Sharna3

Just to clarify, while it was a public road, it was a dirt road that runs through a pine plantation. Not farm land or private property. People commonly go to these plantations to ride motorbikes, walk dogs etc. because there's not any through traffic.

From what I understand, the pup was let out of the car and the owners intended to follow it but the woman had to stop to get her son out of the car and put his gumboots on (no idea what the husband was doing).

The 'shooter' was not a farmer but rather an individual who went hunting for feral animals.

I absolutely agree that the owners made a mistake in letting Peppa vanish out of site over the crest, but I think a lot of assumptions are being made about the situation that aren't true and these people are being judged pretty harshly.

I had a friend who loved me unconditionally.

The moment he saw me, his eyes lit up, his happiness shone from his entire being and his focus was solely on me.

Always comfortable in each other’s presence – never an awkward moment. Our differences complimented each other and we found ways to combine our interests.

When I was happy, he was happy with me.

When I was sad, he was my greatest comforter – nothing could soothe me like his presence.

When I was angry, his calm gaze and total lack of judgement was exactly what I needed to let the anger go.

We loved to go for long walks and then just relax at home and watch tv or snooze. I knew his favourite things and tried to get them for him as much as I could. I gave him love, affection and trust as often as possible because it was all I could offer to attempt to repay everything he gave me.

I lost my friend three years ago – today is his birthday. Time has helped me to deal with the loss but nothing will ever heal the hole that is left in my heart. I wouldn’t trade anything for the time I had with him, but I would trade everything to have him back with me.

I miss him every day but I am so grateful I had him in my life. I will never forget him, never stop missing him and never, ever stop loving him.

Happy birthday Bastian, my beautiful babyman x

I guess mentioning the breed in a news article is only important when it's doing something wrong.

SO TRUE! The media would scream "pit bull" if this was a negative story, but there is NO mention of breed because its a positive story. Pathetic.

One of my dogs is a "Velcro" dog. I move...he moves. Not 100% of the time, but if he isn't soundly sleeping, he will follow me from room to room, even to the bathroom.

I'd like to understand better the motivation for this behaviour as well as t&t methods for changing it? I feel it's a security thing and would like to increase his confidence to negate it, but would love some fresh thoughts :)

Well, Harley has two solidly brown eyes. So it's not that. I realise green and red reflections are common. Just not sure about green and blue?

Hi,

This may be totally normal... but thought I'd ask. Whenever I take a pic of one my dogs with a flash, one eye reflects the normal green colour and the other eye is bright blue. Anyone ever seen this?? Am I worrying about nothing? Will try to post a pic but on an ipad so not easy.

I would say, if you aren't breeding, neuter. I had an entire male rotti, and having him sterilized at 8yo due to prostrate issues was horrible. Meanwhile his persona changed not one iota afterwards, I just wished I'd done it sooner.

In respect to growth and protectiveness, I now have a 2 yr old english mastiff x bullmastiff, had him neutered at 14 mths, he is a great size and build and is still displaying the guard behaviour specific to the breed beautifully.

Hope this helps :)

Thanks guys :) this morning he seems to have stopped the dripping, just back to his normal drooling. But will keep an eye on it! My other thought was could it have been an insect bite?

Hi all,

My 2 yr old mastiff x started salivating this afternoon, he always drools a bit (yay mastiffs), but this is different, more and thinner, just a constant drip from his mouth. He ate his dinner as per normal, is drinking fine, behaviour seems normal, but the dripping is not.

I checked his mouth for anything stuck - nothing. He does have a broken tooth, but I'm not 100% sure when that happened. Any ideas???

Are you going to get thundershirt? It's sounds like it could work for her anxiety at home.

I want to give the collars a go first, see if they help. Try one thing at a time so that if I get a positive result, I can be sure what I got it from!

Latest update;

Dogs have been doing very well - we are still keeping them separated but have allowed very closely monitored contact.

Took the dogs to the beach on Saturday - we are driving home for Christmas and trying to work out the best way to have them both in the ute (it has a canopy) together. We put Jazz in the car first and then Harley (with his lead firmly attached.) The dogs were so happy to be with each other - lots of tail wagging and face licking and then they just looked at us as if to say "What?" We have tie points in the back so that we can if necessary tether them at opposite ends, but they seemed totally at ease with each other. So we left them untethered and drove to the beach with me watching them the whole time like a hawk (but trying to be inconspicuous).

At the beach they were again just their old selves. Harley was totally interested in his ball and Jazz just had a ball. At one point she crash tackled him which is something they always used to do; Harley did not react negatively at all. He just shook it off (Jazz had kept running, swinging around for another pass!) and kept chasing his ball.

Back in the car for the trip home, the dogs again were totally at ease and layed down together.

Once we got home - Harley was fine but Jazz would not just follow Harley and I into the back yard. She started to then froze and sat down. Once I moved Harley so I was between them, she came in quite happily. But it was so odd, the change in her demeanor was instant and dramatic.

At the park etc. they are fine and walk side by side quite happily when husband and I walk them together. Still the tension in the house / yard though.

DAP collars finally arrived today and are fitted. Lets see how they go, they may help with the anxiety Jazz displays here; for now we will just keep them physically separated and keep working on building their trust up in each other I guess!

Quick update:

We are using dog crates and baby gates to keep physical barriers between the dogs and they ate doing fine with that. Jazz is being more relaxed around Harley and he seems back to normal towards her. Which is good but I'm not trusting it yet!

Another positive is that on Harley's walk this morning, a little off-lead terrier came to say hello and have a sniff, and Harley was fine with her, they sniffed and then wanted to play. So I was happy to see that.

Hopefully our DAP collars arrive today and we see further improvement

Play with your puppies feet often to get them used to you touch and turning them over.

You can often do them when they are asleep.

Cut on the green line, you can see the quick above it.

This is fantastic! Thank you!

Wow. 2 yr good behavior bond.. No conviction. What a great deterrent. Because there is no ATTRACTION in becoming a puppy mill, so this pathetic excuse for a consequence will be effective. Shame on the magistrate!

Thinking of you x

GSD's 4Ever states that that is her name on Youtube and http://www.petsprovidore.com.au/ is who sells them in Australia.

I can't find her :-( Will keep looking though.

Hi Sharna3 :D

Your vet has better prices than mine! I got charged over a hundred dollars for the diffuser (got my brother to go online for the collar).

It does sound as though the dap was keeping things together, if trouble started after they ran out.

Here's hoping peace comes back to your household

Sooo pricey, especially considering in the UK the collars are about 20 pounds - $AUD30 and the diffuser about $AUD40!! such a rip off. Thank god for ebay. If you ever need more, just look there

Update. I think I need to have him PTS he just reached through the fence and bit our nextdoor neighbour badly... He did a similar thing to a young girl a few weeks back, but only a nip, this one was bad. I'm out of options I think. I can';t rehome him and I would never dump him at the pound and can't leave my mum with a dangerous dog.

I really feel for you... What a sad situation.

I have irish terriers - but the male (duke) is definately the more dominant dog. and quite happy to put holes in Kate to prove it.

Along with learning about reactivity etc etc, I have learnt a lot about living with dog dominant dogs. I think we've been lucky duke doesnt feel the need to show every dog he meets that he is dominant these days, but it only takes two eyeblinks for things to get out of control. (we've moved in with mum, and trying to explain why you don't feed the dogs if you don't crate one of them - she's still in shock at how fast duke gets aggressive in the presence of food)

to the OP - what about trying a couple of dap collars? (now called adaptil collars). Like dap diffusers, only set off by the dogs body heat. It may help keep things calmer while order gets re-established. Online is the quickest way (and cheapest) to get hold of them. While they don't work for every dog in every situation, I think acute stress and anxiety could well be the situation they work best in.

Good luck.

ChristineX

Hey Christine,

We have two collars on order, supposed to arrive today but didn't, hopefully tomorrow. We had them both wearing dap collars when we moved, plus a diffuser, but they "ran out", and fights started soon after. So we are getting new ones. Hopefully it helps! And yep, got them online for $47, as opposed to the vets $90!!

My experience is with entire BCs and I would not tolerate a BC male that would fight with a bitch. It is as unacceptable as an adult attacking a puppy in my book. In my experience the males always back down if challenged by a bitch.

I would assume we could expect different behaviour from two sterilized dogs though? (obviously, you'd hope not this behaviour, but what I mean is I wouldn't compare the two eg entire vs sterilized?)

I think out of all the problems a dog owner could have this one does sound pretty major. It is unusual to have a bitch living in fear of a dog.

If you can't separate or solve the issues what choices do you have? To let them keep fighting will be very cruel and dangerous, and to rehome one would be unethical as it just passes the problem to another family. Nobody likes having to put a dog to sleep, but it's really not fair on your bitch to have to live in constant fear.

Nobody is telling you to have the dog put to sleep without doing more to try to solve the issues first. If you cannot solve the issues, or keep them totally apart, then putting him to sleep is the responsible thing to do.

You have come to the right forum to find people with plenty of experience in dog issues and with rehoming, but you do have to be prepared to accept that the advice we give might not be what you really want to do. I really wish you the best with this, everyone here would like to see things improve, nobody wants you to lose a dog.

I do accept that its a big problem for sure. And I definitely put up the OP because I value the DOL community and have often gotten good advice and even just gems of information.

I would not rehome the Mastiff because of a variety of reasons (breed, size, allergies) aside from any behavioural issues. The Siberian, though older, is much more likely to be successfully rehomed if that was the absolute last resort - because I too do not want her to live her days constantly on guard. But we will try everything else first.

I can appreciate that I will hear things that are not "what I want to hear", it just seemed that that comment was quite uninformed and harsh; but I hear what you're saying.

Have a look at this site...

http://shop.vebopet.com.au/store/xxlarge-48-collapsible-metal-pet-dog-cage-crate.html

That's their large one... my Lab has a 42" one (next size down, and it could comfortably house 2 of her. I had a Dane cross foster boy in a 48" one not that long ago, and there was heaps of room for him in that. Vebopet crates are pretty sturdy too.

Cheers,

T.

Hey - I got a 48" crate from Pet Services in Melb. Its the size we used for flying him, so I've seen him in it and it leaves enough room for water or a toy - thank you :-)

Hi Sharna, I'm no expert but just wanted to give you some hope...I have 3 boys who all get on relatively well...the odd grumble here and there but nothing that cannot be managed and all was well...UNTIL WE MOVED......Big problems within the first few weeks. Long story short...crates were used, new routines established and within a 4 month period they all settled down and life is once again sweet. Take heart, it may be that if you can manage them until they feel settled and secure again that things will settle. Best of luck to you.

Thank you - that's the outcome I am 'visualising', and hope it happens - very good to hear your POV because it gives me more hope!

Exact same scenario here, except I was running 3 bitches together (which in hindsight was incredibly foolish )

I wouldn't give up hope yet

Thanks Pheebs

Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it? ? ? Appreciate the positivity!

Sharna3 what about trying a Thunder Shirt on the Sibe.

As you live in the Bush you could try a makeshift one first. A firm teeshirt or rashy.

http://www.thundershirt.com/lpc2/

If you are good at Youtube GSD'S 4Ever has some good clips of her dogs. Called Spirit, Tara and Mish.

Do you know if they post to Australia? I am willing to give it a go if I can get one - thanks!

Have either of your dogs been crate trained at all? Do you think they may take to a crate well?

I have 2 girls here - a Lab and a Rotti cross - who have had a few fights where the Lab was definitely trying to kill the Rotti cross. I have one of them crated or confined to a room whenever the other is loose. Both dogs had never seen or been in a crate until just after the last fight about 18 months ago. They both had to have cage rest to let their wounds heal, and they coped brilliantly.

Both of them get on with my other dog just fine, so there is always a playmate for the one that isn't confined. Not to mention that I also foster pups for rescue, so there is always something or someone for them to play with... lol! They are fine sniffing and licking each other through the crate too. They would most likely go a while just fine together and then something would trigger another fight - and quite frankly I don't need to have my dogs hurting each other, or the hefty vet bills two 30kg dogs can rack up when they try to kill each other.

It's a total PITA to keep 2 dogs separated at all times, but we have gotten totally used to the routine, and it's second nature for us all now. The upside is that both dogs get equal one-on-one time with me - and they really love that part of it. I also feed all 3 dogs separately - in different rooms.

T.

Hi - both dogs are crate trained, yes. This was a great suggestion, thank you. We've crated them for various reasons previously but it hadn't been a thought to use this as a management method. We are just looking now for a crate big enough for the dog - as we live in a remote area we will have to buy online. Know anywhere good?

Thanks again

I find it quite alarming that a dog would fight with a bitch. It would be totally unacceptable to me for any male to act that way. To me it sounds like the young dog has major issues probably coming from you getting him at 6 weeks and missing out on learning pack manners at that age can never be undone.

Sadly I don't think rehoming is an option here. Your girl has done nothing to warrant being rehomed but the male is a problem dog. If you are not able to separate them or resolve his issues I think you need to consider having him pts.

I absolutely won't be getting him PTS. I have seen many issues between dogs and bitches. Its a little harsh for you to say he has 'major issues' when you have never met him , I do agree with you that him coming to us at 6 weeks was not a good thing but it was unavoidable and we have done the best we can in terms of socialising him, etc. He is a lovely dog 90% of the time, very relaxed, extremely obedient and we've never had an issue with him with other dogs.

The bitch in this case is more of a resource guarder than the dog so on that basis, should I have her PTS?!