Posted on 07/10/2023 7:23:56 AM PDT by Lazamataz
My dog has a behavioral issue, and gets loose from time to time and kills cats... two so far. This is something that is making neighbors angry, obviously. Clearly the dog cannot stay here.
She is also perhaps the stupidest dog I have ever owned and is completely untrainable. We have successfully housebroken her. However, for the eating ritual, she WAS sitting when commanded, and began eating on the release command 'Okay', but she forgot half that training and now just stares at you when you release her.
Obviously we would never be able to train her not to kill cats.
I want to exhaust every option before I put her down. Is such a dog someone I want to give up to a shelter / rescue? Or is it best to just put her down?
Put her down, Laz. If some poor do-gooder thinks she can retrain her and the dog ends up killing a kid or a dog or a cat you’re going to feel even worse. Don’t make her someone else’s problem - the shelters of full of dangerous pit-mixes with behavior problems.
Put her down, and my sympathies to you.
keep him well fed and fat will help to discourage his or her or its behavior
We had a black lab that held court with all the cats in the hood slept on a nice piece of grass together where the sun as warm nice breeze i got a beach chair out and sat with them while they slept licked played with each other loved it
So are some people
call a Korean BBQ
will it work on democrates?
I adopted a cat we named “Moe” after a co-worker’s husband found him on his UPS route; tiny, abandoned and alone. I don’t think he was fully weened yet.
FWIW “Moe” was short for Muhammar the Terrorist (my husband gave him that name) for his penchant as a kitten to lay in wait and then jump out and literally bite our ankles and I mean bite as in sometimes drawing blood. And he loved “chewing on, biting my fingers” but when he was a tiny kitten, I thought it was “cute”.
But I really started seeing even more signs of his aggressiveness and strange behaviors really coming out after he was neutered. Without provocation or warning one day he attacked our Husky with whom he had had up to then gotten along with, and he would growl and hiss at my husband who had been nothing but kind to him. Moe would also drag my sweaters and underwear out of the clothes hamper and dry hump them which I thought was very weird.
It came to the point that I was the only one who could handle him, and some people refused to come into my house unless I locked him up in another room because he would glare at them and stalk them. I was the only person who could pet and snuggle with him, but he’d purr so sweetly when I held him, I ignored the danger.
The day Moe attacked me, and I mean attacked - growling, baring his teeth, hissing, lunging at me repeatedly, gashing my leg open through my jeans, trying to climb up me to get to my throat as if he was rabid like Cujo, and I was honestly afraid he was trying to kill me. It was terrifying.
I had been petting another cat that kept coming to our door and who I put in our garage and was feeding, hoping to find her a home, shortly before coming into the house.
Moe came up to me in a friendly manner at first but then kept sniffing me and suddenly turned aggressive.
I managed to run outside the house to the porch but Moe inside at the window still growling and hissing at me, completely out of control and acting “possessed”.
After I adopted sweet pregnant cat, Zelda that I had been petting and trying to find a home for, that seemed to set Moe off (jealousy?) after my husband and a neighbor captured him and took him to animal control and we allowed them to put him down after a 24 hour hold , I talked with our new vet about Moe, and she told me that if a neutering is not done correctly and completely it can cause hormonal imbalances and some of the behaviors I described.
She also said that just like people some cats, can suffer from a sort of mental illness or brain damage and sometimes they are just “bad” and as you said, she said, paraphrasing, sometimes they “just ain’t right in the head”.
BTW, Zelda was the sweetest cat ever and she and the 3 kittens she gave birth to helped me heal from the trauma.
Firstly, I find cats running free while dogs have to be confined and on leashes highly discrimatory. Had the cats been in their owners house or yard they probably wouldn’t have been harassed.
Secondly you need to secure your yard and use your leash when outside of your premises.
Thirdly, don’t buy low grade, poor protein dog food. Your dog may well be foraging for protein. I have a dog that used to eat cats and steal chickens when possible for a snack until I figured it out.
I suspect that you would say the same thing about pedophiles another depraved, perverted predators. Don't be a Kumbaya idiot.
Do YOU have a fenced in yard? I didn’t notice if you said you did.
If not, get one! Get one big enough that can’t be jumped.
That’s the only thing that will 100% work. IMHO
I personally detest electric fences. Dog may or may not get out, but it does NOT keep anything else from coming in!
I met a girl in Sasebo back in 1952 who had the same problem...
Well the dog “knew commands.” And is now refusing to perform them, why? Not smart or too smart? Battle of wills?
I would tend to NOT recommend shock collars on a dog that kills or is refusing known commands.
Too me ...either the owner/dog relationship has become damaged for some reason or as the dog is aging something is becoming dangerously imbalanced in the brain. In 15 years of animal training I have only ever had one dog that it became clearly evident euthanasia was the best thing. And that recommendation came in cooperation with a Veterinary Behaviorist and thousands of dollars spent trying to save the dog.
It was an important lesson for me early on. I learned sooo much from that experience that I am now far more confident in my recommendations for training and the type of training that should be utilized. I still send potential clients out for assessment with either the VB or a colleague of mine who works only with pit bulls.
(1) Fence in your yard and keep the dog there or on a leash when not inside or in the fenced area.
(2) Get a shock collar, and, since your dog is stupid, start with a medium or higher setting. Then teach it to avoid going after or looking at provocations, like cats.
(3) Consult Cesar Millan's work on making your dog obedient. In the case of cats, the procedure is to train your dog generally, then add in training for the dog to not even look at cats and to avoid reacting to them when seen.
Cesar's basic point is that as pack animals, dogs innately want to obey their alpha, so you an other members of the household have to become and always act as alpha to your dog. Notably, stupid dogs can actually be easier to train, but you and other family members have to make the rules clear by your actions and always follow them. Otherwise, the dog get confused and disobeys the rules.
I don’t have any experience with Pits, but know enough to be wary of them.
Was a witness to the aftermath of a husky attack on a 13 year old and it wasn’t pretty. The boy was playing basketball and made a “guarding” action at the dog.
Ended up with many stitches, his arm in a sling and punctures in his skull.
The other husky we knew was a stray given to a family member.
They built a stockade style fence which did keep the dog in but it dug up and chewed the phone lines into the house and tore off large sections of siding.
It ended up running away when they left the gate open.
Not every animal has to be cared for until it dies of old age yet there is an endless supply of animals that should be taken in and cared for.
Putin my dog down at that time was so sad. Sadder because it “wasn’t his fault.” But, in a little while he was likely to start taking chunks out of our kids..and that’s just not good.
I am certainly not in favor of taking pedos out in the woods and shooting them. A guillotine in the public square will do. Make that 2 guillotines one at the head and one at the other end.
This is not a wild cur harassing local livestock. I get in that case the dog risks (justly so) getting shot. This is a family pet that does not deserve having someone trusted and loved inflicting panic and pain. There is a humane alternative which may end up being the case. But your suggestion is cruel and 100% unnecessary as a solution.
my dtr has two huskies....I don’t think they’ll ever be off the leash....they would just run for daylight...they can sit, speak, lie down, but still very rambunctious and will jump up .....they are about a year old....but, they are so beautiful.....and smart too.....
Why don’t you have the dog under your control at all times. That is YOUR duty
Laz sometimes a dog just has to go.
There is no reason to prolong the pain
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