Just going through old shitty cell phone pics and cant believe i haven't posted any pictures of the mutt. Marley. Me and the wife picked her up from the pound 1.5 years ago. She was about 1year old when we got her. She is a Lab/Husky/Sheppard(german/sheep dog type). Me and the wife couldn't believe she was still there when we walked in, she is very beautiful/play full/house broken. She was there for about most of here life we were told. We walked into the kennel area, soon as we walked past her cage she jumped up against the gate and gave us her puppy dog eyes, and we walked out with her. Her after a good game of tug-o-war. Her favorite laying position. On her back legs spread wide open, very lady like. Her saying "daddy quite playing the PS3 and love me".
We're picking up a new dog this weekend that is being flown to us from Texas. I know plenty of you guys have added a second dog to the picture and I was wondering if you had any tips/tricks for introducing the new dog to our current one. Our current dog is a very laid back, seven year old lab mix, so I'm not too worried about him... I'm more worried about the new dog, who's a much smaller breed. I know there's plenty of information about this online, but I just wanted some personal views on this from you Idiots. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!
Id love to hear any insights on this as well, been considering a second dog pretty much since we got Maverick.
Have both dogs meet in a neutral space, like a park. Have both dogs on leashes, held by two different people - there is nothing worse than an unexpected dog fight with no way to control dogs. Do not force interaction. Have them be in the same vicinity, but if one dog shows absolutely no interest in approaching another dog, don't force it to happen. Once both dogs have met, go on a walk with them. It's a neutral activity that allows them to get used to each other's company, without a trigger for the most common types of aggression (i.e. food, toys, territory). If that goes well, follow a similar strategy for introducing the new dog to the home - both on leashes, with different handlers. Create a space for the new dog - his own dog bed, crate, room, whatever. Most animals feel more confident and less fearful if they know they have an escape route. For the first few days/weeks, I would advise keeping the dogs separate when there is no supervision (i.e one or both in a crate, separate rooms, whatever works for you). Once both dogs are interacting positively, and you are confident in the way they are behaving, feel free to adopt whatever routine seems to work out best for all involved.
As far as I can tell from other people and my family, (I have no direct experience getting 2 dogs to live with each other), you have to just throw them in together and let it happen. It tends to be 100% easier if one of the dogs is female because female dogs tend to be more relaxed and less territorial. Male dogs are going to need to figure out who's better than the other. If you have a dog who is bratty and thinks he owns the place, introducing a second dog is only going to aggravate that. The bratty dog is going to try to dominate the second dog, and that's all well and good unless the first dog is small and the second one is big. That situation can go two ways: the second dog is good natured and ignores the other dog, or the second dog responds to the first and they get into a tangle. I know the temptation is to break up a dog fight but unless they are killing each other, you should stay out of it and let them figure out who's boss. At the end of the day though, YOU and everyone in your family should be the big dogs in the house and your pets should be under you. If you have a well established power dynamic, introducing other dogs should be absolutely no problem. This probably goes without saying, but it also is breed dependant and how well you have trained your dog. Golden Retrievers are good natured dogs and it is easy to be their master. But what if you have a stubborn Chow Chow? If you get a dog like that, you need to be prepared to train it properly. Otherwise, owning it will be a problem and you can forget about introducing other pets.
Angus is getting all growed up. He's still a better driver than my GF I remember when this was him.. Spoiler
I'm sure everyone has been wondering how Miro is doing. He has a new favorite spot: My roommate closed the lid, but he was okay with it:
He gave her a bath, so she was hiding. Little did he know she was plotting when and how she was going to sink a claw into his testicle.
I disagree. It makes me really angry when homeless people have dogs because they can't take care of them. Especially since from my snap judgment of this one photo he looks like the type of homeless person you see in Union Square who made the choice to be a vagrant. I would have more sympathy if I knew they suddenly lost everything - like, say, in a fire - or maybe if it was a slow fall to homelessness from when he could afford that dog to now and he couldn't bear to give him up. But when I see this around the city it makes me upset, especially when it seems obvious that they're using the dog to get money they're going to spend on the wrong things. If that dog was a stray too and they found each other on the streets, though, then it would be heart-warming, and I would like to cry to that movie some day.
I couldn't disagree more. They "can't take care of them" in the sense that they don't have custom made sweaters for them, or that they don't eat $100/bag dog food, but I would argue that - on average - dogs belonging to homeless people are happier and more stable than dogs belonging to your average suburban family. They are allowed to be dogs (not pseudo-children), they are often never separated from their owner (pack), and every homeless person with dog I've seen has had a calm, well-behaved dog. The dog might be dirty and unkempt, but fuck it. It's a dog. Cesar Millan agrees with me.
Bitching is NOT appropriate in this thread, ironically enough. Post pictures, of YOUR pet (or one that is directly related to you), and leave the social commentary out of it.
A couple of recent photos of my Maverick. GF got a new Digital SLR for xmas and it takes some pretty sweet shots. He's 11 months old now. Taking really well to his training (unless he see's birds or a bike then all bets are off) The bandage on his foot is because he got in a little tiff down at the park and got his paw bitten (he will swipe his paw at other dogs faces to stir them up... unsurprisingly the other dogs dont really like that and one snapped at him and must of just caught his pad splitting it open). If you have never had a dog with a split paw pad let me tell you it bleeds a fucking LOT... the back of my GF's car looked like that pulp fiction car scene where Marvin gets his head blown off. Luckily she has leather seats so the cleanup was way easier than it would have been if we were in my car (fabric seats). Incidentally does anyone have any good training tips for desensitizing him to bikes? He hasnt had a traumatic experience of any kind with a bike, he just seems to fucking hate the things. I tried briefly to bring an old bike in the yard and ride it around but he was just going spare with no sign of calming down... Should i just stick with it? Or is there something else i can do?
A few things: - You have what appears to be a Blue Tick Heeler, or some kind of BTH mix. That means he's bred to heard. Herding = running fast, cutting, thinking, anticipating game's movements, etc. When he sees a bike he does not 'hate' it. It's likely that his instincts are kicking in and he's either trying to herd it, or because he can't herd it (due to being on a leash, not being able to actually interact with the bicycle, whatever) he's expressing frustration. - Take baby steps. Have him be in the vicinity of a bicycle that's just on a kickstand. Once he's desensitized to that, have him be around someone on a bike (hopefully someone you know, that is aware of his problem and will let him make mistakes) and get used to it. Then have the person ride slowly, with him on a leash beside them. He's allowed to run, not to attack or herd. - This brings me to my last point: is there an activity you can put him in to release his energy? If he's feeling the urge to run and herd, it will be easier to control if you can channel it into something that's allowed. This is a great example: I'll wager ^ that dog is very, very high energy. Her owner has taken the time to find an activity that channels her energy and is fun for both of them. If he doesn't run her like that every day, my guess is that she destroys the house. Get your dog involved in something that satisfies his need to herd and he'll quit chasing random bicycles, is my guess. - My last point is the hardest to do: you have to relax. You have to NOT anticipate that he's going to have a problem with an oncoming cyclist. If you become tense or anxious when someone on a bike is near, he picks up on that, and he learns to go into 'protect' mode. Not because cyclists are bad, but because in his brain YOU are afraid of them. Deep breaths, expect that he will behave properly, and if he screws up treat it as a minor blip and don't allow yourself to carry it on to the next encounter.
Yep, hes a purebred Australian Cattle Dog. I totally get the herding instinct and from experience i know its very, very strong in this breed (my family has only ever owned ACD's) but thats not what he seems to be doing with the bikes. They are a force herder (i.e. they bite/nip to herd cattle rather than barking/intimidation) but its meant to be a light bite (breed is also well know for its soft mouth when it nips/bites stock). What he does though is head straight for the wheel and latch on hard, then starts trying to drag the bike out from under the cyclist. Ill have to stick with the desensitization process by the sounds of it, i think i went to hard the first time trying to ride it. Ill start out like you said with it stationary and see how we go from there. I definitely try and not tense up when i see a cyclist (its bloody hard to do... visualizing him doing the right thing might help though) but i dont even have to be close to him or even see the bike. This morning at the park he was maybe 20-30 metres from me and saw a bike riding down the road next to the park. He bolted before id even seen the bike and i didn't even get a flicker of recognition on recall (which he is usually very good at)... he did stop at the road though, so at least he has some road sense.