SORRY GUYS BUT I JUST HAVE TO.
I HAVE TO RANT MORE DOG JUNK. UGGHFHF FFFFLF.
First off, the only reason I'm even online right now is because I'm trying to figure out if pit bulls are banned in Truro NS, which is where we're going tommorow and were probably going to take Riley with us...but!!
Anyway. Dog class, oh dog class, a plethora of confusion. (LMAO. before typing the word "confusion" i accidentilly typed "cunt". yes. a plethora of cunts indeed. my subconscious is so badass). So anyway. Last night dog class was THREE HOURS LONG. No lie, it's only supposed to be an hour but seriously. I'll tell you why.
There's a new lady there.
She has two pit bulls. She knows absolutely nothing about them. Let me explain.
So I get there a little later then usual and watch as the last lady from the class before mine leaves. I then notice that there's still someone else in the training ring. I look down at her dog and see it's one of the most beautiful fawn pit bulls I have ever seen in real life. It was a fucking huge ass dog. So I open the gate to the ring and step in with Riley and her dog goes NUTS. I mean. SERIOUSLY. I have never heard a bark like that before in my life. I thought Riley's bark was scary.. it was at this time that the dog was lunging from across the ring that I realize that the lady has a flat collar on it and nothing else. She takes the dog out of the ring and puts it in a run close to the door. The other lady in my class shows up and me and her run through basic rally-o commands which BY THE WAY is hella hard. I felt so damn retarded cause I couldn't follow simple signs and the trainer will yell like a ho when you do something wrong. I could also hear her outside the ring bitching at the two other ladies about loose leashes and the reason dogs are so aggressive is because of people like them. LOL confidence boost much? It's true that the looser the leash the more relaxed the dog will be when meeting another dog and it stops leash aggression in most cases, but there are still some cases where I wouldn't let my dog meet another dog on leash at all and right now, that female pit is in no position to be meeting other dogs up close yet.
So the class starts going down and the lady brings in her other pit from her car and puts him in the other run. The idea was to let them sit and watch us with our dogs and be in their presence while at the same time being in a safe confined area. Which was a good idea. The only thing that kind of annoyed me was once her dogs calmed down, she babied them and stuff which made them anxious and excited again. So anyway blah blah blah. While the other lady is doing the rally-o course, I ask the pit lady about her dogs. Figuring that she was a breeder since a lot of the trainer's students are, I asked if they were purebreds. She said she'd rather not say and that when people ask what they are, she says they're boxers. I thought that was kinda weird, I asked her how long she had them and where she got them, figuring they were fellow rescues. Again, she told me she can't "disclose this information". ..k. sorry for asking. Apparently, she let on later in the class, she stole the dogs from someone who was abusing them in another province. Since she's french, I'm guessing Quebec or NB.
Half way during the class the trainer gets the idea for Riley to meet with the male pit. The male was a lot quieter then the female so I figured it would be ok, although, finding out that they were stolen and abused dogs made me nervous. It seems that I'm the only one there who understands basic dog aggression and that pit bulls are DOG AGGRESSIVE DOGS. You can't expect every single dog ever, especially two males, to get along. I was a little nervous. Thankfully, things were alright although Riley wouldn't stop jumping over the other dog and the lady wouldn't stop yelling at me because of it. I dont like how she expects you to know what she wants you to do. First she tells you loose leash, then she says hold the dog back. Well how can you do that on loose leash? When I let Riley approach the other dog she yelled at me to "CONTROL YOUR DOG!!" and I was all LOL WHUT?? It's a very confusing class and very easy to get frustrated. Eventually we got it so that both the dogs were sitting and we could bend down and pet each other's dogs. WHICH AGAIN. I got yelled at cause my petting technique was wrong. I was all about arguing that shiz because I know mine is anything but. What I do is I reach down, palm up and let the dog sniff my hand before petting his chin and neck. She said that palm up is a threat and my hand should be palm down and I should pat him on the head--WHICH IS a threat to dogs. It doesn't matter if your hand is palm up or down, dogs dont really care, its whether you reach for the top of its head and neck, or its chin. Patting a dog on the head and making direct eye contact is percieved my most does as a threat or a dominant action. Well socialized, trained dogs dont mind it because they've been trained not to, but nervous, anxious, scared or possibly aggressive dogs-which this pit could have been-do. It pissed me off.
So eventually the class ended and we got to talking about pit bulls and the trainer went on and on and on (and on and on and on) about how pit bulls arent a real breed, they're really called american staffordshire bull terriers!!!! (WHAAT). I corrected her there. I said the akc/ckc doesnt register american stafforshire bull terriers , it registers american staffordshire terriers and staffordshire bull terriers. (two breeds, easily distinguished from one another). I was going to tell her that yes, the american pit bull terrier IS a breed and is registered with the ukc, but she kind of shrugged me off when I corrected her. Old ladies kind of piss me off with their stubborness. She kept saying that Riley and the pits weren't pit bulls (her dogs were PERFECT apbts physically by the way, a little big, but if they lost some weight..), they were pit bull look-a-likes. But anyway, lets get back to crazy pit lady. I was becoming increasingly alarmed that someone who knew so little about pit bulls had such volitile dogs. My fear grew worse when she revealed that the male pit bull had attacked someone last year and that it was deemed a dangerous dog. Last August, I guess she had been training with a guy named Duke (I forget his last name, but kelkie, he's the guy who does the training in montague with the shock collars) and that they were in an open field, UNFENCED FIELD, training. A tourist was jogging and the dog took off after him all the while being shocked by Duke. The dog bit the guy and I'm not sure how severe it was but the police were involved. They deemed the dog dangerous and wanted to take it away as according to the dangerous dog law. The lady fought to keep him and I'll admit, her heart is in the right place. I think she really cares about dogs and loves her two pit bulls a lot, she has a few other rescues at home she told me, but right now I dont think she's expierienced or knowledged enough to handle those two dogs. I guess Duke was going to testify against her and say that yes, the dog was aggressive and my trainer went on about how Duke is a butthole. I agree, I never liked that guy or his training method. It's much too severe for most dogs. The RCMP were going to take the dog away without doing a proper investigation and they couldn't even get in contact with the tourist that got bitten to testify. They had no real case against the dog and she was allowed to keep him, although he has a warning on him or something. That's why shes training him. I really wish we had better trainers, behaviorists on the island that could help her out. I think this class is just a little too confusing and uneducated on pit bulls and this owner in particular is a little too trusting and accepts every single one of the trainers methods/beliefs. Hopefully things will turn out but I can't stop feeling anxious about the whole situation. I think the lady said she wanted to to schutzhund with the pits and I was like whuuut? You want to do a protection/bite work sport with a dog that has already attacked someone???? Those dogs just dont have the temperments for shutzhund. Hopefully her shutzhund trainer will see this and reject them. Thinking about the whole ordeal kept me up for most of the night last night. Writing it out here kind of gets it off my chest a little.
It was my birthday on Sunday! It kind of sucked but whatev. Drank champagne, ate cake, felt a little sick, had to work in the morning. Typical day in the life of Sars. I need to apply for schoolies. Promise, no more dog updates for atleast a while.
PS: apparently, there's no bsl in truro as of yet! YAYYY.
First off, the only reason I'm even online right now is because I'm trying to figure out if pit bulls are banned in Truro NS, which is where we're going tommorow and were probably going to take Riley with us...but!!
Anyway. Dog class, oh dog class, a plethora of confusion. (LMAO. before typing the word "confusion" i accidentilly typed "cunt". yes. a plethora of cunts indeed. my subconscious is so badass). So anyway. Last night dog class was THREE HOURS LONG. No lie, it's only supposed to be an hour but seriously. I'll tell you why.
There's a new lady there.
She has two pit bulls. She knows absolutely nothing about them. Let me explain.
So I get there a little later then usual and watch as the last lady from the class before mine leaves. I then notice that there's still someone else in the training ring. I look down at her dog and see it's one of the most beautiful fawn pit bulls I have ever seen in real life. It was a fucking huge ass dog. So I open the gate to the ring and step in with Riley and her dog goes NUTS. I mean. SERIOUSLY. I have never heard a bark like that before in my life. I thought Riley's bark was scary.. it was at this time that the dog was lunging from across the ring that I realize that the lady has a flat collar on it and nothing else. She takes the dog out of the ring and puts it in a run close to the door. The other lady in my class shows up and me and her run through basic rally-o commands which BY THE WAY is hella hard. I felt so damn retarded cause I couldn't follow simple signs and the trainer will yell like a ho when you do something wrong. I could also hear her outside the ring bitching at the two other ladies about loose leashes and the reason dogs are so aggressive is because of people like them. LOL confidence boost much? It's true that the looser the leash the more relaxed the dog will be when meeting another dog and it stops leash aggression in most cases, but there are still some cases where I wouldn't let my dog meet another dog on leash at all and right now, that female pit is in no position to be meeting other dogs up close yet.
So the class starts going down and the lady brings in her other pit from her car and puts him in the other run. The idea was to let them sit and watch us with our dogs and be in their presence while at the same time being in a safe confined area. Which was a good idea. The only thing that kind of annoyed me was once her dogs calmed down, she babied them and stuff which made them anxious and excited again. So anyway blah blah blah. While the other lady is doing the rally-o course, I ask the pit lady about her dogs. Figuring that she was a breeder since a lot of the trainer's students are, I asked if they were purebreds. She said she'd rather not say and that when people ask what they are, she says they're boxers. I thought that was kinda weird, I asked her how long she had them and where she got them, figuring they were fellow rescues. Again, she told me she can't "disclose this information". ..k. sorry for asking. Apparently, she let on later in the class, she stole the dogs from someone who was abusing them in another province. Since she's french, I'm guessing Quebec or NB.
Half way during the class the trainer gets the idea for Riley to meet with the male pit. The male was a lot quieter then the female so I figured it would be ok, although, finding out that they were stolen and abused dogs made me nervous. It seems that I'm the only one there who understands basic dog aggression and that pit bulls are DOG AGGRESSIVE DOGS. You can't expect every single dog ever, especially two males, to get along. I was a little nervous. Thankfully, things were alright although Riley wouldn't stop jumping over the other dog and the lady wouldn't stop yelling at me because of it. I dont like how she expects you to know what she wants you to do. First she tells you loose leash, then she says hold the dog back. Well how can you do that on loose leash? When I let Riley approach the other dog she yelled at me to "CONTROL YOUR DOG!!" and I was all LOL WHUT?? It's a very confusing class and very easy to get frustrated. Eventually we got it so that both the dogs were sitting and we could bend down and pet each other's dogs. WHICH AGAIN. I got yelled at cause my petting technique was wrong. I was all about arguing that shiz because I know mine is anything but. What I do is I reach down, palm up and let the dog sniff my hand before petting his chin and neck. She said that palm up is a threat and my hand should be palm down and I should pat him on the head--WHICH IS a threat to dogs. It doesn't matter if your hand is palm up or down, dogs dont really care, its whether you reach for the top of its head and neck, or its chin. Patting a dog on the head and making direct eye contact is percieved my most does as a threat or a dominant action. Well socialized, trained dogs dont mind it because they've been trained not to, but nervous, anxious, scared or possibly aggressive dogs-which this pit could have been-do. It pissed me off.
So eventually the class ended and we got to talking about pit bulls and the trainer went on and on and on (and on and on and on) about how pit bulls arent a real breed, they're really called american staffordshire bull terriers!!!! (WHAAT). I corrected her there. I said the akc/ckc doesnt register american stafforshire bull terriers , it registers american staffordshire terriers and staffordshire bull terriers. (two breeds, easily distinguished from one another). I was going to tell her that yes, the american pit bull terrier IS a breed and is registered with the ukc, but she kind of shrugged me off when I corrected her. Old ladies kind of piss me off with their stubborness. She kept saying that Riley and the pits weren't pit bulls (her dogs were PERFECT apbts physically by the way, a little big, but if they lost some weight..), they were pit bull look-a-likes. But anyway, lets get back to crazy pit lady. I was becoming increasingly alarmed that someone who knew so little about pit bulls had such volitile dogs. My fear grew worse when she revealed that the male pit bull had attacked someone last year and that it was deemed a dangerous dog. Last August, I guess she had been training with a guy named Duke (I forget his last name, but kelkie, he's the guy who does the training in montague with the shock collars) and that they were in an open field, UNFENCED FIELD, training. A tourist was jogging and the dog took off after him all the while being shocked by Duke. The dog bit the guy and I'm not sure how severe it was but the police were involved. They deemed the dog dangerous and wanted to take it away as according to the dangerous dog law. The lady fought to keep him and I'll admit, her heart is in the right place. I think she really cares about dogs and loves her two pit bulls a lot, she has a few other rescues at home she told me, but right now I dont think she's expierienced or knowledged enough to handle those two dogs. I guess Duke was going to testify against her and say that yes, the dog was aggressive and my trainer went on about how Duke is a butthole. I agree, I never liked that guy or his training method. It's much too severe for most dogs. The RCMP were going to take the dog away without doing a proper investigation and they couldn't even get in contact with the tourist that got bitten to testify. They had no real case against the dog and she was allowed to keep him, although he has a warning on him or something. That's why shes training him. I really wish we had better trainers, behaviorists on the island that could help her out. I think this class is just a little too confusing and uneducated on pit bulls and this owner in particular is a little too trusting and accepts every single one of the trainers methods/beliefs. Hopefully things will turn out but I can't stop feeling anxious about the whole situation. I think the lady said she wanted to to schutzhund with the pits and I was like whuuut? You want to do a protection/bite work sport with a dog that has already attacked someone???? Those dogs just dont have the temperments for shutzhund. Hopefully her shutzhund trainer will see this and reject them. Thinking about the whole ordeal kept me up for most of the night last night. Writing it out here kind of gets it off my chest a little.
It was my birthday on Sunday! It kind of sucked but whatev. Drank champagne, ate cake, felt a little sick, had to work in the morning. Typical day in the life of Sars. I need to apply for schoolies. Promise, no more dog updates for atleast a while.
PS: apparently, there's no bsl in truro as of yet! YAYYY.