Show us your pets!

While I do have a certain measure of sympathy for DevilDog's reaction, nonetheless, a shih-tzu is a toy dog. I wonder if throwing it across the county so that it could break two legs was necessary to teach it a valuable lesson. Here's another thing, and since everyone I know has children and even grandchildren, I'm not living in a box. I know that it's impossible to be up your child's butt all the time, but in light of the ever increasing incidence of such events, should an infant EVER be left alone with ANY animal? Ever?

Look at the little girl who got tangled up and died recently by the family dog dragging her around like a toy, after the family got home and the parents were occupied unloading the vehicle and trying to keep track of multiple kids as well. Why did that infant get to a point where it was AWAY from an adult's line of sight? Why can't the location of the infant and the family dog take precedence over everything else, until it can be assured that both, especially the infant are in safe, harmless locations, and within the line of sight of at least one adult? It only takes seconds, and oftentimes, those seconds are the result of an adult thinking that "everything's okay."

Everything's not always okay, and one never knows exactly what happens when an infant or toddler is left alone with a pet. Kids know how to cover their asses (I di'n' do nuffin'), especially when bad things happen, and not every family pet can be expected to react so benignly as Stickman's granddaughter's pit bull. Pull on a shih-tzu's lips and ears and it might not react with such self assured passivity as the abovementioned pit bull. Adults need to keep more of an eye on their infants and small children, even if it means other activities are affected. What's more important than making sure that your infants and toddlers are safe, especially when animals are around?

Yup, that's the deal. I remember being taught certain things as a young child, at camp, when my mother took me to visit people in the country or farms, or even when I met people's dogs. I also learned some things on my own, because I've had cats for most of the last 39 years or so. And as any cat owner knows, if you have any notion that the phrase "domestic cat" has any application to the fluffbat purring in your lap, they have ways of showing you it's really all bullcrap. That fluffbat in your lap really isn't all that "domestic." :cryinlaugh: umpkin: umpkin: :cryinlaugh:

Certain things like never, ever walking closely behind a horse are one of those silly little, but oh, so important rules of being around animals that I learned early on. Also, something I learned a couple years ago, don't get between hippos on land and the water. If the hippos start moving back toward the water, and you can't jump in a truck and hightail it out of there, you're dead, and you'll soon be croc food. mg:

Now I know this is a generalization, but as a rule of thumb, the smaller the dog, the less I trust it with my kids. Now I know some small dogs that are ok, but usually they tend to be more nippy (napolean complex or something) and are more tense then larger dogs. I think the smallest dog I would ever get would be a Boston Terrier, and they too are still a little on the small side for me. I like big dogs. The kind you can wrestle with or lie on and they don't get intimidated. Now I would never let Cody be in a room with Daniel alone, but I still trust that the worst thing that he would do to Daniel is lick him to death. Now when he gets older, he may want to pull in Cody's ear or tail and I'll have to correct that, but if the kid knows better, they deserve what they get. My daughter has been warned by Cody many times to knock it off, sometimes she still doens't get it. I pay her no mind if she is looking for me to yell at the dog because she was bugging him and wouldn't back down.

My nephew wasn't an infant or a toddler. He was 10.
And my throwing the dog wasn't to teach it a lesson, it was to kill it.

Sorry if that offends anyone.
I was just trying to protect my nephew from any further attack. The sight of his blood all over the place sent my into a frenzy. I would do it again if I had to.
Again, sorry if that offends anyone.

No, it's not about offense. And it's certainly possible that the dog had a "bad gene" somewhere. I just wonder if more tempered reactions wouldn't work better in such situations. After all, it didn't kill the dog (not really necessary, perhaps, anyway), and it DID cost you an extra 165 bucks for the dog. Just think of the cigars you could have had if you had just stuck your face in the dog's, screamed at him at the top of your lungs, and then locked it in a closet for a day. :cryinlaugh: :cryinlaugh: :cryinlaugh:

Hind sight is always 20/20! :lol: :lol:

I'm more even tempered now.
These days I would probably scare the dog and then throw the owner across the street!

:cryinlaugh: :cryinlaugh: :cryinlaugh: umpkin: umpkin: :rotflmao:

DevilDog723 said:

My nephew wasn't an infant or a toddler. He was 10.
And my throwing the dog wasn't to teach it a lesson, it was to kill it.

Sorry if that offends anyone.
I was just trying to protect my nephew from any further attack. The sight of his blood all over the place sent my into a frenzy. I would do it again if I had to.
Again, sorry if that offends anyone.

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Hoorahhhhhh!!!

me and my pure bred Shitzu, Casey.

Just realized after reading the posts before mine (I saw the thread and just posted!) that my dog is the same kind of dog that bit your family...

My dog is great, he doesn't bite unless I play rough with him. Sorry to hear of your bad experience with Shitzus... Mine is retarted and couldnt hurt something if he tried....Seriously

Banihex said:

me and my pure bred Shitzu, Casey.

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Another DAMN Shih Tzu!

LOL!!! I personally have no problems with small dogs like these, but a older friend of mine described it best with the following statement:
"Why not just buy a cat at at least you won't have to walk it!!!"

My dog is great, he doesn't bite unless I play rough with him. Sorry to hear of your bad experience with Shitzus... Mine is retarted and couldnt hurt something if he tried....Seriously

Click to expand...

Same here. Seems to be a trend in the breed from what I've seen.

My other passion, German Shepherd Dogs

Left to right: Jazz (2 years old), Eli (2 years old), Me, Dori (14 months old)

Jazz and Dori have both shown very well for me and will go off to earn their Schutzhund titles in the fall. Eli is our family personal protection dog and is one cool dude...and a serious goober! He is nearly finished with his training.

Eli....GORGEOUS DOGS!!! Wow, those are the perfect representations of what a shepard should look like in my opinion. Very very nice dogs. I work with Rottweilers allot and of course have a nice blending of shepards into my environment.

What level schutzund are they completing? I wanted to work my boy Slim, but he has no drive LOL...which is great because he's the perfect house pet, but I do have a female that is training through schutzund 3 to be used as a part of the Baltimore police force. ( I guess I should say had a female! :lol: )

Beautiful animals, thanks for sharing,
Paul

Eclipse, Thanks for your kind words. Jazz is ready for her Sch 1 and is a really easy girl with good drives all the way around. Eli is not doing Sch at this point. Right now we are working him as a personal protection dog and he is showing very strong fight drive and termendous courage. He's a little beast on the field but in the house he's absolutley wonderful. Dori at 14 months is out of very strong Kirschental lines and is the most dirve of the three in all areas. She is an outstanding dog. She should earn a Sch3 with no problem. The coolest thing about all three is that they are fantastic workers yet they live in side and are perfect with my family and friends; stable in every way shape and form.

Thats cool about your female. Got a pic?