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Originally Posted by Bubba Joes Mom  He has tasted blood and who knows what he is capable of. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what we can do with him? I dont want him to turn on me or any of the members of the family but we all love him very much. He is a joy to be around and has shown to be protective of our home.
I contacted animal control after the goat died and they said that once the dog has tasted blood its basically over. I dont know what to do and am open to suggestions. |
First, I am no expert, so hopefully the more experienced owners will chime in for you. I just had to reply to the "tasted blood" comments. That AC officer is an idiot for saying that and shows that he/she knows nothing about dogs.
Any why would you think your dog would turn on
you just because he's killed other
animals??? How do wild dogs/wolfs eat? By killing other animals...it's a dog thing. I know either of my dogs (Rott and GSDx) would have a field day killing chickens and such...no doubt about it. My GSDx has taken care of her fair share of rodents, cats, and birds in our yards over the years. The Rott has gotten birds and would kill bunnies, squirrels, etc. if he had the chance. He was very interested in ducks flying over the houses the other day...I'm sure he would have no problem taking care of those either. Chickens would not be safe for sure. Does that make me worried? No, that means that they are DOGS and it is
my responsibility to see that they don't have much opportunity for that kind of "action".
What kind of training have you done with Bubba? It sounds like your boy has high prey drive and needs to learn how and where to use it. You need to provide
constant supervision at this point...meaning he is not out without you being right next to him. Your boy is still a puppy and will be for another year or two. I think it's very unreasonable to just throw a dog out in a farm with very little direction/training and expect that they won't touch any of the animals...especially a breed like this who is quite capable of making his own decisions about what he wants to do. A Rott is very different from a Weimeriner and Boxer, and must be treated/trained as such. Granted they were used for hearding, but you also have to help bring that out and tone down the prey drive at the same time via training. The "Leave it" command would be very useful for you.
My recommendations -- stop leaving Bubba out by himself, get him and your family, and the other dogs too, into training, give Bubba some other job to do on the farm--pulling the manure cart when you clean the stalls/pens, put a backpack on him and fill it with animal food and make him walk around with you when you feed, etc. There's lots for him to do on a farm and be productive rather than destructive!
