Adopting a Beagle?

[EmilyB]

There are so many wonderful dogs in rescues all over, it is unfortunate you feel that way.

But at least going to a reputable breeder will eliminate encouragement of backyard breeders that simply add to the number of dogs that end up in rescue.

Unfortunately, not all rescues or shelters are "reputable" either, and do not put forth the effort to carefully match the animal with its new family.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by EmilyB

There are so many wonderful dogs in rescues all over, it is unfortunate you feel that way.

But at least going to a reputable breeder will eliminate encouragement of backyard breeders that simply add to the number of dogs that end up in rescue.

Unfortunately, not all rescues or shelters are "reputable" either, and do not put forth the effort to carefully match the animal with its new family.

we went to about 6 different rescues to look at dogs, about 4 of them said one thing and after we drove for anywhere from 1 to 3 hours the dog ended up being totaly unsuitable and the foster people couldn't believe what the rescue people told us about the dog, so I was a little jaded there.

we figured with all the formes and info the SPCA made us fill out, if they looked at them they would have knowen I was looking for a dog that I could take hiking, camping, to the dogpark, but all they cared about is the photo of my yard and let us have a dog that I can only walk at 6am, or at supper time, when there are no other dogs around as to many damn people let there dogs run off leash here, and I am worried about the ones that come running up as if she gets ahold of them I have no doubt at this point she will try kill them. soooooo........ not realy a match to all the questions they asked me at all.

They told us it was a golden retriever/lab cross, but I have discovered it is a Golden/Chow cross. the Chow is the dominant personality and it was never socilized as a pup, and to make it worse the girl who is trying to get rid of her agression has a feeling she was being groomed to be a fighting dog. so I have a highly inteligent, indemendant stubbren dog who wants to kill any other dog it sees

Even the trainer I have been working with cannot believe the SPCA would have given her to a family with young kids.

Steve

[mark]

So did the SPCA thing and got the son a 3year old Chocolate Lab.

Story with her was owners moved to a no pet apartment building. Very well behaved with about the only negative is she seems attached to me rather than the kid but we'll work on that.



I would like to thank all for the comments above.

[fishoholic]

Mark- congrats on the new dog, I hope everything works out for you

Steve- I'm sorry to hear that, I know how you feel though. My dog Bailey was (and still could be if I'm not tuned into her behaviour) very aggressive with other dogs. She's good with my other two dogs but walks were a nightmare. I'll be honest in the fact that I will never feel comfortable taking her to off leash parks due to her aggressive tendencies, she did attack another dog at an off leash park 3 years ago luckily we were able to pull her off of the other dog before she did any damage. However for a moment when it was happening I thought Bailey was going to kill the other dog and thought OMG what have I gotten myself into.

After that I stopped going to off leash parks. I would however take Bailey and my other dog Oreo for walks together. Unfortunately Bailey's aggressiveness towards other dogs started to rub off on Oreo, so I learned to do my best to avoid other dogs while on a walk. Which in a neighborhood like mine were every other house has dogs is near impossible. I got a wake up call when I was walking them and I turned the corner and suddenly there was a husky dog right in front of us, well both of my dogs went crazy and started attacking the other dog, my dogs actually knocked me over and dragged me in order to get to the other dog I was pretty horrified (and a bit banged up) but really lucky that they didn't hurt the husky and that the husky's owner was able to get her dog away from mine and that she was more worried about me being ok (since my dogs had dragged me a fair way before I regained control) then upset by what happened.

I made a promise to myself that day that I would get control of Bailey and she would not control me. I read a lot of books and watched a lot of Cesar Millan and I started taking Bailey on separate walks. I learned how to get her to heal (walk beside me), I learned to control my fear of her attacking again and I learned to watch for all her signs so I could correct her before any aggression started. It took me a whole year to do all this, but it was worth all the hard work and in the past year I have not had any problems walking her.

Bailey literally went from going completely psycho when ever another dog was within sight to ignoring any other dog we run into on our walks. Yes it was a lot of hard work and yes it was worth it and if Bailey could change I'm sure your dog could to, so don't give up hope yet. The key for me with Bailey was for me to stay clam (not an easy task, but with time I was able to) whenever another dog came into view and to correct her immediately at the first sign of her showing any interest in another dog, to the point were now she pretty much ignores other dogs on our walk. I always keep a close eye on her and there are times when I still need to correct her but in the past year she hasn't even barked at any other dogs we walk by, even if they are barking at her.

[Leah]

Mark the dog looks like a sweetie, I hope for your son's sake it works out great. She just looks like a boy's dog.
Laurie that is great that you have put the time and effort in, it usually pays off. The not panicking part is so hard to do.
All dogs have the potential to become aggressive at any age. Regardless of if you have had it since a puppy. So no Guarantee's.

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by Leah

Mark the dog looks like a sweetie, I hope for your son's sake it works out great. She just looks like a boy's dog.
Laurie that is great that you have put the time and effort in, it usually pays off. The not panicking part is so hard to do.
All dogs have the potential to become aggressive at any age. Regardless of if you have had it since a puppy. So no Guarantee's.

It took me about 3 months of walks before I managed to get my heart to stop racing every time I saw another dog on our walks. It was totally worth the effort though. I used to turn around and walk the other way whenever I saw another dog, now I move over to one side of the path tell Bailey to ignore (and she pretty much does) we let the other dog pass by then we continue with our walk.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by fishoholic

It took me about 3 months of walks before I managed to get my heart to stop racing every time I saw another dog on our walks. It was totally worth the effort though. I used to turn around and walk the other way whenever I saw another dog, now I move over to one side of the path tell Bailey to ignore (and she pretty much does) we let the other dog pass by then we continue with our walk.

Mark, she looks nice, and what a fancy adoption center.

Laurie, I am actualy realy hoping that the new trainer works out, as I realy do like the dog, and like the other trainer said all dogs are good 95% of the time, it is just the other 5% that you have to decide weather you can deal with. I have been doing about 2 hours of training a day for over 2 months now and she is not getting any better towards other dogs, and only slightly improved on walks as if she sees another dog its all bets off.

from everything I have read the biggest problem is she is a chow chow mix and the chow is the dominant attitude, so she is not driven to please her owner only herself, she is highly protective of her owners and I feel she wasnt socalized at all when she was young which for a chow is absolutly nessisary or they get very agressive.

I am also working on a bit of a time like as after christmas my retirment is done and I have to start looking for a job so I won't have all the time in the world to work with her like I do now, and because there will be no one here all day when I start working I was planning on putting a doggy door in the garage (which is heated and insulated) with a little area for her so she could go inside if it is cold but still be able to get outside to play or go to the washroom. right now with her agression there is no way to do this as there are dogs on both sides of us and they are out all day.

I could realy care less if she ever played with other dogs, all I need is for her to ignore them.

I have been reading alot of stuff, from everything I have read from Ceaser and saw on his show, she is way worse than what he normaly calls his red zone cases, and his touch method and foot distraction doesn't work on her as she just ignores them.

everything else I have read is consistant with, forget about halties, harneses ect.. if you have a chow or chow mix with agression problems get a prong colar or domanant dog colar and learn how to do sever corection. well I don't know if I am comfterable with that level of corection even though I know it doesn't realy hurt them when done right. we also have a guy that has a real submissive dog that is willing to come over and work with us also so we are going to look at that also.

anyways sorry for stewaling your thread Mark.

Steve