 Barked: Wed Jan 30, '13 11:29am PST |
 | |  | | It depends on what you are prepared for. I knew nothing about the possibilities of having a DA neutered male and a DA spayed female who would fight. The DA male is a Pit/Lab mix -- his DA may come from both breed and his early life as a puppy on a chain, then abandonment by the first family who "saved" him. We got him at 1 1/2 years and promptly had him neutered. He has no problems with the intact male Golden in our home nor the new neutered Toller/Golden we have recently rescued. Sonny is basically less DA and much more Dog Tolerant to dogs outside the home offleash after a lot of socialization and training. He can be called off any growling. The second dog, Kado, is of course a mix of two breeds known for DA. She was taken from her litter at 5 weeks old, raised and ignored by teenagers, not socialized nor housetrained nor trained, and came to me at 5 1/2 months. After spaying she began to exhibit DA behaviors, primarily on leash, toward stranger dogs. With much socialization she has become both Dog Tolerant and Dog Friendly. She is also less wary of people -- she has always been good with children, as has Sonny. She interacts well with my intact male Golden--he actually raised her and taught her bite inhibition through playing, and my neutered Toller/Golden.
The problem is with Sonny and Kado. Every 6 months, they have a massive fight. This is started by Kado. Then Sonny latches onto Kado, usually to an ear, and is incredibly difficult to remove, almost impossible, although she has already let go. After the fight, she is terrified and hides under the bed, often defecating.
We have crated and rotated, especially when not home, or left one dog in the fenced yard and the other inside, when the weather is nice, or taken one dog in the car. But management is HORRIBLE in my opinion, and almost impossible.
Others certainly differ. People are human, and humans make mistakes.
What has helped in our situation is to read Kado's signals. She has two very obvious times when she begins a fight with Sonny. The first is when she gets the "hard eye" -- like a Border Collie -- at him -- then she will continue to snark and worse. So at any sign of hard eye, she is crated. The other time she reacts badly is when we have ANY visitor to our home. She wants ALL the attention at the door, and her excitement redirects into aggression. So she is always crated when a visitor comes to the door, and usually calms down within 20 minutes. She readily crates for us, as we give her a bone or Kong.
I NEVER expected this. I knew nothing about the propensity for DA in these breeds. I did not know she was a cattle dog, this only came out later as she grew up, as she was not spotted and later her herding behavior presented itself very strongly. I have wanted to rehome one of these two dogs, especially her, as she is probably more adoptable, but my bf will not allow me to.
I had heard of SSA among bitches but was completely and utterly shocked by this. It causes me massive anxiety. That is not the experience I seek from dogs. i have been able to work with the DA outside the home but inside the home is just about too much for me to bear. It's heartbreaking. In the yard, they are the best of friends, playing together more than any of my dogs do.
I don't mind dealing with my timid dog, the Toller mix, who has some problems with men but is gradually improving and gaining confidence.
Be prepared well is all I say. I would really choose adult dogs with proven temperaments. I don't think complete socialization is the key in some breeds, but I can't say if it would have helped in mine. Any more pits or pit mixes I rescue will be older and extensively fostered and dog tested as will any cattle dog or cattle dog mixes.
I'm sorry to come off so strongly. JMHO |  |  | |  |
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Any bully I have is small....
Tiller is a lot more of a twit than Onion was. I think he would have set my first GSD off. Onion was a saint and his GSD brother (both were full males for quite some time) was the most haplessly social GSD I have ever known in my life. Onion raised him, though, and he was always willing to be the Abbott to Onion's Costello (dated reference, lol!) Not sure how much that raising pattern had to do with it, would defer to Toto, particularly on the GSD end. They were a match, though. Best buddies from first glance. Most dogs tried to hump Philo though....he was ten thousands miles removed from having any sort of political opinion 