# itty bitty brag



## selzer (May 7, 2005)

I have Nder set up to go get groomed on Saturday. 

Let's give some background on Nder. He will be two in April, about 10 days after Mufasa will be two. I also have two sisters of his, so a lot of youngsters going on. 

Nder was returned to me around 6 months old because there was an altercation between him and the owner's little dog. I went and got him. She said she thinks he might be a dangerous dog. I said, he is a puppy. 

I did not rehome him. I put him in with Moofy for a while, but there was some grumping over the food, so I put Moof in with Cujo, and left Nder next to them. 

When I moved the boys to the back yard, I put Cujo with Hepsi, Moof with Karma, and Nder was given his own kennel. 

Other than a trip to the vet for limping about 8 months ago, he hasn't been anywhere.

Anyway, my back seat had 10 bags of dog food in it, so he was going to have to ride shot gun this morning. We went to the vet, and with little fan fare, I weighed him. A vet tech came up and said hello to him. He barked one time at a Yorkie behind the counter, and I told him, Eh! No. He stopped. I took him into the room. 

Since I did not give him his first rabies shot, I had to run back out to the car to grab his book that I remembered to put in the car this morning, but forgot to take in with me. He stayed in the room with a vet tech, he paced back and forth, but nothing more. 

He was excellent with the vet. She was able to do everything and give him shots, and then I took him out and payed. He did not try to drag me in or out of there. He did not act like at idiot. He let everyone handle him and give him treats. 

What a nice boy!

I think it is fair to say that whatever socialization this dog got was with people who were not very dog-savvy. Evenso, they weren't bad people, they just did not recognize a growing issue between a puppy and an older dog.


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## LuvShepherds (May 27, 2012)

I'm in awe of you and how you manage all those young dogs. How do you stop them from barking at dogs? My puppy barks at every dog we see when he's in the car or outside and hears one.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

My first shepherd was awful, because I didn't know what I was doing. I had a choke chain, and I was yanking and cranking with the best of them. It was many years ago, and that is how they taught it. 

My first bitch, she was awesome, never dog aggressive (save when my brother moved his adult female in, and then we had some same-sex-aggression going on. 

The first litter I had Babs and Jenna. Jenna I put in classes immediately at 10 weeks, and I somehow made it through her Rally title after Babs and Rushie and Arwen got theirs. 

Babs did not go to class until she was 4 months old, and she started to act like a nut toward a dog and I gave her an immediate firm correction and she never pulled that nonsense again. This is probably not what people here would condone. Some would, some would not. Some would say to stay outside her threshold and work closer and closer using treats and so forth. But, I think that the more often the dog gets into that zone where he is barking his fool head off, the more often he will be inadvertently rewarded for doing so, and so the behavior becomes entrenched. By swiftly EH! and leash pop if that is your thing, and moving on, you get him out of the zone, and back on track, and he learns that doesn't work.

Rushie was fine with other dogs, but I had him in classes pretty much continuously from 10 weeks to 4 years. Every time a bitch I had in classes would go in heat, Rushie would finish them out. 

Heidi, Whitney, and Tori really were not reactive. Nor were Milla or Ninja. or Joy, Bear or Dolly. All of them went through their CGCs and RNs, (Bear and Dolly have not gone through the RNs (Rally Novice) yet) no problem. Was this because I had a method, or because I became more experienced. Not sure.

Odessa came to me and was used to being a show dog. I never had any reactive behavior. 

Cujo came back to me at 18 months. He is excellent around kids, terrible with horses. Not too bad with dogs. I haven't taken him to classes. His littermate has been to classes and is not reactive. She is just easy. 

Lassie and Moofie I took to classes, but money for classes was getting very tough as I wasn't working a regular job. Now that I am, time is crazy. second shift is just hard for classes. I signed up Moofy for some the last few weeks. And the boy went to five of them. On the sixth Saturday, he did not make it to class because he was finishing his title. I had taken him to puppy classes, and then a couple of classes last summer. And the past five weeks. He is 20 months old, and he did wonderful at a show with 3000 dogs. 

I think it can be somewhat nerves of the dog, and somewhat confidence/experience in the owner/handler. 

I now have a lot of experience because I have a lot of dogs and some of the first ones were tough. They taught me the most. Now, I have pretty realistic expectations of my dogs. 

Today, I told Nder to SIT as I was paying my bill and he did not. Before jumping into him, I thought, "Gee, I haven't taught him that yet." So, right there rather than just walking out without him completing, I used a hand signal and a little pressure in the right spot and he went down like a charm. Good Sit.

We have to have realistic expectations for the dog in front of us. And we have to have confidence in ourselves and translate that into confidence in the dog. 

Socializing a puppy -- putting a pup into circumstances that are unusual and possibly frightening for the dog, without first having the puppy feel confident in us, is a losing battle. We have to step out empowered, and be patient, and not react ourselves to situations. And the pup will see that we got it covered, and he will feel less of a need to react. Eh! and move on. Don't let the pup get into that zone. Don't make the dog sit or lie down in a scary situation. Just keep going for now. Later maybe, you will have the dog sitting or downing everywhere. But first be confident yourself and your dog will draw on your confidence. 

Pups transfer getting their confidence from the dam and litter, to the new owner, and then to themselves. If they can't get it from the new owner, then they have to rely totally on themselves, and then they may make some bad choices. If they had a sketchy situation within their litter, that could cause issues as well. A nervous dam, chaos, unpredictable environment will most likely net you a pup with issues, some of them you may not be able to solve, but you may be able to manage.


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## Daisy&Lucky's Mom (Apr 24, 2011)

I think you deserve e a big brag Selzer.


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## Longfisher (Feb 28, 2013)

*Mine too*



selzer said:


> My first bitch, she was awesome.


Mine too, for a while, at least. Then she divorced me and left me with the kids to raise.

Best,

LF


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

Longfisher said:


> Mine too, for a while, at least. Then she divorced me and left me with the kids to raise.
> 
> Best,
> 
> LF


Does anyone else think calling women bitches is degrading to canines? I mean, I've had a lot of bitches, and they can be smart and sneaky and tough, but they are also loyal and sweet and obedient, and they are awesome mothers, spectacular mothers -- patient, affectionate, teaching, strong, tireless, observant, careful. Bitches put women to shame in a lot of cases.


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## LuvShepherds (May 27, 2012)

I'm impressed with all your experience. I agree, it's worth a big brag.

I didn't know a bitch was a dog until I was an adult. In our house, it was a bad word that we got in trouble for using.

I've been told not to correct for barking and every dog I've had since then has been out of control with some type of barking. I would use a correction on the puppy if needed but I'm not using a pinch with him. I noticed he watches our female, who barks a lot of warnings. So far the only time he barks is if he hears another dog outside. I decided I'm going to teach a bark command so he will bark when I tell him, then use that skill to teach him when to stop. I don't know if it will work. I'm my experience, all that desensitizing stuff ends up teaching them things I don't realize I'm teaching them. I accidentally rewarded my female for barking at another dog by rewarding her for quiet at the very second she started barking. How do you undo that? I had no warning she was going to bark, no alerts, no ear changes. It was an unfortunate coincidence.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

Ok, so we went and got groomed on Saturday. He was still curled up in the front seat because of my dog food in the back seat (fewer bags). Anyway, we got through PetsMart and into the back where the grooming salon was without issue.

I told them not to let him contact any other dogs because he may not be nice to them. They assured me they do not allow that. But I wanted to be sure to mention it. He went with the lady. 

She called me and told me he was spazzing when the put the water on. She said she thinks they will probably be able to bathe him but not dry him. So I said ok. 

Well, they did bathe him and dry him with the dryer. They said after his temper tantrum, he did fine for everything. He was trying to chew on the water hose and trying to chew on the lead. I asked them if he tried to chew on them, and they said, "Oh no! he was fine with us." Good. 

You really can't expect miracles out of a 20 month old guy who has never been to the pet store for a bath before. So I told him what a good boy he was, and was grateful I did not have to sit with a wet dog next to me in the car all the way home.

So, Sunday we had another outing. I have someone interested in Nder, and we were going to meet his children. They live about 2 hours away though, and since my sister is about 1.5 hours away, in the same direction, and her kids had a program at church, I decided to bring him with me. 

I got rid of the dog food in the back seat of my Honda and put an airline crate in there. I left the boy in the car during the program. He was great. He wasn't barking or carrying on like an idiot when people walked by the car. Good Boy!

I brought him out and let my nieces pet him. 

We went to their house so I could change out of my church clothes and shoes that were digging into the back of my heels, making me feel like the Grinch. Then I walked him to the kids' friends house while they rode scooters. The boy was awesome no problem with children flying down the hill on wheels. 

So back to my car, and over to my friend's house where I would meet the guy and his kids. The kids are 1.5 years and 4 years. 

I called to let her know we were off the highway, and I found her house and I heard the dogs letting her know I was there. So, I got Nder out and walked to the front door. 

She opened it and stuck her head out, and her 3.5 year old dog, his two 8 month old pups, and a 10 week old puppy all charged Nder. Barking. The 3.5 year old quickly listened to his owner and went back into the house. The 10 week old puppy was quickly scooped up and taken to safety. One of the 8 month olds was sniffing Nder, and the other was barking and circling and trying to figure out if he should go ahead and eat him and get it over with.

I stood quietly at Nder's head, where his hair was up, but he was listening to me say, "Easy, boy." Fasko was sniffing, and the owner was trying to get Jax. Nder let out a couple of growls, but for the most part he stayed quiet, no barking, lunging, or acting the idiot. 

She got her boys into the house and put up. I brought Nder in. He immediately met the baby and then the little boy. He was not much interested in their father, but he did fine with the kids. We took them outside. The boy actually held the leash and the dog followed him around the circle drive. We took pictures. 

Nder was spectacular. This is a kennel dog for the most part -- no classes. No socialization. And he is doing really, really good. He doesn't drag me around. He startled a few times, and he did put up his hair once or twice, but he recovered right away. And he was stellar with the kids. He's a pretty boy. If this guy wants a younger puppy instead, I will be getting a title on the boy, probably this summer. We'll see. 

He's a good traveler too. Likes cheeseburgers, but only eats the meat and cheese. Doesn't care for the buns.


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## Daisy&Lucky's Mom (Apr 24, 2011)

That sounds like Nder deserves a big brag again.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

Daisy&Lucky's Mom said:


> That sounds like Nder deserves a big brag again.


 Yeah, I really like the boy.


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