> Hi Carol,

Hi, hope you don't mind I changed the title, it was making me sad to see
Pricilla's name still when she's awaiting on the other side of the rainbow
bridge now.  'Never forgotten though'.

 > > Yeah, like they didnt tell us Apple wanted to be alpha really strong with 
 > > full sized labs and a collie.  Way wrong for us with calm little cash.
 > 
 > I can understand that one.. :(  Over here, I think this is probably two coll
 > students organizing this rescue in Ithaca, she sure sounded really young.  I
 > laughed when she said that any dog we got from them would have to be enrolle
 > in professional dog-training. We had a pure-bred shepherd (our first dog) an
 > trained her myself with the book, GoodDog/BadDog..but no, this lady insisted
 > we'd have to enroll the pup in professional dog training classes ... And

Inexperienced folks then unless there is something 'wrong' with the dog
mandating it.  Reminds me of the couple who finally 'allowed me to rscue
their cats vice piutiing them to sleep'.  I've mentioned them but the ones
that the wife said 'no cats' once she got pregnant.  Same ones whom the vet
went after on cruelty to animals with suspecting them to have declawed all 4
feet with human nail clippers.  Cost me 800$ and only that low because he
convinced the whole team to do the surgery for free (cost of materials etc
only).  It was everything I had and i suspect some of them kicked in some
money to get it down to that.

 > yeah, your rescue and ours could both be a lot clearer in what they know abo
 > these poor animals.. it would might help them get adopted a lot faster, I'd

Yes, they often though at first just don't know much.  They have to observe
them for a bit to get a feel for it all.  Like, they didnt realize Apple was
teething (they just said she liked shoes so put them all up).  Once glance
around the foster home (nice folks BTW and a lovely home) made me suspect. 
There wasnt a single hard chew toy.  Foster mom kept mentining what a 'soft
mouth she had'.  Yeah, only soft toys about.

Within 5 mins, she'd adopted one of Cash's old chew teething toys (he really
didnt mind when she saw her light up over it and he had no objection at all
when she left clenching it firmly to take it with her).  We checked the back
of her mouth and molars not all in yet.  Not sure when the last of them come
in but she's young enough we are sure she's still teething the last of them. 
Oh, and we tested her with shoes and once she saw the good chew teething toy,
she ignored all shoes so we passed that back to the foster mom along with the
toy and some suggestions since she hadn't had a teething 'pup' in 12 years.

 > bet.. For me, I stay away from  any pit mixes, but really that's kind of
 > silly.. there are some really laid back pits just like there are some angry
 > labs ..

Sure.  Just like people, personality can completely change a 'trait expected'
but i think it wise to use the 'general traits of breeds' to at least know
what to check for.

Apple only really had 2 problems.  She was TOO 'Alpha' (except witht he cat,
but then she may have never met an ALPHA cat and not have known what to do
there so ignored it for that visit) and she showed a strong 'one man dog'
tendancy (which she pointed at me after the first 2 hours of checking out the
others then apparently deciding).

Neither trait works here.  Not to those levels.  Also, both are generally
'Pit' issues.  

The Alpha bit thoug might also have been a little related to us muffing the
intro a bit.  It was too fast and we didnt have neutral terratory options. 
It had to be at our house.  Seems to me though that would have made Apple
less 'Alpha' at the start and Cash to have been terratorial?  What's your
take?

Cash wasnt terratorial.  He gets visitors of friends dogs and has neighbor
ones.  The biggest problem with him is keeping him from lickifying them to
death.

 > >> Now we're looking to hear from this other fellow here in binghamton who h
 > >> full-breed female 7 month old lab that was mistreated.. she's reportedly 
 > >> low-status, submissive.  She might work out.  I'll have to be careful whe
 > >> try to judge her personality..
 > 
 > > Worht a try!  I figure we take our time here.
 > 
 > I'm not in any rush either... still waiting to hear from the fellow who's go
 > her.

Might be a little slower there.  I think the local K9 folks may be mad at us
for turning Apple down.  Maybe I said a little too much in the email back on
'why' butt he intent was to pass on a little more info they could use quietly
to help find a better home.  No, I didnt blame at all.  I was very brief and
explained only that the 2 dogs apparently had a personality mis-match (I didnt
 tell them Apple tried to sweep his front leg then back leg or bit him on the
ear then go for his neck as in all cases, she backed out before breaking skin
or Cash evaded quickly with no harm having been most likely a pack hunting
dog for a time so skilled at such).  I mentioned she appeared to have a
marked 'one man dog' develop in the 5 hours she was here for me but that we
couldnt tell if that was trainable around or not.

Hehe i do have a fairly soft but well *distinct* voice with dogs.  It
suprises me as i knew little of them before Cash.  Something Natural, not
'developed'.  Whole Cash 'knows' Don is the Alpha, he doesnt always listen to
him.  When I get stern seeing it, he practically jumps out of his hide and
does what i say within the limit of his training.  Like, he'd rather be
walked by Don because he *knows* I won't let him pull too hard or run off to
investigate every facinating scent (heheheh).  You can almost see the gears
turn as I take the leash: 'darn, I have to be a good boy'

 > Meanwhile, Toby stole an entire cheese danish/coffee-cake off the table
 > yesterday but I think he had help with that because it was definitely out of
 > his reach hahaha... I'd seen LuLu, the biggest of our kittens, on the table
 > earlier in the day.. she was digging at that coffee-cake box trying to open
 > it.. I shooed her off the table and left the room.. 10 minutes later Ron and
 > walked in the kitchen for more coffee and Ron said, hey, where'd you put the
 > coffee-cake?? He found the skeletal remains of the box and tin-foil tray in 
 > sewing room on the floor   Silly boy :)

Hehe better than Daisy-chan acting in collusion with Cash-pup to get his
'cone-head' off when he was getting over neutering!  I think I told ya but we
finally caught them in the act snapping it off.  She sat on one end while he
rolled in the other.  *snap* off it came.  Fortunately they didnt figure it
out early enough to be a problem with the stitches.
     xxcarol
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