On Dogs

[Joseph_Pestell]

11 hours ago, Tony Davis said:

Never really understood that "lock jaws" thing. Does it mean that they can't open their jaws, or that they won't open their jaws? If it's the former they would be stuck forever, wouldn't they? I can imagine the latter, as they can be very stubborn, my Staffy loves playing with what is left of a football the local team left lying about on the village field. He brings it to me, shakes it about until I grab it, then pulls and pulls. I lift the ball up in the air and he hangs on to it. I swing him about in the air until he falls off, he grabs it again and the game goes on. One thing that I notice is that when he is in mid-air hanging onto the ball, he can shake his head, so his neck muscles must be very strong. If he doesn't want to let the ball go then it's staying in his mouth. I have seen him crunch through a chicken thigh bone with one bite, but he is the most gentle and loving of dogs.

 

I have heard of cases where the dog has had to be anaesthetised before its jaws could be opened. You are probably right that it is not a physical thing but psychological conditioning.

[kevinlms]

22 hours ago, Zero Gravitas said:

This is why I never get to sit on my own sofa...

Where's the remote?

[Reorte]

17 hours ago, Tony Davis said:

Never really understood that "lock jaws" thing. Does it mean that they can't open their jaws, or that they won't open their jaws? If it's the former they would be stuck forever, wouldn't they?

 

I might be barking up the wrong tree (sorry for that in this thread!) but I think it means the structure of muscles and bone means they can keep the jaws closed against quite a bit of force pushing them open with relatively little effort. Maybe it's a bit like if you arm's straight you can hold something in place with less effort because you're not having to use any muscles to stop your elbow from bending.

[MarkC]

We have 2 Cavalier King Charles spaniels. (Half) brother and sister - they have the same mum, 2 litters apart. (The older one, Smudge, is from litter 1; he is almost 4. The younger one, Star, is from litter 3, and is 17 months old). Typical Cavs - personal stalkers!

 

Edited May 6, 2020 by MarkC
Pic won't load properly :( - but now it has :)

[bike2steam]

My two, Willow on the right, a 3 year old BMD, and her 9 month old niece, Holly, the only time I can get a pic of them together, after they've had a good walk.

[iL Dottore]

4 hours ago, bike2steam said:

My two, Willow on the right, a 3 year old BMD, and her 9 month old niece, Holly, the only time I can get a pic of them together, after they've had a good walk.

Lovely beasts, the BMD (before we ended up with our mutts, we looked into getting one of the BMD’s cousins - the Entlebucher Sennenhund)

Willow looks completely knackered, but Holly looks like she’s eyeing you up in regards to the “treats” situation and would take off like a rocket should the “T-word” appear.

Edited May 7, 2020 by iL Dottore

[45156]

And here's my Sussex Spaniel Lily, who occasionally appears in Early RIsers.  She was 8 a few days ago, and still behaves as though she was 8 months - she has the usual spaniel problems with ears, and has seen a specialist for them.  Our last Sussex, Pawnee, was also referred to a different specialist, as she had almost totally uncontrollable Pseudomonas - there are only a handful of specialists can treat this effectively - cost to Pet Plan £4000. 

 

Sussex Spaniels are a very rare breed, and are actually getting quite near to extinction now.   They almost died out just after the second world war, and were only saved by some very hard work.  Last year, I think that there were only about 80 puppies registered with the KC

 

Lily's hobbies are

Hiding behind the fence, sitting very still and quiet, then barking her head off at passers by,

Digging up the newly planted vegetables,

Going out for a walk, then when she's had enough, lying down in the middle of the pavement until she is pointed towards home.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 7, 2020 by 45156
wrong image

[tomparryharry]

Staffies get a terrible press. I've had 5 down the years, and we will always get a rescue dog over a breeder. In fact, we've never bought a 'bred' dog. They keep me calm, and I will always look to the dog first; humans will come second.  If properly looked after, you can expect a long life for your little pal, 17 years being about right. We rescued Max from Dogs Trust when he was 10, and now he's coming to his twilight years. But! He still has his appetite, and he will run about like a lunatic if possible. I always try to keep them off the lead. It keeps them sociable, and because they run about on a ratio of (about) 3:1, they will get a good walk. 

 

Our little new friend is Heidi, a Staff/Rottweiler mix. Despite the fearsome reputation, she is a little wiggly pudding. 

 

I feel very sorry for those people who would have to surrender their dogs. "A dog is for life" means just that. As I'm typing this, she has come into the office to sit beside me.

[MichaelE]

Hi, I've been raising and training German Shepherd Dogs for about the last 30 some-odd years now. 

 

This is Lisl von Schlaf my latest companion and house mate. She is a wonderful dog, very smart and very intelligent. She'll be eight in October.

 

[Paul13]

This our 2 year old Cockapoo Poppy. She just loves attention from anyone and is super friendly. She loves to run around the local park terrorising squirrels. She does bark quite a lot though... 

Edited May 7, 2020 by Paul13
Spelling

[Colin]

1 hour ago, MichaelE said:

Hi, I've been raising and training German Shepherd Dogs for about the last 30 some-odd years now. 

 

This is Lisl von Schlaf my latest companion and house mate. She is a wonderful dog, very smart and very intelligent. She'll be eight in October.

 

That really is a quite beautiful dog!

[MichaelE]

Thank you Colin.

[Winter123]

Mines currently serving time...................

[eastglosmog]

My old Beagle, Skipper, a master of wangling food out of everybody, now sadly long gone:

[Guy Rixon]

Rosie the westie and Bertie the bichon frisé, our two highly-trained cheesehounds.

Edited May 8, 2020 by Guy Rixon

[DougN]

Well this is the boss of the house... no surprise when you look at my avatar!  Below is Indiana so named as he is always getting himself into scrapes and his nose gets him into trouble. He's 7 overly pampered but loved by the family. As with any beagle he is head strong... alright bloody minded is a better description! Extremely friendly and we have been so amazed at his gentle nature when friends are around. But once he gets to know someone... he goes back to his normal self which is insane. did some one say cheese? Something he will do pretty much anything for.  No off lead walks as the insane brain kicks in and your all off for a run, but no road sense so we are extremely careful not to let him loose! 

 

Now one thing no one has mentioned and that was Beagles can fly. We had miner birds decide to dive bomb him one day, And in the best dive bomb tradition the 2 birds flew down in formation.... to dive bomb the dog.... they did it once thinking it was a successful run... so they tried again.... coming in at about 6ft of the deck. But the cunning beagle was watching over his shoulder as the birds got closer he launched! Taking the second bird in his mouth! Yes that was a standing leap from the deck to about my shoulder height! (I am 6'3")  the first bird I saw sort of looking over its shoulder for his wing man only to find a beagle chewing on its remains!  Put it this way the miners never dive bombed him again and went back to the neighbours cats! 

 

 

I  don't think we will ever be with out a dog now. He seems to such a part of the household. Even though the 14 and 16 year old teenagers are growing and maturing. The dog seems to have made our home better since he has been with us. 

[Tony Davis]

18 hours ago, tomparryharry said:

Staffies get a terrible press. I've had 5 down the years, and we will always get a rescue dog over a breeder. In fact, we've never bought a 'bred' dog. They keep me calm, and I will always look to the dog first; humans will come second.  If properly looked after, you can expect a long life for your little pal, 17 years being about right. We rescued Max from Dogs Trust when he was 10, and now he's coming to his twilight years. But! He still has his appetite, and he will run about like a lunatic if possible. I always try to keep them off the lead. It keeps them sociable, and because they run about on a ratio of (about) 3:1, they will get a good walk. 

 

Our little new friend is Heidi, a Staff/Rottweiler mix. Despite the fearsome reputation, she is a little wiggly pudding. 

 

I feel very sorry for those people who would have to surrender their dogs. "A dog is for life" means just that. As I'm typing this, she has come into the office to sit beside me.

Our Staffy “Max”, lived for 16 years, he deteriorated quite quickly towards the end and we knew it was time., but it was still a difficult decision to make. I still miss him, even now, even though Jasper has wormed his way into our hearts (probably took about five seconds truth be told) but each dog is different. Max would think nothing of picking up a ten foot branch about two feet from one end and trotting happily along with it (usually smacking the pair of us in the back of the leg as he blithely strolled along between us) whereas Jasper wouldn’t touch a stick at all.

[bbishop]

On ‎04‎/‎05‎/‎2020 at 19:44, Tony Davis said:

Never really understood that "lock jaws" thing. Does it mean that they can't open their jaws, or that they won't open their jaws? If it's the former they would be stuck forever, wouldn't they? I can imagine the latter, as they can be very stubborn, my Staffy loves playing with what is left of a football the local team left lying about on the village field. He brings it to me, shakes it about until I grab it, then pulls and pulls. I lift the ball up in the air and he hangs on to it. I swing him about in the air until he falls off, he grabs it again and the game goes on. One thing that I notice is that when he is in mid-air hanging onto the ball, he can shake his head, so his neck muscles must be very strong. If he doesn't want to let the ball go then it's staying in his mouth. I have seen him crunch through a chicken thigh bone with one bite, but he is the most gentle and loving of dogs.

 

A few breeds can do this, Staffies and Jack Russells being two of them.  It was impossible to remove a tennis ball from Toddy's mouth.  Actually there was a way, you had to blow into his nostrils from close range, but then your nose was in range of a sharp nip.  Risky!

 

Bill

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, bbishop said:

 

A few breeds can do this, Staffies and Jack Russells being two of them.  It was impossible to remove a tennis ball from Toddy's mouth.  Actually there was a way, you had to blow into his nostrils from close range, but then your nose was in range of a sharp nip.  Risky!

 

Bill

If you run your index finger and thumb down the opposite sides of the lower jaw and press hard where the top and lower jaw meet, the Staffie will open it's mouth!  It is not something done by the faint hearted.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 9, 2020 by Happy Hippo

[Torper]

This is Indy.  A lurcher, she was rescued from a Dundee flat by the SSPCA while only days old and we collected her eight weeks later.  She's the second lurcher we've had.  We had her DNA tested and found that she is 45% greyhound, 45% whippet, a bit of salouki, and a touch of Bedlington Terrier. She's very fast, very lazy, very stubborn. and at four years old is our senior dog.

 

 

Junior dog is Skye, who will shortly be having her second birthday.  She's the fourth border collie we've had and probably the most difficult, maybe because she was born and bred in Angus .  She's quite small, pretty fast (but not as fast as Indy) and likes flyball.  She's not so keen on doing what she's told but she's learning. 

 

 

Both dogs have been on BARF (Bones and Raw Food) diets since we got them, which, of course, means virtually all their lives.  Anyone else here feed raw?

 

DT

Edited May 9, 2020 by Torper

[Tony Davis]

6 hours ago, bbishop said:

 

A few breeds can do this, Staffies and Jack Russells being two of them.  It was impossible to remove a tennis ball from Toddy's mouth.  Actually there was a way, you had to blow into his nostrils from close range, but then your nose was in range of a sharp nip.  Risky!

 

Bill

Hmm, not so much can’t as won’t then?

 

i remember watching an episode of Out of Town with Jack Hargreaves (think I got the names right) where he was watching Jack Russell “racing”. The little sods all belted down the course to the end, but when the owner of the winner tried to pick him up, there were about another three or four dogs hanging on to the first one by their teeth! Made me think of the game where you pick up the plastic monkeys. I like Jack Russells I must say, bags of character and fearless little things 

[bbishop]

I forgot to mention the other way to take a tennis ball off Toddy.  Ask a child.  Toddy would place the ball in the child's hand.   We acquired him from a Somerset farm whilst on holiday, so he had a pedigree a mile long but was basically bred as a farm terrier.  So hated vermin, was fine with stock, and loved cats and children.  His Saturday was spent in the rec, playing football with the boys, and most Sunday afternoon a child would knock on the front door and ask to "borrow Toddy".  Lead wrapped round the child's wrist, dog planted in arms and the child would stagger down the path having his/her face washed.   Toddy was returned a couple of hour's later and would never tell us what he had been up to, but if it was a girl he probably spent the afternoon in a toy pram.  Bill

 

[MJI]

Talking about dogs.

 

RIP Nigel

[Torn-on-the-platform]

Joey died over a year ago now, but he seemed particularly keen on narrow guage! Here he is enjoying the Welsh countryside back in 2012. Pedigree black lab, made it to 13 years old.

 

I'm not in a position to have a dog with shifts, inappropriate garden, small house footprint with steep stairs, but my parents have new Lab who is now just over 6 months old. I've not had the impact on his formative months as I had hoped, but looking forward to going to seeing him (and my parents of course) when safe to do so!

[Mr Pix]

A happy G.S.D.