An acquaintance of mine used to have two cats. She and her husband both insisted that it was "cruel" to let them go outdoors because "they might get run over." They lived in a reasonably-sized house, and it seemed to work out okay. But then finances took a downturn, and they moved into a one-bedroom apartment, and got a third cat to boot. All three cats were unhappy, and demonstrated this by urinating everywhere (previously all three were housebroken for years), tearing up the carpet, and clawing at the front door constantly. Because of this the couple would often confine all three to the bathroom for hours on end when no one could keep a close eye on them. Still they insisted that allowing them outside would be vicious and uncaring.

Finally one day the door got left open a microsecond too long and all three escaped, and were never seen again. Animals need shelter in bad weather just like humans, but they fundamentally prefer the outdoors and the freedom to run around more than we do.

How is keeping a rottweiler in a small crate during work hours better for it than allowing it to be outside on a long leash during work hours?

One can be as cruel to an animal left inside as one can be cruel to an animal left outside, as your example illustrates, Clodfobble (and BTW, I am NOT accusing Busterb of cruelty. His dog run and canine accomodations look quite nice).

The couple in your example were foolish to add a third cat to the mix in a cramped apartment. They were very cruel to leave them all locked in the bathroom on top of that. The cats ran away because they were cruelly treated, not because they longed to become feral animals.

I recently lost my good friend Traveler who I had found as an adult stray and who retained a desire to check out the out-of-doors. He would go out the back door and generally ask to be let in the front door ten minutes later. A month ago he vanished. Not because of a longing for freedom or because of inhumane treatment - never was there a cat so waited on hand and foot as Traveler! I went all around the neighborhood calling him and talked with the couple who live behind me. They told me the story of their cat nearly being eaten by a coyote. One night they open the door and in dashed kitty with the coyote right on his heels. They literally slammed the door in the coyote's face, and their cat is now an indoor one. I suspect Traveler was not so fortunate as their kitty was, and it breaks my heart. The cat I had before Traveler I got as a kitten and she was an indoor cat all her life and lived to be 20 years old.

Some very large dogs are actually excellent pets for apartments which you would never believe they could exist in. It has to do with the breed characteristics, which have nothing to do with size (witness the Corgi). I have known people who had Rotties, German Shepherds, and Great Danes in one bedroom dwellings and had no problems with them once past the puppy stage. I have also known somebody whose Rottie ate every shoe the girl owned and then the panty hose and other unmentionables which had been left on the floor while the person went to work and locked the dog inside. I also know somebody who kept a pedigreed German Shepherd on a run line in a large yard and the animal hung himself and died. The key to all these cases is the human involvement.

If you are not there all day long, your dog will bark. That's a given. If you are not there and the dog has nothing to do, he will FIND something to do and the results will not be pleasant. If you give the dog NO human contact it will become stressed, anxious, and unpredictable (throw in a little abuse while you ARE with the animal and that is how you create a junkyard dog). So you have to interact with your dog and you have to give it things to do in order to gain approval and get exercise, and that does not have that much to do with indoors or outdoors.

Buster has a dog which is at least part Heeler, and from the looks of it, some of the other part is Hound. Both dogs who like to run, A LOT, and buster has that covered. The dog also has other canine companionship, space to move around, and humans who pay attention to it. She should do fine, unless Buster discovers she is afraid of Armadillos :worried:

Well this thread was started as "Name this ugly dog." Since then I have been told about dogs that I've never even heard of. And how to raise a big dog in an apartment. :lol2: Anyway Sheila is so dumb? That she doesn't even know how to eat a biscuit. Yes I feed my dogs anything. Pork chop, chicken bones you name it. Now tell me why I shouldn't do this. BTW I'm setting up an education fund for Sheila and to take her to a head doctor, so along with all the advice I've got. Please send money.

You can feed them raw chicken bones, but not cooked.

A heeler is going to be a little more "wild" as dogs go - a little less domesticated.

Dotty most time won't eat unless cooked. Opps forgot my address for funds. justask@youwish.com

C'mon Buster, you know any thread is liable to go anywhere.
Besides, you learned not to leave your pantyhose on the floor. :beer:

If you ask me (which no one has, but I'm full of free advice and opinions that I bestow quite generously ;) ), a blue heeler is no different than a Cardigan Corgi. Heelers are meant to be herding dogs. Herding dogs all share a ready intelligence and an amiable disposition - can't have them munching down the sheep, now can we?

I've always heard that cooked chicken bones can be lethal for a dog since they may splinter in the dog's digestive tract. This thought has been spooky enough that I always kept cooked chicken bones away from my dogs. I have given chicken bones to my cats will no adverse effect though. But I figure cats' digestive systems are used to processing all those rare and endangered song birds that kitties have such a fondness for.

I wouldn't know about bisquits, although the dogs I've owned were more than willing to partake of any human food I bestowed upon them. My Corgi would delicately accept potato chips from between my own teeth. He NEVER snapped at offered food the way most dogs do.

And before someone jumps all over me for feeding potato chips to my dogs, let me add that I did not make a habit of this, but it was such a cute trick on the Corgi's part that sometimes I couldn't resist.


(PSSSsssst! Busterb! Maybe Sheila would like potato chips!)

I was kind of perversely wondering how long we could drag this out before Buster's eyes started glazing over. I apologize again, hee hee :bogroll:

"How is keeping a rottweiler in a small crate during work hours better for it than allowing it to be outside on a long leash during work hours?"

I only did that until she was trained enough that I could trust her alone in the aparment. Maybe 6 months and that's it.

When you tie out a dog, it can get teased by neighborhood kids, cats, other dogs, etc and develop aggression issues. It can hang itself. It can dig holes in the yard. It can become a barker and all your neighbors can start complaining.

A crate is the dog's den. It keeps them calm and out of trouble. It's not forever and it's safer and more humane than tieing the dog out for all of the above reasons.

I think feeding a dog raw chicken with bones is an excellent idea. Pork chops- hope they're cooked (trichinosis).
cooked chicken bones can kill him.
Table scraps and raw meaty bones are healthier than that bagged kibble-crap.
The best diet for a dog is whole chickens, red meats and raw meaty bones, pureed or cooked veggies and organ meats. (basically, anything that resembles a whole prey animal or it's components, as long as you include bone for calcium and fish or fish oil for those all-important omega 3 fatty acids...)

And now, I'm done.
You're gonna do whatever you want with this dog and I can type until my fingers turn blue but it probably won't make a difference.
Sometimes I wish I didn't care so much about dogs and animal welfare. It can be pretty frustrating.
I work in an animal shelter on Wednesdays. I see dogs that were raised in the backyard. They're almost impossible to adopt.
Okay, okay, I'm done.

I was kind of perversely wondering how long we could drag this out before Buster's eyes started glazing over. I apologize again, hee hee :lol2:

I have always said that any dog who digs a hole big enough to be buried in will go in hole. Stacyv bite my butt. Anyway Shelia has made the grade. If someone at coffee shop in AM doesn't want the bitch, that's 50 bucks down the hole. Also 5 deer in my garden other night and this bitch is sleeping! Damn tunnel is around 4 feet deep.

You'll change your tune when she strikes oil. :D

Good lord, surely she only exposed a recent sinkhole or water main break!!

Maybe she'll run across a marijuana tunnel, like we saw in the thread I wish I could find. Remember?