Any book recommandations on training?

[Raluca]

I am interested in getting a dog this summer and since I've never had one before, I'm trying to read and educate myself as much as possible in the meantime.

I am planning on getting an older dog since I won't have enough time for a puppy and I will go to obedience classes with him/her but I would like to read some more about dogs in general(besides, it makes the wait seem shorter )

I've already read "How to speak Dog" by Stanley Coren and "Animals in translation" by Temple Grandin and while both were interesting and informative, I much prefered "How to Speak Dog" (then again, i'm not looking to get a cow right now either ). Any other suggestions from the more knowledgeable and experienced forum members?

Also, if anybody would like to recommend obedience schools/trainners in the Montreal area, I'm all ears.

Thank you all for your help.

[Lissa]

I love "The Culture Clash" by Jean Donaldson - it is an excellent book! I think all would-be and current dog owners should have read it at least once!

Karen Pryor's "Don't Shoot The Dog" is also a great book.

[BoxerRescueMTL]

I second both Lissa's recomendations!! Also this is a good website http://www.turidrugaas.com

[Raluca]

Awesome! Thank you (I guess amazon.ca thanks you too ).

[BoxerRescueMTL]

Oh and I have had very good experiences with Blue Ribbon Canine http://blueribboncanine.com/ Good luck!!

[Raluca]

That's good to know, thank you BoxerRescueMTL (I think it's Crystal, right?). My mom (well, her parents actually) had a boxer, Odin when she was younger. I met him apparently (I was about a year and a half). We used to make funny faces at each other. Can't beat second-hand memories

[BoxerRescueMTL]

yup, it's Crystal. Odin is a great boxer name! hehehe...boxers don't have to try very hard to make funny faces...it's very natural to them lol! What kind of dog are you getting?

[Raluca]

Well, Crystal , I'm not sure yet. I'm still in the early stages, avidly looking at pictures all over the place, wishing I had a farm to rescue everybody.

Right now, I'm getting screened and if I do pass, I get to see the doggies (man, this is more nerve-wracking than school )

I was looking for an adult dog (I won't have time for a puppy,although they are so adorable) and a medium to a big breed (there are two dogs I'm interested in a lab/rottweiler mix and a boxer/pitbull mix but I haven't got a chance to meet them yet - I'm unreliable 'till proven otherwise )

Bottom line,I'm all excited, reading all I can get my hands on and spending all my time on the internet instead of doing stuff for school (good thing it's my last semester).

[BoxerRescueMTL]

Oh that's exciting! Good luck!! Do you have photos of them or are they on a website?

[Raluca]

Here's the Lab/Rottweiler mix:

http://www.petfinder.com/pet.cgi?act...=0&tmpl=&stat=

Here's the Boxer/Pitbull mix:
http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/...?petid=5692484

Aren't they both adorable?
I can't wait, this is way better that Christmas.

[tenderfoot]

We are very partial to Rotties - sweet wonderful dogs. But the other dog looks great too - perhaps more active. So it looks like you would be a winner either way and they would too. Thanks for adopting an older dog.

[BoxerRescueMTL]

They are both great!!! The rottie is gorgeous, and Marty looks like a lot of fun - his color is beautiful!

[Raluca]

I was right about the farm, wasn't I?
I sent pictures of all the dogs I was interested in to one of my friends and her helpful suggestion was to adopt them all (4)
I hope the decision will be easier after I meet them, because based on the pictures, I just want to hug them both.

[Rottielover]

Hi there, I spoke to sophie about this dog. He seems to be a sweetie....I second the opinion on Blue ribbon.....We are presently enrolled there. His second class, as well as we will be continuing Harleys education with them. He is a pure rottweiler. By the way, I do not believe your dog has Lab, we both feel he is a pure rottweiler. SO I definetly reccomend you do alot of research on the rottweiler breed.
They are not for the weak hearted. LOL.....Good luck with your possible new addition, and if you need anything pm me, you live very close to me, and I am willing to help.... Once again good luck

[Raluca]

Thank you very much, rottielover, that is very nice of you to offer! I will certainly keep it in mind.
He does look like a pure rottweiler, doesn't he? Probably why I fell in love with him (well, his picture).
Based on looks alone, my favorite dogs are rottweilers and dobermans.
Btw, I got all giddy when you said "your dog"

[Rottielover]

I tried to PM you, but you did not activate that part. There is something I wanted to say but innappropriate for in here, can you activate so I can pm you

[Raluca]

I tried to but I don't think I'm allowed access to PM's yet (I only registered here on Sunday). Am I allowed to post my e-mail?

[Rottielover]

pm me your email addy

[Raluca]

I can't. I'm not allowed to either pm somebody or receive pm's for a couple more days I think. But I do have Yahoo and MSN messengers and I am home now.

[OntarioGreys]

if you have children I highly recommend “Childproofing Your Dog”
by Brian Kilcommons.


I think you need to put a lot thought into the actual dog you plan to adopt, you can read all the training books you want but if the dog does not fit you and your lifestyle it's not going to be an enjoyable experience and can seem more like a chore.

from the description of the pitbull/boxer mix it sounds like he will require a lot of exercise. I had one dog that required a good 4 hours of hard exercise daily no matter what the weather, like swimming, fetching, running and sled pulling, somedays even more to get him worn out. It was not all that fun in cold wet weather or in the bitter cold but if I didn't he'd be very restless and destructive. Being he is part pitbull travelling with him can be a problem due to breed bans, for example you can not legally bring him into Ontario, if caught he could be seized and destroyed, individual cities also have breed bans so you would need to keep yourself upto date on where the breed bans are, and also realize that at some point the breed ban may come to your home town, it can take various forms, sometime the dogs are banned outright from being in the city in which case you may have to choose between moving or having him put down or he may may be allowed to stay but under very strict rules like always being on leash and muzzled, and may be required to buy dog owner insurance some home owners insurance will cancel you if you have certain breeds, many apartment owners will refuse to rent to those with pit bulls because it will affect their property insurance. As much as I hate to say it, it is something you need to consider

The rotti/lab mix I would want to know exactly what happens when he is at the vets if not sedated, I suspect that he may be fear aggressive , if you are wanting to have a dog to take places with you , there may be times he is going to feel stressed and uncomfortable to the point where his problen will surface, another thought will he be able to tolerate being boarded if you want to go away for a couple days or a vacation?

I have a dog that has a condition called stress related hyperthermia which causes her core body temperature to climb to where she is unable to cool herself down by panting, it can continue even once away from the stressul situation, if she is not cooled down quickly can result in kidney and or brain damage and even death.



There are a lot of different breeds of big dogs, and there are major differences in general personality, exercise requirements, dominance, grooming etc and those differences can be pretty extreme from one breed to another and in some cases can prove to be a disaster in the hands of the wrong person. Also people tend to make assumptions about breeds that can be a far cry from reality so research is necessary and check a few different sources when you do your research, some sources that write descriptions about dogs don't do their homework before writing descriptions, as this link proves http://forum.greytalk.com/index.php?showtopic=126953


You may find that an online breed selector can help guide you in what breed would be most suitable for you. I would try a few different ones to see if a trend on a certain breed(s) appears

http://www.petnet.com.au/selectapet/dogselectapet.html

Next link contains several

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art18798.asp

[Raluca]

That was very helpful OntarioGreys, thank you very much. Some of the points you have raised I had already considered but some I had not.

I am also preparing a list of questions as well as a list of what I can actually offer the dog for when I can meet the dogs I'm interested in. I think having an honest discussion with the person taking care of these dogs would certainly help.

I am aware that this is not a decision to be taken lightly and the last thing I would want is for the dog to be unhappy just because I rushed into this.

I do appreciate everybody's input.

[Inverness]

Originally Posted by OntarioGreys

from the description of the pitbull/boxer mix it sounds like he will require a lot of exercise. I had one dog that required a good 4 hours of hard exercise daily no matter what the weather, like swimming, fetching, running and sled pulling, somedays even more to get him worn out. It was not all that fun in cold wet weather or in the bitter cold but if I didn't he'd be very restless and destructive. Being he is part pitbull travelling with him can be a problem due to breed bans, for example you can not legally bring him into Ontario, if caught he could be seized and destroyed, individual cities also have breed bans so you would need to keep yourself upto date on where the breed bans are, and also realize that at some point the breed ban may come to your home town, it can take various forms, sometime the dogs are banned outright from being in the city in which case you may have to choose between moving or having him put down or he may may be allowed to stay but under very strict rules like always being on leash and muzzled, and may be required to buy dog owner insurance some home owners insurance will cancel you if you have certain breeds, many apartment owners will refuse to rent to those with pit bulls because it will affect their property insurance. As much as I hate to say it, it is something you need to consider

Wow ! I hadn't been on for a while, but since Raluca had told me she had registered here, I thought I'd check this thread out...

Well one thing is sure, I wouldn't hire you to help my pitbulls get adopted, OntarioGreys... :sad:

I'm just glad to know Raluca is strong enough to make up her mind from different point of views...

Just thought I'd clarify one thing: although you seem to think putting a dog down solves a tenant's problem when she can't find a place where she can take her dog along, in this case, I'm pretty confident Raluca would simply bring Marty back to me if she were not able to care for him anymore.

Gee, poor Marty, it's really not nice to be a pitbull these days. I'll go and give him a hug now...

[OntarioGreys]

Sorry if you feel that my comments made me sound as though I am anti Pitbull, because that is the last thing I intended


This is Lucy a pitbull mix , she was in an Ohio kill shelter and about to be put down, when I found out I paid the adoption fee and in the middle of a winterstorm, I made a 14 hour round trip 3 years ago to rescue her and also brought back 3 beagles for a beagle rescue in Toronto, she was 4 months old at the time, I then took her to the vet and found she was heartworm positive and had her treated, I was sick with fear thinking that she may not survive especially being so young and trying to keep her quiet during the treatment , I was only going to foster and rehome her, but my son and his girlfriend fell in love with her and she is now my granddog, and a very much a loved family member. Before I agreed to let my son and girlfriend adopt we did discuss BSL legislation and the impacts of legislation for example he could not take Lucy with him to visit his grandparents because of a breed bans, breed bans also meant restrictions on where you can live , I was not about to playdown the issues, I then told him to spend a couple days thinking about it, he then came back and told me he was willing to adopt her anyway and would do whatever was in his power to protect her, so I agreed to let him adopt her. Since owning Lucy he has been forced to move out of one city and and has been forced to move out of apartments because of landlords insurance policies, it is not just an inconvenience but moving costs money. When I discussed the issues of BSL with my son it was not to discourage him from adopting Lucy but to be sure he understood the responsibilities he was taking on, I wanted to be sure I did not risk my life to rescue Lucy's only to have her put down because of BSL laws. Often when BSL bans come into effect there are many owners who will take their dog and have them euthanized as an easy way out of their problemm instead of moving or making alternate arrangements to save their dogs life.

To me the best potential adopter of a pit bull is one who will educate themselves about BSL, understands how bans can be applied and is prepared to face the adversities that can result should they adopt

[Marie-France]

I found the book :[U]Good owners, great dogs[U], by Brian Kilcommons and Sarah Wilson very interesting as we were waiting to adopt our greys.

Enjoy it!

[Raluca]

Originally Posted by Marie-France

I found the book :[U]Good owners, great dogs[U], by Brian Kilcommons and Sarah Wilson very interesting as we were waiting to adopt our greys.

Enjoy it!

Great, thank you (and waiting I am...)

[Cymba's friend]

Jan Fennell's books including the dog listener.
http://www.janfennellthedoglistener.com/

[PetFriendly]

Originally Posted by Marie-France

I found the book :[U]Good owners, great dogs[U], by Brian Kilcommons and Sarah Wilson very interesting as we were waiting to adopt our greys.

Enjoy it!

I second that. Great book since it even talks about bonding with your new, older dog.

[Raluca]

Great, I will add her to my collection then. Thank you.