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Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Saturday, April 2, 2011
The Problem with many Bully Breed Owners
So last weekend, one of Val's uncles came to town to visit and spend some time with us. We urged him to bring one of his dogs because Baby has had 0 experiences with other dogs that we've seen or heard before we got her. We heard a couple things about her being fine with some smaller dogs like yorkies or chihuahuas, and was even fine with my sisters toy poodle, but never heard anything about her and other dogs her size. Well he brought Duddy who is a 7ish old NM brown pitbull, with an extremely easy going temperament. Since it is in our best interest and Babys best interest to get along with other dogs we had a short meeting between Baby and Duddy.
It all started fine even though Baby was extremely anxious to get to Duddy, a lot of whining, whimpering, and other tense energy filled the room. At first Baby sniffed Duddy from head to toe with him just sitting by Vals uncle with an anxious look on his face. It was all fine until Baby decided to sniff under him, his stomach, when that happened he moved quickly and Baby quickly responded with some tense energy that was aggressive. We then separated them because the line has been crossed and we had to think about what exactly went wrong and why it didnt work out.
I've probably mentioned it before but when we got Baby we know that her owners got foreclosed on and she lived under a house for at least a month, as well as went from house to house(or apt) and never really had a single home, not only that but with other pets as well. On top of that we know that she had at least one litter if not two or more of puppies so her maternal protective instinct was a bit more honed than a dog whose never been a mother. Adding all of these things together plus the fact that this has been her home for 5 months as the queen of the household led us to believe that she was exhibiting signs of over protectiveness, as in (this is my house and I have no idea what you're doing here).
This all leads me back to my Title of this blog. Above all else you need patience with pitbulls and bully breeds. You can't expect any breed of dog to be stable, obedient, calm, without the training, patience, and calm assertive energy. Obedience is a must for all dogs, they must receive the love like a son or daughter, but you need to know when to give it. You can't expect dogs to be perfect, especially when you don't know their past. Because Val and I will be starting a pitbull rescue in the future it is imperative for Baby to get along with other dogs and as the owner of a protective dog to work with her, to train her, to understand that we are the alpha leaders of the pack, she needs to develop her trust in us but the only way she can do it is if we show her how. Our biggest mistake of this introduction of Duddy was that it was inside her home, a place where she feels loved and secure. In order to properly introduce a new dog into the pack it is optimal if it is done outside of the home and I would say not even just outside, but at a park or some middle ground where neither dog would feel that they need to be protective over it.
This introduction was just the beginning to Babys socialization and obedience and we will keep you updated all along the way with things we've learned as well as adorable pictures of our little miss Baby.
It all started fine even though Baby was extremely anxious to get to Duddy, a lot of whining, whimpering, and other tense energy filled the room. At first Baby sniffed Duddy from head to toe with him just sitting by Vals uncle with an anxious look on his face. It was all fine until Baby decided to sniff under him, his stomach, when that happened he moved quickly and Baby quickly responded with some tense energy that was aggressive. We then separated them because the line has been crossed and we had to think about what exactly went wrong and why it didnt work out.
I've probably mentioned it before but when we got Baby we know that her owners got foreclosed on and she lived under a house for at least a month, as well as went from house to house(or apt) and never really had a single home, not only that but with other pets as well. On top of that we know that she had at least one litter if not two or more of puppies so her maternal protective instinct was a bit more honed than a dog whose never been a mother. Adding all of these things together plus the fact that this has been her home for 5 months as the queen of the household led us to believe that she was exhibiting signs of over protectiveness, as in (this is my house and I have no idea what you're doing here).
This all leads me back to my Title of this blog. Above all else you need patience with pitbulls and bully breeds. You can't expect any breed of dog to be stable, obedient, calm, without the training, patience, and calm assertive energy. Obedience is a must for all dogs, they must receive the love like a son or daughter, but you need to know when to give it. You can't expect dogs to be perfect, especially when you don't know their past. Because Val and I will be starting a pitbull rescue in the future it is imperative for Baby to get along with other dogs and as the owner of a protective dog to work with her, to train her, to understand that we are the alpha leaders of the pack, she needs to develop her trust in us but the only way she can do it is if we show her how. Our biggest mistake of this introduction of Duddy was that it was inside her home, a place where she feels loved and secure. In order to properly introduce a new dog into the pack it is optimal if it is done outside of the home and I would say not even just outside, but at a park or some middle ground where neither dog would feel that they need to be protective over it.
This introduction was just the beginning to Babys socialization and obedience and we will keep you updated all along the way with things we've learned as well as adorable pictures of our little miss Baby.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Baby got Spayed!
Well sometimes there are perks to working in a Vet hospital. So after a couple of months of waiting for my SNAP voucher we finally got it and on Friday March 18th I dropped Baby off at my clinic at 7:15 on the way to school to get spayed. We did a PreAn panel on her and her blood-work came back quite good. While she was under I made sure she got micro-chipped because soo many pets could be reunited with them soo much easier than without. At my clinic, We use Sevo, one of the safest anesthesia gases on the market and nothing but the best for my little pitty.
Anyways, So I went to work on Friday then took her home that night. As is expected she was quite out of it, and thats even when using less than her recommended dose of bag solution. Since our Baby girl had at least one litter before we got her so she does have some saggy teets, for lack of a better term. This cxed the large blood vessels that run through the mammary tissue to bleed a bit more than usual, so we had to wrap her up, and by the next day she was fine. She hasn't once attempted to lick, scratch, or otherwise mess with the incision site which is a big plus. We do have some pictures of our little girl the night after her surgery and will post them up shortly.
It has been awhile since the last blog post, but we will make the effort to make them more frequent. Thanks for reading! and Spay and Neuter your Pets!
John
Anyways, So I went to work on Friday then took her home that night. As is expected she was quite out of it, and thats even when using less than her recommended dose of bag solution. Since our Baby girl had at least one litter before we got her so she does have some saggy teets, for lack of a better term. This cxed the large blood vessels that run through the mammary tissue to bleed a bit more than usual, so we had to wrap her up, and by the next day she was fine. She hasn't once attempted to lick, scratch, or otherwise mess with the incision site which is a big plus. We do have some pictures of our little girl the night after her surgery and will post them up shortly.
It has been awhile since the last blog post, but we will make the effort to make them more frequent. Thanks for reading! and Spay and Neuter your Pets!
John
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Without Patience there is No Training.
Val and I took Baby for a walk at Steele Park today on Indian School, which was something we've always wanted to do since we got her. Knowing that we would encounter more dogs and more people skateboarding, bicycling, running etc... we were excited if still a little nervous. When we got Baby we both knew that she hasnt been "trained" or socialized with other dogs, cats, or people. We weren't nervous though because she has done wonderful in our hands and is getting better every day. As far as dogs go she seemed very trainable, and we heard stories of little yorkies or chihuahuas getting into the front yard where she was previously to our house and doing fine, as in no aggressive behavior towards those animals. Not like it really mattered to us because we believed it is best to treat the situation as if there has been no interaction between her and any other animal or person. Im kinda getting off tangent here...
Anyways... So we took her to Steele Park and instantly she was fascinated by the ducks and their quacking. Shes never seen a duck before, only pigeons and doesn't give a damn about them even if their eating all her food in the backyard. So we encountered a couple of people walking dogs and Baby was less than perfect. Whenever she sees a dog she still gets very attentive and anxious to get to that dog, Now we have no idea what would happen, but by her body posture and the signals she's putting out a lot of work needs to be done. She does seem better with smaller dogs as when we first got her and had her about a week she met Oliver and after a couple minutes seemed fine with him. We are in desperate need of Stable dogs to socialize her with, because her entire dog to dog experience is with dogs behind fences who are barking and growling at her and generally extremely unstable.... we do live in Phoenix..... With any bully breed, you will be sure to see Stubbornness... We have the Gentle leader for Baby which does do wonders but when she doesn't want to sit or lay down she just won't do it.. She knows those commands for sure but is stubborn as all hell. Repetition is the key . Take your dog for a walk every single day, tire her out, use positive reinforcement, Make sure she knows you are the pack leader. Do not let her lead you, lead her. Most importantly do not give up. Bully breeds are extremely stubborn do not give up, things will improve.
Heres Baby after her bath today...
Anyways... So we took her to Steele Park and instantly she was fascinated by the ducks and their quacking. Shes never seen a duck before, only pigeons and doesn't give a damn about them even if their eating all her food in the backyard. So we encountered a couple of people walking dogs and Baby was less than perfect. Whenever she sees a dog she still gets very attentive and anxious to get to that dog, Now we have no idea what would happen, but by her body posture and the signals she's putting out a lot of work needs to be done. She does seem better with smaller dogs as when we first got her and had her about a week she met Oliver and after a couple minutes seemed fine with him. We are in desperate need of Stable dogs to socialize her with, because her entire dog to dog experience is with dogs behind fences who are barking and growling at her and generally extremely unstable.... we do live in Phoenix..... With any bully breed, you will be sure to see Stubbornness... We have the Gentle leader for Baby which does do wonders but when she doesn't want to sit or lay down she just won't do it.. She knows those commands for sure but is stubborn as all hell. Repetition is the key . Take your dog for a walk every single day, tire her out, use positive reinforcement, Make sure she knows you are the pack leader. Do not let her lead you, lead her. Most importantly do not give up. Bully breeds are extremely stubborn do not give up, things will improve.
Monday, March 7, 2011
A Fresh Start
Hey Hey, Val here.. welcome to our blog. We decided to start this because Bully breeds such as Pit Bulls, Bulldogs, Etc.. are extremely misrepresented and also very close to our hearts. In this blog we will document our life with the Bully Breeds. We will share our adventures, training techniques and experiences with stories and pictures. Currently we have only one dog. The lovely miss Baby. (pictured below). However, we will have many more dogs to share on our journey, we plan on adopting more as well as fostering in the coming months. We hope you enjoy! Stay tuned... :)
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