The Dong Thread

Well maybe what he is getting at is shelter dogs typically are mutts which are more likely to be much smarter than your pure-bred anything due to inbreeding. Mutts also live much longer and healthier lives, which is nice.

Sarcasmo:
  1. Never buy an animal from a pet shop; they come from mills which is bad news (pretty obvious, rite?)
  2. It is best not to buy from a breeder either, imo. Breeders are not helping the homeless animal population with their shallow business. Very few breeders out there actually care and will spay or neuter the animal before taking payment.

Yeah I would never buy an animal from a pet store. Ever. I learned that as a kid. Shelter/rescue looks like the way to go.

Lots of good info in this thread. I have a lot to read and think about after I get home from work.
 
The way you treat your dog will make a big difference. Shelter dogs make good pets, as do some purebreds. The problem with purebreds is that most people who sell them are not interested in the original function of the dog so you get goldens that bite and dobies that are scared of shadows. Don't forget that short haired dogs shed too, and labs have a dense undercoat that will be all over your house. And what sp'ange said.
 
All I have to add is buy the better dog food. If you buy just whatever you can find at any old store that has corn listed as the main ingredient, it goes right through them and they have bigger poop. If you find stuff that doesn't have corn in it and has meat listed as the first ingredient, their poops are much smaller. I have a 40ish pound dog whose poops are about the size of the 12 pound dogs before we switched them to the nicer food. I also ran out a few weeks ago and just grabbed whatever from the grocery store for a few days and it really does make a big difference.
 
All I have to add is buy the better dog food. If you buy just whatever you can find at any old store that has corn listed as the main ingredient, it goes right through them and they have bigger poop. If you find stuff that doesn't have corn in it and has meat listed as the first ingredient, their poops are much smaller. I have a 40ish pound dog whose poops are about the size of the 12 pound dogs before we switched them to the nicer food. I also ran out a few weeks ago and just grabbed whatever from the grocery store for a few days and it really does make a big difference.

This is also very important. Not just for the poop size, but for your animals health. The cheap dog food out there is like feeding your kid junk food. bleh.
 
Yeah I would never buy an animal from a pet store. Ever. I learned that as a kid. Shelter/rescue looks like the way to go.

Lots of good info in this thread. I have a lot to read and think about after I get home from work.

http://www.dfwlabrescue.org/

If you would like; you can try foster-to-adopt which means you can 'test-drive' the dog to make sure your environment is conducive to an animal. If you fall in love then just adopt her. :)
 
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Ohhh he is a cutie!

Apple-- 1.5 Year Old Male

Apple is a calm 70 pound 1. 5 year old black Labrador who believes everyone is here to love him. He is well-behaved and knows basic obedience such as sitting and walking on a leash. He is completely house broken and is crate trained. He gets along fabulously with other dogs.
 
Goldens > labs, IMO.
For first time dog owners, yeah, probably. Retrievers are really easy dogs.

What do you base this on? Can you provide unbiased research?

I am all about shelter dogs but I do not believe that they are better behaved because of their experiences.
Unbiased research? The girl who gives away animals like Halloween candy wants me to site my sources? For such weapons grade stupidity, I'm going to give you an internet worthy answer :

IF YOU DON'T LIKE WHAT I HAVE TO SAY, YOU CAN BLOW IT OUT OF YOUR EXCESSIVELY LARGE VAGINA​

Well maybe what he is getting at is shelter dogs typically are mutts which are more likely to be much smarter than your pure-bred anything due to inbreeding. Mutts also live much longer and healthier lives, which is nice.
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Well, I think of rescues as shelters with a dress code; they're just a little more exclusive. So I lump those two together into one bucket. After owning lots of dogs and knowing a ton more, I think shelter/rescue dogs are better temperament. Why? Pet shop dogs and bred dogs both suffer from poor socialization. Socialization is the key to a good dog. Both pet shop and bred dogs are separated from the litter while very young, don't get to interact with other animals, almost never get to interact with animals not in their litter, and don't interact with a lot of people. Shelter/rescue all have interacted with lots of animals and people and, on average, are better tempered for it.

Let's not mix words though. Your animal is a direct representation of you and how you have raised it. If you have a bad dog, its your fault. Animals may have had a bad start, but I have met no animal I couldn't rehabilitate. Don't believe me? Ask Spange about Daisy or Monkey. Ask Blondie and Erage how their crazy old cat responded to me ... the one that doesn't like anyone. Does that mean everyone who can't bring back marginal pets is a bad person? No, but you need to recognize what you can handle up front when you get an animal and match it to your ability to raise him. Not doing that makes you a bad person.

As for health, pet shop dogs come from mills where the animals are products, not living things. You do the math there. Breeders are selling you the dogs they don't think are good enough to be show dogs. Read that again : they sell you the dogs that are substandard to the breed. Rescue/shelter dogs have at very least been checked, spayed/neutered, and given all its shots *very* recently. Most have been in care long enough to have started to go to the vet regularly. Since these dogs are also grown, its a bit easier to spot any possible health issues and avoid what you can't handle. As already said, mutts tend to be healthier than pure breeds because they mix up the genes and end up with less inherited problems.

I'm going to be blunt.. but that's disgusting. Potty training a dog is not rocket science. Brand new dogs and puppies... take them out at least every thirty minutes and gradually increase the time until they learn.
Some toy breeds simply can't hold it for 8-10 hours while you're at work. Its do it on the pad or do it in your shoes. Bigger dogs, yeah, you shouldn't need pads.

I KNOW I KNOW!!! Sorry I was sooo busy at work. Catching up now... plus fly's asshole is due for some trimming.
Take pics and send them to Erage and Patty. I hear they gaze longingly into it.
no, they ate dogs in england.

and they ate orses too
You dropped your "h". Here ... *hands h*
Don't forget that short haired dogs shed too
Word. Amelie sheds and she's short hair and doesn't have any undercoat at all.

All I have to add is buy the better dog food. *talkin 'bout poop*
Good food makes a difference in dog gas too. Nothing stinks worse than dog farts. Helps their health too. Also : if you never feed your dog "people food" they won't know what it is. Subsequently, you will never have beggars.

http://www.dfwlabrescue.org/

If you would like; you can try foster-to-adopt which means you can 'test-drive' the dog to make sure your environment is conducive to an animal. If you fall in love then just adopt her. :)
Rad concept, jump on that. If nothing else, spend some time one on one with the dog before you take him home if you don't do this program. Get down to their level and see how they react to you, don't just tower over them.
 
Unbiased research? The girl who gives away animals like Halloween candy wants me to site my sources? For such weapons grade stupidity, I'm going to give you an internet worthy answer :

IF YOU DON'T LIKE WHAT I HAVE TO SAY, YOU CAN BLOW IT OUT OF YOUR EXCESSIVELY LARGE VAGINA​

I'm not sure where this came from but I was asking a legitimate question. Do you react this way when people normally ask you to support your beliefs or is it because you can't read my attitude via internet?

Now you have no idea what my situation is and you have no idea what has happened.

I'm pretty sure that reaction isn't because of me. I didn't deserve to be spoken to like that. I know you are having a tough time right now and I hope you work through it. If you need someone to talk to and can show me an ounce of respect then please feel free to PM me.
 
I've been giving a lot of thought recently to buying a dog. After a lot of research I'm pretty set on a chocolate lab. Great disposition, intelligent, good in an apartment, short haired. I'd love to have someone to take on hikes around area lakes for exercise, and dogs are really good at exercising their owners. Plus the kid has really been hounding me (sorry) a lot lately about getting one.

I'm assuming we have some dog owners in here. Any advice, insight, etc.? I've only ever owned cats, so I'm concered about a dog eating $10,000 worth of food every month, eating all of my belongings and pissing and shitting on my bed every day when i'm at work.

As long as you have the time it takes to take care of a dog you'll be fine man, go do it.

I'm on my second year with my doggah - a rescued Pit Bull from a shelter in the city. I guess on paper it was a worst case scenario considering the breed and where she was coming from, but it has been easy. We got her young and trained her early (well, waited till she was roughly 7 months for advanced stuff). She house trained right away and was very responsive, I kept her exposed to other dogs and people (including children) constantly since I knew that having Pit Bull I had little room for error and exposure was key. She has been a great dog. My only regret is I guess getting a Pit sine there is that stigma that comes along with it, especially when I take her to dog parks. It's not uncommon for people to pack up and leave when they see a Pit Bull coming in to play. It gets worse with every family slaughtering I have to read about in the paper; I'm surprised the neighbors that read the same stuff even talk to me. But she has been nothing but a big teddy bear.

You'll love a lab man, I recommend you get one from a shelter. :heart:
 
I think the first year is the worst year in regards to bills and whatnot. However, if you adopt an adult dog it shouldn't be a problem. Diego turns 3 in January and I think 80% of the money that I spent on him health wise was in his first year. Obviously, I can't help you regarding food costs because my dog is 7 lbs but I can't imagine that its too bad.
 
With my bigger pup, she is currently 40-50 pounds and goes through about 20 lbs of dog food a month. This will very slightly depending on the type of dog food you get.
 
The dog's food costs are less than the cats each year.

Doesn't include rawhide though, haven't calculated that.

We used to get soup bones for free. Big chewy dogs love soup bones. They just get a little icky after they've been laying with them for a few days 'ripening.'

Also I agree with tehac on everything but the crating. Breeder dog are usually inbred retarded. Shelter/rescue ftw. My cousin has two sheepdog/poodle mix thingies from a 'reputable' breeder that we had to take care of recently. $2000 dogs that run directly into walls and apparently have almost drowned themselves in their watering bowl. >.O Not to mention incredibly bad manners.

My parents have always have dogs, the current ones, german shepard/lab and sheltie/lab mixes that were literally pound puppies are the smartest goddamn dogs Ive ever seen. We never even had to train them, they learned come, sit, drop, and shutup by like intuition. o_O
 
Native American Indian Dogs are dead sexy. Says they have "extremely high" intelligence, too. Probably means I'd be dragging his drunk ass out of the casino every night though.

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About two years ago my family's dog passed away. We took all of a day to decide that we wanted another dog. So we looked into different breeds .The main criteria was the dog couldn't be "fluffy" (examples: poodles, yap yap dogs, ect.). The family finally decided that an English bull dog would be a good breed. We went to the local shelter to see what they had. We weren't planning on getting anything that day. But my family instantly fell in love with this beautiful gold retriever.

Moral of the story, Have an idea of what breed you want but look into others at the same times.
 
As long as you have the time it takes to take care of a dog you'll be fine man, go do it.

I'm on my second year with my doggah - a rescued Pit Bull from a shelter in the city. I guess on paper it was a worst case scenario considering the breed and where she was coming from, but it has been easy. We got her young and trained her early (well, waited till she was roughly 7 months for advanced stuff). She house trained right away and was very responsive, I kept her exposed to other dogs and people (including children) constantly since I knew that having Pit Bull I had little room for error and exposure was key. She has been a great dog. My only regret is I guess getting a Pit sine there is that stigma that comes along with it, especially when I take her to dog parks. It's not uncommon for people to pack up and leave when they see a Pit Bull coming in to play. It gets worse with every family slaughtering I have to read about in the paper; I'm surprised the neighbors that read the same stuff even talk to me. But she has been nothing but a big teddy bear.

You'll love a lab man, I recommend you get one from a shelter. :heart:

What is horribly sad is if you walk through a shelter the most common dog is a pit bull. :(

Well, I think of rescues as shelters with a dress code; they're just a little more exclusive. So I lump those two together into one bucket. After owning lots of dogs and knowing a ton more, I think shelter/rescue dogs are better temperament. Why? Pet shop dogs and bred dogs both suffer from poor socialization. Socialization is the key to a good dog. Both pet shop and bred dogs are separated from the litter while very young, don't get to interact with other animals, almost never get to interact with animals not in their litter, and don't interact with a lot of people. Shelter/rescue all have interacted with lots of animals and people and, on average, are better tempered for it.

Rescues definitely can act 'too good' for certain dogs. I feel lucky volunteering for a rescue that takes in every dog they can financially handle. They take in elderly dogs and dogs with severe illnesses and fix them right up for adoption. What they do is quite rare, unfortunately they are only tackling such a small portion of the problem. More unfortunately on top of that is sometimes an elderly dog or a very ill dog is taking the place of a more healthy dog on death row at the shelter. They just take the dogs as they come first come first serve. Its hard to stomach the whole concept. :(
Let's not mix words though. Your animal is a direct representation of you and how you have raised it. If you have a bad dog, its your fault. Animals may have had a bad start, but I have met no animal I couldn't rehabilitate. Don't believe me? Ask Spange about Daisy or Monkey. Ask Blondie and Erage how their crazy old cat responded to me ... the one that doesn't like anyone. Does that mean everyone who can't bring back marginal pets is a bad person? No, but you need to recognize what you can handle up front when you get an animal and match it to your ability to raise him. Not doing that makes you a bad person.
Totally true 100% There are no bad dogs out there, just bad people. People are too quick to blame the dog for their own problems. :mad:


About two years ago my family's dog passed away. We took all of a day to decide that we wanted another dog. So we looked into different breeds .The main criteria was the dog couldn't be "fluffy" (examples: poodles, yap yap dogs, ect.). The family finally decided that an English bull dog would be a good breed. We went to the local shelter to see what they had. We weren't planning on getting anything that day. But my family instantly fell in love with this beautiful gold retriever.

Moral of the story, Have an idea of what breed you want but look into others at the same times.
Yeah definitely keep an open mind. You will surprise yourself walking into a shelter or rescue how easy it is to find chemistry with a dog that truly wants to go home with you.