Dogs and neighbors.

[check]

Thanks for the compliments. Not fishing for any. I'm guessing your dog lives in a controlled environment, house, pen, leash, etc.?

At home, where we have a nice fenced in back yard, and up North, where we have a 25 acre property. Never in a pen. But he does like to sleep in his crate at night, for security.

 

[Dftodd]

Please be patient when you see a dog in a store. Most dogs need socialization to be well behaved. We take ours whenever possible and she has always been well behaved. If I see someone who might be afraid of her, I am careful to quickly move out of their way. As I have said, our dog is very well trained but she needs exposure to as many situations as possible. I'm careful to only put her in situations where she can succeed and remove her quickly from situations that are stressful. You don't have to be friendly to her, you can ignore her completely. Thank you for your patience.

We keep our GSD well socialized. She's great around people. And absolutely loves kids. Walking through pet smart a month ago with her, we were going down the main Isle. Some parents with there kid met us at the end of one of the side isles. There kid was under the shopping cart laying down and kicked off there flips flops so they had bare feet. Our GSD looked over and before we could stop her, out came the tongue and she gave the foot one great big soggy lick Well the parents heard the kid let out a scream and jumped when they saw our Shepherd. Thought we were gonna have an issue till the kid stated it licked my foot. Then everyone started laughing

Same with the vets office. Has to greet everyone in the office, and if there are kids, then she is in heaven. Kids tend to migrate to her and spend the wait time loving on her and vise versa. And the folks in the vets office just love her. When I've had to drop her off for a day, she usually hangs out with the girls behind the counter instead of out back in a kennel.

 

[ovrszd]

At home, where we have a nice fenced in back yard, and up North, where we have a 25 acre property. Never in a pen. But he does like to sleep in his crate at night, for security.

Yep, that's a controlled environment. Neccissity for most dog owners.

Try to imagine being a free spirit capable of roaming many, many miles a day. Now imagine being that creature confined to a nice fenced backyard. Character changes are inevitable....

During good weather days Willard will easily cover 10 miles in a day. Every day possible we take a hike around the farm. Me riding the RTV. Him on his three good legs and one crippled back leg. That journey will log 3 miles for me, twice that for him. We frequently stop in the timber and enjoy the freedom. When done he is a totally transformed personality, reflecting on the smells and sounds and the squirrels or rabbits he chased. Good for his personality. Major contributor to his trainability. He has no need for unnecessary roaming to the neighbors yard and could care less about the cattle grazing a couple hundred feet from his home.

As a human imagine who you would be if confined?

 

[Gary Fowler]

Dogs I took care of by putting up a dog proof fence. A few days ago, my neighbors had some yearling calves break thru their fence and began wandering the neighborhood. They found 2 of them close to my front 4' high chain link fence but when they tried to corral them into going home, they just jumped (well partially jumped) my fence and stretched it all to heck and back. I will have to remove that section and replace with new chainlink for it to look normal again. It just wasn't designed to support a 500-600 pound animal laying on top of it.

 

[Dftodd]

Okay, story time. A lady I dated (before I met my wife) lived in a rough part of town. She had a big male Rottweiler, Max. One night while she was asleep she heard the window rattle. She looked and could see someone outside trying to jimmy the window. Max quietly got off the bed and sat next to the window. The intruder got the window open and started to step in. As soon as his foot hit the floor, Max got him. Just one bite. Max never growled, never snarled, never barked, just sat patiently and waited. The intruder screamed and broke the window as he fled. Man, that had to have hurt.

Wife had an Irish wolf hound when she was just out of high school. Lived in an apartment, just her and the dog. Had someone jimmy the window on the fire escape. Dog waited patiently till the window opened and the person stepped into the apartment. Person flew back out the window with the wolf hound on its a $$. She called the cops. Dog pinned the person breaking in down in the park across the road. Cops had to get my wife to come down to the park and to get the dog to release the person. Person tried suing her since he crapped his pants, and had marks on his throat where the dog had him pinned. Judge threw out the case and told the criminal he shouldn't have been breaking into someone's place and got what they deserved

 

[Thall303]

We keep our GSD well socialized. She's great around people. And absolutely loves kids. Walking through pet smart a month ago with her, we were going down the main Isle. Some parents with there kid met us at the end of one of the side isles. There kid was under the shopping cart laying down and kicked off there flips flops so they had bare feet. Our GSD looked over and before we could stop her, out came the tongue and she gave the foot one great big soggy lick Well the parents heard the kid let out a scream and jumped when they saw our Shepherd. Thought we were gonna have an issue till the kid stated it licked my foot. Then everyone started laughing

Same with the vets office. Has to greet everyone in the office, and if there are kids, then she is in heaven. Kids tend to migrate to her and spend the wait time loving on her and vise versa. And the folks in the vets office just love her. When I've had to drop her off for a day, she usually hangs out with the girls behind the counter instead of out back in a kennel.

I love dogs.....but they don't belong in stores or restaurants unless they are certified service dogs....especially dogs in the baby seat in the grocery cart!

 

[ovrszd]

I love dogs.....but they don't belong in stores or restaurants unless they are certified service dogs....especially dogs in the baby seat in the grocery cart!

I agree.

Uninvited licking was one of the first things Willard learned to NOT do.

 

[2ndhalf]

Wife had an Irish wolf hound when she was just out of high school. Lived in an apartment, just her and the dog. Had someone jimmy the window on the fire escape. Dog waited patiently till the window opened and the person stepped into the apartment. Person flew back out the window with the wolf hound on its a $$. She called the cops. Dog pinned the person breaking in down in the park across the road. Cops had to get my wife to come down to the park and to get the dog to release the person. Person tried suing her since he crapped his pants, and had marks on his throat where the dog had him pinned. Judge threw out the case and told the criminal he shouldn't have been breaking into someone's place and got what they deserved

Those are two great stories..

Dogs are like people if trained/raised right they are great if they are not they are a menace. This is our dog from my childhood. His name was Jake. We got him when I was about 5 and he died when I was about 19. He was a GREAT Birdog and an very good "fetch the baseball from the weeds" dog.

I would lose my baseball in a weedfield we played near and I would find a small rock and show it to Jake and throw it in the weeds in the vicinitiy of where the baseball landed. He would come out with the ball EVERY time... little slobbery Great dog.

 

[roadhunter]

I love dogs.....but they don't belong in stores or restaurants unless they are certified service dogs....especially dogs in the baby seat in the grocery cart!

You should see all the people who bring dogs on airplanes as "Emotional Support Animals". It's ridiculous.

 

[2ndhalf]

Take 25 minutes out of your day and watch this on Intermountain Therapy Dogs

Awesome video .. I have watched it a least a half dozen times over the years.. There is something about animals and kids/people.

BYUtv - Turning Point - Intermountain Therapy Animals