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| Every Leonberger needs a slanket... |
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| Three way wrestling fun! |
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| Post neutering recovery snooze position! |
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| Balou thinks it's about time he got a new bed. |
Balou!
Tuesday 11 December 2012
Balou pics
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!
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!
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