jacqui835

One of our past family dogs was one of those - a dog who appeared very healthy on the outside but had some pretty serious health problems. He actually lived to be 12, but had seizures all his life and heart problems. He had a very unstable fearful temperament too, and I think he bit our whole family at least once, drawing blood on most occasions. Luckily he was only small, but it makes you think, 12 seems like a decent lifespan for a dog, but for a small (under 10kg), mixed breed, 12 years really isn't that long.

Both are beautiful breeds so I imagine whichever you end up choosing will make a great companion. I have known a few dobes and a few ridgebacks, but I will describe for you the differences and similarities I note between my dog (a dobe) and the ridgeback I know best. I have a 'dog park friend' which maybe is kind of like a facebook friend lol who owns a ridgeback, and I of course own a dobe. They are about the same size, and when we see each other, both of our dogs are at our sides (ie they are both innately protective to a degree and human oriented). Both are well socialised but these sorts of breeds tend to be quite aloof towards strangers. Despite seeing him several times a week for over a year, my dog shows next to no interest in his presence (though the man always addresses him by name and wants to pat him), and despite me always wanting to pat his beautiful dog, she is not interested in me either. Sometimes they have a bit of a play, but for the most part, especially now that my boy is older, they adopt these more serious expressions and seem content to just observe. My dog is more responsive to me obedience wise than his is. Although he is a competent owner, if we both tell our dogs to stay and then walk away, mine will stay without looking too uncomfortable for a long time (I haven't tested above 10 mins but he didn't look like he was about to break then so who knows how long he would stay). The ridgie though always breaks before a minute. They have different attitudes towards instructions, with the ridgeback being far more independent in that regard. I would not say she appears to be any less intelligent than my dobe, just that she tends to make up her own mind about what she wants to do. For example, I can make my dobe do things he doesn't want to do just with words. He will sometimes protest a little which is quite comical, but he's not stubborn and if a dobe sees you as leader, they will follow you for the most part even if they can see that the particular command you're giving is unlikely to achieve anything - probably why they can do so well in obedience competitions. The ridgeback does not seem to have this. She can be incredibly stubborn, and will at times, just stand there ignoring him. She's about 40kg now, so if he asks her to sit and she won't, there's not a whole lot he can do about it. That said, the bond between them is obviously very strong, and you get the impression that she is more than prepared to work with him, she's just not going to follow orders for the sake of following orders. Neither like to be left home alone and can have a tendency towards separation anxiety. I know that both of our dogs are very good about sensing when we're about to leave the house, and will follow us around looking desperate and positively devestated. For the most part, the ridgebacks I know stay very close to their handlers, but I get the impression that should they be distracted by something, say a rabbit (as they were bred to hunt), you would probably not be able to call your dog back, whereas with a doberman, well I've seen for myself that this is relatively easily achieveable. This post is already quite long, but they would be the main differences I have noted between the breeds.

Ha I forgot about that. My dog somehow remembers the sound of everyone's cars and instead of barking like he normally does, he just goes and stands at the door, ready for loving Yeah my dog has always been interested in bugs, and once or twice he has found giant spiders and although I don't think they're particularly dangerous, I'm not a good person around spiders :s

Ever since moving to Adelaide my dog has faced fierce competition from the ants for his food. At first, he would run away as though small, they bite and he has a very thin coat. He would come running to me and I would spend the next 10 mins trying to remove the ants whilst trying to avoid their bites so he could access his food. How times have changed... He is now an anti-ant machine! We're in the loungeroom right now and there are some random ants that hang around in one corner on the carpet, near a window. There's always like 1 or 2 to be found, and the pooch is often waiting for them. When he spies one, he races across to it and half gobbles half inhales up his nose said ant. It's so cute, because he has quite a long snout, so if he's looking for one whilst trying to sniff it, he has to turn his head on an angle and his huge ears hang down over his head. If I see an ant, I can now tell him and point and he races over to deal with the intruder. It's awesome really, we were too scared to use any poisons because of poochy, but poochy has solved the problem for us. (and yes I call my dobe x rottie poochy)

Sounds like your dog may be the same as mine. Had a taste of the good stuff, and not prepared to settle for anything less anymore... I've left biscuits out for 2 days, and finally he will eat them after a particularly long exercise/play session but he is skin and bones. So now to keep him looking good, I am moving more and more over the raw side of things, and he is all the better for it. He has about 5 times more energy than what he did on the biscuits - I can take him to the beach now and he can swim for literally an hour and then do zoomies up and down the beach. He also defecates less, they don't smell as bad, and his coat is super shiny. Craziest part, it's actually costing me less to buy all the raw foods than what his premium dry food cost...

Thank you. I have had these sorts of discussions in other threads before, and have done quite a bit of research on the topic as my dog is very important to me. I'm not convinced that dogs (and particularly males, with females it seems closer to 50/50) are physically better off after being desexed but thankfully in this country everyone is still free to reach their own conclusions so long as they are not hurting anyone else. My dog has no behavioural problems that would be solved by desexing - ie he doesn't roam or want to roam, he is fine around other intact males and I have just learned that he is still as responsive as ever to me around entire females coming on heat. He is also a large dog and is still under 2 years, so even if I was going to desex him, I would not have done it yet. I would never let him breed as he is too special to me, and I would be worried that anyone who wanted to breed a xbreed would not provide the right of home for these sorts of dogs. For the most part, you do not come across bitches in heat in public especially at an off-lead beach, this being my first ever... so for me the risk of this has not outweighed the risks of desexing (in regards to both physical and mental changes). I still advocate desexing to the masses because their is an over-population problem of which I'm aware, and the majority of people unfortunately have not taken the time to properly understand their dogs and so the less urges and drive their dogs have the better. I'm not a believer that there is one right way for everyone here and so long as my dog is not causing anyone any problems or contributing to the over-population problem, I think he's fine as he is.

I have a dog who has never been to boarding but also won't eat his dry food unless he's starving, and even then he will eat only enough to keep going. He also has raw chicken and bones, fish, eggs, meat etc added to his diet which he gobbles down straight away, so we think he just doesn't like dry food. It's possible the dry food upsets her stomach, or the hardness and dryness makes eating it uncomfortable (perhaps check her teeth?) but otherwise she might just be like my dog since you mention that she also enjoys her fish, just not her dry food... ETA my dog will actually suck chicken mince off his dry biscuits and spit the biscuits back out :s

Well to be fair the male shep appeared to be a lot older, perhaps too old for these sorts of things? He was white around the face and his fur scruffy and he walked with obvious discomfort in his back legs. It's true that as an entire male desexed males will sometimes take offense and try to dominate him. He ignores it if the dog is smaller, and typically they back off when he looks at them discerningly. If larger or close to his size, he evades and I will step in and shoo them off. This is rare though. The guy really came across as a moron and he had no control over her at all.

Yeah I did get the sense she was sort of trying to challenge him, it wasn't quite full play but wasn't a fight either if you know what I mean. My dog wasn't scared of her, he just gave her room and evaded her attempts to snap at him, he made no efforts to bite her back or anything, but it was strange, because normally when a dog snaps at him he backs right off and does his best to ignore them, especially if they're on lead and he can just walk away. In this case though, he stayed as close to her as he could without her being able to bite him and looked very interested and friendly. He was bigger than her (though she was quite a large dog herself) so maybe that makes a difference to whether they're timid of them? When she managed to run off (though her lead was still on) she sort of charged at my dog and they ran along side by side, but it was way more intense than usual play. She was definitely chasing him but he wasn't really running away so much as running with her. He literally didn't even hesitate though when I called him, he turned mid run as he always does and came straight back. I'm very proud of him My dog is always nice to females too, ie will let them take his things whereas with males, even his best friends, he won't give whatever he's holding at the time. Does that change if you desex them? He was looking out after her and sniffing a lot, but it wasn't like where there's a rabbit or something, and I can keep him at my side but he's almost shaking kind of thing. And yeah I know, we're trying to work on getting the prey drive under control but as our ex-neighbours had a free-range rabbit that used to come into our yard, he has a bit of an obsession.

Well just had the dog down at the beach again and we had an awesome time. He has finally learned not to drink the sea water (he saves himself for the toilet back home :S) and he's now a very competent and fast swimmer so it's heaps of fun for all of us. However, today 2 GSD's were trying to walk past us whilst we were swimming around. Our dog was off-lead, but when I saw the 2 shepherds lunging at him and he of course was ready, though a bit cautious, to go up and say hi I told him to wait and he did. This made the 2 guys with the GSD's stop and wait too. My dog as most of you know is not desexed, and is a dobe x rottie, and I could see this guy had 1 older male entire shepherd and one younger female so I needed to be there for the intro. When I got to him, I asked the guy if his dogs were ok with other dogs, and he said yes and they weren't growling or anything, so I told mine he could say hello. He greeted the older male first, and that was fine, mine was respectful allowing the other dog to do what he wanted first, then a quick sniff, then moved on. The female however lunged and snapped at him, not entirely aggressively, as soon as he was within range. At this point I realised the guy was an idiot, because he started patting her and cuddling her and telling her she was a good girl but not to do that, all in a stupid voice that was in my opinion inappropriate for any dog let alone an obviously high drive GSD. She was half playing though, which my dog picked up on and so he wasn't all that phased. The owner got down and sort of hugged her and started trying to call my dog over because he reckoned she wouldn't do anything when he was this close to her. My dog stood at my side and just looked at me, I said nothing. Guy then told us she was the same age as mine and seemed to think that was an excuse for her bad behaviour, but seemed a bit lost when we told him our dog was the same age - and perfectly obedient and calm. Anyway, he then lost control of the female, who the whole time had been pulling and trying to get at my dog, and she raced after him. He was bigger than her and again she didn't seem entirely aggressive, just a bit crazy so I wasn't too worried. They ran for a bit, she wouldn't follow my dog into the water so he seemed quite safe but soon after I called my dog back, and the other guy was able to grab her leash when she followed him. He's laughing the whole time and again rewards her behaviour with hugs etc and saying that's she's impossible to get back if not on a lead. I asked then if she was desexed, and he said no, she's too pretty to desex, I have to breed her first. Before I could say anything, he added, she's on heat now too which makes her harder to control. I really had nothing to say to that. After this they kept walking, and though my dog followed her for a bit maybe 10m, when I called him back, he came immediately and didn't try and leave my side anymore. So I guess I'm confused, because although I find my dog very manageable and obedient despite being entire, I always figured that if we came up against a female on heat he'd just go crazy and that was the one thing where I would really lose out against someone with a desexed dog. But although he obviously liked her (despite being crazy she was a good looking animal, nice straight back and everything so I approve lol) he wasn't hard to control at all. Plus they had the other male with her, also obviously entire and he barely seemed to notice either of them. Does this mean the guy was wrong about his bitch? He was an idiot but he reckoned he'd bred all of his GSD's before desexing them so surely he'd be able to tell? I've never seen an entire dog near a bitch on heat so I've no idea how they respond, but I expected something more than this so right now I guess I think he was mistaken?

This seems like a great idea, everyone wins.

The way I see it is that if it were possible for me to get ill from my dog, it would have happened already. I can't resist kissing him, and if I'm about to have a shower, I sometimes really give him a good cuddle, and this can then on occasion lead to him licking me and when I know it's about to be cleaned off, I love it. He doesn't even seem to notice when we're eating our dinner, I can eat on the floor and even leave my plate to go get a drink or something and he won't even get up. Should you call him over though he jumps up and is at your side amazingly quickly, so obviously he is very aware, he just knows it's completely futile to beg. I have never fed him whilst he's looking at the food, only once he's relaxed and doing something else or sleeping, so now he hardly looks at our plates. He doesn't lick the plates not because I think it's a hygiene issue but because the plates are ours and I don't want him to ever think he can take food off one. So we hand feed any scraps or scrape it into his bowl if there's a lot. One of his favourite foods though is yogurt, and he will watch us eat yogurt for the reason that he knows he will always get to lick the container once we're done. He gives us lots of space though, and will just sit or lie watching us eat until we call him over. The one problem is guests. He's very good at sensing weak people, and he's all too happy to take advantage of them. Back when I lived in Sydney with a housemate, I once came into the loungeroom to find my poor housemate trying to eat his dinner on the couch, and the dog resting his head on his lap, inches from his dinner. At the dog park, he will sniff out treats and listens for all the key signs - he knows about 100 different words for treat and will respond instantly to all of them. Once he has detected treats, he will go and sit in front of the person and wait. Unfortunately, because people keep feeding him, he keeps doing this and I think it's pretty deeply engraved now. A lot of people seem to like feeding him though because he never jumps, doesn't try to steal other dogs' food and takes food very gently, and the good thing is if I shoo him away from a person once, he won't bother them again so it's quite manageable.

Totally agreed Adnil. Look, honestly our dogs are normally very well received with the general public when we take them out, so we are usually very lucky. We gets lots of people wanting hugs, sloppy kisses, pats etc and it is always really lovely... so I guess this is why this particular beach trip really stood out to me. But, yeh, I hear you. Oh gosh just this morning, I was out the front with the dog and a small pug cross something ugly walked past on the other side of the road. Saw my dog, went absolutely ballistic, pulling on the lead, snarling etc etc and the owners started yelling at me because they were worried my dog would come and attack theirs. Of course he ignored the display completely - living in the eastern suburbs of Sydney I think teaches a dog to ignore all the small spoiled ones because anyone who has walked down Queen st Woollahra will have noticed that several will try and attack any dog every day. Once they were confident my dog was going to remain at my side, they started laughing, and saying, oh I don't think our dog likes yours, he always tries to protect us from the dangerous breeds. I say nothing these days, just smile and nod. People do just have a completely different attitude towards smaller dogs, and as a bigger dog lover, well it's just something I've resigned myself to living with.

What you're saying is all true, but that said, I really sympathise with the OP. I have had the same sorts of things said about my dog, and it kind of irks you and especially if you have a dog who is not aggressive, well it's just a false, undeserved accusation that can leave you a bit shocked. It's quite confronting to have someone attack you verbally, shout at you and fire these accusations and I know myself that it can just play on replay in your head for hours afterward. But honestly, don't worry. My experience has been that if the person seems crazy to you and everyone around you, the authorities will reach the same conclusion. I have had a man in a park attempt to assualt my partner (because he thought he looked Jewish - ironically and sadly really, the guy turned out to be Jewish himself) and when we called the police, he told them he was defending himself because my dog had attacked him. I was gob smacked, my dog was a puppy at the time for one, and secondly, well, he hadn't done anything of the sort. The police took one look at the dog who was wagging his tail and desperate for pats, and decided they believed our version of events.

I am sorry to hear this, that would be very frightning. I definitely think a behaviouralist is the way to go, as for me this would be an issue too risky to take any chances on. Just in regards to what other people have said in this thread though, my 2c... I like Cesar Milan too, though I do think his some of methods are for experts and detached people only. I think the most important part of what he does is the 'mood', the calm assertiveness aspect, and that is almost impossible to achieve when it's your own dog. I can do that easily with my sister's dogs and get amazing results, but put me in front of my dobe, and well, we're just too close, it doesn't work because I love him too much and it clouds everything, (I would be one of those doctors who couldn't operate on someone I loved). That said, I claim things all the time. I walk towards him until he sits down and looks up at me. If he ever disobeys me, or doesn't respond quickly enough (decides to sniff something on the way whilst coming to me etc), I will walk slowly towards him until he gives up and sits down and waits for me. I will touch him on the neck or on his side next to his back legs to get his attention focused on me if I have to. I used Cesar's methods to teach him (with a check lead) to walk nicely on a flat collar and lead. So these are some of the things I think everyone can take from Cesar and use with their own dogs, I have found them to be very helpful. I wouldn't growl at my dog though. I have an entire male doberman who has a very good understanding that whilst we are all part of the family/pack, he is a dog and we are human. Humans have food, can come and go as they please and own everything. I don't growl at my dog because I'm not a dog, and I don't want him to think I'm a dog and try and treat me like one (he is stronger than me). Instead, I have tried to teach him how to first tell a human you have a problem, and then how to ask for something, and he now responds very differently, as I think dogs should, to people than what he does with dogs.

We made the mistake of I guess sort of encouraging licking when we were trying to discourage biting. We would say, no biting, and then if he started to lick, we would say, oh good boy, nice and gentle etc etc and so now he's always looking for some tongue action. He's hardly excessive though. His favourite time is first thing in the morning, where given half a chance he will lick your whole face and particularly your mouth. This is quite unpleasant, but my partner and I will from time to time ask the dog to do it to the other one, like you say, where's such and such? in a super excited voice. And he will run over and lick them to death and laughing ensues. The rest of the time you might get the occasional lick if he's feeling super affectionate, but it's not a wet lick and he looks up at you with his big beautiful eyes whilst he does it so it's kinda special. He only licks me and my partner anyway so we've decided it's a special thing, and my partner will still call me over almost every time he gets licked because he's so happy that my dog likes him so much now. He will lick your legs after the shower though if you let him, and the wet floor where you've stepped.

Really? I didn't realise NSW was bad. There are a few dog beaches, and the one in Wollongong (an hour away from Sydney) has a dog friendly beach where you can swim with them. A lot of places in Sydney were you can take your dogs to cafe for lunches or coffee (i do this often with my 2). I wouldn't take them to the City itself, but a lot of Inner West suburbs are very pet friendly There are a few great off leash (no fence) dog parks around too. Newcastle and the Central Coast also have dog friendly beaches. I think NSW is fairly dog friendly. Yeah sorry I tried to correct that. I lived in Sydney in the eastern suburbs and I was just upset because all I ever wanted to do was to be able to go to the beach with my dog and we couldn't find anywhere nearby - like within 1-2 hours. But if you don't live so close to the main city, things are probably better. That said, I now live 10 mins from the heart of Adelaide, and I can go to nice beaches with my dog every day. I'm over the moon

Hmm when I say NSW, I lived in Sydney, and I've no doubt there's a good chance things were very different outside of Sydney. I mean in Sydney they had so many inspectors that you could get booked for having your dog on a sewerage beach that was otherwise empty... Unfortunately though, with my line of work, I have to live in a big city and in Australia that doesn't seem to be as good as pets.

Well I can tell you it's also not NSW. There are no dog friendly beaches there where you can go swimming with your pooch. Legally, they are not supposed to be anywhere near cafes etc and places that do allow you to have them outside actually get in trouble for it. There are however, a few good offleash spots. Having just moved to Adelaide, I am loving the fact that I can go to the beach and swim with my dog and I hope it never changes. I have not seen anyone inconveniencing everyone else yet with their dog, so hopefully there won't be any complaints and nothing will change.

In my experience it depends on the dog. My last dog was very attached to his territory, and so when we moved, he kept trying to run away to go back 'home'. Moving with him was a nightmare, though to be fair, he had an extremely different life to my dog now. He was a family dog for one, and lived outside so we weren't as close. He didn't have any formal training until he was about 6 years old, and even then it was minimal. My current dog would follow me to the ends of the earth - he follows me over rocks, into waves, up trees etc (I don't let him go anywhere too unsafe), but the point is it's about the people not the place for him. He has moved about 5 times since I got him, and stays over at friend's houses (and before we moved in together, my bf's house as well) all the time and so long as he's allowed to sleep next to me (on the floor, not in the bed lol) he doesn't care at all. Even if we don't have his bed, or his usual food or whatever (ie it was unplanned), he's never seemed distressed and just behaves normally. We also take him on holidays, and he's fine with that as well. It's interesting, because there's about an hour cooling off period, where he won't bark/growl if someone approaches, he just acts like he would if he were seeing someone on the street/public place etc. But once he cottens onto the fact that we've set up camp in a new spot, he resumes his guarding duties.

Thanks for all the replies guys. Yeah I definitely belong to the camp who believe you don't need a huge house to have a larger dog and that walking and other forms of exercise are important regardless of yard size, however, I have noticed a few things with my own dog. He is an active young male entire doberman, very fit. I have kept him in terraces and apartments in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney, a semi with what I thought was a large backyard at the time, and he now lives on a 1/4 acre block in Adelaide. I walk him almost every day, and our walks always include an off-lead romp - used to be in Centennial Park, now in Adelaide he's turned into a waterbaby because we spend so much time at the beach. I noticed as soon as we moved into the semi that he loved having a backyard, something he'd never really had before. We were only there for 3 months, but he would run around in it at least once a day, so I noticed that he wasn't as hyper when walk time came. Now in our huge house in Adelaide, well, he didn't even go for a proper walk yesterday - we were flat out so just a quick run around the block, but he's asleep on the floor next to me. He loves running around in our backyard, chasing the birds, his toys, invisible enemies etc, and it actually seems to drain a decent amount of his energy. I know that walks are important for so much more than just the physical exercise (not to mention they're great for me) but it is reassuring to know now that I'm starting full time work that my dog seems to have more to do while we're not here now that we have a backyard.

Just wondering about this, based on what I'm seeing in myself as I move into different types of homes with my dog. Please explain your responses to highlight the relationship.

Thanks that's very helpful and exactly what I was hoping to hear. Well, it won't be anytime soon but I think my next dog will be a White Shepherd

It's really beautiful reading about people who have found the perfect dogs for them. The kelpie posts in particular have been very powerful. Well I love dobermans. I love them because to me they're the best looking dogs in the world. I'm the opposite from MonElite, I don't mind the long tail even though it really is a weapon (it's very useful for reading his moods), but I would love for him to have upright ears. To be honest, that is one of the biggest reasons I want a GSD - I want a dog with proper ears that has full mobility of them but with a similar temperament to a dobe. I love dobermans because of their loyalty. I love that when I leave the park, or even walk through a new area, my dog is at my side because that's where he wants to be, and he's not even desexed. I love that they're a guarding breed, they always check on you and don't stray too far away. I get a not so secret kick out of the fact that whilst he'll do anything for me, it's like he can't even hear strangers. I love how safe he makes me feel. I love how happy he is to see me all the time and how he doesn't do that for anyone else, you have to develop your relationship with a doberman and they don't just love everyone automatically. I love the way that he seems to recognise what my actions towards other people mean, and for example, if I hug someone, he is very affectionate with them, and now my partner loves him too (and in fact is jealous and thinks he wants his own doberman now). I particularly love the way he works with me, anything new happens and he looks at me immediately and doesn't even always need instructions, he can just tell how I feel about the situation and reacts accordingly. He is so intune with me. I also really love the fact that we can walk down the street, and I don't even have to worry about what sort of dog we may come across, that whether it tries to attack him or not, he will ignore it and trust me. I love how smart he is. This dog knows a lot of words that I have made no effort to teach him. He just randomly responds sometimes when you say words that you previously had no idea he would understand. He really gets that everything has a name, so you can ask him, where is whatever and he will look for it immediately. I love how powerful praise is as a reward for him - I don't need food or treats to get him to do things for me, all he wants is acknowledgment and some loving. Of course BBQ chicken never hurts... He is the perfect energy level for me. Sometimes I just like to go for a run and quite a long one at that, and he's there at my side the whole time, or he can spend all day running and swimming at the beach. But sometimes I want to sleep in, and again, he's there sprawled out beside me. I love that he stands at my side as we approach the door when someone knocks. He looks at me and just knows how I feel about whoever is there, and responds accordingly. I don't even need to say a thing, but if it's someone I don't want (like random sales people etc) he will just start barking and growling until they leave. Otherwise he doesn't bark at all, and gets ready to meet an old or new friend. And finally, I actually love that it has been hard work to turn him into the perfect dog for me. He was so modifiable and so responsive - I can imagine that you could train a doberman to do just about anything, and it's been a hugely rewarding process. Of course it's not over yet.

Love the photos, they're certainly a very beautiful dog. I guess what I was trying to get at is that I have looked at a lot of websites about the white shepherd, and have seen on numerous occasions these sorts of things; "The basic temperament is softer than that of the typical colored German Shepherd Dog. White Shepherds can be sensitive almost to the point of timidity." "have an overall softer, more mellow, more sensitive personality than traditionally colored (black and tan) German Shepherds. Because of this sweeter temperament, White German Shepherds are almost never used in protection dog sports such as schutzhund. A White German Shepherd can be a good watchdog, but his "watching" is usually limited to alerting you that someone is coming. White German Shepherds are not typically aggressive. In fact, if a White Geman Shepherd is going to have any temperament fault, it's more likely to be timidity or skittishness. White Shepherds need a great deal of early socialization to build a confident attitude toward strangers and strange situations." Etc I was just wanting to find out from people who actually owned them or had lots of experience with them if this was actually the case.