[Adama]

I guess if you got them to get used to staying in their crates since they were puppies, then as adult dogs they probably have no problems being there.

Sounds like you got a good system going there, RG. Good for you.

[HeroofAvalon]

Marley & Me looks too tragic for me. I always loved dogs, and I always hate it when one dies.

[rgreen4]

Actually, the biggest problem was when I had to convert Red from the almost solid sided and solid topped plastic crate to the open wire crate. In the plastic, it seemed more like an enclosed area and the wire seemed open, but it restrained him.

The reason I converted him was that he was getting too big for the x-large plastic crate and the giant size was $280 while the wire was around $160.

[Adama]

Actually Marley & Me is not tragic at all. It was really fun, funny, touching, uplifting. Yeah, he was a heck of a dog and they had a hard time dealing with his shenanigans, but they all got used to it.


Dying is part of living, part of the process of a life well-lived. We all have to face it, sooner or later.

[coastie65]

Hey rg, Andy is a big fan of paper towels as well. You leave one in reach, and it will get shredded. He is also a fan of Pens, if you leave one handy. He quit chewing up the deck rails & door jambs shortly after puppyhood. After that he started a new career of destroying remote controls. When kept getting caught in the house, he figured a way to sneak them out back where he could lay in the grass and happily chew the thing up.

[smax013]

Max, my previous dog, was really comfortable in his crate. He would tend freak out during thunder storms...the only place where he would not sit shaking during a storm would be his crate. He was so comfortable that he would go right in when you open door to the crate and would get excite when picked up and moved the crate (he figured it was time to somewhere).

Buddy, my current dog, is starting to get more comfortable with the crate. He will now go in when you open the door and him to go in.

[Adama]

Yeah, my friend's puppy, Miss Suki, loves to shread paper too.

Sometimes my friend would be typing her manuscripts and may have sheets all over the place, even the floor... then she has to pick up whatever is on the floor because Miss Suki thinks it all belongs to her, and she starts her chewing party! :D :p

[Adama]

Awww.... I guess I just never thought of that, since all the dogs that I've known/met through my friend, have never been inside a crate.

That's really interesting to me, that dogs would be so used to being in their crates that they'd actually be happy to be in there.

[rgreen4]

You have to remember that all animals, with the normal exception of man, has a very distinct understanding of the predator/prey relationship. Small carnivores understand that they are both a predator to smaller animals and prey to larger animals. They are constantly on the alert for larger animals, lest they become prey. They like the crates, because there is only one access to get to them and they can defend that door with their teeth. Cats climb high, dogs dig down.

If the Schnauzers won't come in because they are having too good a time outside, I just let Red out. He is eager to go out to them because he wants to play. However, when they see him they see "large predator = danger" and they are back in the house in seconds. They go into their crates and I close the doors, then I let Red back in, who of course goes over to their crates and sniffs at the growling beast within. I then put him in his, and it all settles down to blissful
silence.

Man, while normally thinking of himself as the ultimate predator, when confronted with a large hungry carnivore and no weapon at hand has the primal fear return. Walking down a mountain trail in Virginia and smelling a bear, can certainly raise the hair on the back of one's neck. I don't swim in the ocean either, and I only saw the promos for Jaws.

[Adama]

rgreen4 said:

If the Schnauzers won't come in because they are having too good a time outside, I just let Red out. He is eager to go out to them because he wants to play. However, when they see him they see "large predator = danger" and they are back in the house in seconds. They go into their crates and I close the doors, then I let Red back in, who of course goes over to their crates and sniffs at the growling beast within. I then put him in his, and it all settles down to blissful
silence.

Haaa, that cracked me up! LOL :^0 Poor Red, he just wants to go out to play and you make him an accomplice of your dastardly deeds!11 LOL

!http://forums.pcworld.com/legacyimages/
1! "Huh? you want me to do what?"

[smax013]

And most dogs have instincts for dens and crates create a den-like feeling.

[coastie65]

Adama said:

Yeah, my friend's puppy, Miss Suki, loves to shread paper too.

Sometimes my friend would be typing her manuscripts and may have sheets all over the place, even the floor... then she has to pick up whatever is on the floor because Miss Suki thinks it all belongs to her, and she starts her chewing party! :D :p

:^0 Miss Suki is so cute, who is going to scold her ?

[Tech4me]

Now...We need this one .....!http://forums.pcworld.com/legacyimages/
1!

[coastie65]

Hey Tech, Good one. I guess there some kids who need a dog like that, myself included when I was that age. :D

[coastie65]

Poor Andy. he has been ailing with a bad ear infection, plus his nails had gotten too long. Called the Vet for the ear infection. Had to Dope him in advance, because she decided to do his nails as well. Had to muzzle him to be on the safe side. It was welcome to the WWE as it was quite a wresling match when it came time for his nails. Andy being Andy, he peed on the the floor as well. All in all, I guess he did pretty well. Most likely he'll be snoozing the rest of the afternoon. I know he'll feel better that's for sure.

[rgreen4]

I had a dog (full blood Lab) like that in the early '70's when I was living in Dallas, Tx. I took him in and had him neutered. He took a real exception to it and when we went to remove the stitches, it took me, the handler and the vet to hold him down. The vet used one hand to help hold him and another to remove the stitches.

On another occasion I had to board him for a trip I was going to take. I got home and the phone was ringing. It was the vet. Brutus (good name!) had climbed over the 6' chain link fence of his pen and then over the 8' chain link fence around the kennel area. They did catch him right before he got to I35, but he was headed home. They put him in a kennel that had a chain link top on it. (Apparently that was not the first dog to climb out).

He terrorized the paper boys and ad distributers in Houston where my parents lived. When I went back to graduate school, they took him on. There was group that would distribute weekly ads door to door (at least in the northwest part). The had a process whereby the would roll it up, put a rubber band on it and slip it over the door knob of the screen door. We would take the ad off when we came home, leaving the rubber band. When ever we needed a small rubber band, we would open the front screen door and take one off the knob. I was home for a week or two between semesters, and needing a rubber band went to get one,but the front knob was bare. I asked my mom about it and she commented that they not longer got the circulars. Everyone else in the neighborhood did though. A few hours later, I saw them making their rounds and watched. The guy was going through the front yards and when he reached the house to the left, he put the circular on and walked straight out to the street, passing by our house keeping an eye on it, and the walked up the drive to the house to the right of us. He then continued on through the yards.

I told Brutus, see what you did, and he stood there hitting the kitchen table with his tail, whack, whack, whack. Except for color (black) I guess you could have said he was like Marley, you never knew what he was going to get into next. Come to think of it, that's the last dog I ever had with a tail, all the ones since have been docked. (Easier on the furniture and stuff on the table).

[coastie65]

Andy had been neutered and hasn't had any use for the Vet since. We got this new one that comes here. He just flat doesn't like anyone doing anything for him, such as cleaning his ears and doing his nails. I always thought labs were good natured dogs. My former neighbors had three, Two Black And One Chocolate and they were the nicest dogs to be around. I would feed and water them, when they went on vacation. They were climbers though. We have 3' chain link fences around the backyards, and would climb it and off they went. The neighbors put up a tall wood privacy fence across the front as that was the one they climbed. One did decided to climb the one between his yard and ours and come visit on one occasion.

[rgreen4]

Brutus was really bad about screens. If he was inside and wanted outside and the only thing keeping him in was a screen, he would go through it. Window or door, it didn't matter. My parents had a screen door on the back of their attached garage, and in the middle was a 12" high section of screen with aluminum lattice stips across it. The bottom of the door was solid, and the upper had been reinforced with a sheet of aluminum with holes punched in it in a diamond pattern.

They had been out to supper and had left him in the garage with the doors closed, but the back had just the screen door for ventilation. When they came home, he met them in the front yard. He had jumped through the center section of the back screen door, taking the latice strips off in the process and then climbed over the front 6' wooden gate on the north side of the house. (He had been going over the on on the south side, but they had positioned garbage cans so he couldn't get to it.)

They dearly loved the dog, and when they were home, he was fine. It's just that when they went anywhere he would get into trouble. Funny thing is, they discovered later they could leave him in the house, and he would be fine.

[Adama]

Hi RGreen,

I read in the other thread that you had driven 1,800 miles to pick up a puppy? Oh my goodness, you must really love to drive. LOL

I must say, your new addition to your family is a cutie pie....



!http://forums.pcworld.com/legacyimages/
1!



Look at those huge paws... she's going to be a huge dog! Is that another Dobie?

[AuroraDizon]

cute