samsmama

I'm glad to say I am dating someone right now :wink: , but Sam my dog isn't too happy about it. He barks frantically at me if I am in a conversation with my friend, does annoying things just for attention, and is, in general, a big brat. I try and pick up a toy and throw it, pet him, and reassure him, but it doesn't seem to do any good. Anybody have suggestions of how we can all get along?? Even worse, my new date has a dog that terrifies Sam. Now, Sam is about 78 pounds, a golden retriever lab mix. Wilson is 12 pounds, a rat terrier mix. Doesn't make any sense. For whatever reason, Wilson must be one scary dude, cuz Sam inches slowly away from him, looks at him sideways, and doesn't want to be anywhere near him. They've only had one meeting, and I'm hoping to reintroduce them in a neutral place this weekend. By the way, I've had other friends' dogs over and he seems fine with them. How can I help them to get along too?! I think Sam is used to getting all of my attention. I don't spoil him, and I do have friends over quite often, and have a roommate, so you'd think it wouldn't be that hard for him, but he seems to be struggling. Anybody out there dealt with this problem before?

New York Times January 18, 2004 ESSAY The Dog in the Fight By CHARLES SIEBERT hese are dark days, indeed, for one of New York City's best known and much maligned residents, the pit bull. The dog has long been a fixture in the tabloids and local news for the inevitable attacks that result from their corrupted rearing. But perhaps underscoring how debased the beast has become is the latest outcry for its banishment, spawned by the misdeed of another breed entirely, the Rottweiler, one of whose kind mauled a 3-year-old boy in the Bronx in October. (The dog's owner, it turned out, was a former convict and parole violator.) The incident sparked the by-now familiar and sadly hollow outcry to ban ''bad breeds,'' as one local tabloid referred to them. In some cities, certain breeds can be singled out as dangerous and required to wear muzzles. Many municipalities across the U.S. have banned pit bulls outright, Denver, Miami-Dade County and Cincinnati among them. And now a number of New York State lawmakers are pushing to overturn a current state law that prohibits cities and towns from banning specific dogs. In a single stroke, this course of action makes the dog the scapegoat for the true culprits while also ensuring that it remains, precisely because of its ''outlaw'' status, the breed of choice for inner-city wannabe hoods and backwoods anarchists alike. The pit bull's image has become so skewed that New York City Animal Care and Control, the city's animal-welfare agency, recently decided to give the dog a public relations makeover by renaming it the ''New Yorkie.'' I took in a pit bull once, an orphan -- like so many of his kind -- of human cruelty. We met one fall afternoon three years ago while I was walking with my dogs up Eastern Parkway toward my apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The pit bull was coming straight toward us, although still a good distance up the parkway, when I spotted him. You learn to keep a keen eye out for ''pits'' in my neighborhood. I stopped at the nearest crosswalk in hopes of getting to the other side, but seeing that the light was against me, I gathered both my dogs' leashes into my left hand, reached with my right for the Swiss Army knife I used to take with me precisely for such encounters (I now use pepper spray) and steadied myself for the worst. All white but for one very endearing light brown spot over his left eye, he moved, I remember, with a forthright gait, striding toward us along the promenade like a regular citizen of the world. I was just about to open my knife. Then I noticed a broad ring of tarnish around the pit's neck, where his collar had been, and flecks of blood and scarring along his flank, and I immediately began to let my defenses down. Perversely, I knew not to be afraid of this one precisely because he'd been bloodied and abandoned. It happens all the time to the ''nice ones'' -- those that fail to become fierce despite the ''instructive'' beatings and special baiting, things like feeding them hot peppers and glass shards, all by way of toughening them up either for the fighting ring or for their more general role as animate macho ''hood'' ornament. According to New York City Animal Care and Control, which is contracted by the city's Health Department and therefore mandated, unlike the A.S.P.C.A. or the Humane Society or the North Shore Animal League, to accept all relinquished animals, more than 6,000 pit bulls are taken into its shelters every year in New York City. Ninety percent of them aren't adopted and have to be put down. The abandoned in my neighborhood are often found tied to lampposts along the parkway or are let loose in nearby Prospect Park, some of these strays to be set upon later by their ''successful'' counterparts, whose owners purposefully let them loose for practice killings. The oft-repeated line ''There are no bad dogs, just bad owners'' has been accurately applied to a number of breeds other than the pit bull. The Rottweiler -- which currently shares the pit bull's dubious status as emissary of our baser urges -- was originally bred as a herd dog and is cited in any number of canine guidebooks for being, like the pit bull or the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, to which the pit is related, particularly affectionate with children. Similar words are often used to describe the German shepherd, the Doberman pinscher and the boxer, the menacing breeds of the postwar era. This is in large part because of the co-optation of their skills by the military and by the police (and by overzealous civilian owners, who, subliminally or not, traded on those indelible images of bared fangs before the flailing flanks of civil rights marchers and antiwar protesters). But what the proponents of bans of specific dog breeds fail to recognize is that a given breed is incidental to the cruder human impulses it is made to serve: the illicit thrill of bloody fighting rings, or of simply having the baddest dog on the block. Ban one breed, and there will be another to take its place. Ban, or at least crack down on, the human abuses of these animals by enforcing more strictly the existing laws against such abuse, and all breeds revert to their better natures. Consider the history of a another corrupted pedigree (since redeemed), the Akita. For centuries the Akita was so extensively used as a fighting dog in Japan that it nearly became extinct. The government interceded, prohibiting the use of Akitas for the bloody spectacle of the ring, allowing the dog to achieve its current distinction as an ideal ''companion dog,'' as one guidebook describes it, ''docile . . . careful, affectionate, intelligent, courageous.'' A citywide information campaign enlisting the help of the average citizen would go a long way toward ferreting out the violators, whose activities are, by their very nature, conspicuous. Just two days after the call by state officials for the Elijah law (named after the boy mauled in the Bronx), police officers who were arresting a Bronx resident on an unrelated charge stumbled upon what appeared to be a pit-bull fight-training compound behind the man's house. It included cinder-block stalls, heavy metal chains with thick canvas collars and a canine exercise treadmill. I'm not certain what it was precisely that prompted me to take in that pit bull three years ago. I stood there at the crosswalk watching the pit nuzzle my two dogs -- both mixed-breed, adopted strays. Then he stared up at me with such knowing, clearly asking eyes, and I knew I was sunk. My wife watched in disbelief as we all came through the front door. I gave him a bath and brushing, all the while keeping a keen eye out for any indications of a mean streak, that vicious inner core supposedly endemic to his breed. Nothing. Day after day, I watched him play with my dogs and others in the park without incident. It soon became clear that what I had allowed into my life was nothing more than a bighearted bungler whose apparent enthusiasm at the prospect of a life with a nonhurtful owner nearly cost him the chance at one. The last time I saw Vic -- the name given to him by a friend who took him in for a brief period -- was at a country kennel in Quebec, a few miles from where my wife and I spend our summers. We had concluded that we couldn't handle three dogs back in Brooklyn. The owner of the kennel, meanwhile, vowed she'd find someone to adopt him. And just before Christmas word finally came that, after two prospective adopters had returned Vic because of his obsessive barking at cows and hay bales, a dog walker at a nearby animal shelter had decided to take him in. I choose to believe that this arrangement has worked out fine. It would hurt too much to find out otherwise, unable as I am even now to put out of my mind the look Vic gave me the day I dropped him off. He'd always stare me right in the eye and give a quick lick when we were together and the world, in his mind, was right. This time, though, I got just a tight-lipped turn of his wide, noble head, a look that -- given what he sensed was about to happen and what I knew already had to him and his kind -- I can only describe as disappointment. Charles Siebert is a contributing writer for the magazine and the author, most recently, of ''A Man After His Own Heart: A True Story,'' which will be published in the spring.

Thanks so much. I'll give it a try.

[quote name='JudyHoffman']SamsMom ..... how old is your rescue? Just curious. Do you know any of his background?[/quote] Sam is a little over a year, and he's altered. From what I can tell from his adoption papers, he lived with a family that had other cats and other dogs, which made me think he was well socialized around other animals. Unfortunatley, he's a little unpredictable around other dogs. Or perhaps it's just that I haven't figured out his patterns yet :oops: . I am trying, though! He will lunge, growl/bark at this one dog at dog obedience school. My trainer showed me a way to turn his head away from dogs he's "looking at" and getting ready to bark at. Yesterday he had no issues at dog school. I just kept him away from the dog he doesn't like. But I wish our class did something around socializing with other dogs. For example, they've practed the trainer approaching the dog and touching the dog, which doesn't affect Sam, but there's no dog interaction in class at all. I've tried him at the dog park, and he seems like like to "bother" more submissive dogs, and once in my backyard, another dog got in, and he lunged and got into a scuffle with the neighbor dog. No one was hurt. I think it was probably over territory. He did not know this dog at all. Well, any suggestions would help. :)

Please do. I am in obedience school, for 8 weeks now, with a dog I got three and a half months ago from the humane society. He's too old for puppy socialization classes and would love more information on how to socialize sam to other dogs. He is similar to the dog on the original post. He does tend to get in other dogs faces. And he rushes up to other dogs like the "dominant" dog does. I always have Sam on lead when we go for walks, but i would like to take him to the dog park more consistently, but I don't feel like I know enough about him yet to completely trust him around other dogs. While you are most familiar with pure bred dogs (i've read your other posts), could you give some insight to a mutt (lab/golden retriever/ shepherd) owner?? :)

[quote name='"JudyHoffman"'][quote]As a good and responsible owner it is your job to read your dog and now allow him to enter another dogs space without permission from the other dog handler and dog.[/quote] Could you give a little synopsis on how that should be done?? Should she have her dog on lead in that situation?

How have you all taught drop it?

On halloween this year, Sam got into the candy... wrappers and all. After a frantic call to the vet, and attempts to induce vomiting, Sam was cool as a cucumber... and proceed to poop out little shiny packages of candy wrappers for days afterward. Now THAT was kind of funny (and gross) :roll: !

I got this by email today from a friend of mine and assumed you all would enjoy it. It made me laugh out loud! :lol: Sounds just like Sam! And it's a good description of my roomate's cats, too! Enjoy! Excerpts from a Dog's Daily Diary 8:00 am - OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE! 9:30 am - OH BOY! A CAR RIDE! MY FAVORITE! 9:40 am - OH BOY! A WALK! MY FAVORITE! 10:30 am - OH BOY! A CAR RIDE! MY FAVORITE! 12:00 pm - OH BOY! THE KIDS! MY FAVORITE! 1:00 pm - OH BOY! THE YARD! MY FAVORITE! 4:00 pm - OH BOY! THE KIDS! MY FAVORITE! 5:00 pm - OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE! 5:30 pm - OH BOY! MUM! MY FAVORITE! 6:00 pm - OH BOY! PLAYING BALL! MY FAVORITE! 6:30 pm - OH BOY! SLEEPING IN MASTER'S BED! MY FAVORITE! Excerpts from a Cat's Daily Diary Day 183 My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while I am forced to eat dry cereal. The only thing that keeps me going is the hope of escape, and the mild satisfaction I get from ruining the occasional piece of carpet. Tomorrow I may eat another houseplant. Today my attempt to kill my captors by weaving around their feet while they were walking almost succeeded,; must try this at the top of the stairs. In an attempt to disgust and repulse these vile oppressors, I once again induced myself to vomit on their favorite chair; must try this on their bed. Decapitated a mouse and brought them the headless body, in attempt to make them aware of what I am capable of, and to try to strike fear into their hearts. They only cooed and condescended about what a good little cat I was. Hmmm, not working according to plan. There was some sort of gathering of their accomplices. I was placed in solitary throughout the event, however, I could hear the noise and smell the food. More importantly I overheard that my confinement was due to MY power of "allergies." Must learn what this is and how to use it to my advantage. I am convinced the other captives are flunkies and maybe snitches. The dog is routinely released and seems more than happy to return. He is obviously a half-wit. The bird, on the other hand, has got to be an informant, and speaks with them regularly. I am certain he reports my every move. Due to his current placement in the metal room, his safety is assured. But I can wait, it is only a matter of time.

Thanks for the visual, that's amazing! Your dogs are darling, by the way. I'll give it a try. :)

Friday evening I took Sam for a long walk. We arrived to a deserted park and I let him off leash for a little bit. He promptly ran over to some trees, and got really quiet all of a sudden. Of course I was curious what he was up to so I called his name. He came bounding out from the trees with a large branch and something frozen. I couldn't tell what it was, but I did know that Sam was REALLY excited. As I got closer, I realized it was a very dead squirrel, frozen, attached to a frozen tree branch. Gross. :x I wasn't so happy about him playing with this stinky thing so I tried to get him to leave it. He of course did not agree. He ran away from me and would not let me catch him. Once I got close to him, he stood his ground with his mouth around the dead branch/squirrel, and his hackles went up! Somehow I eventually was able to grab him and get the branch out of his mouth, but I was a little worried he was going to get aggressive with me. :oops: What does it mean that his hackles went up? Was he being aggessive? Should I be worried? How do you train dogs to "leave it"? He's in obedience class but we haven't covered that yet. I got him 3 and a half months ago from the Humane Society and he is one years old, golden retriever/lab mix.

Thanks so much for your input. :) I'll give all these suggestions a try. I am experimenting today to see if it's boredom or separation anxiety. I hid different "treats" around the first floor of my house for him to "find" while I am gone, which may keep him mentally stimulated during the day. I'll see if there's any destruction. :-? I'll keep you posted...

Thanks everyone for your encouragement! I do walk him before I go to work, but usually for just 20 minutes to half an hour. Both Sam and I are sleepy in the morning! I have to drag him out of bed to go for a walk! When gooeydog said, "and get or make a long lead so you can let him run a bit without having to worry about him messing with other dogs" did you mean for the dog park, or just when I am walking him? a little confused... :oops:

I could really use your help on this one. :Help_2: I am really frustrated and feel like I don't know what else to do. I have a one year old golden retriever lab mix (maybe shepherd too??) that I got 3 months ago from the humane society. He's a sweet boy, but my biggest struggle has been his destructiveness when I am at work. I don't work an excessive amount (although it is full time). Unfortunately, I don't think he is used to being left . The paper work from the human society stated that he was never left alone. (I know, why did a choose a dog like this when I work? Well, I guess it's because I didn't know this detail until i was already done with the paper work and we were about to leave and I was already feeling attached!) While I've been gone, he's torn apart the arm of an upholstered chair, my futon couch, a wooden bowl from my grandmother, several books, anything in a box (photos, letters, etc), cord to the window blinds, a cable attached to my dvd player, a bamboo chair. He's pulled things out of the kitchen sink (I am not perfect... I don't do my dishes right away!) and will lick the bowl, chew apart wooden spoons, help us clean up (he, he). He basically finds and chews on anything he can get his mouth around. Obviously he is food motivated, and don't consider the dishes, etc as his fault since I do leave them there. I guess I am more worried that soon I won't have anymore furniture left!!!! And I don't want him to hurt himself. [u][b]This is what I've tried: [/b][/u] He hates his crate, but I've tried to slowly re-introduce him to it. I feed him in the crate with the door closed, but he whines, salivates, pants, and basically freaks out if I leave the room while he's in the crate. So far we've worked up to him being in there for 30 minutes with me coming and going (but being nearby) without him freaking out. I don't know when, if ever, I'll get to leaving him all day in the crate. Friends of mine who have dogs think this is strange since their dogs love their crates, etc, etc. So I am stumped here. I confine him to the first floor of my house, but once I tried confining him to a room thinking, "hey, it isn't a crate, he should be fine". Nope. He tried to claw his way out by lifting the rug near the door, scratching and clawing at the door, and pulling down the shutters from the window. Obviously an anxiety response. So that's why upholstered furniture, the kitchen, etc are within his reach. Oh and doggy gates don't work because he somehow jumps over them. I leave him with a peanut butter filled kong, rawhides, bones, toys, etc (in other words, lots of things he loves to play with) but they seem to mostly go untouched. Usually the kong will be cleaned out, but not always. I make my comings and goings as low key as possible. I walk him twice a day... Perhaps he's not getting enought exercise (even after two walks) but I feel worreid about bringing him to an off leash park because of possible dog aggression. He seems to like to bully more submissive dogs. While he hasn't hurt other dogs, he has started some scuffles, and I am not sure how to deal with this. While this is a separate issue, any suggestions for that problem too?? He generally gets along with other dogs, but he'll get in other dogs faces that don't want his attention and he won't leave them alone. Pretty rude!! I've sprayed the bitter spray on the futon and chair. He hasn't touched the chair again, but chewed up the futon again yesterday. We are in doggy school, and that's going fairly well, although he is very rambunctious at school. My one-on-one training is going fairly well. I got him to stop pulling on his lead when I walk him! :lol: Success!! I don't know if it's separation anxiety. He doesn't seem to freak out, bark, claw/scratch downstairs when I leave when he's on the first floor. He just looks sad. And then he chews. So I spend all day worrying about what he's getting into while I'm gone. Please help me figure out what I am doing wrong, or if there's anything else I could be doing. I can't quit my job, otherwise there will be no dog kibble and no human kibble for me! And no house, etc.. etc... And I do try so hard to dedicate a lot of time to him. (My friends say almost too much) But I really need him to stop chewing me out of house and home.... literally.

Thanks you guys! :D Sam continues to be non phased by the cold, although I almost got frost bite on my fingers last night (wind chills were around 20 below). Very painful!!! Wish I had fur and protective "pads" on my paws... he, he.

They don't seem to be... maybe i'm just being overly protective. If they're telling humans not to spend time outside without their faces/heads covered, it got me worried about his paws! Come to think of it, not all sled dogs wear booties, do they?

Oh, I forgot to mention, I am from California originally, which doesn't make me much of a winter expert...

Hello! I am a new dog owner, and today is the first below zero day with dangerous wind chills that I've experienced as a dog owner. My dog is pretty hardy (he's a lab/golden/shepherd mix) and doesn't seem to complain, but I was wondering if it was safe to walk him tonight. There's a wind chill advisory. :roll: What do you think??

Thanks so much for all your encouragement and information. By the way, I've gotten Sam to walk fairly well on a leash, and the following week in dog training he was an excellent student! :D Perhaps Sam has play aggression. I am not clear on what I should do to prevent that from happening again. When he barks at me when we're playing fetch with the ball, and the one time he snapped his teeth together in a biting motion (no where near any of my body parts), I turned my back to him and walked away from him. He stopped. He actually hasn't done it since, but I've also been reluctant to play fetch: He seems to get so wound up! If he does it again, should I just walk away? He also is a bully ocassionally at the dog park and seems to be especially "interested" in super submissive dogs. How do I get him to leave other dogs alone that obviously don't want his attention? They're giving him all of these signs that his attention is unwanted, and even that he's scarying them, but he doesn't back off! The last time this happened, I put the leash on him and we went home! Any other suggestions?

Hi, I am a new dog owner and new to web based discussions! Sam is a year old golden retriever/ lab/ shepherd mix. I've had him for 2 months, and he's recently turned into kind of a terror. I am doing obedience training. Monday was my second class with him. I use a gentle leader, I make him sit before I feed him, I make sure I walk out the door before him, so I have been trying to establish the alpha dog role. But he is 75 pounds (maybe more) and he's a real handful. He pulls constantly. I've tried the "Zen" method of encouraging him not to pull with no luck. He actually pulled me off my feet and onto the ground two days ago. When we play fetch in the back yard he gets overly rambunctious and yesterday actually growled and snapped at me (in play?? I am not sure!). He jumps up. I try and shovel snow and he barks at me. He acts like a spoiled brat, even though I don't think I am spoiling him. Monday he barked and snarled at another dog in class. I am at my wits end. :oops: I would love some feedback from other rambunctious dog owners who could give me some support here! I am really frustrated.