I’ve just hit the 2 week anniversary of my getting Dolly, the dog I talked about in this thread.
She is absolutely awesome, without compare, at home with me or pretty much anyone else. She loves attention, pretty much never barks, and has no separation anxiety aside from waiting at the door for a few minutes every time I leave the room, even if my roommate is in the room and she’s not alone (which is crazy, because it means she’s already so bonded with me and its only been 2 weeks!). She’s great with everyone she meets, which is huge in the fraternity house. She loves everyone and knows they all give her lots of petting and love.
Unfortunately that’s only in the house, and even then, only with people. Outside she’s getting better, but still learning to loose leash. Once she gets to that I’ll work with her on getting her to walk behind me or next to me instead of in front. She still likes to pull a good bit, but nowhere near as much as she did when I first got her. She’s intensely curious about everything. Around other dogs, forget it. It’ll start with sniffing and sniffing and sniffing, and sometimes end in her growling, me pulling her back and her trying to get to the other dog. Damn dog aggression. She’s completely not like that around people. She only seems to do it with some dogs, generally ones that don’t think she’s the dominant one. she’s definitely always okay at first. I want to keep introducing her to other dogs to get her better at it but its gonna be difficult. I’m doing the research first to figure out the best way to handle it.
Luckily most of the time she’s not around other dogs, and then she’s probably one of the best dogs I’ve ever seen, and she’s perfect around everyone and loves people.
Some things I’ve noticed over 2 weeks
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She loves rope toys with knots. And I mean goes crazy with em. She’ll just grab it and swing it around super hard like crazy. She pretty much tries to destroy them as much as possibly by gnawing on them too. And she seems to really like tug of war. She takes the toy and puts it in your lap urging you to do it.
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She can hold her pee/poop for forever. Like 14 hours. And its not like she isn’t being let out, she’s just not going. I take her out and she looks around for a bit and gets out of the grassy patch and tries to just go a different direction or just stares at me.
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She doesn’t seem to like her food. She eats it when she eventually gets REALLY hungry, but she’s not at all excited about it. Sometimes shell be happy to see me pour it, put it down, but then shell sniff it and just go sit on the couch. She comes up to us for human food, but knows she wont get it and doesn’t persist.
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It is hard as hell to get her to loose leash, and I look funny just walking back and forth outside on campus. It’s worth the price though, she is a strong doggy!
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Trying to figure out her breed, she’s definitely not pure pit, and shepherd seems good, her coat is definitely closer to a shepherds and she is bigger than many female pits. She also points (like with the front paw raised and everything) every once in a while outside. Crazy.
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I’m trying to take the dominance thing seriously and not let her through doors before I do, but she tries her damnedest to run through those doors as soon as they open. First I trained her to sit at the doors before I opened them. Now I’m trying to train her to sit and stay until I walk in to walk in after me. She’s learning stay really good, but she’s stubborn and when she doesn’t want to do something, she won’t. But it’s only been 2 weeks. She’s already a great dog, this will only make her better.
There’s tons more I can’t remember right now but I’m sure I’ll add to this list later.