jacqui835

Well, putting yourself between the incoming aggressive dog and your own dog has been fairly successful for me, but it depends on one major factor - that being that your dog will defer to you entirely. I say this because a little while ago, I was trying to help a friend protect her small dogs, but, we realised fairly quickly that unless you can get your dog to basically completely ignore the other dog and just wait for you to handle it, it's pretty futile. Although her dogs never initiated anything, they do respond when affronted with aggressive behaviour and ridiculously, they try and fight back even when the dog is like 5 times their size. In these instances, we found it impossible to get the attention of the attacking dog. She's never been a keen dog trainer, and given that she refuses to change, I really have no idea how to advise her. However, with my own large dog, I haven't had any issues as he basically ignores everything so long as I'm calm. Except that you have to be on your toes and ready. As soon as you see another dog staring at yours, I get mine to sit behind me looking away, and I stare intently back at the other dog until they break eye contact. Never been challenged myself.

Working on boosting confidence, I agree with the first post. The issue is that my dog doesn't think he can function without me, he won't even eat. Rest of the time he is fine, confident on walks etc. Just doesn't think he can do it alone. Working on it though. I still leave him alone, I still don't say goodbye or make a fuss when I return.

Thanks for all the replies. My puppy tried to pee in the house again this morning, but I grabbed him and raced him outside, and fortunately because he was already going, he was forced to finish outside so I could once again praise him for doing the right thing. Her dogs will not be coming over again anytime soon. I was quite upset and angry last night, and I think they finally understand why. It gets worse though. They pour all the food for their dogs into a bowl in the morning, and leave it out all day. I feed my puppy 3 meals a day, and make him sit, wait etc. So I asked them to keep the food out of reach for him, which they did. However, at the end of the night, they poured all of the leftover food into my garden, right onto the spot my puppy has been trained to go to the toilet. So no wonder he won't go there. I have been desperately trying to clean it up, but they also hosed everything down bc their dogs actually peed on the table, so the dog food is all soggy and stuck in the ground. Ugh so angry!

:laugh: :D Yes, well, you live in WA. :D Is the house still available?

This is perhaps a valid point, though I ask you, how relevant? How likely are you to be robbed by a 'dog savvy person'? In like 99% of cases, dog barks, person shows fear, dog escalates and chases person off the property. I have had people tell my dog to be quiet, we even had one guy calmly try confront him, they took a step forward, and the dog did too. My dog has always stood between me and anyone suss, and I actually believe you would have to kill him to get him to move. He is completely fearless in those situations. He barks when he first hears a noise on our property, but if he finds someone there, that changes to a low growl and they can go backwards (off the property) but they can't come any closer. No-one has ever tested it. People have thrown him food though, which he completely ignores. In the same way that a dog can be bred to herd, hunt etc I believe they can be bred to protect, because that's certainly what I've seen in my case. I've had other dogs, terriers and what not, that were kind of protective in that they barked and put on a good show, but when someone moved towards them they always moved back and eventually would sort of hide behind us. This dog however has been remaining between me and whatever I don't like since he was about 4-5 months old, but he came from a breeder specifically working to achieve that.

The dog in your picture is a hovawart. It's a guarding/herding breed, so quite a different temperament from a golden retriever, although they can look quite similar as hovawarts do also come in a golden colour. I wish someone would start breeding them in Australia, it's one of my favourite breeds. "The Hovawart is an outstanding watch dog and somewhat reserved towards strangers. They make excellent family dogs as they are totally devoted to their family. They are a working dog breed, and require a consistent and loving yet strict training and meaningful activity throughout their lives. The Hovawart does exceptionally well in search and rescue, tracking and working dog activities. The females are generally lighter in build and often love agility. In training and especially obedience work the trainer must keep positive reinforcement in mind all the time, as the Hovawart is not as eager to please as many other working dog breeds: it always needs some kind of motivation. It is important to realize that the Hovawart works with you and not for you. They do have the ability to think and act independently. Their guarding instinct for example does not require any real training; it is inherent, as it is what they were bred for. The Hovawart may easily become reluctant if training is built only on punishments. The owner of a Hovawart should ideally have previous experience in owning and training a dog and as such the Hovawart is not usually suitable as a first dog."

We have a lot of cats in our area, and most of them roam around when they like. To be honest though, it doesn't really phase me all that much just because, firstly, we have next to no native wildlife here, it's all rats and mice, and then also the road is empty at night. I think it's terrible when people allow their cats to hunt native wildlife, but in my area, all they're doing is pest control. Our 2 cats sleep with us at night, but it would be literally impossible for me to speak to everyone here who has a free-roaming cat, not to mention most of them would be very annoyed and argue that it was unnecessary to keep their cats locked up. So, I've made it very clear to the dogs that barking at cats is unacceptable. I'd guess that this will probably be the most effective step you can take, just chuck a Cesar Milan type exercise, it took me literally about 10 mins to stop my dog from ever giving more than a warning bark before he quietens down.

Thanks guys, I will pass all of that on. I'm not sure that they will get another dog, but I know they do already have a cat... Not quite the same thing I know, but at least it's something

Thanks for all the replies guys, I'm really happy to see that many people have been able to make it work. The couple are very young, 23 and 25 and have no plans for children for at least 7-10 years, possibly not even on the cards so that's not so much of an issue. They are keen to have a puppy just so it can grow up with them and also because they already have a cat. The dog will belong first and foremost to the girl, if they break up it will go with her, and although they have been together for a long time and are very close, they have thought all of that stuff through. They are planning to each take 1 week off, so that for the first 2 weeks, the puppy always has someone with it, but after that, it would be alone for about 10 hours a day. Any suggestions anyone has for making this sort of situation work - distraction tactics, experiences etc would be most appreciated.

I have a friend who lives with her partner, and they want to get a dog. They have both had dogs before, and understand how to raise them. The issue is that they are both professionals, often working over 10 hours a day. They are however, both quite young and energetic, and exercise daily after work, so I am confident in saying the dog would get at least an hour of exercise a day. Does anyone in this sort of situation have a dog, and if so, how do they make it work? Odds are I will one day be in this situation as well, and frankly I think my dog would be fine with it, but he is already over a year old and well trained and has a deep relationship with me. This couple would be adopting a new puppy...

No- she didn't really know she was in trouble for chewing the couch- she was reacting to hubby's voice tone/body language. carrying her over to the hole and telling her no would not have meant much to her at all except perhaps made her wary of being caught/carried ... Unless you catch them in the act- ignore.Do not fill in/block any holes with them watching, either- it just makes it a more interesting spot for next time I know everyone always says this... I don't know if I'm the only one, but I have to say I disagree. When I first got my puppy, I adopted that approach and didn't involve him when I found an accident on the floor. He wasn't bad, but we had a couple in the first week. However, they all abruptly stopped when, on the advice of the breeder, I started taking him over to the site and telling him no. We did that twice, and he hasn't had an accident since. I'm not sure if some dogs are different from others, and I know for sure that my dog is incredibly clever - he learns new commands/tricks in about a minute, but his response to me showing him his accident at least seemed to indicate that he understood. They know their own pee, and if you express unhappiness with it there, but great pleasure when it's outside, I think at least some dogs can connect the dots.

The proven girl is 1/4 rotty,3/4 Dobe.She is not very big as far as security dogs go.A VERY affectionate dog .Loves to sit on your lap. She was bred to my daughters big pure dobe male. Some of the pups were bigger than both and some very beautiful!The biggest was at least 32 inches at the shoulder and was raised in a daycare centre...also loves kids and cats. I kept a bitch and she is the 2nd dog I think worth testing.Just as affectionate as her mum and likes laps.thats how I chose her. All pups we have kept in contact with have shown her great instincts to protect and extra affectionate too. So they are dobe. basicaly,with 1/8th rotty and I love them. They are generaly much bigger and less extreme looking than the pure dobes ie: not the big chests out front and more substance.Not reliable as to looks or size though. We still have 1 pure dobe girl.She was the one who was supposed to breed with the male as we had such a hard time finding her and did not want to loose the qualities she had.Never would breed.Thinks shes a human and we joke thats why she would not accept "A DOG!?! " She is also very protective and a terrific family dog. We chased down a male from her lines finaly.Her old breeder who was now out of breeding due to health put us on to a mate who had a litter.He said "you might not want this lot though,the fellows used a 1/4 Rotty over his bitch" So now we have dobes that aren't quite dobes but we are VERY happy with them. I would just like to add that I have one of these puppies, and have been fortunate in that my boy appears to exhibit all of these fantastic traits. To be honest though, what impressed me most was the fact that although the pup wasn't even quite 8 weeks old when I got him, he was sleeping through the night (from about 10-6:30) after just 2 days and after the first week, he has not had a single accident inside the house. He is also a lap dog, not that he fits anymore, but my god, he is the most scary sounding dog I've ever heard when he's angry. He's incredibly responsive though and we've never had any issues with telling him to calm down (but we do training every day), but usually if he has a real issue with someone, we're unsure of them ourselves. I'm not sure if he's reading that from us or determining it for himself but either way it's exactly what I wanted in a dog. He's a favourite in our neighbourhood now, and the next door neighbour's kids (whose mum is allergic to animals or fur or something) come over at least once a fortnight to play with him. In short, I hence believe it's possible to have a naturally protective dog that is still safe to have in society.

Different sources will quote different breeds, but the ones that most often feature are: greyhound, weimaraner, rottweiler, beauceron, great dane, german pinscher, 'old' german shepherd dog, german shorthaired pointer.

Agreed. I'm moving to Europe in a couple of years and I will finally hopefully be able to own my cropped dobe As for the desexing, if you can last until 2 years with an undesexed male dog and managed to cope, I'm not sure that you'd need to worry about it. To be honest with you, I've only ever had female dogs desexed, I've also seen the studies posted and I just don't believe it's necessary or better for the dog health-wise. If you can control your dog and stop him from reproducing, I don't see the need and I prefer my dog to be as nature intended. For anyone who then says, "yeah but you want to crop their ears," that's because dogs originally all had upright ears, we just thought it made them look cute to selectively breed for floppy ears, so I don't see that as the natural state. They do look better with the ear cropped. However, does that have any health benefit? Also, when you say that dogs originally all had upright ears, which breed does that refer to? I believe Shih Tzu, Afghan Hounds, Tibetan Terriers are all ancient breeds that had floppy ears. Well, dogs were derived from wolves. Wolves have upright ears. As for health benefits, like the issue of desexing it depends on the source, but there are certainly documented cases of dogs having to have their ears cropped to treat recurring ear infections, and in my experience at least, the dogs I've owned with floppy ears have required more in the way of ear maintenance. Most people will agree that dogs with floppy ears will need to have them cleaned more often, but I guess they feel cropping the ears causes more inconvenience for the dog than the cleaning etc. Also, dogs with upright ears have more acute hearing, and can pinpoint a sound to a greater degree than those with floppy ears. It's perhaps a subjective issue, but I know that if it was me, I would want upright ears, even if the benefits were minimal. Dogs can only think about one thing at a time, keep them distracted and they don't even notice the process...

Agreed. I'm moving to Europe in a couple of years and I will finally hopefully be able to own my cropped dobe As for the desexing, if you can last until 2 years with an undesexed male dog and managed to cope, I'm not sure that you'd need to worry about it. To be honest with you, I've only ever had female dogs desexed, I've also seen the studies posted and I just don't believe it's necessary or better for the dog health-wise. If you can control your dog and stop him from reproducing, I don't see the need and I prefer my dog to be as nature intended. For anyone who then says, "yeah but you want to crop their ears," that's because dogs originally all had upright ears, we just thought it made them look cute to selectively breed for floppy ears, so I don't see that as the natural state.

What do you class as a dangerous situation, though? How do you know your dog would follow through with its "protectiveness"? A dangerous situation as far as I'm concerned would be one where there is a threat to either myself, any friend/family member with me or my property. I suppose I don't know that they would follow through as I've fortunately never been in a position to test it. That said, we once had some painters in our house, and they seemed a bit suss. (Turns out they were running an illegal pirating dvd service amongst other things but we didn't know this at the time, they just gave off suspicious vibes). Anyway, either the dog could tell I thought they were a bit odd or thought they were himself, and whilst normally when we have servicemen/women in the house the dogs go and lie back down, in this case, they continued to follow them around. Not too closely, but just were always in the same room. Anyway, I was in my bedroom at the time, and when one of them came in and started asking what movies I'd like to watch, saying he could get any for me even ones that hadn't come out at the cinemas yet, my dog started growling and positioned himself between me and the guy. It possibly sounds fine, but, at the time, it just felt a bit weird and I didn't really want the painters coming into my bedroom etc. The guy tried to shoo my dog out of the way, quite aggressively too, but my dog didn't move, and eventually the painter left. This was a rottie by the way and back when I was younger and still living with my family, but I was home alone at the time. So I can't say for sure whether my dog would have followed it up or not, but he had both myself and the painter convinced that he would. I've never had one of my dogs hide from a situation, or leave my side when a stranger is at the door, but I deliberately seek out breeders who strive to produce these qualities in dogs. Never aggressive, never dominant (well that comes from the training), only protective. They learn to recognise what's normal and what's not if you socialise them properly, and they also learn to read you.

When I was looking for my dog, I visited a lot of doberman breeders and many of them told me they believed that dobermans in Australia didn't have the protective side anymore, and were effectively "labs in doberman clothing". So I kept looking. No I didn't want an aggressive dog, but all the dogs I've had so far in my life have been protective and I didn't want a dog who would run and hide in a dangerous situation. I've had rotties and german shepherds, fox terriers, staffies etc, all have been protective, none have been aggressive. Studies have shown that people are more scared of dogs (perhaps it's an instinctive thing) than they are of guns, so having a dog who doesn't hide behind you is an enormous deterrent. I've never had any issues with dog aggression, and I've never had a dog that I couldn't control. When someone comes to my house, all the dogs I've had have given warning barks. They then usually watch how I react to the person. If I like the person, my dogs have liked them too. If I don't, the dogs have made it obvious they want the person gone too. Sometimes I've had sales people at my door, and the dog can obviously sense I don't like them and continue to step up the threatening behaviour, but I have always been able to just say enough and go away and the dog does. It's just interesting because my dogs can read me so well. After over a year of looking for a breeder, I found one who felt the same way I did, and now I have what I consider the perfect dog. My advice to you (the OP) would be to keep looking for a breeder who understands exactly what you're looking for. Make sure though that you are prepared and understand the responsibilities of owning a powerful breed who still has its protective instincts. My dogs have training every day for their entire lives, they are dogs first then whatever else I want them to be and they live in an environment where nothing comes for free. You can be lucky and end up with a mixed breed rescue/pet shop dog that has natural protective instincts, but I think you have a better chance if you manage to find a breeder who is looking for the same thing in their dogs as you are. Hope this helps.

Wow just finished reading this thread and I am in tears. I can't believe a law that would result in this sort of thing exists and that people would ever agree to deny any living creature a right to life when it hasn't harmed anyone. These laws don't even make sense, humans are the most dangerous creatures on the planet, whatever we touch we will probably try and use as a weapon; that's where all our money goes, so in my opinion this kind of crap is just another example of humans not accepting responsibility for ourselves. And this is so much worse than just that, this animal has been treated in a way that is so unacceptable. 2 years for a dog is a lot longer than what it is for a person; this dog has spent such a large portion of his life now living under horrible conditions at the hands of people and that's not something I think should be acceptable. Have sent emails, my prayers are with this poor dog and his family.

Yup sounds like he has worms to me... My cat did the same thing once and it turned out to be worms, she'd been living indoors for over 6 months in an apartment so we hadn't kept up to date, still not sure how she got them though :s

Well when we first got our puppy, after he'd been to the toilet a few times he randomly turned around and tried to taste his poo. Well this might be cruel but since we like letting him lick us, we went a bit psycho at him, and that negative response from us seems to have done the trick. Since then (4 weeks later) he doesn't even look at his poo. I'm not sure though if he would have eaten it, he might have just been curious, so I'm not sure if it would be different with a dog who was really determined to eat their poo

Hmm, I have a 9.5 week old puppy myself, a doberman, but we decided in the end not to crate him. He now sleeps in the laundry at night from 10pm until 7am, for the last week he hasn't woken me up to go to the toilet, he just pees for ages in the morning. But it was a different story when we got him.. He was only 7.5 weeks, and howled when we first put him in the laundry that night, so eventually, feeling bad for the neighbours we moved his bed into our room and he spent 4 nights sleeping in there. We didn't get much sleep and after the first week we were practically zombies. Then we moved him back into the laundry and although he still whined for a bit, he no longer did the howling thing so we figured he wasn't petrified like he must have been on the first night and just ignored him, and sure enough, within half an hour he stopped. He would sometimes whine in the middle of the night so I'd get up and take him to the toilet, and then when I put him back in his bed he'd cry again for about 15 mins, then go back to sleep. Now however, when we go to bed we just put him in there, say bed and good night-no fuss, and he doesn't make a sound. In the morning at 7 I go in there and he'll be awake on his bed, very excited to see us. We have to run outside because he's busting to go to the toilet once he wakes up but haven't had any accidents. If he's in the house, he's in the same room as me so I can watch him, so there are no accidents. One thing we had to do though, we have to make sure he doesn't sleep before we go to bed. After dinner we try our hardest to keep him awake until bed time which is about 3-4 hours later.

Can anyone recommend a good vet on the Central Coast, NSW?

Hi, just wondering if anyone can recommend a good vet on the Central Coast in NSW? I took my puppy to see the closest vet and well just reading over some of the things he gave me 2 weeks ago in terms of vaccination dates etc I can see he's made a few mistakes with adding up etc, and then even with my dog's age, like he knew the date of birth but he's put him at a week younger than what he is. I don't know just didn't install great confidence and since I only moved up to the Central Coast a year ago, I don't know any of the vets. Any advice would be most appreciated.

Such a beautiful girl.. I love the chocolate labs