Pets

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TxCat
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Pets

Post by TxCat »

Old thread is located HERE.

This topic includes but is not limited to your favorite pet, pet behavior, care instructions or information, fun pet videos, breed bans, animal rights, and designer breeds.

Things your discussions might include:

- a picture of the pet (be reasonable and keep in mind that some folk have slower modems and older computers!)

- the history of that pet with your family (how you got him or her, what made you decide on that particular pet, research you may have done on the pet, any restrictions --- such as apartment living or allergies --- which may have impacted the choosing of the pet, etc.)

- things your pets can do (training, bad or good innate habits you noticed and trained or trained out, training tips and techniques, methods of dealing with behavior problems)

- other personal experiences with pets (as a groomer, breeder, trainer, vet tech, veterinarian, zookeeper, etc.)

- general educational measures (interesting links or videos WITH discussion, please...don't just spam the thread with whatever you find on YouTube)

- ethics issues

You can ask about health issues or behavior issues as we do have people in the veterinary field here on MS who may see the thread. Bear in mind, however, that if your pet is very ill your best bet will be to take it to a vet as soon as you can. The same is true for behavior issues. While we can advise you, if the problems are severe you should seek a professional's help.
You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant. Harlan Ellison

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Re: Pets

Post by Atuin »

There is something that really annoys me. And that is owners who do not pick up after their dog. I've been falsely accused twice of not picking up after my dog. And it doesn't help by giving the anti-dog Brigade an excuse to ban dogs from parks and beaches. It's an important part of dog ownership. The poop could contain anything and though children are un likely to pick any up, they might and it's a pain if you tred on it.

It's not expensive even to pick it up. I buy simple Nappy sacks from the supermarket and they work just fine. I, either carry them, or tie them to my dog's lead. Unless of course I can find a bin. Ideally one that specialises in dog poo.
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TxCat
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Re: Pets

Post by TxCat »

Atuin wrote:There is something that really annoys me. And that is owners who do not pick up after their dog.
No one wants to pick up dog waste, but it's absolutely essential to both human and canine health to do so in common use areas and in places where the population is densely packed. Some of the cities I've been to simply ask walkers to 'curb' their dogs (meaning, make them poo or pee in the gutter) but I far prefer some of the dog-friendly cities I've been to which actually have pick-up stations (little containers, often decorative on the outside, into which you throw the waste along with bags and tongs).

St. Augustine, which is nearby, has several such stations throughout the city. At their main tourist garage, they even have a water fountain and basin for public use from which dogs and other animals can drink. Since they also employ carriages throughout the city, they have larger stations for the horses and the owners of the carriages are required to have a device strapped behind the horse which catches the horse apples.

Beaches and parks are a different matter. Most of the beaches and parks around here do not allow pets even if they are on a leash. Down further south there is one beach park specifically for the dogs of which I am aware. This too has the pick-up stations as well as a designated area to which the dogs can be taken to do their business.

The pet owners who annoy me not only don't pick up after their animals but will allow them to do their business in others' yards. We don't have sidewalks out here and I don't have a yard as such, but I do have a fenced kennel area for my dogs. I pick up after mine; it annoys me to see great big piles of poo all over the place from the neighbors' dogs.

Picking up after your pet ensures the pet will be welcome again and will be viewed as a good citizen. I just don't see any valid reason for not doing so.
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Re: Pets

Post by Taliesen »

Let's see-on the general topic I currently have:

1 A Sharpei Lab cross-he weight about 70 pounds. Lovely dog, very friendly, adores everyone and a terrible watchdog (if you come to the door he sticks his head through the curtains on the front window and tries to visit you-but doesn't bark). He was one I rescued from the pound about 4 years ago and is a real sweetheart. He has the face of a Sharpei-but a black lab coat and ears.

2. A 4.5 year old Chihuahua-I "inherited" him I guess you could say. He actually belonged to my partner who passed away just about 19 months ago, so he's mine now. He's overprotective, yappy, a GREAT watchdog and I love him to death-but trying to get a Chi not to be yappy is proving to be a hopeless task. :lol:

3. My ferret-Gizmo. He's about five now. What can you say about a ferret? They're terribly amusing, very cute-and he and the Chihuahua love to play together. :lol:

On the question of picking up after your dog, in my opinion there is never ANY valid reason not to pick up after your own pet. It's poor manners at a minimum-and is a large part of the reason so many parks and other outdoor public places are "no dogs allowed". If you are a responsible pet owner, you need to clean up after your pets.

We are rather more fortunate here than it sounds like you are in your area TxCat. Our prior Mayor was a dog lover-so there are now several designated "dog parks" around town. They're all fenced and have "pick-up" stations with bags. He also had several of the "open space" hiking areas around the outskirts of town equipped with pick up stations with bags-so you can take your dogs out on the trails with you. It's really a lovely arrangement.
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Re: Pets

Post by Imposibibble »

Atuin wrote:There is something that really annoys me. And that is owners who do not pick up after their dog.
You know what's bad? My instructor (an RVT) brings her dog in with her to the class. He's a nice sweet dog, but he's getting old and senile. Half the time he just poops and pees wherever he is instead of the pad in the back of the classroom. Since it's the students' "role" to keep the classroom nice and clean, she makes US clean after her dog.
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Re: Pets

Post by TheTreeTurtle »

Imposibibble wrote:
Atuin wrote:There is something that really annoys me. And that is owners who do not pick up after their dog.
You know what's bad? My instructor (an RVT) brings her dog in with her to the class. He's a nice sweet dog, but he's getting old and senile. Half the time he just poops and pees wherever he is instead of the pad in the back of the classroom. Since it's the students' "role" to keep the classroom nice and clean, she makes US clean after her dog.
Know that is just downright insane.

I, personally, don't have any pets. So I won't be poking around in this thread anymore. However, my grampa's neighbor thinks it is perfectly fine to have 5 sh*t tanks that roam the neighborhood, taking large dumps in everybody's yard. He screamed when my granpa shot one of the dogs in the rear end with a low power bee bee gun.
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Re: Pets

Post by TxCat »

SilverSun wrote:I, personally, don't have any pets. So I won't be poking around in this thread anymore.
If you're not going to be participating in the thread, what is the point of posting in it, then? Please refrain from making such comments as they don't enhance discussion.
However, my grampa's neighbor thinks it is perfectly fine to have 5 sh*t tanks that roam the neighborhood, taking large dumps in everybody's yard. He screamed when my granpa shot one of the dogs in the rear end with a low power bee bee gun.
I would complain too. There are much better ways to handle things than shooting the animal, which I would consider last resort for far greater offenses (such as the pit bull next door who keeps coming after family members and trying to attack our dogs through their kennel fencing). Generally, talking to the neighbor is the first step and if that doesn't work you can always call in a complaint about the dogs being at large. Most cities will take the dogs on that alone, since most places have a leash law. I'd bet, since the neighbor lets the dogs run loose, that they're not up to date on vaccinations either which would pile on more fines. Many cities also charge the offenders with waste disposal and make them serve time in the community picking up those messes.

Unless your life is directly threatened or that of your pet's is directly threatened, I really don't think violence is an acceptable solution. Even then, I would only use enough force to break up the situation and get everyone to safety. Let the laws deal with the infractions; it's what they're there for.
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Re: Pets

Post by Wolfsister »

As far as picking up after pets, there's really no excuse. We don't typically have to worry about that, since we just take the dogs around the block occasionally and they make it back to the yard just fine. But previously, our last dog (my baby, lost at 9 years to lymphoma) got to a point where she could not control her bowels and had accidents all over the place. The one time that happened on a walk and I wasn't prepared, I walked her back, got a plastic bag, and walked all the way back down the road to just pick it up.

First time I've posted in a pet thread here, so a moment to brag about my baby: she was an Airdale Terrier, ridiculously smart, amazing personality. I swear she understood just about everything that ever went on, and you could not fool her. She was a devil, for sure, and a lot of work, but I am now forever spoiled by just how intelligent and unique she was.


Anyway, to my current pets: we have a cocker lab mix that belonged to my grandparents, and is now happy with us, along with a little Scotty boy that we got recently from a rescue that takes 'flaw dogs' from the legal puppy mills in the area. He hasn't been trained, because he kept getting worms and couldn't be taken to classes, but he's also a smartie.

However, after spending his first five months at that shelter with other puppies and limited human interaction, he doesn't quite understand the finer points of living in a house yet. He still bites when he plays, though he is apologetic. The cutest thing: the last time I let him chase me, and sternly told him to stop biting my ankles several times, he picked up a toy in his mouth and poked me with it instead every time he caught me.
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Re: Pets

Post by ryer »

Fluffy white cute 1yr old puppy here!
I always pick up after my doggy when we are outside. I don't understand why some people don't, it's not that hard to, takes literally 2 seconds to clean up ..
We never had a problem with toilet training for our doggy. I am just so grateful that she is so smart and considerate, we never "properly" trained her but the few times we did she got the point really fast.

The only problem we have with our doggy is she barks at every other dog and occasionally even other humans (with people it seems to be random, 10% of the time, the other 90% she loves the attention). She does have some doggy friends she meets every few days at the park but when we are driving or walking and she sees another dog, she yips and barks, even growls and if they try to come near she tries to run away. ?? lack of socialization? Not sure what to do since all the dog owners we meet don't really like to stop to let my doggy socialize. Anyone know what we should do?
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Re: Pets

Post by Buri288 »

On the general topic:
This is my cat Lewis (Full name: Lewis Severus Black).
He's a 3 year old (almost four, his birthday is April 1st) possibly American Shorthair, tuxedo colored and rather small in stature (he's only about 5 pounds, if that). His actual breed is unknown, because his parents were part of a feral colony. Looooong story ahead.
My aunt had a friend who owned a one acre property, and had a colony of feral cats living with her on it. She had brought two pregnant females from the colony inside her home so the kittens would be born safely. She had asked my aunt if she wanted any of the kittens, and because I had wanted my own cat after moving in with my grandparents, she asked if I wanted one too. Of course, I said yes.
So we went to her home, and she told us that only one litter was available because all but one of the kittens from the second had died for an unknown reason and she was keeping the surviving kitten.
Her husband would go into the room they were kept in and brought out one kitten at a time. None of them looked like each other. There were 6 total, and of that 6, there was two tuxedo colored kittens (one being Lewis, the other his sister who was a longhair and the only female in the litter), one orange with white patches (longhair), one dark brown with black ticking and a black M on his forehead, one all black and one light gray with patches of white (he became M&M (short for Milk Mustache), the kitten my aunt chose, named for the strip of white across his upper lip).
I chose Lewis because he was the most affectionate of the litter and wasn't as fearful of us as his siblings.
Three years later, he's driving me crazy with his bad behavior but I love him anyway.
I've managed to teach him how to sit on command, and he will occasionally come when called. He will also fetch his toys when thrown.
He's terribly naughty on a regular basis as I mentioned. He loves to knock food or drinks off the table, chew on the corners of my books/eye glasses/Nintendo DS as well as chew on cables. He chewed clean through my phone charger in three places and the AV cables for my PS2. I'm amazed he's never electrocuted himself. Unfortunately I have yet to find an effective method to get him to stop chewing.
He's extremely vocal. I took a video last year to show just how vocal he can be, which can be viewed here.
He's a food thief as well. I can't leave open glasses out or he'll try to drink out of them, and I don't dare leave chicken or turkey out in the open or he'll steal bits and run off with them.
Oddly enough he loves fruit too, particularly bananas and peaches, and will try to grab them out of my hand when I eat them. Anyone have any insight as to why that is, since cats supposedly can't taste sweet?
Regardless of his naughty streak, he's a very loving lap cat, perfectly happy living indoors despite coming from the wild. I adore him to pieces. I just wish he was a better hunter (there was a bout with mice in the house last year, and one got in my room. Lewis just chased it around and pawed at it, and it eventually got away).

I tend to lean more toward cats as pets than dogs, just because they've been much more prominent in my life. My family has had cats for years, starting with my mom's black longhair Shadow. After Shadow died, my mom waited til my sister and I were a little older and we got two kittens that we named Minnie and Daisy, both shorthairs. Minnie was white with black patches and Daisy was an orange tabby. Sadly my dad gave them away after only a couple years because he couldn't be bothered to clean their box properly and they started peeing all over the house. Now they have two different cats, George (Chartreux mix) and Pebbles (Tabby mix(?)), who were littermates. My aunt's always had cats, her oldest was a Polydactyl gray tabby named Thumbser, who died early last year. She has three cats currently, Oscar (orange tabby, oldest), M&M (Lewis' brother) and Missy (youngest, white with black patches).
My dad and his girlfriend also have three cats, Blanco (white purebred Persian, oldest), Tigger Too (Bombay mix) and Etta (youngest, unknown breed; was originally going to be my cat but plans changed and I couldn't keep her).

Almost all the cats my family has had are rescues in one way or another. I'm a firm believer that some of the best pets come out of rescue groups or shelters.
I also don't believe in declawing. I wouldn't like it if someone chopped off the first digit of all my fingers, so I wouldn't ever get it done to a cat.

On a last note, I've been thinking of going to school to be a Vet Tech. I'm wondering if anyone here is, and could maybe share experiences? I'm very curious about what it's like.
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