From: wsadkin@bbn.com (Will Sadkin)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.dogs
Subject: RE: New dog on short notice...
Date: 14 Oct 1992 22:34:39 GMT
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: daedalus.bbn.com

In article <13OCT92.16195173@artex.waisman.wisc.edu>, kingston@artex.waisman.wisc.edu writes:
|> Well, will, I have owned dogs all my life.  You have to remember that the
|> dog will in time become very attached to you 3 as family.  You do have to
|> make sure that your wife/child will not be allergic.  I would suggest
|> going to the Library and getting all the books on this breed.  You didnt
|> mention what part of the country you lived in.  To me this is important as
|> this breed of dogs have very, very thick hair that is more for living in the
|> cold as opposed to the hot.  If you live somewhere where it gets very hot,
|> you need to make sure that the dog is groomed and has plenty of shade. For
|> instance, I owned a samoyed and a husky. I live in Wis so we have a change
|> of seasons.  For both of these dogs, it was horrible in the summer.  I had
|> to get some ice and put a blanket over it and let them literally lay on top
|> of the ice in the basement.  I also had to have a kiddie pool full of cold
|> water for them.  I couldn't excersise them in the summer as it was just
|> too hot.  They would go into heat stroke.

We live in Central Massachusetts.  The seasons are temperate, and there are
only a few beastly days in the summer.  Lely was previously trekked down
to southern Florida several times a year, and was MISERABLE.  Living with
us will be a definite improvement in that regard.

Well, Lely has been with us now for about 4 days.  Our routines have all
been disrupted, but we are each dealing with it, except for our two cats...
Dog hair seems to accumulate much more quickly than cat hair :-), but so far,
we seem to be ok in the allergy department.  It's amazing how much more of
a "family" atmosphere there is now that she's around!  On balance, we're very
pleased.

Lely's only unacceptable behavior seems to be barking in the car at other
dogs/bicyclists/pedestrians whenever we stop or are moving slowly.  Her 
bark is so LOUD AND SHRILL that in a closed vehicle it is deafening.  (Woke
Matthew up at least 4 times on one trip.)  It is hard to discipline her in
the car, as she is in the back seat on a tie-down, but vocal commands will
hopefully do the trick.  

She has two other difficult behaviors.  Having grown up in a large town, she
refuses to go down streets which have no street lights.  This makes the walk 
area rather limited at night in our neighborhood!  The other problem is that
she has no concept of the danger from vehicles, and apparently never has.
She has been on a flexi-lead all her life, and will routinely run right into
the road without regard to oncoming traffic, particularly when excited.  So
far, I have managed to haul her back out of harms's way, but I live on a 
fairly busy road, and I'm constantly worried about my reaction time.  
Anyone have any suggestions about how to deal with either problem?

As for the cats, they have now been treed on the 2nd floor for 4 days.  We
moved their litter box, food and water upstairs so they wouldn't starve or
otherwise make a mess, but they are going stir-crazy being confined to only
three rooms.  They have ventured forth a couple of times, and each
time, got very upset (fur flew) and retreated to the safety upstairs.  
Lely did not grow up with cats either, and while I don't think she'd hurt 
them, I do think she'd chase them if they run.  

I'm sure others have had to deal with similar situations.  Recommendations?
   
/Will
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Will Sadkin                | "Never draw what you can copy;
BBN Systems & Technologies |  never copy what you can trace;
wsadkin@bbn.com            |  never trace what you can cut out and paste down!"
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