new dog

[kms]

We brought home a dog from a rescue shelter today! She's a pretty English Setter - orange and white. They think she is about three years old.

She is settling in OK; right now she's on the couch with the kids while a movie plays on TV. She's calm indoors, but needs some obedience training. Her hunting tendencies are apparent; she was a stray, so no one knows her background.

Wish me luck integrating her into the family. I'm interested in any advice as well - it's been a while since we had a dog in the house, which, by the way, was an English Setter.

 

[Chet]

Give us pics!

 

[Downtown]

Yay! Congratulations! I think that, in general, cyburbanites tend to be very into their dogs. What are her problem behaviours?

 

[gkmo62u]

Don't want to steal the thread, but we are considering a dog in the near future as my wife will begin a new life as a stay at home mom in the spring.

I have two 21 month olds and a 5 year old. I have a fenced yard.

As life is entirely hectic, I need a calm dog that is good with wild children. Any suggestions?

 

[el Guapo]

....I need a calm dog that is good with wild children. Any suggestions?

Golden Labs seem to fit the bill for calm and good with kids. German Shepards are great with kids if you can get past the chewing years and don't mind an over-protective dog. Good Luck.

 

[PlannerGirl]

Cockers are great with kids and so are many of the hounds just NO BEAGLES they are great with kids but not good if you dont have A LOT of time to train them (and clean up after them)

Labs are great too if you want a larger dog.

PG

 

[statler]

Congrats! I'm jealous. Someday I'll be able to adopt a pup...

 

[Jeff]

Have fun with the Christmas tree!

 

[Downtown]

Don't want to steal the thread, but we are considering a dog in the near future as my wife will begin a new life as a stay at home mom in the spring.

I have two 21 month olds and a 5 year old. I have a fenced yard.

As life is entirely hectic, I need a calm dog that is good with wild children. Any suggestions?

Goldens are GREAT family dogs, amazingly good tempered and patient with kids, but they are WILD puppies - they make me tired to even look at them. But if you have a fenced in back yard that they dog can chase the kids around, it sounds like a good match. We always had Lab/Shepard mix dogs growing up, and they were the sweetest, most patient dogs ever, and we were pretty wild, ear pulling, eye poking, tail grabbing kids.

oh, i'm editing to mention that if you have little ones, i would probably get a puppy (esp. if the wife is staying home), just because although adopted adult dogs are great companions, dogs can sometimes be funny with little kids. with a puppy, you're pretty much in charge of raising it to be good with kids - unless it has a crazy temperament, like a dalmation or a similarly high strung breed.

 

[donk]

I second PG's reccomendation of hounds./ I grew up with Blood hounds as our family dog. A few warnings though

1) they are messy (slobber everywhere)
2) Unless you train them they can be a bit out of control, but they are easy to train and eager to please.
3) They take about 3 years to settle down.
40 They are really smart, almost too smart for their own good.

But they are near silent, except for their bowse. it is easy to train them what is an acceptable time to bowse.

They are really calm and laid back, once they know the rules.

They are protective of there family and don't mind kids pulling on their ears, jowls or skin.

And of course there is a blood hound rescue organiztion

I have also heard really good thinks about bassetts.

 

[PlannerGirl]

There are some hound breeds that do not drool, i think its the blue tick that is one of the cleaner of the hounds. of course if you want to go exotic there is the irish Wolf hound, ive never had one personaly but friends have and they seem good with kids but they are like a mix of grey hound (great pet too) and agfan

check with your local shelter they usualy have puppies (after christmas there is a sick number of puppies and pure breeds)
also check with local SPCA please please dont buy from a pet store

*gets off her soap box now*
PG

 

[jestes]

As life is entirely hectic, I need a calm dog that is good with wild children. Any suggestions?

I would highly recommend a good collie. I have 4 and 7 year old sons. A couple of years ago we adopted a 5 year old collie from the local shelter. I don't think that we could find a dog that is more tolerant of children. In fact, she absolutely loves my boys without being overly protective of them.

During cold days we let her in the house. Most of the time she will lay at the foot of the couch with my kids either laying using her as a pillow or climbing all over her. I have never heard her growl or snap at either one of them.

 

[kms]

back to the new dog....

Kelly, she wasn't trained to walk on the leash. She pulls it taut and gasps for air while she walks. I'll get her a gentle lead and see how it works.

She hasn't eaten much of her food, yet, which I attribute to being new here. I did find her paws on the table while she finished one of the kids' Doritos, so I know she has an appetite. She'll have to lose the habit of reaching up to the table.

I read a column in our paper called "Dog Talk". The author has pretty sensible advice.

Hopefully, soon, I can offer parenting advice to you.

 

[Downtown]

I cannot proclaim my love of the Halti enough. We were, admittedly, really lazy about leash training the dogs and with the regular leashes our shoulders would just ache at the end of a walk. The halti made all the difference in our golden/chow and our bl. lab/dobie still *tries* to pull so that she can chase birds, squirrells, eat grass, sniff bushes, the halti just offeres sooooo much control.

 

[Downtown]

Off Topic:

Hopefully, soon, I can offer parenting advice to you.

And thanks! We're starting our first round of injectibles next month - who knew getting knocked up would be so difficult!

 

[Habanero]

We're getting another wiemie! woo hoooo! We discussed it last night and we've decided to pick up the search again for another pup.

In honor of that, I'm thinking I may put this on my car..

 

[Habanero]

 

[el Guapo]

We're getting another wiemie!...

Can I have the old one? with sugar on top.

 

[Habanero]

Can I have the old one? with sugar on top.

nope, sorry, I'm stuck on the little sh*t, I might let you borrow him though.

 

[SW MI Planner]

Good luck KMS. Don't have any advice, but want to see some pictures!!

 

[Mastiff]

GET A MASTIFF!

 

[Otis]

I used to train animals at a zoo (to help with their care, e.g. having them hold still while we took blood samples). (Planners have all kinds of backgrounds) A few good rules:

#1 Be consistent. ALWAYS do important things the same way. Like don't ever allow her on the furniture unless you are willing to have her on there any time. Sometimes yes/sometimes no will drive her nuts. She won't be able to figure out what's OK and what isn't. Like don't let her eat from the table unless she will be allowed to do that any time (if she goes for the food on the table, tell her NO and distract her to her own food with treats). Remember that she sees you as dominant and will want to please you. Your job (and that of the kids) is to make sure she knows how to do that. Consistency and repetition is the key. If she's not sure what you want her to do, she'll try a hundred different things and/or give up in frustration.

#2 Use lots of positive reinforcement. Sometimes food treats (I use commercial dog treats like little jerky strips, and break them into smaller pieces. They work no matter what size they are), especially early in training, and give effusive praise and pats and pets at the same time. Then start tapering off on the treats, randomly, but still give the praise. Eventually you'll be able to just give the praise. Good punishment when she is insistent on not doing what you want is to turn your back on her (assuming she's not running loose, which is a bad idea with a dog that apparently is a hunter/aggressive).

#3 The only time I ever use anything like physical punishment is when one of our dogs (our rottweiller mix) acts aggressively (the other one a coon hound mix, wouldn't act aggressively if his life depended on it -- example: another dog had hime by the throat on the beach one day. His reaction was to sit down and wait it out.) towards me, a family member, or a guest who is in the house (barking is not aggression). I flip her onto her back, hold her down tightly by the throat (not choking, but firmly in control), look her in the eye, and yell at her. That seems to give her the message that she's gone over the line and then she's as good as gold.

#4 Be consistent.

#5 Get her good obedience training. That will show you how to be consistent. Which you should be.

 

[kms]

Rich, thanks for the tips. She was trained by someone at one time, and I'm trying to condition her to my single word commands. There has been a little improvement in the past day or two; she is slowly learning how to walk on the leash. She's not at all aggressive, but she has asserted herself with a neighbor's dog. She is calm and relaxed in the house and around new people, and I only heard her bark once (at the neighbor dog).

We have her for a three-week foster period until we can be approved as her owners. As luck has it, she went into heat, so it will be a trying three weeks.

I tried to attach pictures, but they are too large. I can't get them into the Gallery section, either, and would require an extensive tutorial. I'll keep trying for a while. I'd love to share the photos and show her off a little.

 

[Habanero]

If you open them on your computer you could shrink them a bit. We developed some onto a cd and they came out huge, so if I put them at 50% I can upload them.

 

[Otis]

Our girl dog asserts herself (picks fights) with any other dog she sees. As our local police chief (a friend and dog fancier) puts it, "she interacts confidently with other dogs." She's getting better at not fighting, but its a long slow struggle. We never let her off lead and always try to keep her away from other dogs except under really controlled circumstances. Even then she obviously feels the need to establish her dominance. Sometimes I think some serious socialization (being around lots of other dogs) would be helpful, but I don't want to run the risk of her or another dog getting hurt. She was found on the freeway roadside in a very urban area of New Jersey (rural Oregon is a big change for her), and we think she was encouraged to fight by her original owners.

She's a chaser, too. A major triumph happened the other night when I was walking her. We came up on a group of deer and she just watched them. No attempt to chase, even when they started to move away. Consistent NOs and a tight hold on the lead may finally have gotten through to her (that if she tries to chase she's going to reach the end of the lead quickly and come to a sudden, involuntary halt, kind of like getting clotheslined.) She's really smart and I think her brains are finally overcoming her instincts. She got lots of praise for that.

By the way, I forgot one really good training tool. We use a squirt gun (water only) to punish misbehaviors sometimes (e.g. we have a command, "kitchen", which means "get out of the kitchen." We will give the command twice, and if it's ignored, we reach for the squirt gun. Now if we just pick it up they obey. For some reason they hate to be squirted. They jump into creeks and the ocean with glee, but squirt 'em and they tuck their tails and go hide. Go figure. They don't like to go out in the rain either, which is a big problem for them about half the year here.

Your new dog sounds like a sweetheart. Good luck with her.