On Jul 22, 2:47*pm, "Paul E. Schoen" wrote:

I agree, and your experiences and observations are similar to mine. It took
a long time before I was able (or willing) to allow Muttley to spend most
of the time in the house, so for about six months he was tethered outside
while I was gone, and also much of the time while I was here, as he was
aggressive toward my cat, and he would mess in the house.

Actually, Paul, I'd venture to guess that your "experiences and
observations" are almost never similar to Mary's. As you'd know if
you had half a clue, tethering a neglected, unsocialized dog outside
by itself is not going to be helpful. I'm imaging what kind of shape
my Borzoi would be in if we did that for the first six months we had
her. "Aggression" towards a cat is called prey drive, and it cannot
always be trained out of a dog, but tethering outside does not
magically fix it. And messing in the house is fixed by a procedure
called housebreaking.

Now that I have more experience, and have learned from reading and
interacting with people here and elsewhere, I can see where I made some
mistakes, so I can relate both negative and positive experiences, unlike
those who seem to think they have never made a mistake, and always know the
"one true way" of dealing with any dog-related situation. Yet many of the
posts from these "regulars" continue to be problems. I usually post about
good experiences, and they get quickly drifted to criticism and negativity.

Most regulars post advice mainly on subjects they have personal
experience with. Since your personal experince is extremely limited,
you'd be wiser not to offer it when it has no bearing on a poster's
situation. In this case, the dog described is not similar to Muttley,
and your experience level and knowledge are not similar to the
OP's.

But, my point is that, eventually, Muttley and I learned to communicate
with each other, and eventually he actually "told" me that he did not want
to be banished to an outside tether. I trusted him, allowed him
increasingly long periods of free run of the house, and he proved that he
was worthy of that trust.

All of which has nothing to do with this dog in this situation.
However, I have to say that if you needed Muttley to 'tell' you he
didn't want to be banished to the outdoors on a tether, you're more
ignorant than I'd imagined.

My second "rescue dog", Lucky, adapted more quickly, but she was a
different sort of dog who was not running wild, but instead (AIUI) had been
confined in a small fenced area and neglected and had been picked up by AC
to be euthanized. When we got her released, she had an almost mangy coat of
fur with about a dozen ticks, and she was very frightened and skittish. But
she warmed up to us, and rode very nicely on my lap as Helene drove her to
a friend's place. But she reacted aggressively to her dogs, and we had to
find other arrangements for her. Some mistakes were made during that
adventure as well, but I always had her best interests at heart, and she
became a very sweet dog. On the last night before I surrendered her, I had
Muttley in a crate, and she spent the night quietly in bed with me, and
finally seemed to accept my touching her without the flinching that she
usually expressed previously. I almost canceled my appointment at the
rescue on Monday, but the overall situation with her and Muttley was not
good for any of us, and she was adopted within a week. I visited her on
Friday, at which time she was wearing her "adopted" jersey, and she was
very happy to see me. This is a shelter with very strict adoption standards
that even I would probably not meet, so I'm sure she is now in a good
forever home.

None of which has any bearing whatsoever on this dog in this
situation. Hint: when someone says they have experience with rescue
dogs, they don't need any advice you feel compelled to offer.

Mustang Sally