Posted on 07/20/2010 8:40:35 AM PDT by Kensy1
Human members of a dog’s family intuit that the dog leads a secret emotional and intellectual life which he or she has no intention of sharing. Everyone knows that the biggest brute of a dog wants to be puppied, and the tiniest scrap of a dog wants to be feared, but we also know that there’s more going on. Just look in a dog’s eyes. Really look. After a few seconds, the dog gets a little evasive. Dogs don’t want people to know what’s going on in their souls, especially not the people with whom they live.
Bo Hoefinger is unique. He is a literary dog who doesn’t run with the pack when it comes to keeping secrets. He’s written a book, Bad to the Bone – Memoir of a Rebel Doggie Blogger. My dog, Charity Marie, read Bad to the Bone and immediately hid it. That’s how I knew this was a book that screamed to be read.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogcritics.org ...
They do all have a tendency to be narrowly focused! :)
Try using a bell. There are three small bells (light weight Christmas decoration types) hanging from door knobs in the house. When I was training our dog, I would ring the bell then put her outside until she went potty. If I had time, I would make her ring it by running her nose into it. She’s not the brightest dog I’ve owned, but it only took a month or so for her to catch on. In addition to going potty, she now rings it lightly or gestures towards it if she wants food or to chase a cat outside.
watch and listen to “The Dog Whisperer”- be calm and assertive! Many things doggies do is wolf pack behavior.
Dog is challenging you as male intruding into his pack. He doesnt want you in his/his master’s pack. He knows he is pushing your buttons.
Your friend needs to step up, take charge and teach doggie who is alpha male (or female?) in that house. Your friend gets to decide who comes into the house (the den)...not doggie
Friend needs to put doggie into submissive role (down-stay or on his back) when you come over, until doggie accepts master’s decision and stops challenging you.
This alpha male-wannabe bigdoggie may never be your friend but he needs to learn to accept you because his master is the alpha pack leader and his master commands it.
I’m a male and my friend is also. We get together on Sunday nights with a couple other guys for a beer and shoot the breeze. They all think the problem is my goatee. Maybe the mystery person in the dog’s past had one.
Your babies are darling. The bedroom scenes! Who knew that small dogs could occupy such large a portion of a king-size bed? In my house, humans are “allowed” to use the dog’s “sleeping chamber” and “sleeping platform,” as long as we don’t get too pushy. She is “supposed” to sleep at the foot of the bed, but she waits until she thinks all human activity has ceased, and then slowly, stealthily, creeps upward toward her rightful place: the pillows.
Yeah, this pup is anything but aloof. And you are right about Danes. They are gentle giants, but attack their master or their master’s kids and you will discover they have more ‘assertiveness’ than you would expect.
Our Buford, the sweetest dog in the world, could think too. We didn’t know that until he was about 5 yrs old and we got a younger, smaller, more dominant dog, Philo.
Buford would eat all his food right away, but Philo would instead stand over his and guard it aggressively. We noticed that Buford soon worked out a plan. He would go to the front door and bark as if someone was there. Philo immediately forgot about guarding his food and ran to the door barking at the non-existent visitor. Buford circled back and wolfed down Philo’s remaining food! This worked time after time. Buford was a cairn terrier/poodle cross and Philo was a pekinese/poodle/yorkie.
If everybody involved, including the dog, is a male, it could be an alpha-dog thing. My recommendation: dog treats as a ice-breaker. But you could be right about the goatee. Years ago I had a dog who disliked red heads.
Yeah, doing all that. Calm and assertive. Not backing down, but not trying to aggravate him either. And my friend is working on training, so the problem probably won’t last. I’d just prefer to speed it up. Aside from the behavioral issue, it really is a cool dog.
Now he's spoiled rotten. We buy him toys, he gets treats a couple of times a day, he spends most of his day inside in the air conditioning. He's a great inspiration. He never felt sorry for himself and can do most of the things any other dog can do. He gets into all the trouble that any other puppy can.
When we got him I was thinking, "great - he won't be able to dig holes in the yard." A few weeks later we caught him laying on his side, digging with his front leg. The only problems he has are going down steps and he gets tired easily on walks.
Guess he thinks everyone knows who he is....( Ah, many people don't..) and doesn't need the eyeballs on his work anymore.
I actually do that. He gets a puzzled look on his face, reluctantly takes the treat, and then starts barking again. Funny dog.
I had a dog that actually served that purpose during a period when a lot of female strangers should show up at my apartment, I came to let the dog decide if I would let them stay or not. It was a little stray Chihuahua that had adopted me, I came to trust her decision on whether a new female could spend the night.
Herders are natural peacemakers. They do not like conflict. Our border collies do all sorts of things to try to diffuse conflict all the way to posterior nipping. They definitely try the toy gambit. They also lick or hug (yes hug) - we have a licker and a hugger. When you are in a dark mood, they try the affection gambit (curling up with you). It is amazing what they can sense.
Dang!! Wish I had known that.
Thanksgiving weekend two years ago, Saturday morning and me and MisterDawg are heading for the Hallmark store for the sale on Keepsake Ornaments. As we pull out of the garage and onto the road out to the highway, he says to me, "Look" -- I look out the front windshield and there next to the garbage bags waiting for pick-up is this skinny, shaking, looks like an AmStaff mix with enormous ears. MisterDawg calls him to the car window, gives his ears a scooch, "You hungry, boy? You looking for some water?"
Long story short, he had been orphaned by someone whose visa expired and had to return to Russia, the dawg moved into our home and has been loved ever since. My Little Orphan Charlie, turns out he's mostly Boxer with the AmStaff head -- MAJOR affectionate dawg, he almost DEMANDS to be petted!
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside it is too dark to read." -- Groucho Marx
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