Thread: Tell me about dogs

Why isn't your dog spayed??? What do you plan on doing with the puppies if she is preggers??

The only sure way to know is to have an experienced person feel her tummy and let you know (even then it's not 100% certain unless you get x-rays) You'll definitely notice as time gets closer, a dog's justastion period is only 60 days. Her teets will be big and long and her belly will be saggy.

My dog acted weird when my cat had kittens (the gal I bought her from TOLD ME she was spayed grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr) he wasn't sure if he should stomp them or to love them. He never hurt them, he just liked to mess with them a lot. I would just keep an eye out.

If she is pregs, please start looking for homes for the pups now, plan on getting them neutered/spayed and plan on getting the mom spayed right after!!

Thanks!
I haven't had her spayed mostly because of the cost. But we're about to be living at our "Farm" which is over 83 acres, so I'll probably keep all of them. My kids and I love animals but going to the vet is problematic (none are nearby). When my town has another free spaying/neutering day I'll take them to it (they usually have it once a year). I vaccinate them myself (I just get the supplies from Southern States (or is it Southern Farms lol- I always get those two confused).

Well, there are several free spay/neuter clinics as you said I also know that some states have a "Spay yo' Momma" program which offers spay to the mom and fixes all the pups for a very low cost; perhaps your area has this, I'm not sure. I guess just try your best to get them all fixed if you can. I just get saddened by all the orphaned puppies and kitties out there. 83 acres makes up for that though so it sounds like they will be in a good place. Good Luck! Let us know how it turns out...

Unfortunately, I live in a very small town so we don't have any big programs for pets out here.
My animals love the Farm but it's hard on the cats. I've already told my kids to expect to lose half of the new kittens. I'll keep them in the basement, for the most part, until they're ready to be weaned. After that, though it's a matter of survival. There are coyotes and wild dogs as well as the occasional bobcat and bear.
My dog loves it though because it's just more for her to "hunt" (but why she thinks she can take down a deer is beyond me lol). And the cats love hunting the birds and rabbits.

Another question:
My dog refuses to use her doghouse. WHY?! It's been pouring down rain and she just sits in it. She was afraid of the house in the past because it blew over from high winds a few times. But I've stablized it and it hasn't blown over for quite a while and now she has nothing to do with it. I've tried putting her food in it and everything.
Any other suggestions?

My dog is definitely pregnant and probably expecting any day now. She's showing a LOT. The funny things is, she tore up all the grass around a tree and now she hates getting on the grass. I think it's "nesting" behavior.
I hope she holds on until we get to the Farm tomorrow! I don't want to transport new puppies because it would be stressful for both they and mom.
She has at least 6 teats. I hope she doesn't have a large litter. Someone once told me you can tell the size of a litter by counting the teats. I haven't officially COUNTED them lol, but I guess we'll see.

Originally Posted by Zhaylin

Am I ascribing too much intelligence to her? Does she really not know the difference between a kitten and "common" prey?

She may just recognize the kittens as babies. I've read of dogs raising kittens that were abandoned by their mothers. I even remember a Golden Retriever nursing and raising a litter of wildcats. I wouldn't leave a kitten with her unsupervised though until I was sure!

I know my dog, a Pomeranian (though my Husky used to do it too), recognizes the critters in the yard and knows which of her toys depict them. Dogs are really much smarter than a lot of people recognize. She gets so excited by squirrels and bunnies in the yard, because she has both in realistic stuffed animals, the ones the AKC puts out. And she'll go right to the same stuffed animal when she comes in after seeing a real one outside. And she has a lot of stuffed animals, many of which she'll never see here. Like... oh... a buffalo. Maybe if I take her to a zoo! She'd probably like that.

I can't help with the pregnancy stuff, as she was speyed as soon as it could be done. She's my first female dog.

Editing to add: Dogs are very good with language recognition too, if you talk to them regularly. Lily knows the names of all her stuffed animals too, and will most of the time go and get the one I ask for her to bring me, unless she's got a decided preference to play with a different one. But it takes talking to them so they can recognize the words. Shaman used to know different words for front and back doors, and for whether I was going to bed, or to the craft room, or the computer room when I went down the hall from the kitchen... he'd lead me! He also used to ring the doorbell to come in when I tied him on the front deck for his beloved sunbaths. Lily's too short for that one, but probably smart enough. They are wonderful companions, really!

Wow. Your dogs sound awesome!

I truly think Brooke wants to eat the kittens. I took another out to show her and she did the whole teeth chattering thing again. So I held her mouth closed and brought the kitten closer for her to smell seeing how Brooke is friends with the mom. She made a swat for the kitten lol I turned just in time and the blow was a powerful one. She barely scratched me but the bruise lasted for about a week.

Brooke is so funny. If I leave in the car, she's perfectly fine. But if I walk to my hubby's house (maybe 150 steps), she goes crazy barking. If I go anywhere within eye shot she goes crazy barking.
When I get home from driving somewhere, she'll run toward me as far as her chain allows and start wimpering... then she'll run as far possible toward the field and start barking to tell me that she sees a deer (usually) or some other animal.
Last night she was going insane barking because a possum was just under the RV eating the cats food

I always thank her for warning me and she usually stops carrying on. Not last night though. She wanted to eat that possum lol. When I tell her in a firm voice to "go to bed!" she rarely barks any more. But she'll whimper for a while as if to say "Mom yelled at me, it's not fair."

I wonder if dogs would be allowed at some zoos. My dog would go bananas though So much to chase and eat... so little time...

Hi Zhaylin,

Oh, Lily is a barker too... I think small dogs really do more barking, just because they figure they'll ward off attacks with noise, since they can't do it with a show of force. My Husky hardly ever barked, except at a dog passing in the street if he was tied out, or a stranger walking into the yard from the street. He never barked indoors. Lily barks at everything, especially when the windows are open.

I was kind of kidding about the zoo. I'm sure if they were allowed, they'd have to be leashed! They'd be eaten more likely than eating. Lions, Tigers and Bears, oh my. I have seen a stroller for small dogs, that I'm tempted to get one of, so I can take her to art and craft shows on greens or concerts in the park. It's totally enclosed with mesh, so she could look out, but not get into any trouble. She might like that.

Brooke probably knows that if you're going in the car, you won't take her, but if you're going on foot, you might be convinced to. Lily gets upset if I go out the back door without her, but not if I go out the front door or down the basement stairs. For similar reasons. Lily sleeps in an oversized dog carrier with her bunny, so I don't have to worry about stepping on her in the middle of the night. She likes it in there, and took right to it. It's her cave. She's so small, even though she's big for a Pomeranian. They're generally under ten pounds, but she weighs thirteen. I think she's at full weight now. Shaman weighed 75 pounds as an adult, though he lost about twelve pounds when he got cancer.

Dogs are great! I couldn't have dogs when I was married because my ex was afraid of them because of a scary incident as a child. We had cats then. When I got divorced, I decided I could have a dog again. I had Irish Setters when I was a kid.

Well, I'm off to bed early, as I want to do Reiki and meditation before I drift off to sleep... dream well!

My dog had her pups about 5 weeks ago. She had 6 but one was accidentally killed by her (covered with sand while she tried to get comfy, I presumed).
She's weaning them and she's been a great mom with one possible problem.
She becomes extremely aggressive when they try to eat the puppy food while she's eating. I popped her and told her to be gentle the first time I saw it, but then I wondered if that was the right thing to do.
It's almost comical to watch. She haunches down over the food and starts growling. It's very low at first, but if the pups don't back off, she growls more loudly.
I couple of the braver pups tend to stand their ground. And one day, one of the pups went over to her and licked the drool from moms mouth (she was behaving THAT aggressively). It was almost as if the pup was rebelliosly saying "You don't scare me, mom." lol If they press their luck, as the one did, she snaps and barks at them and sends them running into the dog house.

She's never shown any aggression toward her food in the past. She shares with the cats and the kittens and I can take food away from her with no qualms (well, she whines, lol, but she doesn't become mean).
Because of those things I wonder if she's teaching the pups to respect her alpha position?
Is such behavior natural for dogs? Should I try to stop her, or continue letting her "discipline" the youngsters?

We have 3 girls and 2 boys. One of the girls is all black and she takes after mom- anytime someone approaches the doghouse, she'll bark and growl until she sees who it is, then it's play time. Her name's Raven.
Then there's an all black male. He's pretty laid back and is the largest of the pack, so I named him Bruiser.

Then there's the male I adopted as my own. He's black with a tiny white patch on his nose, chin, stomach and feet (I think). I named him Snuffaluffalots He was born sniffing to hunt lol and was always sniffing at things more than the others.

Then there's Zee's pup, Nicky. She's all black with a patch of white on her chin. Zee thought she was a boy at first and wanted to name her Pierre. When she found out otherwise, we told her to call the pup Pierra lol. Zee didn't like that idea at all! And neither did the pup who constantly stuck out her tongue when the name was said (or so it apeared ). So then I told her to call it Raspberry. The other kids joined in and said to name her Perkunkle After almost four weeks without a name she finally settled on Nicky.

Then there's Destinee's pup, Courage. She's all black with just a couple white strands on her chest.

I think that's all of them My son Ray adopted Bruiser as his own and Myles is stuck with Raven. But Raven is turning out to be a favorite of everyone because of her personality.

(Sorry I've not been here for so long. I finally moved and the modem I had for the Vista didn't work and hubby's Windows laptop took a trillion years to load. Tonight I got the Mac up and running, so I should be here more regularly now)

Hmm, your dog sounds like one of my dogs. He hates puppies.

We recently bought a female ridgeback to breed with our male...He wasn't very receptive to her at all, would growl and bark if she got close. After a month they've warmed up to each other tho

But that's just the thing- she loves animals and is a good mom otherwise.
Now that the kittens are a little bigger, she no longer thinks they're snacks lol.

I've convinced myself that she's teaching them pack respect... but they're pets, not wild creatures in the heart of Africa. There's more than enough to eat. So, is it a behavior I want to discourage or is it simply in the animal's nature to observe certain instinctual "rules" no matter how domesticed? I just don't want the pups turning into dogs and biting off someone's hand if the food dish is touched during a meal.



Is the female expecting? Do you get to keep one of the pups?

Often times the mother is stricter with the pups than an owner would be. This is what a breeder told me. It's probably just pack respect they are learning, often the mother will bite their mouth to tell them they are doing something wrong.

My female is only 3 months old, generally you want to wait a till they are at lest a year old although dogs go in heat every six months. We are going to need to find a place for her to stay in about 3 months because there is no way shes going to be left alone while in heat. The father of one of my dogs apparently jumped a 6 foot fence to get to their mother when she was in heat, so you really gotta keep them in different places.