Thread: Dogs!

I can think of several steps before the final step.

I'll race ya to him. Whoever gets there first gets to go first.

HEEEEYYYYY! I wanna go too!

Nothing like sharing a bone with a buddy.

A little background is in order for this post:

For the last few years I had been contemplating on getting a dog. While I knew that I'd love the companionship there would be the hassle of having someone or someplace take care of my buddy when I went on a long ride on my Iron Horse.

Earlier last year my oldest daughter and I were talking and the subject of me having a dog came up and she said to 'Just do it' as they would house my buddy while I was gone.

So when I found Travis (who was listed as a mixed breed by the Human Society) I had presumed that he would be welcome at their home. However he tends to look a bit like a 'Pit Bull' and my son in law wasn't ---shall we say---'Enthusiastic' about having my dog at their home with their dogs and cats.

Well today my daughter asked if I'd like to come over and see their new Boxer pup and I said sure--but can I bring Travis to see if he and her husbands new Black Lab Pup would get along and she said sure.

It was a bit interesting to watch the two interact. The young black lab had only had 12-15 year old companions so they were a bit on the slow moving side of things and Travis would chase her and so she would bite at him. It all worked out as there wasn't any actual 'fight' it seemed to slowly become a bit of 'playing'.

My daughter wants me to bring Travis over more often so we can see how they continue to get used to each other. I suggested that we take them both to the Dog Park that the Humane Society has that I am authorized to use and she thought that would be a great idea.

Once they seem to be able to be left alone the next challenge is to see how Travis does with the two cats that reside at my daughter's home.

........

We had a pit bull and the only time I ever thought he was going to get into a fight was when a visiting dog came over. We were introducing them outside and things started to go well. We went inside and that dog looked at one of our cats as food and my dog's attitude completely and he was ready to fight for his pack. Their dog was still on leash, so we got the dog out of the house quickly. If I had it to do over again I would have had our dog on leash, too.

Your story just reminded me of it, I am not trying to predict anything.

Pitbulls get a bad rap. They are normally well behaved and sweet. Travis looks more like a dogue de bordeaux to me or possibly a boxer. Either way it is mostly unfair to judge a dogs aggressive tendencies by breed. There are of course exceptions. Whenever we have introduced a new dog we try to do it on neutral territory. That has worked well for us.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Here are my two boys Oscar & Boris earlier in the year hunting Squirrels in my local park, the younger dog Boris is a real expert in catching them, he's nailed so many.