courtnek

I guess I should add this - for a show dog, they are not necessary. But if you pkan on doing field trials, or agility, I would leave them. They put the dog at a distinct advantage when doing agility - they can round corneres faster than dogs without them.

yes, they absolutely have a purpose - in a field dog. Dew claws are called that because they give the dog "extra traction" (kinda like radial tires - :lol: ) when they are running on wet ground. The front claws/footpad might slip, but the dew claws, because of their placement, will help the dog to hang on to wet surfaces and not slide. They help prevent slide because they are farther back on the dog, so there is alot of weight applied when the dew claws hit the ground... This is a very common trait in dogs, especially those of hunting breeds. The dew claws started getting removed because the show judges deemed them "unnecessary", but they do serve a purpose in field dogs. Wolves all have dew claws...it allows them to keep their speed up during the chase...and they are called "dew claws" because dew on the ground causes very slippery conditions, something a hunter wants to avoid. Someone removed Laurel's dew claws, and I am NOT happy about it. She was a field dog, why remove the dews? But her rescue mom said it happened before she got her, so she doesnt know why...apparently they dont do it anymore on field dogs...

I know that Malamum, but there are Newbies here, and I didnt want them to take what I said the wrong way....your post made me realize that it might be taken wrong if I didnt explain my thought process.... :D you know me well enough to know I would kick this kid myself if given the chance..... Did I say that???? :lol:

Taurus was a medium-gold, which I like better as well...But he was large, boisterous, crazed about being paid attetion to - typical!!! :lol: I have a picture of him with Isis, my old cat....They are laying on the floor tegether and Isis is snuggling up to Taurus, and he actually has his paw over Isis's back, like he's saying "he's my pal..." OK so I have to tell a story now. Some have heard it already, although I dont know if Rowie has.... Taurus and Isis became fast friends in a short period of time. Isis was a kitten and Taurus was about 9 when I got Isis....Taurus passed on when he was 13, so Isis would have been 4..... I had Taurus cremated seperately and still have his ashes in a little sealed urn with his name on it....Isis was devastated after he died, couldnt figure out what happened to his best friend..... When I brought the urn home, I put it on the bookcase headboard on my bed. I went to work. I came home from work, and found the urn on the floor in the living room, with Isis sleeping next to it, like he used to sleep next to Taurus. Although I found this strange, I picked up the urn and put it back on the headboard. It didnt matter. No matter where I put it, Isis would find it and drag it out, and sleep next to it. Now this was a cat that could open any door ever invented, including the front door unless it was bolt locked (I'm NOT kidding) so even putting the urn in cabinets didnt work. I eventually gave up. I bought a special bed for Isis and put the urn in it, and it stayed there until Isis passed away. He slept with it whenever he slept, and if you moved it he would pace and meow till you put it back. Kinda weird, huh? He was so attached to that dog that even in death (I suspect he could smell the ashes through the urn or something) he wouldnt let go.... Isis was cremated as well, and his urn now stands next to Taurus' on the headboard, never to be seperated again.

SLIGHT swelling around the stitches is normal, Red, or Angry swelling is not, so if it's very red or very swollen she best see the vet. I'm sure she'll be fine though...

[quote]I think it's sad that the law puts more value on purebred dogs because of the monetary value - a life is a life regardless of the $$$ involved[/quote] I agree, 100%. I only suggest it in case there is a way for the owners to sue the KID (not his parents) and force him into some serious jail time for what he did. They can use the monetary value of the dogs to up the stakes during a trial.... NO money can replace those puppies and their mother. Or Pork Chop... But it might put a serious kabosh on the kid, hopefully...

Looks like things are going well!! Keep it up!! We're all rooting for ya!! :D :D :D :D

and does any of this apply to YOUR Taurus? Taurus About Your Sign... The Taurean's characteristics are solidity, practicality, extreme determination and strength of will - no one will ever drive them, but they will willingly and loyally follow a leader they trust. They are stable, balanced, conservative good, law-abiding citizens and lovers of peace, possessing all the best qualities of the bourgeoisie. As they have a sense of material values and physical possessions, respect for property and a horror of falling into debt, they will do everything in their power to maintain the security of the status quo and be somewhat hostile to change. Mentally, they are keen-witted and practical more often than intellectual, but apt to become fixed in their opinions through their preference for following accepted and reliable patterns of experience. Their character is generally dependable, steadfast, prudent, just, firm and unshaken in the face of difficulties. Their vices arise from their virtues, going to extremes on occasion,such as sometimes being too slavish to the conventions they admire. On rare occasions a Taurean may be obstinately and exasperatingly self-righteous, unoriginal, rigid, ultraconservative, argumentative, querulous bores, stuck in a self-centered rut. They may develop a brooding resentment through nursing a series of injuries received and, whether their characters are positive or negative, they need someone to stroke their egos with a frequent, "Well Done!" Most Taureans are not this extreme though. They are faithful and generous friends with a great capacity for affection, but rarely make friends with anyone outside their social rank, to which they are ordinarily excessively faithful. In the main, they are gentle, even tempered, good natured, modest and slow to anger, disliking quarreling and avoiding ill-feeling. If they are provoked, however, they can explode into violent outbursts of ferocious anger in which they seem to lose all self-control. Equally unexpected are their occasional sallies into humor and exhibitions of fun. Although their physical appearance may belie it, they have a strong aesthetic taste, enjoying art, for which they may have a talent, beauty (recoiling from anything sordid or ugly) and music. They may have a strong, sometimes unconventional, religious faith. Allied to their taste for all things beautiful is a love for the good things of life pleasure, comfort, luxury and good food and wine and they may have to resist the temptation to over indulgence, leading to drunkenness, gross sensuality, and covetousness. In their work, Taureans are industrious and good craftspeople, and are not afraid of getting their hands dirty. They are reliable, practical, methodical and ambitious, within a framework of obedience to superiors. They are at their best in routine positions of trust and responsibility, where there is little need of urgency and even less risk of change, and a pension at the end. Yet they are creative and good founders of enterprises where the rewards of their productiveness come from their own work and not that of others. They can flourish in many different trades and professions: banking, architecture, building, almost any form of bureaucracy, auctioneering, farming, medicine, chemistry, industry Taureans make good managers and foremen surveying, insurance, education and, perhaps surprisingly, music and sculpture. They make an ideal trustee or guardian, and can attain eminence as a chef. Some Taureans are gifted enough in singing to become opera stars or to excel in more popular types of music. They are more than averagely amorous and sensually self-conscious, but sexually straightforward and not given to experiment. They make constant, faithful, home loving spouses and thoughtful, kindly parents, demanding too much of neither their spouses nor children. They can be over possessive and may sometimes play the game of engineering family roles for the pleasure of making up the quarrel. If anyone offends their amour proper they can be a determined enemy, though magnanimous in forgiveness if their opponent makes an effort to meet them halfway. No other sign in the zodiac is closer to earth then Taurus. The main objective in leading a Taurean life is primarily (though not entirely) to maintain stability and physical concerns. Your inner spiritual sense longs for earthly harmony and wholesomeness. When you fully understand this, and work toward this end, you will no longer need to blindly reassure yourself with external possessions and comforts. A realization that finding this inner peace will cause all of the above mentioned positive things will overtake you and your life will be very full. Ultimately the Taurean needs to discover their truest, deepest and highest values. When they know what is truly valuable, they are no longer chained to people and to things that have to do with lesser values. The greatest indication of value to a Taurean is beauty, which cannot be owned, only appreciated. MY Taurus was stubborn, loving, reliable, unendng. Always there for me. always strong in a crisis, never faltered. Ran off, always came home.... Sat on the front porch after running off, miffed, that no one was there to let him in (we were ALL out all over the neighborhood LOOKING FOR HIM!!!) STUBBORN - did I say STUBBORN??????? ALWAYS... Hee Hee!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

for REAL affect - try to imagine THAT look on a Golden...Yet he had it, down pat. "Go away, kid, ya bother me..." :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

WHAT A FACE!! yea, he's a Taurus..."My Way Or the Highway...." LOL :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

sorry

Just FYI - if the dog can jump the gate, put two up, on top of the other... I had to do that once and iw stil worked out well Good Luck!!

Thank you T&J - I will be sending a check, but Angry needs to realize that there is an issue here with her dogs....dont know what started it, but she needs to watch them and make sure it doesnt happen again....these are animal aggressive dogs...all it would take is one "bad move" on Tia's part to set one of the others off....and I like Pit's...I cant have one because my Lab mix "bitch" (no pun intended) is Queen of the Castle (under me) and no Alphaness will be allowed from another dog.... On another note - do you have a dog named Taurus? That's what I named my first dog, a Golden Retriever....brings back memories.... :)

[quote]While I agree with K, Courtnek & Judy, I do believe that blame should be laid on the dog owner who stated to the news media that the kid kept petting the dog while it was eating, this owner obviously knew the dog didn't like it and should have corrected the dog & sent the child home or separated them before the dog bit. [/quote] OK I'm confused...isnt that what I said??? :lol: :lol: :lol: (it's been a LONG workweek already...) I agree that the dog owner is to blame, MOSTLY, for this incident, although I, as a parent, would not allow my child to play at the neighbors unless I knew what was going on, and especially not if I didnt think they had good control of their dog. The dog owner needs to take responsiblility for what his/her dog does, just like parents need to take responsibility for what their children do. Even with the BEST trained and controlled dog, I still WOULD NOT let a small child interfere with it's eating unless I was right there the whole time, and ONLY if it was for some kind of training. Even then, the dog would be on a lead and the child would be outside of snapping distance.... As dog owners, we have to make sure our animals dont end up hurting someone else because we were too busy, too distracted, or too unknowing to have intervened and corrected the situation...

OK I must be dense. I see a lot of messages asking to help, but not the story itself. I personally want to know what happened....is there a particular thread on that forum that tells the whole story? thanks

Gizmo, please post a link if you can to the story - I too would like to know more about it....

[quote]Puddles - well Poodle is French for Puddle[/quote] I did not know that!! I only speak a little french... Is that some indication of their water-dog history?? I think that's terrible!!! Calling a water-dog "puddle"... :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

At the very least they can charge him with breaking and entering. which is a crime. I dont know what else they can charge him with for the killing of thye dogs, but if they were purebred there is money involved in a lawsuit against this kid....and yes, he should be jailed, and checked out by a shrink. Most of the serial killers you hear about today abused animals when they were younger......there is now a study going on that links the two acts of aggression together. Whatever his so-called reasoning, he desrves jail time, for the sheer viciousness of the act. :evil: :evil: :evil:

kennel names are usually based on the breed the kennel is raising.. since mixed dogs are not usually bred intentionally (except in the -poo category) there arent usually kennel names... but some of MY choices (I'm so anti-establishment) Golden Labs International (GR's with yellow Labs) Mixed-Pups Standard Kennels What-Kind-Of-Mixed-Dog-Are-You-Looking-For? Kennels for everybody... :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Sanvean, I agree with you completely. My point was that the dog owners may not have been aware of a food aggression issue, if they have never tried to remove food while the dog was eating. Most people dont. I still stand on the belief that if you have someone else's child in your house, its YOUR responsibility to make sure nothing bad happens to the child, within your capabilities. And anyone with a dog should know you dont let a child jack with it while it's eating...no matter how well its trained or how gentle it seems...

no bad Kudos to you Pouty, I understood what you were saying. Bringing up the fighting history was valid, just in case it could be an issue. My post was to stress that fighting history or not, alpha wannabe's will fight. If one wont back down, there WILL be issues. I only wanted to stress this point because most people would never think that their dogs will fight, they're both so gentle, etc. UNTIL the pack rules kick in, which I know you uinderstand.... Sharpei, how are things going? Is Sassy looking more gentle now?

watching animal planet. House got raided, carpet, enclosure doors, walls, ALL COVERED WITH BLOOD...ther are 16 TAPES of dog fights.... DAMN THEM TO HELL AND BACK!!! REPEATEDLY!!! I would SHOOT them if I could....between the eyes...maybe that's too gentle... Let them stand up against their OWN DOGS.... Let THEM see how it feels to have the jaws of a Pit latched onto your arm, and not letting go....let THEM feel the pain these poor fighting dogs do... WHAT I WOULD DO IF I COULD....I'm in tears right now....THIS IS SOOOOO WRONG!!!! Those dogs will be put to sleep, and I understand that...But I think that before they do, they should be able to enact VENGEANCE against the bastards that put them in this situation... :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

I KNOW!! Name it "Courtney" - after me!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

and these problems can occur in ANY dog, as I said earlier. Sassy was a dominant animal, and Pepper was a dominant animal, they were bound to clash without intervention. And since it happened while no one was around to stop it, it ended up being final. I can tell you from experience, that if two dominant wannabe's come together, and no one is breaking up the tiff, bad things happen. That doesnt mean Sharpei did anything wrong, since this was completely unexpected on her part. I only know it from watching Freebee foam at the mouth when confronted by an also dominant dog, when I was trying to find a companion for her. She would tolerate only submission, nothing else would do. And she is a Lab/GSP mix....no fighting history, just lots of attitude..... I had to keep a constant watch on Freebee and Alex when I first brought him home. He wanted top spot, she wasnt giving it up, and if I hadnt been there to break them up there would have been serious injury to one or both....He backed down, and then all was well. However, if I didnt know that Freebee would react this way, I might have left them alone together figuring they'd work it out....One look at her face when I brought him in the house was enough to tell me that this was an issue. Unfortunatley, Sharpei didnt get the earlt warning I did....

If you seperate them in two rooms with a baby gate, they can get to know one another through the gate, both sight and smell. I have found this a really good way to introduce a cat to the dog. The cat knows the dog cant get him, and so relaxes sooner, and the dog gets to sniff the cat without being whacked, which relaxes him more as well. :D