I haven’t had a pet since I was in high school and I’m strongly considering getting a dog. I’m really on the fence though because I strongly despise fleas. I’m very sensitive to flea bites. They cause a big red mark on my legs that don’t go away very quickly and itch like a mother. I think that if I had a dog, I’d be so worried about it getting fleas that I bath it more frequently than it really needed. What is the state of the art in doggy flea prevention these days?
Also, I don’t know if I could get away during lunch to walk the dog. This means that it would be alone for 8 hrs a day in the apartment.
All you dog owning dopers, how do you get around this dilemma?
Another question: While you are away, do you gate the dog in it’s own section of the house/apartment, or does the dog have free access to anywhere in the house?
question: Why are there so many Pit Bulls in the shelters?
question: Buy a shelter dog or an expensive breeder dog. I’m leaning toward rescuing a dog from the shelter. I’m going to avoid getting a puppy and try to get a still young dog that’s been socialized/trained and already has a proven calm personality. Females are in general calmer than males right?
Well flea prevention is easy-peasy with frontline or andvantage. You place the drops along the dog’s back once every three months and no fleas. Not a single one.
An older, housetrained dog will not have an issue with being alone for the day.
Our dog has access to the entire house, and spends most of her time napping on the couch or the bed; when she is up she plays wit her toys, watches out the window, and nibbles her bones.
There are a lot of pits and pit mixes because they are dog of choice of irresponsible trashy people who do not bother to spay or neuter their animals. Couple that with the propensity for many landlords, and even cities banning the breed and you have a lot of shelter dogs on your hands. A well bred, well socialized pit can be an intelligent loving companion, it isn’t their fault that they are often terribly ill treated as a breed.
Get a shelter dog. Preferably from a rescue group who fosters out. You will be doing a good deed, and your new companion will be more socialized. If you go to the pound, remember to get a dog with a sweet, calm temperament, who is rated as being good with other dogs, cats and children. Be a responsible owner and do your part to ensure the retention of this temperament by taking your pet to dog parks and walks around the neighborhood during times when lots of neighbors are out and about.
Females are generally calmer than males, though neutering often splits the difference between the genders. Males are often more aesthetically pleasing in terms of length and color of coat though. Either sex will make an excellent companion.
Obligatory reminder (not necessarily aimed at the OP): A dog is not a toy, or a passing fancy. They are a commitment of time and money lasting usually 8-15 years. (depending on breed)
Prevention is the best medicine, regular bathing and grooming is essential, though frequency depends on the breed. This site has a nice overview of flea control and prevention.
I’ve always used flea collars, they work great.
Dogwalker, if it’s within you means.
Even better is doggie day care. Yes, it sounds ridiculous, but a good one is invaluble. Heres what a good one should look like
My new pup has her own kennel out back for when we cannot supervise her, nicknamed the “pup palace”.
Old dog hung out in the garage or downstairs, but was REALLY well trained and trusted.
I’m not touching the pit bull querie, not my breed.
Shelters are good, see if you can find a breed rescue society if you want the purebred without the price.
Do be cautious of the “shelter dog = well trained” mentality. Every shelter dog I have had has been a nutball, to some degree, purebred or otherwise. They are in a shelter for a reason – If YOUR owner gave you up, you’d have some baggage, right?
On the other hand, I have known people who have adopted lovely, sane animals.
I just get the nutty ones, I guess. There no less lovable, just a lot of work and a lot of emotional investmant.
As to the male vs. female thing…
I know people who swear by gals.
I know people who swear by guys.
I personally think it doesn’t matter, as long as the pooch in question is spayed/neutered.
I’m enamored by Rhodesian Ridgebacks, but having second thoughts as they may be too big and too “energetic” for my small apartment. I’m also interested in Siberian Huskies.
Realistically though, I’d be happy with a nice dog that didn’t make much of a mess (shedding, chewing, pooing, etc), and is calm, and well behaved.
Yeah, you absolutely do not want a Siberian Husky. In fact…I’d say pretty much avoid all Northern breeds (Siberians, Malamutes, American Eskimo, Samoyed). May I suggest a Retired Racing Greyhound? They’re lovely dogs, they’ve been described as 45-mph Couch Potatoes, they’re (usually) already crate-trained so they don’t “go” in the house, they’re used to sleeping off most of the day. They don’t shed much, if any, and your Grey will love you forever.
Gnargh, forgot:
They also don’t need very much exercise. Mine would go outside, run around for about 10 minutes, then come back in and pass out again. A walk every day would do the same thing, really. They really are excellent dogs.
deanc2000 - It sounds like what you’re looking for is a stuffed animal. Honestly, dogs are often loud and messy. They have accidents. They need attention. You have to be willing to accept the fact that no dog is perfect before you bring one into your home. After all, a 15 year commitment is a big deal.
I have 5 dogs right now. They all have their strong points and their weak points. I love my dogs more than most people and wouldn’t give them up for the world. But my world is limited by them. It’s hard to go on vacation. I have to hurry home from work to let them out. They cost a good bit to maintain. You just have to be sure that this is something you want to do for the foreseeable future, because otherwise you become one of those people who lists their dog on Craigslist “She’s a great dog - we just don’t have enough time for her”. That’s so unfair to the animal. You’re all they know and trust.
I’ve never owned a dog (we have cats) but we’re exploring the idea of getting one. I found this site to be quite useful for determining which breeds might be best for you. Click the “Find the Perfect Dog” link to work through it.
We may end up with a labradoodle - although as they’re popular, the question of cost needs to be considered as well.
Word. If you’re not ready to handle anything that may happen with this hypothetical dog, you’re not ready to own one. Your flea phobia concerns me, if right off the bat you’re so worried about fleas that you would knowingly bathe the dog more often than it needs. Also, even socialized, trained, calm adult dogs can develop new issues. They can get sick or injured and need special care. Sometimes training slips and needs to be redone or reinforced.
Our Phyllis never reacted to thunderstorms until something set her off about a year ago. Now we have to check the weather report and crate her at night if storms are looming, or else wake up at 3 in the morning with a 50-pound dog sitting on our heads and quivering because there’s thunder 10 miles away.
She also has recently gotten very pokey about eating her food, which means that we have to either “dope” it with granola or some other tempting thing, and/or watch her eat it, sometimes hand-feeding her bits of kibble to get her started, so Dottie doesn’t come over and gobble Phyllis’s share. Feeding the two of them can sometimes take ten minutes; it’s not just a matter of dumping food in a dish. And Dottie tends to dribble water all over the place when she drinks.
Dottie has ongoing issues with spay incontinence – her hormones are out of whack, causing her to involuntarily leak urine when she’s resting/lying down/sleeping. Usually the meds take care of it, but occasionally, such as during hot weather, she slips and we have to both fiddle with her meds and keep her off the furniture until she’s back on track. And both of our springers are submissive urinators, which means (at least for these two) that when they meet strangers, they pee. Also somewhat unconscious and very hard to train them out of it. So when we have visitors, we must either introduce them outside, or kennel the dogs outside while the visitors are here.
Scout developed arthritis and required meds twice a day, to the tune of $55/month, in addition to Frontline (flea/tick preventative) and Heartgard (heartworm preventative), another $20 or so. She also got a sensitive tummy and did better on premium dog food at $35/bag at the pet store (40 miles away) instead of the $20 stuff from any grocery store. We also had to keep her from climbing stairs (risk of fall and injury) and separate her from the younger dogs (risk of injury from them knocking her around, possible fighting as she got cranky around young whippersnappers in her old age). And she shed like a motherfuck, no matter how much we brushed her. But we dealt with all of these things until the day this spring when she finally told us that she was ready to be put down, at age 14-1/2.
The late great Miss Emily Kimberly occasionally developed intestinal problems that meant we had to wipe her butt for her, because the poo was gooey enough that she couldn’t clean herself adequately on her own.
We know a couple that got a dog “for the kids” and because it would be neat to have a dog – unfortunately a common story, because then no one trains it or spends time with it, the dog predictably misbehaves, and then off it goes to the shelter because it’s “too much trouble.” Poor doggie.
If you’re not ready to commit to anything a dog might throw at you, for the duration of its lifetime, then please do the dog and the already overloaded shelters a favor and just don’t get one. (Mr S. and I have chosen not to have kids for much the same reason: we like kids, but we don’t want to commit to 18+ years, 24/7, of whatever craziness raising a child might entail.)
Realistically, this isn’t terribly realistic. Dogs are like kids – unpredictable and sometimes shit just happens, literally as well as figuratively.
Scarlett67 - What are you doing for your dog’s urinary incontinence? I have Miss Grace the Doberman on PPA (phenylpropanolamine) and it’s working pretty well. I remember the months of cooking chicken and rice and vegetables to keep my elderly Kate eating. Of course, the other dogs had to get a spoonful in their kibble, because you can’t just give a special treat to one dog. I can’t imagine my life without dogs.
I put a privacy fence around my back yard and installed 3 doggie doors. I also have a web cam I can look at any time I want from work. They get plenty of exercise playing with each other and only have accidents (if you can call them that) when it is really raining hard outside. I leave lots of stuff for them to chew on and cover my couch and bed every morning. I walk all 7 before going to work and as soon as I get home. So don’t just get 1 dog. Get 7 uh…I mean 2.
I am going to third that you should not get a husky. When my husky was younger, he tore my whole living room to shreds.
I actually worry more about ticks that I worry about fleas. They are so gross to remove. I have really bad problems with 2 of my cats getting ticks about 3 times a week.
On a side note, when I got my latest cat, she had about 30 fleas in an area the size of a quarter. She was covered in them. I nearly threw up. I bathed her with foaming flea bath and after that I put Hartz flea drops on her and used a flea comb. Then I put a flea collar on her and she is flea free now
Dottie was on Proin (PPA) chewables for a while, but during a particularly recalcitrant relapse, the vet switched her to 1 mg DES twice a week, and that’s been working. I think we may have had one or two short relapses on that, and the vet just has us up her to 3x a week or so for a while and then ease her back to the regular dose. She seems to be prone to relapse in hot weather, but thankfully she got through this summer leak-free. I hate it when we can’t have snuggle time on the bed/couch.
She gets her pill in a bit of bread with peanut butter. As you say, Phyllis gets bread & PB too, sans pill. We say she’s in the placebo group.
The last great Miss Emily Kimberly, also a springer, also had spay incontinence, and DES worked for her too.
Dottie is such a sensitive little girl. She’s my dog and I worried for her when I went to TX to visit the folks for a week. Mr. S reported that she seemed fine at home without me, but the day after I got back she had a quick vomit, and then when I put her down in the tiled kitchen while I cleaned up the carpet, she made a trail of bloody diarrhea. :eek: (Glad she was on the tile! I only needed a few paper towels for cleanup.) There was no apparent physical cause, and the vet said the stress of the change in situation was a likely culprit.
We’ve done plenty rounds of cooked ground beef mixed with rice for dogs with sick tummies. We had a good-sized batch left over after Scout died this spring . . . the vet said she would need coaxing to eat, and something tempting, but she would take none of what we prepared, despite my lying on the floor trying to hand-feed her meat and rice in the crate from which she was ultimately unable to rise. :sad:
I can’t imagine life without dogs either. I’m already dreading the night we return from a trip later this month, when we won’t be able to pick them up from the kennel until the next morning. A night without puppy snuggles, after 5 whole days without them? The horror!
Here are some scritchies for Miss Grace. ::scritchie:: ::scritchie:: ::scritchie::
I assume you’ve considered the fact that having pets limits your rental pool, significantly in my area. Most landlords won’t rent to pet owners, or charge a lot of money for pet deposits.
There no less lovable, just a lot of work and a lot of emotional investmant.