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.

[Breanna]

I'm no expert but I bet anything neutering will help.

[Kimberly Baxter Packwood]

Kimberly's husband here.  Oliver is just a large puppy.  He acts like a puppy.  Alpha dog? I don't know.  To me is just a dog with all the dog behaviors.  He is a great dog just really large.  He will be trained in the same manner I trained the weimaraner taught a the Cyclone Country Kennel Club.  I view the family as a pack.  I am the alpha and all others are the beta.  Kimberly is the alpha female.

 

This dog was evidently too large for the original family.  Not my call.  They took him to a shelter that kills if not adopted in one week.  A relative took him and found us in a forum we both belong to.  She paid his transportation here.  We agreed to feed, house, vet care, and give a good home.  While our house is not perfect in the eyes of some it is a lot better that what could be.

 

Oliver is just a big gangly kid who has no idea of his size or strength.  Fortunately we are both large enough to handle him.  K is the arty one and I am the engineering sort of the two.  Handling a large animal is no different that a large moving project.  Think it through so you do not hurt yourself or the dog.

 

Angle is K's baby and she does not want her hurt through rough housing.  Plan how to control both dogs until Oliver learns.  This will take awhile through cold calculation not emotional up and downs.   There will not be any boat anchors.  I am not about to have my floors and walls ruined but a dog slamming a heavy object into them.  And it would not help the dog and probably injure him as well. 

 

After Oliver gets come down real well I can take him out to the public prairies here and let him run to his hearts content.  The requirements for the dog park are human insanity.  He is not a perfect human child but a dog. 

 

By the way I have had dogs for close to six decades.  All but the weimaraner were dumps or rescue mutts. Never really had a bad dog.  I am not worried about his training.  All I want is for him th be a reasonably controlled companion addition to the family.  Consistency, consistency, consistency.  Hmmm. Sounds a lot like a toddler. The biggest problem is training the owner to think in dog.

 

Oliver is here and he is staying.  I would have preferred a dog come a little later financially but he is here and staying.  I don't get rid of wives or critters.  A commitment has been made.

This is where I stand on this issue.

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

I certainly think there's hope. My niece's 120 lb Goldendoodle just went through a phase of knocking her down, but he has settled back down to the point where he loves grooming and napping with his new kitten sister. (In the photo where she's holding him he's only a nine-month 90 pound puppy who always wanted to be held). I was raised with a ton of animals growing up with a farm in Montana, so I hear you on the dog park comment. I've been lucky to have monthly doodle romps to take Kona to so there is definitely a camaraderie and understanding about our goofball pups. I hope you guys can find something similar around you for his zooming.

I recently boarded Kona and Maggie for a long weekend last week when i ran up to Montana, and even though they are small dogs (24 and 26 lbs) the day care owners had to move them over to be with the large dogs to burn off their romping, zooming energy. They have a puppy cam there so I was laughing when I saw my "kids" bounding around the yard happily with German shepherds, Great Danes, and large standard doodles and poodles. They are rambunctious toddlers and want to play with everyone right now. They had too much bouncing energy for the other small dogs and got very bored and lethargic around them.

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

Here he is with the kitten

[F, Calla & Luca]

Both of these are great photos. I wish you had embedded them so more people would see them.

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

Oops...I thought I embedded them.  Hmmmm....I'll try again. I'm much more used to Facebook!

[F, Calla & Luca]

There you go! Thanks.

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

Oops again!  I attached the wrong photo.  I was trying to show that he is a gentle giant with small people and small animals.  It's only the grown ups that he throws around! It's funny to see how different he looks with different hair cuts.  I took Kona up to Montana at Christmas and 11 week old Kona ruled over 11 month old Dash.  And now the tiny kitten is ruling.  It's just the adult humans who need to learn his language.  The small humans and small animals understand how to live with him. 

[Lonnie & Libby Lu]

Gwyndolyn, these pictures are pricless!  They are both adorable and so is your son!

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

Thank you Lonnie!  The big guy Dash belongs to my niece Tara (in yellow), and little Anthony is her 3rd son....my grand nephew.  I've only ever had fur babies.  :-)  I rescued 2 4 week old ragdoll kittens and raised them for 19 years until they "went to Europe to college" (my story and I'm sticking to it) and now my two little doodles.  Meeting Dash is what made me finally find a pooch I wasn't allergic to, and I was finally not travelling all of time, so I called Dash's breeder.  The rest is history.  (I just recently found out that both Dash's mom  and Kona's mom live in the same guardian home and are inseparable. Sweet.)

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Ditto.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Love these!