Ty Webb wrote:Behavioral problems can be overcome 99% of time. It's not easy, but it can be done.

If you're stuck with the 20-lb limit, you really are in a tight spot. Try looking for small-breed rescue groups nearby. They take in purebred pups that others didn't want or couldn't keep for one reason or another.

I just urge people to rescue unwanted dog at every opportunity because their fates are so grim otherwise. Save your money for obedience training if needed.

And don't get me started on the big dog in a small apartment thing. It's such a load of bullshit. As long as the dog gets out and gets enough exercise, it doesn't give a shit how big the apartment is. Dogs have a strong den instinct and are perfectly happy spending most of their time in relatively small spaces as long as they're sufficiently exercised. But I realize that rule is out of your hands.

I think having a big dog in a small apartment is cruel. They have a den instinct, but they should not be in a crate or small apartment for more than 6 hours at a time, according to dog experts. It's better than putting the dog to sleep, but not humane in any way. For me, it is against my HOA regulations. If I get a dog bigger than 20 pounds, I will need to give it up... Most urban condominiums have these restrictions, not only for the sake of the animal, but for the sake of the neighbors. A toy dog can love you just as much or even more (in the case of Chihuhuas) than a large slobbery golden retriever. One of my mom's friends owned a golden retriever, which she loved, but said it would just go off with whoever had a neater frisbee. No one will love you more than your Chihuahua... Not your mommy or daddy or grandpappy. Your Chihuahua will fight to its death to defend you, if it needs to... If I had a huge house with a large yard, I would still want a Chihuahua. I love their saucy expression and they way they carry themselves so confidently... I like lap dogs, but I don't like fluffy toy dogs (like Yorkies or Maltese). In other words, I like a specific breed of dog, and not all dogs. I find many dogs to be obnoxious, stupid looking, or downright dangerous. Why is it that the most careless people tend to get pit bulls? People so damn careless, they can't even remember to shut their damn fence gate and I go for a run and the thing is chasing me and the owner calls it off...

Big dog = big dog poop.

Another thing is that dogs have instinctual "working behaviors". Terriers are good watch dogs, kill small pests, etc. Huskies pull sleds. Douchehunds like to dig. Retreivers will fetch. A coyote/dog hybrid will dig a hole in the yard and lay in it on a hot day. You don't know what sort of instinctual behavior some dogs have, and you will not train this out of the dog completely.

I read my book on Chihuahuas, and the sad thing is that puppy mills are churning out really poorly bred Chihuhuas. And unfortunately, it is tough to find out the pedigree of the Chi when it's adopted. The temperment of the animal is really poor if it is from a puppy mill. Not only because they bred the animal solely to look like Gidget or Tinkerbell (the famous fawn colored short coat chihuahuas), but also because they get no human contact in the puppy mills. For Chihuahuas, this is what makes them so clingy and ill tempered around people other than their owner -- during their formative years, they had little contact with humans. Yes, you can overcome some of these issues, but the health of the animal based on poor breeding cannot be overcome... For Chis, socialization with people, from 12 weeks old to 1 year old, is crucial for having a pet that is not suspicious of everyone but its owner. You will never get a Chi that is friendly unless it is socialized at a young age. You can overcome some of this, but not 99%. At best, it will warm up to people after a few minutes, if they give it a treat and make it clear that they are not a threat to the owner... (the book I got on Chis has wonderful advice on how to train them, stuff I just did not know. I suggest anyone thinking of getting a dog, read a book on the breed, and how to train dogs. It is not intuitive, and you can never ever punish your dog).

Every dog I have seen up for adoption is a Gidget or Tinkerbell clone. When I look at what AKC or CKC registered breeders are selling, their dogs are much more diverse. Why punish these breeders for doing the right thing?

Another matter is that show dogs (or registerable dogs that come close to the standard) are healthier. Most of the standard for a Chihuahua is based on health, and not how pretty it is. I did not know this. I thought dog shows were crap, but the characteristics of the standard are based on health. For example, a female Chi is supposed to be longer than a male, so it can give birth to pups without a c-section. It's tale must be in one of three positions, but not tucked under it's hind section. That indicates a sick or ill tempered dog. It's legs must be in a certain form, so it won't develop leg problems. It's teeth must have a scissor-bite, so they don't wear down or they don't have problems with eating as they get older. Knowing this, I have realized a lot of the Chis up for adoption are not healthy. Sometimes you can get a good one that is being given away because someone is moving to a place that does not allow dogs. But this is rare. Mostly it's people sick of their yappy, ill tempered, sick puppy mill dog, and they want to wipe their dog booger on someone else's sleeve. I'd rather not have a dog than have a sick and ill tempered dog.

Some of the standard is not based on health. For example, a Chi that has floppy ears (as opposed to perk ears) will not win a show, but will be a fine pet. I would be happy with a Chi that didn't have perk ears. Also, they must weigh below 6 lbs. But I would be happy with bigger one. I am not looking to show the dog, but most show dog traits are based on health.

If you are concerned about what puppy mills are doing, then write to your representative about the PAWS legislation.

If the puppy mills are shut down, people will have better pets and will hold on to them. Sure, there will be the occasional idiot that doesn't spay/neuter their pet, and has a litter that they have to give up. But so many of these sick and ill tempered dogs are bred by people who are only in it for the money. Don't ever buy a dog at a pet store. That is just crazy...

BadComrade wrote:

H-GM wrote:So cute. I can't stop laughing. I also want to step on it.

If you were to ever try this, she would draw so much blood from your ankles that you'd become faint, pass out, and wake up with a slashed face. Then rachael would drive down here and kill you.

But the cuteness? I can barely stand it. I also cannot stop laughing. It's so cute.

BadComrade wrote:If you were to ever try this, she would draw so much blood from your ankles that you'd become faint, pass out, and wake up with a slashed face. Then rachael would drive down here and kill you.

She might even do that if she just gets sick of you petting her...

This is why I no longer have a love for cats. I used to really like cats a lot. But I have been bitten and slashed by so many cats, it is not funny. They come up to you all sweet and rub on your legs. You pet them. Then, when they've had enough, instead of just walking away, they feel the need to claw you or bite you. Not all cats are like this. Some are very sweet. A friend of mine has a pure-bred blue Russian chartreuse (?) cat that is as sweet as can be.

My recent revelation that toy dogs can use litter boxes and actually don't like to be walked has really awakened me to the superiority of certain breeds of dog. Sure, on a nice day, a Chihuahua will love to go for a walk. But when it is cold or rainy, they will give you a look like "Uh, do we really need to go out?" Imagine how fun it would be to walk in the rain or snow with your belly 6 inches from the ground? They are 1/30th the size of a human, so following you around the apartment all day is plenty of exercise, according to everything the experts say.

But when it comes down to it, it depends on the animal. I'd take some cats over some dogs and vice versa. I'd take that sweet cat mentioned above over an inbred, sick, surly puppy mill Chi any day...

I want to read more things about dogs. I was walking the aforementioned friend's dog Rex around the park today and it was really interesting to observe the different behaviours of other dogs. Two people in front of us had three dogs with them. I couldn't tell you the breeds because I'm not familiar with them, but they were all different. One stayed right by the people, looking up at them a lot. One was like Rex, just sniffing around, running a little bit, pissing on trees. But one seemed to think it was a scout for the pack. It kept running a little way ahead of them all, then sitting and looking really seriously into the distance. When they'd caught up a little bit the dog would do it again. When we caught up behind them a bit, the other two came and checked Rex out, but we just walked straight by the pathfinder without it giving us hardly a look.

I particularly enjoy watching what Springer Spaniels do out there. They run and run and run and run, in long purposeful arcs with little deviation, just huge circles, running like hell. It's funny to watch Rex when one of these spies him from far away then thunders over to check him out, he just stands and watches it, like "oh aye?" They never even stop to actually check him out, they just get on with the far more pressing business of running around in enormous circles very fast.

This isn't a dog I know but it is the first picture I found of a Springer Spaniel in order to check I had the right dog. It is obviously having a break from running in order to contemplate doing a bit of running.

Another issue with adopting a pet that I have run into is with housebreaking and "car breaking". The Chi's I've been looking at to adopt are not house broken and can't ride in a car without puking... Gee, I wonder why the owners don't want them?

While the housebreaking can be done, it is a lot harder than housebreaking a puppy. With toy dogs, since a small apartment is huge for them, going from the bedroom to poop in the living room is like the other end of a football field to them... This is why the crate training method isn't always succesful. The most success is if the puppy was paper trained by the breeder (most good breeders do this).

The car breaking, however, is something that has to be done as a puppy. You need to take your pup on small rides and gradually build up the length of the ride. Also, if you give it a few dog biscuits an hour before the drive, it settles their stomach. There is actually some stabilization mechanisms that need to grow in the brain at an early age to handle car travel. If you can't take your adopted sick dog to the vet in a car, well, better send away for those correspondence courses... Dramamine can help, but some dogs just don't like cars, because they associate it solely with going to the vet, because that's the only time their owner took it in the car...

I think the problem is, a lot of people get a dog on a whim. Their kids are nagging them about it, and they never wanted a dog. They never read up on how to train or take care of a dog. So they end up losing interest, or even worse, abusing the dog. Beyond getting an el-cheapo puppy mill pooch, they don't have any idea how to raise a pup. It's not hard, but there's stuff to know, and a lot of people are just too lazy to read a book on it.

When I lived in SF, I knew a lot of hippy types that had 4-5 rescue dogs in their house, and they didn't take care of them at all. Their claws were never trimmed, they were never groomed, never given their vaccines or heartworm meds (that's not natural, man...). In short, they didn't know anything about dogs, other than they are cute and they want to rescue them, when in reality, someone should rescue the dogs from these ignorant hippies...

I think rescuing dogs is a good thing, and if I ever get a big enough place, I would like to do this. I just don't want my first dog ownership experience to be a nightmare. But, I feel I am much more knowledgeable of how to take care of a dog than many actual dog owners... One of my good friends is on his 3rd pair of Chi's, and he says he is just too lazy to raise them right... At least he will keep them, he just doesn't care if they poop on his floor or chew up his carpet.

But when you adopt a pet, you don't really know what to expect, and you can suspect that it may have been someone else's problem that they created through ignorance and lazyness.

Chapter Two wrote:I want to read more things about dogs.

One of the things that impressed me is the "degrees" dogs get for being trained in certain ways. They even get letters in their title, just like a human does...

Like CD for Companion Dog or CDX for Companion Dog Excellent. There's a whole bunch of them. Dogs are amazing in this respect -- they still do a lot of work for us -- comforting the sick, seeing for the blind, hearing for the deaf, hurding animals, finding people trapped in rubble, hunting, killing vermin, etc. But if all your dog can do is sit, stay and look adorable, heck... that's worth the $500-800 a year for responsible dog ownership.

I don't think I could get into showing dogs, but next time a dog show is on TV, now that I know more about them, I will watch.

Butter.



Photo by Sean Smuda

danmohr wrote:My wife and just took in a rescue Doberman to go with our existing Doberman. Our rescue (who we named Ilse) was a stray and is unfortunately a Star of David and a Polish accent away from being in the 1939 Dachau yearbook:

She is super sweet and, god-willing, will stop shitting indoors once her system regulates. And hopefully the shit will at least reach the "stiffs peaks" stage rather than the puddle stage we're currently in.
...
Dobermans rule.

Dan

Since this thread has again risen from the dead, I thought I would post an updated picture of our baby girl:



She's gone from 32 pounds to 47 pounds in six weeks and just got spayed yesterday. Oh, and her digestive issues have all been fixed and the housebreaking is coming along nicely. She's able to hold her own in wrestling/tug matches with her older "brother" (80 pounds) although she's mostly a snuggly couch potato.

Dan

Wow Dan she looks great.
Congratulations on a job well done.

Um, more Sophia anyone?
PLEASE?