jacqui835

Unfortunately our dog managed to get himself absolutely filthy today - it was almost impressive really... But anyway, we rushed him home and threw him straight into the shower (him and the bf actually lol) and 10mins later he was looking his beautiful self again. As soon as he was done though, he went absolutely ballistic and took off at full speed around the house. It was quite a sight to behold - typically we wash him away from home because he's really too large to fit in the shower so I haven't seen him do this in our home since he was about 5 months old. Dan was asking me why he seems to go so crazy, and I just had no idea but I remember that all of my dogs have been the same. Does anyone know why they do it?

:D Here's some more. Malinois, not Dutchies but they could give my cat a run for his money! Wow amazing dogs... I think I'll have to have one of these one day when I've earned enough to just stay away and focus entirely on a dog. I get the strong impression you couldn't leave these at home ie not for the part-time dog owner.

Thanks guys, am going to try and find out when there is a show on in adelaide. I'm guessing there probably won't be one for white shepherds but fortunately someone has very generously offered to help me meet some of those

Most DEFINITELY you guys!!! I agree. I'm sorry Deelee I think you're sweetheart but I don't understand people who need to take their dogs everywhere. I wouldn't dream of taking my dog to a non dog persons house . I have friends who want to bring their dogs when they visit or come and stay and I always say no. It's make me feel uncomfortable saying no and Im sure it irritates them somewhat but it upsets the balance with my other pets and I dont want to run the risk of someone elses dog chewing or toileting inside etc. I minded a friends Pug recently - 100% toilet trained at his home but unbeknown to any of us he spent the weekend decorating my curtains ;) . And because I dont want other peoples dogs here my weekend is not as relaxed which seems pretty unfair IMO. Yep that is how I feel. I've also been thinking about this more and I actually prefer to have people turn up unexpectedly with their children than with their dogs. To be honest I find that the people who visit me with their children are much happier with my insistence that their children follow my rules in my house, than dog people are at my insistence that their dogs follow my rules. ETA in my experience MOST people who take their dogs with them everywhere think that they're dogs are perfect little angels and get really narky (worse than parents of children) if you don't like something they're dog does. I've had lots of lovely people visit with their dogs and their dogs "fit" into our household with such ease because they're happy to follow our rules. I really don't think its a big deal - I expect visiting children to follow my rules, I expect visiting dogs to follow my rules and here that means no off-lead action unless you're in the dog run and no free-ranging in my house - last thing I want is someone pissing or pooping on my carpet. ETA I will again make an exception for Cosmolo's dogs because they're insanely well behaved ;) AND Cosmolo is very, very conscious of ensuring that her dogs ARE well behaved in the house, though the lovely Dexter just can't do cats ;) Gosh if my dog wasn't toilet trained, I wouldn't want him in my house let alone anyone else's. I am very happy to have anyone's dogs over so long as they keep them clean (my dog is washed once a week for example - but we also invite him onto our bed from time to time), they're well trained - beyond just toilet training so that they can stop them from jumping on people, stealing food or damaging anything, and the dog is friendly and comfortable being in different environments with strangers. I do not think it's ok to have any sort of animal or child destroy property or be rude, we have just chosen a dog and made the effort to make sure he can pretty much accompany us anywhere without creating anymore work or leaving any signs of his presence behind. We always have him on lead when we arrive, but when they see him just lying/sitting at our feet for a while and how friendly he is with everyone, well we've never not been invited to let him off the lead. When we get to a new place, the first thing we do is show him where 'toilet' is, and he knows how to ask us for help if he can't get to that spot, so we've never had any accidents. I am at work all week, and my dog is a very important part of my life - we recognise he wouldn't be the dog he is if he didn't have so much contact with humans (wouldn't understand or communicate as well with us etc), and so we're just not keen on leaving him at home, especially if the person has a large backyard and realistically it wouldn't be an issue. If we think they really wouldn't like us showing up with the dog, we invite them over to our place for dinner first, and then once they've met him, well we've never had any issues requesting to bring him along to the next event at their house.

Well other people, including myself might use dog park time or the beach or playing in the backyard for relaxation, I like to use the walk as training time and to exercise her mind (and my body lol). She has more than enough park time to smell the roses and other dogs bums etc. Apparently, I don't "do" relaxing walks- my friends are always complaining that I walk too fast! I agree, if I'm walking my dog, it's walk time and I expect/require him to remain at my side and focused on me. He is not desexed, so he would otherwise happily sniff and pee on every single bush/pole/fence etc if left to his own devices and we don't make any progress. But there are times when I release him, like in parks or at the beach etc and he can go do as he pleases, so long as he stays reasonably close. I see owners of dobes and GSD's and other dominant type breeds who let their dogs lead the walks, and it's not a pleasant or safe situation.

We have decided that come these summer holidays (when I will have close to 2 months off work), we would like to add a second dog to our family. We currently have a doberman, and love him to bits. We love his coat, his looks and his temperament, but we don't want 2 of the same dogs - I will always have one doberman from now on I think but only one at a time because they're very special. My partner also wants a second dog more likely to play fetch with him (and dobes were never bred for any kind of hunting, so they're not great). So we have discussed at length what the second dog should be, and managed to narrow it down to 2 breeds; a Weimaraner or a White Shepherd. My partner is very keen for a Weimaraner, I would prefer a White Shepherd but these are our 2 compromise breeds in that we could both settle for either. So what we would really like is an opportunity to actually meet some representatives of both breeds. Does anyone have a dog that they wouldn't mind us meeting, or know of like some sort of gathering of either weims or white shepherds we could go along to?

Haha yes I used to do a very fast walk to keep the dobe trotting for about an hour, but that never tired him out. Now I use a bike and ride at about 20-25km and do 15km. He's still not tired so I then let him play in the dog park for a while. He really could go all day, I think we've made him too fit bc we always did lots of exercise to keep him tired. I am 5'9 and he is around 29 inches at the shoulder.

An 'enclosed' verandah is hardly outside is it? If I'm on one side a closed door and my dogs are on the other, I think that's how they'd view it. Yup, my dog sleeps next to my bed, and that's just the way it is. I will respect that some people don't want dogs on the bed, whereas at home we just wash him and the sheets often, but I won't accept not having him in my room. I feel so sorry for everyone who has unsupportive partners, I imagine that would be the hardest... I met my partner before I got my dog, and he tried on several occasions to talk me out of it. Worse, he was anti-doberman like my family, so I dragged him along on an 16 hr return trip drive (in a black car in summer) to meet the breeder. He loved the dogs and from then on was pretty much on side, except for the occasional, "I told you so" when things were made difficult by having the dog. Now I can just say, "what are you proposing - we give up the dog?" and he's always like no of course not and we can start actually looking for proper solutions.

You're definitely not the only one. Fortunately, although it took a while, my OH now loves my dog as much as I do and calls him his 'fur child' but with everyone else it's an uphill battle. My family now know they can't expect us to be anywhere if we can't bring the dog - which is a big thing for them since they only like small dogs. Our dog is a very impressive and beautiful animal (red doberman), who also knows plenty of 'party tricks' - so he's been a popular attraction at all the parties I take him to. I do get permission first, but once they've seen him once, they're happy for him to come again, and now he even gets mentioned in the invitations. I think some of the people with little children are almost jealous, because no-one really notices the babies but they're all over the dog. We had facebook photos just put up for a recent housewarming party, and no kidding, more than half were of the dog and people interacting with the dog. Just stick to your guns, and make sure dog is a pleasure to be around - clean, well-trained etc.

Cats have a lot of very unpleasant habits as a result of being left entire - such as spraying, making lots of noise and increased fighting. I like my cats desexed as early as possible as a result. The other thing is, when dogs aren't desexed, it's true, they have a sex drive, but they also have pack drive which seems to cancel a lot of the bad points out (so long as you have a good pack structure and you're leader etc). Cats don't have this pack drive, they don't care about anyone else, and so if you leave them entire, there's nothing to counter their independence and urge to engage in undesirable behaviour etc. It's also a lot harder to contain a cat, and so this can be quite dangerous for the animal. We have had our gate left open several times, and our undesexed dog hasn't even tried to leave because his urge I guess to be with the pack and to guard us is stronger than his urge to find a mate. On the other hand, when I was little and we had a male undesexed cat, he used to actually camp (hidden) near the doors and windows, and the second you opened one, he'd be gone.

It is true that sometimes desexed and other entire males respond aggressively to my entire male, but I find that these are dogs that are a bit more highly strung/poorly behaved anyway, and imo, shouldn't be at the dog park. I often take my dog to the park, and he has no issues. I have had to confront other dogs to make them back off, and either they leave or I do, because I don't want to risk anything happening to my dog. Well-balanced, well-trained dogs though are fine with him, and fortunately I now know a nice group of dogs, some entire some desexed for him to play with.

I didn't mean to imply that I thought you were, only to provide an example of how things can change dramatically as they have in my case. I thought my dog was also pretty dumb as a puppy, even though he picked things up more quickly. By about 1 though he had changed quite a bit, and now has a better understanding I think of the goals of training. You're not failing him, he sounds like he has a fantastic life. I think perhaps some ppl just aren't puppy people - I know I'm not. I get puppies so I can create the adults I really want.

An early desexed dog is likely to grow taller than an undesexed one. But this dog is an adult so any of those issues aren't relevant here. I'm not advocating the dog be left entire. No one appears to be pushing not to desex. But arguments for desexing need to be factual. The main reason you desex male dogs is to stop them producing unwanted pups. Arguments about behavioural change or making them "easier" to manage aren't necessarily going to produce the goods. Contrary to belief, entire male dogs don't have to become slavering uncontrollable animals in the presence of a bitch in heat. A bit of training works wonders and most unmated males, while interested, don't really know what they're missing. I can vouch for this. I have a young male entire doberman (under 3) and whilst he demonstrates interest towards females on heat, he still listens and follows me just fine. You have to remember that we've been keeping dogs for a loooonnng time and only recently been desexing them, mainly because too many people didn't bother to train and/or contain their dogs - which they should be doing anyway. IMO, desexing is treating a symptom of a much greater problem. Dogs desexed early grow taller and whilst they can bulk up, they typically have longer, skinnier heads and more of a barrel shaped body. I can almost always pick a dog that was desexed at or before 6 months, but I'm not trying to say they look bad, just that they look different. I convinced my sister to desex her male papillon when he was 18months, because she hadn't bothered with training, and he would run off looking for females. 6 months later, same exercise routine, but the dog is now getting fat and they've had to reduce his food. But he stays much closer to them and doesn't try to run away anymore, so I would say desexing was a good decision in this instance.

This. Desexing eliminates sexual behaviour. It increases the chance of certain types of bone cancer, and prevents testicular cancer (but the risk of this as poodlefan said is not high anyway). It is an operation for which the dog will require general anesthetic - which is associated with plenty of risks of its own.

Strangely, it wasn't through training that I bonded with my dog - though without the training it no doubt would have been harder because I wouldn't be able to do as much as I do with him (like take him everywhere etc). When I first got him, I had a few moments of omg, what have I gotten myself into, and there was even a time, as he started to get very big and very strong where I thought one day he might try and hurt me (this was maybe at 4 months after having the 100th person tell me about how dobes turn on their owners). And I'd spent 3 years meeting and spending time with dobermans, so it wasn't like I didn't know it could work. I don't know exactly when it happened, but it was like I somehow just started to understand him, and him me. He used to move away from hugs as a puppy, and always maintained a bit of distance. That's all gone now, his favourite spot is on my lap. He even hugs me back when I hug him by wrapping his head around my shoulders. I don't even understand how I used to be scared of him, and when other people are it's just weird. Like I said, I couldn't tell you when or how it happened, only that it did, and by the time he was a year old I loved him more than I loved just about anything else in my life (much to the dismay of my bf). I agree with the people who said working as a team. We did a few activities, like exploring, investigating silly things really, but just reading each others reactions and working together, and I think that really changed things for us. We learned to trust each other, and with that came a sort of sense of peace from being around him, and I think he gets it from me too, just because we know we're in it together, and we look out for each other. The only advice I can think of is to try and not worry about that sort of thing, just try and enjoy each other's company and what you each have to offer, and do as much as you can together.

I'd like to know this too, because very recently in my immediate neighbourhood there has been a report of sexual assault by a man wearing a turban and robe. In fact, I believe I have seen this man myself, in the not so distant past, along one of my walks. This is in Victoria. What a rotten day. Well, when you think about it ...... no it wasn't. It was in Linear Park. Unfortunately I don't quite know what suburb I was in, but I do know that it took me somewhere between 5 and 10 mins to reach a main road at 25km/hr. It doesn't say anywhere that your dog has to be on a lead, merely that it needs to be under effective control. Lots of people walk quite aggressive dogs in that section, always on a lead, and that's fine, because my dog will just go around them, even if they're barking and pulling on the lead. I think it's just if you can control your dog and don't have to worry about their reaction to other dogs/people, you can have them off-lead. At night, we almost always have the path to ourselves. I felt really good about poochy last night, but tonight, Dan and I just went for a walk together with the dog on the main streets because I was too scared. I miss my routine, and I'm sure the dog does too but I think it's going to be a while until I build up the confidence to ride through the park in the dark again :p I might start taking him along the other bike track closer to us - it's a good and a bad point at the same time in that it's close to roads the whole time because I guess there won't be any dangerous people but dogs and roads are never a good mix...

I don't think you have anything at all to worry about. I currently own a doberman who fortunately doesn't really have a strong hunting urge, but when I was younger, we had a terrier mix. This dog must have killed 100's of rabbits in the golf course across from our house and rodents, but we also had 2 cats who could easily kick him off his bed and a rat that he used to just follow around the house. We were very young, so I may not do everything the same way if I could go back, but dogs seem to be very good at distinguishing between family pets and wild animals.

Yeah I actually kept riding flat out until I reached the next main road which was maybe 5-10mins away, and then I called my partner. He suggested I call the police as well, and also drove over to where I thought they'd been but there was no-one there. I was trying to remember what they had looked like, but all I can remember is that one had a white shirt, and one had a turban type hat thing on his head. My dog got a ridge on his back too. Kip sounds like an awesome dog, I love GSD's... He's getting plenty of love tonight, he's currently curled up on the couch next to me having some hugs. 'Poochy' is a doberman, here are 2 of my fav pics of him

Each day when I get home from work, I take poochy for a 1 hour give or take bike ride along the bike track, where he runs along next to me off lead. I think we both get a lot out of it (I can still fit into my size 8 pants despite working next to a cupcake store and he doesn't destroy the house!) Unfortunately, with the end of the daylight savings and winter getting ever closer, the sun is basically gone by 6:30pm and we now have to do our exercise in the dark. I've had a crazily unlucky day today; the trams broke down this morning so I had to walk to work in the worst possible shoes, the soap dispenser exploded so I had to go home and get changed - missing several important meetings, a guy reversed into me whilst I was driving home in the company car and the list goes on. Well our bike ride proved to be no exception. We'd only been riding for about 10 mins when I noticed that there were 2 men standing next to the bike track some way ahead of me. They were looking right at me, and they both moved onto the bike track in front of me, deliberately blocking me from passing. I panicked and had no idea what to do, felt a massive spike of adrenaline and I'm not sure if it was that, or that my dog just sensed something about these men, but he suddenly ran in front of me and started heading for them. He slowed to a trot as he got closer and was growling a deep low half growl/bark the whole time, so that with each bounce of the trot he made quite a scary noise. Both men jumped back and made gasping type noises and I just rode past them as fast as I could. When they were behind me, I called my dog and he ran after me. We have the track mostly to ourselves at nights, with the exception of the occasional jogger or commuter riding home and my dog rarely even acknowledges these people. If they stop to comment on him, he puts his ears back, wags his tail and goes in for a pat so it's not like he's just aggressive towards everyone. When he was younger, people used to tell me I was ruining a perfectly good guard dog/doberman by socialising him so much and encouraging him to accept pats from strangers etc, and excusing terrible behaviour from their own dogs saying they were just really protective unlike mine. I wish they could have seen him tonight... So to anyone who owns a guarding type breed of dog, and has/is being told what I was (ie don't let them get too used to other people because they won't be protective anymore), you can rest assured that's complete horse sh*t. You will just have the dog that can tell the difference between strangers and an actual threat, rather than the one that can barely be walked down the street because it's so scared/aggressive.

Hmm well since it looks like the dog is stuck with them, there might be a few things you can do to make the situation slightly better. If they can implement a bit of 'NILIF' - always make the dog sit and wait for food, ignore the dog sometimes when it comes asking for attention etc they might have a more manageable dog. It's such a sad story in that this woman has no confidence despite not even being with her husband anymore to have any say

Awwwww what a little cutie!!

He does work for all of his food in that we make him sit, wait and look at us, and he's very good at this. I could throw raw meat at him and he'd leave it if we told him to. It's hard to explain what I mean so I won't try just now. I was just curious as to whether anyone had any success with this particular approach, since so many talk about it.

I assumed they meant because the dog becomes more appreciative and doesn't have such a sense of self-entitlement. That was the reason I started considering it, because my dog has a serious sense of entitlement...

Several people have now told me that they don't feed their dogs (or know of people who employ that strategy) 1 or 2 days a week. They say this results in extremely well-behaved dogs. I've heard it so many times now I've become curious. Does it really make them behave better? And does it have any health impacts?

Yes if it weren't for the fur factor, I would love a GR...