Ricochet Riot

They're unsafe where they are rn and if they could get $125 to leave things would be a lot better! Their paypal is:

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Augustine, Doberman, Grape St. Dog Park

I told her and this was her reaction 😊

So here is my dog.

His name is Kottr and he is a purebred Doberman. He is the red variant from the European breedlines which means he has a massive giant chest and is largely made out of sharp bones.

So we actually have a pretty consistent schedule. He gets up every morning around seven and has breakfast, then we usually go back to bed for an hour or so. He likes to curl up under the blankets because he’s a giant baby who needs to be attached to someone at all times.

Then we go out to the living room and he curls up on the chair next to me.

Around noon we always go out and check the mail. Then we usually go out and play outside for a bit.

Kottr does a lot of tricks, too. I call him dumb but he’s actually incredibly smart, just also… very baby.

Then he curls up again and sleeps on and off with brief periods of screaming wildly at whatever is outside.

No, he does not bark, he bays, and he screams, and I don’t know why.

So Kottr also has like. Super-duper severe motion sickness, too, which coupled with his anxiety means any car ride longer than thirty seconds results in a waterfall of drool, followed by vomiting everywhere.

But we have started trying some motion sickness pills with him, and today he went for two short car rides with great success. Once in the car, and then a longer one in the jeep, which dumbass finally fixed. He still anxiety-drooled everywhere, but it ended up being a really good experience for him, I think.

If you feel uncomfortable about something in your dog’s training then it’s okay to say:

“My gut tells me this is wrong for my dog so I’m not going to try this.”

“I feel uncomfortable doing this with my dog so I’m going to stop.”

“This isn’t the direction I want my dog’s training to go in.”

It’s feels weirdly difficult to say no when everyone else is telling you that it is okay.

“I did it with my dog.” (so it should be fine for your totally different dog)

“I did it with my dog.” (are you saying that I don’t care about my dog?)

“If you just try …..” (I don’t understand your feelings of discomfort so you must be suffering from a lack of information)

“You are using +R methods so everything is fine.” (but Bosco will do what Martin asks him to do, even if it hurts)

It’s really helpful to have an experienced mentor who actively listens to you.

Martin’s mentor ignored her instinctual feelings in the past and two of her dogs were injured. She wants Martin to learn from her painful mistakes. She listened carefully when Martin explained why he didn’t want to teach Bosco an exercise.

Ultimately:

no one understands your dog’s capabilities better than you

you are responsible for your dog’s safety, and 

you are the person who is going to have to care for your injured dog (let’s not talk about death because it’s too sad).

I’m going to repeat myself because it’s important.

It’s okay to say no.

If you hold a small animal, any animal, and it starts to wiggle or push away from you put it down. Don’t just laugh. Don’t hold it tighter. Unless you have a good reason for holding it put it down.

I constantly have to tell children to put my chihuahua down and leave her alone when she wiggles. That’s okay. Children are stupid and don’t know anything about anything yet. We’ve all been there.

Adults have no excuse.

When you see a chihuahua like this you should not be thinking “demon dog” you should be looking at the owner and thinking “What did you do to this poor animal?” or alternatively if they got it from another person “What did that person do to this poor animals?” If a dog gets like this, any dog, the owner fucked up, not the dog. That is learned behavior. Those are extremely scared, uncomfortable dogs who have been mistreated. And by that I don’t mean beaten.

When people say “Treat a small dog like a big dog” that doesn’t just mean train and socialize it. It also means “Don’t do anything that would make a bigger dog bite your face off”.

Respect it’s signals. Let it know that it’s okay for people to hold and pet it by leaving it alone when it says “No more”. This can include wiggling, walking away from you, not responding when you touch it and looking at you in a way that shows the white in it’s eyes. It’s not hard to decode.

Only if you ignore signals like this will it start to show teeth and growl, and you have no right to get upset if it bites you after this. That’s on you. And eventually biting will be it’s first response because it has learned that the more subtle signals doesn’t work.

If it’s not your dog let it instigate contact with you. If it’s your dog respect it and you’ll find that it becomes much more tolerate of you and others handling it. Yes, if you try to clip its nails or something else it doesn’t want to do it might scream bloody murder, but it won’t bite because it knows this only happens sometimes and it’ll be over soon.

People have gotten so used to this idea that dogs have to be robots who should put up with everything we do to them and that’s really fucked up. They’re allowed to tell you no if there’s no reason for you to do it. It shouldn’t be forced to be held by you just because you want to hold it.

Hold it against its will to get vaccinated/groomed/other important things? Yes. Hold it against its will because you want to pet it? Big no. And of course teaching them tricks and commands are a must, but that’s not forcing them to do things. That’s teaching them that if they do the thing something good happens.

Of course animals are different. If people (me included) offer my shih tzu some food he will often show his teeth and it’s totally understandable that people get scared, but he’s not doing it to show aggression, he’s doing it because he doesn’t like to get food on his lips. How are people supposed to know that? I sure as hell didn’t the first time he did it, and it’s the right reaction for people to pull their hand back. Then I, the owner, can tell them not to worry, he’s just weird about food on his face.

And some dogs are more standoffish and take longer to warm up to people, and some trust you right away.

My point being, just assume every dog in the world show the same signals until the owner tells you otherwise.

I’ve said before that my chihuahua doesn’t like small children and avoids them at all costs because they do all the things I just told you not to do. She loves older children and adults though, and loves to be held even by complete strangers and is quick to roll up and snooze in the lap of any guest even if she has never met them before (trust me, no matter who you are, if you came to my home she would be sitting in your lap right now wagging her little tail wanting nothing but love from you), which is also why I panic when adults doesn’t respect her signals and try to force her to stay with them because Aw she’s so tiny and cute.