The dog musing/vent thread
- Thread starter Laurelin
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I want to get Wilson's trick dog titles as well as his CGC in the coming month or two, and his debut in NADAC agility will be January 22nd. I still have no idea what I want his registered name to be. He's a huge dork and is shy with strangers but also batsh*t insane, fast as hell, and smart as a whip. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm honestly kind of stuck.
I also still need to send in his ABCA paperwork, and since his breeder is ABCA only I'm pretty sure that means I can only ILP him for AKC? Is that right?
I also still need to send in his ABCA paperwork, and since his breeder is ABCA only I'm pretty sure that means I can only ILP him for AKC? Is that right?
There's also a couple of owls, some hawks, and a tame raven. It makes for a really epic petsitting adventure. The biggest hawk is skittish until he gets to know people well enough to attack. The smallest is blind and needs help finding his food, one time he bounced into my face and scratched my nose a tiny bit and all the lymph nodes on that side of my head swelled up overnight.
Also...
I was browsing Golden Retriever breeders.
And, um. What the.
I did find a couple other good breeders, but I'm screaming at this. This is the first time in my short life seeing a random dog who isn't shown or titled or anything at all, and cost more than $5000 (let alone more than $10,000), and I have seen many a BYB breeder pages.
"Advanced Training", what exactly is.
I was browsing Golden Retriever breeders.
And, um. What the.
I did find a couple other good breeders, but I'm screaming at this. This is the first time in my short life seeing a random dog who isn't shown or titled or anything at all, and cost more than $5000 (let alone more than $10,000), and I have seen many a BYB breeder pages.
"Advanced Training", what exactly is.
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Their website explains what the dogs learn in each of their different training programs.
Now granted, I think that's a really steep price, and I would never pay it. But I can see it as being a perfectly good solution for some people to buy a well trained breeder dog. I mean, we hear about all kinds of people who won't get a rescue dog because it has "baggage" and get a puppy and expect it to instantly be perfect in the house, or to tolerate them being gone for 8 hours at work. I've thought for a long time that there could be a great market in that sort of field. Like buying a started sheepdog or a trained horse. I mean, their site states that a dog through beginner training won't jump up on people. That alone accounted for about 30% of the training issues people brought up when I taught beginner classes. Good heavens, teach them to walk nicely on a leash and they could shut down training schools all over the country.
I figure if you take, for example, a $1500 puppy, keep it from 8 weeks until 8 months, do all the vet care, socialization, actual quality training, paying for their food and everything...selling it for $4000 or $5000 isn't too bad a deal for the buyer. Maybe another 1k if you do a week of private training with the new owner to make sure the skills stick. $11,000 is definitely ridiculous to me. But then, I have yet to pay more than $25 for a dog.
People buying those trained protection dogs aren't looking to buy a dog; they are looking to buy a security system and body guard rolled into one. The programs I've looked at (out of curiosity, not because I would ever get one) usually involved the trainer bringing the dog to you and spending 1 - 2 weeks working with you and the dog full time, along with free lifetime follow up training. Again, nothing I'd spend money on - but not just a dog being handed over.
I don't know. It sort of blows my mind that the whole concept hasn't been more common in dogs. But I came into dogs from horses, so it's just a totally different outlook.
Now granted, I think that's a really steep price, and I would never pay it. But I can see it as being a perfectly good solution for some people to buy a well trained breeder dog. I mean, we hear about all kinds of people who won't get a rescue dog because it has "baggage" and get a puppy and expect it to instantly be perfect in the house, or to tolerate them being gone for 8 hours at work. I've thought for a long time that there could be a great market in that sort of field. Like buying a started sheepdog or a trained horse. I mean, their site states that a dog through beginner training won't jump up on people. That alone accounted for about 30% of the training issues people brought up when I taught beginner classes. Good heavens, teach them to walk nicely on a leash and they could shut down training schools all over the country.
I figure if you take, for example, a $1500 puppy, keep it from 8 weeks until 8 months, do all the vet care, socialization, actual quality training, paying for their food and everything...selling it for $4000 or $5000 isn't too bad a deal for the buyer. Maybe another 1k if you do a week of private training with the new owner to make sure the skills stick. $11,000 is definitely ridiculous to me. But then, I have yet to pay more than $25 for a dog.
People buying those trained protection dogs aren't looking to buy a dog; they are looking to buy a security system and body guard rolled into one. The programs I've looked at (out of curiosity, not because I would ever get one) usually involved the trainer bringing the dog to you and spending 1 - 2 weeks working with you and the dog full time, along with free lifetime follow up training. Again, nothing I'd spend money on - but not just a dog being handed over.
I don't know. It sort of blows my mind that the whole concept hasn't been more common in dogs. But I came into dogs from horses, so it's just a totally different outlook.
Oh yeah, I totally understand a higher price for a well-trained adult, from a great pedigree, health-tested, maybe already with their CGC (assuming a Golden Retriever). I totally get the high price tags for legitimate personal protection dogs too.
If you take the $1500 puppy, we would expect it to come from a reputable breeder- a successful pedigree, taking a showline Aussie for example... titled parents who both work and show, maybe have multiple CH, versatile in sports, health tested, and reliable temperament from reliable lines that are recorded back a couple decades. Usually breeders don't keep puppies until adult and then sell them again to begin with, unless you're lucky- but maybe then they would be $5000, and it's still totally reasonable to me.
I personally think the issues with this Golden breeder and the "protection dog" that Lauren saw lies in the combination of having obviously extreme money-making intentions, no pedigree so questionable breeding, and questionable health testing (doesn't provide OFA ratings), on a dog where "Advanced Training" = knowing a couple regular household commands/obedience (and even including "being housebroken" as a trained skill) that apparently equates $10,000, and the so-called "personal protection dog's" only video evidence of his training being that he knows how to bark at things. I'm not knowledgable on personal protection dogs (other than being 100% completely different from IPO), but I'm sure that a stable and successful personal protection dog's training and abilities go far beyond that, even ignoring the $25,000 price tag...
It's really case by case... I think this case is just one of the ridiculous ones LOL.
(I like discussions and stuff to begin with T__T)
If you take the $1500 puppy, we would expect it to come from a reputable breeder- a successful pedigree, taking a showline Aussie for example... titled parents who both work and show, maybe have multiple CH, versatile in sports, health tested, and reliable temperament from reliable lines that are recorded back a couple decades. Usually breeders don't keep puppies until adult and then sell them again to begin with, unless you're lucky- but maybe then they would be $5000, and it's still totally reasonable to me.
I personally think the issues with this Golden breeder and the "protection dog" that Lauren saw lies in the combination of having obviously extreme money-making intentions, no pedigree so questionable breeding, and questionable health testing (doesn't provide OFA ratings), on a dog where "Advanced Training" = knowing a couple regular household commands/obedience (and even including "being housebroken" as a trained skill) that apparently equates $10,000, and the so-called "personal protection dog's" only video evidence of his training being that he knows how to bark at things. I'm not knowledgable on personal protection dogs (other than being 100% completely different from IPO), but I'm sure that a stable and successful personal protection dog's training and abilities go far beyond that, even ignoring the $25,000 price tag...
It's really case by case... I think this case is just one of the ridiculous ones LOL.
(I like discussions and stuff to begin with T__T)
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I locked the boys in the kitchen at work today while I was cleaning. A coworker found Glitch standing on the counter, very deliberately poking at the microwave mounted under the cabinent with a paw. We're pretty sure he was attempting to find the button to make it open, so he could get the canned food cooking inside.
Sometimes this dog scared me with how clever he is.
Sometimes this dog scared me with how clever he is.
90% chance that I will be fostering a dog for a local shelter tomorrow for 2~3 weeks... fingers crossed... because I've never fostered before. o__o
It's an shared event to hopefully have many people offer their homes to foster, before a big adoption event. So that there can be more room in the shelter kennels so the dogs on the red list won't be euthanized before then.
It's an shared event to hopefully have many people offer their homes to foster, before a big adoption event. So that there can be more room in the shelter kennels so the dogs on the red list won't be euthanized before then.
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I'm starting to think that Wilson is a million times more confident when he's working and has a "job" to do than when he's just out and about trying to be a normal dog. He's confident to the point of being almost cocky when were playing agility or frisbee, where there is a certain amount of pressure on him to do something that I'm asking him to. He's also much more confident off-leash than on, and much more engaged with me no matter what the distraction. I'm kind of noticing that when I ask him to stay in a perfect heel position when were walking in public, that he seems more confident too? And honestly it makes sense to me that he'd be most confident in off-leash in an open space because that's pretty much how he spent the first five months of his life.
Does this make sense to anyone? Are there any "jobs" besides heelwork and focus that I can have him do when were walking on leash?
Does this make sense to anyone? Are there any "jobs" besides heelwork and focus that I can have him do when were walking on leash?