Pit Bull Amber Alert?

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Postby SisMorphine » February 10th, 2006, 10:04 pm

I am a member of a few different pit bull groups and a few different Greyhound groups (all online). At least once a week (often twice) I see an "Amber Alert" thread; ie: a dog is missing. I very very very rarely see this on a pit bull board. Yes, unfortunately every once in a while I see that someone's dog has been stolen. Very horrible. But the Greyhound Amber Alert threads drive me insane!!
"Dog walker slipped on ice, scared Grey, ran off"
"Door opened, Grey ran off"
"Grey scared by loud noise, ran off"
"Owner dropped leash, Grey ran off"
and this week's is
"Fence fell over in wind, scared Grey, Grey ran off."


I sit and I get my stomach and head in knots trying to figure this out. (I have participated in 3 searches since August myself, 2 ending in the death of the dog.) I do know that Greys have a high prey drive. If they see something they want to chase you have 2-6 seconds to call them off of it before they lose their hearing completely. But accidents like this are never the case.

I have fallen, and so has my mother, while walking Wally (I have a bad hip and back, she has a bad leg). Not only did we not drop the leash, but he sat and waited for us to get up (and in my mother's case when she was on the ground crying for help he cried along with her, LOL). Also, when a door is opened he is trained to NOT dart out of it. He has a pretty good come when called and is very well trained in general.

People keep telling me that Greys run because they are a scared breed (Wally would like to say BS to that), very sensitive, and cannot be trained. BUT THEY CAN. I firmly believe that the reason my dog is not in any danger of running away, and the reason that so many of your dogs are the same, has nothing to do with breed, but has to do with training, manners, and respect for each other in general. So I would like to thank you pit bull owners for NOT just letting "dogs be dogs" as people say on the Greyhound boards, but training them and forming a bond which makes your dog far more safe than the others. THANK YOU for being intelligent dog owners. And thank you for allowing me a place to be where I do not have to read another story of a dog who has run away, will be on the run for an average of a week or two (some have been 4+ months), and has a 50% chance of getting hit by a car and dying before caught. Thank you for being responsible pet owners.
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Postby cheekymunkee » February 10th, 2006, 10:45 pm

trained
responsible


Key words. :wink: I think as pit bull owners we are more receptive to the problems our dogs can get into being unleashed & plan for it. When MOST dog owners fall they think of "how not to hurt themselves", we think "how not to let go of the leash" and end up in a coma but we have a dog tied to our wrist! :D
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Postby Romanwild » February 10th, 2006, 11:15 pm

Pit bulls were bred to fight.
Greyhounds were bred to run.

My nephew fosters and owns 2 greys. They run like the wind. That's what they do. You guys should paraphrase our rule:

"NEVER TRUST A GREYHOUND TO NOT RUN"

Thank you for being a responsible dog owner! :thumbsup: :)
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Postby Purple » February 10th, 2006, 11:23 pm

Off topic a bit, on bullbreedsonline, there seems to be a lot of dogs being stolen.
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Postby SisMorphine » February 10th, 2006, 11:25 pm

Romanwild wrote:Pit bulls were bred to fight.
Greyhounds were bred to run.

My nephew fosters and owns 2 greys. They run like the wind. That's what they do. You guys should paraphrase our rule:

"NEVER TRUST A GREYHOUND TO NOT RUN"

Thank you for being a responsible dog owner! :thumbsup: :)

LOL! That is the motto. That's the main reason why in adoption contracts Greys are never to be allowed off leash unless in a completely enclosed area. If that prey drive kicks in their hearing literally is turned off and they are GONE!!

But as I said before, my Grey is trained. And even though I walk with a lot of Greys each week (usually 25-55 Greys on our weekly walks, about 400 different Greyhounds that join us on these), I can count on one hand how many know commands. It pains me.

And I will tell you, you can also never trust a Greyhound not to fight . . . when in a large area. Throw a Greyhound in an open field with two other dogs (Greys or non-Greys). Those two other dogs begin a game of chase so the Grey joins in. If these dogs aren't super small (which he will most likely see as game to be chasing) he will become competative and will attack the other dogs. And that, my friends, is why Greys are muzzled when they race. Competitive jerkfaces. Wally definately is one, but I love him anyway. Lucky dog :D
"All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another." -Anatole France
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Postby Emi » February 11th, 2006, 3:35 am

:goodStuff:

Thank you , and thanks to all owners who train and socialize their dogs of any breed ..
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Postby mnp13 » February 11th, 2006, 12:05 pm

but... what about the dogs that can't BE trained?

There are TONS of breeds that just can't be trained. Didn't you know that?

I can't count the number of people who have small breed dogs who have said exactly that "you can't train small breeds". The last time I heard that was after my mom's friend's nasty little Pomeranian went after me, my 5 year old neice and Ruby in about an hours time.

Let's just say that I was less than impressed.

There was a huge mess in Syracuse a year or so ago over a Greyhound rescue.

In late 2004 a family let their older Golden out in the back yard during the winter, they had a metal roof on their garage. The dog layed down near the garage and the ice sheet let loose and slid off, cutting the dog in half (yes, literally). The next spring they adopted a Greyhound, and part of that contract was never letting the dog off leash.

After a few months, they started breaking that rule and one day the dog bolted. He was missing for a few days, and when he was found the rescue was contacted (I'd assume the dog was chipped). The rescue refused to give the dog back to the family because the man admitted to having let the dog off leash to go to the bathroom because the dog 'always came back.' the family fought the rescue, and the story ended up in the paper. They used the story of how they lost their last dog for sympathy to try to leverage the Greyhound rescue to give them the dog back.

I got in this huuuuuuge discussion with my mom's friend about the whole thing. She felt that the family deserved another chance, especially considering the story of their last dog. I disagreed. Thankfully so did the rescue. They took a lot of heat, but as far as I know they did not give them the dog back and I think they did the right thing.
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