We got him when he was a puppy at the North Shore Animal League. He'd been brought in from a shelter in Tennessee, and the lady at the pet supply shop next door to North Shore told us he was part shepherd and part coon hound. She turned out to be wrong, though. Once Surfer was grown up, people who know dog breeds said he's part Rottweiler, part pit bull.

Surfer won "Scariest Pet" in the Picture Pet Contest at Main Street School, 2005.

Any questions?



-- CatherineJohnson - 07 Jul 2006

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Comments

When I was a teenager we acquired a dog.

Well the dog acquired us.

Groomed, luscious coat, beautifully house-trained, wonderful temper. We advertised around the neighbourhood and in the newspaper, no one contacted us. We couldn't let her be put down by the pound so we adopted her.

The vet thought she might be a german shepherd/corgi cross.

-- TracyW - 07 Jul 2006

No ma'am, no questions! Oh what a nice dog! she said, being careful not to make eye contact with the dog.

-- BeckyC - 07 Jul 2006

You ARE bringing Surfer with you when you meet with teachers, principal, school board, aren't you?

-- BarryGarelick - 07 Jul 2006

The Picture Pet Contest has a whole long history......which ended with me deciding that our best shot was the category of Scariest.

I took this picture, and cropped it tight to make Surfer even scarier. When I handed it to the school secretary she was so horrified she didn't even want to touch it.

Ed was scandalized, but my neighbor, the clinical-psychologist-statistician, said, "It can't possibly be bad for a boy to win the award for Scariest Pet."

-- CatherineJohnson - 07 Jul 2006

We spent quite a long time in denial over the Rottweiler/pit bull thing.

-- CatherineJohnson - 07 Jul 2006

How'd that german shepherd/corgi thing work out?

-- CatherineJohnson - 07 Jul 2006

Barry - don't tempt me.

-- CatherineJohnson - 07 Jul 2006

Actually, I'm hoping to develop a reputation as a dog owner who cured her dog's aggression problems.

Surfer had become so aggressive to other dogs (not people, just dogs - that's the pit bull influence) that I was reaching the point where I couldn't take him on walks. It was mortifying. I'd stand there on the aqueduct path struggling to keep my slavering, vicious dog from ripping some prizewinning Lab limb from limb, while saying things like, "We're not like this at all! He didn't get this from us!" Served me right, because I used to think aggressive dogs had copied their aggression from their owners. I was quite the judgmental dog walker.

Surfer was such a nut that when a lady was bitten by a dog whose owner didn't give her his name people gave her my number because they thought I might know him — like people who own crazed biting dogs stick together or something.

That's all over now. Surfer is perfect, completely under control.

I want people to see me as a person who conquered a Rottweiler/pit bull.

Even though I did it by accident.

-- CatherineJohnson - 07 Jul 2006

Catherine -- have you ever watched the The Dog Whisperer? Cesar Millan is amazing. We have a "difficult" dog (high prey aggression, dog aggression, mixed in with some nice fear anxiety). Fortunately for us, she's perfect in the house, and doesn't mind our kid climbing all over her (go figure).

We've had her for 6 years, and started working on her problems using all-positive-reinforcement type methods from the beginning ("clicker training" stuff). It helped, but after 6 months or so we hit a plateau. She was still occasionally going nuts on walks (though she calmed down much more quickly than before).

After watching enough of Cesar's shows and absorbing his methods, my husband has been able to get her WAY more under control than ever before. All in about the last 6 months of working with her on walks.

What worked for Surfer?

-- StephanieO - 07 Jul 2006

Surfer had become so aggressive to other dogs (not people, just dogs - that's the pit bull influence)

Currently being owned by a terrier mix, I'd say that's not just a pit bull trait, it's a terrier trait (pit bulls being AmStaff terriers). My dog looks like the punch line of a joke that starts out, "An Airedale, a German Shepherd, and a coyote walked into a bar..." She is very territorial -- everything she can see is her territory -- but she is loving with people (except for the mailman, who assaults the house every day).

She is much better off-lead at the dog park than on-lead in, say, an obedience class, where she displayed an irrational antagonism toward GSDs.

It's been my observation that most terriers are that way, but apparently it's a well-known trait of the terrier group.

I offer my favorite bit of Dog Haiku:

    I sound the alarm!
    Mailman Fiend-come to kill us all-
    Look! Look! Look! Look! Look!

-- GoogleMaster - 07 Jul 2006

The thing about mailmen is that when the dog barks and attacks the door (or whatever), the mailman always goes away. The dog has successfully protected his territory again.

Infallible positive reinforcement.

-- DougSundseth - 07 Jul 2006

The thing about mailmen is that when the dog barks and attacks the door (or whatever), the mailman always goes away. The dog has successfully protected his territory again.

Infallible positive reinforcement.

Exactly. The dog has learned that if she barks and growls (and optionally rips the mail out of the slot, if I forgot to put up the baby gate), then the mailman goes away.

She's probably wondering why she's so much smarter than the mailman, who appears not to have learned anything, and who continues to try to attack the house every single day!

If I don't put up a baby gate, then the dog rips the mail from the mailman's hand as s/he puts it through the slot in the door. There's no reason the mailman needs to insert any body parts through the slot in order to push the mail through, but on at least one occasion, I have found bloody smears on my mail. I was not able to determine whether they were from the dog (paper cut on tongue) or the mailman.

-- GoogleMaster - 07 Jul 2006

You probably would have heard if the bloody smears were the mailman's...

poor mailman.

-- CarolynJohnston - 09 Jul 2006

What was going on when you took this picture? He looks a bit like Bear looks when he's telling me, "throw the ball NOW, woman!" (whch he does with a short, sharp woof).

Of course, Bear also tries to imitate my smile, which is VERY scary if you don't know what's going on.

-- CarolynJohnston - 09 Jul 2006

How'd that german shepherd/corgi thing work out?

Well one of my friends described her as a german-shepherd with its legs cut off, so you can tell she was one of those dogs which is 1/2 a dog high and 1 dog long.

So she got arthritis and eventually was sent to live with my great-uncle, who also has arthritis, so he took her for very slow walks along the beach daily, and the arthritis became a lot more endurable (have you ever tried to walk at a much slower pace than you're accustomed to? it's very hard to do). She died earlier this year at about 16 (the vet thinks she was about 2 years old when she adopted us). Which apparently is quite a good long life for a small dog.

Before her retirement to a life by the beach, we had an attempted burglary once while she was at home alone. We came home to discover the door to the deck forced open, the alarm had been set off, and eventually we found the dog cowering underneath the house. We presume the would-be burglars had kicked her, otherwise she would have helped them move the goods out. (They didn't take anything, the house alarm was so loud it was impossible to stay inside while it was going, and it was hooked up to a security company).

Hopeless as a watch-dog, but great company. She made slaves of nearly all visitors, including the cleaner who used to be terrified of dogs.

-- TracyW - 09 Jul 2006

-- TracyW - 09 Jul 2006

Google Master

I just saw this!

I love the haiku!

Terriers are terriers!

They're the wild men of dogland, that's for sure.

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Nov 2006

We presume the would-be burglars had kicked her, otherwise she would have helped them move the goods out.

That was our collie, on the farm.

She would have been thrilled to meet some robbers.

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Nov 2006

Bear tries to imitate your smile???

cool!

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Nov 2006