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ved this she was so gentle and there isn t a doubt in my mind that if mal had stayed there she would have just curled up around him at which point i would have died of joy overload anyway after that little flash of awwww i had another one mal got back onto the bed and curled up beside inara holy cripes too much cuteness oxytocin overload yep i swooned a little they stayed like that for over an hour it was really fantastic mal s been with us for about 3 months now and he s really starting to come out of his shell and inara just really seems to enjoy him so yeah just an all around good day i hope you all had good relaxing sundays as well by cyberwonderwoman april 7 2013 506 words 4 comments advocacy as i see it i want to talk write today about what being a pit bull advocate means to me it wasn t in my plans to write about this today it s easter and i have things to do but i was accused of being a bad advocate supporting bsl and it really bothered me somebody i know and his friends that i don t know gleefully wrote some very cruel things about me because i had the temerity to disagree with them normally i can brush off people but this blatant malice really bothered me i was up way too late and up way too early just thinking about it i almost lashed out in return i wanted to tell them exactly what i thought but i didn t as i m trying to be more peaceful in my life and quite frankly it wouldn t have changed anything so instead i m going to write a blog about what i think our jobs as pit bull advocates are before i begin i have a disclaimer shouldn t be necessary but apparently it is i think pit bulls are the best dogs are out there for me i love them period i guess perhaps i should start by defining what dogs i m talking about i m talking about any dog that looks like it could be a pit bull or pit bull mix that s right i don t care if it s not been dna tested and found to be 100 apbt or amstaff nothing divides pit bull people more than the definition of a pit bull it s insane do lab people argue about whether dogs called lab mixes really have lab in them do gsd people get angry when people call a dog a gsd mix not that i ve heard it s reserved for pit bull people to argue about our number one job is to realistic about these dogs period blowing smoke up people s behinds to make them sound like magical little bunny hugging unicorns in a compact muscular body doesn t do anybody any good especially the dog pit bulls are strong athletic dogs that need something to do if you don t provide the stimulation for them they ll figure it out on their own and it probably won t be something you approve of pit bulls weren t known as the nanny dog were pit bulls historically known for being great family dogs absolutely but they weren t referred to as the nanny dog people need to stop saying that these dogs are phenomenal it s not necessary to lie about them to make them sound better it also may give some people the idea that it is safe leaving children alone with them no dog should be left alone with children period nothing gets pit bull people more riled up than the talk of dog dog issues within the breed as with everything there are exceptions to the rule but pit bulls were bred for how many years to fight other dogs granted 99 of them are not bred for that anymore however just because it isn t being bred for doesn t mean it s being actively bred against so you know why not err on the side of caution and assume that your pit bull may not love all other dogs i firmly believe that pit bulls don t belong in doggy daycares or dog parks no your dog may never start anything and that s awesome but your dog may not back down if another dog tries to start something and you know what your dog will be the one ending up in the news and it will make it harder for responsible pit bull owners to live in peace with their dogs pit bulls are terriers bulldogs and thus they are more likely than the poodle down the street to aggress at another dog and not back down this doesn t make them bad it makes them terriers bulldogs but liz my dogs love each other and snuggle together and have never even looked sideways at each other rock on that is fantastic and i hope it stays that way forever i d still separate them when you re gone though can t tell you how many people i know stories i ve heard of people whose pit bulls loved each other for years until the day they didn t and e vets were required and crate rotate had to become a way of life forever after dog aggression doesn t mean that your dog will hate every dog on sight most pit bulls are selective they are okay with some dogs heck maybe even lots of dogs but some other dogs just torque them and get their panties in a bunch sometimes we don t know which dogs are going to do that which is why it behooves us to act as if any dog could get our dog riled aka err on the side of caution are there pit bulls that love every other dog on the planet sure are there pit bulls that hate every other dog on the planet sure are the majority somewhere in between yep so why risk it why set your dog up for failure i m a big fan of better safe than sorry forewarned is forearmed knowledge is power knowing is half the battle all those good things fair warning that here comes the other part of my pit bull advocacy that really angers people pit bulls aren t the right dog for everybody there i said it let the stoning begin but you know what labs aren t right for everybody gsd s aren t right for everybody border collies aren t right for everybody malinois holy cripes you couldn t pay me to have one had to throw that one in for my mal owning friends i can t think of one breed of dog that is right for everybody so why do some pit bull people feel that they need to convince every joe schmoe down the street that they need a pit bull pit bulls require an owner that is going to be willing to invest some time and money they need training they need owners who won t set them up to fail they don t need owners who want a dog that they don t have to interact with they aren t for people who think dogs come fully trained out of the womb they aren t for people who aren t ready to educate themselves about possible breed tendencies or who think oh i can love them into being good no you can train them into being good but love isn t everything when it comes to dogs this doesn t mean that you need to keep your dog cloistered in your house behind closed blinds never to see the light of day this means you don t take your pit bull to dog parks you don t take your pit bull to doggy daycares you keep your pit bull on leash when out in public you attend training classes with your pit bull you make sure your pit bull is an ambassador out in public meeting people you don t let your pit bull interact with strange dogs instead you set up playdates with one or two other dogs at a time that you know your dog is okay with and you supervise those play dates you separate your dogs when you re out but liz doesn t this apply to all dogs it absolutely should we should never set our dogs up to fail especially if a failure on your behalf impacts other owners of that breed but i feel that as pit bull owners we have a higher responsibility to keep our dogs safe from themselves and others inara poster child for dog issues being a breed ambassador by cyberwonderwoman march 31 2013 january 22 2016 1 278 words 11 comments changing of the vet inara has been going to the same vet for her entire life since january of 2006 we d always been happy with her she wasn t warm and fuzzy but she and her staff were competent inexpensive and had good hours they also seemed to truly enjoy inara so i was devastated when in the past several weeks many of my friends had awful experiences there truly awful to the point where i couldn t bring myself to take inara back there so i was stuck with the horrible changing of the vet finding vets sucks everybody has their favorite and very few people can agree on one you need to figure out what s most important to you cheap prices good hours bedside manner etc for me i really wanted a vet that wouldn t give me a hard time about doing minimal vaccinations and feeding raw inexpensive would have been great as i d been spoiled at my old vet 12 office vet oh yeah but i knew i was going to have to suck it up on that end hours were kind of important as long as i could get something near the end of the day after 3 or so i could easily get out of work to get home so what was important for me was somebody who was a bit more natural and didn t push drugs shots meds well i lucked out a few of my friends use dr b who does home visits i was afraid i d never be able to afford such a luxury but she s remarkably affordable at least if you have only one or two animals and she was wonderful she came with freeze dried liver in her pockets and an assistant she was here for probably an hour she talked to me about inara s history and then we spoke at length about best practices for vaccinations food hw flea meds etc she gave inara a thorough checkup at one point exclaiming how slow inara s heart was beating considering how worked up she was two visitors just for her she was pretty wired lol i panicked and asked if that was bad me panic nooooo and she laughed and said it was wonderful because it shows she s an athlete and in good shape rock on she gave me a couple other suggestions if i want to get inara off her prozac and on to something more natural she said her teeth are lovely slight bit of tartar but excellent overall they drew blood for her heartworm test negative and tested it right in my living room kind of cool so yeah i m a convert i was fortunate and got a great vet on my first try not everybody gets so lucky if you need to change vets don t be afraid to schedule an appointment without your dog so you can interview your potential vet you re entrusting your beloved dog s life to this person so it doesn t make you crazy to want to make sure they re the best they can be and hopefully your transition will go as smoothly as mine did inara and mal enjoying each other s company love them by cyberwonderwoman march 25 2013 march 25 2013 528 words 1 comment tdinc here we come way back in the day inara was a registered therapy dog with bright beautiful therapy dogs she was okay at it however she always struggled to keep her exuberance to a minimum at nursing homes and i never felt like we d honestly earned the therapy dog title as the test was a farce the training center we took it at passed every dog even the one that growled at a boy as he came through the doorway so i never felt we d actually earned our td or cgc titles partly because of that but mostly because it was just not working for inara s personality we quit doing therapy work and didn t renew our membership with bright beautiful fast forward several years inara has become much better behaved and i now understand that there are more options than nursing homes for therapy work so my friend laurie who is a cpdt ka and cbcc ka and owner of side by side dog training offered a workshop to help evaluate dogs for therapy work and teach us the options that are out there i was a bit hesitant as i still sometimes doubt inara s and my skills but signed up anyway so i took the day off work yesterday and drove an hour to the public library that was hosting the workshop the closer i got the more jittery i got to the point where i almost called laurie and cancelled when i was about a block away it was bad and ridiculous to be frank but i can t help it i always have horrible flashbacks of inara turning into cujo like she used to do and we were going to be in a library where it should be quiet what if she barked but i put on my big girl panties parked and made my way inside there was already one dog in the small room so inara announced her presence loudly mortifying me as i dragged her to her corner laurie being the wonderful trainer that she is cheerfully told me that inara s bark had changed and that it was less serious now more of a oh my gosh we re dogs excited bark than her i m going to eat you if i reach you bark that one little comment made a huge difference for me sign of a good trainer knows the perfect thing to say to get her students to relax after that inara was a dream she snoozed in her crate during the down times and worked beautifully with me during the work times i was able to bring her out of her corner and work her within a few feet of another dog there were six dogs in a relatively small room so it was kind of close quarters but we made it work i was bursting with pride in inara knowing how far she d come hell how far we d come so near the end of the workshop we all wandered through the library with our dogs as part of the observation process of course almost as soon as inara and i made it into the main library part a teenage girl made a huge scene nearly falling over chairs as she pretended to be terrified of inara sigh whatever i have no doubt that she s nervous about dogs but the scene was unnecessarily dramatic other than that though it was great inara got some good lovin s by a couple little kids who very politely asked if they could pet her before doing so click treat to the kids and their parents and she was very well behaved she had a minor snark at one of the dogs whose owner allowed it to get right up in her face but it was an appropriate correction from her and she immediately recovered after that we went to a nursing home the residents loved the dogs they enjoyed telling us about their own dogs and one woman spent about two minutes telling me about how she brushes her dog s teeth every night when he comes to visit she then proudly pointed out his toothbrush and toothpaste i asked if she wanted to brush inara s teeth for me and she said she was willing to give it a try grin one woman just fell in love with inara and wanted her in her lap i didn t let her though for fear that inara s nails would be rough or she d pull out her oxygen mask so she stayed on the floor and got some major loves body wagging with joy it was really great to see inara had a couple little barking episodes since a new dog had joined the group but as laurie pointed out to me when she saw me getting stressed over her behavior dogs bark they do indeed she again recovered and resumed working well so it wasn t a crisis so we are very close to passing all of our observations fingers crossed thank you so much to laurie for having the confidence and faith in us that i sometimes lack wandering the library looking for patrons who needed some pit bull love inara with the woman who wanted her in her lap look at that huge lovely full body wag the up and coming tdinc dogs we are on the end so i can keep inara s head guided away from the other dog staring at her lol by cyberwonderwoman march 20 2013 927 words 5 comments posts navigation older posts blog at wordpress com pit bulls make the world go round blog at wordpress com 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