For Dog Lovers.... Part 3

[U2Fanatic4ever]

and




WTG NIKON!

 

[samralf]

Thanks for the pictures Lies. How did she do? How is she doing? In case you haven't noticed I regret what I did but 2% of me kinda thinks I did the right thing. I know I thought I was doing the right thing at the time but....I'll stop crying over her eventually. Do you know what kind of drives she has?? I don't know why I just dumped all that on you. I hope you don't mind too much. Sorry.

 

[samralf]

Congratulations Nikon!!!!

 

[Liesje]

I don't mind at all. Today she did really well. Nikon showed poorly so he was beat out by this terrible American line puppy. I was actually glad the American dog won, b/c the handler seemed obsessed with showing and I didn't want her taking it out on the dog (Nikon beat him yesterday). We let Brittany show the puppies, b/c last night she said "it looks so easy!" so we told her she had to show them. Nikon was really wound up and wouldn't gait properly. Bailey was much better though, and she beat the American line puppy in her gender and then beat the American line male for best puppy so she got to be in the Best In Show for novice puppy, but the Golden Retriever won.

I haven't seen Bailey work a lot but I think she has decent drives. Nothing like what I would expect from a working line German Shepherd, but more so than the American line puppies that look dumb as nails and walk like the have a neurological disorder. She seems a little feistier than Nikon, in that I think she is more mouthy with hands, ankles, clothes, etc and also pulls really hard on the lead until she is literally choking herself. Nikon has not yet become mouthy at all and is more relaxed on the lead and with strangers handling him. As far as working drive, it's hard to say b/c I haven't seen as much from her and we play/train a little differently. I would say she definitely has enough prey drive to do Schutzhund. I've seen her going after rags, balls, and tugs. It seems they do more work with Brittany running around, whipping the toy around, really working her into prey drive whereas I will backtie Nikon until he is barking and lunging, let him bite the toy and then tug, tug, tug. Sometimes we will tug for several minutes before he re-grips or lets go and we start over. With Bailey I see more jumping around, biting, and then she "wins" the toy for her victory lap. Nikon doesn't do victory laps yet because he will drop a "dead" (still) object so I just work him up to a good grip and tug. They did say it seems it took a bit longer to bring out her drives and confidence. With Nikon, I can stare him in the eyes and growl, whip him through the air, cover his eyes, and actually hit him and he will not back down and let go of the tug. I don't know about Bailey, but again I've never seen them try.

I think they are liking how she is turning out better than the other female and it sounds like the plan is to show and title Bailey, possibly breed her. The other female Julie held back went to a new home. I think Julie is keeping Nikon and Bailey close. They are moving to Tennessee in April but are already looking into shows and clubs down there, and I think they will co-own or have full ownership of Bailey (either way I'm sure they will keep her rather than give her back to Julie).

 

[samralf]

I think she was too much puppy for Charlie. I can't figure him out. He thinks whenever any dog touches him with their mouth or paws he is getting attacked and he will either run away or give a high pitched bark and snarl. If that doesn't work with dogs bigger than him he runs and hides in Zivas case he pinned her. When she left him alone outside he watched over her like a proud papa. Inside I got them tugging on the same toy(as long as I held it), slept next to each other, he was never food or toy aggressive. I don't get him. I tried to socialize him with other dogs but they either bit him or played to rough. He was so bad he couldn't be in the same room with another dog without getting scared but I did fix that. I just don't know how to get him to learn that dogs like to play with their mouth. Any ideas?

 

[U2Fanatic4ever]

a couple of cute pics with my son Liam today..

 

[Liesje]

I think she was too much puppy for Charlie. I can't figure him out. He thinks whenever any dog touches him with their mouth or paws he is getting attacked and he will either run away or give a high pitched bark and snarl. If that doesn't work with dogs bigger than him he runs and hides in Zivas case he pinned her. When she left him alone outside he watched over her like a proud papa. Inside I got them tugging on the same toy(as long as I held it), slept next to each other, he was never food or toy aggressive. I don't get him. I tried to socialize him with other dogs but they either bit him or played to rough. He was so bad he couldn't be in the same room with another dog without getting scared but I did fix that. I just don't know how to get him to learn that dogs like to play with their mouth. Any ideas?

Good question. You might want to have a trainer/behaviorist look at him. Dog-dog issues are one thing I don't and won't deal with. I'd rather have a human aggressive dog than a dog aggressive one (not saying he's aggressive, he doesn't sound like it). My dogs all play very rough and I pretty much let anything happen short of white eyes and drawing blood. Often I have to remove Nikon, but not because he's being bullied. He's actually a real brat to my adults and for SchH he needs to think he's The Shit, so I let it escalate until I see the adults getting annoyed and then I remove him before they correct him. Not that they shouldn't, but he needs to believe he's top dog even though he's not. Julie and I think Kenya is a great dog for socializing other dogs. She is playful and fairly correct another dog if it goes too far, but doesn't hold a grudge. She will correct the dog and then play with it again, without getting overly snarky or escalating to a full blown fight. I've never had a real fight between my dogs or with any other dogs. Learning to "read" dogs has been tougher for me than the training because I'm a cautious, control-freak type person. I like to have new dogs over to keep my pack in check, to evaluate how they are with a strange dog in "their" territory. Just today I took a 7 month old male home from the show. He has never been to my house. His mom was coming to get him (rather than picking him up at Julie's) so I put him in my yard on Coke's tie-out and let Nikon and Kenya out so they could play for a few minutes.

I think the main thing with dog socialization is that it really needs to happen off lead. That's what took the longest for me to get over. Any nerves or hesitations transfer down the lead. Often dogs are getting conflicting signals because their body language is not threatening to the other dog, yet the owner is pulling back on the lead giving corrections on the dogs' necks and it frustrates them. Meeting other dogs on lead is an easy way to make a dog reactive or aggressive. Then there's people like Cesar Millan who make judgments about a dogs' body language with no real training or education on the matter and not only mis-read signals but have throngs of followers trying things with their dogs that might make their problems worse. When I first had Kenya I waited a long time before I tried her with other dogs because I didn't know her history with dogs. By then I had done some training classes and observed which dogs and people I thought were well-balanced and under control. At our training club we often let small packs of dogs off lead after class. I think that's important b/c a lot of them are more interested in playing than training so they get frustrated being there for an hour constantly being corrected and told what to do. I like to "reward" them with play, but always off lead. Now that I know Kenya's temperament I've gotten called in for some dog meetings. She is supposed to eventually work with another GSD that's terribly shy. She also played with another dog from Julie who was trying to bully and hump other dogs. If there is one thing that Kenya will not compromise on it's being humped. Any dog that has a humping problem is welcome to 5 minutes with my Kenya! She usually fixes the problem in .5 seconds, one snap. Then they play with no humping!

 

[samralf]

I thought I would see how he handles Wally before I took him to a trainer. He has had this problem since day 1. When he was a baby pup he wanted my in-laws dog to play with him. Well Ivan did but when he used his mouth Charlie would run. To fix his problem with being scared around any dog I took him over to my in-laws because they have an old sheltie mix, I figured I could handle a dog fight with them. Anyhoo when Charlie ran away from Max and ran between my legs I trapped him and let Max sniff his tushy. Not pretty but it worked. I let go of him and he walked away from me looking at me like I was nuts but then turned saw Max and ran over to him whimpering and chasing him. When I went to get his picture with santa he fell in love with a little sheltie and would not leave her side. Maybe he just likes shelties, maybe it's genetic(he is as healthy as a puppy mill pup). He did go nose to nose with a HUGE white shepherd at the vets. I don't know. Stupid dog. I have never had any trouble with my dogs before him. Now I know why you need a good breeder. In case anyone is wondering I do love the little bugger.

 

[samralf]

I forgot to mention Max doesn't like Charlie so he won't play with him. Poor guy can't win. I noticed that Charlie would go up to other dogs and sniff when they weren't looking but he wouldn't let other dogs sniff him so that's why I did the trap-n-sniff with him.

 

[samralf]

Ziva/Bailey

Is it me or does she look like mama in that last picture?

 

[anitram]

Liam and Gracie both have beautiful eyes!

Lies, did you see Biden's new puppy?

 

[Liesje]

Yeah I did. Kinda wish being such a public figure he'd done a *tad* more research about breeding/breeders though!

 

[anitram]

Yeah I did. Kinda wish being such a public figure he'd done a *tad* more research about breeding/breeders though!

I think his wife got it for him, haha.

 

[Liesje]

Have to be sooooo careful about GSDs from PA. Tons of puppy mills there. This particular breeder has some nice dogs but they are imports, nothing she is training and showing herself. Lots of red flags on the web site. No fanciers who are active in the breed have heard of her which is always a bad thing (heck it's better that people know you and hate you!). On the pedigree database board someone said she owns over 90 dogs.

 

[elevation2u]

for the 10 years I've had Millie my rottweiler, there hardly exists any decent pictures...cause despite being a friendly, lovely companion...well I am convinced she has a screw loose. Not only has her energy never decreased she has a monopoly of strange quirks I have not seen in other dogs, at least here she took a small break from shadow chasing for a nonblurry photo:

Benjamin almsot a year old!
here he is doing his 'Bang' (play dead ) trick

 

[U2Fanatic4ever]

haha.. i just got back from the vet's for Gracie's 13 week vaccinations.. all is well, i have a very healthy girl.. She got her rabies shot today too, and a free dose of frontline. That shit is expensive.. I got 7 months for 68 bucks (1 free month- 6month package).

and get this.. she weighed in at 25.4 lbs!

 

[anitram]

Here are a couple of Samson I took today:

He was not in a posing mood, but we're getting tons of snow tomorrow so he'll be nice and compliant!!

 

[Angela Harlem]

for the 10 years I've had Millie my rottweiler, there hardly exists any decent pictures...cause despite being a friendly, lovely companion...well I am convinced she has a screw loose. Not only has her energy never decreased she has a monopoly of strange quirks I have not seen in other dogs, at least here she took a small break from shadow chasing for a nonblurry photo:

Benjamin almsot a year old!
here he is doing his 'Bang' (play dead ) trick

ahhh! they're awesome!

ive got new photos of my bastard pair. i should look at uploading them. they're so hard to get photos of because they're mental and are mental. very mental.

 

[elevation2u]

hahaha, i know the feeling!

 

[anitram]

Happiness in the snow:

 

[samralf]

He is a beautiful Collie!!!

 

[starsgoblue]

a few pics from today.

*squeee*

I love her!!!

 

[U2Fanatic4ever]

*squeee*

I love her!!!

thanks.. I do too...

 

[U2Fanatic4ever]

haha..I never thought I would do this to a pet but I couldn't resist... And boy was it fun trying to get her to sit still and not take off the hat...

here's what I got...

 

[samralf]

Cute beard!

 

[Liesje]

 

[Liesje]

 

[anitram]

Really nice!

It's amazing how much Nikon is changing, especially in his face to look like a dog and not a puppy.

 

[Liesje]

Thank goodness his adult coat has come in! The puppy fuzz was soft and cute and all, but not at all practical for the amount of snow we've had. Snow sticks to the puppy fuzz so he was constantly covered in globs of ice and always wet indoors. Now that he has an adult coat the water and snow slides right off and I'm not so worried about him being wet and cold.

He used to always be like this or worse

 

[U2Fanatic4ever]

very cool pics of nikon and furkids..