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Old December 16th, 2008, 11:51 AM
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danam314 danam314 is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Edmonton, Alberta
Posts: 126
Morning all.


How old is Koda and what breed?
3.5 yrs old and he's a border collie/samoyed mix

Where did you get Koda (it's relevant if a rescue or shelter dog due to past history) - As much as it pains me to say this, and believe me I am EMBARRASSED to say this (I was not in the loop regarding byb or mills previously), I will admit this for the good of my own dog and getting to the root of this situation what his story was. I got him from an "oops, my dog got out and met the neighbors dog" situation. I got him from an ad on Freecycle. We got him at 9 weeks, and the conditions where we picked him up were GROSS It was spring, so the Mom dog and puppies were all outside. They were born inside but then moved to a big childs playhouse type thing to live in outside. The Mom and pups then slept and ate in it. Koda was very hard to house train, since no one did any 'training' with him prior. He just kinda went wherever he felt like it. The rest of the pups were taken to the Edmonton SPCA since they didn't have people to take them.

Are there any significant human males in your family living with you? My husband lives with me, although he is not home as much as I am. Koda has never had barking/dominance issues with him. Koda is/has always been fine with other males, including my father, many friends husbands, my brother-in-law and father in law. He is great with the neighbor too (65 yr old man).

he had some puppy issues, but nothing as an adult. He's a barker. He barks when people and cars go by the house. He barks at the water man, and strangers, but when we have new guests in our house it doesn't typically last long.... By this I meant that when he was a puppy he would BARK and BARK and BARK. So much that neighbors from OTHER houses would complain. It took a lot of "enough" and "leave it" 's to get him to pay attention to ME and drop the barking. It was the hardest thing to train imo. When I am expecting company I like to leave the front door open, and the screen door closed. Koda gets to then see who is coming up to the house. When it is someone he knows (has met 2-3+ times) he doesn't bark. He just sits and his tail goes round and round like a helicopter propeller. If it is someone he hasn't met, he will bark and his tail wags. Just not as fast. He barks at the mailman because he doesn't know that he is here until the CLANG of the mailbox shutting. I think it catches him off guard, maybe. For info purposes, I'd like to disclose that we live on a busy corner and have a bus that stops right across the street from our house. Koda only barks when we are outside and can SEE the people.

Please, ask many questions as needed. I'm very concerned about this situation and will gladly answer them.

EDIT: I also wanted to add (in case relevant) that we have a basement suite that we have rented out for the last 3 years. 3 tenant's have had dogs (a chihuahua, a very big blood hound and a german shepard) and Koda never had any issues with them. They played perfectly together and we never had any dominance issues. A friend of our is staying downstairs until we move, and until his new house is ready to be moved into, and he is a big guy (280lbs mostly muscle, 6'3 and a DEEP voice). Koda has LOVED him since the first day he met him. He did the few barks at first, sniff sniff and then was fine.

Last edited by danam314; December 16th, 2008 at 12:07 PM. Reason: addition
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