Tomorrow will be exactly 1 month since Gavin, a 5 month old puppy, our third and only male dog, came to live with us. I haven’t written anything recently about our new “pack” but now I need to give an update.
The acceptance of Gavin by our other two dogs is not going well at all. Angel and Gavin can’t be in the same room without fighting constantly. They aren’t mean to each other at first. It’s very intense “play fighting” for a quite a while. But after that the intensity goes up and there’s growling and aggression; especially when there’s a toy or food involved. The picture to the right is of one of the very rare moments of tranquility between them.
Also Angle has become very stressed out and has developed a “hot spot” on her tail. She’s licked and bitten at it so badly it’s raw, sore, and bleeding. I had to take her to the vet today. The vet says it’s a bacterial infection brought on by stress. She got a shot of steroids and has to take antibiotics for the next 10 days. In addition she’s become more aggressive with the puppy and with me. Even Dory has become intolerant and aggressive with the puppy. Dory's not agressive with anything.
The acceptance of Gavin by our other two dogs is not going well at all. Angel and Gavin can’t be in the same room without fighting constantly. They aren’t mean to each other at first. It’s very intense “play fighting” for a quite a while. But after that the intensity goes up and there’s growling and aggression; especially when there’s a toy or food involved. The picture to the right is of one of the very rare moments of tranquility between them.
Also Angle has become very stressed out and has developed a “hot spot” on her tail. She’s licked and bitten at it so badly it’s raw, sore, and bleeding. I had to take her to the vet today. The vet says it’s a bacterial infection brought on by stress. She got a shot of steroids and has to take antibiotics for the next 10 days. In addition she’s become more aggressive with the puppy and with me. Even Dory has become intolerant and aggressive with the puppy. Dory's not agressive with anything.
Everything is great with the dogs if I keep them separated (the female dogs in one place and the puppy in another) but things get out of hand when they are in the same place at the same time. I expected some problems with them getting used to each other but not to this degree. The stresses of having to micro manage them all the time is getting to both Paula and me.
The fact that I’m going to be starting a new job next week will make the difficult situation even more so. The puppy will be stuck in his crate for a lot more hours than he has been. From what I’ve seen that makes him even more aggressive.
I hate to have to do it but it looks like the puppy has to go away. On one hand it breaks my heart to have to say that but on the other hand I’m really ready for things to change. I was thinking about waiting until he was neutered in a couple of weeks to see if that would change things but the vet says it won’t make that much of a difference.
We’re trying to find him a good home on our own so if you know of anyone we could ask about taking him please send me an email to let me know. However, I believe our best means of finding him a good home is to take him to the local Humane Society. I stopped by our local shelter today and spoke with a friend of mine who volunteers there. She assured me that a puppy his age would have nearly a 100% chance of being adopted. The screening process for adoption eligibility is very thorough at our shelter. They’d do a better job of finding him a home than we would.
Still we’re going to try for the next couple of days. But come Saturday afternoon if we haven’t found Gavin a new home we’ll have to take him to the Humane Society. That really makes me sad but I know it’s for the best for everyone concerned…dogs and people.
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