dee lee

I love cats, but I love dogs more.

Its pobably because my current cat is so much more high maintenance than my dog.

She has always been noisy but now she is getting old, she NEVER shuts up.

I am not joking. All day all night...

I like the idea of getting another cat when she goes (she is 16 and intolerant of other cats), but I don't think I could risk another highly strung one. Still, I've had other less difficult cats so I know they can be such a pleasure.

We will see, I'm very easily swayed when it comes to animals, if my OH wasn't so firm about it I'd have a huge menagerie!

I'd consider a smaller spitz breed again too- my keeshond was divine & while independent, very much a loving family dog.

I feel the same about my elkhound. While he does have the independence of the northern breeds, he is very affectionate and good with people.

Actually, I was talking to an Elkie breeder about an upcoming litter just before I was offered Honey! :D

They tick a lot of boxes for me.

By smaller I meant I don't think I'd be up for a Sibe.

I'm still waiting for mine to speed up

One of our neighbours owns an Akita, he is probably around 5 or 6 now & is a complete sloth!

I have a golden who is high maintenance. She likes to please me to a certain extent but shes also a princess and very demanding.

I wonder if female golden retrivers tend to be a bit of a princess

Mine is like that too. Very good tempered but quite demanding. I actually call her my "little princess"

Not mine. She is very easy to live with & loves to please. Only demands pats & cuddles!

Probably the least smart of all the dogs I have had though. All enthusiasm, just a little slow on the uptake, bless her.

I have owned (from childhood), a working breed (kelpie x ACD), a spitz (Keeshond), a bullbreed (staffy cross) & now own a gun breed (golden retriever). All were/are pretty much spot on for their known temperaments.

Of all of them, I have discovered the gun breed suits me best, I enjoy the milder temperament, biddability & affection.

I'd consider a smaller spitz breed again too- my keeshond was divine & while independent, very much a loving family dog.

For me, the working breed and bullbreed were both too full on & required intense training, as their breed descriptions outline.

Yep, that completely resonates.

My previous, DA dog (a DINOS ) was targeted I don't know how many times by idiots who would insist "my dog's friendly!".

Then on whole other level was the local arsehole owner of an entire amstaff who regularly would deliberately refused to give us a wider berth if we accidentally came across each other. I would end up dragging my dog (& often small children) onto a road just so he could stay right in the middle of the footpath & allow his dog a long lead. He enjoyed the distress he caused.

I wish more people actually understood that some dogs need space, in fact assume that ALL strange dogs do unless told otherwise.

It's awful as the owner of a DINOS when, after your dog's threshold is crossed & it lashes out, you are looked at in horror, like you deliberately decided to own a reactive dog!

Unfortunately it's just not going to change though.

Nova Scotia duck tolling retriever.

They are gorgeous, medium sized and if I wanted to do agility I'd get one.

I sometimes wonder if saying yes to the small stuff leads to them being better with the big stuff. They have never hassled me while I eat or when I cook. They sit nicely at a distance and watch. They usually will get a treat when Mummy is done.

Aww, what good puppies. :D

Honey never hassles me, but tends to patiently wait for the inevitable food dropped while cooking (it gets messy in our kitchen, especially with 2 budding Junior materchefs ;) ).

To be honest, as long as she isn't begging, I'm happy for her to be hovering to clean up so I don't have to. Its a symbiotic relationship.

I have more problem with pats than food. She has worked out how to strategically place her nose under your hand when you are distracted. Inevitably she gets patted absentmindedly, and if it happens too much can get demanding, nudging hard for a pat. I really have to watch it, she is so sneaky.

For all the spoiling crap (yes, I get it too), its visitors who I find make it worse! Recently we had a wake for my OH's grandfather at our house and, despite strict instructions, half the guests were hand feeding Honey behind my back!!! Took us a few weeks to erase the effects of that!

Still, as I say, she is generally so good, I'm prepared to be easy going on her.

So often I hear comments like "Oh she's got you trained" or "She's getting exactly what she wants"

Why is that a bad thing?

I LIKE the fact that I know what Bitty and Bubby want and the fact that I am able to provide what they want! What is wrong with making a dog happy for goodness sakes! Its not like if they ask for a game and get a game they will go out and eat little children!

I love the fact that Bitty loves frosting, Bubby loves truffle oil and they will nudge me and ask for a baked good on the cooling rack. I love the fact that Bubby will go to his bed, sniff his sheets and cry so I change his sheets (he doesn't like grubby sheets). To me its communication, another means of knowing something about my dogs.

Why on earth would you go out of your way to do what your dog doesn't like or to NOT provide them with something that makes them happy if it doesn't harm either of you.

I'm exactly the same with Honey too. :D

That's because she is generally such a good girl and will not throw a tanty if she doesn't get her way all the time. (IF ONLY my kids were as good! )

BUT... In the case of Evie, my poor troubled previous dog, I absolutely could not behave that way. She needed to have consistently firm boundaries or she would become a real handful. I really noticed if I'd slacked off, her behaviour would take a dive, she'd become pushy, ignore me etc. Not what I needed with 2 small kids and a DA dog.

So my belief is that it depends on the dog. I am so much happier with our relaxed way of living with Honey rather than the strict, regimented life we had with Evie. Because of that, I probably do spoil her a little. :D

Are you wanting someone to visit & feed/exercise/play or stayover?

I can't think of any specific days, but there are many specific ways that my dog has made my life & my family's infinitely better.

Number one, helping my daughter get over her fear of dogs by being a loving, sweet, steadfast companion.

So I guess because of how much better are lives are, the best day was when we met her & she became part of our family.

Which incidentally was exactly 2 years ago!!! :D

Aw Bub, you are so cute.

I've missed you while you were away!

Yeah it stinks. Not enjoying 27kgs of damp cream fur, well not so cream after the muddy puddle dive yesterday.

(ps- that's why we don't have shag pile rugs any more- magnets for accidents)

I found taking my dog to the beach daily for a swim cleared up her flea allergy flare up.

It sounds/looks like a staph infection from scratching the allergic rash.

Administer some antihistimine to reduce the itchiness, then apply some diluted betadine to the area with the sores.

I did a lot of research when my dog ended up with a similar looking problem and there seemed to be no consensus about taking antibiotics to fix it. So I opted to try the betadine rather than overload her with drugs. After a few days it had cleared up.

I LOVE betadine... :D

Hmm

Large

Affectionate

Calm/easy going

Biddable/obedient/easy trained

Good jogging partner

I got all I wanted with my GR.

BUT, my next 5 requirements would be topped with Low shedding!

Funnily enough, my previous dog only fit #2 & 5. She most certainly was not a good fit.

As discussed in this thread, why not just use the term "energetic"?

With sighthounds, the term high prey drive is used to describe a dog that chases small animals down - that term is much more descriptive of the dog's behavior.

I agree, drive is not energy.

My previous dog was very high drive- she was alert & focused ON certain things a great deal of the time. Given a chance she would have chased whatever it was down to kill it.

My current dog also has drive but it's fairly moderate, only kicks in over birds & rats... & sky writing... *sigh*

However, once it kicks in, she is deaf to me & will give chase.

Its very clear body language when a dog is IN drive, their body freezes & stiffens, ears go up, they become fixated on the object of their drive.

It's actually quite magnificent to see, pure instinct.

Being energetic is not the same & yes I think the term is wrongly used a bit.

I always felt that my DA dog was not "normal" in temperament, but there were always so many other reasons given to me. Not knowing the early history, being an older pup, me being inexperienced with bullbreeds, me not being a tough enough pack leader... etc etc...

Articles like this ease my guilt a little. Maybe she was never quite right.

Of course she wasn't quite right. The people that sold her to you let you down in a big way by refusing to acknowledge that. There is a fair chance the reason she ended up being put up for rehoming in the first place was because she wasn't quite right. You did all you possibly could, I don't think you should feel any guilt. It was just very sad, that is all.

Thanks Greytmate.

My goldie gets that from licking her feet. Doesn't seem to bother her.

I have always just assumed its the saliva staining the white fur?

It happens on her tummy too if she gets allergies and licks them.

That's great Sujo.

I must say though, I'm shocked it took a month for them to take action.

I always felt that my DA dog was not "normal" in temperament, but there were always so many other reasons given to me. Not knowing the early history, being an older pup, me being inexperienced with bullbreeds, me not being a tough enough pack leader... etc etc...

Articles like this ease my guilt a little. Maybe she was never quite right.

Cheese

If anyone asks tell them it's because he's cheese coloured

According to my kids, our goldie is the colour of Honey (not cheese!! ). And thus she was renamed. :D

She also is an absolute Honey in temperament.

We adopted her aged 3 and changed her name from Morgan. Never had a problem.

I sometimes think I should have called her Doris or Marilyn though, cause she can be a bit of a dumb blonde.

I like funny old fashioned names for Goldies, like Roger, George, Eddie etc

OMG, I just came across this funny men's names website- might help, or at the very least it's funny. (Though a bit un-PC and rude. )

Does anyone have a link to the add with Hazard in it? I havn't seen it on TV.

There you go -

Oh! That's the ad with my friend Paulie in it!

Gorgeous dog. I love Aussies.

The point is though... that no matter whether the dog is relaxed or high drive , if it is AGGRESSIVE to other dogs when off leash..then, to avoid incident it needs to be walked/trained/run/swam ON LEASH...either temporarily, until the problem is addressed - or otherwise.

It's simple

I don't see anyone saying that walks on a leash are all a w/l dog needs. Rather, letting them off leash on public land with other dogs (and putting them and their owners - who could get hurt trying to save them - at risk) is the answer.

If you own a DA dog you need to put in lots and lots and lots and lots of effort to find safe ways to give your dog the outlet that it needs. Putting other dogs at risk is just the lazy option.

Yes, exactly.

I think we got off track, the comments below are the contentious ones for me.

This would be impossible for me. For people who own working breeds, even a 2 hour walk on the leash doesn't begin to drain their energy....

....I do not walk my dog on the leash to drain his energy, I can't not walk fast enough or for long enough to do that.

This is a difficult situation, but given the dog is still relatively young and subsequently energetic, I don't think leash walking will cut it.

Well I still stand by those comments, especially now that I've had some exposure to other working dogs. My dog would not be a pleasant dog to own if the only exercise he got was what I could provide from walks on lead. But I've never met this particular GSD and for all I know, it could be one from very relaxed lines and be perfectly content with a walk around the block so my bad for making assumptions based on the breed alone.

But your dog isn't aggressive.

I don't think leash walks only would cut it for many working breeds, working line or not. Dogs need the opportunity to run around and burn some energy whether they are lap dogs or working line kelpies who can run over 60km a day. I actually don't think hard exercise is necessarily the answer (although obviously adequate stimulation and exercise is required) and can actually make the situation worse- the dog gets fitter and you get into a vicious cycle of the dog needing ever increasing amounts of exercise to keep it satisfied- I know this from experience with my own dog .

I don't think many people with working breeds would actually be capable of completely tiring out their dogs

However, an aggressive dog should never be let off the leash unless the owner has full control of it- even then it could attack an approaching dog, so on the whole people are trying to say its safer NOT to let DA dogs off leash.

It is a catch-22 situation because the less exercise they get the more frustrated they may get which can increase aggression. Then you really have to look at your capabilities and willingness to work with the dog (and a ehaviourist) and perhaps make a hard decision about quality of life for both you and the dog

I don't see anyone saying that walks on a leash are all a w/l dog needs. Rather, letting them off leash on public land with other dogs (and putting them and their owners - who could get hurt trying to save them - at risk) is the answer.

If you own a DA dog you need to put in lots and lots and lots and lots of effort to find safe ways to give your dog the outlet that it needs. Putting other dogs at risk is just the lazy option.

Yes, exactly.

I think we got off track, the comments below are the contentious ones for me.

This would be impossible for me. For people who own working breeds, even a 2 hour walk on the leash doesn't begin to drain their energy....

....I do not walk my dog on the leash to drain his energy, I can't not walk fast enough or for long enough to do that.

This is a difficult situation, but given the dog is still relatively young and subsequently energetic, I don't think leash walking will cut it.

ETA- I'm not having a go at you jacqui835, its just that I have had the unfortunate experience of owning a high energy DA dog and feel strongly that they should never be offlead.

Trust me, I wished and wished I could change that, but ultimately I had to take responsibility for never placing my dog in the situation where she could hurt another dog.