City Dog Living

For those of you who live in the city with your dogs where you rent, have to walk your dog every time it needs to go potty, I'm talking to you. Just a few questions here.

When your dog has the runs, what you do when taking them out to potty? Simi has an upset stomach after the move and now has the runs. I have been trying to just keep her poo's limited to our small yard, and pick up what I can, then water down the rest, but what do those of you do who have to walk them else where? Do you just try to pick up as much as you can and leave the rest? Water down what's left, even on someone else's property? Just curious.

Those of you who wear tags on your dogs -- any of them tag chewers? Simi is, apparently. In less than a week she has more or less destroyed her city tag and her ID tag is looking pretty rough. I am thinking I'll have to get a tag that fits right on her collar and just carry her city tag on me.

Also, anyone with dog reactive/dog selective dogs that live in the city and have to walk regularly? Simi can be picky and so we're finding it a little bit of a challenge. But as long as they don't bark at her, she can generally just ignore them, as long as she can keep an eye on them to know where they are.

On the same line as above, Simi is scared of people. We had a little girl try to pat her the other day on a walk and even asked nicely... do you feel rude telling people not to pat your dogs? What do you tell them?

Just a general question thread, I guess.

When your dog has the runs, what you do when taking them out to potty? Simi has an upset stomach after the move and now has the runs. I have been trying to just keep her poo's limited to our small yard, and pick up what I can, then water down the rest, but what do those of you do who have to walk them else where? Do you just try to pick up as much as you can and leave the rest? Water down what's left, even on someone else's property? Just curious.
My apartment building has a communal potty area, that isn't what I would call super accessable, especially since I live on the second floor. It makes trudging up and down with a water bucket pretty...overzealous, imo. So if the dogs get the runs, I pick up as much as I can and call it good.

Those of you who wear tags on your dogs -- any of them tag chewers? Simi is, apparently. In less than a week she has more or less destroyed her city tag and her ID tag is looking pretty rough. I am thinking I'll have to get a tag that fits right on her collar and just carry her city tag on me.
Boomerang Tags!! And yeah, I'd just have your city ID tag handy when you have her out, maybe hang it on your key ring?

Also, anyone with dog reactive/dog selective dogs that live in the city and have to walk regularly?
Me!!! Unfortunately Frodo is significantly more reactive at our apartment complex than anywhere else. So if we see other dogs while out going to the bathroom, I do the best I can. Sometimes it goes well, sometimes it doesn't. Not a whole lot I can do. :/

On the same line as above, Simi is scared of people. We had a little girl try to pat her the other day on a walk and even asked nicely... do you feel rude telling people not to pat your dogs? What do you tell them?
I don't feel rude, because I owe it to my dog to keep them safe. I usually say "I'm sorry, he isn't always good with strangers. Thank you for asking though." And then if they want to, I will let them throw a treat to Frodo, or show off some of his cool tricks.

1. We have a decent yard now but when I had to walk him daily I avoided nice lawns, headed to the nearest possible park and picked up as much as possible.

2.I have Radars on a clip like so http://www.amazon.com/Rubit-Dog-Tag-Clip-Small/dp/B0045G8NOU easy on and off for walks.

3. Desoto is my reactive one luckily he has a good yard so that is not a daily battle. However I find radiating waves of contempt and having an angry dog helps to keep most other dog owners away. I feel your pain though, I can't count the times some moron has let their yappy dog on a flexi come bolting towards Desoto while screaming, 'He's friendly' while I yell back 'Yah, well mines NOT!'

4. Nope. Not at all. opcorn:The area I used to live in was rampant with children as young as three allowed to roam unattended all over the neighborhood. All of who would run SCREAMING up to any dogs they saw to pet them. I'm talking several times a day I went through this. Radar came to me unsocialized and terrified and the last thing I wanted was some kid grabbing him. I figure if their parents don't school them on how to properly pet a dog/ask to pet a dog, I should before they try that crap with my neighbors dog with a bite history. (Radar is fine with greeting people now, and loves kids thanks to all the 'practice' teaching kids to meet dogs nicely so I guess he benefited from all the impromptu lessons) If I am not in talkative mood or it's an adult I tell people they are 'shy' if I don't want them petting the dog , even though Desoto is FAR from shy, It is easier than explaining the situation to people and they usually just leave us alone.
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When your dog has the runs, what you do when taking them out to potty? Simi has an upset stomach after the move and now has the runs. I have been trying to just keep her poo's limited to our small yard, and pick up what I can, then water down the rest, but what do those of you do who have to walk them else where? Do you just try to pick up as much as you can and leave the rest? Water down what's left, even on someone else's property? Just curious.

This one I can't really comment on as I've always had a yard, and yes, just hose it down if one of the dogs happens to be sick. Same as if they're throwing up, I just thankfully can toss them out into the yard. I've always wondered what apartment dwellers/people without fenced yards do when their dogs are ill, though. That'd be tough.

Those of you who wear tags on your dogs -- any of them tag chewers? Simi is, apparently. In less than a week she has more or less destroyed her city tag and her ID tag is looking pretty rough. I am thinking I'll have to get a tag that fits right on her collar and just carry her city tag on me.

None of my dogs are really tag chewers (though Dance will chew those tag bags), but I've had dogs get them stuck in heat vents before when laying down and I also just hate the noise, so my dogs wear Boomerang tags or embroidered collars. That said, mine don't really wear collars in the house for multiple dog safety reasons. But they used to, and yeah, Boomerang Tags/embroidered collars were my option.

I'm bad and don't even know where my dogs' city license tags are. Technically they're supposed to wear them, or I should have them on me at least, but in all the years I've owned dogs nobody's ever looked for them.

Also, anyone with dog reactive/dog selective dogs that live in the city and have to walk regularly?

Not currently (Ripley is mildly dog reactive but bad enough for me to worry about), but I had a very on-leash dog reactive dog, and I just did my best to be super vigilant and keep my dog away from other people and their dogs if I saw them. And if I couldn't, then I did my best to keep my dog from reacting a lot but stuffing food in her face. People thought my dog was horrible (she wasn't even aggressive, but would scream and growl with excitement and frustration), but sometimes there's only so much you can do. I did try to walk her during times that I knew there wouldn't be a ton of other people out, though. She was also my first dog I actually raised pretty much myself, and I was young at the time, so there is probably more I could have done better/differently. But it was just something I worked on constantly with her.

On the same line as above, Simi is scared of people. We had a little girl try to pat her the other day on a walk and even asked nicely... do you feel rude telling people not to pat your dogs? What do you tell them?

Nope, not at all. I have no qualms about telling people to back off and leave Dance alone, because I have to stick up for my dog. I am polite about it and most people are understanding (except I always get "poor girl, must be a rescue"). Sometimes I have to sternly tell people to leave her alone though when they just come running at her and swoop in to pet or hug (children) her.

I lived in a big, busy apartment complex up until 2 weeks ago, and Pan was a horrible reactive puppy/young dog that was barely even food motivated. The first year of her life really sucked and she had a lot of meltdowns. But you know what, I kept at it, and the classical conditioning actually paid off. She is now a super cool-cucumber city dog, certain dogs still have the potential to set her off (like if they are tied up in their yard freaking out when we go by), but she is super easy to redirect and refocus on me now.

We can walk through crowds of people and dogs, have kids whizzing by on bikes and scooters and she is fine. However, she is a fear biter and cannot interact with strangers. She looks like a friendly good dog, sitting in heel position at my side, so a lot of people and kids want to come say hi, but I don't feel bad telling them no. Once I realized that, and stopped trying to get her to take food from people, etc, she became so much more relaxed. Just tell people that she is scared of strangers, or is busy and in training, and keep on walking by.

When your dog has the runs, what you do when taking them out to potty? Simi has an upset stomach after the move and now has the runs. I have been trying to just keep her poo's limited to our small yard, and pick up what I can, then water down the rest, but what do those of you do who have to walk them else where? Do you just try to pick up as much as you can and leave the rest? Water down what's left, even on someone else's property? Just curious.

Option a) is pick up and water down. Option b) is, well, whatever I can manage.

Those of you who wear tags on your dogs -- any of them tag chewers? Simi is, apparently. In less than a week she has more or less destroyed her city tag and her ID tag is looking pretty rough. I am thinking I'll have to get a tag that fits right on her collar and just carry her city tag on me.
My dogs aren't tag wearers around the house, though when I bring Nico out to my friend's farm, or when we travel, he wears his "country dog collar" that is bright green and does have a tag, but even when traveling, my dogs don't wear collars inside. Other than the farm, I pretty much only go to my dads' and they have an 8 foot fence around their entire property to keep deer and bear out of the yard. It's kind of like Fort Knox. Saga has a similar traveling collar. When traveling, their leashes are never attached to the tag collar, Saga has a martingale and Nico has a fur saver that the leashes get attached to. ( I MIGHT be slightly paranoid...)

Also, anyone with dog reactive/dog selective dogs that live in the city and have to walk regularly?
Neither of my two are reactive unless Saga losing her mind over squirrels and bunnies counts?

On the same line as above, Simi is scared of people. We had a little girl try to pat her the other day on a walk and even asked nicely... do you feel rude telling people not to pat your dogs? What do you tell them?
I don't feel rude at all. Children are NEVER permitted to pet Nico and ONLY allowed to pet Saga if their parents are there. Nico LOVES kids, but he's a spazz and he hurts me accidentally often enough where I just rather not deal with it. For that matter, Nico pretty much only gets to interact with dog sport people and some of my friends who actually follow instructions. And actually, if we are doing potty breaks or in my actual neighborhood, NOBODY gets to pet either one of them. I live in a bad part of town and would rather not have my dogs "outed" as being the attention sluts that they are.

When your dog has the runs, what you do when taking them out to potty?

Take them out frequently and carry him/rush him to some grass or OFF THE CURB (like on the street) rather than the sidewalk.
Pick up as much as I can...and leave the rest. If it's on the sidewalk I will basically use a few bags and if possible I sometimes bring papertowels to kind of wipe up best I can

Those of you who wear tags on your dogs -- any of them tag chewers?
I am a jingle tag hater anyway. I got a rubit tag clip and the city tag/rabies stay together and go on either my wallet or clipped onto his leash,he never wears them

Also, anyone with dog reactive/dog selective dogs that live in the city and have to walk regularly? Simi can be picky and so we're finding it a little bit of a challenge. But as long as they don't bark at her, she can generally just ignore them, as long as she can keep an eye on them to know where they are.

- Walk her "off season" as I like to call it.. in my neighborhood that means NOT right at 5:00-6:00 PM and not 7:30-8:00
- Yellow ribbon on leash, quite a few dog owners are picking up on what that means
- Don't be afraid to lie, welcome to the city! WHO CARES! LOL :rofl1: I go with "Oh she is sick!" "She hates other dogs" whatever it takes for people to retract their flexis and go away
- Teach her that "off the curb/against the wall" is a safe place (or somewhere, I like to use right off the curb or against a building with him on the inside side) when I see a dog coming I know is going to go crazy and hype Merlin up... I stand with him off the curb or basically stick us both really close to a building. It creates a distance and usually people get the hint and keep their dog away.

On the same line as above, Simi is scared of people. We had a little girl try to pat her the other day on a walk and even asked nicely... do you feel rude telling people not to pat your dogs? What do you tell them?

- Yellow ribbon and "Oh sorry he is a little shy..."
- For especially persistent people/people that don't ask and look like they rae going to go for it.. I tell them he is sick or he got skunk sprayed recently
- I know someone that has a k9julius with "Do not pet" on it.. I mean desperate times but some neighborhoods have serial petters and dog harrasers lol

Just a general question thread, I guess.[/QUOTE]

I lived in a huge apartment complex with my human/dog aggressive Dutch Shepherd...for a year. It was the type that you had to go inside on stairs to get to your actual personal door to your apartment.

My apartment complex had woods scattered throughout so when there were bad potty days, we headed there. I just picked up as best as I could. I never let my dogs potty in someone else's yard. I always aim for the narrow grass strip between the sidewalk and the road if they HAD TO GO RIGHT NOW. Otherwise, I took mine out to the woods or drove to a park for potties.

Yup, DS was a tag chewer. Boomerang tagged him and carried his other info in my purse 24/7.

My dog was a biter. There was no room to feel uncomfortable about telling people/kids/those with dogs to not allow their dogs to come up to my dog. I also had a muzzle and a Halti. I used the Halti to pin his mouth shut if we were in a situation that I was concerned about. He was not a screamer/lunger/barker, he was a hackle-then-biter. Most people left us alone if I said he did not like to be pet/approached. Honestly, a huge number never even asked or asked at a distance because he was also big on the hard stare of death. If we were on a path where I wasn't sure the other dog would be controlled, I stepped off and body blocked my dog - where the other dog would have to come around or through me to get to him. I also had a "close" command, Madix would wrap or go behind me so that I could protect him from those that he wanted to bite. Honestly, the probability of a bite was high enough that I had a very obvious do-not-approach me attitude/body language to walking my dog. 98% caught on immediately, the other 2% I was very clear with - not rude - but clear. "People/dogs make him uncomfortable, please do not approach". Many assumed he was a retired police dog...I just let it go.

Elsie would prefer not to be pet by strangers most of the time, so unless she expresses an interest in them, I just tell people no when they ask to pet her. I don't feel bad about it anymore, because I'm her advocate; she can't tell them she doesn't want their hands on her, so that's my job.

Yarrow is extremely shy of strangers and I've gotten to the point where I will be super blunt about it. I'm not good at that kind of thing and it took me a while to realize that I just had to be totally upfront. No, you cannot approach him, can't pet him, in fact please don't even look at him.

He's so big and intimidating looking, and his body language says VERY clearly that he is not comfortable, so most people can actually just see that and don't approach him, thank goodness. When he was a cute fluffy puppy it was WAY harder to keep people away!