Everyone else gave really good advice, and I'll chime in with everyone on the "it'll take time" thing. I rescued a Basenji mix that was a little under a year old when I got her. She peed and pooed all over my apartment. She made me so mad, but I never took it out on her. I got SO CLOSE to taking her back to the shelter like 2 other people had done- but I didn't. And now she's trained and she's my special furkid and I wouldn't give her up for anything.

This lady already has a huge file on her at animal control because of her chihuahua that runs the neighborhood. She's now managed to put a collar on that, and get a rabies tag- but it still runs loose and does not have a registration tag. This lab puppy is a new addition- and also runs the neighborhood without a collar or tags. She honestly has an animal control officer dedicated just to her- he's the one who showed up when this all started. He'd be the one to come get the dog or dogs- unless I find it several blocks away again.

And she was telling me yesterday that I couldn't have my dogs out on their lead- they had to be on a leash in my hand. I wanted to laugh. Cause while she was telling me this, the chihuahua was out on the deck with no leash and the lab puppy was running around the yard with no collar or leash. :rolleyes: And her puppy bit my hand last night… I know he was just playing, but I do have scratches all over my hand. I was really tempted to go "Look! Your dog bit me!!!!!!!!" but I didn't.

@RockysWoman:

Hardy har har! I think you should go ask to claim the "stray dog"! Before you hand her a check though, talk to your insurance agent. If a claim was filed with your insurance in regards to this whole mess, it needs to go thru your insurance, or risk negating your policy or any further claims assistance from your policy (sorry… insurance agent in me speaking up here). Best of luck!

I doubt the woman knows mine or my roommates names- so that would be interesting if they talked to our insurance… As far as I know- they didn't talk to insurance or anything.

I stated from the beginning that I'd be willing to at least cover the hospital trip- even though I wasn't at fault- and Animal Control and the sheriffs department were in agreement with me. I just didn't want this blowing up in my face- and now she's saying that if I don't pay at least half, that she'll get her money "other ways". Now, I have ALL the documentation from both the sheriffs department and animal control stating that it was the child's fault and not mine- but I don't want to drag this through court. I just want to pay her and have her leave me alone.

I know we love good outcomes, but….

I replied about a month ago that everything was good...
Well these people got a new dog- a little lab puppy. The dog runs all over the neighborhood, no collar or anything. I found the dog 2 blocks away once.

Well, twice now the dog has gotten into my yard- messing with my dogs when I let them out. I have my dogs tied up, and the dog doesn't come fully into my yard. Both times I've picked up the dog and taken it back to it's house. Today I took the dog over there, and the mom was standing outside. I give the dog back, and try to give her a collar and leash, but she says she has stuff but he keeps getting loose. Well, I think that's crap because this dog acted like he'd never been on a leash before or ever had a collar on. So I give the dog back, and she goes- "I've been knocking on your door the past couple days, but no one has answered." She sounded really mad. I go- "Well, maybe no one was home." She rolls her eyes and goes- "I got the bill from EMS because my husband's insurance won't pay for it. It's $104- I need you to pay at least half." I'm thinking "Oh god, why now? Why is it suddenly 7 months later she's doing this?" I tell her that I have to discuss it with my roommate, and we'll get back to her. Well, we go over and agree on the half, so I now owe $52 bucks to this lady.

I still know I'm right, and I shouldn't have to pay- but I don't need this blowing up. And I wanted to tell her- "Don't you realize that the insurance won't pay for the EMS because you called them, then REFUSED to let them take your kid to the hospital?!" I'm so mad right now. But I guess I'm taking $52 over there tomorrow... Maybe I should go over there in my Animal Control uniform and ask if she'd like me to take the stray dogs off her hands.

I know they should be fed separately, but since they were fine, I was just going to leave them alone. But it's weird that they were fine for like 6 months, then she all of a sudden started freaking out. I'm just worried that since she became food aggressive all of a sudden, that it might be the start of something else. I don't know. I know all shelter dogs are normally food aggressive, it's just that Lucy didn't used to be and it's freaking me out.

@Quercus:

I doubt we want to get into a whole discussion of the value of different types of training…but I don't understand why would you use the prong collar as a cue for a desired behavior; why not just use a command?

They were show dogs. The owners wanted them to be trained without using verbal commands. I was helping out, I have no idea why they did half the stuff they did. My own Akitas had them at the beginning, but I didn't like them and got rid of them.

But you can get them just about anywhere around here. It sucks, because I see tons of people put them on dogs that shouldn't have them, or just to make the dog look "vicious" and have no idea how you're supposed to use them. I see them on Pitbulls and Rottweilers all the time.

@Quercus:

What training exercises is the prong collar used for, if not pulling? IMO, the ONLY use for it is for certain dogs that are excessively pulling.

With the Akitas I had, the idea with prong collar was to use a little pressure to indicate you wanted them to do something- like how some people use clickers. You don't really pull hard on it, just a little pressure. But still, I've only used them with large dogs with thick coats. I'd NEVER use them on small dogs like Basenjis.

I know it's been a while, but I haven't been on in some time and figured I'd update everyone.

Nothing ended up coming of it. Lucy served out her house arrest with no issues. The kids no longer come in my yard, which is a good thing. But we still have issues with the kids running wild through the neighborhood. And recently have had issues with stray dogs running around. But I now work for the county Animal Control since the shelter I worked at went under. So when all the stray dogs come into my yard, I scoop them up and take them in.

So I've had Lucy for a year now. She was rescued from a shelter at about 1 year old. She's never had any food issues with me or my roommate, ever. Now I got a Husky/Greyhound mix back in September. Lucy got along great with him from day 1, no problems. Starting a couple weeks ago, Lucy got food aggressive. Actually, I don't know if you'd totally call it "aggressive." She will growl at Bart a little, but won't get full on snarling and won't attack him to hurt him. She will jump at him, nip at him and swat at him, but won't get very vicious. She won't let Bart anywhere near the food. Even when she is done eating, she will lay or sit next to the food bowl and won't let Bart anywhere near it. She will still let me come over and take the food, but won't let Bart anywhere near it. It's only been recently, but it's becoming a big issue. It's been to the point where I have to put her in her crate while Bart eats. I'd like to have it where they can be out together again, but it seems like I'm stuck feeding them separately from now on.

I used to have Akitas, and we had prong collars for them, but we didn't use them that much. On a larger dog I can see it, but not on something like a Basenji. That's crazy that the vet would just waltz in with a prong collar and go "hey, you should use this." I could see if you had some big Northern Breed dog and it was jumping at him, but you don't.