courtnek

This is the first town I've lived in where more people had dogs than DIDNT have them. There is a high incident of crime in the center of the city, and people just feel safer with dogs around. I have to agree with that. I saw a show on TV where a police chief said that having a dog is better protection than an alarm system. Didnt matter what the size of the dog, what the crinminal was afraid of was the dogs barking alerting a neighbor or the owners to call the police. In this neighborhood, those of us who have dogs have never been robbed. So that seems to play out what the Police Chief said. It's SO funny when a Barkfest is going on! You'd think the entire neighborhood was being ransacked with all the noise!! LOL

SERVES HIM RIGHT!! If you dont want the dog, find someone who does... I hate people like that. Animals rely on us for eveything.... and they TRUST us - that's the sad part.... Annemarie Lucas woulda SMACKED him!

LOLOL - the guy just showed up here. I answered the door and he saw my dogs, and of course the other dogs are all still barking (and baying - that Beagle cracks me up) and he says "Are there any houses here that DONT own dogs?" And I said "one or two...not much more than that"... and he says "HOW do you sleep at night?" LOL poor guy - he wasnt expecting THIS kind of reception.....

This guy and his kids have strong nerves, that's for sure. We're lucky everyone around (just about) has a dog or the police would be here. It's so NOISY - it's funny too. The whole neighborhood just goes up every time a stranger (or the mailman) comes around. If you dont like dogs, this is NOT the neighborhood to live in!! LOL

The Beagle across the street is baying - this is hilarious!! :D I wonder what the guy and his kids think....

Oh boy. There is a guy and his kids from the Jehovah's Witness cruising the neighborhood handing out pamphlets. The Barkfest is so loud even I cant take it. Every dog for three blocks around is in full voice..... I swear you'd think you were in a kennel.....LOL :o

I agree with the statement above - IF you can train them to be less dominant, and that requires YOU to be dominant - and that's hard to do with an aggressive dog - you might want to let Kenzie be the dominant dog in this bunch. But she should NEVER EVER lay teeth to you. FOR ANY REASON!!! In a wolf pack, NO ONE bites the dominant Alpha. EVER. unless they are trying to take over the Alpha role. And that is a fight to the death in some cases. She has to understand that YOU ARE THE BOSS. PERIOD. I cant stress this enough. It's situations like this that cause people to get bitten by their own dogs. ACD's are domineering animals if you let them be. So you cant let them. You could probably turn this situation around, with some work. But regardless of the roles of Kenzie and Brusier, you have to be in charge. Please gain control of this situation before it becomes a real problem for you. I hope it all works out, for yours and Kenzie's sake. If you want to private me, feel free. I'll help all I can.

Is she very submissive in other ways? Like overly calm, or nervous at loud noises? Tail tucked, that soet of thing? Your vet could be right on track. This is a symptom of an overly submissive dog. Do you have more than one, and is she at the bottom of the pack? There is training you can do to correct it, but you have to be careful. You can play tug toy with her, and let her win a few rounds.At the end of the game, take the toy away and put it up, and use it onyl for these training session. If she wins a few rounds, she will become more confident, and more dominant. But that's the catch. When she has stopped urinting submissively, tone her back down. You dont want an overly dominant dog on your hands either. She just needs to feel a little more confident. As far as your "friend"....I wouldnt put up with it either. You dont like my dogs, we can meet somewhere else, or not at all. I have a friend who's husband is afraid of dogs (childhood experience) and wont let her have one. We are working on him using Alex, because he's so gentle and laid back he's almost comatose....lol - he likes Alex because he sits very quietly and lets him pet him. And Alex has "those eyes" - the ones that dogs use when they want something - so sad, oh PLEASE pay attention to me....LOL You can see them in the avatar. Good luck with your pup! A little more confidence is all she needs!

Byrd, I feel very badly for you. I had a friend in the same situation. couple of things: Get Bruiser neutered, the sooner the better. If you already have, I musta missed that part, and I apologize. Dont allow either of them to sleep on your bed, until they get their pecking order straightened out. It sounds an awful lot like a dominance issue, mixed with jealousy. But the dominance issue has to come first. Once Bruiser is neutered, that puts them on a somewhat more even ground. Un-neutered he is the whole male and is going to want to run the whole show. Trying to take her food is a sign of that. The Alpha male always eats first. SInce she was there first, she wants to be the alpha. If neutering doesnt work the issue out for you, you may have to do something you probably wont like. You'll have to pick one of the dogs to be the alpha. That will cause some tension at first, I have to warn you. The one you pick will need to be fed first, played a little more attention to, allowed to walk ahead of the other one. It takes time and patience. If you're willing to do all that, the sitauatin will work itself out. Despite what some people say, dogs really dont mind being in a "lesser" position - it's the pack mentality anyway. And she must never be allowed to bite you. or your wife. YOU two have to be the alpha pair to both of them. Once all of the above is established, you'll probably find more peace in your house. It's something to try at least, before deciding to get rid of her. There;s a really good book you should get - called "Why does my dog..." by John Fisher. He devotes a whole chapter to this issue. He is a dog behaviorist. It helped me a lot with my two, since they had dominance issues for alot of the same reasons. Best of luck and dont give up hope. :D p.s. - you really should take her to the vet as well. Neurological problems can cause dogs to start acting like this, out of the blue.

I worked for a breeder that raised Goldens - that's where I got my first one. Part of his litters every year went to the Seeing Eye in New York for Guide Dog training. These puppies were taken at 12 weeks and started to train. Were you planning on training it yourself? Or were you planning on fostering it while they trained it? I would think it was very hard to foster a dog for a year and then give it up, but it's definitely for a good purpose. If you can handle that, it's a most wonderful thing to do. You have to let your heart decide.... Also, I agree that the Dal rescue is more likely to have "issues" than the BC.,,,Borders are super hyper though. Good luck!

I would try keeping her down in the car, so she cant see out the window, My Golden used to get car sick, and keeping him down helped. Some of them cant deal with the motion they see out the window. just like some people..... we found with the Golden that crating him in the car, with a blanket over the crate, prevented him from "seeing out" and stopped the motion sickness.

LOL - oh my God! What a choice! Why do they do these things? You gotta love 'em. cuz if you didnt you might kill them for stuff like this!! Geez, I hope the rest of your day was better!! :D

Dont feel bad - if it hadnt been for Sash's tutorial I would NEVER have gotten them posted.... Thanks, Sash! Angels? Not exactly. That's the look you get when they want something! They are good dogs - gentle, kindly, typical of the breed. The female is a bit "rougher around the edges" then the male, but I'm not real sure what went into making her. The male is part lab, part golden, and very laid back and gentle. I think the female may have some pointer in her - she points, all the time, and has never been trained to do it. They both have the lab trait of wandering off if given the chance. Thanks for all the comments - I'm glad you think my "kids" are cute. My son HATES it when I call them that!! LOL :D

Because of my golden-lab, this whole subject pisses me off. He spent his life chanined outside to a TREE, of all things, and my sons grandfather helped and released him from strangulation 3 times a week.... he was so happy to see Mel that he jumped up on him, knocked his hearing aid out, and then ate it.....oooppsss.... His owners constantly had the police at their house, for domestic abuse. the best thing I ever did was take him off their hands.... they were planning on putting him to sleep, because he snarled at the boyfriend when he abused the girl.... SHE needs real help - I'm glad **I** have Alex now!! He's the gold dog in the avatar...

2 acres is still a LOT - compared to my 80' by 60' back yard..... I didnt know they tired that quickly... - can you send some of that to my labs???? LOL I could walk them for HOURS and they wont tire - I DO, however.... and you're right - water is the savings grace. Mine will stay in it for hours if I let them. And then I dont have to get worn out having them walk me.... I have a kids pool in the backyard during the summer when it's hot. Seeing both of them squish into it is hilarious...... :D

I just thought of something....(it happens now and then - lol) You guys with Newfies and Saints, do you have lots of acreage for them to run? Or do you just walk them a whole lot? I would think they would need lots of room......and exercise....

I can also relate to alot of them - although mine aren't newfies or saints, the male is big and the female is mid-sized. He did actually scare the lady at Arby's by sticking his head out the back window and "woofing" at her - LOL I always leave the back window down enough so that he can stick his head out, but cant get out of the car... He could smell the food, and wanted it!! Which brings up another question, one I've heard before... WHY IS IT that if you blow in their faces they get mad, but the first thing they do in the car is tick their heads out the window????

Thanks for all the help. I feel better, really. I have to tell you a funny story about Jarvis' passing.... He passed away at probably 6:00 a.m., he was gone when I woke up at 6:30. The vet did not open until 9:00. We covered him with a blanket and sort of waited for the vet to open to take him in. In the process, rigor mortis set in. He was a large dog, taller than me on his hind legs (I'm 5'2") I used to call him my dancing partner, he would jump up and put his paws on my shoulders.... When the time came to take him in, we realized he had been laying completely stretched out - front and back legs extended, how he always slept. And we couldnt "curl him up"....We had to move him out to the car like that, covered with the blanket. I live on a fairly busy street, traffic- wise, and people were slowing down to look as we carried him out to the car. I'm SURE they thought we had a persons body under that blanket!! One car went around the block three times to try to see what was going on. The police came by once. It took us a while to get him situated in the car, since I was driving a Ford Escort and we had to put the back seat down and stuff... Both the polic car and the guy circling the block followed at a distance to the vet's office, where they then realized it was a pet and not a person. Since he was so big all stretched out like that, I think they must have thought I was a criminal or something, getting rid of a body.... in broad daylight at 9:00 in the morning....oh well. It makes me laugh when I think about it....

That be them! The gold one is Alex, a rescue the black one is Freebee, sort of a rescue since most of the puppies from that litter ended up in shelters (I found out later) She was trying to sell the pups as purebred German Shepherds, and said she wanted $20.00 for them - for a purebred shep? I dont think so. I told her they weren't Sheps, and I would take one. She gave me the pup for free, and that's how she got her name. :D

It worked!! I finally got my pup pics in here!!

very cute !! I was trying to come up with one for my Golden retriever X yellow lab, but only came up with yellow gold - an expensive dog oh well....lol

Thanks everyone, very much. I am still working on getting my labs pics in here - I'll figure it out eventually!

my pc is freaking out... his life prior to me was not good.... he was used to seeing the police - I dont know if he was used to seeing smoke - I just want to do what is good for him now., He is a good dog, in every way, and I want his life from now on to be happy. He's settled in now, and calm. I want him to be this way always.

Carol, he was getting 1 aspirin, twice a day. I would give him one with breakfast, and one with dinner. He semed ok with it, less pain, less problems getting up and stuff, and then he died. Maybe it's true that it was just his time, I wanted to beleive that, but people were telling me the aspirin did it. That made me think I had killed him, inadvertently. I feel truly good that you all agree with me. I would not do anything to hurt an animal, for any reason. but I felt very guilty about this. I had him when my son was just a baby, and have pictures of him laying by the crib, and the swing. He loved my son, more than anyone, and Kyle misses him. He says no dog will ever be like Jarvis.

Thank you VERY MUCH WildBunch.....I needed to hear that from someone who is giving their dog aspirin.....I have been haunted by the fact that I may have inadvertently killed poor Jarvis. Geez, I wrecked a car to avoid hitting a dog - this would have been more than I could bear. &:-) my smiley-face, with hair...LOL