Praise your dog

Discussion in 'Biology & Genetics' started by Syzygys, Feb 9, 2007.

  1. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    For doglovers, check out dogster.com, it is the Myspace site for dogs. Lots of canine friends and pictures there...
     
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  3. river-wind Valued Senior Member

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    I had a crabby old bitch of a girl for 14 years, and I loved her dearly; even when she bit me for taking the trash that she had worked so hard to steal from the can.

    She developed diabetes at 6, was blind by 10, and started going downhill at 13 and a half. But up until the very end, she was a sweet, loving sack of fur who was no happier than when she was sitting next to you (on the couch or int he woods) chewing a bone.

    I gave her twice-daily insulin shots from age 6 on (along with my step-dad, my other step-dad, and my real dad - thanks guys!), and after she went blind, the two of us developed a pretty complex set of verbal commands so that we could still go hiking together. She knew "climb up (onto)", "climb up-up(onto something tall)", "up over (climb over)", "under", "up-up over(climb over something tall)", "step down", "step down-down", "stairs down", "stairs up", "watch (something directly ahead to avoid)", and a bunch of wistles and grunts for approval, disaproval, come, go, heal, lie down, play, stop, and some I'm forgetting.

    I still miss her, the foul-tempered pain in the ass. <3
     
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  5. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    I've got two Lhasa Apsos here in Maryland with me. (My wife has the other eight at home in California.) We just got what passes for a severe snowstorm here, about six inches interspersed with rain so the ground is essentially covered with heavy sheets of frosty ice. It's taking a long time for the snowplows to clear it away. These dogs were developed in Tibet, so they have nice long fur that goes all the way out to the ends of their toes, and they are as sure-footed as mountain goats for clambering over Himalayan cliffs.

    A couple of days ago my neighbors were all milling around outside. Some tried to drive their cars over the ice blocks, some tried to shovel the ice blocks with our ubiquitous plastic snow shovels, some waited for the snowplow to finish the highway and then the nearby road and finally get to the pavement in our townhouse court. Suffice it to say they were all weary, impatient and befuddled.

    I took the opportunity to take these dogs out for walkies in the environment for which they were developed. All of a sudden these concerned neighbors looked over their shoulders and saw us bounding out of the woods. Me in the moon boots I have left from my days as a skier, which I thoughtfully brought with me the last time I was home. My dogs scampering around, bouncing up and down through the snow drifts like bunny rabbits, all of us having a great time getting fresh air and exercise.

    I still don't understand why these Easterners think we Californians are so weird.
     
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  7. John Connellan Valued Senior Member

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    Dogster.com

    So thats what my dog is doing at 3:00 every morning

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  8. Plazma Inferno! Ding Ding Ding Ding Administrator

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    Gee, what a look! "Will you take me home? Please?" Really cutie!

    I love Basset breed.

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    But, I have not so pleasant neighbourhood, so I'm thinking of getting Rottweiler named Sauron.

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  9. Plazma Inferno! Ding Ding Ding Ding Administrator

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    This is really sweet!
    I had old chap for 12 years. He died three years ago. Just suddenly, he got sick and died in one day.
    And after three years, I still cannot move on and have another dog.
     
  10. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Remember that "dog" is a position. Your dog has a job to do. It may be watching your children and keeping prowlers out of the yard, or it may be just to provide a dose of sanity when you get home from work or to teach your whole family the importance of unconditional love.

    If your beloved housekeeper or gardener died, you would mourn them and you would miss them, but you would hire somebody to fill the position because the job still needs to be done.

    This job still needs to be done too. Your dear old dog would be the first one to tell you that. You still need a dose of sanity when you get home and you still need an example of unconditional love in your household.

    Your dog would not approve of you living this way. If you had a proper dog pack, like we do, he would have trained one of his most promising lieutenants to take over after he was gone so there would be no discontinuity.

    Please honor your dog's memory, live up to his teachings, and do what you know he would want you to do.

    Trust me, you'll be happier and it will feel right.
     
  11. BenTheMan Dr. of Physics, Prof. of Love Valued Senior Member

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    Yeah I gotta agree with Fraggle Rocker. Any time you buy a living thing, you know it's eventually going to die. There are many dogs who are living in pounds and shelters who are waiting to die---you should adopt one and show it some love, even if it is for just a little while

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    Plus, if you died, your dog would probably be happy with another owner.
     
  12. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    Here is a poll, I want to test a theory of mine:

    If you had more dogs consecutively, where they the same or similar breed?

    My theory is that most dogowners tend to get the same type of dog, which would mean that they were happy with their first choices...
     
  13. Ipharadisi Registered Member

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    I love Staffordshire Bull Terriors, and have had a couple, and also a variety of other breeds. I do tend to gravitate towards similar breeds, and know the disposition of various breeds, hence knowing what charater traits I personally resonate with, in a dog.

    Whilst it is possible that most people stay with the same breed (or similar), this would be largely dependant on various life changes. A dog temperament that suits a particular living situation, and person, at one stage of their life may not suit in another chapter. For example, an Alaskan Malamute in a temperate climate makes sense...if that dog died, and eventually the people decided to move to a tropical climate, and were to consider another canine companion...their old familiar breed would not be practically suitable.

    River-Wind...thanks for sharing your lovely story of friendship. I, too, love this level of rapport with animals.

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    whole being communication...

    Great advice Fraggle-Rocker...
     
  14. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    Here is an interesting example of sticking to the same breed:

    I really, really don't like australlian cattle dogs, the blue heels. They look like a beerbarrel when fat, they have a high pitched bark and they bark a lot and they don't play nice with other dogs. But anyway...

    Here is this old lady whose blue heel just died. That dog was a menace, according to her and her relatives. Nevertheless she wanted the same type.
    She couldn't get it first, then in a change of events she got luckily (??) one.

    Now the dog is nicer than the old one, but I think it is still a very bad choice for her. The dog is way too powerful for the old lady, not very social with other dogs and barks a lot and even bit both the owner and another dogwalker.

    Even her relatives questioned: Just why the hell would she want the same type of dog when she could have chosen so many different and much nicer/ more practical dogs?

    But she stuck to the same breed....
     
  15. valich Registered Senior Member

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    Every dog "needs a life." Has to have a job to do. There are so many people who buy a puppy just because they look so cute as a pup but then have no idea what they're getting into and the responsibility behind having one, and the time you need to spend with her, him or them. The dog ends up alone in a small fenced-in yard - or worse yet, in an enclosed room of the house after it tears up the coach - and then just spends the whole day running back-and-forth barking along the fence everytime a car goes by. Finally, the owner realizes that the dog is useless and just a pain-in-the-neck and off to the pound it goes.
     
  16. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Lhasa Apsos. 25 years. About thirteen of them right now, depending on how many we sell from the last litter. We have one gigantic Anatolian Guardian who keeps them safe from cougars.
     
  17. valich Registered Senior Member

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    I thought you lived near DC? Where are you at that you have cougars?

    It's Norwegian Elkhounds for me. Over thirty years now. Love the Spitz family, though could consider another breed. Had a beautiful Samoyed but couldn't keep him cuz he made my other elkie too depressed by pushing him aside for more attention. My Shiba Inu is definitely more of the independent type and not as good of companion dog. We have our biennial futurity show coming up next month that I hope to attend. This year we're having a Canadian judge come in who should be more objective towards judging the Elkhounds as the Northern breed that they are, and not for just "show-and-tell" - an impression I came away with from last year's National event.

    Lhasa Apsos: "keen intelligence, acute hearing, and instincts for identifying friends from strangers (Wiki)." Congratulations on the new litter.
     
  18. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    I work in DC and have a second home here, where giant 50-pound coyotes have migrated down from Canada after hybridizing with wolves and are starting to control the scourge of the Northeast: deer. My wife and most of the dogs are home in the redwood forest in northwestern California, where we have bears, cougars and elk, but no wolves or coyotes.
    Working dogs, what an unusual concept to a Lhasa enthusiast.

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    Their "people skills" are legendary. If your Lhasa tells you not to let somebody in the house, don't let them in the house. Even (or perhaps especially) if it's your mother, you'll be glad you took their counsel. They were indeed bred to be watchdogs so they have unusually sensitive hearing. Their "work" is to sit on the sofa all day and warn you when somebody is approaching on a bicycle two miles away. As for the intelligence, well Wiki is not perfect. Most of them have the IQ of a crowbar. Combine that with eyesight so bad that there is really no point in trimming their bangs, an energy level that makes them perfect apartment dogs, and a downright feline aloofness, and you've got a combination motion-detector and bed-warmer. We advertise them as "dogs for cat people."

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    (Also non-allergenic.)
     
  19. superstring01 Moderator

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    Yellow labbies. My puppy, Reminton, is the greatest most loving creature on Earth.

    ~String
     
  20. valich Registered Senior Member

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    I don't know what to make of this. These competitions are very heated events, but the owners DO REALLY LOVE their dogs too. I think he just lost his cool in the "heat of the moment."

    Iditarod officials DQ musher for hitting dogs
    2-time runner-up Brooks ‘lost his temper,’ marshal says; one dog later died
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17680395/
     
  21. superstring01 Moderator

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    Rems couldn't handle mushing... he's a lazy boy until I take him to the river... then I can't get him out to save my life.

    ~String
     
  22. Chatha big brown was screwed up Registered Senior Member

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    Just a thought, but do fishes sleep in the ocean. I mean its hard to imagine a whale sleeping while in the water. Does it move to the bottom of the ocean or sleep while floating? Does it close its eyes?
     
  23. limits Registered Member

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    Fish rest, yea I imagine they float however .. sharks don't sleep.
     

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