A lesson learned

We decided to take two dogs in from a fellow humane society member who was transfered to Wilmington for six months on short notice.

Honey, a shepard mix and Jack, a dalmation mix.

Both dogs had been chained to a dog house their entire lives.

Both dogs about a year and a half old.

Was about a half hour drive one way to this members house, so instead of taking close to two hours a day trying to take care of them, brought them to our house.

Jack was a horror. Very loving dog, but SO much energy tied up. When you even got close to him, he was all over you like glue and wouldn't let up. he goes a good 70 lbs, and at times, didn't know his strenght. First couple of days going over to this members house, Jack was a monster of all sorts. Would wrap you up in the chain he was tied on, would not listen to you at all. Tried to take him for a walk, and he would go 120% trying to pull you all the way.

Honey had apparently been abused. Would bark and growl when you got near to her on the chain, then when you got about three feet from her, would curl up in a ball and shake vigerously (sp?).

The member told us that Jack would on occasion brak loose and run wild in the woods behing their house. Luckily his chain would get tied up on a tree and he couldn't go anywhere.

Same story with Honey as far as getting loose of the chain.

Already having three dogs of our own and another two in foster care, we decided that there was no way we could start training these dogs to come into our house. First week, they spent time out in a dog house about 200 yards behind the house in the pasture. Following week, brought them in to our gated fenced in area that we have for our dogs with dog houses. Then last week decided to put a training collar on Jack and Honey and try to "intragate" (sp?) them with our dogs.

In less than a week, cannot believe the difference between these two dogs.

At first, had to use the shock mode on jack three times in the first hour, since then since a week ago, only the audible mode. With Honey, only the audible mode.

Both dogs are starting to "come out of their shell". Honey loves playing fetch with the other dogs as well as Jack. Neither will go off two far, and if they do, call their names, they come running right back to you.

Dogs are now crated in the garage at night, no issues, but left out in the fenced in area during the day, then left out of the fence to play with our dogs and the other two "fosters" during the day.

I really can't believe the difference in personality in these two dogs.

Amazing what can happen when you don't keep a dog tied to a tree all of it's life.

Good looking dogs you got there DZ. Good job!

Thanks Doc. The hard part is trying to get them a part of your family and becoming well behaved, the real hard part is finding a good family and them letting them go.

One more of those two I was talking about. Funny thing is that until we got them, they never came into contact with each other.

How tall of a fence do you have for your dogs??

The fence is about 4.5' tall. Keep in mind, some of the dogs we've had have been able to get out of the fence by jumping up, putting their front paws on the "railing" then using their hind legs to push them over the fence.

Some dogs seem "inherintly" (sp?) good at getting over the fence. Jack is one of them. When he's out in the fenced in area, we do keep him on the chain so we know where he's at during the day. Honey as no inclination so far to try to "hop" over, but since we keep them both out at the same time, we chain honey as well (seems only fair to us).

Funny, put our dogs in the fenced in area with other dogs that we've had in the past that we've learned could "hop" the fence, those dogs stay in the fenced in area with our dogs. Jack is a prime example. Leave Jack and Honey in the fenced in area alone, Jack will try to get over the fence to get to the house and door. Put another three dogs in with Jack and Honey, Jack won't leave the area.

Dogs can be "interesting".

When we bought the house and property, we only had our dogs, and the fenced in area was for them for a place to put them so we would know where they were at during the day. Those dogs have no inclination to try to get over the fence so we thought we were "safe".

That said, can't say enough about those training collars. Have five of them, and at times, seems worth their weight in gold.

I have the trouble with my siberian huskys one of them is collar smart since about day two, if the collar is on, she is an angle if it is off the devil in her comes out. We have a 4ft tall fence around 3 acres for them to play in when we are home we have a smaller area for them to stay in when we are not home .5 acre. They do well and are happy. The alpha female will pick on our older male she is 2 he is 6 any ideas how to stop this problem??

Very nice dogs by the way. we also have dogs from the shelter.

Good for you dude! I tried adopting a dog a while back. He was almost a year old and had spent his young life tied up under a deck. I put more work into that animal than I have ever put into any animal. Obedience training, daily walks, play, I even tried to get the so called “dog whisperer” to come to WV and help us. Unfortunately I guess I didn’t do enough, or do it right; I had to get rid of him. I did place him with the Cane Corso rescue group but I still felt horrible about not being able to keep him. I wish you the best of luck in your efforts, good job!

Joe,

Great job on taking these dogs in and taking care of them!

mbsieg said:

any ideas how to stop this problem??

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Is your issue with the collar or keeping them in the fence? If it's to keep the dogs off the fence, here's what I did which worked well (on my Siberian Husky/Shepard and Samoyed/Shepard)

My fence was welded wire stapled to split rail. The dogs would either go over or dig under the fence.

I then installed an electric fence approximately 16" in from the fence and about 16" up from the ground and used a smaller version of a horse/cattle electric fence controller. I can't find it now, but there's a lower voltage version for dogs and other smaller animals.

If the dogs tried to go over the fence, they got zapped in the belly. If they tried to go under, they got zapped on their back.

Brian, thanks. Funny thing about your post, I'v had a couple of thoughts of doing what you did to your fence to mine, but got to much stuff going on right now to address it.

Mbsieg, we had a huskey in our care for six months. We just got some more pictures back from the family who took him, he's doing great with two other dogs and a small girl. Huskey's seem like a unique breed. People fall in love with the way they look, but they can be, from both our personal experience and from what we've read, hard to "train". Very independent and smart. Balto (huskey's name) was also one of the FASTEST dogs I have ever seen. Ours (huskey) did not like cats (horror stories there). From what you've described as far as the two year old being dominant over the six year old, seems like a cause could be due to the age differece. My wife only had a yellow lab when I met her. We then found an Aussie mix young female (about 6 months at the time) and the lab was 5 at the time. The Aussie would end up bugging the crap out of that lab. Aussie just kept going and going and the lab would tucker out. Got kind of aggrivating for the lab at times. Then I ended up finding an abandoned beagle mix pup iin 100 degree weather. Really didn't want to bring her home, but felt so sorry for her looking at her, thinking she was dead. Well, three years later that beagle mix is still a part of the family. Bringing her into the "mix" made a big difference. Close to the same age as the Aussie mix, and then those two could go at it for hours and hours, and the lab could be left out of it unless she wanted to "join in". Keep in mind, Labs are uaully laid back, and Aussies can have a lot of energy. Then you have to look at the breed of the dogs as well. Huskey's usally have a lot of energy.

elsmitro, you tried, that's more than a lot of other people do. We've been lucky so far as not to get any "hard core troubled" dogs into our care (luck of the draw that sooner or later will have to end perhaps). Honestly, after the first three days with Jack tied up over at the other house, I was seriously considering what our options would be if we could not control him (he was at the point where two other society members would not even go over to the house because they were afraid of him). Sad fact is not every animal can be saved, then if you take them in, what if you can't find an adoptive family because they are to rough and hard to train? I'm not an expert, flying by the seat of my pants at times, and I have a full time job. Only so much I can do, however, it was very satisfying (sp?) to see these changes in Jack and Honey to the point where it feels like I've accomplished something good.

Keep in mind, we have some great dogs up for adoption (that American Staffshire Terrier with the red ball in her mouth running away from Honey in the first pic has been in our care for over a year now, she is the most loyal, trained and obeidiant sp? dog that I've ever had, better than my own dogs, but due to her breed, is very hard to pace), so if your ever looking....

Funny thing about that Staffshire, she very loving but will only take so much crap from other dogs. We've had a couple of dogs that we brought in that had difficulties with other dogs because they were always the alpha dog and could be "mean" at times. Put them in the mix with Lexi (the Staffshire) and if they pushed Lexi to far, Lexi would always put them in their place. We're very careful about this, and will never put Lexi in a position to do harm, however dogs will be dogs and they have to learn their place in the pack. When I ever find her a home, I'll probably cry for a couple of weeks.

Yes I have the electric fence you talked about it works very well and do not have a prob with the dogs getting out. My prob is with the alpha female. We love her way to much to get rid of her. sometimes it is very frustrating when she is bulling the other dog around. My question was how to cure the collar prob or is she just to smart for it??

mbsieg said:

My question was how to cure the collar prob or is she just to smart for it??

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Is it a shock collar for an invisible fence or a shock collar for obedience?

It is for obedience.

If she's an angel when it's on and the devil when it's off, I guess you're going to need to leave it on... A good zap when she starts picking on the other dog. The 2 of them already know who the alpha is so she doesn't need to rub it in and beat on the older dog.