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There are a select few in our community who take notice of how sweet and cuddly our pup really is. When we walk him outside in this nasty winter weather (yeah, he hates it sometimes, but he has to potty somewhere, lol), he wears a coat and booties, and at school I always hear teachers ask me, “hey, is that your dog wearing that coat and booties?” And after I reply “yes,” they say, “Oh, he is the most handsome thing ever!” He still gets real excited around kids–trying to work on the not jumping up on people thing, but other than that..he just wants to lick your face until you can’t take it anymore, haha.
Kong toys seem to be O’Shea’s favorite, esp. his wobbly one, where we stick a portion of his food in there–keeps him occupied for at least 10-15 minutes. 🙂 The only time we ever got rawhides was when we first got him, and little did we know he’d down one in a short period of time, then have the runs REAL BAD. He loves beef bones that have marrow in them. Of course, we watch him while chewing on it, cuz he’ll really go at it and break pieces of the bone off, and if it’s a large piece, we’ll take that away, let him continue chewing. I heard these marrow bones seem to be some of the best ones, esp. if you can get some bones from a butcher shop.
Well, no baby on the way! I guess he could be extra cuddly because of a weather change? It’s been getting cooler, so maybe he has an up on us with that one. Otherwise, maybe he is hinting at us to have a kid? Haha–who knows. I’m just glad it’s not a one-sided cuddliness. Just last night, while my sis and nephew were visiting, my nephew/I were sleeping in one room and O’Shea had slept with us one night, but last night–he went to sleep with my husband downstairs–SO CUTE.
I love hearing these stories! O’Shea will do similar things to get our attention–mainly stare until I say something like “What do you need O’Shea? Do you want to go for a walk/ride?” It’s fun to watch him play fetch in the house–he has a toy squirrel we bought; no stuffing, but only squeakers in the head/tail. Anyway, we throw it on the futon, which serves as our couch, and he will attempt to jump from I swear the other room to land on the futon. He makes it most times, but sometimes he’ll catch a leg and I think to myself “Gosh, O’Shea, come to Mommy” and I’ll give him a quick massage. When really, he looks at me like “What, nothing happened.” What a goof!
Well, we should find out this week if the pregnancy thing is indeed the reason for this extra cuddliness. We’ll be sure to let you all know!! 🙂 All in all, we’re delightful that our pup is so cuddly…and he’s feeling fine! No change in potty schedules, just extra cuddly, with both my husband and I!
Has she been through any training? As soon as we picked up our pit from a stray shelter (he’s about a year and 8 months now), he had a hard time walking–just cuz he was always excited. Not a really big puller, but still quite strong.
We have a leash that is 6 ft long, but also has a “traffic” handle, which is situated where the dog has to walk right by your side. During training, we’d have some extra special treats in our RH, having the traffic handle in our LH, and as we took a few steps at a time we’d say “heel” and then give a treat if he stayed by our side. Ours hasn’t quite picked up on this, but he walks well for the most part. (Just when there are critters around–rabbits and squirrels, does he get excited…but I think if we ignore those creatures he ignores them, too)
Now that I’m back full-time at school (hard to believe it’s my 2nd yr of teaching already), O’Shea seems to be doing quite well. We keep things that he likes (toilet paper is a favorite, tissues, and plastic bottles) out of his reach, and have put other important items into plastic totes. I’m gone from 7:00-4:30/5:00, and my husband 6:30-4:00 Monday thru Friday–just happy with how well O’Shea has been doing.
This past weekend we took a trip to see my sister in Wisconsin (we live in Iowa), and brought O’Shea with us. My sis has a 5-6 year old collie (female), and O’Shea/her got along fine. O’Shea was just a little too rambunctious for her liking, so they weren’t allowed to really wrestle around/play. That’s one reason we feel a puppy would be a better fit for O’Shea–plus, he was pretty fine with just letting the puppy play around on him at the meet/greet.
Going to have another talk with my husband, and keep all up to date with whether/not we feel we can handle having a puppy added to our family. We’ve done well so far with our adult pit–but he really needs a friend he can play with, the way dogs were meant to play.
So sad the opinions of some, and how this will affect the opinion of the masses. For me, if a police officer walked up to my pit and said how well behaved/cute they were, then I would have been like, “YES, another person who has made a connection with him.” I agree–ignorance is everywhere–definitely something not easy to deal with, but for my dog’s sake (he’s my baby after all; no kids at home, he’s the one and only, lol), I will take whatever badgering people give in order to give and provide for him.
Yeah, I’ve heard of dogs being able to open doors, esp. those with the handles that push down instead of twisting to open. All in all, was just a sad headliner, to see “pit bulls” once again in the news circuit. I do wonder what shelter these animals are being housed at, and what their “fate” will be. I really hate how animals have to suffer because their owners were irresponsible in the first place. It’s just a shame, an absolute shame. I’m just happy we’re doing what we can to be responsible pit owners.
Thanks for all the comments! He hasn’t gotten any bumps on his skin since this time, and I think the only thing we’ve changed since then was a different shampoo, and his food. He’s now on something that has a little more oil in it, which I think has nourished his drier skin. He did have some sort of a reaction to something (not quite what sure) either in our house, outside, or to some allergen in the air–caused a reaction to his skin just under his chin–was all red, he’d scratch at it (but never when we were around)…took him to the vet, the vet gave him a shot that was supposed to eliminate the issue at hand, which it did. He hasn’t had any reaction since that time–hard to tell what that was all about. Just gotta keep an eye on our mischievious, precious pooch. 😛
My husband/I began our dog (year and about 8 months) on Purina One Adult, but only because that was what he was being fed at the shelter, but we decided to switch because of what we thought was a skin reaction–switched to Eukanuba. It was recommended to us by our dog trainer–Maintenance formula–he’s done well on that. Healthy stools, not as much itching, although I’d love to be able to afford Natural Balance for him. He LOVES their tubes of food–fish/sweet potato, lamb, and turkey–awesome ingredients, no fillers/by products–all natural, wholesome goodness. Might end up switching over to Nat. Balance if Eukanuba doesn’t sit well with him at some point–but we don’t want to switch foods too often.
Believe me, we have experienced everything from our dog stealing a steak in just a few minutes when we stepped outside, to him pulling down pans and eating up some of our kitchen utensils. the only thing we’ve been able to do is keep things out of his reach. So I hope, too, through your initial question, someone may be able to offer both of us some advice 🙂
I’ve had labs in my family before (when I was younger), but now having a pit bull, we are very keen/aware of different things. Obedience classes are a must for any dog, no matter the breed. If you are able to take classes with other dogs, that is sometimes helpful (or at the very least, have play-dates with dogs in your area; here nobody really wants their dog playing with us, just ‘cuz he’s a pit bull). Pit bulls are big chewers, so having bones around (and not raw hides; they will scarf ’em down), maybe Kong toys (have worked for many, but not necessarily above and beyond chewers)…the lunging thing at cats will probably be easy to fix if he’s able to meet a few close up, or as you walk and the second he ignores them say “Good boy” and give him a treat.
Your dog seems well on his way to being a wonderful companion and friend. You are doing your research and wanting the best life for him. 🙂 Yay!! I only wish more people would see pit bulls they way you are beginning to see them–I had never met a pit bull before we came to own one, and he wasn’t even our first choice…but after adopting and training him, I couldn’t have asked for a better dog! congrats, and keep us up to date with how he’s doing!
The vet did say it could be a reaction to something he may be allergic to–he did give him a shot that should stop the irritation/itching, but if it doesn’t, to bring him back in. He had a skin scraping done, but no fleas-ticks-mites. 🙂 He’s a healthy boy–but his skin thing is a mystery! I just bought some shampoo with oatmeal/aloe in it (about $12/bottle), and I think that’ll help soothe his skin when we do give him a bath again (he just had one recently, in the past week or so). But he does sometimes sleep on our clothes–we’ve left things out for him when we’re gone, so I’ll see about switching to a different detergent. Is there a particular one that dogs seem to have a lesser reaction to? Right now we’re using Arm and Hammer liquid stuff. He has been on a new dog food for almost a month now, but if this itching/loss of hair doesn’t go away, we’ll be going to an even better dog food (what a sensitive pup we have, lol). Thanks for your comments!! I hope Aussie is doing well!
So many people around me feel having a pit bull is “dangerous,” and that “losing a child will hollow a person out; you’ll never be able to forgive yourself.” My husband and I don’t have children yet, but we figured before we decide to go that route, we’d get a dog and train him, get him used to being around kids (who, by the way, are some of his BEST friends in town). And our family goes and says, “Oh, never have a kid during his life…he’ll just kill it.” Jeez–or that we’re crazy because we’re thinking about getting another one. We’re young, understand what it takes to be a responsible owner, and have taken those steps to ensure our dog is happy, healthy, loved, and socialized as much as possible. I only wish that people would think about that when they see a dog-person, anything/anybody in need. We all deserve a chance at a happy, healthy, loving, and socialized lifestyle–dogs, included (and I may be a bit biased, but yes, THE PIT BULLS, too!!!)
