Dog truely is man’s best friend.

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Lately, I’ve personallybeen seeing dogs that are rather “locked up”.

This afternoon, I saw this rottweiler locked up inside the yard of a house, next to this church that i went to for sunday service. Deep down I knew this dog probably had been isolated for a while just by looking at the house. (OK, this might be jumping the gun but the house lawn looked like it hasn’t been mowed for months. I was making an assumption at this point that if the house owner/resident didn’t mow the lawn to this point, most likely the dog wasn’t taken of either.)

He looked rather curious about me approaching him. He paused and stared at me. I stuck my hand out so he can sniff (why? either cuz i’m stupid or i just love dogs too much.) He sniffed for a second or two, and as expected, he barked. I was startled a bit, and decided to walk away.

I also recently met a lady who had a shitzu / pomeranian mix that basically lives inside one of those doggy fence compounds that you build inside the house in a corner. She’s had this dog for 3-4 years and basically, that dog spends 18-20 hours behind the ‘bars’. She even made a pee area for the dog to pee on inside the confinement because she doesn’t walk her dogs. I asked her if she walks the dog, and her reply was, ‘no, that dog doesn’t need to be walked’. (Apparently, she never read my blog post about how there is no such thing as a dog that does not need to be walked).

When i reached for it, it snapped. It almost bit my finger. When the owner of the dog saw it, she said “it’s best if you don’t touch it. It bites a lot of people. In fact, it bites me sometimes too”.

Ok… I’m no dog guru, but I’m guessing these two dogs have the same problem due to same life condition: isolation. It’s a known fact that there’s a strong correlation between lack of freedom/isolation and emotional issues for dogs::

… “time out” works with children, but as a form of punishment it is not effective with dogs. It may actually backfire by contributing to even worse behavior when he is out of isolation. While isolation can be a preventive measure, it does not teach the dog how to behave which means that at some point he will have to be isolated again.

Why? Because for dogs, the time for correlating an accident to punishment is very short. If a dog pees in the house, you must IMMEDIATELY let it know that it did wrong. You cannot give delayed, nor prolonged, punishment. It has to be immediate and swift because that’s how our canine friends know when it did wrong.

It could be that the owner has overused the crate or other confinement techniques. It also could be that the owner thinks a yard is all the freedom a dog needs. If you live on a property of several acres or on a farm or ranch your dog probably has a wonderful life outdoors. However in urban areas most yards just aren’t big enough. (A scale for comparison would be the wolf in the wild that is estimated to travel as much as 90 miles per day.)

Solution: Dogs need change. They need to be in the house as well as outside, go for walks and rides, and have freedom and variety.

I would think that this is common sense. Who likes being locked up? No one. I’m certain dogs don’t either. All animals in nature are born to freedom, so it’s natural that we (as in, members of the animal kingdom) appreciate and thrive in freedom.

I don’t like being the dog cop, but sometimes I wish I could give people citation for stuff like this or for owners not picking up their dog poop. But, it’s people’s own prerogative. Who am I to point fingers and judge? All I can do is complain and blog about this… and share with you the phone number and address of these people so you can harass them if you particularly feel the need to do so.

*ehem*

ok, i’m an aspiring comedian so cut me some slack.

I just wish all locked up dogs would watch this video and find courage to make the prison break:

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It’s been some time since my last update and I’d have to say that I can no longer praise my dogs for good behavior while we’re away from the apartment.

Sigh. Pee pee in every corner AND on our bed is completely unacceptable. Coming home late at night having to clean up their mess was not fun at all and to think that they learned their lessons from us spanking them.

I couldn’t help but laugh when all three hid in the closet, but at the same time my heart softened when I looked at Cocoa and he would not budge even when I told him it was okay to come out. Before the closet, Lucky did an army move hiding behind the television. Brownie ran behind the coffee table and Cocoa dodged underneath the dining table. Comical dogs indeed. Sometimes three dogs are definitely a handful. A neighbor called out to me the other day asking if I wanted another one. Very funny, mister.

Anyway, I’m trying to figure out how to make a gate to keep them in the kitchen area while creating a pee area as well. If only those things weren’t so expensive. How do other folks with dogs in their apartment deal with the peeing and pooping situation? Anyone have any ideas?

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Slight error in description, but who’s looking anyway.

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… and I thought police K-9 dogs are awesome.

According to the German public broadcasting system WDR, a dog dug up a live American hand grenade from World War II on Sunday, June 7, 2009. The pup was taking a walk with its owner, a 40-year-old woman, in the German town of Erkrath, 5 miles east of Düsseldorf, sniffing and playing at a riverbank. He proudly presented a found treasure to his mom, letting go of it when asked. The owner, recognizing her dog’s trove as a rusty grenade, called the police and waited until the police arrived. A bomb disposal unit, assisting at the scene, evaluated the grenade as still in working condition and very dangerous.

Here’s the odd thing: how did the dog smell the grenade? If I presented a dog with a piece of scrap metal, I am certain he won’t just put it in its mouth and carry it home. My guess? Probably blood from WWII.

Dogs. Just amazing.

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