OT: working dogs

What a magnificent beast !! Besides being gorgeous, they are just so clever.

I love big, beautiful dogs, but I never had the space they need or the ability to handle something bigger then I am.

But there's something wonderful to be said about a little ball of fur like my guy.

Lucille

In message , Lucille writes

Talking of working dogs. My son has a 14 week old Jack Russell terrier, she was bred by a gamekeeper at one of the local big estates. She was bred as a working terrier and she made her first kill today. For most of the morning she had been running around the garden while DS was working there. All of a sudden he said she dashed off and under the edge of the garden shed. DS went to investigate and she had caught a mouse. She would not let go and was going to try and eat it, but no way could he get it off her until........... he turned the garden hose on her and she dropped the mouse and ran into the house dripping wet through. He said she must be sulking because she would not come out again. I would have loved to have seen it because she is a dear little puppy I can imagine her sat in her basket sulking. She only weighs 8lbs so not very bid yet. Shirley

My woolly bear loves dog sledding - especially the part where he can take sled and driver on a scenic tour of the bush as he chases after a squirrel. No matter how much I've tried/trained, I can holler (make that scream) "gee, haw, left, right, whoa, stop, supper time, to no avail - where the squirrel goes so shall we go thinks my woolly bear.

BELIEVE ME - you haven't lived unless a squirrel being chased has made a 180 degree turn and comes straight back at you.

Dog sledding isn't always like you see in the movies.LOL

I find that dog sledding is best done when it is very cold (squirrels are asleep). The dogs don't seem to pick up as much ice on their feet when it is very cold. My woolly bear being an Alaska Malamute has webbed feet and he leaves a 4" paw print in the snow so a build up of ice can get to be painful. One can buy dog booties but finding the right size and two pair that will last for a few hours is tough sledding - pun intended.

If you go to RCTNP look in photos for Fred's stuff, look for Chilkoot - my faithful woolly bear.

Fred

I met Chilkoot in Winterpeg and trust me on this, he is HUGE! Gentle and loving and overall great dog.

I, too, have gotten to meet Chilkoot and HUGE almost covers it :-). But a sweeter, more loving "horse" you never find. When I was there, it was the middle of winter and Fred and I spent the day "doing" Winterpeg. Part of this involved taking 'Koot out to a lovely park and letting him run around in the snow and then taking photos of him and MOI. I walk with a cane (thanks to the arthritis) and keeping stable and upright in the snow can be a challenge for me. chilkoot was quite a gentleman and was *very* careful around MOI and there was never a problem with him running into me and getting me unbalanced. A better "puppy" you will never find -- smaller, of course, but not better behaved. CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

Nah, good temperments, like bad ones, come in all sizes and all breeds. A whole heck of a lot of it is environment.

Elizabeth

I beg to differ. Temperament comes in all sizes, shapes and colors. I know some breeds have reputations as being one thing or the other, but I know Pit Bulls that are as sweet as sugar and Maltese that are miserable.

My little guy happens to be the sweetest dog I ever owned.

But of course he is! ;) C

Like human behaviours, canine ones go the full range of delightful to devilish across all shapes and sizes, but I will add that most people with bigger dogs tend to spend more time and effort ensuring the behaviours of their dogs. Few things irk me more than pint size dogs being aggressive towards dogs that are 10 times their size, then the pint sized dog's owner picks up their charge and gives it a cuddle for its abysmal behaviour, rather than the chastisement and/or punishment that it richly deserves. Come to think it, that applies to children with abysmal manners too.......as one of my SIL remarked at a BBQ yesterday "at the risk of sounding like grandma with.... What is the world coming to............."

Joanne in Perth WA.

My Harry, who has just about the best temperment possible (unlike Cash, who's a bit reactive) waits until the yappy little dog gets right up under him and then he gives one very loud WOOOOOF! It's pretty funny to watch the little one skitter away after that. Harry is always well behaved with dogs that are well behaved with him, but he doesn't suffer fools and at 27 inches/65 lbs, he doesn't have to much.

There was a memorable moment when Harry was younger, when he was held at bay by a 7 lb Maltese. Partially, I think he just had no idea what to do with the thing and knew that Spenser was a guest in our house, so he backed off. It was pretty funny.

Elizabeth

I had one of those yappy, mean, feisty little guys years ago. I called him my Toy Fox Terror. He was rotten to the core and was that way from the day he came home with me at 10 weeks, weighing a little over 2 lbs.. He fought with every dog, big or small that he met and he actually bit my husband when he didn't put his food bowl down fast enough. I could handle him because he never weighed much more than 8 lbs. and I was the boss, but I was the only one.

I believe that when he took on the big dogs, snarling and growling, most of them looked at him with a bemused look and said to themselves, I aint going to get my person angry fighting with the likes of this squirt. And yes, I would pick him up and carry him away. And I suppose I must admit that I did smile a little at his antics and possibly gave him a kiss on the top of his head. It wasn't approval. Rather it was my wish that I could get away with such bad behavior and still have a place to sleep and eat and stay warm.

How could you punish your dog for that kind of behavior, short of strangling him? Yelling at them is embarrassing for both of you and hitting a dog is something I wouldn't ever, even in my wildest dreams, do. By the time I got into my house, he forgot the whole incident and went off to his bed for a nap. Sure, I usually said in what I considered a stern voice, what did you do and I got this sheepish look along with a questioning stare which I interpreted to mean--what did I do? I have no clue whether or not he thought what he had done was anything odd and he was just acting like a dog.

Puff, my Maltese, is a wimp and barks like a nut and runs the other way as soon as the other dog gets even remotely aggressive. He behaves like a wonderful alarm system, but I doubt he would know what to do if he actually had to tangle with another dog or a person.

Lucille

DD loves both of your doggies - both the same (said with a sleepy voice). I think they both have it right on the money when they try to herd DS.

But, can they come for a visit soon? Or a ton of their brushed out fur - to scare away the deer from the garden and the squirrels from the feeders.

The bowl would have been picked back up, and he would have gone hungry that night. It's my food and you eat at my pleasure, as Cash has learned by growling at me over his bowl.

I wouldn't have punished him, but I would have prevented the behavior just as we must prevent it in the larger dogs. He would never have been off leash if there was a chance of another dog being around and I would have taught him to "watch me." Cash's "watch me" is so solid that a dog came running off the agility course the other night (I saw him coming and was ready) right up to sniff Cash's butt, and he never took his eyes off my face, even though his ears made it clear that he was angry about having his space invaded like that. And then I got to tell my dog how wonderful he is instead of having to yell at him for snarling at a stranger. Of course, the string cheese in my hand up near my face is a wonderful reinforcer for the times when he's tempted to disobey! LOL!

Elizabeth

----- Original Message ----- From: "Dr. Brat" Newsgroups: rec.crafts.textiles.needlework Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2008 10:33 AM Subject: Re: working dogs

Exactly what we did. That's why he only bit him once and never bit anyone again after that. Snarled and growled yes, but no biting.

I lived in the city and he wasn't ever off a short leash. Part of the problem was a couple of idiots who lived on my block and thought it was cute to provoke the little guy like that. Thinking back to those days, maybe that's part of the reason I never got furious enough to smack him. Sometimes I really think the dogs are fine, it's the people who should go for obedience training. We even had one dope who wound up with his German Shepherd getting shot by a cop because he was tearing down the street chasing a kid. The cop was driving by and thought the dog looked like he was ready to attack. We'll never know whether or not he was, but he wound up with an amputated front leg. I always blamed the owner.

And then I got to tell my dog how wonderful he is instead of having to yell at him for snarling at a

I'm also a strong advocate of treat training. I trained all my dogs that way and except for the one loonytoon one, it worked perfectly. Even Frisky, the Terror, would prefer a biscuit to a punishment and it even worked most of the time with him.

Good for you! My Cash's littermate was recently put down for aggression partially because his people didn't do anything about his food guarding and it escalated from there. I totally blame the owners for the loss of what was a gorgeous and smart dog, who just needed a firmer hand.

If he was on a short leash, no other dog should ever have gotten that close to him and in fact, he was entirely in the right. He was protecting you and his own space.

I'm consistently amazed at how stupid people can be. I was walking Harry with a friend and her German Shepherd in the Common one day when two pugs came running up to us. Their people were laughing and saying "Oh, they're friendly!" I responded, "yes, but she's not!" as I manuvered to do my best to keep Harry between the pugs and the Shepherd who could have done some serious damage. Idiots.

Most dogs would prefer a treat. I'm having a rough time getting my tenant to understand that yelling at her Sibe when he doesn't come in isn't going to make him more likely to come the next time. *sigh*

Elizabeth

I'm not altogether kidding when I say people should go for training. Here in redneck country there are way too many pit bulls and rotties who aren't even penned in. They can be lovely, sweet animals, but without heavy duty training they sure are scary and powerful enough to take down a small horse or a cow.

These morons think it's cute to have a dangerous dog loose on their property and if anything is said to them they insist it's their "right." as a citizen.

It seems every few months you read about someone getting killed by a pack of dogs, or a dog being taken by a gator because he was allowed to run loose.

No "rescue" group for Tuev's?:(

There's rescue for Tervs, but no one could have in good conscience turned this dog into rescue. He'd been allowed to have his own way far too long (Cash is almost 4). Even the breeder didn't see how she could take him back and rehabilitate him and then place him elsewhere and she has her granddaughter living with her at the moment. I could probably have taken him, if I'd been willing to put in the time and energy to work with him and keep him for the rest of his life, but I have two dogs I love and a husband who is not nearly as consistent as I am in dealing with issues (he thinks I'm "torturing" Cash when I get into it with him over his bones or other food, but I won't be growled at for simply walking by. In fact, I won't be growled at at all). But there's too much liability involved in placing a dog once he has bitten someone (and too many dogs in search of homes who have never bitten anyone). And these people were really stupid about him. Even after they knew they had a problem, they allowed him to mix with company when there was food present. I bet you can guess what happened.

Elizabeth

So how do you train a dog not to be protective of his food? Mine is extremely patient as I pet him. He never growls (except at his image on our glass door), but you have me curious. Just in case mine decides to growl at me, I'd like to know how to stop him.

Dianne