I love my dogs...

[rockncook]

I almost posted this in "Humor Me" cause it is really funny...

 

All of my dogs have been trained to be guard dogs. I have an incident in my past that makes me a wee bit paranoid, but I feel much better knowing that anyone who intended me or my children harm would have to get past the dogs first. They have "odd" commands that the average weirdo won't figure out, and I work them often.

 

Ido is a 3 year old red heeler, so she instinctually will protect her herd, us. I have always had to work with her more than the others because she was abused as a pup. She hates men (took her years to not be scared of DH) and is a biter. Socializing her has been difficult, but we do a little bit of work often. I fear she will always see strange men as a threat, and she's confined to the yard and always supervised outside. She's responded well to leash training so we're muzzle shopping so we can try to expose her to more people without her feeling so threatened or protective. However, if a threatening stranger was around, we'd be safe.

 

Joe is a 2 year old Rhodesian Ridgeback/Pit Bull mix. Working him results in bruises and back aches cause he weighs 120 lbs. We got him young enough that his training has been relatively easy. We still have some fence jumping issues, but at this point he would only "attack" on non-vocal command.

 

Navajo is a 14 year old Golden REtriever. He's our old man. He has been a constant companion to a 12 year old girl that he worships, but as he's gotten older, he's passed that duty on to our Belgian Shepherd, Chichilla. He's quite put out that the 12 year old is now old enough to go out without any doggie protection.

 

These three, mainly, have become VERY protective of me now that I"m pregnant. Ido follows me everywhere, often heeling me to where she thinks i need to go. If it's cool enough, you'll find her in bed with me, stretched out along my belly. If the baby kicks, she grunts and re-arranges herself. I can't go to the bathroom without Ido as my companion.

 

OUtside, however, is Joe's domain. If I'm out gardening, he's laying in the grass just a few feet away. If we're eating outside, he's close by.

 

Once I start working with him, though, the gentleness goes away. Of course, he needs the energy expenditure, and he's still young, so he gets excited. I've had to scale back quite a bit-it's hard to brace yourself for his jumps when your center of gravity has changed, LOL. But that's where Navajo comes in. If he's outside while I'm working Joe, he gets in between us and won't let me "play." Apparently, that type of thing is far too rough for my condition, LOL. He has actually gotten physical with Joe to stop the play.

 

Despite all of their rough training, my dogs really are big babies. When it's cold, they all want in the bed, and the biggest ones, Joe, Navajo and Chichilla, are afraid of thunder, so when a storm comes, we're all huddled together on the floor. If Joe's upset about something, he'll crawl in to my lap and lay his head on my shoulder. It's still so hilarious to see them being SO protective of me right now. They scare everyone who comes around, although Joe is happy to see any child, and Kayla, our old lady, has been asked to come to the school repeatedly to visit the kids. Everyone thinks they're so fierce, but they are really just huge babies who won't let Mom go to the bathroom alone, LOL.

 

OK, just had to share. It's cute and I'm proud!

 

Mommy of Six plus five big babies

[Bamboo]

Cute story.... what would we do without our pets.... mine is a 13 pound Maine Coon cat.... her nick name is fluffy butt... lol.

[Linda]

don't ya just love the pets....

i know we love ours ....

 

ours really impressed me when we had all the kids firls over for that overnight camp out ... i kept our two out side with us and they stayed in the yard instead of running off ; they kept making their rounds along the fence, going up and checking on each of the kids, then coming over to lay down for about an hour to do it again.

[Guest Guest]

Cute story Mommy of 5. Ido sounds just like our Missy, who is a red heeler, sheltie mix. She absolutely will not make friends beyond me, Cavey and my Mom. She doesn't bite, but will snap if someone tries to force a petting on her. Someone did a number on her as a pup. She's very protective of us, and is so smart it's scary. Spider, Missy's nickname is Fuzz Butt cause her pants get so long in the winter.

[Alawyn]

Sounds like you have great dogs,Mommy of 5....Let me tell you a bit about mine;

 

Buster, is a black and white male 3 yo Siberian Husky. He was my first. He loves everyone and hasn't a mean bone in his body. He is a great lead dog for my sledding team. Very smart and a hard worker. He has a great sense of humor and likes to play ball. He's a master at keep away and tag. Buster has pretty ice blue eyes.

 

Kia, is a red and white female 5 yo siberian husky with blue eyes. She also loves everyone. I think Kia might have been a bit mistreated before I got her. I could see her ribs and she would duck away from my hands. She is the perfect weight now and doesn't duck away. Don't try to take anything away from Kia, she might bite you......Kia almost puts a racing harness on herself, all I have to do is hold it up for her...

 

Buster and Kia have won the first place season trophy for 2 dog sprint races for the last 3 years..

 

Sasha, is a brown and white Siberian Husky/Alaskan Malmute mix....and the person I got her from said she has some wolf in her, sometimes I believe him, sometimes I don't.......Sasha will be 2 yo the 3rd of August. Although I have worked very hard to socialize Sasha she is extremely shy of strangers. She is my watch dog and lets me know when we have company.

 

Esky's Nanook of Kahn, is a black and white male 2 1/2 yo AKC registered Siberian Husky. Nook, as we call him has been with us for a week now. He has loads of energy and loves everyone. Nook is just learning to pull, he's been mushing 4 times now. He loves it and spends most of his day near my truck afraid I'll go and he will be left home. I think Buster and Nook will be my 2 dog race team this season....

 

I love my dogs and they love me. They all love to go and scream if they think they are going to be left home. I spend most of my time with my dogs in the woods running trails either on wheels when there is no snow or on snow when we can. My DW thinks I'm crazy for becoming involved in what she calls an extreme sport at my advanced age....

 

If you would like to see an mpg of my guys in action go here http://www.vanbrunt.com/scooter.mpg

 

It's a rather long download, but if you have cable or dsl it's not bad.

 

 

Les, AKA Sonny

[rockncook]

oh how funny! I will try to load the pics when I have more time, I'm on dial up, LOL.

 

I love hearing about everyone's dogs...they are just so darn cool!

 

My cats on the other hand...they are useless creatures, hehe, at least in the summer. They do make good bed warmers in the winter, cause they stay there all the time! Both of them used to be good hunters, and Onyx will hunt now occasionally, but he's become much to much of a diva to lower himself to hunting very often. We call him the Queen because he's so posturing and grand in his behavior these days. My older guy, Sahrjenka, I just let do his thing; in the 8 years I've had him he's been a good boy.

 

Thanks everyone for sharing your stories, they made my day!

 

Mommy of Six

Who's wishing it was October, or at least cooler!