Gulo gulo What list is he on? I have really missed reading his posts, but I lost track of him after acmepet (another bb) closed. JD is hilarious (and a really nice guy, I remember once when I was really low on cash, and I was complaining about having to go to work at the shelter and having holes in my shoes, and he offered to send me a new pair. All the way from Texas! I never forgot that, and that was about 4 years ago.)
Um, sorry for the hijack by the way.
Neutering might calm him down a bit and make him a bit more focused. When I got my boy neutered at 8 months, he became a bit less bratty. How does he respond now to basic commands? How long can he hold a sit-stay or down-stay without getting really antsy?
Admittedly, he’s not the best trained dog in the world, but he responds to “Kitchen” (where we keep him at night), “Sit”, “Here” and “Shut Up” pretty well. He just jumps all over you when he’s excited or if company comes over. He’s just a spaz. Kind of funny sometimes. He’ll sit/stay on command for a minute or so, and if he comes into a room where we’re all just sitting, he will get into everything before finally sitting still.
He’s a good dog, though
I’m a little embarassed, here. This thread is about what I thought the thread on Hermeneutics was about.
We’re working with our lab about the jumping issue. Whatever you do, don’t let people tell you it’s all right if he jumps on them if YOU don’t want him jumping on them.
Neutering him will presumably calm him down a bit, but the rest is training. Positive reinforcement! Isaac desperately wants three things: a) food, b) to fetch his Kong and c) to make us happy. He’s getting better about the door jumping thing, and he tries SO HARD that I’m convinced he’ll get it eventually.
Labs are a blast. I still can’t figure out why this one took one glance at me and fell totally head over heels in love, but since I’ve moved in, he’s calmed down noticeably and gotten better about some stuff. It’s hard to resist that unconditional adoration!
Casey1505, sound like he probably needs a brush up on the training. Neutering definitely isn’t going to stop him from spazzing out around company. You also might want to pick up a copy of the book “How to Survive Your Dog’s Adolescence” by Carol Lea Benjamin. I found it had of good tips on how to deal with a goofy “teenage” dog.
When I took my kitty into the vet to ‘have it done’ the vet and her assistants were all reassuring, telling me all the benefits … and then added that they noticed it was often difficult for their male clients to come in and have their male pets … “done” …
so I didn’t tell them about the long conversations I’d had with the cat about getting him ‘customized for speed’ … less wind drag and such.
Weird part, though, the other deal I’d made with him was that we were gonna get him ‘done’ before he started peeing in corners or getting into fights … and that if I ever started either, we’d get me done …
I SWEAR that cat Followed my every move during the next couple parties we had at the house, and you Better Believe I made sure I stayed sober enough to know where I was peeing!
Ha! a place for this… we recently sold one of my friends a silky terrier, and he went in to get groomed, and they did that, but neutered him on the side. His dad was really pissed off… ended up being a 800 dollar out of court settlement.
When these things were first introduced, I interivewed the inventer and wrote a column about them.
In gratitude for the publicity (I guess he didn’t read my column), he sent me a Neuticle pencil and-- I shit you not-- a Neuticle.
Happy
can hear the interesting comments…
Look Martha! That writer’s got 3 nuts!!!
Without permission? Then the vet deserved to lose the $800! Don’t use this incident to think that vets go around indiscriminately snipping people’s animals, but every one I’ve dealt with highly recommends it (unless, of course, you are a breeder. A real breeder!)
What really gets me about this link is that they have prices for ‘each’ or ‘by the pair.’ Is there someone out there who just wants one? Or is this in case someone wants to buy a three-pack, make their dog think they did him a favor.
In our case, this would offset one of the big side benefits of fixing a dog. Our last dog was a stray Beagle, a mature male who had kept his original equipment for about ten years. He was a small dog, and the bits in question were huge. They looked like a set of castors. Removing the ground effects considerably improved his appearance.
I think it’s strange that people would look down on somebody with an un-cut dog.
Yes, I know all about the proliferation of unwanted dogs at dog pounds. Yes, I know that un-cut dogs were responsible, as were the owners of the dogs that weren’t strays.
I’m a responsible dog owner. There is absolutely zero chance that my dog will impregnate another dog without my knowledge.
I’m not a breeder, but I would like to reserve the right to breed my dog at some point in the future without having people who know absolutely nothing about me pass judgement on me and my dog simply because he still has his nuts.
As for the OP…Man look at what set of those bull nuts will set you back!!
Most people who do not get their pets fixed are simply not responsible pet owners. I might sound judgemental, but in my little world, part of responsible involves getting 'em fixed. It’s not a big deal and it’s not all that expensive.
I’m sure you have a great dog. I just hope he doesn’t get out of your yard one day and start siring pups. There is always a non-zero chance that that could happen.
Getting him those would certainly curb the jumping problem, wouldn’t it?
Well, if he were to tunnel through the walls of the house, then thru the fence surrounding the yard, yes I suppose it would be possible for him to run amok. So I’ll take my non-zero chances.
The way I see it, if I cut his nuts off, I have a zero chance of breeding him.
But enough of hijacking the OP…you have about a 99.99999999% chance of never running into an unintended offspring of my dog, and that’s as good as you will get from me.
If you want to breed him that bad, store some of his sperm before chopping the balls off. There’s a huge market for frozen animal jizz, ya know. You get the best of both worlds.
When I was growing up we kept one of our female Manchester Terriers un-spayed for a while. Mom thought she was a beautiful bitch (I’ve always wanted to type that) and would produce a nice litter. However, when she started shopping around for stud dogs, she found that very few breeders would offer up their studs for a bitch with no show records. It seems the responsible breeders were very selective about who they let reproduce. There are enough “nice” dogs out there–the breeders seemed to want to produce only “great” dogs.
My male dog didn’t change in personality at all once he was neutered. And I don’t think he misses his balls! Lord knows, he’s certainly no shy about letting other dogs sniff around down there. And he still licks himself with great joy whenever he can. Plus, he loves to stretch out on his back exposing what’s there and what isn’t. He has no shame.
Generally speaking, unless you have a papered show dog, you’re going to end up with a litter of puppies that get sold to anybody with the money to plunk down, that will often end up with irresponsible owners who ignore them, running wild and breeding yet more ignored dogs. The backyard breeders around here keep the pounds full, since they don’t screen potential owners for anything but $$ and the dogs – young males especially – by age 18 months get urge for love and take off to find a willing female.
Even champion show dogs may not be breedable – my SIL has a Clumber spaniel who was well on her way to her show championship when she was diagnosed with mild hip dysplasia, so mild it’s only noticed by show judges because she points it out to them, and who is consequently not going to be able to be bred. At all. Even with her pedigree. So she’ll probably end up fixed in the not too distant future.
Now, I’m not saying every owner of an unfixed dog is guilty of irresponsible breeding. But I work with a golden retriever rescue, and probably 90% of the dogs we see are under-two-year-old males. Or females who’ve been kept in kennels in a back yard, sometimes not even knowing their own name, and bred far too often for their own health. More than 60% of which are heartworm positive, requiring expensive treatment to prevent a painful and nasty death. And often giving birth to dogs with all kinds of problems. Our own golden retriever, Rusty, is the sweetest dog in the world, but he should NEVER have been bred; he’s got neuroses out the wazoo, as well as near-lethal storm anxiety, and requires medication as well as a huge amount of special attention just to keep him from losing it entirely. I don’t regret it because I love him to death, but he should NEVER have been bred. (He was found as one of those under-two-year-old strays, I hasten to add.)
So most people who are responsible pet owners WILL look down their noses at people who want to breed puppies because they’re “cute” or some equally stupid reason. People think they can make a bunch of money raising puppies – not so, unless they’re from proven show dogs – or want to show their children the “miracle of birth,” or equally stupid idea. Take 'em down to the Plaquemines Parish animal shelter, a 100% kill shelter in the next parish over, and show 'em the miracle of death that awaits most of the dogs from this type of breeder, is my answer to that.
And yes, that IS my nose I’m looking down.