Big Paws Only Dog Forums

So I've calmed down enough to tell this story finally. But I'm radically steamed. This is going to ruin my whole vacation week, I'm so pissed.

I got bitten last night. Yes, me.

No, it wasn't Roxie the Demon-Dog. I was scratching her sweetie pie chin when I got nailed from behind by the most dangerous biting dog known to man.

YES, I SAID IT.

It was a bloody Chiahuahua. Bit me right ON the Achilles tendon, the evil little POS. I didn't even see it coming across the street to nail me! The only reason he didn't break the skin is that I had on a pair of jeans instead of the capris I've been wearing to work all summer--we were moving a bunch of stuff around yesterday.

But talk about pain! Jesus, please us. I almost cried right there in the street.

Stupid *** woman--who of course in my neighborhood, wouldn't admit to even speaking English--didn't have the evil little bi**h--it was a bi**h, not and unneutered maleI picked its a** up and shook it, so I looked --on a leash!!!! I had my hands on it, shaking it by the scruff of it's misbegotten neck before she even realized her dog had attacked me. Then she comes running FROM ACROSS THE ******* STREET to scream at me in incomprehensib le Spanish, amounting to what I could understand with my excessively basic Spanish as "let go of my dog, insert Spanish cursing here."

Yes, she DID call me that. AFTER I WAS BITTEN. The...insert foulest possible cursing known to the Marine Corp...cow.

I couldn't get an address or even a name--she took off running down the street, and I could barely walk just then. But I've seen her with this rabid little POS walking around before, and it's almost never on a leash, and always aggressive. I limped home and called our local Animal Control; and was told that they would put the woman and the dog on a 'keep and eye out for' list. If I'm lucky, they'll catch her with the rat off leash.

I'm telling you, if I see either one of them again, I'm throwing that little POS right over the gate into Roxie's lot (she went BALLISTIC !) and calling 911, just before I beat the crap out of that...

insert previous cursing

...cow.

Everyone in the office thinks I'm being a big baby--my heel isn't even red--but it hurts like h*ll.

HATE STUPID PEOPLE AND THEIR STUPID VICIOUS RATS.         

I'm glad my overbearing opinionatednes s is entertaining. 

Dogs are so much better than me.

A 25 mg Benedryl puts me out like a light for HOURS. If I took 1 mg per pound, I'd be in a coma!

If you listen to his tagline, Cesar DOESN'T train dogs.

He trains PEOPLE.

The writer of the NYT article has an enormous Manhattan cockroach up his fundment--probably because he's misapplying the techniques he's tried to learn from watching the show. (I'd bet REAL MONEY on that.) He's also probably a trainer who's losing his own real money because people are being successful working with their dogs using Cesar's techniques!

Whether Cesar's "pack theory" has anything to do with how a dog thinks is entirely beside the point. I'm quite sure that wolves, coyotes, dingos, and dogs have a whole other way of thinking, and that as a human being, I'm going to have a very limited understanding of that mode.

The point is, most people DON'T GET THAT. The vast majority of people--particularly dog owners--have the mistaken idea that the way animals think is similar to the way humans think, but at a very, very primitive level. Most humans think "oh, the dog is like a 3 year old" and the proceed to act as if their 7 year old terrier terror is a human toddler, instead of a middle aged dog!

The "pack leader" is a Human thought. So is Alpha. They're absolutely arbitrary, entirely artificial concepts that allow the human mind to delineate the very clear difference between DOG as being and HUMAN as being. The issues that Cesar deals with are clearly situations where Human mind/emotional constructs are not working for Dog. An interface concept--Pack Leader--is required to bridge that gap.

By teaching Human (who IS the problem, 98% of the time! ) that there IS a difference and giving them an interface or translation concept to work with Dog, it becomes possible for Human and Dog to become partners.

We don't understand how Dog is thinking--anymore than Dog understands how we're thinking. I suspect that Dog-kind is generally convinced that Humankind is completely off our rockers, and we need to be protected from ourselves--not to mention from Wolf-kind, Bear-kind and the rest of the animal kingdom!

As far as Cesar's "Exercise, Discipline, Affection" technique, that's ALSO about human concepts. It's not all that different from the favorite technique on BPO, the NILIF plan. Affection is just one of the rewards that has to be earned.

Cesar Milan isn't the only dog trainer around, but he's certainly the most successful HUMAN trainer I've ever seen. Animal behaviorists have their place, but are very often unnecessary if you just follow a consistent EDA or NILIF plan, in my opinion.

Like Stella and Mari, I've been bitten--in fact, I think the only dog I ever had that NEVER bit me was my Nicki! My mother would just look at me and say, "Were you being stupid with the dog?" And the answer was yes, of course--I was that kind of kid.

My cousin-in-law Amy doesn't even allow her children to be in a room with an animal of any kind unless there's an adult present. (Except fish; but she's not real happy about her kids being in a room with a 100 gallon aquarium. She's afraid they'll pull it over or climb up and fall in.)

I think the questions here reflect the fact that every parent has a different definition of what the word risk means in relation to their children. I don't have any kids of my own, but I have skads of 'nieces and nephews.' And about 85% of my friends have a much...narrowe r...definition of risk than I do. It's why I'm a favorite aunt of so many of 'mine.'

Figuring out where those boundaries are is the most important part of being a parent, and of being a fur-parent. And we're all going to misjudge those boundaries at some point, because we're all imperfect, you know? 

I think the most important question everybody comes here to ask is "am I doing (did I do) the right thing?"  The range of really thoughtful responses everybody gives to each situation is what I think really makes this a great place!

Clearly, you misunderstand.

You can keep The Evil Bunnies and their poos.

We're coming for the Big Dirty Dogs. 

No carrots tonight

If you take away our spies' carrots, we will just give them WATERMELON instead. Now that the bunnies have talked, we plan to use them in our nefarious white dog 'napping plot...

Have you tried keeping her on a short lead at all times and tethering her when she misbehaves?

When my uncle's saints went thru this phase, he kept their short lead on at all times, and found several places thru out the house where he could just tie the tether, and put them in time out and walk away. He would correct them, and then tether them and nobody was allowed to go near them until they settled. Then he'd go and take them back to the point where they challenged him, and make them submit.

Just a thought...