Here I am again, blogging about the dogs. They seem to occupy much of my family's time and energy, and they get a lot of attention.
We've got the two big dogs (well, they don't seem that big to us but that's what people say...), Sirius and Busa.
To review, Sirius is a 6.5-year-old Great Dane and Rottweiler mix, half and half, who has recently been diagnosed with colon cancer, and is really slowing down these days. He had the cancer resected but it is not eliminated and we're just going to keep him comfortable until that is no longer possible. Currently he seems to have some discomfort in the region of his hind end, and this causes some degree of incontinence, so we have to take him out every few hours. He moves his bowels okay and does not have diarrhea or constipation, but he definitely waits as long as possible before going out to do his business. He urinates quite a bit, though.
We had a complete workup for frequent urination that came back negative, as described in previous posts, and we finally discovered a pattern once his rectal tumor was discovered, since it blocked his anal glands and caused infection there. When he was inflamed in that region he could not hold his urine, and when he was not inflamed he could hold it all day.
He had surgery to remove the tumor and he did pretty well for a while, but now he's back to his old pattern of needing to go outside about every 3 hours, day and night. This is, of course, not fun for me because I have to get up in the night with him to run him outside, but you do what you have to do, right? He will not cry out or bark to be let out, but will simply go wherever he is. Sigh.
Busa is our Great Dane and German Shepherd Dog mix, also half and half, and he's shaping up nicely. We've had him a month and we're delighted to discover that he's a very sharp and attentive pup at 9 months of age. It is not to say that our previous dogs were not smart, but he is the first dog we've had that really wanted to please us. He's like a shadow, and is always staring into your eyes, waiting for instruction. He does not have to be shown something more than once or twice before he has learned the skill, so you have to be careful to be consistent and not send him the wrong cues accidentally - he's always paying attention. This is the GSD in him, I think! Our bullmastiffs would learn things and were well trained, but they'd just rather be sleeping. Busa never seems to sleep. If he's not in his crate he's pacing around the house, looking for someone to play with him. He has yet to get into any mischief so far, other than stealing one of the girls little footie socks, but otherwise no adventures with the kitchen trash or destruction of anything we didn't mean for him to have. Wait, I take that back - he got a Chapstick once about a week after we'd had him and the girls had not been paying attention. He chewed the top off.
We have been working on his fear aggression, and I have to say we've made quite a bit of progress. We backed off on the socialization over the past two weeks or so, to give him a chance to gain confidence at home and learn to trust us more, and this has apparently served him well. We took him out this weekend and he did much better than in the past, without becoming alarmed at people approaching us, and even tolerating a trip to an outdoor street festival, with crowds, loud music and other dogs. He was not overly friendly, but he did not get his hackles up or growl, except in one case when he was mobbed suddenly. I don't really blame him for that. We are learning his cues and blocking unwanted attention, which builds his trust in us, and this will lead to more confidence in himself.
We were going to my sister's house for dinner, and since we frequently spend time at each other's houses I brought Busa along. She lives a half-mile away, so I often ride my bike to her house, and decided, on a whim, to ride over with Busa on lead. Many dogs are afraid of bikes and I had no idea if he'd been exposed to them or not, but I decided to try. I pulled my bike out, got on, and with him on lead started riding. He trotted along beside me the whole way without a second thought, like he'd been doing it his whole life. Whew!
I had an incident with Sirius on my bike a few years ago, where he saw a cat or something and decided to chase it, while I'm riding down the road holding his leash. Unfortunately, the object of his attention was on the right side of the road, and I ride with the dog on the left. He took a direct route in front of my rolling bike, and we both went down, tangled up. I wasn't hurt, but that was a miracle, considering he's pushing 130 pounds. I have seen no prey drive issues with Busa so far, in that on walks and out in public he seems to be able to ignore dogs that bark at him, as well as cats that he sees, so hopefully we won't have any accidents like the one with Sirius.
We noticed that while he trots he has a "sidewinder" gait, or a crabbing sort of body orientation. He moves straight ahead, but his hind end is at an oblique angle to his shoulders, so his left rear foot lines up with his right front foot. It is odd to see from behind. Apparently dogs who are at a gangly stage, and he is definitely the very epitome of gangly, can get this kind of gait due to their hind end being a bit higher than their shoulders, so their front and rear legs are not moving together well, or their hind legs may even hit their front legs as they move, causing them to shift sideways a bit. He may grow out of it, and I hope this is not an indication of a physical defect like hip dysplasia. I'll bring it up at his next vet visit.
We will get Busa in to a basic obedience class in a couple of weeks, which will be good for him. At first I wanted to get him going in classes immediately, but the local classes had already started and we missed the boat with the trainers we trust. Now I'm glad that we had a delay, because it has given him a chance to get to know us and get comfortable with our leadership, and gain confidence in general. I think he'll be less nervous, which will translate to more effective lessons and more valuable socialization time. We have been to so many obedience classes that we know the drill already, and have taught him quite a few basic commands and behaviors, but it is good for the dog and for us to go through these group lessons. I hope to get him his CGC, or Canine Good Citizen certification once we work with him a bit more.
Oh, and yes, I DO have children and I DO adore them and marvel at their every move, but I prefer to let them have their privacy when I can, and don't want to blog about every adorable thing they do. They'll really appreciate this later....
