Shelter dogs

Wow, a neapolitan mastiff at a shelter. Though it looks brown in the pic, they're supposed to be blue. The shelter people should learn to take better pics as a better pic can easily sell the dog to a potential home. That's quite a jump from a lab to a neo Emil. Of course temperaments vary and it could be a lab in neo clothing Looks like a big friendly guy. Looks like he has his nuts too but those will be gone before he gets adopted out. This is one of the reasons I won't consider a shelter dog for myself. I like intact dogs.

Interesting that you would mention it and come to that conclusion on your own. I've long known that castrating a male dog will do nothing to solve many problems which the neuter Nazis advocate castration for. It took me a while however to understand theoretically why it can escalate the possibility of dog fights. It dawned on me one day as I was watching Caesar Millan's show. He was dealing with one of these people who you really can't tell whether it was male or female. Of course it had a yippy neurotic little dog that it carried in a designer bag and the dog was wearing these little clothes.. It was obviously gay but I really could see no signs which would indicate to me if it was originally a male or a female. Anyways, at one point the camera did a close up on this person and it was talking at length. I caught myself being irritated to a point of mild stress not being able to identify the sex of the person. I figure it works the same way for dogs, even more so because the scent will add to the confusion. Stress means pressure which can precipitate an aggressive response where otherwise there would've been none.

I agree that rescuing a dog is a great thing. If you'd like to own a dog and rescue at the same time and the dog fits your needs then it's a bonus. The kind of dogs I'm interested in are systematically given up to shelters and put down. This society does not tolerate the dog expressing its natural protective instincts. There are however people who look for just this sort of dog. As a matter of fact any dog that shows strong drive to do anything which it was designed to do in the first place is usually too much for people and they give it up. Why get a performance breed if all you're going to do is keep it at home or never let it off leash. Maybe it's a good thing that American breeders mostly produce pretenders for the show ring, dogs that look the part but nothing more.

Your post made me remember the rottweiler chasintail was trying to save on SB a couple of years ago. I usually turn away from things like that but something about that dog made me want to help it. Chasintail really made it look like time was going to run out for this dog and it was a rottie. You may recall I posted that I would take it and was going to. I contacted the people and they didn't seem to be in a hurry to find a place for him at all. They asked me way too many questions. I remained patient and gave them all the info they wanted. This took place over the course of 3 or 4 days. Every time someone new would call with the same questions. At some point it was all agreed upon after speaking to a fairly straight up lady who I believe was running the rescue. I then received one more phone call from some bimbo working for their organization. This one really crossed the line. She wanted to know who I live with and when I said my wife she wanted to speak with her and ask her why we want the dog. At this point I blew up and said I really don't need the dog and I'm only taking it so that you won't kill it, and that I'm finished answering questions. If they want they can let me know when I can take the dog. She said OK and they never called back. You can see why I don't want to get involved with these people.