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]

Good for you.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

One other thing I wanted to mention (I just read thru and don't think I saw it mentioned) is that when you hire a college student to RUN with him, that should be walk because he is too young at this point for truly running on a street or sidewalk type running.  He needs to be fully grown (like 18 months) before he starts that.  It is different than just running in the yard or park.  You can end up with Hip issues if you start him running too early!  Just FYI.

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

Good point Lucy I was actually going to comment about that myself. When I was reading up on doodles before I got Kona I was so nervous about how I was going to keep him from running and jumping and going up and down stairs but his backyard play and dog park play haven't seem to hurt him, And he naturally likes to walk on the grass when we go for our daily walks

[Kimberly Baxter Packwood]

So does Oliver, we don't try to force him to walk on the sidewalk unless there's something dangerous in the grass, like a snake or broken glass/metal, etc.

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

Up until I got my doods, I was one of the only households withOUT a dog, so people are very used to seeing dogs walk on their lawns.  I actually felt bad for all of the neighbor kitties who viewed my back yard as their safe haven from all of the dogs.  At any given time, I had 5 or 6 cats hanging out on my backyard furniture, lawn, garage roof, or fence line.  The two next door kitties literally lived in my back yard for over 5 years every single day, all day, to get away from their huge dog "brother".  Now they only get a few hours per day of relaxation back there since my "kids" go out for random potty breaks and play.

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

By the way....where do you live that you casually mention that you have snakes in the grass on your daily walks?  That's how life was for me in small town rural Montana, but not so much in LA!

[Kimberly Baxter Packwood]

LA - Lousisana and is like snake heaven!  IA - Iowa and yes we have snakes here even in town.

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

Sorry!  LA = Los Angeles.  Oops!  

[Kimberly Baxter Packwood]

We live in Iowa - IA

[Kimberly Baxter Packwood]

Thank you for bringing this up!  I was wondering how far he should be walked in a day, in reading this thread one would be led to believe that a minimum of 3-5 miles daily but yet when hubs took him a half mile and back Oliver was exhausted.

[F, Calla & Luca]

All doga are individual. My dogs and I very rarely walk more than a mile and a half, if that, although they can run around the yard whenever they want.And if a dog isn't used to it they have to build up to lenghtier walks just as we do.

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

In the books I read about doodles, what they stressed the most was to not take the puppies out for puplic walks and play before they've had all of the 16 week old vaccines, and that after that, let them meander at their own "stop and sniff" speed until after they are 7 to 9 months old because their cartilage is so loose and easily damaged by running and rough jumping on stairs.  After that....you can build up to longer walks, but a one mile round trip walk seems reasonable for a tired pup.  Since mine are large miniatures, they aren't that interested in longer than 1 to 1.5 miles most of the time, but will amaze me with their hours of romping with other dogs at the dog park and doodle romp parties.   They are both still under a year.  So full out "running" with a jogger isn't even an option for them yet.