OT: Dog Nut

[eddie]

Billy... she only had her backpack on. You thanked my for picking up her poop at PCMR during the WTC, well, now I don't carry it (the poop) anymore, she does.

I was hiking with her around PC before I met up with that rep from Head, who made me late for your place. She jumped out while I was getting the Air Tanker out of my car and you came outside so I left it on her. Also, I'm too lazy to take it off. Damn dog is a pooping machine.

I don't know why I reply. Let me save you the response because I can predict it.

Bordy's Reply: Sure...whatever man.

Saved you a post.

[Ernie00]

The old dog and lazy

and the switch riding evil look cat

[Guest dudleydudley]

my dog Dudley. I set up a <a href=http://dudley.chunaezoh.com/dudleycam/index.html>webcam</a> so I can keep an eye on him when I am out of the house. The attached picture was from yesterday morning.

[spcarves2]

had to chime in....

[D-Sub]

LOL @ spcarves! so thats why you were stoked

good lookin dogs, all of em!

mine disappeared...the one with him in goggles, so here it is, and one of him hangin out in the backyard.

[willywhit]

my wife loves to dress these 2 up in silly outfits. the 'lil Yorkie is Fofuxa from Brasil and 'Lil black is Pituca. These 2 are best buds. Git along lil doggies.

[wvrocks]

Here's the boys. Tua on the left and Yukon on the right. Both are pound rescues. Very different personalities but they get along great.

________

Volcano vaporizers

[Dave Pushee]

Snert is my bird hunting buddy. He's named after Hagar The Horrible's rather inept hunting dog.

[Justin A.]

I realized today that my dog, like the one in the OP, is one teched out pooch.

This is him:

He's got:

A Backpack with waterbags (I'm not carrying his water and food...or the end result)

A light-up safety/raincoat

Boots with vibram soles (tired of cut feet too)

couple of collapsable bowls

A lighted leash (on the way)-also for safety at night

and today's additon to his closet was a pair of Doggles (this is when I realized that he's wicked teched out). They're goggles for dogs that have 100% UV protection and stuff, they're pretty much sunglasses for dogs. We got him those today becasue I just shelled out $3500 for cataract surgery in both of his eyes and eyes that expensive deserve some protection during top down fun and hikes in the woods.

Hi, my name is Justin and I'm a dog nut.

[skipuppy]

Thunder- I got him front of Longs for free. My Mom to my Dad "Honey, when are you coming home from work? We have a surprise for you."

My Dad when he gets home "Oh ****. Did you look at the size of his feet?"

[He was about a foot tall]

He lives in Reno with my Mom and Sister and Katy (the Westy). They don't have tons of stuff.

[Jrobb]

Here are my boys. Kuma (Mr handsome or The Kumacabra aka Cabrito) on the Left Titan on the Right (Mr Fluffkins)

...and Kuma with his goofy grin (that's Amy my Mom's Pointer mix in the back ground.

They're not teched out and actually Kuma gets very embarrased when you try to put clothes (shirt, sweater booties etc) on him. He's keen on scarves though and loves to rock a red bandana...he's not in a gang though.

J

[pebu]

The one on the bottom is my dad. The one on top is Loki. She's about 100lbs now.

[eddie]

Does anyone take their dogs with them in the backcountry? Also, does anyone think dogs do not belong in the backcountry?

[Justin A.]

Of course my pooch comes with me into the backcountry. Dogs belong in the backcountry, irresponsible dog owners do not.

Responsibility is one of the main reasons that he has his backpack. I don't want to carry his $h1t...or his water and food/bowl. If we're going for a long trip into the backcountry, I'll buy the bio-degradable poop bags and bury them just as I would bury my own business. He leaves less of an impact on the environment than 99% of the humans do. There isn't any reason to restrict backcountry access for dogs other than irresponsability on the part of their owners. Nothing that is the dog's fault...

[willywhit]

Dogs belong in the backcountry

Responsibility is one of the main reasons that he has his backpack. I don't want to carry his $h1t

I'll buy the bio-degradable poop bags and bury them just as I would bury my own business. He leaves less of an impact on the environment than 99% of the humans do.

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[eddie]

I just ask because I have found that many backcountry forums are split 50/50 about allowing dogs in the backcountry.

[Michelle]

Not sure where I am sometimes. I am a huge dog nut! So much so that I have 3 dogs officially, and work in a dog sledding kennel that houses now over 100 and I'm always taking in a dog either from there, a stray, or someone else's to dog sit. I honestly think I like dogs much more than people.

Here's a photo of my boys. The one of their birthday is also with Zsa Zsa, Fin's dog. The other one is a hiking shot, 13,000 + ft. My other dog is retired and is not very social - she's a bit looney in the head so I don't take her out much. Still love her though, she can't help it if she's gone crazy!

[pebu]

I am a huge dog nut!

I wouldn't have guessed by your avatar. :D

I gotta say, I've never really celebrated an animals birthday before. We know probably within a week of our animals birthdays, but no closer than that.

[Galen]

A friend of mine (dog nut) has a postcard on his fridge that says it all:

"God help me to be the kind of person my dog thinks I am"

Dudley and Kevin after after a hard day watching the Animal channel :lol:

[Michelle]

I gotta say, I've never really celebrated an animals birthday before.

PFFT!!! And you call yourself a "dog person" :) My boys's birthday is Jan 31, 1999. I was there when they were born, under my neighbor's bed downstairs. I didn't even know I would have one until they were a few weeks old....Mom was kind-of running around the neighborhood. They are the best dogs anyone could ever want! The UPS guy that delivers to Bomber says they are the best dogs on his route, and brings treats for them everyday. Yes, (snif), the proud parent shows herself.

[skategoat]

I love dogs and my daughter works me over every day to get one. But, I know nothing about training them and am afraid to get or create a bad dog. My brother's dog is psychotic. If you try to touch his toys or food, he tries to take your hand off. My Dad's old dog was the best. Trusting and loyal. So how do I make sure I end up with the latter and not the former?

I thought the best thing is to find an adult dog that has to be given up for some (non-behavioural) reason. But where do you find those? Rescue dogs make me nervous. Pound dogs even more so. It's not like I can return a dog. At least I wouldn't want to.

Any advice?

[skategoat]

LOL @ spcarves! so thats why you were stoked

good lookin dogs, all of em!

mine disappeared...the one with him in goggles, so here it is, and one of him hangin out in the backyard.

I owned those exact googles until I cracked them in a recent spill. It took me a while to track down a new pair. If I knew your dog owned a pair, I might've worked a trade with him.

[Justin A.]

I love dogs and my daughter works me over every day to get one. But, I know nothing about training them and am afraid to get or create a bad dog. My brother's dog is psychotic. If you try to touch his toys or food, he tries to take your hand off. My Dad's old dog was the best. Trusting and loyal. So how do I make sure I end up with the latter and not the former?

I thought the best thing is to find an adult dog that has to be given up for some (non-behavioural) reason. But where do you find those? Rescue dogs make me nervous. Pound dogs even more so. It's not like I can return a dog. At least I wouldn't want to.

Any advice?

Go to a shelter/breeder/pound (pound not so much) and tell them EXACTLY that. Find a good trainer in your area and work from there. Psychotic dogs are just poorly socialized and untrained. To keep from losing limbs when reaching for the dog's stuff, you need to teach them that you will give it back to them. Ullr has a bit of a guarding issue every once in awhile, so we'll let him know that it's NOT tolerated, and then a few minutes later we'll take whatever he's working on away, and then if he doesn't snarl or anything, give him some lovin' and praise and then give it right back, that way he knows that if we take something away, it's not the end of the world.

Anything else can be trained highly effectivley using a clicker. Actually, even guarding issues can be clicker trained...having a dog is a GREAT partnership, I doubt that you'd regret it.

[skategoat]

Justin:

Thanks for the advice. I might just do that. Did I also mention that my wife is a bit psychotic too - about a crap and pee on her Persian rugs? That's why I'm looking at stealing someone's fully house broken and trained adult dog (half joking).

I just noticed your location. Are you really in Ottawa? What did you do with all your guns?

[Justin A.]

Yep...I'm really in Ottawa. Shhhhh with the guns! ;) ...no, seriously, I left them with my parents in NH-traded them in for an attack beaver. I'm only up here for school, and I'll probally be going back to NH (north this time-there's no way I can live with them again ) when I'm done in November. There are a few other possibilities, but we'll see when it's time.

Alot of shelter dogs are the best dogs you'd ever want to meet. We got Ullr from a shelter, and he was semi-trained (sit), and very housebroken already. We got him in august and he's had exactly 3 accidents, all of which were our fault-not paying attention to his go-out-signs. And this is from a dog who lived in a shelter for his WHOLE life. He was dropped off as a puppy, and bounced around from shelter to shelter until we found him...

If you guys are worried about housetraining-DON'T get a Bischon Frisee...they're next to impossible to housetrain...they can be smart as a whip though-my parents have one and he's awesome, except that he is ALWAYS crapping on the floor-you let him out, he comes back in, dissapears for 5 minutes, and then he shows up and brings te crap smell with him, so you need to do a nasty easter egg hunt .

Sounds like your best bet would definitley be a shelter dog (make sure it's a real shelter-not like the ones on Animal Cops) or a dog from a rescue leauge. How active are you- honestly and currently- not how active you think you want to be, because this is a HUGE critera for what type of dog to get. If you don't want tennis balls dropped in your lap 24/7, you'd rather watch TV (or go on bomber ;) ) then go outside, or you are a generally somewhat lazy person, then a dog with a similar attitude is best- Bassett Hounds, Pugs, many of the Small Dogs...

OTOH, if you're highly active-like....Jeep-driving, mountain climbing, I go for a 30km bike ride every morning or a 10km run, canoeing, hunting, fishing, generally very active kind of person-then you want a dog who is the same. That's how my girlfriend and I are, and we got an Austrailian Shepherd mix. It's not that these dogs are super hyper all the time, it's just that they're bred to work in the field all day herding cattle or sheep-so they have ALOT of energy. He comes for hikes with us, goes Jeeping with us, we're working on getting him comfortable with the bike enough to run next to us while biking, and then after all that we come home and wrestle him for an hour to tire him out some more. Other dogs like this are Border Collies, Bischons, Australian Cattle Dogs, Collies, Shelties, all of the herding dogs, and most of the working dogs. The herding dogs are inherently very smart, as they need to be to solve problems while herding livestock. They're also cautious around strangers (usually-Ullr loves everyone, but that's the Retriever in him), but SUPER loving and trusting and loyal to their owners. They're highly active, but are also content to cuddle up on the couch and watch TV, or lay at your feet when you're not doing anything.

THen there are the middle of the road dogs that are perfect for almost anyone (to a point...) they're active, but not too much. Retrievers, Labs, Greyhounds, Whippets, etc. all go into this one. We had a dalmation when I was a kid-she was the DUMBEST dog I've ever met, but sweet as high-fructose corn syrup on the rocks. Lazy to beat the band too. She was a fluke of Dalmatia though, they're usually pretty active and decently smart, but she was a love...there are so many breeds and dogs out there that there is BOUND to be one for you, you just need someplace to start. Animalplanet.com has a breed selector questionaire that reccomends breeds depending on your answers, you might want to check it out. There's also a website called petfinder.com, where you can search for animals rather specifically, and all in your area. That's how we found Ullr, which makes it the best website ever! Good luck, hope you find the right one