Posted on 08/30/2010 11:00:09 AM PDT by george76
It is sad. For the child and her family, it is a tragedy, and I hope that the girl recovers and can have her scars minimized. For the dogs, who are blameless since they were supposed to be supervised by their owner, it is their death. For the owner, it is an expensive lesson, and if she loved her dogs, a heartbreaking one.
Get any dogs you want, but keep proper care and control of them.
Cut granny some slack.
She wasn’t the owner of the dogs and she did get the child to safety.
Yelling and screaming can sometimes make a bad situation worse.
It can get the dogs more excited.
Perhaps, her “be good, be good” actually did some good.
same here. wonder if I should hunt up a vicious poodle or bunny story now.
That’s a good point about the horses.
Greyhounds start racing at about 18 months. Most are done before age 3. The really good ones go to age 5, at which time they are automatically retired.
Mine came from Mexico. Henry was 3 when we got him. Rita was 2. She broke her leg in her 10th race and was retired early.
Some dogs show no interest in racing and are immediately retired.
When you first bring them home, keep in mind that they have never seen a car, they have never seen stairs, they have never seen kids...their life is spent either in a cage or on the track. They are somewhat programmed, and have to be deprogrammed as pets.
But that is the fun part, teaching them bad habits, like how to get on the furniture, etc. Otherwise, they won’t do it.
After a year they are spoiled brats that just like to lounge around. They like to be in the same room as you (pack mentality), and they can’t be left home alone for an unreasonable amount of time.
So in that regard, they are a bit needy. And they are 100% indoor dogs. They can’t survive outside, especially in Wisconsin.
As you can see, I like talking about them. They are a passion of mine (all animals really).
The most vicious dog I ever met was a Chihuahua. I was about ten years old and visiting my grandparents. The neighbor's Chihuahua tore a huge chunk out of my calf and I was on my grandparent's property.
Second most vicious dog I ever met was a shitzu. I was an adult and was visiting a friend a friend at her parent's house. The dog actually tore my jeans, both legs. I kicked it across the room.
I was never invited back.
I spent a bit of time with horse people over the last year.
A woman told of how she works with her horses
and it matched what I do with my dogs...
1. Suggest
2. Tell
3. Make
As far as dogs go, if you can’t do #3, then you have the wrong type of dog.
Do you think that simplified description of training is accurate?
My husband works for FedEx. He once found a little white cotton ball dog attached to his leg. To this day, he will involuntarily jump when he sees little dogs. Big dogs he tells to sit and they listen.
I love talking about dogs too. My dogs have always lived inside with one exception. We had a black and tan coonhound who insisted on being outside. We had a chain attached to the one car garage and a bed inside the garage for her but she always spent the night inside. Oh, and she actually moved the garage off the concrete foundation because she really hated the mailman.
She was a major watchdog, the mailman hated her even though she couldn’t get to him. That was the only dog that I’ve owned that I know would have killed someone defending me but she loved children.
1. Suggest
2. Tell
3. Make
With horses, I skip #1.
...unless your’re training a foal.
My neighbor three houses up the road has two AKC Rotties who have the run of the house and yard via a doggie door in the utility room while the owners are at work. They race out of the house sounding like the hounds of the Baskervilles and showing a forest of teeth if you approach the fence unless they realize they know you, when they slobber and wiggle and beg for ear scratches and treats. I don’t really know what they would do to an intruder, because one has never dared to enter their yard-but I doubt that it would be pretty. I’ve owned two German Shepherds in the past, and have been told that like them, Rotties require a firm but kind hand and do best with owners used to large, headstrong dog breeds.
Like my Siberian Husky who is never out unsupervised, they are supposed to be escape artists, and these two got out of the yard twice by climbing the 6 ft. game fence. The second time it happened, I saw them trotting down the road as I was arriving home from work and called them by name. They came running and followed me into my yard like lambs, where I gave them food and water and kept them until my neighbor arrived home. My dog was not pleased to have to stay inside with strangers in her yard for a couple of hours, but I know that these Rotties are rather dog aggressive. My neighbor electrified his fence, and the Rotties have not escaped since.
If you are not used to large, potentially aggressive dogs, it might be best to pick a large breed that is not used for police/guard work-maybe a big but not highly strung herding dog like an Anatolian Shepherd or a Great Pyrenees, or as another Freeper suggested, a retired Greyhound.
Thank you!
They are great dogs! :-)
Ja ja!
:)
-Any- sighthound would be totally across that underground fence long *before* it even felt a tingle from the collar.
The Ibizan Hound Club of the US will not -adopt- any dogs to homes without at *least* a four foot [preferably 6 foot] solid fence yard.
[and they are just as fast as Greys *and* can jump 6 feet straight up from a standstill]
All Grey rescues that I know personally will not adopt out to fenceless homes, either and they do come and inspect you.
Sorry to be a buzz kill but the dog would see a rabbit or squirrel and be roadkill before you could do -anything- and when hunting/chasing, they will *not* “hear you” calling them.
Unless you intend to -never- let it off leash *or* you plan put up a real fence, please do not get one.
Thanks for the info. I have known some dogs that do not care about the underground fences and will run right through them. A regular fence is not an option for us so a greyhound is probably a bad idea for us.
My Brittany hasn’t worn her collar for 2 years and she still remembers where the electric fence is buried and never goes within 5 feet of the wire.
They are not what they seem to be:
http://www.akc.org/breeds/rottweiler/history.cfm
[this history is stripped bare of hearsay, legend, myth and boasting]
They are drovers and draught animals by ‘invention’.
What’s been done to/with them in more recent times is human-inflicted, often for the worse.
FWIW, I’ve never met a “bad” one but then again, I don’t go near slums, drug dealers or any other scum infested cesspools of crime.
Gosh...I’m sorry.
I -hated- to have to post that but I’ve had my bellyfull of heartbreaking “run over/lost sighthound” stories.
Have you considered any working breeds?
They tend to hang near the house, especially if they’re neutered.
I *never* had a fence for any of my Dobermanns but then I got my first Ibizan who was uncharacteristicaly obedient and a “stay at home”.
After just *one* ‘scary event’ a few weeks after I got her, up went a fence and during the 2 days it took to dig post holes and string wire, she went out to pee on a 15’ leash.
She *did* come back away from the road when called _that time_ but there was no way I was ever going to give her a chance to wander off again.
The Dobes -always- skidded to a halt at my property boundary no matter what was going on, on the “other side”.
[how they knew where it was I’m not sure since *I* don’t even know, to the actual foot]
FRiend, please don’t apologize. I already have a wonderful dog but I am considering adopting another dog that needs a good home. He/she would have to get along with my dog, not try too hard to eat my cat and learn how to live within the boundries of an underground fence. They’re wonderful for dogs who accept them, my dog does 5 laps around the yard every morning.
She hasn’t worn her collar for 2 years but she still remembers where the boundries are.
(OK, she’s not very bright.)
As far as dogs go, if you can’t do #3, then you have the wrong type of dog.
Do you think that simplified description of training is accurate?<
Bet you $10.00 you cannot make a dog track that doesn't want to (evil grin).
I can’t help but feel awful for it.
Were it up to me, -no- Greyhound on earth would be without a loving home such as yours but with the sighthounds [the whole hound group, really] “wandering/hunting/chasing” is really big issue.
My dad had a Brittany who was *the* stupidest dog on earth.
Not only did this very expensive dog *not* know diddly about bird hunting, _every single time_ he was left off a lead or taken out of the fenced practice field he ran straight for Rt 40.
He got “bumped” several times and finally, some guy tried his best to avoid him but wound up with Duke under his front tire and -skidded- him 50 yards to a stop.
[the poor man just left his truck in the middle of the road and ran around the neighborhood with Duke in his arms, sobbing until he found out where he lived. Lord, I felt so sorry for that poor guilt-wracked guy]
Hundreds of dollars worth of surgery later [amazingly, yes he lived] and a permanently bare butt where all the hide had been peeled off, only about a month later, he got loose and guess where he went.
I ran after him and brought him home and the dog spent the rest of life in a large kennel run dad built in the back yard.
*Your* Brittany is an absolute Einstein compared to Duke....:)
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