wood&feathers :
Ditto all the above. My mother has an 11 year old Husky that is a handful. She is great with people but a threat to ANY small animal. She also perfected the art of killing skunks without getting totally sprayed. She is a menace to all chickens, and pretty devious at misleading humans into trusting her.
After all these years of reasonably trouble free doggie-ness, just this year she got in BIG trouble. She got loose when my sister was taking her to the car to come visit our farm. She bolted across the street, straight at the neighbor's tiny mop dog. Our other dog watched in horror as Nina bit the dog across the back and ribs, puncturing a lung. When my sister screamed she dropped it, but the family paid the owners all the vet bills to the tune of $1500.
Don't BUY a dog. There are many purebreds available from rescues and shelters who are homeless through no fault of their own. I just rescued a white Lab from our local shelter who was a give-up. Family in the military gets transferred, couldn't keep him, was gonna be euthanized the next day. He is a total sweetheart and came housebroken and knows a few commands. No faults I can find.
Actually, this explains why Blaze, my lab/husky, goes after small dogs. She pinned a dachshund--the dog of one of my mother's neighbors. And once when I was living downstate, I took her to the park. On the far end, a woman was walking with two small dogs. I had to physically restrain Blaze so that she wouldn't go after them.
She's fine with chickens though.
However, we do encourage her to chase rodents and cats (neighbor cats keep trying to get fish out of our pond) so maybe she gets her predator outlet from that.
Yes, get a dog from a rescue. My mother's dog is very ill and she's already put in for another dog at the Golden Retriever rescue and they said that they have to occasionally reject dogs because they don't have enough foster homes. She may foster one or two in the future.
