Oliver Hurt Angel Tonight

[Kimberly Baxter Packwood]

Oliver hurt Angel, our 15 year old 12 pound sheltie, again tonight. Hubs said it  was dominance behaviour he tried to mount her after flinging her about the room  which apparently all happened in the bit of a heart beat.  I was doing  laundry so wasn't present. 

I'm at a loss as to what to do when he tries to  dominate her, and it's NOT playing!  I did finally find out from the  previous owners that he's an alpha male to the point that even the husband cowed  to him.  

He's ONLY nine months old and weighs 75-85 pounds already!  Submission techniques are  not working on him he wants to push everyone and everything onto the floor and stand on top of them.

No he's not neutered.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I like where you stand : )

[Becka]

Me too!

[Robin and Libby Louise]

Kimberly's Husband - I like where you stand, as well.  There would be a lot less rescue dogs if there were more humans that understood committment!  I look forward to updates!

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

This calls for a "LIKE" button!

[Sally S Miles]

Hi Kimberly, I'm just going to say that I wish you well.   I do hope your sweet Angel doesn't get hurt! 

We just adopted a 'puppy' (14 months- weight will be clarified today at the vet), but he is big and I am being vigilant that he and Journey are playing ok.   Your Oliver is in prime of his adolescence and effectively the sense of a hormonal teenager with one thing on his mind.  It will still be weeks before his system figures out what happened after the gonads are gone.

 

Mine has been neutered, but he mounts her anyway - - many verbal corrections yesterday, but he responds.  I think mine is part stress, part bully, and part not trained.   We are letting him know this is not cool and he does get a certain gleam as he considers it.    Lots of redirection going on.   Ours had training, not a lot, but no 'rules' and yes I am making him comply.  

Yes I worry that he may hurt her in his exuberance with play, his bulk and the 'plowing'  - she instigates and comes back for more.  Yes, I am making sure that he knows he is low man on the totem around here.  Yes, he gets nothing for free.  Yes - it's going to be a bumpy ride.

 

If you do hire someone to walk, run, train him just make sure that you find someone you can be comfortable with. I fired a trainer who insisted on running my girl for an hour, at only five months old - I was furious!      I would ask veterinary offices - many vet techs make extra money by dog walking, dog sitting, etc.  Check with local pet supply - same sort of leads there.

 

You mentioned that Angel got knocked down the stairs - inside or out?   Last time we had such variation is size was a GSD and A Yorkie - - lots of fearful moments that were wasted - but I understand your concern.

[Kimberly Baxter Packwood]

He knocked her down the inside steps, a total of eleven steps, when she stopped at the landing he then proceeded to jump up and down on her.  He then tossed her down the remaining six steps and when she landed on the living room floor proceeded to jump up and down on her all in the blink of an eye before I could get there to intervene.

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

So scary.  I'm glad you guys are committed to working out the kinks with him.  Sounds like they can't be alone in the same room until he learns his own strength and more controlled play time!  I was so sad a few months ago when a friend of mine took her rescue dog that she had had for over a year to a kill shelter after the very first incident like you just described with one of  her other 2 dogs (a sheltie).  We all tried to encourage her to separate them with a fence until she could find a non-kill rescue group, but she didn't even consider it.  She took the one-time-only aggressive dog to the kill shelter within hours of the incident.  We were all in shock, but none of us lived in the same state to offer to take her until a better solution was found.  There are just so many other steps in between the incident and her rash decision....I'm still sad about it. 

[Kimberly Baxter Packwood]

Wow!!! That's how we ended up with Oliver.  A kill shelter would not be the first thing I would think of that's for sure!!! 

My goal is to reinforce the good behaviour and to discourage the bad behaviour.  And yes keep them seperated until he's a bit more mature.

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

Kimberly....not even one minute ago, I just read on that friend's Facebook page that she is going to adopt another dog.  Wow.  I'm worried about her pragmatic approach.  I wonder if they rescue place will check her history. 

I'm lucky that I live in an area of the country with a HUGE number of rescue groups of all kinds for all kinds of breeds and all kinds of situations.  Even ranches that take on aggressive breeds without killing them.

[Kimberly Baxter Packwood]

I've heard about people like this, they adopt puppies and kittens and once they grow out of the cute stage surrender them usually to a kill shelter. 

There are lots of places here locally that take on difficult dogs as well, as John said last night we have no intentions on giving up on him or give him away, even if he does seriously try us from time to time. 

[Sally S Miles]

It is a problem that keeps rescue org's going. The numbers of people who fall in love with natures design, those big eyes and the sweetness of innocence.  The numbers of animals given up at ages just past or into adolescence are staggering.  We always questioned adopters looking for 'kittens' or 'puppies' because that is a very short time span that leaves the true cat or dog out in the cold once the honeymoon proves less than satisfactory.

Our new guy - was the runt, chosen so as 'not to be too big' - but an 80lb dog is a far cry from a 15lb puppy that they wanted for the kids. 

Older ones have to go through an adaptive stage, their world has changed - confusion and stress will be powerful at first - setting up boundaries and consistency are key.  It sounds like he is learning and no doubt he will try your patience -

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

Hi Kimberly!  How is Oliver doing these days?  I've lucked out on many issues people face with rescues with Maggie, but I still need to work on recall, because she is a runner when given the chance (I'm convinced that's why she was a stray. The previous owners probably coudn't find her!)  I'll be looking for a good obedience school for several things, but I'm lucky that she is such a sweet loving obedient dog when she is in the house.  Outside....completely different story!  Fortunately, I learned on Saturday that the Subaru trumps running wild!  She equates jumping into the back of my Outback with fun adventures, so when she bolted down the street on Saturday, I just had to open the hatch and tap on her crate and she did a rapid u-turn and jumped into her crate.  Whew!  I might have to use that a few times before she is better trained!