Big toys for big boys

We were out on a walk in the lovely Trent park when Balou came across a rope swing. He loves these things and has had much fun woofing and playing with swing in the past. This time there was no seat attached and he decided it was perfect for some tugging and chasing...

 If you look carefully in the photo above you can just see Bouche the Shih Tzu looking on bemusedly. The tinies were slightly perplexed as to what Balou was doing and clearly thought that he had lost his mind. Silly puppy...

Food glorious food...

Recently we have switched to feeding a complete raw food to the dogs called Natural Instinct. It makes raw feeding easy as it comes completely prepared and there is no need to worry about finding the right nutritional balance. I was excited but apprehensive when our first order arrived as I wasn't sure how the dogs would take to eating raw. Needless to say I needn't have worried. The delivery man came while I was washing off the mud from Scrap the Pap so I signed for the parcel, brought it inside and then dashed back to the bathroom. I must have left the package for just a couple of minutes and this was what greeted me...

Obviously the food smelt so good that the dogs couldn't wait to sample it. We've now completed two weeks switching over to BARF and the dogs have had chicken, duck and turkey meals. The little ones wolfed down everything but Balou was suspicious of the duck and turkey so took more time eating it than the chicken. At the moment we are still trying to calculate the amount he needs to eat. He is currently 48kgs - a little on the light side for a 16 month old Leo boy but the vet is very happy that he is sufficiently nourished and always points out that it is better for his joints and muscles to put on weight slowly and be on the lighter side. Needless to say there seems to be a trend with giant breed owners, especially of males, to want to have the BIGGEST and heaviest boy going - probably some weird machismo!?! So I do worry when people say how much heavier their Leo is, but then I remind myself that the are the boys who will suffer with hip and elbow problems later! The feeding guide for most dogs says 2-3% of bodyweight and more when growing but we're sticking to the lower end and seeing how Balou does.

As well as the food changeover we also had a doggy tea party the other day. I made cakes and sandwiches for the humans and a doggy birthday cake for the pups. Even some of the fussiest canines were soon munching away and a certain Leo would have eaten the whole cake (1kg of cooked ground beef, tuna and cheese filling, mashed potato icing and bacon frosting) by himself.

After all this yummy food it's little wonder that Balou has had so much energy recently!

Happy New Year!

Whew - it's almost the end of January so we feel as though 2013 is well under way. Since my last post Bouche the exiled Shih Tzu has returned to the fold and he and Balou have developed an entente cordiale. After their problems of last year and following their separation for almost three months they were reintroduced at my parents house, where Bouche had been staying, over the Christmas period. There were a few growly moments and one kerfuffle near food but fingers crossed we have now spent a month back in our London home with everyone getting along. As a precautionary measure they are not left alone together (Bouche goes in a crate) and we have very strict separation at feeding times but otherwise they seem to be getting along fine which is wonderful!

Christmas was spent in the countryside where the dogs enjoyed my parents huge house, gardens and paddocks as well as lots of tasty Christmas treats. Balou got a variety of different presents but his favourite is his bed. Now that he is mostly grown it was time for him to get his own bed. He has some doggy duvets but is much happier with an actual bed with sides - tricky to find in XXXXXL! Finally after much searching I did manage to find him one which measures a whopping 44 inches and which he happily fits in. Needless to say this has proved to be popular with the smaller dogs as well so there is a lot of competition for who gets to sleep there.

Balou seems much more mellow and I think the effects of his neutering are really visible. Our vet said that the testosterone levels reduce fairly quickly but it takes about three months for the levels to completely drop. Balou is back to being the mellow, friendly baby that he was before he became a bit uppity - which is great. He is still bouncy and babyish but as I've experienced with my other adolescent boys neutering has just taken away that confrontational edge.

We have been lucky to have had a few snowy days here in London which Balou has absolutely loved. He adores snow and will happily play in it for hours which is a joy to watch. The only problem is once it melts we have even more muddy puddles - perfect for mudbathing, not so much fun for cleaning!

This bed feels about the right size.

Balou pics

Every Leonberger needs a slanket...

Three way wrestling fun!

Post neutering recovery snooze position!

Balou thinks it's about time he got a new bed.

Tough teenage times

Well it's been a roller coaster few months. Balou turned one in September and besides his birthday celebrations there was another thing on my mind; neutering. I had always planned to have Balou neutered as I don't believe in keeping male dogs intact unless they are stud dogs (for a variety of reasons). As Balou had a retained testicle neutering was the only option, however the question was when to do it. In the world of big dogs the folklore says to leave neutering until about 18months by which stage the dog will have fully developed and have done most of his growing. I discussed this with my vet who is very familiar with large breeds and she said that in fact there is nothing really to support waiting this long, once a dog reaches sexual maturity it is at a suitable age to be neutered and neutering is unlikely to play havoc with its growth. Even so I was keen to hold off for a while and had the goal of waiting to Christmas...big mistake.

Unfortunately Balou, while usually a lovely friendly chap, started having some major 'spats' with another of my dogs who had recently been neutered. Let me stress, this wasn't just Balou but was as much my other dog. Both dogs decided one day that they were sworn enemies who wanted to kill one another! This wasn't fun, mainly because the other dog is a Shih Tzu so they were very unevenly matched and there was the real possibility of Balou harming the other dog. The dogs had previously got on fine, but for a variety of reasons that I won't go into they stopped doing so. They have now spent two months apart (the smaller dog was sent to live with family) as I was very concerned both for the welfare of the smaller dog and that Balou didn't develop an aggressive streak. This all kicked off over one weekend - probably the result of a testosterone spike and Balou feeling he now outranked the older, recently neutered dog. Needless to say this meant that Balou was neutered fairly swiftly afterwards.

Because of the retained testicle the neutering was quite a complicated (and costly) procedure. It was also followed by 10 days of house rest - which wasn't fun! His testosterone levels should be stabilising although it does take up to three months for the testosterone to flatline so to speak. I haven't noticed any real change in his behaviour as he has been nothing other than sweet with most dogs - except his nemesis, my Shih Tzu.

I know of quite a few owners of giant dogs and smaller breeds and anecdotally everything is always peachy. One of the reasons behind buying a Leonberger - beside my love of giant breeds and Leonbergers in particular, was to have a 'bodyguard' as it were to walk with my smaller dogs. I wanted a dog who would be calm and friendly with other dogs but imposing enough to make other dogs think twice about approaching our pack. 

Living in London most of the small dogs I know have at some stage had a run in with fighting type dogs whose owners encourage them to pick on smaller dogs who are good bait training. On the one hand Balou has played his part well - we never get harassed by larger dogs and my little dogs no longer worry when a couple of Rottweilers or similar come dashing over. 

The flip side is that Balou has turned into a very big, bouncy and boisterous teenager, and yes he can be obnoxious and has been extremely trying over the last couple of months. He currently weighs about 55kgs - which is about 50kgs more than my other dogs. This has obvious implications when things go wrong. Now if you asked me a year ago I would have said things would go smoothly - I'm experienced with raising dogs, have studied advanced canine behaviour - yada, yada, yada - I fully expected everything to be trouble free small dog/big dog existence without anything but the usual adolescent hiccups.

More fool me - of course things go wrong and problems arise! The first has been that Balou has become quite aggressive when around food he classes as 'valuable' - this is definitely exacerbated by being in a multidog household, especially one where all the other dogs are smaller and weaker physically than him. He knows he can be a bully if he throws his weight around. If there is something he really rates, like chicken, dropped on the floor he will fight to get it. This is also something that has arisen since he entered his adolescence so I am hopeful that with training and management we can reduce this tendency - but still, it is not something that could have been predicted. Had Balou been in a household with other older dogs his size I don't imagine he would behave in this way, he is deferential to dogs his size, particularly older ones, but with smaller older dogs he knows he can push them around, and will do so.

With the Shih Tzu the situation is again made worse because of the size discrepancy. The bickering initially started over resources - food/toys - which Balou decided he should get. (Typical teenager!) If he was living with an older dog his size and they had a scuffle I would probably let the older dog put Balou in his place - which would probably have happened as Balou is being a predictable pushy teenager. But again as Balou is so much larger this is not an option. Balou tries to steal something belonging to the older dog (the Shih Tzu) - the older dog retaliates and then Balou ups the ante - again if the older dog were bigger I'm sure Balou would back off, but as mentioned he knows he can push the little dogs around so he tries to do so. 

Another example of how the big dog, little dog dynamic can go wrong is just bad luck. About one month ago Balou crashed into another of my dogs, Scrappy the Papillon. It wasn't a major crash, Balou was rushing around and just didn't brake in time, but the result was that Scrappy badly injured his right hock and is now out of action with ligament damage for a few months, stuck at home recuperating. Poor Scrappy.

I am an experienced owner of dogs large and small, I also work with dogs as a trainer and behaviourist so you would think that if anyone knew what they were playing at it would be me. And I do, but you can't predict how animals are going to behave and despite your best efforts things do not go right all the time. What I want to underline is that by having such a discrepancy of size between your dogs when things go wrong they go badly wrong. I am sure there are plenty of people with Newfs and Chihuahuas, Leonbergers and Poms out there happily co-existing and for the most part mine do too but it is worth pointing out the problems that can happen and that can't necessarily be predicted.

For the time being Scrappy is healing and Balou and the Shih Tzu are going to be reintroduced to each other over Christmas. Fingers crossed everyone gets along!

Balou and Percy the bulldog

Teenage times

ZZZzzz - this is the right size bed for me

Isn't it amazing how time flies. Here we are in September with Balou's first birthday just a few days off - he'll be one this Sunday, September 9th. Balou's teenage behaviour continues to keep us on our toes. He might be rather slower than his little friends but he likes to test the boundaries just like they did. Current favourites are counter surfing - he is very keen on eating cat food! Sneaking (yes a Leonberger can sneak) into my bedroom and onto the bed. This is what I call his Goldilocks move - finding a bed which is just right. He has also become obsessed with intact boys. Luckily we've only met a couple of girls in season but there are plenty of boys who are still boasting their manhood. When Balou sniffs out one of these he does a dirty dart to go and investigate. Cue attempts to mount, smack with his big paws, yowl with excitement and generally pester the other boys. Needless to say this behaviour isn't popular with the other dogs or their owners! 

Puppy paddling pool - yay!

His adolescence is showing itself in other ways too - he's becoming more assertive and standing up for himself, sometimes even throwing his weight around which is something we are watching carefully. Balou himself is eventually destined for the snip, not least because he has an undescended testicle. At the moment I am trying to hold off a little longer but it seems likely that we will have to have him neutered slightly earlier than the 18 month mark I was hoping to hold out for. The benefits of delaying neutering by a couple of months have to be weighed against the disadvantages and impact on his behaviour of allowing him to form bad habits. It's a tricky one!

Enjoying a friend's pond on a warm day

Hmmm - who is going to win this tug of war?

Best of friends, Balou and Bouche.