Wild quail in danger from domestic chickens?

[chooks4life]

Very informative chooks4life. I never knew that about cats. Having never raised cats, my original perception of them was that they retain all there instincts. But, what you said does make sense. It's good to hear that a cats survivability in a "wild-like" environment is similar to what happens when you throw domestic animals (which I'm more familiar with) into the wild. I guess you learn new things every day

.

Thanks. We do learn new things every day, all going well.

I understand your original perception, it was mine too, before I got my first cat. It is after all what we're told over and over again in all information given to us on cats. It takes a fair bit of first hand experience to learn that the truth of the matter is more complicated. It's like a lot of people on this forum thinking chickens' instinct is inherent and immutable despite the obvious proofs of humans altering it, such as the absence of maternal instinct we've bred into in some chooks. It's just what we're taught.

I think out of all animals we've domesticated, cats are possibly the ones which have most regularly received re-infusions of wild or feral instinct, so they are often viewed as being all merely tamed wild animals, but they can be as domesticated and dependent as any other. Has to be judged on an individual by individual basis. For example my part-feral 16 year old had two sons to a totally feral tom before I got her desexed, and one son was an instinctively prime feral specimen fully able to cope without humans, who made his first kill at a week old, (when his eyes were barely open, lol, and he could hardly walk... It was a mouse he suffocated because he didn't have teeth yet)... but his brother was a soppy nugget of love and domesticity, totally dependent on his people, uninterested in hunting and fighting and roaming. Guess which one died first, and whether his obviously domestic mentality had anything to do with it. :/

On another note, if you ever see a hunting or agricultural magazine or anything referring to feral cat control in Australia, you can predominantly see the Bengal and other wild cat genetics in the ferals now. They're bigger than ever and most of them show noticeable differences to the domestics we have in and around our cities. I think dumped or stray domestics stand less chance than ever before in the Aussie wild now. They tried to prevent Savannahs coming here but it's too late, some of their genes are showing in the wild.

 

[SavageDestiny]

You can lime in the pen too. I never moved my birds while liming, never had issues. I would recommend you do any ground they're on specifically, and some ground outside of that too. Since it's also used as a feed additive, it's pretty safe for that.

About the hotwire, lol, yeah, I expect it might keep the quail away, but they might be staying away because they're crisped or had heart attacks and died. I don't know how hot your hotwire would be though. If it's hot enough to deter a dog, I doubt a tiny bird would survive it.

About the cats, I have a theory. They probably lacked adequate instinct. Your old tom was, by the sounds of it, used to a safer environment, plus he was certainly no longer in his prime when you moved to a more dangerous area, and the ones your neighbor got may have been cattery-bred, i.e. battery cats, or at the very least descended from some quite domesticated parents. If they were purebreds or crossbreds, best to assume they were worse than useless regarding having common sense/instinct. If they didn't have recent feral in their ancestry, also best to assume they wouldn't know what to fear and how to handle it.

It's also quite possible that the resident feral cats killed them. Cats kill a large percentage of their own population off if left to their own devices and domestics, kittens, and desexed animals are at the top of the kill list. Some family lines are terribly susceptible to disease, and certain diets can guarantee that all the cats will suffer the same issues.

Cats can be as dumb as any other animal when we breed certain instincts into silence or alter them, they can try to sniff venomous snakes nose-to-nose in a friendly greeting manner, refuse to move out of the path of cars (or charging dogs or stooping hawks etc)... I've seen all that personally, too, lol!

I've owned both cattery bred and feral bred cats and there is no comparison in terms of survivability. Cattery bred cats never lasted more than 2 years, and it was their own ignorance of common dangers that killed them. Feral bred cats, well, my last one just died aged 16, and she survived through many circumstances that would have killed the cattery cats every time. Immune system wise, as well as instinctively, cattery cats are born to live in a house and safe environment, or die.

For a really mettlesome cat, get a ginger feral if you can. Mum always said ginger animals and even people are generally hotter-blooded so to speak (having many redheaded relatives I think there's some truth in that) but interestingly, I found that this is backed up by peer-reviewed scientifically validated research that showed differences in the brains of red-coated animals as compared to pale or dark ones. They were indeed feistier in general. Sorry, I don't have a link, but it was published in books etc so if you search I'm sure you'll find something. If I recall correctly the research focused on dogs but involved horses and cats as well.

Personally, I have never met fiercer cats than gingers. They were always noticeably more savage. Gingery colored horses are also more spirited/feisty in general, in my experience and that of some people whose opinions I have come to trust in certain matters.

If you can get hold of a more wild cat, a feral rather than a 'dumpee' or pet-stock animal, I'd bet it would fare better. They're no less equipped to cope with predators than the predators are to cope with their own enemies. A cat with all its smarts about it, and its health, can be a match for a dog or other animal many times its size.

Just like any other breed of any species we've domesticated, some are too tame to be able to cope outside of a house/cage/human environment. No sense left. Some are so wild they will dominate even the wild dogs etc and will kill venomous snakes as well. Some are inbetween and can handle some situations but not others. There's some funny YouTube videos of domestic cats driving bears away from houses. I recall one Siamese cat that used to ride a German Shepherd around the place; the dog would attack the cat and the cat would always wind up on the dog's back, biting its scalp, with all four sets of claws dug in as the dog ran around screaming at top speed. (Not my cat or dog in case anyone's wondering... Not that any of my cats have ever had a problem dominating my dogs, even the wild born feral dogs, despite them being ginger). I've also seen cats take on eagles etc and win.

You don't sound keen to get a cat just to lose it, and I don't blame you, but there are significant differences between truly tame cats and feral ones. In five or so generations they revert. It's a common fallacy that they are all in possession of all wild instincts from day one and can revert as required if dumped. Most actually can't.
Anyway, best wishes.

The cats the neighbors had were various domestic shorthair mutt cats from the local Humane Society, brought there from various types of situations. There are zero feral cats out around the property where my mom lives. There's some colonies closer to town, but I've never seen a feral cat further from town unless it's a barn cat that sticks close to the barn, and I've lived here nearly 20 years. Not a friendly environment for cats to be loose!

The red gene being more feisty explains a lot about my little red Pit Bull though. We call her Rotten Redhead!

 

[chooks4life]

Lol, I must say, she's not the friendliest looking dog, at least not in that pic! I've also had some attitude issues with my ginger dogs I never had with my black and whites.

About the cats, if they need a friendly environment to survive, they're obviously domestic.

But, hope you find a solution. Best wishes.

 

[SavageDestiny]

Lol, I must say, she's not the friendliest looking dog, at least not in that pic! I've also had some attitude issues with my ginger dogs I never had with my black and whites.

About the cats, if they need a friendly environment to survive, they're obviously domestic.

But, hope you find a solution. Best wishes.

That would be her bouncing off me and roo-rooing to THROW THE TOY DANGIT! She gets positively belligerent if I'm not throwing her toy into the water quick enough, haha. She is very friendly, but also stubborn, demanding, overdramatic, and while very smart uses her powers for evil. And her prey drive is through the roof, hence why the chickens will need to be fenced off. If she were to stay outside 24/7 I would not have a predator problem, but she's an indoor dog.

 

[chooks4life]

Quote:
She is very friendly, but also stubborn, demanding, overdramatic, and while very smart uses her powers for evil. And her prey drive is through the roof, hence why the chickens will need to be fenced off.
Tell me about it, LOL! My youngest dog is about the same, but not quite as bad. His mother was/is very intelligent (haven't seen her or her owner in a while) but she uses her powers for evil, has only love for herself. She seems the epitome of trustworthy and well-trained to your face. But behind your back, she mauls other pets and livestock and bites little children, and tries to incite the other dogs to do what she knows they will be punished for. She even got her own pups in trouble whenever she could. When she knows someone's watching, she's good as gold, an apparently loyal dog.

Most people don't believe a dog can be like that, and to be honest I would never have believed it either before I met her and came to know her. She’s educated us all, lol. I watched her grow up from 6 weeks old and I can verify that it's not the fault of how she was raised, though the stressful situation couldn’t have helped. Our other dogs were raised the same or worse but turned out great. She's just 'bent' that way. The son's occasionally like her but thankfully not too often, and nothing as badly as she is. His prey/chase drive is through the roof too but he's coming along well.

He got the same pretending behavioral quirks as his mother. Until recently he would always stand out in a downpour, looking horribly neglected, shivering dramatically, his face all scrunched up with his woe. (I have been making him kennels since he was a pup and he's never used them, nor will he use blankets or mattresses or whatever. Only dirt for a bed. He will sleep out in the rain and wind and frost and sun by choice. Bring him inside and within 60 seconds he's howling to be let out. Hates indoors, don't know why, both his parents are outside dogs but don't mind being indoors). Everyone thought I was cruel, even though he had shelter. So they'd be out there in the rain making him elaborate new shelters. He never used the new shelters, only enjoyed their efforts in the pouring rain and mud, and resumed his woebegone act once they retreated to shelter soaked to the bone. They never called me cruel for long. Last year he apparently forgot that I know him, and he tried that facepulling shivering act on me, so crumpled he almost looked like a Sharpei, and I pulled the same face back at him, and he stopped immediately and hasn't done it ever again.

This won't be an acceptable thing for some, and I understand why, as I wrestled with this a lot myself... But for the first time in my life I've used a shock collar to train a dog. I tried it out on myself before I used it on him, lol, so I know it doesn't hurt; the objective was never to harm or frighten him. It doesn't hurt, just breaks his focus on something when he's not listening to me. It's a small "cat training collar" (I didn't know they made such things) and all it does is tickle, not cause pain. When you have a dog that’s prone to complete distraction, this can be a lifesaver when all else fails.

I only bought it once he was over a year old, once all the other training methods had yielded poor results. He isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, which is amazing considering both his parents are near geniuses of the canine sort. This collar has worked wonders for him, now he's calm and happy and responsive, whereas before he was often hyper and anxious, and could not comprehend the simple training most puppies can grasp from the get-go. He was also consistently bent on dominance and showed a lot of his mother's manipulative nature, always using his mind for ways to make us work for him rather than to obey and learn the task at hand. Some dogs genuinely do best with a shock collar, it actually can be a kind training method. Provided you use a very weak one and have a clue what you're doing with it, lol!

It doesn't really shock, just tingles and buzzes. Effectively distracts him and enables redirection and training. But thankfully he was always good with the chooks and one of my sheep, and is afraid of horses and cattle (as he should be, they love to stomp dingo-color dogs whereas they tend to respect/trust black and white ones more). The issue with him has always been chasing everything that moves, though he only chases some things with intent to kill, and he always had a glitch in his head about birds he cannot possibly catch flying off into the distance, he gets that from his mother. He wants to kill one of my sheep, the new one, but with this collar he’s been able to sit calm within two metres of her, even when she bolts, whereas without it nothing I say or do will make him stop lunging to kill her.

Before I got this collar, he was a scatterbrained bundle of nerves, couldn't concentrate, could not calm down, was a danger to me and himself when I tried to walk him, due to his complete deafness and insensitivity to all other stimuli other than that from what he wanted to hunt. Once we went for a walk where he did not come down from his back legs once. He obeyed well until we were out the gate. Then he bolted and did not stop. I tried to walk him out of it, as that's worked with other dogs, but it was a mistake this time. I tried all the usual tricks to stop this endless attempt at a charge, and some other less usual tricks, and it wasn't like he hadn't walked perfectly before that, but that time he was nonstop charging at anything and everything, almost suffocating himself the whole way. He wasn’t on a choker collar either, just has a soft windpipe from his mother’s side, it collapses under slight pressure. It was rather like trying to walk an unbroken horse, lol, he's amazingly strong, even for someone who's generally considered pretty strong like myself. I had a sore arm and almost had blisters by the time we went around two little blocks of the neighborhood.

He would walk fine sometimes, perfectly, and without warning almost drag us both under a truck or into traffic. He's the only dog I have ever known to run backwards into traffic from things like a ditch or a flat, motionless crushed soft drink can. Normally he'd never be afraid of that, he has no cause, normally he'd smell it and move on if he even noticed it at all, but he's somewhat more like a horse than a dog. He bolts and shies and rears, lol. Spooks about random things, stuff he normally ignores or is used to. Utterly unpredictable and rather illogical as a rule.

I only mention this because it may help your dog if you are at your wits' end with her, and if she’s making life for other animals and/or people on your place difficult/stressful, unfairly limited or simply dangerous, but the emotional stigma of using such a training tool is cumbersome and can potentially negate the benefits, it’s not right for every dog, and you obviously don't want to go into training with that mindset as it will impact the dog so if you're not OK with it, don't try it. Otherwise, if she's too hard to control by other methods, it may help.

My dog has every right to a great, fulfilling life, but so do my other animals, and none of them must suffer a limited or threatened life for the sake of one other animal, this being one of my general rules I apply to all my animals. So he will either heed and coexist in peace or I must rehome him and I am very keen to not have to do that. The shock collar was the last ditch attempt but judging by the results, it should have been the earliest once I saw that he lacked self control and the ability to reliably refocus.

I considered very long and hard and read up all the info I could before I used this method and thankfully it's been a resounding success. None of my other dogs needed this, but it's truly been the best training method I've used on him. (I will say that I haven’t used violence but don’t believe that it’s necessary or right).

A shock collar still won't be my first choice whenever I have a dog to train, as I don't believe it's necessary under any but exceptional circumstances. But it's a viable option for some, distasteful as it may seem. I think if the dog's so wild or disobedient that it needs a collar that actually hurts it to make it listen, what it really needs is a different master, or a special environment (like a zoo), or to be euthanised.


Best wishes. Sorry in advance to anyone this offended. I understand it’s highly controversial to many and to some it will always be animal cruelty even if it doesn’t hurt them.

 

[SavageDestiny]

Quote:
She is very friendly, but also stubborn, demanding, overdramatic, and while very smart uses her powers for evil. And her prey drive is through the roof, hence why the chickens will need to be fenced off.
Tell me about it, LOL! My youngest dog is about the same, but not quite as bad. His mother was/is very intelligent (haven't seen her or her owner in a while) but she uses her powers for evil, has only love for herself. She seems the epitome of trustworthy and well-trained to your face. But behind your back, she mauls other pets and livestock and bites little children, and tries to incite the other dogs to do what she knows they will be punished for. She even got her own pups in trouble whenever she could. When she knows someone's watching, she's good as gold, an apparently loyal dog.

Most people don't believe a dog can be like that, and to be honest I would never have believed it either before I met her and came to know her. She’s educated us all, lol. I watched her grow up from 6 weeks old and I can verify that it's not the fault of how she was raised, though the stressful situation couldn’t have helped. Our other dogs were raised the same or worse but turned out great. She's just 'bent' that way. The son's occasionally like her but thankfully not too often, and nothing as badly as she is. His prey/chase drive is through the roof too but he's coming along well.

He got the same pretending behavioral quirks as his mother. Until recently he would always stand out in a downpour, looking horribly neglected, shivering dramatically, his face all scrunched up with his woe. (I have been making him kennels since he was a pup and he's never used them, nor will he use blankets or mattresses or whatever. Only dirt for a bed. He will sleep out in the rain and wind and frost and sun by choice. Bring him inside and within 60 seconds he's howling to be let out. Hates indoors, don't know why, both his parents are outside dogs but don't mind being indoors). Everyone thought I was cruel, even though he had shelter. So they'd be out there in the rain making him elaborate new shelters. He never used the new shelters, only enjoyed their efforts in the pouring rain and mud, and resumed his woebegone act once they retreated to shelter soaked to the bone. They never called me cruel for long. Last year he apparently forgot that I know him, and he tried that facepulling shivering act on me, so crumpled he almost looked like a Sharpei, and I pulled the same face back at him, and he stopped immediately and hasn't done it ever again.

This won't be an acceptable thing for some, and I understand why, as I wrestled with this a lot myself... But for the first time in my life I've used a shock collar to train a dog. I tried it out on myself before I used it on him, lol, so I know it doesn't hurt; the objective was never to harm or frighten him. It doesn't hurt, just breaks his focus on something when he's not listening to me. It's a small "cat training collar" (I didn't know they made such things) and all it does is tickle, not cause pain. When you have a dog that’s prone to complete distraction, this can be a lifesaver when all else fails.

I only bought it once he was over a year old, once all the other training methods had yielded poor results. He isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, which is amazing considering both his parents are near geniuses of the canine sort. This collar has worked wonders for him, now he's calm and happy and responsive, whereas before he was often hyper and anxious, and could not comprehend the simple training most puppies can grasp from the get-go. He was also consistently bent on dominance and showed a lot of his mother's manipulative nature, always using his mind for ways to make us work for him rather than to obey and learn the task at hand. Some dogs genuinely do best with a shock collar, it actually can be a kind training method. Provided you use a very weak one and have a clue what you're doing with it, lol!

It doesn't really shock, just tingles and buzzes. Effectively distracts him and enables redirection and training. But thankfully he was always good with the chooks and one of my sheep, and is afraid of horses and cattle (as he should be, they love to stomp dingo-color dogs whereas they tend to respect/trust black and white ones more). The issue with him has always been chasing everything that moves, though he only chases some things with intent to kill, and he always had a glitch in his head about birds he cannot possibly catch flying off into the distance, he gets that from his mother. He wants to kill one of my sheep, the new one, but with this collar he’s been able to sit calm within two metres of her, even when she bolts, whereas without it nothing I say or do will make him stop lunging to kill her.

Before I got this collar, he was a scatterbrained bundle of nerves, couldn't concentrate, could not calm down, was a danger to me and himself when I tried to walk him, due to his complete deafness and insensitivity to all other stimuli other than that from what he wanted to hunt. Once we went for a walk where he did not come down from his back legs once. He obeyed well until we were out the gate. Then he bolted and did not stop. I tried to walk him out of it, as that's worked with other dogs, but it was a mistake this time. I tried all the usual tricks to stop this endless attempt at a charge, and some other less usual tricks, and it wasn't like he hadn't walked perfectly before that, but that time he was nonstop charging at anything and everything, almost suffocating himself the whole way. He wasn’t on a choker collar either, just has a soft windpipe from his mother’s side, it collapses under slight pressure. It was rather like trying to walk an unbroken horse, lol, he's amazingly strong, even for someone who's generally considered pretty strong like myself. I had a sore arm and almost had blisters by the time we went around two little blocks of the neighborhood.

He would walk fine sometimes, perfectly, and without warning almost drag us both under a truck or into traffic. He's the only dog I have ever known to run backwards into traffic from things like a ditch or a flat, motionless crushed soft drink can. Normally he'd never be afraid of that, he has no cause, normally he'd smell it and move on if he even noticed it at all, but he's somewhat more like a horse than a dog. He bolts and shies and rears, lol. Spooks about random things, stuff he normally ignores or is used to. Utterly unpredictable and rather illogical as a rule.

I only mention this because it may help your dog if you are at your wits' end with her, and if she’s making life for other animals and/or people on your place difficult/stressful, unfairly limited or simply dangerous, but the emotional stigma of using such a training tool is cumbersome and can potentially negate the benefits, it’s not right for every dog, and you obviously don't want to go into training with that mindset as it will impact the dog so if you're not OK with it, don't try it. Otherwise, if she's too hard to control by other methods, it may help.

My dog has every right to a great, fulfilling life, but so do my other animals, and none of them must suffer a limited or threatened life for the sake of one other animal, this being one of my general rules I apply to all my animals. So he will either heed and coexist in peace or I must rehome him and I am very keen to not have to do that. The shock collar was the last ditch attempt but judging by the results, it should have been the earliest once I saw that he lacked self control and the ability to reliably refocus.

I considered very long and hard and read up all the info I could before I used this method and thankfully it's been a resounding success. None of my other dogs needed this, but it's truly been the best training method I've used on him. (I will say that I haven’t used violence but don’t believe that it’s necessary or right).

A shock collar still won't be my first choice whenever I have a dog to train, as I don't believe it's necessary under any but exceptional circumstances. But it's a viable option for some, distasteful as it may seem. I think if the dog's so wild or disobedient that it needs a collar that actually hurts it to make it listen, what it really needs is a different master, or a special environment (like a zoo), or to be euthanised.


Best wishes. Sorry in advance to anyone this offended. I understand it’s highly controversial to many and to some it will always be animal cruelty even if it doesn’t hurt them.

Ha, no, she's really not "bad"... just rotten and ridiculous, if that makes sense. She's never even thought about biting someone, she is super snuggly and cuddly. But people forget that Pit Bulls are in reality 50lb terriers, and they come with all the drive, energy, stubbornness, and "I do what I want" attitude! She does not lack confidence and focus, rather she has too MUCH! Perfect example is the fact that I still don't trust her on the teeter obstacle in agility. Instead of slowing down and paying attention like a normal dog, she just blasts over it and most of the time goes flying off because she's not scared and she doesn't WANT to slow down!

She's well behaved in general, but if she decides she wants something or doesn't want to do something, she's impossible. I have to keep on top of her all the time. She's super crafty too. This dog has managed to climb a six foot wooden hutch to eat a bag of fun-sized Snickers and opened the oven to pull out and eat a pizza. She runs around the house and barks at me all demanding if she hasn't gotten enough exercise. She'll destroy trees and logs going after chipmunks and squirrels.

This is a decent example of what a handful she can be. This is AFTER over an hour of fetching her toy over and over, which is why she's not actively using my husband as a springboard and actually shuts up some of the time.

 

[chooks4life]

Too much focus and energy is an issue when it's not directed in proper ways is more what I meant, but it looks like you guys have a decent area for her to play in. Why did you keep her on the lead, though? Is that in case she get swept away or snagged, or is she unreliable off leash?

High energy working type dogs are often kept on chains or cables when not working, and even though I used to wish it could be otherwise (still do but don't yet have a dingoproof paddock of several acres), now I'm a bit more resigned to it. They're built to go all day, that's all there is to it, lol. Some of them, especially those with dingo in them, cannot settle down, don't really get exhausted no matter what you do, they just pace all day every day. They wear through everything on them in a matter of weeks, be it fishing net cable, chains or collars.

Once I went for a marathon all-day hike walk, up a mountain and all, with the father of this one, a feral born dingo mix and even though I had to drag his sorry butt home, he lay down for not even five minutes and bounced up again, and started pacing again, sooking about how bored he was! I have to find other ways to keep them busy, walks and games soon grow thin, and more discipline is needed to keep them engaged. But they're certainly enriching animals to keep.

 

[SavageDestiny]

Too much focus and energy is an issue when it's not directed in proper ways is more what I meant, but it looks like you guys have a decent area for her to play in. Why did you keep her on the lead, though? Is that in case she get swept away or snagged, or is she unreliable off leash?

High energy working type dogs are often kept on chains or cables when not working, and even though I used to wish it could be otherwise (still do but don't yet have a dingoproof paddock of several acres), now I'm a bit more resigned to it. They're built to go all day, that's all there is to it, lol. Some of them, especially those with dingo in them, cannot settle down, don't really get exhausted no matter what you do, they just pace all day every day. They wear through everything on them in a matter of weeks, be it fishing net cable, chains or collars.

Once I went for a marathon all-day hike walk, up a mountain and all, with the father of this one, a feral born dingo mix and even though I had to drag his sorry butt home, he lay down for not even five minutes and bounced up again, and started pacing again, sooking about how bored he was! I have to find other ways to keep them busy, walks and games soon grow thin, and more discipline is needed to keep them engaged. But they're certainly enriching animals to keep.

Riddle is not dog friendly with strange dogs, so she's on a leash unless she's in a fenced area. I don't even put her on a long line unless there's a pretty slim chance of running into other dogs. That's the only downside to Pit Bulls (assuming you like crazy terriers), they often have some degree of dog aggression or intolerance.

She has actually slowed down quite a bit. She's had a lot of orthopedic issues and corrective surgery on both knees and both elbows. Not that you can tell if you didn't know her before!

 

[chooks4life]

Riddle is not dog friendly with strange dogs, so she's on a leash unless she's in a fenced area. I don't even put her on a long line unless there's a pretty slim chance of running into other dogs. That's the only downside to Pit Bulls (assuming you like crazy terriers), they often have some degree of dog aggression or intolerance.

She has actually slowed down quite a bit. She's had a lot of orthopedic issues and corrective surgery on both knees and both elbows. Not that you can tell if you didn't know her before!

Wow, orthopedic surgery on all four legs! :/ Sorry to hear it. I did actually notice that she has a strange way of jumping into the water, like her back legs are not quite 100%.

My younger dog loved all other dogs until my mother's dog, a Pink-nose Pitty mixed with Staffy, mauled him without warning in the middle of the friendly game they'd been having. He would not let go of his face until we forced him to, he almost gave my boy a Joker smile and made him bleed like a stuck pig. Now my boy's a bit fearful of other dogs but not aggressive so I'm hopeful he'll be okay. Mum's dog is normally very friendly with other dogs, but has a mental switch; one moment he's acting like a submissive puppy, the next he's mortally offended that the other dog treated him like a submissive puppy, and without warning he attempts to assert his dominance over the other dog, which will never accept it because he is clearly the intellectual inferior as he is not stable. It goes the same way with all dogs he plays with, so we just keep a close eye on him.

 

[SavageDestiny]

Wow, orthopedic surgery on all four legs! :/ Sorry to hear it. I did actually notice that she has a strange way of jumping into the water, like her back legs are not quite 100%.

My younger dog loved all other dogs until my mother's dog, a Pink-nose Pitty mixed with Staffy, mauled him without warning in the middle of the friendly game they'd been having. He would not let go of his face until we forced him to, he almost gave my boy a Joker smile and made him bleed like a stuck pig. Now my boy's a bit fearful of other dogs but not aggressive so I'm hopeful he'll be okay. Mum's dog is normally very friendly with other dogs, but has a mental switch; one moment he's acting like a submissive puppy, the next he's mortally offended that the other dog treated him like a submissive puppy, and without warning he attempts to assert his dominance over the other dog, which will never accept it because he is clearly the intellectual inferior as he is not stable. It goes the same way with all dogs he plays with, so we just keep a close eye on him.

Part of the reason she jumps weird is because she can't see the edge of the bank through all the tall grass, and she's too crazed to stop and pay attention. She sort of falls off more than jumps off. If there's a visible edge she jumps more strongly and normally, silly beast.

Personally, I wouldn't let your mom's bulldog play much with other dogs. He isn't mentally unstable, he's just a fighting breed and obviously easily triggered. At the very least, it would be wise to invest in a break stick and have it around at all times. I always have a couple around the house and one in my pocket when we go out with the dogs.