My turn to vent!!

Subject: My turn to vent!! Sun Jul 20, 2008 1:39 am

Ok what am I supposed to do with this troublesome dog of mine? The other night he got skunked for the 4th time. After dousing him with skunk odor remover, I bathed him nice and clean the next day. Thursday night I let him out into the backyard for potty time and he picks a fight with God knows what kind of animal it was...I feared it was a skunk but must've been a racoon...Heard it growling fiercely! Then feared that my dog would contract rabies....Decided to take him out on a leash in the front of the house next night to be safe. This afternoon, I figured it would be safe to let him out in the day. He runs back in the house after rolling in his own poo. I've about had it with this dog of mine. He's smarter than a whip and is as troublesome as one can get. When he's got that naughty twinkle in his eye, watch out! Last time he had that twinkle, he ran in the house after being taken out for the night before I could catch him and the next thing I see is him looking straight at me in my son's room and drags a 2 foot long poo skidmark across the carpet! ARRRRRRGH!!!! He's my first dog and unfortunately I think, my last....

Subject: Re: My turn to vent!! Sun Jul 20, 2008 2:22 am

C-R-A-T-E could be a word in your vocabulary and cemet..not for negative purposes just lack of poo....Is he still a "puppy"?
I have a first dog and she's a good dog, but she has rolled in the odor of something when I had a back yard for her to run in, she has chased something in the back yard late at night and the worse part was I couldn't call her to come to me...she's deaf....all I could do was flash the light...so annoying... good luck with your dog...he actually sounds normal to me......

Subject: Re: My turn to vent!! Sun Jul 20, 2008 3:27 am

He's over 10 years old but still acts like a puppy! I got him from the Humane Society when he was 3 months old. I started off crating him through puppyhood---and boy oh boy had several occasions where he had diarrea and explosion blasts from his crate---NOT fun to clean up lol!

He's been trained to sit, heel, down, speak, rollover and down stay---his staying never stuck since he likes to creep slowly away when you look away. He's just too smart for his own good. Kinda wish he was a little dumber lol.

Subject: Re: My turn to vent!! Sun Jul 20, 2008 9:14 am

We have 2 dogs (staffies), and they can be naughty little things. One is 6 yrs and the other is almost a year (we have a cat aswell and he can be a naughty little thing). Our youngest dog was chewing everything, not doing as he was told, but now he is settling down, and the only real problem we have with our dogs is when we are walking them on the lead and they pull like crazy. Cant say they have ever been sprayed off a skunk or got in a fight with a raccoon (sorry, when I read that I had to show my husband and we both laughed because we thought it was so bizarre, it sounded like that is completely normal, having skunks and raccoons in your back yard), so I dont know what advice to give, sorry.

My husband suggested fencing part of your back yard off for your dog to play in, could this help?

Subject: Re: My turn to vent!! Sun Jul 20, 2008 6:34 pm

I guess he is being a normal dog after thinking about it. He likes to run after anything--squirrels, birds, skunks lol etc....I guess I just freaked out because rabies can be a problem here and I was afraid he could be injured bady especially by a racoon--they can be pretty fierce little things lol.

Melanie do you walk your dogs with choke chains? To keep my dog from pulling, keep the choke chain far up high upon the neck. It's a tad more sensitive there and when the dogs decides to pull, he 'll back off. My dog heels ok, but like in a downstay, he'll slowly creep until he's out in front again.

Subject: Re: My turn to vent!! Mon Jul 21, 2008 9:07 am

No, we have harness's on them, but we are thinking about getting a choke chain for Scrappy as he is terrible on the lead. We did try the choke chain on Foxy years ago, but she still pulled and had bruises all over her neck from where the chain was nipping her skin, so we took it off her and just put up with the pulling.

Joined : 21 Jul 2008 Posts : 4 Name : Kitten

I've been around dogs and raised them my whole life and I can tell you from experience that your dog is bored. Intelligent dogs are more likely to become bored and they really don't know how to entertain themselves. We have a princess of a girl who's as lazy as can be and then we have the terror or terrors, our teeny terrier who, left to his own devices, can destroy the house in no time flat if he's bored. I take both of them on a 30 minute to 45 minute walk in the morning and at night and on days when he walks, my little demon is an ANGEL.. on the days when he doesn't get his long walks he's really hard to take.

Your dog is bored.