Everything I Need To Know About My Pets

I've learned from my pets. That is, after someone else has told me what it is my pets are telling me. This is why I love forums.

As you may know, I have two hoodlum dogs that I rescued. One, the boy, is...well, I think he would tear down an intruder but in the "brightness" department, he apparently failed to show up when it was his turn to collect. I've had these two for almost two years now and he just isn't getting it. Sure, he knows sit and stay and lie down, he knows to go in to his crate when I bring out the food but after that?

DER!

To him, life is a never ending adventure. Every single thing that we do is like a day at Disneyland for a 5 year old. Sensory overload? He owns it. His high prey drive is sometimes fun, makes exercising him really easy but it's also a gigantic pain in the backside because, frankly, I don't have a clue how to turn it in to a positive. He's not one of those dogs that would do well in competition because he just can not focus on specific tasks, it takes him forever to learn a single command and he is dog aggressive. He does not like other dogs!

We've been through rigorous training and he's getting better but it's so much work that I'm afraid by the time we are successful, he'll be too old for anything rigid like competition. So...what do I do with all that energy? All that drive? What do I do? There has to be a way to turn it in to something positive.

I let them out to run around like morons several times a day and on days off, for long periods of time until he's panting and collapses to the ground in exhaustion. I have purchased mind stimulating games for them and he, rather than figure it out, bulls his way to the treat hidden inside. To be honest, that's what I call him: A bull. That's how he acts. He acts like a fricken bull, all huffing and puffing, charging and snorting. He doesn't act like that with other people, he loves people...as long as you are not the UPS guy or meter reader, for those types, he's back to being Cujo the dog bull. So, the search has been ongoing to find more information.

Now, the girl? I've said it a few times that she is smart as a whip. This girl is so smart, she makes me look like an expert dog trainer. I can "teach" her something and she'll either have it after the first, and I mean the VERY first lesson or she'll have it within a few minutes that is how smart she is. For example, she knows her left from right when paw shaking and that took her about 3 tries before she had it down pat. If I had just her and was presenting myself to an audience who shouted out ideas for me to teach her, she would make me look like a dog whisperer as I can take any word she's never heard before, show her how to do it and within a minute or so, she'll be executing the "trick" perfectly.

Those mind stimulating games I bought for them? She doesn't bull through them, she sits and watches me as I show her how to do it, she'll give it a few tries and then PRESTO Bingo! That dog has figured it out. The mind stimulating games feel like an entire waste of money because of it. I have said, a few times, "What the heck? Is this for dumb dogs? She nailed it within a minute so either the manufacturers have no idea about dogs or most dogs are just stupid." It's about that time that I remember my boy dog. "Oh."

So, I have to figure out ways to keep her stimulated, to keep her from being bored because you can see she wants to do something, she wants to learn something. When I do find something that does that for her, the grin she gets on her face is worth so much. This dog gets a look of absolute elation on her face that you can't help but laugh. Because of this need, I am constantly scouring the internet to learn other things to do.

At the same time, as I said above, I am scouring the internet learning ways to train the bull boy. With one dog, I need to find advanced techniques and with the other, I have to start at the very beginning despite the hours and days, weeks and months that we have been at it.

Usually what happens when I do this is I end up finding information about cats or rats or fish or birds and I read them all until I forget what it was I was looking for in the first place. Every bit of information or proven technique is only helping me better understand not only my animals, animals I've had in the past but also how similar animals can be in certain ways. Every animal is teachable, even fish. Even bull boy. Doesn't matter to me if it's a conditioned response or not, they are all teachable.

I even go to forums for different breeds of dogs, a breed that has nothing to do with my own because regardless, I can pick up tips. I think forums are great in that they allow one to interact with others, share ideas and learn exactly what the person is trying to say. The problem is, however, the mountain of forums out there and who has the time to go through cat forums and dog forums and bird forums and fish forums and on and on. Wouldn't it be better if there was one forum with a section dedicated to each animal?

Well. It's possible I have found that forum. I found myself on pet forums and it has exactly that. There is a section for dogs which includes discussion about their health, discussion about breeds, discussion about training and just general information. The same forum has a section for cats as well as birds, rats, reptiles and other animals. It includes a place to introduce yourself, share photos and even an "off topic" section where you can write about whatever as you get to know other forum members. This is what I've been looking for.

It does appear that this forum is just starting out and let me tell you from personal experience, I know EXACTLY how difficult it is to get that word out. It is not easy, it can be costly, it is time consuming and the sad part is, you just want to provide a service for people you know they will love but getting it noticed in this sea of internet sites is exhausting. Trust me, I know, too well, just how exhausting. I think it needs a large dose of attention because I see a huge potential for this forum and it's going in my bookmarks.

Regardless of how much I learn, I don't expect to find myself on America's Got Talent dancing with my girl dog nor do I expect to win any ribbons in any kind of competition, I'm just hoping to find ways to give my pets the best quality of life that I can. I nailed it in the nutrition department, now I have to work on their minds and it is just as hard to work with a dim bull boy as it is to work with a Mensa dog. As with all training and tips about animals, it's not really the animals we are teaching, it's ourselves. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that the boy is not actually dim but that both of them, boy and girl, are smarter than I will ever be.