Kinthalis, you may see that your friend is losing money because of her phobia, but unless she sees it that way, and is willing to try to change, offering to help her beat her phobia just doesn’t seem wise to me.
You’re probably right about the economic effects of her phobia, but unless she’s ready to change it - you’re just going to stress her, and annoy her. And may even put her back up to further resist doing anything about her phobia.
Dump a box of puppies on her, possibly while she’s sleeping.
They did this in Scrubs with kittens, to cure disease with happiness. “Get me a box of kittens, stat!”
In other news, the ovtcharka is absurdly big, and looks like a lion. I was, however, just reading about the world’s tallest dog, who while impressive, is not nearly as imposing as that lion beastie.
That is EXACTLY the dog I want.
Just need to talk my anti-dog pro-cat hubby into it
To all of you getting all “SQUEEEEE!!!” over the cute fwuffy puppy, kindly read up on the breed description FIRST. These are unbelievably large and strong animals who are possibly the world’s most protective dog–might be very fine at home with you but do you really want to have to invest in 8’ professionally installed chainlink fencing in order to protect the mail carrier from a daily mauling? I watched a video of a pissed off Ovtcharka rushing a fence to get at somebody who pissed him off and I don’t think even 8’ chainlink would hold the dog for all that long, really.
For instance, ask yourself if you are honestly strong enough to hold back this dog if you had him on just a leash when somebody got up in his grill. Notice that this dog isn’t all that mad, really, his tail is up and wagging and his ears aren’t back–nonetheless I couldn’t keep him from grabbing that guy and I’m strong as hell and experienced with big aggressive dogs. Here’s another video showing just how difficult it is to restrain a dog that big with that aggressive a nature–and they’re bred to be that way on purpose. Just because somebody says “aw, he’s just an old softy really” don’t mean squat when a dog decides it’s time to revert to being the way he was bred to be.
This is a classic example of a dog people want for all the wrong reasons! There are plenty of cute fluffy dogs that don’t have the personality of a cranky wolverine on steroids with crack sauce, just sayin’!
But they are incredibly cute, especially the puppies…
Oh, I wouldn’t want one just because of the size, but I hadn’t looked up anything on their personalities, and now I really don’t want one. I stand by saying that they look huggable, though.
Never ever pick a dog breed based only on their looks!
But don’t get the wrong idea about the Caucasian Shepherd, it IS a perfectly manageable dog if you have a decent amount of experience training and handling protection breeds, it’s just not a good companion dog, period. Plus they have a surprising amount of energy so confining them to a small yard would be cruel. Stick to the German Shepherd in suburbia.
Personally, I’d say this breed is definitely outside the range of any but the most experienced pet owner. Large size plus great strength plus instinctive aggression that has to be constantly monitored and the dog consciously socialized equals total catastrophe to anyone who hasn’t handled dogs of this type before. I wouldn’t want to manage one, and I’ve owned and/or trained Malemutes, German Shepherds, Dobies, Rottweilers and English Mastiffs. This is not a “set it and forget it” dog–this is a dog that will require constant attention whenever it’s around other dogs or people. This is a dog that could easily kill someone if the dog got out and felt threatened. This is a dog that could kill a child due to a playground misunderstanding with a child that “belongs” to the dog. This is a dog that has to be handled and trained every day of its life, and Og help anyone who gets a male and doesn’t neuter it–older protection dogs with their balls still on are a nightmare!