'm so sorry for your folks, Leee, and I'm glad they can get someone to come to the house. I can imagine that the usual not wanting to face the inevitable can be compounded this year with fear of going anywhere you'll be in close contact with other people.

My parents made the call on Sunday. My mom said that Juno was whining at the end and just typing that right now is making me choke up; the thought of how scared and confused she must've been is something that I won't be able to shake for a while, if ever.

I think my mom said it was kidney failure.

https://i.imgur.com/UhexQiD.jpg

She's the justifiably smug looking one.

it's a such terrible grief losing a best friend, sorry for your loss Lee

So sorry, Lee.

Our girl had a small mast cell tumor taken out last week and is doing better than ever...still waiting on biopsy results...fingers crossed.

Aww, Lee, that is an epic pic. Tllooks like a fantastic buddy. So sorry

Sorry about Juno, Lee. She looks like a proper pal.

the thought of how scared and confused she must've been is something that I won't be able to shake for a while, if ever

Thanks everyone for the kind words. Matthew, your advice actually helps! Naturally, we want to protect our pets from ANY anxiety, but maybe that's just an unavoidable part of life, and the best we can do is to reduce the suffering for our loved ones.

That does remind me: our family went out of town for a week, and we left Juno with an aunt to take care care of. Juno has a LOT of abandonment issues, so when we got back home, my aunt, who lives 15-20 miles away, told us that Juno had run away. I had given up on her as lost (at best) because of the distance and she wasn't chipped, but in a few days my mom was able to find her: a lady was able to corner her on an expressway (in California terms, 45-55 mph thoroughfares with traffic lights), and she did the bare minimum of finding the original owners by putting a very cropped picture of Juno on Craigslist (Juno had some recent scarring on her nose), and my mom somehow saw the post.

That was NINE years ago, so in a way, all the time that she spent with us since then was that much more special and kind of a miracle.

And yes, Juno was street tough and a total survivor. <3

💜

We got a Springer Spaniel puppy. We're calling him Woody. He's absolutely brilliant. However after reading what they're capable of I am slightly shitting it. Am fast familiarising myself with the building blocks of his training. 'Wormhole' doesn't even begin to cover it. Extremely motivated to get the basics rock solid. And it's fun! However it is slightly like teaching yourself to drive a Lamborghini by reading a book. I'm not a hunter and never will be. I have zero interest in competitions and field trials. I do have access to wetlands though, within walking distance, so I would love to take him out there. Just need to be sure he won't follow a bird for 20 miles as soon as I take him off the lead.

Sign up for puppy class, if they're still happening. The best thing you can do is get him out to meet lots of different people and dogs early on.

Yes lots of visits to the school gate, supermarket etc. We introduced him to his first real up-close dog encounter this weekend. Some friends came over with their tiny poodle/jack russell and he absolutely shited it. Tried to flatten himself on the floor. If he could have dug a hole and gone through it he would have. By the end, though, he was alright. Indifferent, even.

I see quite a few Springer Spaniels in my neck of the woods, they are beautiful dogs. Sadly one of them, Bernie, passed recently and I have only seen his elderly owner's son who says she's broken by his passing. I see this likeable idiot with one called Spaniel L Jackson (I know it's a fucking nauseatingly wacky name!) that is ridiculously fast and has insane energy levels, and is probably responsible for reducing the local squirrel population by at least 50 %! But the owner used to shit himself when he first let him off the lead because he ran out of sight at ridiculous speed and often didn't come back into sight for a 5 minutes sometimes. There was a few times I kept bumping into him he was often in a panicked state calling Jackson!! But he's more chill now and has obv developed a level of trust with his dog, and all young dogs/puppies are generally crazy.

Extremely motivated to get the basics rock solid. And it's fun! However it is slightly like teaching yourself to drive a Lamborghini by reading a book. I'm not a hunter and never will be. I have zero interest in competitions and field trials.

I know very few springers who actually go hunting or shooting. Almost all the springers I know are just pets. Admittedly pets in a semi-rural area with a large beach where they can burn off a lot of energy off the lead, but still just pets. The ones round here tend to carry round a Jesus-what-is-that-in-your-mouth-oh-it's-a-flap-of-old-tennis-ball PRECIOUS TOY and ask for it to somehow be thrown for them, but otherwise they're just the same as other dogs. We've had springer crosses over the years, and they did catch birds and rabbits and other animals, but they usually let them go again. That was our experience, anyway. I guess if you got Woody from some real gung-ho working breeder then he might be a bit more "come on, it's duck season!" but even then, their job is to bring the bird back to you, not to kill it, so you can usually persuade them to drop it relatively unharmed even if they do catch something. Could be a problem if your local wetlands are a bird sanctuary? Maybe look at muzzle-training the little chap so he can snuffle about but not pick anything up?

I used a muzzle to stop my dog eating unsavoury things (including other dogs doodoo!) and it was very effective and when I eased him off the muzzle there was no return to the bad old days!

That's very reassuring trishy! I'm not worried about him twatting wildlife I just don't want him running away, running out of control, etc.

I mean, he may very well do those things, but I don't know that he's any more likely to run away from you than another dog is. We've got a little terrier at the moment (Kitt, who I posted upthread) who just does NOT come back if he sees another dog in the distance. And now he's even got so smart that when you call him back, he assumes that there's something up ahead you're trying to keep him away from, so he looks around to see what it is, so you have to kind of sneak up on him while he's sniffing something and put the lead on him before he bolts. I assume he'll grow out of it when he realizes that the dogs over there aren't really any better than the ones he's already hanging out with.

I love it when I've just fed my dog and as I'm bending down to tie my shoelaces he bounces towards me amd licks my head and now it smells like tripe flavoured dog food.

lol tracer i had a dog of the same name growing up who was half springer!

whoa!

what was he like?

he was not very smart but a nice dog for kids. he loved to chase squirrels. sometimes across the road. he also had separation anxiety; my dad came home from work one day and could hear him inside crying to himself because he didn't hear that someone was home yet. also loved to steal bagels from the counter and knock over the kitchen garbage can. all kinds of schemes to steal human food.

part of the fun of bagels for him was just tossing them around so we'd find them under furniture

Sounds a lot like my Woody so far! :)

And now he's even got so smart that when you call him back, he assumes that there's something up ahead you're trying to keep him away from, so he looks around to see what it is

This is amazing! What a pup!

Our rescue dog is not a Springer Spaniel but some kind of black lab/hunting dog mix, but he has a lot of the same issues. We recently went to the country for a week, and the first night we were there, he slipped out of the front door when I was holding it open for a second and ran out and started sniffing around the yard. By the time I got there he had run off out of sight. I was pretty sure he was gone. I went the direction he had run off but then heard my wife calling from the yard, apparently he had run back that way. But he was too fast for us to catch him and he has zero inclination or training to come when he's called, especially when highly distracted by the presence of local wildlife (deer, rabbits, squirrels, etc. as we later discovered). The next time he ran back nearby, I held the front door open and called him inside, and luckily he ran in. Needless to say we didn't let him off the leash, except for about a minute when we were at the beach so he could swim out and fetch a stick.

Sheesh!

on the other hand a local Springer Spaniel called Bernie who just passed recently at the age of 15, he was hardly ever on the lead with his owner or her son. They just had a basic rope lead they used for crossing main roads, but most of the time he'd wander freely along the pavement and sit outside the shop and wait for them. If ever they stopped for a chat he'd start impatiently barking because his walk was being interrupted! I've got a video where I'm filming my kid playing on his skateboard and Bernie comes wandering around the corner into shot, seemingly on his own, but he often walked ahead of his owner off the lead. Although they both did say he was a bit unpredictable when he was young and sometimes would run off.

Yeah from what I've read it seems like the danger zone is kind of 8-12 months. They discover their love of the hunt and lose their instinctive need to be next to you.

Woody has done absolutely everything we've asked of him so far, he's been great overnight, he's pretty much entirely housetrained, sleeps in his crate, etc - EXCEPT for an addiction to biting - which we are trying to address.

Hopefully we can keep him onside once he turns into a surly wandering teenager

Obviously bitey puppy is connected to teething - give him frozen carrots and occasionally a frozen raw chicken wing on top of the usual ow! then turning away that trainers recommend.

yep frozen carrots is the best for teething bitey pups. My boy Douglas still eats carrots, although not frozen these days.

It also sounds like some play with dogs his own age would do Woody the world of good so he can learn that biting's not cool. Although, some dogs just lead with their mouths forever. Calzino will tell you that this is something labs love, in particular. They will just put your whole hand or your arm in their mouth and hold it there. Sometimes give it a little squeeze. Our terriers like to play biting games with us too. They don't do it to other people, just us.

What do you mean with the carrots? Like, when he starts biting you, give him a carrot? He would eat his weight in carrots in an hour!

I used frozen carrots as a regular in between meals thing to help with his teething + as a healthier, cheaper alternative to the processed chews. But perhaps not as a reward for biting!

yep Dougie loves a bit of arm in his huge mouth, but it's never a bite it's an expression of playful affection - he doesn't have a bite in him unless he's got a hambone. When he's got a hambone I don't interrupt him till he's finished, he gets a bit primal and edgy chewing on a hambone!

I wanted to get a good tug toy for Kitt, because he can be quite bitey, but decent rope toys seem to be hard to come by at the moment. I knotted up some lengths of old vest for him to yank about the place, but they don't last long.

Giving a bitey puppy a frozen carrot to bite is distraction/redirection and a totally normal part of training. Always do a yipe/no! and distract them with a toy or a permitted chewy thing. Also seconding any suggestion to socialise with other dogs who will tell Woody off the minute he annoys them with bitey face.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ei7hPYaXkAEViDt?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

rolling most 2020 dog images

I'm getting a bit of a bad rep as a foulmouthed yob in my local park amongst the posh people that drive there in SUVs. I keep telling these pricks that I'm not going to put my dog on the lead when he is neither a threat to people nor other dogs and just because their very poorly socialised dogs that never get let off the lead because they are a piss poor dog-owners - well that doesn't mean all the other dogs shouldn't have some free-running fun in this public area. I probably don't make the situation better by telling them to fuck off as my opening response and calling them entitled middle-class pricks, but I'm no good at responding calmly to arseholes. Buy your own fucking park if you want to make up the rules you fucking arseholes!

In most parks where I live, that is the rule. Still people sometimes let their dogs play off the leash. I don't make a big deal about it. My dog certainly couldn't be trusted to go off the leash. He was adopted from a shelter and was apparently not well socialized as a pup. But if other people let their dogs run around it doesn't bother me, assuming people are pretty good judges of their dogs, and the other dog can be trusted to not react if my poorly socialized dog decides to lunge and snarl (while on a leash of course).

For years, we've had dogs who walked quite happily off the lead. We had good control over them (not flawless, but really pretty solid), and we deliberately moved to a quiet area where the beach tended only to be busy during school holidays and weekend afternoons in summer. It was all great. Now that's all changed. Our beach is full of people all the time. They make faces at off-lead dogs, even though the local by-laws specifically state that dogs are permitted off the lead at our end of the beach. Worst of all, little Kittser, our newest dog, can NOT be off the lead around other dogs he doesn't know. He's wild, he shouts up into their faces, he doesn't come back, he is generally extremely annoying. It's not that he's bad with other dogs, because he's not. He's just bad at meeting other dogs. And he has absolutely no interest in learning any other way of behaving. It's usually fine, because I can spot other dogs coming before he can and get him back on the lead, but now that we're all locked down again and everyone is doing their 100 Days of Walking or whatever, the beach is just full of dogs all the time, most of them disappointingly leaded up and not wanting to play with any other dogs, never mind a crazy little Patterdale.
tl;dr: I deliberately moved to a quiet area so my dogs could have off-lead fun, and now everyone has followed me, I feel very hemmed in and walking my dogs is no fun.

I get so angry because this is happening in places I have previously been frequenting for ten years without any problems. Another bad result of the lock-down is a massive influx of new dog owners no doubt all calling me a cunt on some neighbourhood FB page! But life is shit enough as it is rn without having to get annoyed with annoying arseholes on a daily basis.

"little Kittser, our newest dog"

lol great name is that, I had a great Uncle from Kilbrew named Kittser!

the other day this arsehole got very upset that my dog and another free-running tiny Springer Spaniel he was playing with ran up to her dog - ffs! they just saying hello and she's yelling at me to keep my dogs under control and I can't be civil when people yell at me and I will tell them to fuck off 10 out of 10 times so it's never really going to get any better!

I know some dogs from shelters might have problematic behaviours and not be trusted to go off the lead or some dogs are just a bit stir crazy, but I've met owners who have brought them up from puppies, and it seems to me like they've had a bit of a mare one day or two and never let them off the lead since. For the first year with Douglas I was having multiple mares a week with him off the lead, but if you persist they get there in the end is my philosophy.

Yeah, I can't deal with any of the stress around Kitt's bad behaviour, from the noise of his constant barking to the worry that he'll try it on with the wrong dog and get hurt, or get a kick from someone, so I work very hard to make sure we don't have a mare. But then, I am a catastrophiser anyway.

I figure in another year or so he won't care so much.

But life is shit enough as it is rn without having to get annoyed with annoying arseholes on a daily basis.

Yeah, you're right. It is nice to have somewhere to have a whinge about it, though.

One thing that is quite cute is there's a guy who has a fancy radio-controlled car, and obviously his way of unwinding and getting the hell out of the house is to bring it to the beach and run it up and down at top speed. He is very happy to let my two small dogs chase it, too, so if he's down there, that'll give us a good high-speed five minutes. And there's a small kid called Jake who we meet sometimes. Jake is two, and he likes to chase the dogs around and fall in the sand. They bark at him whenever he falls over. He absolutely breaks his hole laughing at this, which is great fun for me and his mam.

lol I've bumped into a friendly big kid with high powered remote control car recently as well, although he was knocking on at least 30! On two of the days when Dougie had a mare he learned two important lessons the hard way, he learned that running into barbed wire or electric fences is neither big nor clever nor any fun.

Oh, Douglas. You prawn.

lol I had to keep him on the lead today because the fucker ran off on me twice trying to follow a little springer pal of his that was being kept on the lead due to a leg injury. When the other dog's owner said ffs! can't you keep him on the lead I was in full agreement this time. But at least she was a friendly face and added that when her dog has recovered they'll be both having a runaround together again. From now on I'm going to walk a bit longer to go where there is less chance of bumping into people, it's a bit of a pisser in the ice, mud and freezing cold conditions rn, but I think it will be worth it to avoid the dreaded humans.

the problem is there’s so little else to do. the walkers be walkin. woody is still a puppy so literally every other dog he sees he wants to play with for the rest of his life. going 50 yards can take half an hour.

thing is I'd never complain about an enthusiastic pup running around my dog, even if it is causing mayhem. It's these entitled wankers that yell with attitude about keeping your dog under control that get me on a war footing. Shit if anything I'm always delighted to see daft young pups running around like crazy!

yeah completely agree.

My dog is a big lad for a lab but he is very soft and 100% sociable off the lead, although he likes to act tough on the lead sometimes but it's a show, he will never attack another dog and more often than not he gets bullied by smaller dogs so I don't any reason he can't have a free run in the park.

Only two weeks to go before the whiplet can join the madness!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EsYlAcDW4AA_3yw?format=jpg&name=large

it was nice to get away for a few days in Greenland last week.

Today's walk saw the return of the Miserable Old Couple Who Hate Dogs, who I haven't seen in ages (and had actually forgotten about). They hate anyone who has multiple dogs and/or loose dogs, so they will deliberately change direction in order to walk up the middle of your pack of dogs and then complain about the dogs "touching off" them. Today they left the path they were on and crossed to the path I was on with my dogs, and as they walked past me, the woman told me that Tess, my Jack Russell, had growled at her. Tess had not growled at her. They really are a miserable bloody pair.

people are so insane

the miserable arsehole quotient in the park has gone off the charts recently and with me not being very good at quietly walking from situations I've stopped going for a while now. Thankfully out further afield the paths are so muddy only fellow wandering weirdos seem to venture out that far and the few times I've stopped for a brief chat the main topic of conversation has invariably been: isn't the park full of miserable entitled dog-hating wankers these days.

there is an entire anti-dog subreddit, it is absolutely bizarre

I was thinking some of these people are so quick to mouth off and it often seems a like well practised routine they are going through, that they must have some kind of miserable arsehole group chat thing going on.

Sad story in the NY Times a few days ago about an unleashed dog in the Catskills that attacked another dog and had to be put down:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/26/well/family/dog-attack.html

sad story but really going in on "dogs should be leashed" when the story is about a clearly dangerous dog that was just left outside unsupervised in an unfenced yard as far as i can tell from the story?

Clearly there were other issues going on with the dog. It's sad though that dogs can be all sweetness and love with their families but turn into deranged killers with other strange dogs.

my dog's approach to other strange dogs is so nervously cautious and longwinded and polite. Some dogs are violent but when you have one that has never attacked another dog in it's entire life - you do feel it's worth putting some trust in them.

the one's he knows - then he just happily bounds up to them and runs around with them for a few minutes.

I wouldn't even bother getting a dog if my intention was either to keep it the lead all the time or like my arsehole neighbour - keep the poor boy in a cage.

I was terrified of dogs as a teenager because I was chased by one every other day as I walked to / from school across some fields. Now I have had my own dog I don't feel at all like this, but still think the farmers whose dogs chased me in the 90s were at best inconsiderate pricks.

I got savaged by a farm Alsatian when I about 6 years old in Ireland. It left scars on my hand and chest for years. I just happened to be walking past it when it was eating a scrap of bread and the fucker just went for me. My da's reaction was apologetic to the owner - because it must have been my fault and I never even got a fucking TB jab! That was one from the memory bank I used as additional justification not to go the cunt's funeral!

when I was a kid in the late 70's - early 80's there were a lot of feral dogs about. My mum used to carry biscuits in her pocket going off to work as a please don't kill me offering to them so she could make it to the bus stop!

I've been bitten by a few dogs, one that I loved and knew me well and just got to aggro when we were playing.

Even though that article in the Times contains a caveat at the end, it will inevitably lead to more anti-pitbull sentiment, and for that reason alone, I say fuck that article.

No one ever mentions the breed when it isn't a pitbull-type dog, and the reasons behind that are classed and raced, afaict, and I'm not having it.

The first Google results of articles about dog breed attacks in the US also utilize erroneous and falsely-construed statistics from an anti-pitbull propaganda site.

I'm not making this up.

That times article is fucked.

It’s a horrifying story. I live in a place (London) where dogs are only really leashed on sidewalks and footpaths and the rest of the time they run around. It seems to me that leads to better socialization. The author seems to be implying that all dogs should be leashed... whenever they are outside and might encounter another dog? That seems like a recipe for really poorly socialized dogs who are MORE prone to unexpected behaviour? Anyway I was shocked that the author casually mentions her brother actually KICKED the problem dog the first time he met him?! Because the dog “came at” hers. I dunno them whole story is a little weird. After this attack that has left her dog covered in blood the pit bull’s owner just.. brings the pit bull back inside? Everybody goes home? No conversation about insurance? Anyway I guess I’m biased because I love letting my spaniel run around off the lead but the idea that you can live in a cabin in the Adirondacks with your dog and need to keep him on a lead at all times feels absolutely mental.

when a dog is on the leash they develop an on the leash psychology are way more likely to bark or act aggressive at other dogs, off the lead is the only way they learn to socialise. Mine likes to occasionally act tough when he's on the lead but is much more cautious and friendly off it.

Where I live the only place where dogs are allowed to go off-leash is in a dog run. Not sure if they have those in London. It's just a fenced-in area inside a park for the purpose of dog owners bringing their dogs there and letting them off the leash. Outside of that, it's fairly rare to see a dog off a leash. Some people do let their dogs off the leash in other park areas, usually to play catch or something like that. There are also a few particular dogs who I sometimes see walking without a leash. One of them is a three-legged dog, I've seen numerous times with his owner. But those dogs always seem very well behaved and not at all threatening. It doesn't personally bother me, and I imagine people know their own dogs well enough to make the call. Where I live is a very dense urban environment though, where sidewalks are often narrow, congested and near busy streets with lots of traffic, so I imagine most people would want the extra control of a leash in any case. I think for most dogs who've been raised from puppyhood in an urban environment like this, who are used to meeting lots of strange dogs on the street, and who have probably almost never been in a serious dog fight, this is not at all unusual and the chances of anything more happening than the occasional heated exchange of barks and growls at the dog run are extremely low. For dogs raised in a rural environment or for dogs who spent some of their formative years as strays, who maybe have never worn a leash, who are naturally wary of any strange dog, I think this could be a very strange and threatening environment, and chances of a mishap are much higher. But people who adopt rescues kind of know what they signed up for.

You would hope, but it's often not the case. Some rescues are so keen to get the dogs off their books that they will give them into unsuitable homes, causing trouble for everyone. But that's one good thing about COVID: there are more people looking for dogs than there are dogs, so rescues can be a bit choosier.

There's a guy who lives near me who has a Malinois (Belgian shepherd) dog, the ones that are definitely the dog of choice these days for people who want to prove they can own a potentially dangerous dog. He did all the things you do with a dog like that when you want it to be antisocial: wouldn't ever let it near anyone while out walking it as a puppy, and shouted at it if it ever tried to interact with another dog. Now the dog is a young adult, and he walks it on crowded narrow pavements between his house and the beach by cycling on the path and letting the dog run behind him off-lead. Every time it stops to sniff something or somebody, he roars at it until it follows him again. One of these days it's going to run into the road to avoid someone coming out of their driveway, or another dog barking at it, and it's going to get hit by a car. And then he'll just get another one, because he's the kind of guy who only cares what his dog says about him, not what's best for his dog.

:/

my uncle had a belgian malinois named fiona but he lived way out in the middle of absolutely nowhere. apparently they are very loyal and their instinct is to protect their owner. he let it run around in the woods in his property and we asked him one time if he was ever worried it would just run off and he laughed and shook his head, like, that's the last thing in the world that would ever happen. he couldn't get the dog to ever leave him alone. but yeah they are huge and anybody who ever came close to my uncle would get some aggressive vibes from fiona (her name) until he told her to calm down. my kids lived in fear of fiona. and this was a very normal, socialized dog. can't even imagine what one who hadn't been treated well would act.

I should say, the dog is fine. I don't think he beats it or anything. Its attitude when following him is very much "I'd love to stay and chat to you, but I have to follow this clown around to make sure he doesn't hurt himself."

We took home this buddy last week. Though he needs some training, he is a very good little guy (8 months) and gets along famously with out 8 year old American Staffordshire very well— she's happier (and more tired) than she's been since we lived in the woods.

His name is Wiz Wit'.

https://i.imgur.com/5EvxZQB.jpg

good lord that’s an adorable photo.

beautiful dog!

He's much more photogenic than our girl, who seems to hate having her photo taken.

He's a beautiful dog. I bet he's delighted to be in your house.

He is! He was in foster, and previously was in an abusive situation where some asshole was obviously very mean to him— he has some shy/fearful behaviors that don't really manifest in "bad behavior," but things that are kind of odd. We'll be getting him used to a home where he'll be loved and spoiled properly, and it already seems to be coming along.

Luckily, like our girl, he loves other dogs and loves people, which is a real relief— we attempted to adopt a pup last summer, and neither the fosters nor the shelter informed us that by "anxious" they meant "this dog lunges at random people for no reason." It...did not work out.

Our dog has done the random lunge thing a few times, which is disconcerting, but we've worked with a trainer with him and it's gotten in much better control. For one thing we started giving him some anti-anxiety supplements, we also have some prescription anti-anxiety medication in reserve, but the supplements seem to be enough. We've also learned to be more alert to the things that set him off and to anticipate when something or someone is approaching that is likely to set him off, to be able to recognize when he's about to react, and to try to train him with positive reinforcement to look at us and acknowledge the presence of the anxiety-causing stimulus without reacting. It's a slow, gradual process, but he's on the right track.

o.nate, this was at our elderly neighbor, at random people on the street, at a park ranger, trying to jump out of the car to attack the young woman handing me food in a drive-thru window. and this was when he was *on* prescription meds, and a high dose! he needed training and help that we weren't prepared to provide, because neither the fosters nor the shelter informed us that "occasional stranger danger and protectiveness" meant "wants to kill everything he sees." he got along great with us and with our other dog, but we live in a city— he would have been an excellent farm dog.

i should say, the fosters took him back and got the shelter to begin paying for training.

and he is still up for adoption...though i think it might be a case of foster fail

That's definitely a tough one to deal with in a city. It sounds like you made the right call. We live in a fairly dense city as well, so we have to be careful. He barked at an elderly guy the other night, because the sidewalk was slippery from snow and this tall elderly fellow was lumbering stiffly, doing his best Lon Chaney impression, which to be fair did look a bit creepy, and my dog started barking and pulling towards this guy. Luckily I had already started pulling him in the opposite direction when I saw this guy coming, because I suspected it would be trouble.

my brother-in-law's mother-in-law has a dog that is going to get in trouble some day. she doesn't work and he's never left alone, she walks him plenty, she takes him to training etc. but he is beyond anxious and protective of his owner and has too much aggression and im worried he will one day bite a kid or a small dog and have to be put-down. he's a doodle so im not really worried about what he will do with an adult - although it could get him trouble - but he has for instance bit me for no reason (i was leaving an apartment he was in and he assumed i was coming in and forgot he knew me (despite me walking past him towards the door?) and would've pierced skin if i weren't wearing a heavy jacket

Ooof. The only times I've been bitten were when I was rough-housing with a pup and when I surprised a pup. Both times nothing major, and both times slightly deserved on my part.

Though the latter was a dog named Queenie, who belonged to a guy named Ray who lived in his van next to the truck that we lived in. We got along great with Ray, and Queenie and I got along, but Ray had spent a decent amount of time in Santa Rita Prison, and he definitely had to *train* that dog to like us rather than want to kill us.

<3 keeping up with this thread, even the trials/tribulations, as it's as close as I'm going to be able to get having my own for the time being.

I have the opposite problem to some of you, in that I have ended up with a toy dog more or less by accident. Last week he went off his food and strongly hinted that he was terribly ill, so ill, mammy, I think I might be dying, mammy.
He screamed and ran away from a piece of carrot and he would not eat his walk treats for a couple of days. So he's just back from having tests and a full dental at the vets because I thought all the lepping about the living room and wiping his muzzle on the floor and screaming at his food might mean a broken tooth. €200. There's nothing wrong with him. He's just a prick.

lol! some dogs are just proper dickheads.

I saw a video of a dog that was limping so was taken for an expensive x-ray at the vets which showed there was absolutely nothing wrong, it turned out because the owner was on crutches at this time the dog was putting on a solidarity limp!

Just had a weird and somewhat upsetting reaction while out walking the dogs. I saw an older woman on the sidewalk walking toward me with a tiny Yorkie. I walked my dogs out into the street because no cars were coming, and then once I passed her, I went back onto the sidewalk. She then decided to stop, and my younger dog got a little aggro because he wanted to play— I had him under control, though, and there was no chance he was getting near this woman's dog.

She proceeded to start yelling at me to control my dog, then yelling about how her dog had already been bitten by a larger dog, and then how "all these people" have big dogs and don't know how to control them. She kept repeating "control your dog" to me, and so I just sort of stopped and looked at her as she was ranting at me. I then said, "I have him under control, ma'am, as you can see," and then a young man watching this whole scene said to me, "Hey man, stay calm," at which point I said, "I am calm, she came for me!" and then proceeded to walk on, saying a few select curses under my breath.

Am I right to say that this is weird behavior? I legit don't understand why she was so aggressive toward me.

I've dealt with quite a few like that, it's almost a well rehearsed routine they are just dying to use on someone. Things have been better since I stopped going into the park to avoid arseholes like that. And going a bit more off the beaten track you tend to bump into a more chilled set of dog walkers (with them off the lead) and we've had a few conversation about how the park has been taken over by lots of miserable arseholes and it's currently a no-go zone.

I mean, she was probably trying to get out something about the trauma of having her dog bit before, but instead it came out as really needlessly aggressive.

Believe it or not, if I see her again I actually want to apologize to her, because I really intended no harm. That young man, though, can fuck right off.

I live in a very densely populated area with an exceptionally large concentration of both people who are highly neurotic (including myself, probably) and dogs.
I wanna say these kinds of encounters, though unpleasant, are just an inevitability and will happen from time to time when you are walking a dog and ime there is nothing you can really do to resolve it. I def don't think you're wrong but i also don't think it really benefits anyone to fixate on this or on who is in the wrong here, my suggestion would be to just try and put it out of your mind.

xp
Yeah the young guy was obv a prick.

My own situation is still annoying a lot really because it's a really nice park with a moated island at bottom containing the remains of ancient hall. And I'd been frequenting the place for 10 years without any troublesome encounters until last year. I definitely wouldn't apologise to any of the people I've previously told to fuck off there.

I probably would’ve hit her with a ‘really?!?’ and some kind of obvious disdainful facial expression before moving right along, because you don’t owe people like that, who are spoiling for some kind of confrontation, anything at all.

Having said that, my puppy is the dickhead who will steal your dog’s ball and run circles around any human or beast until he’s bored. Thank goodness most of the other people walking their dogs around here are pretty nice.

I've had a very few encounters like this, but Deflatormouse, I think you're in the right.

I guess I just try very hard to be a good and conscientious dog owner, and when people accuse me of being otherwise when I'm clearly not doing anything wrong, it gets me riled up.

What annoys me is my dog has grown up a lot in the last year and his approach to other dogs is more often than not impeccable these days. He takes it slowly and kowtows down for a minute or two. He never just runs up to them unless he knows them. He's almost perfectly socialised at this point and people want to shout at me.

But the danger is when you are constantly rowing with these types of ill mannered angry ants you might just become as bad as them and there is only a finite amount of people you cant tell to f-off before they start forming a club to do you in!

It's funny to say "put it out of your mind," (which is obviously the right thing to do) because when something like this happens at the start of a dog walk, well, you now have an hour or so to do nothing but chew over what was said to you and what an asshole the other person was.

I also find that, for me anyway, humour can help (also my dogs are small). Shouting things like "you thieving little bastard!" at them when they rob a ball and run off with it, or "you don't own the path, you know" when they bark at other dogs can help to defuse potential narkiness. Most of the time. But my god, my list of grievances is long and the retaliatory speeches I compose in my head are extensive and detailed.

The other day we were in the dunes and the things I thought were grassy tussocks were in fact camouflaged soldiers from the local army base, all pointing guns at us. The dogs were NOT amused, and barked A LOT at the soldiers and even ran towards them. "If this was Lebanon we'd all be shot, you dopey shite!" I told them. The soldiers smiled a bit, which is probably the best you can hope for in that situation.

haha whoa.

My experience is that little yappy dogs are frequently instigators, and most of those times their owners brush it off by saying it's cute or otherwise babying them. This has always struck me as fucked because regardless of size, they are being aggressive! And I say this having once had a gigantic Great Dane who was completely docile and loving, and as a result got bullied by Chihuahuas and other little shits repeatedly.

Mostly these days I take the dog (a rescue hound mix) to the local park, and she does well. Lately her game has been to get her mouth on a ball, whether one I brought to play with or one of the many abandoned at the park, and take it to other random people, drop it, look at them, and then start howl-barking hound style at them until they throw it. I also use humor to deflate those situations (“they're not here for your entertainment”, etc) and I don't think anyone has gotten seriously annoyed, but I do wish she'd stop because it gets old.

wow!

yeah Trishyb, I still have a whole speech prepared to the guy who yelled at me across the local green a few years ago about letting my dog poo there. he started yelling at me as i was picking up the business, saying, "kids play there, curb your dog means take it to the curb, etc" and i just stared at him dumbly because what he was saying was so demonstrably hostile and stupid that i had no idea how to respond. (kids don't play there, the playground is on the other side of the green, that isn't what curbing your dog means, please shut up)

Holy shit, trishyb

I found that kind of dog aggro was almost always preemptive, often obnoxious and generally unnecessary. People's reactions are several steps ahead sometimes, like they're responding to a worst possible scenario which has not yet occurred and is not going to occur when it comes to dogs.

It def made my blood boil sometimes, I remember a lot of encounters like the one Table described and a few truly astonishing horror stories.

There has got to be a thread on here for posting the prepared orations against assholes we've carried around for years, and if not there should be.

My dog is frequently an instigator, but it's from anxiety rather than aggression. He gets very anxious if it seems like another dog is coming straight at him, it doesn't really matter how small or harmless the other dog is. When he gets anxious he gets very loud and sounds frankly a bit scary, snarling and barking to let the other dog know that he's capable of anything. He reacts the same way to other things that make him anxious, such as loud trucks passing by.

Young one dive-bombed our older pup today *while she was taking a poo*. I've never been so angry with a dog.

Has anyone used CBD stuff on their pups? I don't want to get him on dog xanax, mostly because it's very expensive and he is quite a normal puppy, but Christ, we just need him to calm the fuck down.

mine was nuts when he was a pup and I had to put him on a muzzle for six months because he would try and eat literally anything outside, including dogshit and spent condoms. And inside I had to constantly watch after he nearly died from a sock blocking his small intestine. It can be a very stressful period but I think more often than not there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Yeah, they really can be little bastards, but eventually they calm down and cop themselves on and it gets easier.

I guess we just got lucky with our first one, who had a few bad behaviors but has always been pretty mellow.

Part of the issue is that this guy came from a sort of unknown (assumedly abusive or traumatic) situation, and is developing late, so he's 10 months old but acts like a 4 or 5 month old puppy. Wouldn't be a problem except he's getting honking big!

Widget tries to eat loads of random shit off the ground but accepts me whipping the things from his mouth.

yeah I've done the same thousands of times, the problem I have is that it turned into a game with him and he's got a very competitive game-playing nature. One day I bumped into two climbers who were practicing on old train bridge. They had a wooden hand brush which I assumed was for brushing moss off the sandstone where they are climbing. Anyway the little bastard knicks it and it took 20 mins to get it back off him and he was gleefully running rings around us all!

We just got Josie, who is a Mi-Ki. They look like tiny Chewbaccas or Ewoks:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51057693562_0993b0cb39.jpg

okay i died

so little!

It’s National Puppy Day!

https://imgur.com/gallery/ZeX6amL

Long-term ambition fulfilled. Finally got a dog.
Doonie has come to live with us.
Day 5, I'm exhausted and very happy.
https://imgur.com/a/ELLKRVK

OMG! Total cutie!

very cute.

Cute AF.

Aw

the other day this dog walker with a little Maltese type looking dog falsely accused my dog of biting her dog for the second time. I said I can't take you seriously when you lie like this, my dog get's bullied by French Bulldogs and doesn't bite other dogs, particularly smaller ones and never has. He just playfully ran around the dog when it barked at him, even with my shit eyesight I had 20/20 vision on the whole *incident*. I replied just go to the park if you are too uptight about your dog interacting with other dogs and stop trying to spoil this place for everyone else you miserable arsehole. And she replied menacingly "just you you wait till you pass my house again". And then pulls out her phone and threateningly looks at me me like she is ringing the police. I just thought fuck it I'll carry on with my walk and ignore this deranged arsehole. I walked another quarter of a mile and saw this angry dot on the landscape shouting death threats at me. And then it dawned on me she had called her thick as pigshit lump of gammon boyfriend to come out and beat me up! I have a good idea who he is and am not remotely scared of him, but because a lot of the time I'm with my autistic son, she has effectively put me in a situation where I can't bring him there anymore with the dog because you do have to do a risk assessment as a carer, occasionally. Anyway the whole unsavoury incident reminded me why I mostly prefer walking with the dog in deepest possible cuts of nature locations and avoiding bumping into as few a humans as possible.

A dog in Russia grabbed the reporter's microphone and ran away during a live broadcast pic.twitter.com/R1T8VZ5Kpt

— Ali Özkök (@Ozkok_A) April 2, 2021

Anyway the whole unsavoury incident reminded me why I mostly prefer walking with the dog in deepest possible cuts of nature locations and avoiding bumping into as few a humans as possible.

I mean, this is me most of the time anyway, but doubly so if there's a chance of drama.

I'd gotten a bit lazy in the quagmire season but am back to 6-7 miles a day now - so it isn't all bad.

We're not allowed go more than 5k from our house.

I'm talking two daily walks here so I wouldn't be breaking Irish rules either!

If you are one of those people with a new puppy, please please please get them acclimatized to having their claws clipped and their hair brushed and people putting their hands into their mouths to take stuff out and all that other stuff. By the time we get dogs in our house, they've usually been neglected to the point that they won't let you do any of those things. I had to take Kittser to the vet today to have his claws clipped because he will bite me if I try to do it at home. It took two nurses to do it, and he was so stressed out by the whole experience that he got sick in the car. He's a poor little sausage.

when Douglas had dry pads that were cracking I tried to apply some sudocrem and he growled and tried to take my hand off and that was when he was quite young. He's used to me taking things out of his mouth without getting so radged although at least thankfully not so much these days. But when I've had to change bandages on his paws he has always had to be muzzled, he feels totally attacked if you go near his paws. My last dog wasn't like this and feel like it might be quite a complex emotional trauma buried deep within his psyche or something!

Yeah, it doesn't help if their paws are already sore when you start handling them, I guess. Poor Douglas.

As a new dog obsessive parent I've been trying to get him used to everything. Brushing is going ok (it's managing his determination to see brush as chew toy rather than any aggro), we're ok around the mouth so far and I've done a bit of paw/claw handling but I'm a way away from a proper clip.

No vaccinations yet, so he hasn't seen much of the outside world - turns into a wriggler and moaner if I try to walk him out in my arms or a sling & clearly wants to be down and sniffing about. We've got a bit of a garden for him to play around in, but the sooner I can get him seeing the world, the better.

But he's a pretty confident & trusting little beast - just hope that I don't screw it up over the coming months.

Nominative DogtermiNism !

hah dogs have been near the front of my mind for a long time!

Widget at nearly six months is happy to be left for a couple of hours if bribed with some kind of bone, a scatter of treats, or (his favourite which he knows by name) BLUEBERRIES. I can do one or two claws at a time - he doesn’t mind his feet being handled at all but if the clipper comes out, he won’t cooperate.

I don't think I've ever met a dog that doesn't love blueberries.

Our AmStaff Canela's favorite meal? Beef and peas. We serve it to her every year on her adoptiversary.

Our young one is an annoying little shit and we're all still getting used to each other. He just doesn't have any goddamn manners, so it will take a bit...luckily he's very smart and still young, so very trainable.

(Also strawberries, if they're sweet. God Nela loves strawbs)

Heeeeeeere's Josie!

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51102126801_c1a8e21b63_c.jpg

is that even a dog???

idk I think she's her own species

or a gremlin

She is so damn fluffy and cuddly and fun. Still working on the whole come-when-called thing though :P

adorable

"Still working on the whole come-when-called thing though"

my dog is 2 and a three quarter years old and am still working on that project, but at least now when I call him he'll stop and wait for me and wait for me to put him back on the leash which is some progress I suppose.

"just hope that I don't screw it up over the coming months."

it's just like with human kids, you should never be too hard on yourself about your failures - because no matter how hard you try they will embarrass the fuck out of you one day and that is where the unconditional love is needed most!

I'm thinking bout castration at the moment and am very conflicted, been through all this before but this time it seems a much tougher decision. I mean wtf gives you the right to surgically mutilate your best friend? I just don't know anything anymore tbh.

Very consistently-voiced "come" commands, coupled with consitently-delivered treats on arrival, was all it took to get out dog to come when called. Then again, she'd probably run through a brick wall for food.

Re: castration/neutering, if you’re not planning to breed from a dog, the stats on canine testicular cancer in lads and pyometra in female dogs suggest it’s a good idea to have a dog fixed. With larger dogs and sighthounds, it’s supposed to be advisable to wait until they’re two to let growth hormones do their job.

yes I've emcountered a dog before where the owner told me he was castrated too early and the poor lad had a very unfortunate shrill whistle of a bark. I probably would have got him "done" by now and would have done if it wasn't for the lockdown. Thanks for that bit of perspective, Suzy - it probably does probably make a lot of sense to get it done for various reasons.

probs probs!

Also with sighthounds, early neutering basically hands them arthritis due to aforementioned growth plates not closing properly. My beloved Wilf was fixed around six/seven months and at 10.5 has started arthritis meds - early for a whippet. Poor Wilf is also experiencing early dementia and macular degeneration and I well up whenever I think about it.

Widget is pedigreed (granny, aunties and mum owned by breeder all show locally and at Crufts) and I’m thinking of letting him sire a litter before having him fixed because the stud fee can be one of the pups, who would go to Wilf’s family as a gift if they lose him before Widget turns three.

I reckon I could pimp Douglas out even though he's bit of a rough diamond. When I bumped into a kennel club type he told me in quite eugenic terms what a magnificent specimen he is and the matriarch from a local farm hinted that she would be quite happy if *something happened* between him and her golden retriever. But alas I think his nuts are going to go before he gets that chance ;;

I'm very negative about dog breeding and puppies, but even I wouldn't begrudge someone a Douglas pup.

There's a setter called Cooper who lives near us who normally hangs out in front of his house near the beach and comes down to play with his dog pals as they go by. He is one of Kittser's best pals for running about with, and Kitt has even got to the stage of going all the way up to Cooper's yard to see if he's around for a run. But today we met Cooper out on his actual walk with his human man, on a lead. Poor Kitt just couldn't understand it. He ran up to Cooper and shouted and shouted at him from every possible angle to get him to run, but no joy. He was so dejected when I clipped him onto his own lead and dragged him away.

Good boy is seeing Darth Vader for the first time... pic.twitter.com/KMDvY8mBBG

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) April 8, 2021

OMG that poor puppy!

I totally wish I could adopt Prancer, but I think he would hate me:

This is the best thing I’ve read in awhile. pic.twitter.com/rdn3X6GeWH

— Hot Little Mongoose (@HLMongoose) April 9, 2021

We are having a lot of trouble with our young one. Had to really convince my partner not to just immediate surrender him today. It’s going to take a shitload of money but i love this little fucker.

That sucks. I hope you're able to get it sorted, whatever it is.

how old is he?

He’s about 3. Sweet as pie with our other dog, incredibly affectionate and wonderful with people— and seemingly wants to kill every other dog he sees.