*woozy*

[kyburg]

Having nothing for a long spell, and then getting *everything* to attend to at once within a few hours?

Makes me very brain-fried. But it's been a productive day - hope tomorrow turns out as peacefully.

However. Going to bed late - and then being woken too early by a dog who reallyneedstopeerightnowrightnowrightnowoowwwwwwooooooo does not make for being totally prepared for the day.

Thank me, cats. I fed the birds this morning, just so you'd have something to watch.

betnoir mentioned dogs as handbag ornaments this morning - and questioned their value. Yap, piss and shiver - and ghad help you if they decided to do all three at once.

Let me add another facet - they bite. For really no other good reason than they can.

Something that high-maintenance (they need special diets, have to be seen at the vet more often and oh yeah, how much did that pedigree cost?), that have a great deal of ornamental value - but that's it - and oh yeah, they bite whenever they get pissy about something. Like being petted. Without warning. After you've established a relationship more than a few days long.

Uh uh. Pass.

You know, I haven't dealt with a dog bite in anything bigger than a chihuahua, come to think of it. The larger breeds, you kind of manage not to with some care - I think. (But then again, I'm not a fan of aggressive breeds, come to think of it. You don't see me adopting the pit bulls, right?)

Gimme something twenty pounds and up. Ugly as sin - it's okay. You want to chase a ball and curl up on the couch with me, it's all good.

The soft paws on the kitten has been an unqualified success - she's even better socialized with the other cats than before. (Something to do with not having sharp points on everything she wanted the other cats to play with, I'm sure.) I was a dope for not thinking of it sooner - and I may just soft paw the lot of them. It's longer-lasting than the weekly trims we were doing, it's less stressfull all around and it's been incredibly well-tolerated.

I've got a list as long as my arm to get through - I've set the goal of taking one thing off the list a night for both us until the list is exhausted. So far, so good.

But the little pieces of freeping paper that need a home are going to kill me.

Comments

[turandot.livejournal.com]

Larger breeds puppies bite too. Keep in mind that a puppy is dog under 2 years of age, and some dogs, like labs, greyhounds, and sheepdogs, reach that size long before they've come out of the puppy development stage. All the care in the world means nothing if the dog in question just doesn't grasp that the biting is actually hurting you, or frightening you, i.e., when they don't know their own strenght, and they are playfully tusling your hands. If you're lucky, and very disciplined, you can train them out of it before they reach adulthood, but that kind of behavior maintenance definitely isn't for everyone (as I should very well know by now): you need time, patience, and stability.

Cats don't deal well with moving from place to place, but can take just about anything else (people coming in and out of the house, odd meal hours, owners being busy and ignoring their existance - hell they prefer being ignored half the time). Dogs are the other way around: they can adapt to housing changes, but a stable routine of rituals (feeding time, walking time, playing time has to occur at specific points in the day) is key.

So I can see people actually going for a smaller dog, because even if the bad habits cannot be broken off, they're easier to manage (i.e., ignoring the offender so the bad behavior stops, removing the dog from the situation if ignoring doesn't help or isn't feasible, and so forth).

That is not to say I'm not with you about toy breeds, but for the simple fact that toy breeds become such by being stripped of intelligence in favor of achieving the smallest possible site, and when you miniaturize an animal's brain along with everything else, you're really depriving them of the ability to cohabitate successfully with others, canine and non.

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

Retrievers of any kind are notoriously mouthy. Before mine have reached a year in age, they get redirected. They'll kiss you like mad, but won't mouth. It's a fair compromise. It does take a good deal of patience to teach this redirection, but to me, it's more than worth it; I have three retrievers that I've raised from puphood, one a thirteen month old pup now, and none of them mouth anybody.

Well

[turandot.livejournal.com]

My husband and I recently tried to adopt a retriever mix who was about 1 year old, and was the sweetest dog, except that she just didn't get that her mouthing actually hurt (broke skin a couple of times - a combination of me having really thin skin, and the dog having really long and sharp canines), and basically had more interest in play biting hands than any other toy that was presented to her. As much as we tried to impress on her that mouthing people was a no-no, she just didn't get it, to the point where I basically was starting to feel nervous being alone around her. So ultimately, the whole situation became a no go.

One of my husband's uncles actually likes the breed, and raises them to help him when he goes out hunting. He's raised several black labs from puppyhood without much problems, by teaching them to only bite toys that resemble ducks and other fowl. So I get what you're saying, but I've definitely come around to believing that it is crucial to teach larger breeds to redirect their biting towards designated objects as soon as they're separated from their litter (i.e., I haven't given up on retrievers, but if there is a next time I'm definitely going the "adopt from the cradle" route =/).

[dwinghy.livejournal.com]

I'd bite too if someone tried to use me as a purse.

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

I vastly prefer big dogs. The only thing mine have bitten in the last year is cat heads (Raven) and unclejimbo's shoes (Raven, and I'm still embarassed about that.)

Around here, we have a special name for little dogs that we are careful never to use around the owners of same: feeder dogs.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

*cackles* Bait? *slaps self*

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

That's the other term we use, but again, where no owners thereof can hear us.

[moropus.livejournal.com]

It does seem like the smaller the dog is, the worse his personality is. I'm not sure if that's because of brain miniaturization, inbreeding producing stupid dogs without enough brain cells to learn to get along, or stupid owners that think its somehow cute to let their 3 lb. dog run amok.

Last time I was at the vet, the staff had to tell this woman either her Yorkie was going in a cage they brought out, or they'd have to go home. It was running up and down and terrorizing the waiting room, and she didn't care/mind/notice. I was wondering what my legal status would be if my dog simply ate it. I have to go the vet a lot because one of my dogs has recurring demodex mange(thank God it's not contagious) and it's always the small dogs that make everyone crazy.

Mine just sit there and try to lure people into petting them. One's 20 lbs. and the other is 100. They think other people exist on this earth to pet them.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

I wasn't going to say anything about the women who own these little terrors. I've yet to run into a male who did - and I live in Los Angeles, and very near West Hollywood. I would - if they did.

Their Little Darlings never do anything wrong, don't they ooogieschnookumsdeaaar mwah mwah mwah. Meanwhile, the little rodent looks like he'd like to tear her face off the moment he got a chance, right?

People displace their own self-worth on their pets - and kids, you know what I'm talking about - and this whole wee mutt thing is a cultural caricature. What I don't get are the people who must know they fit the frame, and remain oblivious.

Heh. My dog thinks everyone who comes over is there to play with her. Me? Ignored completely. Oh well.

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

If you want to run into the men who own them, go to a dog show. Any dog show. You'll see plenty. They are as fussy, nervous and high-strung as their wretched little beasts.

My dog thinks everyone who comes over is there to play with her.
All three of ours are convinced of this, too.

[djstatick.livejournal.com]

I'm not a fan of the notion of a Pit-bull as an aggressive breed. I have one, and I've had three in my lifetime. Never has any one of them bitten anyone. Harley, the dog I have now, is the sweetest, gentlest dog on the planet. That being said, my neighbors have a toy poodle they let run the neighborhood and that dog will come and attack Harley. Harley could bite that dog in half, though she usually runs away and hides behind me. Anyway, just saying.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

You have to be extremely careful to adopt pits in neighborhoods where they are putting them down as they are taken into animal control - because they were found at dog fighting compounds. Pits of any kind, and pit mixes. Because the sweet ones, without any aggressive issues? Didn't come out of those environments - and the breeding does show. In puppies, it often doesn't show until the dog is a year and a half old. (And boy, if it does? Heartbreaker. Remember Pong? He ended up at a pit bull refuge out on the high desert - sweet puppy, grew up too aggressive to place. Found just down the street from me.)

I'd consider a pit - full grown, and temperament assessed.