Dogs and Internet

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Dogs who believe they are dominant over people, such a child, etc, will bite like that.  With no warning.  There is always a warning. But some of them are so subtle, people do not see them.  I see people baby talk and look a dog in the eye and try to pet it.  Never approach any dog you do not know.  Do not talk to it, pay it no attention dont try to pet it or make friends. If a dog wants to be your friend it will let you know.  Trying to make friends is not the thing to do.  A shy dog will see it as threatening and so will a dominant dog.  The dog must, 100%, look to its owner as leader and strangers must respect a dog's space.

Sadly, it is often children who get hurt.  They are too active, too noisy, too quick and they make the wrong moves. So do a lot of adults. They mean well but they do everything wrong, including the owner at the other end of the leash. 

Rick, that Dobe may have suffered from a genetic disorder known as Von Willebrands. It is a bleeding disorder and often the Dobes who have it have small bleeds in the brain. This is thought to cause that snap that they can do.  I made cetain my Dobes, as pups, came from parents who did not carry this affliction. I am sorry that you had a bad experience.  Maybe one day you will meet my Ava and she can repair the damage.  :) Or he/she could have been secretly dominant and you gave the wrong signal. I will say that Dobes are super sensitive to body language and emotion. 

I raise Bulldogs.  English Bulldogs and French Bulldogs. While both breeds are  good with people, they are very stubborn and never give up.  People always pick the pup that leaves the litter and waddles over to them.  They think it is cute or that the pup wants to go home with them.  WRONG. That is the dominant pup and you had better be a dominant person or it will not work. People think a wagging tail is friendliness. Not always, sometimes it is the dog saying game on and being aggressive. Pawing at you to pet is dominance.  The paw on your forearm?  Dominance.  Leaning against you, dominance. If the owner is not confident, dominant dogs feel they must protect their person, big issue.  If a dog is shy and their person is not confident, they will do the same, for different reasons. 

I do not give any of my dogs a chance to do the wrong thing. I also do not allow people to talk to them, pet them or pay any attention to them until the dog is at ease.  We ignore the dog. 

I have a friend who loves dogs and has owned them his whole life. He is a large man.  Large voice.  He uses a lot of hand gestures and his body posture is large.  Ava took exception to him.  He used his friendliest voice, etc and she got worse. I told him to shut up, stop talking to her, sit down and ignore her.  dont look, dont talk to her, dont touch her.  She started by sniffing the air.  then she moved a bit closer and started to do the Dobie thing, bumping with the nose, while trying to get his scent. (which can be really scary for the person).  Within an hour, she had sat down next to him. Still we ignored her.  By the end of the evening, she was in love with him.  He is her favorite visitor.

Sorry this kinda turned into dog behavior 101. It is a favorite subject of mine.  :D
 
And, speaking of pit bulls...  About a month ago our 10-year-old niece got off the school bus with her three girlfriends and, instead of going to her house as they usually do, they went to the home of one of the other girls.  The father in that home owned a pit bull.  When they walked inside the pit bull attacked our niece without provocation according to all the girls.  He grabbed onto her chest and wouldn't let go.  The other girls (all 9 years old) were great!  One went outside to ask a passing driver to call 911.  The other two grabbed chairs to push the dog off our niece and into another room.  Apparently there was a lot of blood.  Our adult niece compressed the girl's chest and got the blood stopped.  The EMTs arrived and she was taken to the nearest hospital where they cleaned her up, but her parents were told she needed to go to a hospital in Richmond where they had a plastic surgeon who could handle her surgery.  During the two-hour surgery, the doctor had to "move some things around" to put her back together and she made need future surgery once she matures more.  Luckily, the dog had its rabies shots but he is no more; put down immediately.  Our niece was in the hospital one week and then recovered one week at home.  She's now back in school and doing great physically, but she's now afraid of dogs.  This was one of those pit bulls that wouldn't ever hurt anyone....

ArdraF
 
gottabemore said:
Rick, that Dobe may have suffered from a genetic disorder known as Von Willebrands. It is a bleeding disorder and often the Dobes who have it have small bleeds in the brain. This is thought to cause that snap that they can do.  I made cetain my Dobes, as pups, came from parents who did not carry this affliction. I am sorry that you had a bad experience.  Maybe one day you will meet my Ava and she can repair the damage.  :) Or he/she could have been secretly dominant and you gave the wrong signal. I will say that Dobes are super sensitive to body language and emotion. 

Thanks much.  I had never heard of that disease.  You certainly seem to know dogs.  As Cesar Milan would say... "no touch... no talk.... and no eye contact!".  We get into trouble when we assign human attributes and thought processes to dogs.

I was already an adult living 700 miles from my parents when they got the Dobie so we were by no means aquainted well.  I had just arrived "home" for the holidays minutes earlier and there was a lot excitement in the house.  I'm 6'6" tall with a big voice.  Christian (their Dobie) was sitting and I made the mistake of walking over to him... leaning over and scratching his chest.  My bad.  The visual of what happened next is burned into my brain.  Not even time to close my eyes much less react.  It felt like being hit by Mike Tyson.  Fortunately it was mostly superficial and I wasn't all that good looking to begin with.

ArdraF, that's just terrible.  I hope your niece fully recovers eventually.  I also had a bad experience with a Pit Bull owned by my brother.  He was one of those owners we all talk about... and rightfully so... who encourage their pits to "be tough".

I'd love to meet Ava some day but I give all Dobies a wide berth these days so she'll have to come to me.  ;)  As for Pits... I just can't be in the same area as one and still feel comfortable.  To me, it's like having a loaded weapon on the table just spinning around. 

Rick
 
Pierat said:
Clay L - Do you know whether there's Verizon air card service in northeastern Utah, up by Dinosaur Nat'l Monument? We have VZW and are thinking of going there.

I haven't been up there in many years (we turn east on I70) but looking at the coverage map it doesn't look good.
You might want to take a look at this 3G Store site HERE and check the Verizon map. In my experience the map has been pretty accurate.
 
We travel with our two hounds--Lola @ 40 lbs and Kramer @65 lbs.  They bark as hounds will, but no problems yet.

We are currently using the Verizon smart phone 3G hotspot and so far it allows us to blog, upload to our website, and browse the forums. 

Tim and Mary

On the road to Indiana
 
Sometimes the breed restrictions are due to local ordinances that don't allow certian breeds in the whole town which includes the rv parks too.
 
gottabemore said:
I used to groom dogs.  The #1 biter? Cocker Spaniel. A cocker will take you before many of the larger breeds.

I love cockers, my fave breed. But yes, I agree, of the 16 dogs I've had over the years, it's always the cockers ready to tear strangers to shreds. I've never had this problem with any other breed. I've been to vets who said they had a mandatory rule that ALL cockers had to be muzzled, because they where the breed most likely to attack the vets, nurses, and other dogs. A shelter once told me that cockers were the hardest dogs to place, because they'd keep getting brought back after biting a family member, and that they are the most common breed to be surrendered because they could not get along with children. Somewhere there is a website that lists the "Top 10 Most Dangerous Dogs", and it says they got their results from a census of how many children were hospitalized nation wide over a 10 year period, from dog bites and dog attacks, and they said that Cockers was the #1 most dangerous dog to have around children, and that they were more likely than any other breed to attack children unprovoked. And I believe it! Like I said, I've had cockers and they just seem to be born with a mean streak that you can't train out of them.

Of course, I ran a rescue for "extreme cases" for 21 yeas, so I did get to see some of the worst tempered dogs out there. From personal experience, I find that it is not so much the dog is "mean" as it is scared. Some dogs are just plain terrified of kids and in their minds they feel the need to attack before they get attacked. Helping a dog get over it's fears can take years though, fear is a hard thing to shake. It can be done, but it requires a lot of love and patience.  I think a lot of breeds that are branded as "mean" should actually be branded as "nervous" - these so-called mean breeds when in calm quiet environments, often lose their tempers and become wonderful loving pets. This was the case with the cockers I had.

I think when chooseing a dog, you can't just pick a dog because you like it - you got to match it's temperment to your lifestyle. Some breeds just should never be placed in homes with children or with other pets or in an RV Park. It doesn't mean the dog is a bad breed, it just means the dog is a better breed if it is not put in situations which make it nervous. My Buddy, for example (a buff cocker) he would never had gotten on in an RV Park - too many ankles to bite, too many sounds to bark at, too many noises to scare him. He was my best friend for 16 wonderful years, but he was just not suited for campground living. And yet my Junior (a bearded collie), whom I had for 13 years, would have gotten on fine in a RV park, she would have been laid back and not have been fazed by a sound or movement. They were extreme opposites of each other, but they got along fine.

At the moment I have no dogs (but I do have 12 cats). I've had dogs my whole life, since before I could talk and walk - as a kid my family had 8 HUGE dogs 70 - 120lbs each. My smallest dog was a Maltese about 4lbs. I miss having dogs. To me, life just doesn't seem right without a dog by my side. I put off getting another dog after Buddy died, because of my plans to start fulltiming. I want to get the RV and get settled into it (moving 12 cats into an RV is a big project) before getting another dog.

But yeah, your questions about size/breed restrictions are something I have been thinking about a lot. I have no idea what breed of dog I'll get (to date I have never picked any of my dogs - every one of them was a rescue dog and the case was always "We got an agressive dog needs an emergancy home for a few days, no body can handle him, he bites every body, we don't know what to do with him, police say we got to put him down, can we leave him with you til we find him a home?"....a few days always ended up being 10 or 12 years - however long the dog lived. :D That's how my cats came too me too - ferals that could not be domesticated - every one of them. And my birds (did you know that parrots are bad tempered and bite their owners and thus are given up just as often as cats and dogs? A biting bird is a bored bird, end the boredom = have a happy bird.) I don't know, I've just got this way with animals for some reason, so people (shelters) who don't know what to do with a mean dog/cat/bird send it to me because they don't want to see them killed, and for some reason they lose their meanness living with me, so they end up staying with me. I think it's something to do with I live a very quiet laid back, life, so animals don't get nervous around me - no loud noises, no fast movements.

But, no plans to stop rescueing cats/dogs/birds in my future, and so my RV plans reflect that and I'm custom building the inside of the RV for that purpose. So when I do get my next dog, it'll likely be another rescue dog needing a last chance, and the breed will be a surprise to me. But my lifestyle does make RV Parks not an option for me. I've already checked with dozens of parks. Even without the size/breed restrictions, RARE is the park that will admit you if you have over 4 pets TOTAL. To date I have only found 1 park that'll allow us to stay, as a result of the 12 cats. So, we plan on boondocking almost 100% once we move into the RV. It's either boondocking or giving up the pets, and giving up the pets, is NOT an option, they are part of the family, they stay with us not matter what. I'd rather boondock with them than have full hook-ups without them, and to date we've boondocked 100% for 5 years now with no problems. Space is an issue since it was 9 cats and 2 dogs the first 3 years and 12 cats the last 2 years, we need more space, so we are upgrading to a 31' Class A this fall. Boondocking, and boondocking with pets, is not for every one though. It works for us, but I would imagine most folks would have a hard time doing it.

Not sure if any of this helps you or not. Oh well.




 
Gottabemore... So you used to groom dogs.

Well, if you happen by Savana Ga.. Stop in at Top Dog and say Hi to Amy.. My daughter.. She is currently working as a groomer there.  Seems to like it.. and on "Take Your Fur Kid To Work Day" Spencer (Her spaniel) comes home all clean and fluffy!
 
I've only encountered one wrinkle while traveling with my dog. 

On the way back from California earlier this year (headed to Georgia), I called a campground to make a reservation and mentioned that I had a dog. 

The lady asked about the breed.  My dog is a mix, a heinz 57 variety.  After much pressing, she asked me what the dog looked like.  I told her Taz was black and tan, sort of like a shepherd.  She immediately told me "we don't take those dogs, sorry, you'll have to find somewhere else to stay."

Next time, if pressed, I plan to say my dog is a collie mix.  If I hadn't said the dog was with me, they'd have never known.  She is 14 years old and is happiest when planted on her doggie bed.    No offense to small dog owners, but the little ones seem to be the most feisty and confrontational. 

All that to say, it is worth the hassle to travel with a hairy 4-footer. 

Whirlwind
 
I would advise that you always call ahead to ask about dog restrictions.  You might even consider getting some sort of muzzle for the dogs to help allay the campgrounds fears.  I understand.  I was a mail carrier for many years and was fortunate that on my routes, the Dobermans, Rottweilers and Pitbulls were generally owned by responsible people who socialized them well.  Chihuahuas, not so much.  One of my favorite stories is about a new family who moved onto my route.  Without realizing I was coming down the sidewalk, the people started out their door and their dogs, a Chihuahua and a pitbull mix slipped out and came running at me full tilt.  Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide; so I just stood still.  The pitbull mix ran straight at me, stopped at my feet and leaned against me to be petted.  Then I realized the owners were yelling, "Don't pet the Chihuahua -- he'll take your hand off!"  Luckily, the PB mix, didn't want his petting disturbed and kept between the little dog and me long enough for the owners to grab it.  Needless to say, they were more careful after that.
 
Sorry for the late post.  We just joined the forum.  With regard to 3G (and phone service), we have two carriers, ATT and Verizon. They are complementary.  It is often the case that we have phone coverage through Verizon but no internet connectivity while there is no ATT phone service but either 3G or Edge via ATT.  Of course this only addresses smart phones and not computers but we can almost always connect to the web while on the road.  BTW, both worked fine at Dinosaur National Monument. 
Regarding the dogs, we travel with a Boxer and Lab.  Both are large and it is better to tell directors/owners that they are coming with us, rather than asking permission.  It is also interesting to note that, contrary to expectation, the Lab is more playful and therefore appears to be more aggressive than the Boxer, who is very powerful but gentle as can be.  It is so often about expectation and perception.  Since we pick up after them and they are well trained, we've never had any complaints. 
 

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