imported_Cassie

The Province of New Brunswick was comtenplating banning breeds. Other Provinces have been going this route so it was just a matter of time before other provinces decided to consider banning breeds as well. I am happy to say that on Nov 17 and Nov 18 the amount of protesters was so enormous the province has decided NOT to ban breeds. There was one lady who suffers from crippling polio and has a Rottweiler as her assistance dog. She was there in full force in her wheelchair with her loyal assistant beside her. She gave a heart felt speech about Rotties being her favorite breed, and breed of choice as an assistance dog. It was quite iffy for a little while. The trend of banning breeds has been enormous lately. Also, considering we just had a few attacks by Rottweilers and APBT"s in our area involving children...this is what had chills running up and down my spine. Usually when some thing this extreme is going on and a few attacks occur it just adds fuel to the fire. Oh, by the way, one of the Rottweiler attacks which occurred was actually a Siberian Husky :roll: In the paper it stated a child was attacked by a Rottweiler and the little girl required many stitches in her face. Any way, I found out from a friend of the dog

I agree that it sounds like predatory/herding behavior. Don't allow your dog to be placed in a situation where her predatory instincts can threaten the life of another human, especially a child. When your children are playing and screaming and running, its best not to allow your dog to be playing with them until you have taught her to redirect her predatory drive towards play objects. You will require the help of a good behaviorist who practices positive training methods only. Practice training exercises that will specifically address the chase behavior challenges that your dog is likely to present to you, giver her plenty of outlets for the predatory behavior. Plenty of chase and fetch, and teach your dog "off" or "drop it" and "take it". This will teach the dog that you control the toys, which go into the dog

Thank you Courtnek for seeing my point of view :wink: With my line of work I deal with the general public, some don't have a clue about dog owner ship and are looking for simple ways to right the wrongs of their dogs. I find it disturbing that when the advice of "Just be the dogs Alpha" is given to the owners. They automatically have this warped vision of dominating the dog by force. Perhaps the advise given by a dog person was meant to be the dogs benevolent leader...but, some how the meaning of Alpha gets misconstrued by a lot of dog owners. As you mentioned Courtnek, people seem to have this mental image of wolves as being ferocious animals, which tear into each other and are very forceful in their domination of one another. It

Baileysmom, here is an article for you on barking. This may help you with your problem. :wink: [url]http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=2&cat=1551&articleid=153[/url] [quote]I agree Malamum and Court it must of been a mistake..BUT what a mistake to pass on in a message huh?...imagine someone who knows no better tying to alpha roll an aggressive, barking dog and holding it waiting intently for it to look back..then WHAM!..nose bitten clean off before the person noticed the eye contact was even made...dangerous advice if ever there was any...[/quote] I agree K, it is very dangerous advise to pass along. I would bet that a good percentage of owners attacked or bitten by their own dogs have been a direct result of harsh training methods such as the alpha roll. a dog fighting for survival is going to fight back.

Oh lordy lordy the alpha roll :( :lol: Now Courtnek, can you see my reasons why I am so against people using the term "Alpha" and amateurs trying to dominant their dogs with these methods :wink: When ever I hear a client say they have been training their dogs to be a subservient and they the owner is the alpha I cringe inside and can pretty well predict we are going to have a confused mixed up dog coming in for grooming. Most of the dogs I have seen which the owners have practiced the "alpha roll" on have been men. And the dogs have been so confused and mixed up and MORE dangerous and basically harder to work with. It is really hard trying to convert these dogs to positive training methods and rebuild their confidence. I have adopted a few dogs raised this way, and believe me I got more out of these dogs with positive reinforcement than their owners did with the harsh old "alpha" techniques. One dog in particular I remember I adopted from a neighbor, it was an Alaskan Malamute mix. That dog ruled the household and once had its Alpha owner cornered in the bedroom. I was 12 and had to go over to the house and rescue the owner (luckily the owner had a phone in his bedroom). I took in that dog and excelled in obedience with him, he was one smart cookie. I think the proper term for our dogs is to be a benevolent leader :wink: [quote][b]Here is part of an article from my WDJ[/b] When the "you have to dominate your dog" concept was in vogue, many trainers instructed their clients to establish "dominance" (used incorrectly here) over their dogs. This was supposed to be accomplished by, amoung other things, eating before the dog eats, going through doorways before the dog, and routinely rolling the dog on his back in a show of force. Fortunately, current and more in-depth behavior studies have shown that in wild and domesticated dogs, it's not true that the pack leader always eats first, goes through the doorways first, or routinely rolls other pack members onto their backs to keep them in line. She may be able to do all those things if she wants, but it really is in the pack's best interest - and hers- to be in a state of equilibrium that doesn't involve a constant show of force. When there is plenty of food to go around, there is no need for the pack leader to assert herself at the feed trough. If she is eager to go through a door, she may choose to go first, in which case lower ranking pack members defer to her. And anyone who has ever watched dogs greeting and interacting quickly realizes that a belly up posture on the part of a subordinate dog is usually voluntary. In fact, this voluntary submission posture normally triggers a response in the more assertive dog to call a truce. If one dog violently forces another onto his back and or ignores the subordinates dog

This is not abnormal for a lot of retired show dogs. I have taken in many over the years. A dog show does not socialize a dog properly; I have gone to all the shows with a few of my friends. Its basically, take dog from kennel, put in crate in van, take to show, put in crate, take out and groom, go in ring, put dog back in crate. Most show persons (not saying all :D ) do not walk their dogs around the coliseum. I don't know the back ground of your dog, but, I am assuming the dog lead the very same type of life. They are more socially backwards than most other dogs. I found most of my retired show dogs have been very cautious and if not socialized properly can be traumatized. It is a very big adjustment. Just a disclaimer; not all people who raise show dogs raise their dogs this way. I am only mentioning this as this is how my dogs were raised. It makes sense that the dog would be socially backward. Even some reputable breeders who take in their retired dogs as housedogs. The ones I know still do not take the housedogs out as normal pet owners do. Just an observation, not saying all breeders are like this. :wink: I could tell you many stories of the many set backs and insecurities I witnessed with some of my retired show dogs. One of my boys had never seen a person carry a bag of dog food. The first day I carried a bag into the house he was hiding in a corner of my kitchen trying desperately to get away or hide. It was a sad sight. One of my bitches was scared to death of men or any one with a loud voice, it took me a year to get her used to men. Now, she is an out going attention hound around men and seeks out their attention. I work at a dog grooming/boarding and vet clinic. I never took any of my fearful dogs to work with me until I had them for a few weeks. I wanted to work with them one on one and expose them to different situations slowly; too much can be over whelming. I also started them on the NIFIL training policy, you would be surprised at how quickly this can help build a fearful dogs confidence. If they are feeling insecure they have a default behavior they can turn to. I set up situations with friends and family where I could control the out come, I always carried their favorite treats even if it meant I had to cook up some chicken or liver or beef stew :D I chopped the meat into small bite size pieces and carried them in a pouch around my waste, when ever I saw a stressful situation come up I would start giving them treats and tell them how wonderful they were. Whenever they passed with out showing fear or without tensing up or cowering I would treat and praise (I might add I used a high pitched excited tone, some times the high pitched uppity excited tone helped to encourage them in stressful situations. I also lured them through the situation with treats). I never coddled my dogs or bent down to pat them or encourage them when they were being fearful. I have seen too many people who have stopped and started talking in a baby voice to the dog to try to encourage it. This is just reinforcing the fear. Try to act confident and reward when the dog shows courage and good behavior. I won't lie, it can take quite a time for some dogs to become accustomed to every thing. With my fearful dogs they had a very soft personality. I have adopted retired show dogs as well which had outgoing personalities from the same kennel and they took to every thing like a fish to water. It took me a year to get my bitch accustomed to the real world...much longer than my males. Good luck, and of course every one here has given you great advice. Stick with it and don't expect miracles over night. Even if a person had been locked away in a monastery for many years and dealt with people on a church level, it would still take even a human a little while to get used to real life. We can't expect any more from our dogs :wink:

I work with dogs daily. I find the Lab's to be very stable dogs from most kennels. When you over breed and create a small gene pool any purebred will suffer. I find most over bred Lab's to be high strung and more fearful more so than aggressive. As for myself, I have never come across a Lab or a Golden that I feared or thought was aggressive. I have come across a few defensive Labs or fearful, but, not out and out aggressive. When I am working directly with dogs in the grooming facility I am quite comfortable around the Lab's and Goldens. Now Chows and most Northern breeds, Rotties and APBT's are a different story. I watch these breeds with my life, I know that one bite from one of these breeds could put me out of commission for quite some time. I am also careful with APBT's, Rottweilers, Chows and most Northern breeds at the boarding kennel I run. I don't trust them and this mistrust has saved me from dog bites throughout my career. Alot of times as well you have first time dog owners or people who don't want to have to train a dog migrate towards breeds like Lab's. Probably about 6 in every 10 Labs I meet have not been trained. People think they come in a docile I know how to be a good dog package :lol: when you have this type of mentality its a wonder we have so many good Lab's as half of them have never been trained or they have been spoiled to death.

If you want to know more about this race or type of dog you should read the book "[b]dogs[/b]" by Raymond Coppinger and Lorna Coppinger. They are biologists and have written the first book that really studies dogs and where they came from. It is quite interesting when you learn that there were many "types" or "races" of dogs just as there are humans. They evolved to adapt to their natural environment. The dogs had normal motor patterns and none of the motor patterns where enhanced like our purebred dogs. Our purebreds are man made from these races or types of dogs from around the world. Basically in history when a culture was travelling and took a few dogs; they bred with the local village dogs of where they were visiting. The people started mixing dogs and then started creating purebreds. IMO, purebred dogs are pretty unhealthy and genetically unsound. Its good that people are starting to realize that there are natural races of dogs and perhaps that to save the gene pools of our current purebreds it would be wise to crossbreed to develop larger gene pools. It's quite interesting to know that our dogs in the beginning evolved naturally to be scavengers (mongrels). Then man started ruining them by creating purebreds. By creating purebreds man has created a massive amount of genetic diseases and unhealthy animals. Our poor dogs suffer because every one is programmed to think that purebreds are the original dogs :roll: we have been brainwashed as a society to believe this. We have also been brainwashed to believe that mongrels are degenerate purebreds. What people forget is that our purebreds came from mongrels (or races or types) not the other way around. Thanks for the link; this ties in quite nicely with the book "Dogs" I read. :wink:

My dogs will eat horse manure when I take them to the barn. I don't see any harm in it and IMO I think its quite good for them. Wolves and other wild carnines make up a big percentage of their diet by eating vegetation, prey droppings, berries, grass so on. Also when they eat their kill they will eat the stomach contents as well. The stomach of the prey holds alot of undigested grasses and other food. With my dogs I go a step further. I actually grow grass for them :D I grow wheat grass and barley grass and let them nibble on it. Grass has alot of great nutrients and its also great for digestive cleaning. Our Canines are not true carnivores like our cats are. Canines eat alot more than just meat to keep a well-rounded diet. Allot of people who feed raw diet will actually feed their dogs the cows stomach to get the extra nutrients and they know its very good for them

Sorry Courtnek, How stupid of me not to include instructions :D My Vet also advised me (strongly I may add) that you should run this by your Vet before attempting. My Poodle had a serious bacterial infection in her ears that no antibiotic or conventional ear treatment would cure. This was my very last option on the road to recovery. To use, pack the ear with sugar, just enough to fill the inside of the ear canal, pack with a cotton ball covering each packed ear canal. Leave for about 5 minutes and then rinse with diluted iodine. Dilute the iodine and use a syringe to flush out. I seem to recall just filling the syringe up with the diluted iodine and rinsing the ear canal. I really hope this works. Did you ever try that other ear treatment using the Pellitol ointment? I can give you the instructions for that remedy again if you like

OK, I think it was Courtnek asking about the sugar treatment for badly infected ears. I asked my vet what the sugar treatment consisted of, she told me fill the ears with sugar and then rinse with iodine. She has used this treatment on dogs with chronic ear problems that no diet change or antibiotics, flushes etc could seem to fix. The sugar treatment has worked wonders on many dog with chronic ear problems. I used it many many years ago on my Standard Poodle with horrible ear infections and ear problems. I spent a fortune on that poor dog between flushing the ears, to diet changes to antibiotics special ear creams etc. The sugar treatment worked the first time and I never had another problem with that dogs ears again. :wink:

Thanks everyone for the moral support. I have never had to give up a dog before, this is my first time :( If I had thought there was hope for him living with me with out further injury to his leg I would have kept him. He fit in wonderful with my group. Due to his long term health and happiness I am very happy for him being in his new home. It is low key and the owners take Gil on leash walks only. Gil is not far from the breeder and me so he will always be in the loop. Actually the new owners are very close friends with the breeder and they have always remained in the Newfoundland dog clan (meetings, shows etc.). He also has the one on one attention he always yearned for. Last time I saw him with his new owners he was looking lovingly up at them. I know he is happy and really, I am not hurt over how quickly he took to his new home...really I'm not...(who am I trying to convience :lol: ) [quote]I can't believe that about his littermates. I guess I have been very fortunate in the health department.[/quote] newfiemom, you are very fortunate and perhaps purchased your pups from more sound working lines?? I seem to recall your mentioning that your dogs were used for water rescue etc. Not one of my Newf's can swim, and they have not had a working dog in thier lines for many many generations. I think this is one of the key problems with our breeders today (and I believe we discussed this before :wink: ) My Newf's have been bred solely for looks and conformation. What I think is happening is the breeders are breeding for the prettiest dogs which will make an impact in the conformation ring. I could go on about this, but, I am sure you know all about the dog shows :lol: . For example, Judge sees well known handler or breeder, and places the dog because of who is behind the lead. Very pretty dog comes into the ring and takes the breath away from every one and the dog is placed. I have seen some of the genetic disasters which are champions and even some which have won the show of shows. Another problem with the show purebreds is breeding these champion dogs for what ever its worth. I have not seen a natural breeding between 2 Newf's for many many years, this should be a good indication that perhaps the dogs should no longer be bred. My friend does alot of AI's throughout Eastern Canada and the Eastern states, they have even had a few times the AI's wouldn't take and had to have the sperm implanted by surgery into the bitch. They are not looking at the whole picture, if you can't get a natural breeding out of the dogs then perhaps mother nature is trying to tell you some thing. I guess when you are in the midst of the big time breeders and you are looking at the whole situation with an unbiased view you can see just how wrong it is. Sure these breeders are dumping tons of money into their dogs, and doing all of the proper genetic testing on them and researching lines et. For me, I have little faith in genetic testing and even if a breeder tells me that their bitch and sire are both cleared of every disease known to that breed, that means nothing to me now. Genetically cleared dogs can still produce genetic disasters. Very sad. BTW, I am not ranting just discussing what I have seen in my life. :wink:

Well, I have gone through quite a bit in the past month. First I had to give one of my Newfoundland dogs back to the breeder. Poor little Gil suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament and has been through 2 suregeries to correct the problem. I was finding it very difficult having 5 active dogs and one dog which I had to confine to bed rest and crate rest to repair a leg which will probably never heal correctly. This is the second time he has torn it since living with me. The first time I had to send him back to the breeders to ensure he was completley unactive. She had a special run built for him with a topper on it so he couldn't jump up, but, he still had alot of room to exercise himself. The whole of Gil's litter had structeral and other problems and all but Gil in this litter have since been euthanized due to these so called hereditary problems. I want to add that all of the lines for both bitch and sire for these pup's had passed all clearances for hips, elbows and all the genetic tests which can be performed. The breeders had done their research very throughly before mating for this litter. I since have heard of many many reputable breeders who are experiencing many many new genetic problems on cleared lines which have never had any genetic problems at all and all cleared. A friend of mine who has been breeding Bernese Mountain dogs has also run into a lot of bad luck as far as genetic problems. I want to stress that these breeders have done every test known to breeders before breeding. These breeders also work for vets so can perform and afford every genetic test known to man. Its quite sad actually, I guess our purebreds are falling apart faster than we think. :( So, it has been a sad month for me. Gil has since been placed in a new home with older retired folks who have owned Newf's all of their lives. They will ensure that Gil does not do any further damage. Once again, I feel like a failure when it comes to Gil...but, its just so darn hard having 5 active dogs and having to leave one dog out of all the fun. Poor Gil was getting depressed as he was not able to join in...I just couldn't go on doing that to the poor dog. Plus, in the house (as all of you multie dog owners know :wink: ) when you have all the other dogs rough housing and you have to keep the other dog calm and make him lay down...its no fun. Any way, he was never legally my dog any way and still belongs to the breeder. My friend understood completely and she knew that Gil will just never be able to live a normal doggy life :( He is still young and deserves a loving slower home where he can not damage himself any further. My main concern for Gil was the fact that I am sure he would have torn his ligament again. The way he moves in the back he definately has some genetic structural problems which made it hard for him to move properly (by the way he is an American, Canadian and Bermuda champion in conformation...makes ya think huh :-? ). I also moved this month to a newer and smaller home. I have the perfect dog house for my dogs and I am just waiting for the fencing company to come out and get my fencing up. It seems to take them for ever, I called them at the first of october and I still havent seen them. I am also thinking of getting a new computer so I can post pictures :D Any way, just thought I would update every one on what has been going on. I feel so guilty about poor Gil, but, he is much happier now and has a very loving new home. BTW, I would have kept him and lived with the inconvience if I didn't think these new people would not have been suitable. I will still visit Gil, and keep him groomed (except now I can charge for the groom instead of doing it for free :lol: ) All of my other dogs are healthy and happy and absolutely loving their new home. My cats are not as thrilled about the whole moving experience, I'm sure once I get their outside kennel built they will be much happier. Also had to add, I live only 2 minutes away from the ocean now. It's quite lovely, and I have a my own pond and brook in my back yard. :D

Kat gave some great advise...I will just add a bit of advise which I have learned and watched demonstrated. I also want to add that I am not a fan of Chokes and Prongs either...some times they can have the opposite effect of what we are trying to achieve. Some dogs just get ornery with this type of training. We had an owner in one of the obedience classes that I attended have problems quite simular to yours. The instructor had the owner carry a lemon squeeze bottle (the kind you pick up at the grocery store) and when the dog grabbed onto the leash and tried to grab the owners hands the instructor had them squeeze the lemon juice into the dogs mouth. Also when the dog started acting out and leaping all over in an effort to get loose and turning around and grabbing at the leash the owners were advised to stop, put their foot on the leash to ensure the dog didn't have alot of lead to pull on....and then stand there ignoring the dog until it calmed down. This took along long time as it was a very hyper border collie :lol: any way, once the dog calmed down and sat, the owner gave the dog their attention said "good dog" gave a treat and patted the dog on the chest and started off again. When ever the dog started acting out the owner would stop abruptly, put their foot on the leash and ignore. The dog soon realizes in order to have a good walk it must act accordingly. To teach a good recall I would find a really secure baseball field with high fencing. Let the dog go, and let her run, keep walking and if you happen to have to pass Sassy keep on going...try not to make every time you approach your dog a lunge for the collar. After Sassy has had time to run off some energy then start teaching recalls. With my rescue dog Beau, I taught him a no fail recall by playing a chase game with him. I would yell, Beau, Come! and start running away from him...he would zoom to catch me...when he caught me I would give him a great treat, praise, belly rubs etc. and then continue on without putting him back on lead. I kept at this for a few weeks until he learned that just because he is being called back to me does not mean he is going to loose his freedom. His recall is the greatest...almost too great at times... :lol:

[b]Cairn6 wrote[/b] [quote]Well I guess the sour old man is just people aggressive not dog aggressive [/quote] :lol: :lol: :lol: I wonder if its genetic or a learned behavior. :lol:

[quote]I have to admit that I keep a bottle of lightly scented cologne on hand. While most of my clients are happy with a CLEAN smelling dog, there are some who believe that clean=perfumey, so they get a shot of cologne on their way out the door. That way, at least I don't have to smell it all day[/quote]. [b]HF wrote[/b] There is nothing wrong with that :wink: some owners love thier little dogs to smell pretty. There are all kinds of people out there who make dog grooming interesting, we had one couple who liked their 2 white minature poodles to be red and the other green at Xmas time :roll: I think my boss used a food coloring to do this...it certainly was a strange request. This should also be put on the list of things a groomer should not do unless asked :lol: HF, a few years ago we used to spritz the bandana with some colonge before putting it on the dog. We got the cologne from a reputable supplier. I can't remember the name of the company but they had a line of colonges with a picture of a dandie dinmont terrier on the bottle. We had powder scent, vanilla, and a few others I can't remember. Any way, one dog left with its scented bandana and ended up with a broken out neck. The dog was allergic to any type of scent based products...of course my boss nor the owner of the dog knew this until this happened. We will still spritz a bandana at the owners request and we only keep in vanilla and baby powder scent (they are the most popular). My boss will not spray any products directly onto the dog except of course an enzyme based product she keeps for dogs which have been skunked.

[quote]Yikes! I'd tell her straight up her dog is grossly over weight and under exercised.[/quote] MajiesMom, Normally I would have discussed the weight issue with the owner...but in this case I deemed it pointless...as soon as I looked shocked when she started in on her sermon about spayed dogs getting fat and lazy...I knew she would not even hear any thing I had to say. I am going to leave that up to the owner of the kennel :evilbat: When the owner of the kennel sees this dog...well, lets just say this dogs owner will be leaving feeling very ashamed of herself. The owner of the kennel I work at is a very good talker. When she talks people listen...when I talk, people tend to drift off :lol: So there fore my boss is straight foreward and to the point and makes her self understood. Myself on the other hand when it comes to face to face confrontations I act like a shy mouse and I start to stutter when I think I may be saying some thing the person doesnt want to hear. :lol: :wink: its a good thing I work in the back ground for the most part. :lol:

Another issue is; there are too many people and animals alike who suffer from severe allergies. There are many people who are scent sensitive and there are many dogs which would break out if cologne were spritzed on. For the dogs leaving our shop we like the dogs to smell clean. We like using natural shampoos/conditioners. There is no need to spray on cologne.

That is really nice of you to offer Courtnek. It seems like all of the products we want are in the States. We have a little system worked out currently were we ship our orders to a friend in Bangor ME..then when some one from here goes State side for a dog show they pick the order up for us. Works pretty good...saves alot of money on broker fees. So I guess you didn't really need a toll free number for the Pellitol ointment :lol: :lol: :lol: I can't find a direct number listed for them.

No dogpaddle, she did not get the irony. I really think she veiws her fat Rottie as possibly...big boned?? or perhaps very muscular. Although the the muscles on this particular dog were not rippling sleek muscles...they looked more like jello under a skim of fur :lol: I truly think some people believe thier fat Rotties are muscular looking. Although every angle I tried to view this particular Rottie at it still came up looking...fat.

Laurel is a very lucky dog to have gotten you for a Mom. Alot of dog owners would have given up by now. I really do emphasize with you and what you are going through. The only thing that worked for my Poodle was the sugar treatment...and as I mentioned before I can't remember exactly what I put in her ears with the sugar....I can ask my vet on monday if you like...she is the one who recommended it to me. If you are going to try the other home remedy...and if you have a hard time finding the Pellitol ointment it is manufactured by Veterinary Specialities, Inc., Barrinton, IL (888)838-7732 vetamerica.com Good luck to both you and Laurel.

This just struck me as being funny. Today at the boarding kennel I had a lady drop off her very over weight female Rottweiler. The Rottie was waddling down the aisle not walking. Any way, she told me that she had discussed with the owner of the kennel that she is boarding her bitch as she has just come into heat and she doesnt want any "accidents" to happen. Myself, just making conversation asked...so, are you planning on breeding her ( I am also thinking she would need to loose a few pounds for a male to be even able to mount her properly :lol: ) the owner responds by saying...oh, no...we never planned on breeding her...we just didn't spay her as once they are spayed they get fat and lazy!!! OK, now imagine how surprised I must have looked after she said this. I was surprised as I am looking at an intact bitch which is fatter than any Rottie I have ever seen before and the owner was afraid the dog would get fat and lazy if spayed:o I guess the owner took my surprised look as a look of wonderment and perhaps non understanding...so she then goes into detail about hormones and weight, thryoid etc. I didn't even respond, although I wanted to say some thing like, "heck, if thats the case then if your dog had been spayed you would need a flat bed on a tractor trailer just to transport her any where. Any way, I know we have all discussed this topic to death. But, I think if owners understood that unspayed bitches can get just as fat as spayed bithes...it just depends on how much you feed the poor dog and how much exercise you give it and if the dog is predisposed to weight problems (just like us humans :wink: ) Any way, just thought I would share my hilarous day with every one. This really cracked me up.

I hope the home remedy fixes Laurel's ears up. Ear infections can be nasty and uncomfortable, I have seen many good natured dogs get very irratated and cross due to ear infections...they hurt. You should have Laurel's eyes and ears checked if you think there may be a problem. I will add though that I surprise my dogs all the time, if I approach from behind them and they have great hearing and vision. With Beau & Athena I walked up from the side of them and scared the heck out of them :lol: It looked as though Beau was going to do the Freddy Flinstone run :lol: I find with a dogs vision as a predator thier eyes face the front so there fore they focus on quick moving objects etc best from a frontal view. I have seen the most wonderfully sighted dogs not even notice a rabbit laying in front of them. The rabbits are wise enough to know that if the dog doesnt smell them that if they stay very still the dog probably won't notice them. Its when the rabbit moves and runs that the dog begins the chase. I also play hide and seek with Beau and Athena (my Newf's really suck at this game). If I stand real still and the wind is blowing away from the dogs...my dogs have a hard time spotting me...Athena has it figured out as she will go to ground and track me...Beau just kinda runs around mystified as to were I went...and most times I am standing right in front of him hiding in some bushes. :wink: Believe me, my dogs have the best of all the senses and I can still confuse them by working against the natural way they hunt.

[quote]Oh, and I'd also gone into a house once that was owned by a rottweiler who didn't like people wearing hats. And you should have already guessed by now that I just happened to be wearing a hat and I almost got mauled for it. I asked the owners what the dog's reasoning was behind this behaviour and they told me that they didn't know, they had the dog since puppy-hood and she's never had any bad instances with hat wearing people. I'm told that this isn't an entirely uncommon personality trait dogs.[/quote] As for dogs with quirks and dislikes for people in hats, men in uniform etc. it all comes down to socializaton and fight or flight instinct. If a dog had never seen a person with a hat on during its critical period of socialization then it would not associate what a person looks like with a hat on. Then possibly the first time the dog sees some one with a hat on...perhaps the hat flew off the persons head and scared the dog...or the person bent down and the hat moved etc etc etc....we as humans rarely recognize when our dogs have been frightened. Once the dog has been frightened it will respond to it on a survival basis. Fight or flee. I have seen some dogs which had not been properly socialized form a life long fear or aggression to one certain item/human etc which may have frightened it when it was young. One of my Newf's Gil was walking by a few garbage bags when he was an adolescent, the owner of the kennel had put a tarp over top of the garbage bags to keep the crows out. The tarp just happened to be snapped in the wind and the garbage bags made a russeling noise. Gil was terrified of garbage bags for the longest time because of the sound it made and it surprised him. I would never have made the association if I hadn't been there when he was spooked. For most people they don't even realize when their dog has been subjected to some thing scary. The only indication Gil gave at the time that he was spooked was he froze and walked so close to me you would have thought he was trying to get inside my leg. Some dogs fear the unknown, it looks different or smells different then instinct kicks in and puts the dog in fight or flight mode. With postal workers (poor postal workers :lol: ) there are many dogs which become postal worker aggressive :wink: For a dog what they see is a stranger coming onto their turf, and clunking some thing into the mail box which can startle some dogs. Some dogs see the postal worker coming and start barking to scare of the intruder, and glory be, it worked the intruder is leaving...the dog has scared of the intruder. There is such a big difference between a properly socialized dog which was socialized "properly" during the critical period and one that had not been properly socialized. Dogs fear the unknown, and if they did not have it imprinted during the socialization period from 4-16 weeks then it makes it much more difficult to get them used to new things as they get older. Its even worse if a dog develops a phobia due to having a bad introduction. It took me months to get Gil over his fear of garbage cans, and it had to be done slowly and I had to be very careful how I went about doing it. Gil also feared people when the carried a bag of dog food...he had never seen it before and he was an adult...when I carried in a bag of food one day he was so scared he was huddled in a corner, I reacated quickly and let him know it was me carrying the bag. I then set it down and got some cookies and started carrying the bag again and threw cookies for him...it took awhile, but, he no longer has a fear of people carrying a bag of dog food. :wink: I have also gone through other problems as well, fear of walking on ceramic flooring (all of my Newfs), I have one Newf (Cassie) who was frightened to death of men, she would cower when ever a man approached or came to my home. I had to slowly get her over her fear and now she is a mans girl :lol: She had never been abused by a man, her problem was she was brought up by a female breeder who did not have a man in her life. The breeder did not properly socialize this litter and viola, you have a litter of pups who are fearful of men...the reason is they had never met a man during the crititcal period.

[quote]can someone please repost the thread on natural ways to suck out infections? I cant find it, and now that I have a somewhat handle on this I would like to try it.[/quote] Courtnek, is the following the natural treatment you were asking about? this was the treatment I had suggested in your topic ear infections. Good luck with your babe. I also wanted to share with you a horror story I experienced years ago with my Standard Poodle. The vet and I had battled ear infections with this poor little girl for years, we tried hypo allerginic diets, benedryl, antibiotics, ear flushes...you name it we did it. :lol: Any way, one day my vet said their was nothing more in the medical feild she could do for this poor Poodle to get rid of the infection. She hesitated and then suggested I try a home remedy...It involved pouring sugar in the dogs ears and some thing else. Any way, it worked!!! the poodle never had an ear infection again. The sugar had absorbed what ever infection or bacteria was in her ear. Since I cant remember exactly what I used with the sugar the following recipe is supposed to be just as good, if not better. [quote]A combination of boric acid and a thick old fashioned ointment called pellitol is great for treating ear infections. You put the boric acid in the ear and work deep into the ear canal, next attach the pellitol applicator to the tube and squeeze the pasty ointment into the ear canal. Massage the ear. The pellitol dries up within a day or two, but if you leave it undisturbed for a week it removes whatever exudates are in the ear, whether they're sticky, tarry, yeasty, or slimy pus it just attaches to whatevers there, dries it up and every thing falls out together. After a week the ear should be much improved. Then use cotton balls or Q-tips to remove whatever's left. The treatment works well, it doesnt tramatize the ear. Word of warning the pellitol is very sticky, protect your furniture for a day or two as the ointment will stick to any thing it touches, and when you fill the ear it can stick to the outside of the ear of the dogs face. The excess will fall off and the rest you can remove with vegetable oil, but, leave the inside of the ear flap alone.[/quote]