Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Shifting gears (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/)

-   -   Team-BHPians and their Pets (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/1153-team-bhpians-their-pets-392.html)

Hostility or aggression (as it's commonly misunderstood) is a factor of a lot of things. An Indie can be aggressive so can a Lhasa Apso and so can a GSD or a Pug and so on. As I am married to a professional dog trainer I've learnt that behaviour can be modified. However no matter which breed you get home, training is a must. Again how would you define 'protective'? Do you want to prevent unwanted folks from entering your premises? No matter which breed you select what you are asking for is contradictory. Intensive training will be required to ensure the dog understands boundaries. i.e. he/she should get the fact that guarding the house does not mean that your parents are not allowed in.

Depending on the our city look out for professional amd certified trainers. Focus on trainers who use reward based training methods rather than the so called 'police dog' trainers. 90% of training is you understanding your dog and it's needs and the rest of your command training. Any and every dog is trainable. How fast a dog picks up the training depends completely on how much you are invested in its training and how much time you spend practicing it with your dog. If you share your city details, I'll be happy to ask my wife to recommend trainers. My wife is a certified canine trainer and internationally certified canine behaviourist and has been training dogs for nearly 5 years.

And I'm not going to jump onto the bandwagon of adoption of indie dogs. I have one who came to my vets clinic and together we have rehabilitated her from a massive road accident. Adopting an indie who needs to be adopted is the right way to go about it.

1. Take him for a walk with a chain and neck collar. When he pulls you where you don't want him to go, yank him sharply with a loud 'No'. He would associate the vocal 'No' with the unpleasant yanking and the 'bad' behavior and over a period of time will not do that with just your 'No'.

2. Random barking: It is common with some breed when they are bored. Chances are he may get over that after some time when he gains maturity. A pup indulges in random barking to gain attention which is normal.

3. Leave him to sleep on the floor. Dogs can bear certain amount of 'hardship' without any harm. As long as the surface is clean, leave him.

Understand one thing with pets especially dog: Rearing them from the puppy stage is really a laborious painful business. We need lots of patience - more so than human children in some cases. Some breeds need little handholding while others need more.

Great input. I will send a PM and ask further questions, if you don't mind. By protective I meant a little apprehensive of strangers who just open the gate and come in. For example, hawkers and door to door sellers and of late just people asking for work.
I don't mean the dog to raise hell every time but alerting people inside the home about strangers at the gate is what I was looking for.

Here's another lock down adoption story which happened during the 1st wave of Covid 19, I had a pet dog during my schooling days which my parents gave away sighting I was not concentrating on my studies. Everyone wishes to own a pet, for some it might be a dog, a cat, a fish or even a bird. I was a dog guy ever since I fell in love with the 1st dog we had (I really really wish she is out there somewhere in good health).

My mom had apprehensions on adopting a dog, since she was bit by a street dog years ago. When Covid happened, I eventually convinced her in adopting an Indie puppy which was a couple of weeks old in June 2020. We chose this NGO close to our home who were handling rescue Indie puppies for adoption, we followed their procedures to adopt one of the puppies and bought him home, overall the experience was Meh with that NGO, as a necessity they should at least share new owners the basic do's & dont's in handling a puppy. I will restrict myself from sharing the org details.

Introducing Mayo aka The Dragon Warrior, hiding under the chair the moment we bought him home.





Mayo likes to







His favorite spot at my neighbors house.



His favorite spot at our house.



This was when we were constructing our house, my mom got connected with him a lot more with the typical Indian mom emotion "we are constructing the house only after Mayo came into our lives" rl:



Waiting for mom to return from the grocery shop, his eyes say "Where is mom?"



This was when we found out he was lactose intolerant and we were preventing him not to hurt himselves by scratching a lot, he is fully recovered now.



About Mayo

He is a skittish little fellow, is afraid of cycles, bikes, autos, anything that moves with a motor or makes sound. He follows a healthy diet of rice mush with vegetables and chicken liver 3 times a day, fully vaccinated but hates going to the vet, he does not allow them to touch him. Guards the house effectively by barking on strangers or on hearing someone opening the gate. Loves my mom the most, he just follows her everywhere, the kitchen, the terrace and the neighbors, he fully trusts her. It took him an year and half to trust his surroundings and us to be able to walk on leash for a longer distance apart from walking near the house compound.

Biggest Fear: The cylinder delivery man. lol:

I side with Mayo! The infernal racket those chaps make, I've been startled plenty of times too. Doesn't help they decide to come and toss around cylinders right when one's sleepy post-lunch.

Absolutely do share a PM anytime. I'll be happy to help in anyway possible.

I have a beagle (6 months old) and used to take him along wherever we travelled from the time he was 60 days old. Lately, he started peeing on the car seat. Though we use the car hammock, it does saves the seat from pee, but makes the car extremely smelly. The smell remains for a long time despite interior shampoo wash. I am just curious how you manage during travel. I am planning for a trip shortly and was thinking if I should take him along or board in a Kennel. But I am not able to imagine myself leaving him at a unknown place..

They can smell several thousand times better than us. It is likely your dogs thinks of the car seat as the toilet now. You will need to work on the toilet training carefully.

• Thoroughly shampoo the carpets, or even remove the seat for a few rides. You do not want the faintest toilet odor that would trigger the instinct in the dog. Remember, they have much better senses here. You cannot go by your smell test. Then do the below.
• Stop providing water 1 hour before the car ride.
• Take the dog for a walk where it normally goes to toilet.
• During the car ride preemptively take the dog to go to the toilet every one hour.

Your dog was probably young when he peed in the car. Puppies dont have great bladder control. It could also be a behavioural thing, like anxiety or excitement. It could be territorial if theres another dog in picture, but I dont think thats the case here. Our dog has never peed in the car. I always make sure she empties her bladder from time to time, also, she is a senior and has good bladder control. Still, I carry Lucy's bed in the car and dogs don't usually pee where they sleep. Secondly, to elminate the urine smell, you should use a strong spray like 'urine off', otherwise smell from his previous pee will urge him to pee again. Regular detergents or shampoo still leave a faint smell that can be detected by dogs. To some extent vinegar also works, but its best to get a professional product.

There are organic smell removers, some of which are specially made for pet smells. In my mother country you'd find a shelf of them at the post Shop, or even supermarket. Here, as a general smell neutraliser, I use odo-rite from Amazon. I think they make a pet-smell product.

There idea is to actually neutraliser/remove the smell, not just cover it with a different one.

My Lab is 16 months old and I live in Chennai. Except for short trips around the city/ECR, whenever we travel (max 3 days), we leave him at a place called Sam's Pawmates. He has adapted it to be like a second home as these guys take care of him well. They keep sending videos and sometimes I feel, he is much happier there than at home lol: Instead of punishing him/her on long drives, better to board, as I would guess, the pets also want to enjoy a different environment, free from our petting ! once in a while

Swami

Writing this post with a tinge of sadness.

Looking to re-home one of my cats in Bangalore.

Meet Romeow. He is a 5.5 years old neutered male. He is a big cat (~6.5-7 kg) and is a very loving pet to his humans



Bow in front of me humans!



He doesn't get along with his siblings and after far too many emergency visits to Cessna to get the other cats looked at - we have made the hard decision to find another suitable home for him.

He would be perfect in a single cat setup - preferably someone who has had experience with cats before.

We have extensive experience with Animal rescue as we were a part of an animal rescue group and have 3 other rescue cats with us. We have tried a lot of things including positive reinforcement, calming collars, re-introducing them among other things but there has been no impact.

Looking for a loving home for Romeow. Please PM me if you are interested or know someone who is.

PS: We are not looking to dump him to the first available caller - so please don't worry about his well being. Having to add this note due to relentless adoption shaming on Facebook groups.

Note to Mods: This is a post about my pet and I think this thread is the correct one. Feel free to merge it to another thread or new post if you think this is off-topic

That is one majestic looking cat. Hope he goes to good home.

I had a new addition to my family when I adopted "Laila" from Pune in May this year :loveit
Little bit of the story... I was looking to buy a pet but was advised by a good lady from Pune that we should adopt instead, and she promised to find a family (and kid) friendly dog for me. Few days later she sent pics and videos of a dalmatian and we quickly decided we are going to adopt her. The previous owner had left her (Laila) with a known couple and the owner migrated to UK. They had promised they'd get their pet after settling down, but even after 8 months, they did not bother contacting back the couple with whom they had left their pet. We did the adoption formalities, post which the vaccination and sterilization process was done and we were asked to wait for 2-3 weeks more. But just after this, the Covid 2nd wave struck and lock-down was imposed again. We were not able to travel and get Laila from Pune. I tried for the e-pass twice but my request was rejected each time. The caretaker there (a friendly young couple at Pune) were getting desperate as they already had 3 dogs and this 4th one was getting a little difficult to manage. So one fine day, May-end, I set off early morning to Pune, picked up Laila and drove back to Mumbai. I was stopped and fined Rs500 by the Pune traffic police for not having an e-pass but they were generous enough to advise "keep the pavti (receipt) safe, no one will now stop you till you are home"... and it was true... I was asked to stop at 3 other check-posts but as I waved the receipt, they let me pass by. The 500 was totally worth the spend :cool:

Introducing Laila


Cute and friendly






Even her nails are black and white


She loves to play with kids




My models


Laila was with us during our new car delivery


And she enjoys her drives very much !

1. & 2. Assuming your parents have some experience with dogs, a GSD could work for your needs. But remember it is a powerful working breed so will have to be trained accordingly. And by that I don't mean a 'police/army style trained' dog. I don't have any experience with Indies so can not comment on that but since the dog will primarily be with your parents having a predictable behavior should be preferred IMHO.

4. Be VERY CAREFUL around these guys, in case you end up getting a pup. One bad experience at a young age could greatly hamper it's personality. Also, given the fact that a lot of strays are unneutered only complicates the matter, they can be fiercely territorial. You could initially start by slowly introducing them to each other through the gate and see how it goes from there.