To redress the balance here's my boy on a walk yesterday. 10 yrs old in a few days, soft as anything except when other intact dogs get interested in his 'bits'. This has unfortunately been ongoing since he was castrated. Some pheromone thing. Just need to be aware of that and he's fine. Perfectly OK with other dogs, who aren't interested in him in that way, and bitches though.
It’s not that obvious as I cropped the owner out of the photo*, but you can see that he’s leaning back and straining to keep the dog from pulling him along. He basically looks as if the dog is about to take him water skiing across the park. * Out of respect for his privacy and all that. Plus, he’s got a fucking huge dog, so I don’t want to upset him.
The boerboel is a breed of mastiff. A really REALLY big one. The reason Iggy is defensively aggressive with large male dogs is that he was attacked by other dogs a few times in quick succession when he was a puppy. In fact, the very first time we took him out for a walk after his jabs, we got rushed by a mastiff who clearly meant him harm. I scooped him up and held him out of reach of it, but this thing was jumping up at me and trying to knock me over. The poor thing was so scared he was crying and he peed himself. I was pretty shaken up too tbh. Then the next day, a youngish GSD went for him and the week after that, two border terriers pinned him to the floor by his throat and when I managed to get them off him and Iggy ran for cover under a hedge, he found there was a farm cat sitting there, which also had a pop at him.
Aye, they don’t forget early trauma. I’ve got a staffy now that was paggered by a spaniel when he was a puppy. He can now spot a spaniel from 300 metres, and fortunately so can I. He goes on the lead to prevent a dust up… he’s easy to control and his recall is pretty good. And that’s another thing- a Mastiff’s recall is non existent…
I see no point whatsoever in these huge, bred for fighting etc dogs in 99% of ownership cases. Saying that…I did want an Alsatian really, 2 simple reasons: my childhood pets were GS and they offer great home and personal protection.
GSD hides as soon as she hears them, if they’re close enough to see we have to let the Great Dane out in the garden so he can watch them.
Staffies too ? see a few Rots and Staffs about, there are some that I’ve never seen on a lead but they won’t leave their owners side.
Hmmm, our two are still young and excitable. The bitch is very prey driven, if she picks up a scent she’s off. Her fear of fireworks was triggered by a massive thunderclap when I got caught in a deluge. It was a very close lightning strike (100 metres) and the ensuing instant bang terrified her… and me too at the time
I hate to break it to you guys, but your dogs are all pussies. Not only is Iggy completely unphased by fireworks, I’ve actually taken him to a few displays. Don’t know what all the fuss is about…..
As @Zhed46 I took my two outside to watch fireworks as pups and made no fuss and because I was confident watching them so were they they just wandered around sniffing whatever had been through the garden our fears are instantly picked up by animals so when we are in a state of fear the dogs instinct is to take up pack leader and protect the pack
It’s probably also because spaniels are gun dogs and a gun dog which is afraid of bangs isn’t much use to man or beast. Iggy’s mum and dad were workers, he was bred to work (the half docked tail is a giveaway) and most of his siblings are working gun dogs. I used to shoot, but for various reasons have only shot clays since lockdown. He’s come along to clay shoots with me twice in order to get acclimatised and both times he was absolutely fine from the get go, so it must be innate. It would be interesting to hear whether the other spaniel owners on here have any issues with their dogs and fireworks.
Update re: a month’s use of Plaque Off. It seems to be working. I’ve managed to persuade Iggy to let me use a dental scraper to descale his teeth and the plaque/tartar is noticeably softer and easier to remove. He doesn’t particularly enjoy the process and he growls under his breath and gives me the side eye while I’m doing it, so I only do a few minutes per day and immediately follow it up with a treat (which just happens to be a Harringtons mint and parsley dental stick, which he loves). I’ve done most of the outside surfaces of his teeth now, including the molars, which look almost as white as when he was a puppy, but I think the interior surfaces are going to be quite difficult to get at. So far, I’m very ‘appy with the results.
