aussielover

I think having the window down is not a bad idea (if the dog is resitrained in a harness or crate), but letting the dogs head hang out of it is I've seen dogs jump out the window to get to other dogs before and it is not pleasant.

Dog is making physical contact with handler who uses his leg to guide the dog at one point. Too damn tight!!! That dogs neck is in a very unnatural position imo. Why do the dogs have to be looking up at the handler? Why can't they look ahead? Surely they can still take direction when looking ahead? Do you lose points if the dogs isn't staring adoringly up at you?

that just makes me sooooooooooooo sad somewhere some time ago a little boy went down the wrong path and turned into this man how many teachers and parents see these kids grow up to be these adults ? I had a kid (about 8?) tell me today, as I body blocked his overweight off leash entire lab away from my on lead dogs. "Oh don't worry, my dogs been in loads of fights, but dogs never fight with their own breeds." Wonder who he is copying there. ehhhh? I;ve already posted this in another thread but i've had someone do this to me: I actually had a person ask me if i could get my dog could bite his PUPPY so it could learn some manners I have a 6 month old Labrador puppy... not gonna happen... I tried to remain calm and explain why letting your dog get attacked by another, would NOT teach it manners, instead wokring on things like basic obedience and recall would be much more useful.

The point is that no-one actually knows if the dog was actually DA or not from your initial description. Did the DOG show any aggressive behaviour or was it the dogs owner who was showing aggression (rudeness)? I wasn't close enough to observe the dogs behaviour in detail, i was more preocuppied with calling my dog back to me and ensuring that at least she was under control and getting as far away as possible from them as possible.

So its first in first serve for claiming a spot in a public area then is it? As if any responsible dog owner would hang around after someone had said sometthing like that. If the dog is reactive or aggressive, then, after hearing experiences of other people on here, then I can perhaps see why he would have resorted to such behaviour/exaggerations. Wanting a whole area to yourself or wanting some peace and quiet is not a good enough excuse for rudeness imo. Its a public area for goodness sake.

It was off peak time - see bolded - this may be the only time he takes his dog to the dog park. ie it is quiet and no-one else is usually around. Next bolded part - his dog was under control and he was playing ball with his dog, it didn't do anything to your dog or to you. No problem there sounds like a sensible dog owner. Rude and careless????? You may have thought him rude but how was he careless? He prevented you and your dog approaching him and his dog. Sensible IMO but certainly not careless. I used to ask people people nicely to keep their dog away or to put their dog onlead - I was inevitably ignored, resulting in my dog getting harassed until I got rude. Because of this I eventually went straight to rude because it worked. People kept their dogs away from mine or onlead when told too. BTW my dog was not DA. I just preferred not to have him hassled by strange dogs. If the dog was indeed DA then it is careless not to leash or restrain it in some way when you see another dog approaching imo. Even though they should, not everyone has control over their dogs, dogs can't be reliable 100% of the time and imo, it is not worth the risk of letting my dog hurt another EVEN if they are in the wrong. I've had a mildly DA dog, and I would always leave the area or leash her if i saw another dog approaching.

Indeed. I can see where you're coming from, I also had a "reactive" dog, people wouldn't believe me because she was cute and cuddly looking. It is quite shocking to be spoken to like that though. I was quite upset but i guess i shouldn't take it too personally. I would have been worried too if I had my old dog and had seena 6 month old lab puppy approaching. Though my puppy is NOT out of control and quite reserved in greeting stange dogs (if i let her), I guess they weren't to know that and better safe than sorry hey?

Responses I have had to that request: * all dogs like my dog - it will be fine * I don't mind if your dog bites mine - he needs to be told off * Your dog's only small - he won't be a problem. I have come close to telling other dog owner to EFF OFF before - I can understand the inclination to exaggeration. :D I actually had a person ask me if i could get my dog could bite his PUPPY so it could learn some manners I have a 6 month old Labrador puppy... not gonna happen... I tried to remain calm and explain why letting your dog get attacked by another, would NOT teach it manners, instead wokring on things like basic obedience and recall would be much more useful.

So you'd tell someone that your dogs would rip another dogs head off?

I think it is likely he is actually more aggressive than his dog... Why couldn't he just say "my dog is aggressive, please keep yours away" I have no problem with that, I have been told a few times not to let my dog approach when I have asked owners if their dog is friendly and I am perfectly fine with that. Can I report an aggressive person???

Sounds like my dad! He came from a country town where the only interaction he had with dogs was throwing stones at wandering dogs to fend them off (they were aggressive). Our first dog was a petshop poodle x, not a great success, very hard to toilet train due to petshop upbringing and "not the brightest" dog or perhaps becuase we did't have much idea about dogs. So that wasn't a great sucess with dad we literally had to beg to get another dog ( my mum and I) Clover was of course perfect, and after her dad only wanted another aussie (but with a tail and black tri only: "not that funny colour"- merle), the only reason he agreed to a guide dog was because it was temporary. He really likes Mindy now and is now quite taken with labradors and thinks they are "more suitable" for our lifestyle LOL So you can change their minds....

So in theory, if he had warned me but i either didn't listen and/or had no control over my own dog/ dog decided not to listen to me that one time, and the dog attacked, in the eyes of the law who would be at fault? would the dog be declared dangerous? Because technically we would both be in the wrong - he is exercising a known aggressive dog in a public area - If your dog attacks another dog or person, it can hardly be considered under control - I did not have full control of my dog

Well I guess I should be glad he actually let me know the dog was aggressive (even if it was in a rude way), though i do not let my dog approach strange dogs without checking with the owner first. I will let as many people know as possible but the rangers can't actually do anything unless an incident has occured i think? I didn't actually want to say anything back to him at the time in case he got angry and set his dog on mine or something (maybe i'm just paranoid). It is only if a dog has been declared dangerous that any restrictions apply right?

Good thinking poodle fan! I should have been quicker on my feet. I know I probably took it way too personally... But I also think, why ask in the first place... My personal favourite was a friend's boyfriend who told me that training would turn a dog into a "robot". HIS pup was going to be "a free spirit". "Oh really" was my comment "free to pee and poo in the house?" "Of course not!!" he said. "Oh, so you will be training him then" was my comment. :D There was actually a couple at our puppy school with a staffy cross puppy that actually DID have this attitude. They actually let him pee/poo in the house and said that in the morning the dog left all these "presents" for them WTF??? The puppy was also allowed free run of the whole house and they didn't believe in crates or playpens or even confining to a few rooms because that was "cruel". They were only doing puppy class so that he could "make friends" The teacher got them into line pretty quick though :D

Aww how nice of you!!! Are you crating her? Mindy was picked up today to have the surgery tomorrow. Because she will be returned to us on friday, I don't think she will be groggy at all. When I mentioned crating her, they seemd to think this was over the top (in a good way) and said that the puppies seemed to recover very quickly. I will be palying it safe with her though, she is usually quite good at settling, she knows being tied up means rest time and will go to her bed and lie there if instructed. But this is when she gets regular exercise so not sure how she'll go with no running at the park.......

I don't think people with aggressive dogs have are entiltled have their dog offleash in public, even if it is an offleash park. Perhaps while there is no one around, but certainly not in the presence of potential victims... Though obviously, I can't prove his dog was aggressive as there way no way we were going to get close enough to find out. I do think it is just a disaster waiting to happen as he clearly had no intention of ensuring the safety of others (that is if the dogs IS actually aggressive). There are not many dogs with perfect recall, and i have to say that a lot of the dogs that do go to this park have very little recall. When we did go to a separate area, an 8-10 week old cocker puppy rushed up to my dog and would not return to the owner. The owner started walking off and I actually thought for a minute there that they were going to leave me with the puppy!!! I had to warn them not to go near the aggressive dog because i am sure that would have ended badly :D Oh well, I guess I can't really do anything, which is a bit frustrating.

I didn't do any tricks with my old dog except for shake hands, which she basically taught us I do tricks with Mindy becasue she is more mischievous and I think she does enjoy figuring out what i want her to do. When i checked with guide dogs if it was ok to teach her tricks, they said it was fine (so long they didn't involve jumping) and encouraged it because it gets the puppies used to focussing on you and keeps their minds busy. A lot of her tricks are actually "useful" such as bringing in the newspaper each morning (Sundays she gets a day off ), opening doors, opening draws, fetching water bottles etc. But some are just for fun I wouldn't do tricks with her though if she didn't seem keen.

We visited our regular dog park this morning at off-peak time and there was this guy with a dog, he was throwing the ball to it. As we approached the general area he was in, he called out and said: you'd better keep your dog away from mine or it'll rip his head off So i called my dog away and quickly walked off in another direction and played in another area of the park. So my question is:should i report this? The dog didn't have a chance to act aggressively to mine (we didn't get close enough), and it was not like it ran over an started attacking her. I think it would have only reacted if we had come very close to it eg. sniffing distance. However, the dog was off leash and obviously had a known dog aggression problem. It seemed to be fairly under control, in the fact it didn't run over towards us. And the park is large enough for dogs to play separately if necessary. I do feel it should not have been offlead though, what if a dog HAD run up to it? Or he at least should have put it onlead when he saw us coming. But no, he just contiued to throw the ball. I don't know whether I am mad becuase the guy was so rude and careless and just expected us to get out of his way. I'm not sure i would feel so angry if he had just said "excuse me but would you mind keeping your dog away as my dog doesn't like/is not comfortable with other dogs coming up close to him". If he had said that I would have been more understanding having had a dog before that didn't like other dogs getting up in her face. What do people think? Should I bother reporting this or just let it go?

Sp the RSPCA won't rehome dogs to people who have a paved courtyard? Ridiculous! Unless it was a large/giant breed puppy, I can't really see what yard size has to do with it? Surely a dog would be better off in a house with a small yard where they can spend lots of time with their owners or thier owners are willing to exercise them very regularly or participate in dog sports etc. OK, yes a DA dog would be better off in a home with a large yard, but I personally don't think DA dogs should be first in line for rehoming, when there are many dogs with great temperaments waiting for homes. There are very few dogs that actually self-exercise, when we had an acerage, where would the dog be if we were away? By the back door. Yard size is only one factor that contributes to the well being of dogs, and not the most important imo. I know heaps of dogs that are relegated to a "large backyard" and not exercised or interacted with because "we have a large yard for him to play in" A large yard is only useful if you actually get of your butt and spend time playing with the dogs in it!!! Which can be just as easily done at a dog park etc. I would not want to deal with an organisiation where the yard size was the be all and end all decision for getting the dog.

I have a toy/item offerer too

Paul McGreevy is one is my lecturers and while I disagree with some of his views, he is actually very pro-training, he is really into clicker training and organised for us to have demos by the mounted police, guide dogs, assistance dogs, police dogs and canine "actors". He is also pretty into dressage and other horse sports, so i doubt he'd be against animal training completely. Have they not considered that most working dogs actually want to work? The selection process for most jobs like customs, police, guide dogs even sheep dogs is pretty tough with some having upto 50% failure rates. If a dog doesn't want to work, it doesn't make it. Sheep dogs don't even work for a reward in most cases apart from satifying their natural instinct. Qualified guide dogs and assistance dogs don't generally work for a reward apart form occaisonal verbal praise.

I volunteered at the RSPCA a few years ago before you had to have an interview and attend training. I loved it. The animals were so grateful for the attention, but it was extremely sad and depressing sometimes

My dog is well socialised but still submissive- rolling onto back to some other dogs. I don't think its is fear, probably more of a respect/neutralising a potential situation thing. It is not to all dogs, she is friendly and outgoing with her regular playmates. I'd rather have submissive dog than a DA one.

Great post K9Angel, you really gave us some insight into the word of a foster carer/rescuer. I think one of the problems with *some* rescue organisations is that you do not deal with a foster carer who knows the dog and can explain to you why they think the dog may not be suitable for you, but instead to a volunteer or secretary who doesn't give any explanation or gives an unsatifactory one- like you work fulltime, it is not our policy to rehome to people who work fulltime etc. When really I am sure people would be more understanding if you told them why a particular dog could not cope with being left for long periods etc. I understand though that you often do get a lot of weirdos calling up and people probably get sick of dealing with them!

Oh my god GoldD- your poor thing! I've never had a carsick dog before, Clover threw up once when we picke dher up- was fine after that. Mindy had some anxiety issues- she would salivate and poop in her crate which was pretty bad, probably worse than vomiting but it wasn't genuine carsickness. We fixed that by putting her in the footwell, which seemed to have an immediate good result and she hasn't had issues since, she has even travelled for an hour in the crate (which she hated before) with no problem.