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So I got a dog from a shelter a few months ago, He's a great dane/mastiff mix and 5 months old when i got him. Apart from being underweight, there is nothing to suggest he was treated particularly poorly by whoever gave him up. I bounce between 2 properties, a suburban house in a city and on a big property in the country. He's been a great dog overall, very affectionate with my family, good with my young nephew, fitted into the pack of my families other dogs (white shepherd, boarder collie). But when he gets around 'prey' animals, his body language changes and he wants to them chase down and rip them apart. Theres been 2 incidents so far. The first, he'd gotten away from my dad on a walk at the rural property with the other dogs and chased down one of the sheep that roam around, grabbed it and savaged it, pretty much ripped and tore its lip until it was hanging off, before my dad could drag him off. (was a bit of a horror show but i got a vet there and he managed to sititch it all back together and the sheep is healed up now) I should probabaly add he's about 40kgs already, quite muscular with big jaws and can really move. So after that he was confined to the house and the fenced area around it. Still has plenty of room but i put him on a lead when we got anywhere near the livestock. He also liked to chase the 100s of kangaroos that live on the property and the bushland around it. I let him go because they spook and could always bounce off a lot faster than he could run. Until he actually caught one to my surprise, a smallish juvenile, by the time id caught up he'd broken its neck and tail. (Ended up butchering it, now in the freezer). Its obviously in his nature to be so agressive to these other animals and i can see why they originally used them to pull down boars. But im paranoid about when we are in the suburban house. There's 2 cats there that live in a seperate room but if someone one day accidently leaves the door open its going to be a bloodbath. I dont know if its even possible to desensitise him to them or how to go about 'training' him not to engage in that behaviour because everytime i try and introduce him to the cats he starts trying to lunge and grab them. At this point i dont know if its a lost cause and im just going to have to segregate him and be constantly wary. Anyone dealt with this kind of thing?
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Jul 21, 2016 05:47
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 23:32 |
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