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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!
Thursday, 6 September 2012
Teenage times
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| 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!
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| 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!
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| Enjoying a friend's pond on a warm day |
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| Hmmm - who is going to win this tug of war? |
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| Best of friends, Balou and Bouche. |
Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Balou's latest exploits
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| Relaxing in the mud |
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| Attempt one at finding a Leo sized chew |
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| Attempt 2! |
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| Balou cuddling up with Lucha the cat |
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| Making friends with small humans on a walk... |
Balou does fetch
Teenage trials
Balou is rapidly approaching a year - only a month and a bit to go! He is still growing and resembles a lanky teenager, still not as big as the fully grown male Leonbergers we've met, but getting there. He is also very much the adolescent in his behaviour, he is becoming more assertive, especially around other dogs - he even told another dog off for the first time recently when its attempts to get him to play just became too much. He still remains a lovely, cuddly boy but we are at a critical time where we need to make sure he doesn't start to get the upper hand - at least as far as his interactions with humans are concerned!
Another interesting thing about adolescent dogs is that older intact males will ALWAYS make sure they are put in their place. Balou recently met two older boys, an 18 month old who was very friendly but a little too rough for Balou, much like an older child shoving another around he was very keen to show Balou that he had a little extra muscle and experience. We also met a four year old boy who bossed Balou around as soon as he saw him - even going so far as to knock him over and sit on him! I found this all very funny, Balou a little less so. It was interesting because there was no snarling or growling from the older dog, he just knocked Balou over and sat on him, just to make his point that he was the older more macho dog perfectly clear.
Another interesting thing about adolescent dogs is that older intact males will ALWAYS make sure they are put in their place. Balou recently met two older boys, an 18 month old who was very friendly but a little too rough for Balou, much like an older child shoving another around he was very keen to show Balou that he had a little extra muscle and experience. We also met a four year old boy who bossed Balou around as soon as he saw him - even going so far as to knock him over and sit on him! I found this all very funny, Balou a little less so. It was interesting because there was no snarling or growling from the older dog, he just knocked Balou over and sat on him, just to make his point that he was the older more macho dog perfectly clear.
Wednesday, 4 July 2012
Playing with friends - big and small
Balou is a very sociable pup and has lots of friends. Most of them are smaller than him, some much smaller as he spends a lot of time with toy dogs. But sometimes we find some big friends to play with too.
Balou tries to get a Great Dane to play.
Balou finds a friendly Malamute, Sid, to wrestle, and his pals join in the fun.
Balou tries to get a Great Dane to play.
Balou finds a friendly Malamute, Sid, to wrestle, and his pals join in the fun.
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