We had a case of a man in our area (small town in NE WI) who had 2 PB. He kept a treadmill and a spring pole in his garage for excercise on rainy and cold days. He was taken to court for training fighting dogs and his dogs were seized and not returned. He ended up being aquitted after a parade of witnesses including vets and a rescue said he was a great owner-but he was black, and had PB’s. He moved and lost his dogs. How sad is that!

K.B., Gina, Janeen I couldn’t agree more with you guys on the rant and the follow ups. There are so many “my way or the highway” breeders, rescues, and trainers in my area. Try being a raw feeding, minimal vaccine, dog owner here. Blech! I have learned that ALL animals are different in their needs and personality. I train, feed, vet each according to what works best for them personally. I hate the cookie cutter approach so many take. If you color outside the lines here you have every “dog” person on you for some form of abuse.

Comment by Gina Spadafori — August 29, 2009 @ 3:13 pm
Ain’t that the truth?!

I’ve met the best - and certainly the worst - people I know at dog shows, trials and training seminars.”

Janeen, get out of my head! XD XD!!

I’ve met the best - and certainly the worst - people I know at dog shows, trials and training seminars.

And yes,I’ve been on the hot end of these rants. I got a scorching review on my first book for explaining how to house-train a puppy when you have to work. The person ripped me viciously for giving people “permission” to “abuse” their puppies by leaving them alone. Ha! While no doubt we’d all love to quit our jobs to stay home with our pets — and our children, for that matter! — that’s just not possible if we want to actually have a home to stay in while we raise them.

That said, I don’t think pet-lovers are any more or less judgmental than anyone else. You want judgmental? Go to a blog or board on raising children and offer your opinion — any opinion, it doesn’t matter — on potty-training, breast-feeding or dealing with poor behavior in public.

Then stand back, because you won’t have any eyebrows left!

And by the way, this “my way or the highway” thing is why I love, love, love Liz Palika, and why I begged her to blog here. She is a wonderful dog-trainer, and even better, she’s great with dog-owners. Now you might think a former Marine would run her training classes like boot camp, but NO!

The hallmark of Liz’s classes is that everyone’s always smiling — the instructors, the owners and the dogs. Her motto is “have fun, and do what works.” No orthodoxy. She tailors the training to the dogs and the owners, each individually.

When we hung out together at Del Mar (during which she won more betting than anyone else in our party, by far!) I told her that if I could figure out a way to live in San Diego County I’d beg her to let me be one of her assistant trainers, just so I could hang out and have fun.

Now, Liz is no doubt blushing now, but I wanted to make the point that not even all the professionals are always advancing an agenda. Many of them are like Liz: They’re there to help, to help everyone have fun, and to make living with a pet a lot more life-enhancing.

As our Dr. Becker says, “It’s all about THE BOND!”

I’m rather new at the whole dog thing, only having had a dog for the last 2.5 years. But in that time, I have learned something interesting, and it is amply demonstrated in some of the comments in this post.

Dog people can be some of the most judgmental, ignorant, closed-minded, hateful bunch I have ever come across. Fortunately, the vast majority of them are absolutely fantastic, and make up for the others.

The guy is riding his bike with his dog? ABUSE!

The guy has a large collar on his dog? ABUSE!

The guy is exercising his dog in the “heat of the day”? ABUSE!

I have read so many damn comments on so many topics on so many websites, where basically the poster states that if you DARE to do anything in any way that is different from the way they do it, then you are ignorant/abusive/stupid/insane, etc. And I’m so tired of it. Really, absolutely, utterly tired of it.

Feed you dog in the evenings in it’s crate with cheap kibble. Anything else - and you’re wrong.

Feed your dog a few times a week by allowing it to gorge on organic, free-range whole prey raw meat. Anything else - and you’re wrong.

Use a gentle leader on your dog - any other collar - and you’re wrong.

Use a shock collar on your dog. Anything else - and you’re wrong.

NEVER give your dog any vaccination what-so ever. Anything else - and you’re wrong.

Vaccinate your dog with everything your vet recommends, every year. Anything else - and you’re wrong.

Weight-pulling is abusive. Agility is abusive. Training with a spring pole is abusive. Biking with your dog is abusive. Keeping your dog outside is abusive. Breeding your dog is abusive. Conformation shows are abusive.

Have to cut your dog’s nails? Not exercising it enough - ABUSE! Have a job outside the house? Leave your dog alone? ABUSE! Play tug with your dog - VISCOUS dog warning!!!!

UGH!

How about we all get off our high horses, and leave people alone who train their dogs a bit differently that we do, except where there is CLEAR, OBVIOUS EVIDENCE that the dog is truly abused? How about we fight the important fights, and leave the average dog owner alone instead of constantly criticizing them for doing things a different way? How about we learn NOT to speak on a subject that we know nothing about? How about asking and learning instead of judging?

Gina, sorry for the rant. But I have had it with all these “experts” telling us that there is only one true way in the dog world, and implying that anyone who thinks differently shouldn’t be allowed to have a dog.

Maybe he is a dog fighter, who knows. But I don’t know how you could see that or guess that from the photo. I’m not a fan of weighted collars, but I can’t tell if that is a weighted collar or not. Even if it is, it doesn’t mean the dog is a fighting dog.

I used to bike occasionally with my bully. Sometimes I’d pedal and she’d just trot or run alongside, sometimes I’d let her pull me. This is a breed that enjoys pulling. They excel in weight pull, yes, but they also just straight up enjoy it.

It is definitely riskier than walking or jogging with a dog. I bike with my dog running along, but I worked at training him first with commands “left,” “right,” “slow,” “stop.” It is great exercise for him, and he absolutely loves it. I am not able to run due to joint problems, so we do this instead. I have fallen twice, once on the side he was on, but he’s fast and got out of the way, thankfully. It is not something I would recommend to people not willing to take the time to really work on training the dog to move with and pay attention to the bike, however. I have a high-energy dog that needs a lot of exercise, and I do this with him as well as skate.