Dominance and a hard temperment in a pup...

[ligiamorris]

Hi Dianna - It's crazy right? But yes - maybe I should say that its illegal to hunt and a major crime to kill.

1- Brazil has the strictest environmental protections laws of any country on the planet. (it's a great way to guarantee corruption - bribery, etc..) There is very little inspection & supervision - so you've got a lot of amatuers hunting, but pros too..
All animals, trees and water mines are considered the patrimony of the Country. You cannot even cut a tree on your property w/o a permit.
2- Unless you have a permit - it is illegal to carry/own a weapon - the permits are super expensive and there are many tests to take. Meanwhile, I'm sure you've heard what kind weaponry the favelas have - like submachine guns..

It' looks good for the world the appearance of environmental protection under the law - but its too strict

Also - I would only capture the snakes at the farm for exchange for anti-venom with the Butantan Instutute in Sao Paulo.

[de la Luna]

Ligia,

Wow! Backpacking that I do, I see A LOT of rattlesnakes, and while it may seem heartless - a dead rattlesnake is a good rattlesnake - is my way of thinking! They seem to breed like rats and rabbits. I also see that given enough free reign animals could cease to exist if we could do what we want, when we want.

My husband is a wood working craftsman on his free time and has shown me how some are raping the woodlands of Brasil.

My daughter is an avid legal huntress and we all share in eating the bounty she provides. I am so proud of the training she has displayed in her dogs.

Thank you for sharing the information.

Best,

[Cricket]

How old is your dog....you mention 8 weeks? If so, it might be time for a puppy class, just to help with the basics and get him out and about. I took mine to puppy class and then finished them myself because the puppy training went right out the window when she turned about 1.5 years. I know its not very popular and considered very harsh, but I used a heavily modified Koehler method with her. I used a simple choke collar just for training. The Koehler method as described in his book is mainly for "problem dogs" and he tells you to only use the amount of correction needed to get a response from your dog. I did this and followed it up by huge amounts of praise. She learned very quickly. We covered: sit, down, down-stay,sit-stay, go lay down, extended down-stay, heel, off leash, hand signals, come, no (she didn't hear this one very often), and poison proofing (this worked REALLY well...I did NOT use the Koehler solution of putting a shocker in the meat though, but until the day she died...if she found something in the yard...she would sit and wait for me to come pick it up). Once she had all of this down, which took about a year. There was no need to work on it any more. You ask, she did, you praise. She had a very low flash point for aggressive behavior (according to the breeder, she had no "grey" area) and was hugely dog aggressive. All this in mind, she was trained when I was 16/17 years old and from that point on was walked by me....at the time, a very scrawny 5', 95lb., girl.

[Paul]

Cricket,
It sounds like you did a very good job training your dog. That is great. I am impressed. Just keep in mind an 8 week old puppy has not had all its shots yet and may not be protected from disease. Some of us tend to wait until after the puppy shots before exposing the young dog to other dogs we are not sure of. Again, you did a great job with your dog but we all must be careful when exposing puppies that are only 8 weeks old to other dogs in a puppy class. Thanks for sharing the success you have achieved with your dedication and time in training your dog. I am sure we would all love to hear more. Take Care, Paul

[Cricket]

That's why I asked how old the puppy was now.