Monday, December 8, 2014

My Reply to the Person Who Blocked Me

On one of my websites I was talking about adopting from a shelter.  Someone was looking for a new puppy and wanted a breed they could get.  Someone else came on the thread, saying:
"I recommend going through a reputable breeder. I have a shelter dog and he's going to be my first and last rescue. It's best to go through a breeder so that you know the bloodline of the puppy and can meet it's parents and research it's ancestry.
I support shelters and what they do, but rescue isn't for everyone so explore your options. "

I of course, thought "oh is he having problems?" and said to him (or her, I don't know):
"*blinks* You're having issues with your doggy? =/ Adopting older dogs can be a bit of an issue because they've already been 'trained', but most animals can be successfully rehabilitated with a lot of love and care. And my pup, which I adopted at six months, never posed much of an issue for us. Actually the issue was on our side - we didn't train her well so she never really learned xD the lack of consistency was pro'lly stressful for the poor thing.
You honest-to-goodness don't need to know anything about an animal's heritage, though it's nice to know a bit about their nature. Most shelter workers, however, have spent time with these animals and know exactly how they act and if you'll be a good fit for them. And there's often "trial periods" you can go through to see if the dog/cat is right for you and your family.
I don't know, shelter doggies can definitely be wonderful and beautiful, but sometimes you're just not the right person to rescue them. There's a dog out there for everyone, and I promise you that another shelter dog would've worked out better if you really find this an issue."

their response:
"Knowing a dog's heritage is important actually. If you get any old mutt from a shelter, and aggression runs in it's lines, it can lead to a world of hurt. I know this from personal experience. I adopted my dog 7 and a half years ago when he was a puppy and he has issues out the wah-zoo and he recently attacked and injured my 6yr old niece. Shelters sugar-coat issues that their dogs have, and you can NEVER know a dog's true personality when in a shelter setting. They're more often then not scared and stressed out and not acting like they normally would.
My boy for example, he was a timid little sweetheart at the shelter and the moment i got him home, total chaos (he was trained, and is a lot more obedient and well adjusted now, but still is a danger for younger children and other dogs.)
Long story short, do your homework, ask many many MANY questions about the dog if you go through a shelter, ask to foster it or take it home for a trial run. If you go through a breeder (HIGHLY recommended if you plan to get a herding breed or a hound, and especially a husky!), ask to meet the parents and for the dog's pedigree. "

so I went with:
"Not particularly. Some breeds are certainly more aggressive than others but parentage doesn't factor into aggression. here has a buttload of info on aggression, as well as here.
I hate to say it, but YOU were doing something wrong if that's the case. It may be as something as stupid/silly as wrong scents or not being an "alpha", or being inconsistent about being the "alpha", but... it's you.
YES dogs can be aggressive, but it's so unbelievably easy to train out the aggression and avoid it.
Also: if you're allowing young children to be around ANY animal unmonitored, you're doing something wrong. You are ASKING for issues. Kids pull tails and yell and are noisy and sometimes intolerable - especially to animals.
So I do definitely agree with doing your research and going for a trial run, but at the end of the day if the dog's aggressive there's two possibilities: you're screwing up or the owner beforehand screwed up. And if you're not able to get rid of the aggressiveness... it's definitely you.
=/
Sorry for sounding so rude/mean about it, but at the end of the day that's what it comes down to. Not only in my experience, but in the experience of my parents, my friends, other people I know of, professionals like Cesar Milan or veterinarians, people like shelter workers, etc."

they then decided to PM me with (cusswords starred out):
"I didn't want to continue to take over the New Puppy thread so I decided to PM you.
First, f*** you. You have no idea of my home life or what happened or even how my dog acts or his personality. That "be the alpha" bull*** that Caesar Milan spews is exactly that. Bull***. The man is a moron and should be banned from having contact with all animals for the rest of his miserable existence.
My niece wasn't around my dog unsupervised, my sister was in the room with my dog and my niece at the time and from what I gather, my sister ignored my warnings about making her kid leave the dog alone. I also need to add that my niece has grown up with 3 dogs, a Central Asian Shepherd mix, an American Pit Bull Terrier, and a American Bully. All considered "dangerous" breeds and therefore is extremely respectful and knows what to do and not to do when interacting with dogs.
My dog has been with me from puppy hood AND is trained to the absolute best of my abilities and has come leaps and bounds since coming home with me. His aggression stems from being in a shelter run with his brother attacking and taking command of the food bowl when they were fed (I know this as I volunteered there when he came in) and from trauma in his past. I have trained him away from aggression and he can now interact with other dogs and older (12yrs+ children without reacting negatively.
Before you start judging and spewing bull**** in the form of "facts", use your ****ing brain and THINK.

I respond:
"https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/dog-behavior/training-your-dog
https://www.petfinder.com/dogs/dog-training/dog-training-tips/
http://www.nylabone.com/dog-101/training-behaviors/
http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/training.htm
http://www.lakehavenrescue.org/adoption-issues.htm
Bull***, is it?
and this is just a couple of minutes of google, I could probably find more if I was looking.
Not to mention several other things I've read about training your dog to be better behaved. All about being in control as opposed to letting them do as they wish. I use "alpha" because "alpha"s are supposed to be in command. Dogs run as packs ergo there is a basic pack mindset - which includes plenty of attention and interaction as well as finding some sort of leader.
And Ceasar Milan's dogs, if you've ever seen them, are quite well behaved and clearly well adjusted so to want to "ban" him from contact from animals is quite moronic and ignorant of YOU.
And if your dog's come leaps and bounds then clearly the issue isn't you. But quite frankly animals always have reasons behind their actions, whether that reason is pain or territory or even "you smell wrong" doesn't mean there's not a reason.
Just because you disagree with someone else's methods doesn't mean they're stupid. If I implied that you were stupid let me stop here and apologize now. I do get very passionate about animals and if I find someone's being close-minded - which I thought you were, as I DO NOT KNOW YOU and ergo don't understand your life - I tend to get upset.
Obviously you're a very intelligent person.
And the fact that you accused me of not thinking is foolish. I've done my research and approached others about all kinds of animals, as well as the fact I've interacted with them a lot. Of all different kinds. But when I find animal behavioral issues 99% of the time it's the owner's problem, including with my own dog.
So excuse me for assuming that the pattern continued. I couldn't know everything so the fact you're getting so upset over someone's love for animals, albeit in a way that got carried away... okay I don't know where I was going with that sentence.
Anyways. Maybe you shouldn't assume people are automatically stupid if they disagree with you? =/ That kind of attitude causes wars on the scale of countries you know =/"

they say:
"Wanting Milan banned from contact with animals isn't ignorant or moronic, have you seen what that "professional" actually does to dogs? there are videos of him abusing and strangling dogs on line. "google it".
I've studied dog behavior and training for the past 6 years when my dog started to show negative behaviors so I do know for a fact that what Caesar Milan "preaches" about is BS. I didn't call it ALL bull****, but that man truly is an idiot.
There is no way to tell what set my dog off, my sister's brat said she stepped on his tail, but my sister said she was sitting, he'd met the kid several times before so it wasn't 'you smell wrong', or territory. I've man-handled him and messed with his ears and tail enough to where it doesn't bother him. I can use his tail as a handle to stop him from doing something.
I'm not getting upset over someone's love for animals, I'm getting pissed the hell off because some jackass had the nerve to judge me without knowing the truth behind the incident.

BTW, Cesar choking the dog.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_W5i5RmDb8
watch that and tell me he still knows what he's doing. "


They banned me, but here's what I had typed up as a response:
"Okay.

Everyone judges everyone else.  That's a fact of life.  From what I know about animals, once again, 99% of the time it's a human's fault.  Of course I judged you.  That's normal.  However, that being said, I never assumed you were a bad person and I'm sorry if that was implied.  I simply assumed you were unawares of one facet of dealing with dogs and hoped to provide you with more information on that.  Then of course I got a bit ruder.  And once again, I apologize for that.  My intent was never to be rude.

The fact of the matter is I've seen so many happy shelter stories most of the time - most being over "half", mind you, so while I'm inclined to think it's GREATLY over half it may not be - that I tend to be harsher on other people who put down shelter dogs.  And again, I apologize.

So I'm not "some jackass" who "had the nerve" to judge you, I'm simply a human being who - like all humans do - judged another before knowing the whole story and wanted to share some knowledge I had in the hopes to make the world a better place.

...And thank you for the video.  While I'm declining from watching it in order to NOT set my day off to be a bad one, I'll definitely do more research into this in hopes to find out a happier, and better, truth."

before I finish it off, pretty much universal of agreement of researching into different breeds.  AND furthermore lots of thoughts about adopting from a shelter.  This person is in a minority, and I whole-heartedly think shelters are THE best way to a get a pup.
However, reputable breeders are also lovely (:

Anyway, I'm going to go give that person a gift if I haven't already through the site's gifting program and now that that's out there I can go move on with my life (:

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