The dog musing/vent thread

Emily

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Yes I am rural (very rural ... As in like ... No neighbors for the next 10 miles ... So it's different out here and anyone who comes to visit us has to abide by an "it's my way or the highway" policy xD. The dogs live here too ... This is their house and if you don't like it then you know where the gate and the road is.
LOL yeah, if I lived way out there where people around the house are rare and suspect, believe me, I'd let the bad bitches party it up when they saw somebody. :D
 

HayleyMarie

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Yeah we are so remote hat I WANT them to make a fuss when they see something or someone out of the ordinary. The biger the fuss, the better.
Teagan misses living on the farm because she can bark her little head off all she wants and nobody will stop her and no fence so she can go on adventure's. She loves to visit grandma and Grandpa. Free Bark pass ha ha Oh and there are squirrels and foxes to bark and chase at all day long.

Living in town she gets told to STFU!
 

Kootenay

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It's funny because for me living rurally, it's kind of the opposite...I know EVERYONE who comes to the house and break ins are completely and utterly unheard of, so I am working to tone down Onyx's natural territorial aggression. I don't need a home security system, we don't even ever lock the doors.

I've actually been meaning to ask this question, I guess this is as good a place as any - to those of you with guardy dogs, what is your routine for introducing welcome guests to the house?

At the moment what is working for us is, I leash Onyx whenever anyone arrives and after an initial bark when they first come in the door, I generally distract her by asking her to do some stuff (basic obedience/tricks/whatever), and also reward for calm behavior (usually some look at that, too). Basically once I've distracted and given some treats, and a few moments have gone by, she doesn't even notice the new people so I can let her off and she'll generally just ignore them, maybe go greet them eventually. The one time I tried having someone else give her treats, she was super suspicious and didn't like it, so I won't do that again for a while. I should add, this is for people she doesn't know (or not very well), people she knows she will bark at but then greet happily once she realizes who it is.

I've never had an even remotely guardy dog before so it's all interesting and new. It's so interesting to see this behavior (just in the past while as she's getting older), she is totally social and happily greets strangers off the property, but she is definitely feeling the need to protect her territory as she matures.
 

*blackrose

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I've actually been meaning to ask this question, I guess this is as good a place as any - to those of you with guardy dogs, what is your routine for introducing welcome guests to the house?
You may get better responses starting a thread about it.

But, for me, I've done different things with different dogs. Aka, I've only ever had three dogs that were at all "guardy" and only one was to an extreme. Blackie, my childhood Lab, was very watch-doggy and he would behave much the same that Abrams does. Alert barks and doesn't say hi unless someone from the family was saying hi, too. However, like with Abrams, we were never at all concerned that he would ever bite someone. So, like with Abrams, we would just greet the person and all would be well. (Unlike with Blackie, I typically do most of Abrams' introductions outside...because he'll get excited and pee on the floor. :rolleyes:)

With Chloe, she is VERY territorial and VERY protective and she WILL bite. If we are going to have adult male guests over, she just gets put away, no ifs ands or buts. If a new person is coming over that she needs to get used to, I would leash her and work on tricks/obedience with the other person in the room and reward any and all calm, positive interactions she tried to give the person. If a new person is coming over that she WON'T need to get used to...we just put her away. Better safe than sorry, especially with how unpredictable she is. Mom says she's even started to get aggressive towards people she used to be fine with (including family members :(), so we're honestly not sure how much longer she'll be around...
 

Emily

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Kootenay, if what you're doing is working, then I'd say keep doing it.

I do basically the same thing, make sure I can restrain her with a leash or tab. She does well taking food from people so I do have them feed her, but if Onyx doesn't then don't push it. I ask her to sit, make sure she sees high value food go from my hand to their hand, have them drop some food (instead of just sticking their hand at her face), have them hand feed her, and then usually we're all good. :) I watch them and make sure she greets them, checks them out, and feels good about them.
 

Southpaw

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I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I watch my mom try to train. She's starting classes with Cajun this weekend, and since she's too old for the puppy class she's just in a level 1 class, so I told my mom she'll probably be the youngest dog there and there's a good chance those other dogs have some small form of training... to try to prevent the frustration and embarrassment of showing up with a dog who has absolutely no concept of anything, I tried to do some "pre-training" today.

Let's just say I have NO business being a dog trainer because all I kept saying to my mom was YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG. Stop telling her to sitsitsit when she hasn't even been taught sit. Stop holding her collar. No, you're not luring her right. OH, just give the treats to me and let me do it!

Probably a good thing I'm not able to go to this first class since I work :p
 

Dogdragoness

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It's funny because for me living rurally, it's kind of the opposite...I know EVERYONE who comes to the house and break ins are completely and utterly unheard of, so I am working to tone down Onyx's natural territorial aggression. I don't need a home security system, we don't even ever lock the doors.

I've actually been meaning to ask this question, I guess this is as good a place as any - to those of you with guardy dogs, what is your routine for introducing welcome guests to the house?

At the moment what is working for us is, I leash Onyx whenever anyone arrives and after an initial bark when they first come in the door, I generally distract her by asking her to do some stuff (basic obedience/tricks/whatever), and also reward for calm behavior (usually some look at that, too). Basically once I've distracted and given some treats, and a few moments have gone by, she doesn't even notice the new people so I can let her off and she'll generally just ignore them, maybe go greet them eventually. The one time I tried having someone else give her treats, she was super suspicious and didn't like it, so I won't do that again for a while. I should add, this is for people she doesn't know (or not very well), people she knows she will bark at but then greet happily once she realizes who it is.

I've never had an even remotely guardy dog before so it's all interesting and new. It's so interesting to see this behavior (just in the past while as she's getting older), she is totally social and happily greets strangers off the property, but she is definitely feeling the need to protect her territory as she matures.
The gardy dogs I had were like ... Totally different dogs when I was present, they could be barking at a person one minute and be all like "oh, ok, you!'really cool" the second I went outside to meet said person (out here usually the only visited see get are ppl delivering things, repairing something or the horse Shoer lol).

I am not a CM fan but I did tell ppl to adopt a "no touch, no talk, no eye contact" (ESP when Izze was around), just pretend the dog isn't there. I have found hat if I put it in "celeb dog trainer" terms then the general public tends to listen a lot better xD.
 

Laurelin

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I just pulled a HUGE tick off of Mia's ear. It's been in the 20s outside.... This weekend was the first weekend I started up hiking in the deep woods again, figuring it was too cold for snakes and ticks. Apparently not.
 

Shai

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Webster is extremely displeased with the arrival of winter and would like to be adopted by someone in a more tropical region. Immediately.
 

Beanie

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Webster is extremely displeased with the arrival of winter and would like to be adopted by someone in a more tropical region. Immediately.
Me too Webster.
Me too.

Bonus points if they're rich and I can get me a piece of that.

I hear Hawaii is nice except for the whole volcanoes and tidal waves and tropical storms thing.
 

nikkiluvsu15

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I would rescue Webster and bring him to Florida, but well....


I literally think I'm dead. I'm so cold. But, hey, at least the rest of the week looks promising (minus the rain...)
 

*blackrose

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I would rescue Webster and bring him to Florida, but well....


I literally think I'm dead. I'm so cold. But, hey, at least the rest of the week looks promising (minus the rain...)
50*? Cold? BAH! I was driving with the windows down when it was 50*!!! :D

(It was 18* this morning. Now we're up to a balmy 31*. It is amazing how quickly one adapts from 90+* summers to below freezing winters...)
 

Shai

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Webster says water is lame (no islands) and 50 is not nearly warm enough. Anyone have contacts in Mexico? He says the commercials make Cancún look nice. All hot sun and sand and people to pet him and feed him tidbits. And a fabulous lack of canines. Websterian Paradise.
 

nikkiluvsu15

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50*? Cold? BAH! I was driving with the windows down when it was 50*!!! :D

(It was 18* this morning. Now we're up to a balmy 31*. It is amazing how quickly one adapts from 90+* summers to below freezing winters...)
Not only is 50 cold.... it's FREEZING. :p

(I really would not survive some place else :rofl1:)
 

Grab

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Someone online elsewhere said Brooks looks like an Afghan. I'm sorry my Poodle does not have a typical Poodle haircut yet, lol. But I hardly think he looks like an Afghan...
 

*blackrose

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Someone online elsewhere said Brooks looks like an Afghan. I'm sorry my Poodle does not have a typical Poodle haircut yet, lol. But I hardly think he looks like an Afghan...
I can kind of see it (Afgan puppy):


That being said...I think he looks like a poodle. And I vote that you should clip him to look like an Afgan to really confuse people.
 
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50*? Cold? BAH! I was driving with the windows down when it was 50*!!! :D

(It was 18* this morning. Now we're up to a balmy 31*. It is amazing how quickly one adapts from 90+* summers to below freezing winters...)
Same here!

It is currently a sunny and warm 50*. This morning when I took dogs for walks at 9 AM, it was 25* - just slightly chilly. ;)
 
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I can kind of see it (Afgan puppy):


That being said...I think he looks like a poodle. And I vote that you should clip him to look like an Afgan to really confuse people.
I spend a lot of time looking at Afghans (major want), so I can kind of see how someone could think that.

But I still think he looks like a poodle.
 

nikkiluvsu15

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Same here!

It is currently a sunny and warm 50*. This morning when I took dogs for walks at 9 AM, it was 25* - just slightly chilly. ;)
All of you people are crazy. I've got like 3 layers on and I'm still shivering... even brought my north face jacket out:rofl1:

Harleigh, however, is enjoying this weather. And the major plus to it being freezing is she enjoys cuddling even more than usual. She definitely keeps me warm <3
 

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