Why people should train their freak'n dogs *rant*

[Ritz459]

Oh, I'm so ticked off right now. Some of you may remember when I dogsat Toby and Mitzi, a Pom and a Cocker Spaniel mix. You may also remember me venting about how spoiled these dogs were and how it was going to ruin them.
Here are some quotes from my thread:

Ah, and Toby just bit Melanie, my six year old sister. Broke a little bit of skin. I asked JeanAnne what she was doing and she said that Mel was playing wtih Toby. I asked how and she said, "Just like Wes and I do." so that means a bit roughly. I think that both Toby and Mitzi have resource guarding issues, so he probably bit Mel when she tried to take his toy....JeanAnne said that Toby bit her for no reason, but I told her that dogs only bite for no reason (in our minds anyway) when they are aggressive, and Toby isn't aggressive. Apparently, just possessive.

The other day Toby scared me though. He attacked my brother's girlfriend! Jake and Gabe just walked into our house and the dogs were barking at them. I went over just to shoo the dogs away (Gabe and Jake were completely ignoring the dogs) and Toby jumped up on Gabe and grabbed her shirt. I had time to think, "Holy crap, he's going to bite her!" and lunge toward them when Toby let go of her shirt and bit her ankle! I told him no, grabbed him, and made him lay down on the ground until Gabe was able to get into the gated off living room. Gabe had a HUGE bruise on her leg, along with two puncture marks. My mom was suprised Toby didn't rip her pants. Let's just put it this way: if Toby was a German Shepherd, he'd be the most ill behaved, uncontrollable dog who may or may not bite you. It is a good thing he is small, but I really wish that his owners actually trained him and not babied him. That is really frusterating me.

I'll never trust a dog like that again unless it goes through some serious training, because how do you now when something is going to cross the line and end up getting bit?

But as I told my mom, I have a feeling that if he had tried to do that with his owners around, they just would have said, "Oh, now Toby. That isn't the way to behave," and then they would have pet him or held him or something. They treat their dogs like they are furry kids on all fours. THAT is what the problem is. I spoil my dogs, but they work for what they get and I don't baby them. These dogs have been babied, pure and simple. It ruins dogs, what can I say.

I'm concerned about Toby though....and I'm going to voice my concern to his owners. He is EXTREAMLY possessive. He almost bit my six year old sister because she sat down by my mom when Toby was by my mom. He growls and halfway snarls when he is chewing on a toy and you walk by/try to pet him/etc. He also bit my brother last night for no apparent reason that I can figure out. Wesley was going to grab his collar, but I asked about how he went about doing that and he said he was going to pet him first, so it was like he was moving his hand in to pet him. And I grab Toby's collar without a problem. *shrugs*
So after he attacked someone because they entered "his" house, tried to bite a child because she went near "his" mom, tries to bite you when you are near "his" toys, and just randomly bit Wesley, I don't trust him around anybody except for my mom and I. He minds me (he knows I won't tolorate crap from him) and he likes my mom.

And here is a picture:


Now, apparently, I was right. I had a bad feeling about this dog, and for once I wish I was wrong about the feelings I get. His owners called tonight. They wanted to know if we would take Toby. There words, "He keeps biting/attacking us! We don't know what is wrong. We think that some professional training could 'cure' him, but we don't have the time or the money. Will you take him? If we can't find someone to take him, we are going to take him to a shelter this weekend."
We said know, because even though I think that I could train him to get him over his aggression, we CAN NOT have an aggressive dog in a house with five kids! I feel slightly bad that I can't do anything, because if this dog is going to a shelter, he will probably be put down. I mean, how is a shelter going to overcome his biting problems? The won't, they will just put him down as a dangerous dog.
*sighs* He doesn't need some gosh-darn professional training, they just need to put him through a doggie boot camp (talk about extreame NILIF training) and freaking change the whole intire why they go about taking care of their dogs! This ticks me off so much because Toby would be such the sweetest dog with proper training, but now he may die because his owners had no freaking gosh-darn idea what they heck they were doing! And he is still a young dog too...only around two years old.
And to top it all off, they knew that he had some biting issues...they said he had started biting the wife for no reason when it was time to put the dogs in the crate at night. I told them that it was probably a dominance issue and that his biting wasn't normal (and we pointed out all that he did at our house), but they just scoffed us off. "Oh, it will be alright...Toby is a good dog."

OMG, this makes me want to scream!

[SpringerLover]

Honestly, if they can't afford treatment, a shelter is NO place for this dog. They should have the decency to PAY for this dog to be PTS with his FAMILY around him.

*mumbles about people who shouldn't own dogs*

[Doglover1988]

Maybe they should try to find a rescue to attempt to rehibilitate him? and if that doesn't work I agree with having him pts

[SpringerLover]

Rescue can't take a dog with a bite history.

The owners allowed this to happen. Legally, they are the only one's who can keep and work with the dog.

[Rivsky]

Originally Posted by SpringerLover

Rescue can't take a dog with a bite history.

The owners allowed this to happen. Legally, they are the only one's who can keep and work with the dog.

And that's the worst thing about this whole sorry story - their the ones that made Toby this way and they're the only ones who are able to fix it (legally) but because they can't be bothered the poor dog has to be PTS just because of their own stupidity

[misdemeanorsmom]

Such a heartbreaker, isn't it? And especially when you know it wouldn't be like this with the least little effort when he was young, to avert this behavior, before it became an issue. It just makes me cry. But what about a rescue group? Don't they have a little more leeway with a problem like that then a shelter?

[roman]

those people need to find help for that dog in a kill shelter if he shows aggression he will be on the euthanasia list right away

to me it sounds like they arent letting the dog get enough exersize

if you can tell them to run him around the block/yard/ anything to make him less hyper and than work on his training so that way he will pay more attention

by them taking him to a shelter without trying to help him isn't fair to the animal at all

[Cassiepeia]

I wish there was something I could do to help. I feel so bad for that dog. All he needs is a decent owner who has knowledge of dogs and some experience with training.
Don't feel too bad that you couldn't take him Ritz, like you said...it's just not right for your particular situation. But we all know you'd help him if you could.

Is there anyone at all that can take him or work with him? If his behaviour is due to "bad manners" rather than anything else he deserves a second chance. IMO.

Poor boy.

Cass.

[Ritz459]

Originally Posted by Cassiepeia

I wish there was something I could do to help. I feel so bad for that dog. All he needs is a decent owner who has knowledge of dogs and some experience with training.
Don't feel too bad that you couldn't take him Ritz, like you said...it's just not right for your particular situation. But we all know you'd help him if you could.

Is there anyone at all that can take him or work with him? If his behaviour is due to "bad manners" rather than anything else he deserves a second chance. IMO.

Poor boy.

Cass.

I don't know of anyone who is dog savy enough or who has the training experience enough that would take him in.
What I hate the most is that Toby really isn't an aggressive dog. I mean, he is well socialized and everything. It is just that the lack of training has made him step up to take the dominant dog charge and he is going at it with a vengance. He is biting his owners to "correct" them from doing something that he doesn't want them to do.
Never once in the whole time that we were watching him did he every try to bite me, but when he was around me, I made sure I was making him work for everything he wanted and if he was doing something that I didn't like I let him know.
I would have been willing to help them train him, but they live and hour away from us, so that wouldn't work either.
I was going to email them and give them information about training and rescues, but we deleted their email address! And I have no idea what their phone number is either. Yeash. Forget that idea. I just hope that someone they know will be able to take him in and give him the training he needs.