Has anyone used a gentle leader? I'm house/dog sitting for my sister this week and her dog has absolutely no issue with puling all 180lbs of me everywhere, despite using the commands she provided for me. I can get him to stop, I can get him to turn around, but I can't get him to stop pulling. He's perfectly ok with pulling me like a sled everywhere we go. He doesn't overpower me by any means, but at a certain point getting pulled everywhere by a decently strong dog gets annoying. You'd think he'd get tired eventually but this dog has quite a bit of stamina and apparently will power. My sister said she tried the gentle leader once, but apparently he looked sad when she put it on him, so apparently him being a borderline out of control asshole is better than him feeling sad. Btw, he's sometimes a sweet dog, but he has real obedience issues. For example, my sister had a dog trainer come over and that didn't work, he basically failed. Then they took him to a dog school, he failed the first level. The guy needs ritalin or something.
The gentle leader is the one thing that has worked decently well for when my girlfriend walks my dog. He can be a strong puller and goes nuts over birds and other dogs sometimes, and she can still keep him under control when using it. I say give it a try. From a few months ago: Spoiler
Thanks for the response, and shegirl, thanks for the rep. I think my sister is using the dog as some kind of child surrogate she she's really afraid to be stern with him. Believe it or not, she actually does story time with him. I keep telling her he's an asshole because he won't listen and jumps on people but she refuses to think that has any validity. Then apparently he pissed on a kid at the dog park, I think my point was made then. That may be the most asshole thing a dog can do. Anyway, I'll pickup the gentle leader. I'm going to be walking him for the next few days and I don't really feel like fighting with him and getting angry while we're out there.
What the fuck? Story time with a dog? I'd say your Sis has some ummm....issues dude. I've never heard of such a thing. I feel bad for the dog because he'll be a shithead all of his life if someone doesn't step up and let him know he's a DOG. The really shitty part is it's this type of person that then has a real kid and opts to give up the dog because the dog is such a shithead. It's all kinds of fucked up. What kind of dog is it anyway?
He is part Lab part Catahoula hound. He's sweet, he's personable, but he has no self control. Like I said, I think my sister is using him as a child surrogate. She's 34 and all her friends are popping out kids now and she doesn't have any. I remember when she was looking for a dog she wanted a rescue because whatever pompous reasons so she took the first one she was offered really. She may have wanted to reconsider this exact dog because her husband has never had a dog before and apparently Rocky totally makes him his bitch. Apparently this dog has literally dragged him across a field because the dog saw a rabbit and went for it. Mind you, when the dog pissed on the kid it was the BIL that was present as well. Rocky really isn't a starter dog, hell he's failed two dog schools, he an advanced dog for sure. So the setup as it looks now for the dog is you have the BIL who is below dog, I'm the authoritative one, and my sister is the nurturer pushover. Healthy setup for sure. I forget, what did people say about consistency and having dogs?
Rocky and he's pretty sizable for some people. My sister tried to tire him out by running him 8 miles a few days a week, well this kind of backfired and it only made him stronger. So when he tries to run after something, he pulls incredibly hard now. I'm thinking he may be better off on the beer and donut diet, soften him up a bit.
They, as in BOTH of them, either step up and spend some serious time with him training (I recommend clicker training) or they will have a badly behaved dog for the duration. I think this is a case of the wrong people having the wrong dog. He's a cutie though.
When I get my own dog, I'm after something a bit more low key, maybe like one of these guys. For me, what I want, is a big, happy lazy dog. Or maybe I'll start fostering senior lab rescues.
I thought she had a black lab... unless she's got some unknown Easterner locked up in her basement that she hasn't mentioned...
This picture makes me happy... Gus just enjoying the wind in his hair... (Spoiler due to size) Take note of his bad ass collar...
Anyone here have experience with introducing a dog to a household with cats in it, where the cats were pissed off about it? A long time ago I had experience with introducing a dog to a household with fraidy cats, so it was a smoother process. The cats just avoided him and then got used to him. We're not sure yet what will happen this time around. A couple years ago we had a dog over a couple of times and our cat started stalking him. I grabbed the cat and put her in another room just to avoid drama since it was just for the evening. I don't know if she would have actually attacked, or gotten over herself and settled down or whatever if her exposure to the dog had been longer than a minute. When we got our second cat, she didn't stalk, she would hiss a lot whenever the kitten wanted to play with her. It took awhile for them to get along, but there was never any fighting that led to injury. Anyway, I talked with our neighbor yesterday who has a dog that has been around cats, and she said it would be fine to bring her dog into the house for a little test. She said her mother's cat has tried to attack him, so it doesn't bother her as long as their nails are clipped and we stop the cat before things get out of hand. So I'm waiting till we have a chance to clip the cats nails first, and then see what happens. I don't know if this is a stupid idea or not, but I'm not sure what else to do. My husband doesn't want to bring a dog into an unknown situation and then have to break up a lot of fights and deal with injuries.
I've always found that shit just kind of sorts itself out, depending on the breeds. I had 2 Siamese cats and 2 golden retrievers. Cats were complete bitches to the dogs for a while, dogs didn't care... any attention is good attention to them. After a bit of an adjustment period, they all warmed up to each other, and quickly became best friends.
I once brought Otto who is a lab/dane mix to a friends house with cats and I had to leave after 5 minutes. He's normally docile and easy to get along with. Just the sweetest boy. Although he does get a little crazy when he sees a squirrel. As soon as cats were in the room, he became the most intense hunter and wouldn't listen to any commands.
yup, some dogs just want to eat cats. Buddy is like that. He did pretty good with the cat we brought home briefly over a year ago but I am certain that thing would have been killed if we were away from our home for any length of time. If you have a friendly dog, they will sort it out. If you have am adult dog with a high prey drive, you might be fucked. Shimmered mentioned that a shock collar helped with her dog/cat situation but I still wouldn't trust a dog with cat aggression around a cat while I was out of sight. As for the gentle leader, it works like a charm. Buddy pulls a bit but he cuts that shit out in 5 seconds with the nose lead. The gentle leader should work for you, but if all that other stuff about your sister is accurate, the whole situation is fucked and his behavior overall will not improve.
I really like the way this picture came out. He's on the lookout for squirrels and super alert. I guess the lighting was just right because my very un-fancy camera captured some really good colors and you can see the fine hair on his head. He's super soft, y'all!
The shock collar only helped in deterring him from attacking the cats immediately. He's never, ever, been off leash around the cat. It's just that now he doesn't go ape shit bonkers. It's not so much dependent on the dog, I'm finding. It's more dependent on the cat. My persian puts out a "What?" energy. He doesn't run or flip out like other cats do. Duke takes the arched back scared kitty hissing thing as a challenge and said cat must die. Since Smalls is so chill and really...doesn't react at all...it confuses Duke. If the cats are at all fearful of the dog, bad things happen. I would never leave my cat out with my dog off leash. It simply won't work.
That's an interesting perspective I hadn't thought of, thanks. The plan is to adopt a dog from a rescue where they've already tested the dog with cats - ideally I'd want a dog that has been in a foster home with cats on the regular. But as you say, maybe a dog who did fine with other cats would react differently with my cat if she puts up a fuss. Another factor to mention is that we want a small dog, so their sizes would be about the same. And we want a dog that is pretty laid back - friendly but not hyper. I think the neighbor's dog will be a good test, his size and temperament is very similar to what we want. In fact, I've wanted to steal him away many times - he is a serious charmer.