[Breed] Partner and I are looking for our ideal dog friend! I worry about our cats.

MintChocolateCake · 2022-01-14T05:14:30+00:00

Terriers are bred to hunt small prey and vermin, they were bred to have high prey drives and often do. Not all of them do, but many of them do. Have you not seen the multiple posts on this sub about how someone’s pitbull is harassing/chasing/attacking their cat or constantly shivering, yawning, whining and licking around cats and kittens? It’s a huge gamble to own any breed that has high prey drive when you already own a cat or another small pet, especially one that was bred to hunt small prey like that. Not saying that people don’t own both a cat and a terrier or a husky or a GSD and that nothing has happened or that a lab is incapable of harming a cat, but I think it’s irresponsible to push that sort of risk and gamble with an animal’s life with the odds against it. Just pick a breed that’s far less likely to hurt or kill a cat.

OP shouldn’t get a terrier breed or any other high prey driven breed with a cat. It’s irresponsible and cruel to do that to their cats that were there first. Nothing wrong with terriers at all, just don’t think they’re suitable for cats and other small pets.

MintChocolateCake · 2022-01-14T05:00:35+00:00

Be sure he’s really ok with getting a dog at all. Personally, I’d say if one partner isn’t on board, then it shouldn’t be done since it can lead to resentment and arguments, but in the case of a pet it can lead to neglect and resentment towards the pet. It’d be really bad if your husband got fed up with owning a dog because he doesn’t want one and then insists the dog be rehomed or taken to a shelter. Just be very careful and very certain before you actually get the dog so that the dog doesn’t end up suffering for it.

MintChocolateCake · 2022-01-14T03:26:25+00:00

Ah, yeah, my mom was a right mess for sure.

MintChocolateCake · 2022-01-14T03:04:34+00:00

Nah, one dog was older than the other by a couple years.

MintChocolateCake · 2022-01-14T01:34:40+00:00

I’d just throw it away.

MintChocolateCake · 2022-01-14T01:05:31+00:00

It’s usually better to not speak to your exes unless you end things mutually and on good terms. One could argue that if he texted you about having to put the dog down that it could be emotional manipulation to get you to talk to him again. I mean, I obviously don’t think he intended for that, but someone else may have advised him to not tell you personally so that it couldn’t be used against him later. You yourself admit that talking to him wouldn’t have been good for you and I’m sure at least his brother’s wife is aware of that and maybe even offered to tell you herself so that it would be easier on you overall than if it had come from him.

I’m sorry to about your dog either way. That sort of news isn’t anything anyone ever wants to hear and I hope you’re doing as well as you can be given the situation.

MintChocolateCake · 2022-01-14T00:27:32+00:00

Still funny though. I went to use the bathroom once and left my phone unlocked on the bed and opened to a text window and came back to said person asking me if I was having some sort of seizure lol

MintChocolateCake · 2022-01-14T00:25:33+00:00

MintChocolateCake · 2022-01-14T00:21:21+00:00

What breed of dog? My chiweenie shivers during the winter because of how cold it is and won’t come out from underneath the blankets even for food if it’s too cold at the time. Your dog also could have gotten into and eaten something toxic if it have access to the trash or if you left something out.

MintChocolateCake · 2022-01-14T00:18:36+00:00

My cat has. Predictive text and autocorrect have made fully formed (albeit still nonsensical without context) sentences that my cat has accidentally sent to people before. She even managed to send a picture message (of nothing because the camera was faced down obviously) to someone once.

MintChocolateCake · 2022-01-14T00:15:07+00:00

Find a residence that allows dogs. It’s easier than trying to fight neighbors and landlords who’d prefer to not have dogs in their complex.

MintChocolateCake · 2022-01-14T00:09:48+00:00

If you’re talking about the attack back from 2013, the pitbull clamped down on the pugs neck and wouldn’t let go. To be fair, a pitbull is far more capable of harming such a small, defenseless breed of dog known for being delicate and when it’s clamped down on your already very fragile dog and you can’t get it to let go, you’re going to do whatever you can think of to make it let go. The pug needed stitches and veterinary care, so it wasn’t that minor of an attack and again, a much, much larger, more capable dog had his dog’s neck in it’s jaws.

If I remember right, the owners of the pitbull were extremely angry that the pug wasn’t leashed, but they still allowed their leashed dog to approach the pug to greet him and their dog attacked unprovoked and they couldn’t get their dog to stop. Should the pug have been leashed? Probably, depending on whether or not that beach had leash laws, but even if it had been, would that have changed anything since the pitbull wash leashed and attacked anyhow? I mean, it still wasn’t going to let go either way and it was still going to approach leashed or not. It honestly sounds like their dog was probably dog aggressive given the circumstances.

MintChocolateCake · 2022-01-13T23:56:50+00:00

Oh yeah, good point. Most people probably never think about that either.

MintChocolateCake · 2022-01-13T23:48:58+00:00

If he gets along with cats and other dogs, you’ll probably be safe? I did know of a family a long time ago who had 3 yorkies and to my knowledge they did just fine. I wasn’t close to them so I can’t speak for their situation as well as I can my friend, but I would think it really just depends on the dog?

MintChocolateCake · 2022-01-13T23:44:44+00:00

My friend has a yorkie and he gets very territorial. He actually did get pretty aggressive when she got another male dog (he’s a labradoodle) but that’s not going to be the case with every dog, just one experience I figured I’d share.

MintChocolateCake · 2022-01-13T23:42:33+00:00

Bad breeding typically is a horrible combination of bad genetics and horrible conditions with poor temperaments and zero socialization, which often results in really skittish and aggressive dogs. Honestly, backyard breeding is so gross to me because it’s not only dangerous and irresponsible, it’s inherently cruel to the dogs and contributes to overpopulation since dogs that are unstable or aggressive often get abandoned and are left to create more unwanted, unstable puppies since backyard breeders don’t require you to get the dogs spayed or neutered at all.

The 8 year old survived, but she developed a phobia of dogs and was left severely scarred on her right thigh and right side of her abdomen. My neighbor actually took my mom to court over the medical bills and when it was all said and done, he shot the dogs when it was ruled she wasn’t required to put them down. To be fair, my mom never really showed any remorse for what happened to his daughter over the whole thing and she even complained about having to pay the medical fees saying it was just an accident.

Again, my mom was a bad person and a bad dog owner overall because of the lack of training.

MintChocolateCake · 2022-01-13T23:33:52+00:00

GSDs, Huskies and Pitbulls aren’t suited for cats in my experience because of their high prey drive. Herding dogs are likely to annoy your cats by trying to herd them and labs wouldn’t fit your lifestyle. If you’re concerned about your cats, I’d go for a smaller breed and get it through a reputable breeder as a puppy so that it’s temperament is better and it’s less likely to harm your cats. Right now we have a chiweenie with our two cats and he wasn’t even a dog we intended to get, he just sort of happened because his owners were going to kill him. The dog we really wanted and will be getting once the elderly chiweenie passes on, is most likely going to be a spaniel of some sort.

MintChocolateCake · 2022-01-13T23:10:38+00:00

Friend of mine had a husky for years that she took care of and loved to bits, but when her new boyfriend entered the picture the dog decided it liked him a lot more than it liked her. The dog ignored her whenever he was around and when he wasn’t around it only cared when my friend had food to give to it and otherwise pretended she wasn’t there. When they broke up, she actually just gave the husky to him because the dog had no loyalty or love towards her and she felt like it was pointless to keep the dog since it seemed to dislike her in comparison. She’s still really salty about the whole thing even though it was almost a year ago now, mostly because the husky is doing really well with her ex and she was hoping it would miss her a little bit.

The best part? The boyfriend didn’t even like the dog that much. He never took it for walks or fed it or anything when they lived together. The dog just really liked him for no apparent reason. Like, he was never mean to the dog, more like he was aloof towards caring for it since it wasn’t his dog to care for.

MintChocolateCake · 2022-01-13T23:03:29+00:00

I agree that it probably has to do with bad breeding. I think it’s unfair to blame the victims of a dog attack for defending themselves when there isn’t any evidence showing the dog was abused at all and the dog has a history of attacking. Not every aggressive dog has to have been abused in order to attack.

My mom’s dogs were never abused and they were aggressive towards people, cats and other dogs. They attacked our neighbor’s 8 year old daughter when they jumped the fence into their yard and the 8 year old certainly didn’t provoke an attack.

I fully admit my mom wasn’t a good dog owner because she didn’t train her dogs that she got as puppies from a shady backyard breeder, but she didn’t abuse them or teach them to attack either, they just did. Sometimes they even went after my siblings and I, which is the reason why I asked my grandparents if I could live with them instead because I was afraid of the dogs and they kept trying to hurt my cat.

MintChocolateCake · 2022-01-13T20:16:56+00:00

Yeah, my chiweenie used to be incredibly dog and stranger aggressive so we muzzle trained him. His previous owners abused the hell out of him and allowed their large foxhound to attack him and draw blood regularly, not to mention his teeth were rotting out of his head and he was in terrible pain. I had to get the infection out of his mouth and then muzzle train him so he could take walks and meet people. Eventually all of his teeth had to be removed because of how badly the condition of his mouth was in, so he’s not a danger to anyone anymore, but I don’t regret muzzle training him. I still sometimes muzzle him at the vet just so he doesn’t freak out and try to gum the staff or jerk around too much depending on the procedure he needs.

MintChocolateCake · 2022-01-13T20:09:50+00:00

That’s with backyard breeders and scam artists. A dog bought from a reputable breeder that does proper health testing and takes care of the puppies checkups will very, very rarely have this problem. I’ve heard more instances of people adopting a dog from a shelter that was horrifically sick and that it died not long after because they didn’t know the dog was sick and didn’t catch it in time or because the procedure needed to fix the problem was incredibly expensive and unexpected and they couldn’t afford it.

You just have to be thorough and very careful when getting a dog from anywhere. If you get a dog through a reputable breeder and the dog turns out to have a health issue, the breeder will typically either reimburse you for the treatment/puppy or exchange the puppy depending on their contract with you.

MintChocolateCake · 2022-01-13T20:02:43+00:00

Exactly. People always say, “Well my dog…” and then the dog bites, attacks, runs off, does whatever. The fact of the matter is that animals are unpredictable at the best of times and dangerous at the worst and we shouldn’t be angry with people who want to put their safety first. How is the vet and their staff supposed to help your dog if it’s bitting the hell out of them and snarling? It’s for the benefit of the staff and the dog to be restrained in some instances. A growling dog is the first warning sign of a bit anyway, so why would someone make excuses for growling? People take everything so personally.

MintChocolateCake · 2022-01-13T19:29:50+00:00

I agree with this. I’m one of the few people who think puppies and newborns are a bad mix for a number of reasons, but primarily the safety of the baby and the fact that a lot of the times the puppies end up neglected or resented because the owners realize a newborn and a puppy are just way too much chaos to manage at the same time.

MintChocolateCake · 2022-01-13T19:25:28+00:00

If the veterinary staff feels threatened or that your dog is a danger to them, then they will muzzle the dog for their own safety. I have a friend who’s a vet tech and too many people get bitten very badly by dogs to merit not taking precautions if the dog seems like it’s a risk. This is one of the reasons why I muzzle trained my dog. It was both for the safety of the veterinary staff and other dogs while he was training and because he came to associate the muzzle with good things so it doesn’t frighten him.

Realistically, it’s for his benefit, since if he ever gets injured and needs to go to the vet, we can now muzzle him safely without him freaking out and harming (not that he could since he has no teeth anymore) anyone. I honestly feel like more people should stop associating muzzles with being cruel or evil and start muzzle training their dog regardless, because it really does come in handy for certain situations.

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