dee lee

Zaddy, it doesn't sound like you particularly like Greyhounds, so I'm confused as to why you want to foster them rather than another breed? There are rescue orgs for many different breeds, surely another breed might suit you better? To me, Greys sound perfect, but then I prefer more relaxed dogs. Question for the Greyhound people- as you can't let them offlead, how do you exercise them? & Do you ever rehome them to apartments? I'd love to have one at least once in my lifetime, I think they are beautiful.

I love my dog. After 2 years of refusing to toilet in our yard last thing at night, forcing me to do a night park dash EVERY night, she finally has conceded to doing it at home!!! It's the little things. ;) Oh and she is the best dog in the world. :D

Twice now, my idiot neighbours have fallen asleep drunk with a pan on the stove. Their house has filled with smoke, alarms gone off, emergency services arrived & we all have slept though it, until Honey has woken me up barking and pacing. Both times she has done it. We live in an attached terrace so I find it quite reassuring- I like to think if it was a more serious fire I could rely on her alerting me. She is such a good girl. :D She's also an awesome watch dog. Sweet as pie if you meet her, but very scary sounding on the other side of our front door. I shut the blinds when we are out- no use ruining the illusion by seeing she is a pretty Goldie rather than demon dog! My poor postie refuses to believe me she is gentle & won't even pat her when I'm home and trying to help them make friends! I often leave the main front door open in nice weather, with the security door locked, & she will lie there watching & guarding the house. Gives a scary display of protecting me when someone comes to the door. Even scared my OH once when she didn't recognize him in the dark! I'm positive it's all bluff, but as a deterrent, it makes me feel a lot safer. Walking with her though, she is no help! She wags her tail at junkies & has growled at an old man (he looked like our postie! ) & woofs at harmless people in beanies.

I prefer large breeds too, & I adore GSDs & Rotties. Whether it's a breed thing or a necessity of ownership, I'm less inclined to be worried if I see those breeds because they seem to be very obedient 9 times out of 10. I am always aware and check for that 1 out of 10 each time. However, those of you that own GSDs & Rotties (& dobes too), must realise that to non "doggie" people they can appear terrifying just by their looks (& popular culture associations). My OH is one such person, & I could see him quivering with horror at the sight of our daughter & me cuddling an enormous sooky Rottie the other day! He thought we were mad!! But suprise, suprise, we weren't eaten. Maybe one day I will be able to convince him we can have one. ;)

Wow, that's appalling! I'm always reminded on here about how very lucky I am where I live, all the cafes are very dog friendly- even to GSDs & Rotties.

I can't answer for Tims Mum, but I would be very nervous in either incident with any medium to large dog breed/crossbreed. I would think that would be a normal & sensible reaction to a potentially dangerous situation. My current canine nemesis is a Dalmatian, who has attacked my dog & charged both of us on 2 separate occasions. Just cause he's apparently sweet looking doesn't make him any less dangerous. Any dog that can do me or my dog serious damage I am wary of. My next door neighbour has an out of control vicious Maltese. I care less about that because as long as I am wearing shoes, he will come off worse in an attack.

I used Nathan some time ago- he is great.

Fantastic news!!

I did. I also told her to call them immediately if she sees it offlead again, but I doubt she will.

The ranger was great, told me a few things about his last visit with the owner, which confirmed my impressions (that he is an idiot bully). He is going to visit him again today. I was talking to a friend who walks past the shop everyday, & she told me the dog is never onlead & she finds it quite threatening. She has had her car fixed by the owner & said she wouldn't like to get on the wrong side of him. From a fairly intimidating woman, this makes me a tad nervous. Hopefully he will just pull his head in and leash his dog or leave it at home.

The ranger called !!!! He is coming to take a statement & will submit a recommendation for a nuisance order!

No Chris, I still haven't heard from the ranger. I am going to try calling later. I'm determined to get a real resolution. I spoke to a lawyer friend this morning & he has seconded the advice some have given on here & I will follow up with an email. Again & again if necessary. Mostly I am just worn out- I didn't sleep well last night, but I do feel less rattled, thanks.

Thanks for that advice Mel, I waited all day to hear back from a ranger, but no joy. Apparently the guy I dealt with the last 2 times wasnt working today. I'm hoping that when he is back he will update me & I can address those issues. He has been really great thus far. I plan on chucking an enormous stink over this. The spot where we got rushed is at the end of a pedestrian bridge- the safest way to cross a major road, it is difficult for me to avoid. I will be demanding some real action, even if I have to nag Clover!!! Goldielover, I too am having difficulty believing that these are isolated incidents. I have considered making a flyer, asking if anyone else has problems with this dog & to let the council know. But that sounds a little crazy & obsessive.

Thanks for the support. Honey will be ok, she is very easy going. Unlike me. About half an hour ago I realised how upset I am. I'm all shaky and teary. I hadn't heard from the ranger, and it had been a couple of hours, so rather than keep stewing and waiting I called the council just to check. Luckily I did. The idiot who'd answered earlier had logged my call as me just checking on the earlier attack & so no ranger was being sent!! I eventually managed to get a new report filed. The woman I spoke to got a bit hysterical once she worked out what I was talking about. It was a bit over the top, she kept saying "so its a loose dog attacking people in the street?!". I didn't bother correcting her because I guess she is right. I cant actually know if it wouldnt have attacked me too. I totally agree. The poor dog should be home, not outside the shop, then there would be no problem. I hope this guy sees reason. Good thinking, chris. I'm not sure I could do that. I'm shaken enough and I have now exposed who I am to this guy. I only just managed to get hold of my Hubby. He wants me to completely avoid the area now. Its totally F*****.

I am so so mad. The dally tried to attack us again. Honey & I regularly run down a street that is adjacent to the one the dally is attached to, recently I have noticed that it has been offlead again. I haven't called the council because I havent had my phone & I have been busy. In retrospect that was a mistake. Today as we were approaching the junction of the streets I saw the dog. It was at the corner & offlead. It was too late to turn around & hadn't seen us yet so I quickly darted around the corner and down the next street. It saw us and started after us roaring! I turned and yelled at it "NO", which did nothing this time but it alerted the owner who came out & yelled & made it stop.. So then says something like "they're dogs, they'll sort it out!"!!!!! I tell him his dog has bitten mine before & that I'm calling the council & that he is sposed to have it onlead. Ranting at him from about 100m away. He then gestures & says "come here", presumably to "sort it out". I tell him to F off & run away. Ok not my finest moment , but I was really shaken & was not going anywhere near him OR his dog. I've reported it. Waiting on the ranger to call me back. It's so upsetting. All I can think is thank god my daughters weren't with me. I'd just dropped them at school.

What a crap situation. I bet you'd like to strangle the previous owners. I would think that even with the surgery, the dog's chances of doing agility would be minimal? I would go for amputation & lots of training. Surely at 8 months there is some hope it could grow to be a not so crazy dog?

I did a wee trim on my dog this morning & after looking at the links & doing some googling, I decided to try sitting down & pinning her head down with my knee (not really pinning, more like blocking her from lifting her head) . It worked a treat! Usually she gets all silly and wriggly & tries to mouth me, but after a couple of feeble attempts she just relaxed & laid back!! I'm still a bit nervy about getting the quick, but at least now I can trim with little resistance. Happy days! :D

My golden retriever is obsessed with birds, but I'm not sure they would survive her retrieval. She has a fairly high drive & has killed a rat before- though left it's body once dead. On the weekend she flushed a pigeon out of a doorway when we were walking onlead through the city!! It was a freak thing, but she caught it before I could stop it. She dropped it when I intervened, lots of feathers everywhere but it appeared to be fine. She was on high alert though & I'm pretty sure she would have liked to kill it. So I think there's some bird instinct there- but its not exactly ideal for retrieving! Well not for birds anyway! She LOVES her ball & our shoes & both those are always given back unharmed.

Thanks for the tips. Greytmate, I've tried various surfaces including coarse sand, hoping it would help, but even though she runs a fair bit on the footpath, nothing seems to make much of an impact on her front nails (back are fine). They were a little on the long side when we adopted her and she is such a fusspot over clipping I admit I probably haven't tackled it as often as I should have. From now on, I will apply some tough love clipping frequently for a while. :D

From what I understand, the longer the nail gets the longer the quick grows. My (related) question to those knowledgeable about such things- is there a way to shorten the quick again? My dog's nails are longer than I would like (& hence the quick is too), & I want to fix them

In my experience & anecdotally here on DOL, it generally is the case that owners of reactive dogs take those steps & more. It's an enormous responsibility to own a DA dog & every walk is undertaken with trepidation & tension. I hope I never own a reactive/DA dog again, it overwhelms your life & is a highly restrictive life for the poor dog. After owning my DA dog, It took me a very long time to get used to walking my current non reactive dog. I would tense up everytime I spotted another dog within 2 blocks, on or offlead. Trust me, most DA dog owners are hyper vigilant & well on top of supervision.

Most owners of DA dogs are exceedingly vigilant & go to great lengths to avoid being in proximity of other dogs. They will never let their dog offlead, or go to areas where dogs are permitted offlead. They are very much aware of the consequences of a lapse of judgement & will not be distracted. It's not difficult as long as other owners abide by the law and have their own dogs onlead in public. Unfortunately this doesn't always happen. From my experience, the idiots who roam the streets with their dog illegally offlead are a much bigger problem for everyone. I dont see why a responsible owner of a DA dog should be the one to take further steps. Next you will be muzzling them at home, just in case a roaming dog gets into their yard. And I think Agiltydogs has hit the nail on the head re the OP.

She should obviously be muzzled Gayle... ;) Honestly Cornell, are you advocating muzzling for every dog that may bite? I would think that most dogs (not all) would have some kind of threshold where they will warn or bite. Even my GR will grumble & warning snap at a silly dog that jumps at her face. Solution? Dont let your silly dog jump on her! Especially when I warn you she wont like it! (Who would?!) Anyway... I say, good on you Joypod, for recognising you were in the wrong in the first instance. It sounds like an unfortunate accident that you wont repeat! Having had a DA dog, in the few instances that she did manage to latch onto another dog (when the behaviour had only just manifested) I was able to force her to let go by choking her. I held the lead up high so her windpipe was constricted and she was forced to open her mouth to get more air. Its not an instant release though. She held on as long as she could. It goes without saying though, a mastiff would be a tad more difficult to choke than a staffy cross.

I HATE pulling, so I expect her to be next to me. She also has an overriding desire to eat crap on the ground so I dont let sniff etc. Most of the time that my dog is on lead we are just out and about or on our way to the park, so its not for exercise- she gets plenty of opportunity to sniff, run etc when being exercised offlead. These days though, we spend a lot of time walking/running/fetching offlead for exercise and subsequently her loose lead walking has suffered. The hated pulling has returned. So I have dusted off the martingale and things are looking better.

I have a rescue GR from a breed rescue and they matched her specifically to us. From a prior experience, I learnt how fraught with danger the whole process is, so its very important to go with the right organisation. From my experience, if grooming and shedding arent issues, Goldies are fantastic family dogs. My one is the perfect kid buddy, soft in temperament, lots of energy, and all she wants is to be with her family. Preferably in a lap being patted. Or chasing a ball! She is the only one I have owned but I have spent time with many more and whilst all varying in personality, they all are quite soft in temperament. I may be wrong, but from my, limited, experience, Labs seem much less soft? Certainly, even the well behaved ones I have met seem more drivey. FWIW, I don't think bouncy big pups should be discounted for a young family. My sooky kids were only 3 and 5 and had to learn very quickly how to dodge the crazy staffy cross we had at the time!! Its character building! AND they grow up. Both the kids and the dog! Best to chose for the adult breed temperament in my opinion.