I got complacent.
Last year, when my bitch went into season (if I were a breeder, I would have little issue with that word. As I am not, I cannot type that without cringing a tiny bit), my older male dog went completely nose-over-tail mental. He growled at my daughters, nipped friends, bit my husband and defended his crate, the study beyond it and the hallway outside that. We took steps and implemented doggy boot camp for the little shit to remind him that ladder climbing and asshole behavior would not be tolerated. Sephira then went on her little vacation for her hormonal siren call and when she returned, things had settled down. He has been deferential, submissive and wonderful.
Now, these 6 months later, Shem is acting territorial again, a sure sign Sephira soon need to go back on vacation. He’s peed in the house, nipped at friends (mostly small people), and is now on notice to shape the hell up. I’m irritated at having lost sight of his dominant nature and that I need to keep on top of it to properly manage him. Now that he’s riled up, we have to be extra careful to watch Sephira so that she is removed before he can exercise his biological imperative, and we must work with him to remind him of his place while she knows her hormones are cooking. Since Canaans are so clean, it may be difficult to know when she is in season, so I’ve place a white towel in her crate to catch any tell-tale signs of her heat. Bob and I are running thorough daily obedience with him and also doing all the dominating things we can thing of to firmly etch in his furred head that people come first; WE go up and downstairs first, I handle his food and make him work for his meals and every treat, I pick him up and get my face right up to his, something that dogs really hate, it’s very aggressive. Effective, though.
Our latke party this weekend demands that he be in his crate; he simply cannot be trusted at the moment and reacts badly to being around running kids, something sure to be be part of the day’s festivities. Bob and I emailed the breeder in Israel, who reminded us that kids running alerts his instincts that something needs herding and that, especially now, he needs to redirected whenever he is a situation where he may exercise these instincts. I’m doing some sighing, but I am also kicking myself because I knew this was coming.
Shem is a great dog, but this breed is complicated (three generations from wild) and very intelligent, even challenging. Fortunately, he is also very responsive, so I know things will calm down, but sometimes, I just wish I had cats.
Awesome blog!
Check mine out. It has some stuff you’ll be interested in like stories about my dogs. Keep up the good work.
http://themouselife.wordpress.com/
I have three Chihuahuas. When my female went into heat, I had to separate my male. THEN I got him neutered and the female spayed. When I got my third Chihuahua (yeah, I know I’m nuts) and she went into heat, my male just sniffed her and acted like, “hey this is interesting”, and he went on his merry way.
I’m sure you’ve mentioned why you don’t have your dogs fixed and spayed but I’ve forgotten. Would you please mention it again? Thanks!
She wants them to breed, you guys – just not, you know, NOW.
O’Mama, I’m sorry. I know this is hard, and I still think you’re crazy for doing it, but I can still extend some sympathy at the b.s. you have to put up with in the meantime. I’ll try my best to NOT gloat about how easy my cats are to take care of…
I haven’t had them neutered or spayed because we’ll be breeding them next year. We’re working with a behaviorist to reinforce the training we’re maintaining, and otherwise, we’re keeping them from having at it until at least her third heat. We’ve had him evaluated and know it’s merely a training issue, which we have wobbled on.
I should mention that we have relaxed our firmness with him and that because of this and his intelligent nature, he’s testing boundaries again. I may have overstated how much I ascribe this aberrant behavior to just the impending heat; it’s more than that.
Theirs will be fabulous puppies.
I didn’t mean to offend and I didn’t think I was, sorry. I was just interested because it’s outside of what is (in my limited experience and my specific location) the norm.
Again, apologies.
Kizz, no offense taken and no apologies needed. As I wrote my response I wondered if I was being irresponsible and I think that is why it sounded defensive. This is HUGE, this maybe breeding thing and because I can sometimes revert to lazy, I worry that I could have dropped the ball too far. That answer was for mostly for my sake. This is such a rare breed (only about 700 in the US), and such a beautiful one, that we want to establish a line. C’mon, they’re fabulous, wot?
He is a beautirul dog. I can see why you want to breed them.
I see where you’re coming from and all I really wanted to know was your direction. It’s not something I agree with but I don’t have to. Life’s better with a little variety.