Baltimore MD Staffordshire Terrier

Postby wmlengram » December 30th, 2008, 5:34 pm

Isis is a 30lb red-brown staff with pretty gold eyes. She is spayed with all of her shots up to date.

Eating
Isis is past the eating everything stage. When I first got her she would eat and eat and eat like it was her full time job. I worked with her to the point that she expected to eat at specific times (step 1) and then put down her bowl so she will eat when she wants to (step 2). Hence she tends to have a full bowl but doesn't overeat. She seems to have a very tough stomach. When her food has had to change for whatever reason she's made it through without indigestion. I've never seen her vomit.

People Temperament
As I said Isis is unequivocally people friendly. She doesn't bite, growl, or anything like that. She jumps up on some new people.Once she had to be dragged places she didn't want to go (now she's at like 75% loose leash - the problem is in big outside areas but I'll talk about that in a second) but she wouldn't get mad about. Just stare at you and resist. Sometimes she won't want to get into her crate (caveat: despite my best efforts it is a punishment crate) but she only needs to go into a crate for specific reasons - say when someone doesn't like dogs, or she has to be hidden (she is hiding from my landlord you see - I got her before I moved to the place).

Dog Temperament
It was simplistic to say that she's 100% dog aggressive, but since I don't understand it enough to control it, I keep it simple for the dogs' safety. If the following description of her behavior makes sense to you go ahead and draw your own conclusions. She stayed at the kennel I got her from for several weeks before they would release her for adoption, and they claimed she wasn't dog aggressive. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. She also stays at the vet, but they take no chances with pitbulls and charge extra for walks alone. Still, she isn't insane in her cage next to other dogs so...
I own two other dogs that are kept at another property. One is princess who is a female lab/chow mix, and one is smalls who is an indiscernible male mutt. Princess tends to be very cool around dogs and people (she likes to bark tho - good watch dog). Smalls is aggressive to both (he's had a really tough life - i'll explain - and he makes an amazing guard dog for my mom). Isis is afraid of Smalls. They have never been left alone together, but Smalls won whatever fight they didn't have. Isis and Princess try to fight sometimes. Not always, but sometimes. At first I thought it was when food was around, then I thought it was when smalls was around, and now i've decided that they just shouldn't be around each other.

Outdoor/Indoor
Isis is an indoor dog. She's small enough that she's cool inside even if she runs around all the time. I don't think she'd have a problem with being an outdoor dog, but it's just not her life. Problem is that its effected her training. She'll do anything I say when she's inside. Good dog. Same when she's in the small enclosure of my Baltimore yard. She gets into a bigger yard, like the one I have in Montgomery County, and she's still pretty responsive. Its annoying that she barks, but she will come when you call which makes her quiet. Now I took her to a friend who had an acre and a half of property and she just went berserk. Even on the leash she wasn't listening to anything. Maybe after four or five calls she might acknowledge my presence or saunter over, but it was not cool. Same goes for when she is on a leash in some places - sorry haven't figured out a pattern. But she gets all pull-y.

She sleeps in my bed most nights, although she also has her own bed. She won't jump into a bed unless told to.


All in all she's a great dog, but I'll be the first to admit that she needs better training. She is my first bully and I spent alot of time with no concept of what I was doing. They don't seem to train the same as other dogs. So she will unfortunately not come to a new home the perfect pet.

I love dogs so I didn't have a problem taking in a new type of breed (like I said, I didn't know anything about them except for the horror stories, which I knew were unrealistic). I'm also pretty good with dogs, so I decided it couldn't be that hard. But the combination of having no time (i'm in law school) and having a very stubborn dog made her a bit more difficult than I would have envisioned. However with the distinct 'fail' aura of the shelter, I also thought it might be a good idea to not have her risk being grabbed up by a less scrupulous Baltimorean. I've been offered up to 600 for her before people knew she was spayed. I was not willing to have her fall into dog fighting. I have no regrets though. She's gotten to be a very good dog, and she's so very loving. That's really why I just want to foster her. First I just plain love her. And second I think I owe her some good training one way or the other - but that's more time than I have until after I get back from South Africa. Of course, I realize that's vaguely selfish as well. If there's a better place for her, I respect that. If I am able to foster instead of adopt, I will obviously cover whatever expenses come up.

So that's the long and short of it.
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wmlengram
Just Whelped
 
Posts: 5
Location: Baltimore, Maryland

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