What a thread- oldie, but goodie. My take is a bit of a compromise: All of our friends understand my 9 year old sweet Beagle Max. He was abandoned by breeders when he was 6 weeks old, due to their loss of lease on a property. We adopted him, brought him home and did our best. But this way-too-young-to-be-away-from-his pack was needy. We gave him all the love he needed. He's very smart and observant, and so simply started emulating his pack. That includes hugging when people enter our home, since this is the behavior he's always seen. He hugs, too. That's really all he asks, from a visitor. A hug, and maybe a sweet kiss- no tongue, he just puts his face on your neck. Funny doggie! It can get a bit "rambunctious" as people enter. But our friends get it, hug him like he's our furry two year old, and then Max calms down. Not everybody loves it, and we know the friends where we just need to remove him for a bit, until he gets less excited for company. Now, if children enter? Another story. He's not allowed to do that. He LOVES kids, but I can't have Max bowling toddlers over. So we keep that in check, and wait to see if the child is interested. Then we introduce them, let the child pet him (silkiest hair, ears you've ever felt), and he's gentle. Max is, like most hounds, also driven by his nose and stomach. He's not allowed around guests as they eat- he knows where to sit. If he get's invasive, then he has to go to his "room". He hates that, since he's social and just wants to be around people, so it's rare that he won't comply. Now- when a stranger comes to the door? We let them have the "full effect". Aggressive barks- and loud- until and unless we signal that it's safe. And we put his 'good dog leash" on, if this is (for example) a repair person, there to do a job. But if you're not invited? You're not invited, and he sounds like the Gates of Hell are opening, until he's told "ok". A compromise that works for us and our friends. My sweet pup, in his first month at my house. He just wanted to be ok. Grew up to be fairly mellow Still thinks he's a person.

I was up at my local convience store chatting with the cashier (one of my neighbors) about the Miniture Chihuahua that she just got, and we went on to talking about my Shi Tzu, the guy that was standing there waiting for his C.C slip to print, told us that he just got a Shih Tzu puppy from petland, said he paid 1,200 (!!!!) dollars for this dog, said it has already had 2 seizures, and he was suppose to get lifetime vet visits, now they told him it is 6 well check visits, liars! I felt so bad for him. I told him to get on the internet if he could stomache it and look up all the negativity on petland. I told him the Shih Tzu puppy can be bought from any where from 300 to 500 dollars in our area. I can't believe those people are getting people to buy their puppies at those prices! He said they asked him if he would like to get a loan to buy the dog, he said it was as if they was trying to push the loan issue with him. Fuddruckers is in the same shopping mall as PetLand, now I do love my hamburgers, but I won't even eat there just because they are next door to that place. I am getting worked up just thinking about it, he showed me a pic of his puppy (a guy that carries a pic of his dog in his wallet!) and he looked like such a sweetheart (the dog not the guy:) what a shame.

deb18 What a sad but typical story. These people obviously couldn't care for one dog. Many people of this type decide to obtain several dogs to abuse and neglect. Perhaps if owners were required to take a class, pass a test, and pay for a license these people wouldn't have killed that dog or endangered your family with the vicious dog they created. Perhaps if the laws were more preventive rather than reactive these people wouldn't be allowed to own a dog or own a vicious dog. The laws as they were written weren't able to help the dog nor were they able to protect your family. The laws aren't very responsive after a tragedy either. Those dog owners would have a right to their dog even if it attacked your kids, you, or your pets. They have a right to that dog and a chance to harm the dog and the community again. They might get a stern lecture, a small fine, and then they get to break the law again. The community is not protected nor is the dog protected. You were lucky in one area - the dog didn't attack you or your kids. You chose not to directly confront the dog owners and the humane society didn't make the situation worse by revealing that you complained about how they don't care for their dog. In many communities animal control won't do anything to help the dog or the community but will go out and talk to the dog owners that are abusing/neglecting their dogs and reveal who complained. This does nothing for the dog as they are unwilling to help the dog. Often the unstable dog owners will start to harass their neighbors, shouting at their neighbor, vandalizing their neighbor's property, threatening their neighbor etc. Animal control believes that these dog owners are reasonable people who just don't know how to care for their pets and will shape up with some education or that these people are just innocent dog owners that are persecuted by their neighbors. Under current laws these people have a right to own a dog or dogs even if they aren't taking care of the dog or dogs. Your lucky you moved after the dog died and before they got more dogs. My neighbors trained their dogs to bark constantly. Their dogs became vicious of course and eventually attacked a child. They got rid of the dogs a few months after the attack and got about a half dozen smaller barking dogs. I had no break in between to sell my house - despite all the dog owners out there no one seems to want a house next door to half a dozen dogs that bark constantly. Maybe their should be zoning neighborhoods for dogs and neighborhoods for people. Ideally people would only own dogs if they properly care for the dogs. Those that couldn't care for the dogs would have their dogs immediately seized to be either adopted by a responsible owner or euthanized. Those dogs who aren't owned by professional breeders or dogs that are unsuitable for breeding should be spayed or neutered. There are way too many dogs and cats compared to people and its even worse when you narrow it down to responsible and knowledgable people who want to own and are willing and able to care for a dog or cat.

We just adopted a 2 year old gray DSH from a shelter, after he'd been there for 7 mos, and his elderly owner died and he went into the system. We are giving everyone lots of love, but one of our existing cats only tolerates him (Clyde, a 6yo male) but our 6yo female (Bonnie) hates him, hisses and growls at him, too. Our new guy, Smokey, gets upset and runs away, but sometimes he stands his ground and stares at her. He does do things to piss them off - like getting in their faces all the time, even in the litter box - but he is very social and I think he actually likes other cats. He likes people, too, whereas Bonnie & Clyde are afraid of other people. He is very sweet most of the time, even licks us, and sleeps with us, but he hardly sleeps more than 2 hrs at a time, with us in bed with him, and yowls at night sometimes. Sometimes he wakes up and runs over to us talking to see if we're "alive", and that settles him down. But this yowling is different and we can't figure it out. Cuddling him doesn't help. Yelling (duh) doesn't work. Calling him back to bed doesn't work. We can't force him to settle down because he is also a hugely muscular cat at 11 lbs and eats a full can and still wants more. He was checked out by our vet, and the shelter one as well, and I'm taking him to a new vet Tuesday. We think he might have worms, but probably not hyperthyroid as he's not losing weight. He just talks alot and yowls around 6am and there's no stopping him. The food/water/litter are all checked before bedtime and are fine. Plenty of toys lying around. Plenty of perch & warm sofa/bed space. Even a mild sedative (Xanax - from our Vet) had minimal effect. He's unsteady on his feet, but doesn't sleep more or eat less! We may have made his crying worse by feeding him even when he is crying at dinner time, instead of waiting for him to stop. Problem is, he doesn't stop, and we have 2 other well-behaved cats who are also hungry! We have tried to ignore his yowling, and then he "acts out" and we find he's knocked over our shelf products, or is on top of the TV cabinet or something falls and we know where he is, still yowling. Impossible to ignore with (possibly) dangerous products falling & breaking. He has an amazing amount of energy, and uses it at night, despite playing with (all of them) during the day. On his own, he does sleep more than 2 hours, I've noticed, just not with us. We love him and want to keep him, but after a month of little sleep we're trying clicker training (minimal effect) and we're thinking of trying a dog barking collar. Has anyone thought of using a dog stop barking collar (static) to control yowling? Would it even work on a cat? Is is safe? We're at our wits end. Could he be depressed, lonely or bored? Does he need a kitty anti-depressive? I don't want to have to drug him for the rest of his life - I think he wants attention, but at 5 am in a 1 bedroom apt. with neighbors it's too much for us to bear. Any help appreciated.