Possibly fostering a dog

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Kayla2

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 23, 2009
Messages
133
Location
Somewhere, Nova Scotia
So a long story short one of my close friends is splitting up with her boyfriend and moving back in with her parents. Me and another friend are going to be renting the house that she is moving out of. The only thing is that she has a dog that she cannot take with her because her mother is terrified of dogs. This dog is only about a year old, he is a mix of many things but mostly a pit bull and has the looks of a pit bull. He hasnt been socialized with other dogs or people since he was a pup and he is VERY hyper with new people.... Since she can't take the dog with her we offered to sort of foster him/keep him.

The neighbours have already called the police because they saw him on the property line and got scared when he went to check them out. He also jumps. When he got loose the owner thinks the neighbours hit him because she heard him yelping and whimpering on her way down the driveway looking for him. So according to the animal control, if the dog is to go outside even if he is tied he has to be wearing a muzzle at all times. (I have to look into this because its not fair to a dog who has never bit anybody)

Once he gets to know a person he calms down quite a bit.

So I am not nervous about the dog because he is really sweet, but how do you go about socializing a dog that people are afraid of? Does neutering help with anything like being hyper/nervousness in dogs?
What other things could help in socializing? Obedience training is probably not an option as I cannot afford i and I dont believe the original owner can either.
He also really picks up on people who are scared or anxious of him.

So this turned into a long post but I just hope other people can make me feel better for agreeing to help out.
 
If your still local, after I move I could come visit and help him get used to new people if you like :) I love pitties, hyper ones even more. A neuter will help him, neuters in dogs can calm him down. He needs to be walked. Pitbull type dogs NEED exercise. MOST of the time, issues with dogs are because they are not given an outlet for energy and their natural instincts are taken from them (smell, migration, keeping minds busy). A tired Pitbull is a happy one. Time to start walking him daily, or getting someone to take him for runs. You may have to muzzle him, I muzzle my girl when shes out for walks. She's great with people, but terrible with dogs so as a precaution, we muzzle her.
I believe in this area, as long as someone thinks a dog is aggressive, they can and will order a muzzle to be worn at all times. Any aggressive behavior is a dangerous dog here, its stupid. Where I USED to live, if someone said my dog growled, and she was Pitbull, they could legally come INTO my house, by force and take her to be euth'd. We have breed restriction in Cape Breton, and breed bans just outside of the Causeway. SPCA here also doesn't really like the breed as well.
Good luck with him, you are quite possibly giving him LIFE where someone else wouldn't. Not many people put up with that kind of behavior, most because they don't want to train a dog and expect it to grow up perfect with no work lol Kayla, you're awesome.
 
Oh yes, he needs exercise for sure. Right now he gets let out onto the deck to do his buisness because she has a 3 year old that cannot walk around him. I plan on taking him out for long walks/runs to get some of the cooped up puppy energy out. Its too bad I'm not in the area anymore :( I moved back home last week.. But we have a really nice dog park here and theres a big section that is off leash too with a dog beach, so my goal is to have him be obidient enough to trust him there off leash.

eta: And that is part of the reason I agreed to take him, becuse no one in their right mind would take him they way he greets people, and I just keep picturing this poor pup getting passed around on kijiji until he is eventually put down because he is an untrained pitbull.
 
Fair warning, dogs parks are not for Pitbulls :( At any moment they could go back to that natural instinct to be dog aggressive or prey on smaller animals. He needs a lot of training before I would even consider it, and even then I not sure I could 100% enjoy a dog park without fears of something happening.

Where's home again? Boooo for moving, you left me on the island!! lol
 
Back to the Dartmouth area. This pup I'm taking is from an accidental litter of puppies one of my good friends had, the mother is a mastiff/rotweiller mix, and the father is pitbull mix so he is quite a few different breeds and I call him pit bull because thats were he gets his looks. Oh and I know better than to take him somewheres with so many dogs and just let him go. He would need lots of training and socialization. I'm going to introduce him to friends dogs and such for a bit and take him for hike in the woods and walks for most of the excercise. Even if it turns out he can't be around other dogs, I hope I will be giving him a better life then locked in a room all day and pooping on a 3'X3' deck.
 
Pit bulls should never ever go to an off leash dog park. ever. even if he is rock solid, you can't expect him not to react if another dog is aggressive towards him, and even if it was some other dogs fault, a pit bull will pretty much always be blamed for a fight, further damaging the breed reputation. it's just not a good idea.

Neutering reduces potential for eventual (hormonal) aggression a little bit, and could help calm him down, it's definitely a good idea.
For the jumping, you or a friend could approach him, and if he jumps ignore, or turn around and cross your arms, showing him no attention until he has all paws on the ground. praise for a good greeting. tell your friends to do the same, and he'll (eventually!) learn he gets no attention unless he has all feet on the ground.
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150598328485527 I dunno if you can see this, but something like this lol.


as for socialization, take him everywhere possible. walk him in places where there's lots of people, if he can handle it. People are afraid of my dog all the time for the way he looks, and he's a frigging SISSY. you kinda have to develop a bit of a thick skin as a pit bull owner..

My husband always points out that people cross the street or give us a wide berth when they see us coming, and I'm like "really?! I didn't even notice" :giggle:
 
Bad Rap is an excellent rescue but also does a lot of education, here's a wonderful article that sums just about everything up:
http://badrap.org/rescue/responsible.html
(There's other great stuff there, just browse the site)

re: #4 - Socialization is important but IMO dog parks are not the way to go for sure. It can be overwhelming, it's hard to control the whole situation should something go sour and there's lots of idiots all the time to take their dogs there. Best is to go for walks with a friend and his/her dog... low key kinda thing. And always make sure you do slow introductions. I find walking side by side before they are allowed to even sniff often takes the initial excitement out and things tend to be more mellow.

Even if another dog attacks the Pit Bull and the Pit Bull just tries to defend himself, he will most likely get the blame so key is to avoid another bad news story as they already have such a bad reputation. It always takes two to tango but the Pit Bull will get the blame.

I've been fostering a cute Pit Bull girl since Christmas. She's fantastic with all people, my dog, my cat and even my small animals but when meeting new dogs she is far too excited and it can bring out the worst in other dogs ie it's too much for fearful dog and some will attack her out of fear. Same goes with dominant dogs who feel that she's not respecting them and tell her off. As soon as the others act out, Amber will immediately go into defense mode and will attack back. Nothing ever happened because I watch her closely (or any dog for that matter) at any given time. So now I know and we do just slow intros and then she's perfectly fine though some dogs I do avoid all together like my friend's little alpha bitch who likes to attack all other dogs except for my male ACD X... Amber would not have any of her behavior and so they don't get to hang out.

Definitely develop a thick skin, lots of people will call you names, cross street.... Funny enough even people who know you... I've been living in this neighborhood for 7 years, people know me and my ACD X. Yet when I'm fostering a Pit Bull, many people will cross the street. A neighbor always comes and snuggles with my fosters except when I have a Pit Bull, then he won't even look at him/her. Because you know, I would bring in a super aggressive dog into my house so I can fear for the life of my dog, cat and small animals :cheeky: People just aren't very smart :emb:

APBT and other bully breeds are fantastic! But they do come with a lot of responsibility so that hopefully one day people will recognize them as "the nanny dog" again like a few decades ago where they were family dog #1.
 
I have to ditto the big responsibility! After owning Fate, I really don't think I could ever own another APBT. I didn't get to enjoy her like I would of another type of breed. I'm always watching every move, around ever corner, even to take her out to pee I am watching for that one stray dog to rush at her. I love my dog to bits, that why I do all this but I wish we could be like "normal owners" and not have to worry.

Yes, thick skin for sure. You will not believe the faces people will make at you let alone the comments. I am to the point where if I am having a bad day and someone says something about my dog.. I actually feel embarrassed to own a Pitbull :( People can be so freaking cruel.
 
If I could I would adopt my foster... she's so awesome. I don't mind the extra responsibility. I'm used to it with my ACD X who can be dog aggro.

As to people calling me names or making a big detour around us, I tend to take it as a challenge to prove them wrong, to show them how wonderful they can be... I dress Amber up in silly things and have been working on teaching her tricks. It's been a bit of a challenge as she's been recovering from surgery all this time and will have another one coming up in a little bit more than a week.. so we have to take it easy. So we're taking silly pics instead: http://twitpic.com/4yzhdm :wink2:

The worst are stupid dog owners... those who don't spay/neuter, who walk them offleash despite the leash laws and worst is when their dogs have no training..... All I get is "Oh he's friendly!/He just wants to play!" But they miss the point that the other dog might not be friendly. And of course, they get the "come here, come here, come here, COME here" and the dog is just prancing around while I'm trying to prevent that my dog takes a chunk out of their dog. Those interactions can be hard to predict and control. I have 3 people in my neighborhood like this and I have told them time and time again to keep their dogs leashed, I have called AC.. they still don't get it.
 
It seems a bit extreme, but I carry animal deterrent spray with me on walk. you can get it at petsmart (or probably amazon too, if you're not into supporting pet stores lol) for like 10 bucks. At the very least it will make an owner of any dog you spray reconsider letting their dog off leash lol. It's apparently not painful, (It's only citronella and pressurized water)

I also carry a small nylon slip lead, because you really never know what can happen...

My dog isn't even DA, lol but I have encountered off leash seemingly aggressive dogs in our walking route, so I don't want to take any risks.
 
Unfortunatly the ex boyfriend has decided to keep the dog. From what I hear he will be set up in a room in the basement of the house....So he wont ever get any better. Once he is there I plan on keeping my ears/eyes open in case there is some obvious abuse or neglect so I can call the SPCA. He isnt aggresive so they would be able to find him a better home.
 

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