Not your question marks, which seem appropriate with you. Your ridiculous statement.

"I really don't know why I am being judged so harshly."


Because despite everything that has been said in pages of posts about keeping this dog in your small house with 7 children, this dog who has BITTEN YOUR CHILD TWICE, you continue to come up with really counterproductive and dangerous rebuttals.

No one here thinks the dog (or you) is bad or evil. They think that the dog is in the wrong home and that you are in way over your head with this dog and this situation.

Connie, where do you see that I am continuing it????? I made 2 statements - one to answer Anne and one to answer you.

I am NOT pushing the subject.

You don't have a clue how many people you've disparaged with one stupid comment you tossed into this thread to try and make some point you didnt need to.

 Quote: connie sutherland

"you continue to come up with really counterproductive and dangerous rebuttals.

I thought the point of training with distractions was to train the dog in a quiet, calm setting, then when the command is learned, the dog is taken to an area where there is a little distraction or to a different place in the yard, then when that is accomplished you up the distractions until the dog will obey in whatever situation you put him into.

In my instance, I am NOT talking about putting him in a muzzle and walking into the middle of the cattle and training him there. I am talking about gradual training, upping the distractions. I was led to believe that the way you teach a dog to ignore something is to have it around the distraction and work with him until he realizes that it is 1) not going to hurt him and 2) he is able to function without it being a distraction.

If I am wrong on these 2 points please correct me, but that is what I get from the Leerburg videos.

To train a dog to ignore cattle wouldn't you train that as part of your distraction training and NOT allow him to chase or bark at them? Obviously, in the future, if he were to stay here he would be in the midst of the cattle with us, and he would be expected to act appropriately. I, personally don't think that is impossible for this dog.

 Quote: steve strom

You don't have a clue how many people you've disparaged with one stupid comment you tossed into this thread to try and make some point you didnt need to.

Do you think I am the only person in the world who has heard what I said on here? No, I know of several in my area who have said the same thing about sch. They discouraged it, too. If there is something different about sch then maybe you should try educating me about it and stop blasting me for my "one stupid comment."

Read

Theresa, we are not being harsh. The folks here are looking at what is in the best interest of the dog...& in this case your kids, also.

Sometimes it is difficult to see what is right in front of us. We understand that you don't want to part with your dog. We get that. We all get attached to our dogs. But this dog is just not in the right place for him or YOUR FAMILY.

It is too often that we see where these kinds of things end up.

There are many nice dogs out there that will make a more appropriate dog for your family. Rehome this guy where he can be what he is (because you are not going to change what he is)& live a happy life doing what comes naturally to him in knowledgable hands. You will be surprized how it will feel to have this weight of having to 'balance' everythig & everyone every minute has taken a toll on you & stressed you all out. It will be a relief to not have all this pressue on you worring & being torn between keeping your family safe & doing right by the dog.

This is off topic but I will address this...since it was addressed to me: If dogs were abused in SchH...how many people do you think would submit their dogs to that kind of treatment? SchH has been around for a very long time. It wouldn't be if dogs were being abused. Most of us have paid pretty high prices to purchase our dogs & do you really think that we are about to see them be abused. I don't think so.

ENOUGH...I'm done.

In fact this thread should just be closed, as there is nothing much more that anyone can say.

Theresa, we understand you want to keep him, but training him in bite sports is not something you should be doing . Sure it will drain some energy, but like others have said, it will train him how to bite. Unless you are experienced, you should not do this, especially with a dog that has bitten a 10 year old twice. If you keep this dog, there are better ways to drain it of energy. We know you love this dog, but you must think of your children first. From what you stated, this dog is too much to handle for you and it honestly requires too much structure in my opinion to keep with 7 children. Children will move and jump and run and you do not want this dog seriously biting your child for doing what children do, do you?

I have had issues with one of my dogs, and we have implemented the structure and put in the time he has needed. From everything you have said, instead of implementing structure, you want to teach your dog bite sports and protection, which in all honesty is a dumb move.

Regarding Schutzhund, I am not saying you should do it, but if you decide you want to do it in the future with a different dog, DO NOT go to the people you spoke to stating your dog will be beaten and bloody. The only way this would happen in normal training is with someone who doesn't know what they are talking about and those people should not be working dogs. As Steve said, you've disparaged a lot of people with that type of comment. I don't know who you have been talking to, but you need to research it more, and read the book Steve sent.

My suggestion stands, give this dog back to the breeder. He seems too much to handle, especially with 7 kids. Let the breeder train this dog. I am sure, if he is a good breeder, he knows his lines and knows these issues, as he seems to want to take the dog to help you.

 Quote: steve strom

You don't have a clue how many people you've disparaged with one stupid comment you tossed into this thread to try and make some point you didnt need to.

Oh yeah:
"I do know that we have talked to several different schutzhund trainers and they have told us that training for schutzhund is very harsh and a lot of times the dog is bloody from all the beating."

With that moronic statement, that poster can be sure that I'll *never* offer them any advice, period.