courtnek

Having said that, I just realized that a lot of people dont know those rules. So for everyones edification - this is how a wolf pack works - and all of our dogs are descended from wolves, even the little tiny ones..... In a wolf pack - the Alpha is SUPREME - every other wolf answers to him. The alpha female has some leeway, but if he says NO, then NO it is. There is NO democracy in a wolf pack - he is king, ruler, top of the line, and anyone who challenges him will have a hell of a fight on his hands. He and his mate sleep on the "high ground" to enable them to look over the rest of the pack. He and his mate are the only ones allowed to produce offspring, although in a small pack sometimes the Beta male and female may as well. Interestingly, the other females in the pack will develop milk to feed the pups if the mother cant handle them all. The other females look after the puppies while the Alpha male and female join the hunt. They are the leaders, no questions asked. The lower members keep watch on the pack and alert the Alphas to danger, but the decision on what to do is left up to the Alpha male. If the forest is burning down and the Alpha says "stay" - they stay. It's literally an iron hand. Inside of that iron hand there is a compelling love and family-ness. The alpha male will lick the pups, and other members, kinda like saying "good job!: He will not tolerate any disobedience, but if you live within his iron hand he is gentle and giving. The female is given control of all the female pack members, while the male controls the males. The female Alpha can discipline a male member if necessary. and usually ruthlessly, if it comes to that. Generally, it doesnt. Everyone knows their place, and usually stays in it. Thats why with a dominant dog you have to control the doorways, the bed, the landings. These are all instinctual "alpha spots" They will give in to being non-Alpha if you make them - but unfortunately too many people dont know that, and find themselves trapped with a dog who has taken over.... Hope that helps everyone....

Damn, I hate to hear those things. If you're going to have a big dog, it needs to be trained and civilized. People buy Goldens because they have the reputation of being gentle, calm, reliable and good with kids. But they're still DOGS and they still answer to all of the pack instincts!! I think some people just think that with their reputation, you can let them do anything....so they dont enforce a lot of training rules. My Golden once snapped at me for trying to take away something he was chewing on (didnt bite, just threatened) and I called the breeder. The first thing he said was "Who's the boss? You or him? you have watched me work, use my principles and straighten him out" and I did. The principles were the ones I listed. Inside of three days, he had a new attitude and we never had any more problems.... Training is everything. The wild instincts never really go away - you have to live inside of those rules....

OH YEAH....I CAN relate to most of them! But I agree with K - I trust my dogs instincts more than my own. If they dont like someone (they're labs, they like everyone!) I go with their decisions.... :D

The way I looked at it it wasnt the dogs fault really. The owner should be taking responsibility for that. I didnt want to hurt the dog, just make him go away and the pepper is harmless. Once they stop sneezing their silly little heads off they decide they dont like your yard. You may have to reapply it every few days in case he's persistant. Get the post a little wet and then just rub it on. then poor it on the porch at the bottom of the post. a big pile is good....he'll want to investigate it. I also used it to stop Alex from peeing on my shed!!! :D This owner needs to realize that some people are not as tolerant as us. If she keeps letting her dog do this, someone may decide to put poison on their porch.

I dont know about catching him, but there's a harmless way yu can stop him. Put red pepper on the porch and on the post. They always sniff first. The sneezing fit will make him less interested in your porch. I had to do this because one of my neighbors was letting her dog pee on my newly planted sapling, and it was dying....no amount of requests to stop would move her. She kept saying "It's just a tree...." and since the tree was on the parkway it wasnt considered part of my property. After the pepper incident, he avoided my yard completely. If you really want to catch him you can put a video camera out and turn it on at night.

I have two dogs and a cat. They are all my babies and I wouldnt part with any of them. The cat is ill-tempered and cantankerous and the dogs obey him without hesitation. Since moving out of my parents house I have always had dogs and cats together.

I am COMPLETELY against negative reinforcement training!!!!!!!! GGRRRRR It's equivalent to beating a child for misbehaving - all he learns is to stay away from you when he's done something wrong. Dogs arent stupid, they will figure out that that chain hit them after you threw it.... an example of why this doesnt usually work - my ex used to roll up newspapers and magazines and smack Freebee with them when she was bad. What did she learn? To become aggressive and nasty when she sees anyone roll up a newpaper or a magazine..... It makes recycling around here difficult....

YIKES Kaleb - that's so out of character for these dogs.... They are generally calm, agreeable, want constant attention....they are usually dream dogs to have, if you can stand the hair..... but like any other dog, treatment, training, living conditions,it can all have an affect on the dogs character. I think with training they can nip this situation....I am certainly hoping so! :D

I have a male golden/lab mix (you can see him in the avatar and the pictures section) and he is a very very good dog, with a few exceptions. Goldens and Labs often need to chew, like was said. Mine is an excessive chewer. There always has to be something here to chew on or he steals stuff to chew up. They need a goodly amount of exercise, so be prepared for that. Females tend to be less dominant, and so sometimes are easier to train. It depends on the particular dog. Females also tend to be smaller. They are very good with children, are not normally aggressive (although they sound like it when they bark)and train fairly easily if you keep at it. They are stubborn, so keeping at it is the key. If your husband is willing to get a dog but doesnt really want to, I would suggest a more mature one, already housebroken and partially trained. A puppy can cause a lot of stress and damage. Both of mine are rescues, and yet once settled in they took to life here just fine. Be aware that it is in your best interests to get lab/Goldens neutered. Because of their nature they tend to want to roam, and they are devious escapists. Neutering drives that urge down somewhat. If you can find one at a shelter, please do. These dogs are gentle, loving and loyal, but their high energy gets them dumped frequently. And they are HIGH energy dogs. Please take that into consideration as well. I'm glad your researching this....I think you'll make a good dog owner because of that.

what did the papers say about running the story?

p.s. Both of my dogs cant stand the mailman. He is Phillipino - the lady mail carrier is Japanese, they cant stand her either.... Because he is Phillipino? Because she is Japanese? No, because my mail slot is in my door. These people are tresspassing on THEIR territory.....they are protecting their territory. I do not believe that dogs can be truly racist....If the mail carriers would let me introduce them to the dogs, all would be well. They consider them strangers tresspassing on their turf. That's all....

You are very correct Behle - what is mising here is HATE - Racism requires a certain superiority, a definite dislike, it's a taught problem, not an inheritied one. The same goes for dogs. You can TRAIN a dog to to respond badly to black people, or the dog can experience extreme cruelty at the hands of a Mexican, like Alex, which will make them more wary and suspicious of people of that race. But dogs dont HATE...they defend when necessary, but I dont believe they actually have "anything against" the attacker - their job is to defend. I dont believe they are capable of hate - they are only capable of what they have been taught or experienced. So are dogs "racist"? No, I dont think so. Can they be trained to act like racists? yes, definitely. deliberately or by experience. You have to think of a dog sometimes like a child. A bad experience stays with them forever. It takes a LOT of training to beat fear. And dog "racism" is based on training, or fear...They want to please, you tell them to distrust all black people, all mexicans, they wil do that. The training can be broken... the fear is a little harder. They dont have the intellectual capability of becoming racists without our help.... That's the SAD part....

Black is right. Goldens are normally so gentle that no one bothers to think of them as aggressive, but like any dog, if they think they are the alpha they will let you know if you try to take something. You need to put Cooper on a short training lead (1 1/2 feet at most) which you will leave on his collar while he is being "demoted" Then give him a toy, even a rawhide bone. DONT reach for it, but use the lead to pull him away from it, pick it up and put it away. You should probably handle the pulling away, since he is less dominant towards you, but your wife should pick up the bone, show it to him, and then put it away. He needs to be in a sitting position after you pull him away from the bone, a command he knows will reinforce your dominance. Once he is sitting let your wife pick up the bone, if he tries to get up make him sit again. Goldens are very intelligent, it should only take a short while to reinforce this. Other things you can do to reinforce this, until he has been properly demoted: Dont let him go through any doorways before you. If he tries, block him and make him sit. Dont let him lay on your bed. Dont let him go to the top of the stairs and look down on you. That is the Alphas position in every pack. I know a lot of people let their dogs sleep with them, but in a dominant Alpha that's a bad thing. This is the "choice" sleeping spot, which is always reserved for the Alpha and his mate. Once you have him somewhat demoted (you need to start the demotion since he feels less superior to you) then have your wife do it as well. He has to recognize her as Alpha female, he's Beta, he'll just have to get used to it. It shouldnt take long - Goldens are very agreeable normally and want to please. He just got too big for his britches, that's all... Hope that helps. :D

yes, they are known to be workaholics - but it's definitely true about the Golden, the Lab and the GSD.... thanks. This really cracked me up!! Hey send that Border Collie this way...I have some rewiring he could do... I certainly cant do it!!! :laugh2_2:

no, you're right - it IS against nature - but think of it from a different viewpoint - If you were the dog, and entire, and could never mate, would that not make you crazy???? They have the same urges as every other creature - to procreate - leaving them entire and not allowing them to relieve those urges, in my opinion. is wrong. If you dont intend to breed your dog, then the kindest thing to do is to neuter it. Why should it have to suffer sexual need unfulfilled? Part of the aggression in unneutered dogs comes from the sexual drive that it cant act on....Nature tells him he needs to find another dog to create puppies with...and there is no other dog.... Think about it...As caretakers of these animals, we have to choose what is best for them. Even if it's "against nature"....

You are very welcome!! :D I think there's a problem with the routing tables on the server. (I do this for a living)..... For some reason, it's routing certain IP's to the admin site, instead of to the main page. I dont know what kind of routers they are using, but if they're Cisco, the nat translation is probably corrupted. I should send this to K.... sorry. Sometimes I'm a techincal geek.... :oops:

It was using the [url]http://dogomania.com[/url], not the forum one, but it has been working up until lately. Mary, try yahoo....I couldnt get google to work either. I type in dogomania at the search lines and it finds it. I get here using the choice for index.

They always get treats together. Like for coming back the first time they're called, for waking me up when they have to go out - In most things, they do their own thing and they're fine. It's just this ball game.... that makes him jealous.... I think I'll try Behle's stick game, since he loves to chase (and chew up) sticks and see what happens. Thanks everyone.

Thanks K! It must be some sort of routing/IP glitch.... It's weird that it wont even let me type in the URL...I stop at .com and it adds (by itself) the site admin address!! Maybe this will help the OP; when I click on the favorite it says "refreshing to page [url]http://dogomania.com[/url], which is what it's always said - but when it opens the page this is the URL that comes up: [url]https://dogomania.com:19638/webhost/rollout/site[/url] so if I type in on the URL line [url]http://dogomania.com[/url] - it fills in the line with the admin site by itself.... it's got an "s" at the end of http..... Hope that helps and thanks. :D

Thanks Behle, he does like sticks. I'll try that. I got rid of his crate when I brought him home. He was afraid of it. His previous owners kept him tied up outside all day and then crated him as soon as he came in for the entire night.

He's a rescue...his previous owners kept him in a crate... I play "ball" with Freebe every night. I throw it. she retrieves it. I bought him his own ball, he wont play with it..yet he's jealous when I play with Freebee.. Any suggestions?

everytime I click on my dogomaniafavorite, it brings me to a site adminstrator page... I cant even go through my recent URL's....I have to do a search from yahoo to get here... Did I get promoted and no one told me??? LOL

Aurora, you could try special "treat training" When I got Alex he could not stand the site of Mexicans, because of his former treatment by the abusive boyfriend. My sons best friend is Mexican, and with cheese and patience we got Alex to like Francisco and not growl at him. I would make him sit when Franc came by, and although he would still growl he was at least stationary. Once we got past the screaming lunge at the door we then started on treating him only when he didnt growl. After a while he would let Franc pet him, and then Franc would give him the cheese. Since making friends with Franc, other Mexicans no longer appear to bother him. It takes a while though - fear is hard to train out, so be patient with Lily.

I think wandering and aggression are the two most noticeable changes. And even an "entire" dog will get fat if you feed it too much! :D I think the "neutering makes them fat" is a form of an urban legend. Some of them do get calmer, so all you need to do is adjust their food intake. Mine are both neutered and neither one is fat.

try this link - [url]http://www2.dogomania.com/breed/breed346/[/url] there's a really good picture there of a papillon I'm curious to know now....