Anna the dog

[Stumpy]

Ys.

Yesterday I made a lovely lamb stew. While in the kitchen I smelt garlic, looked in my convection oven and saw this...

Living the life in Isaan.....

[Mendip]

I'd been away for just three days but the change in Lola was remarkable. I guess you notice these things when you've been away.

She's put on 1.6kg in two and a half weeks. Soon she'll grow out of our scales.



It wasn't just her physical change... in three days she's done a lot of pack integration on her own accord. Maybe a lesson for me not to micromanage.

She eats with the pack in the evenings and has learnt to 'sit'.



In fact she's the best sitter of the pack already and I found out why...



Sunday was kai dow day.





Lola's family had their kai dow this morning. The mum has now been speyed so can now hopefully live a long and happy life.



But this is Anna's thread and it was her day today. I checked her wounds and the stitches were ready to come out. I unexpectedly had some spare time this morning so no time like the present...



The wife is a good sort and donated some of her grooming equipment for the procedure.

First, snip the stitch...



And then gently draw out the stitch with a pair of tweezers. Maya was looking sheepish in the background, as well she might.



I could feel Anna wince as I drew out the stitches. I took my own stitches out of a wound on my forehead a few years ago and remember that it doesn't actually hurt but it is a very unpleasant sensation.



There.



Sixteen stitches later and all finished.



The stitches out and I could remove Anna's cone. She could finally start licking her wounds.



This is the last time... hopefully. With the removal of Anna's cone I will start working on Anna and Maya's relationship tonight and try to make them easy with one another. I could do with Cesar Millan's help but have a strategy in my mind. This cannot happen again.

[Joe 90]

I took my own stitches out of a wound on my forehead a few years ago and remember that it doesn't actually hurt but it is a very unpleasant sensation.

Was that after a passport run weekend?

[DrWilly]

Was that after a passport run weekend?

passport run week. Office is closed on weekends. Besides, such runs clearly take more than 1 or 2 days…

[Mendip]

^ You can't rush a good job.


Once Anna's cone was off yesterday she went straight out into the sun to try and even up her tan a bit.



Yeah, guess what I noticed... I'd missed a further cluster of 5 stitches. That made a total of 21. Maya had really done a number on poor Anna this time.

I lay down with Anna and took them out... not a grizzle or even a murmur of protest. What a wonderful dog she is.



And today Anna seems a lot happier and has been trying to run around with the pack. I had to get the wife to call them to the door so I could get a photo of the whole pack of seven. It's not easy.

[Loy Toy]

Anna looks a bit like your lounge suite Mendy.

Full of patches.

QUESTION.......? When you take your male dogs for a walk do they have to take a piss every 10 strides?

My Bruno will do 100 squirts and 2 shits every walk.

[CalEden]

That last photo with Maya and Lola on the couch. It appears that Maya may be rehearsing the kill bite on Lola. Maya's ridge hair fully erect. She's seriously annoyed. I wouldn't call that a happy pack.

[Mendip]

^ Maya is our problem dog Cal but I don't believe you've interpreted that correctly from one photo. Maya and Lola play constantly and that mouthing around the neck is common to all dogs playing. Maya's ridge is always erect, that's the only way it sits. Maya has no need to practice any kill bite as several pigeons and rats will confirm.

A couple of other photos from that 'scene'.





Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending Maya in general and we watch her like a hawk but have so far not seen an instant of aggression from her towards Lola. Maya and Anna is the problem which is being addressed.

QUESTION.......? When you take your male dogs for a walk do they have to take a piss every 10 strides?

Yes, it is constant. If I've been away and they haven't been out for a while then I get maybe 5 strides between piss stops.

There are a lot of dogs living on the street around here now and it's difficult for ours to keep trying mark their territory.

[Loy Toy]

We have an adjoining soi that separates 2 sois which is about 1000 metres long.

This is Bruno's territory and other dogs, particularly males, rarely enter the soi.

When we are out for our walk the many dogs in the adjacent 2 sois all move at least 50 metres away when Bruno approaches the end of the soi.

He not only is a menacing sight for humans but it seems for dogs as well.

In fact I have been told that people will not come to our bar because they are shit scared of the sight of Bruno.

The boss builder, currently overseeing the construction, will not even step foot inside even though I tell him Bruno is chained up.

A real problem as I have to find a new location for Bruno when we open the bar.

[Mendip]

^ That's the problem when you take on a dog LT... you take them on regardless of faults and they become part of the family. Could you chain up Bruno during opening hours? Make a walled in space for him for the evenings?


I had to pop up to see Pajama Girl for a while yesterday evening to discuss some dog business.

Lola's family were hard at play (incidentally Cal... the mum there has her jaws clamped around Lola's sister's neck... I really don't believe that it's sinister) and I wonder sometimes if I've deprived Lola of fun with her family.



When I got home Lola was waiting for me on the sofa. I'll miss her when she gets banished outside with the pack... she's good company.



Anna continues to cheer up now that her cone is off. I wouldn't say that Yogi is relentless but here she was taking her morning pee today...

[Topper]

Good stuff Mendip!

[malmomike77]

Maya and Anna is the problem which is being addressed.

considering the issue Maya has with Anna further it occurs that Anna is the only "fertile" bitch with her false heats - that may be causing a lot of the friction.

[Mendip]

^ I think it's probably a combination of things but I think the main one is that Anna isn't completely submissive to Maya. Maya is obviously the matriarch but it's just not in Anna to roll over on her back and completely submit. Coco, no problem and she's very happy to be submissive.

One relief is that Maya has really taken to Lola. I picked Lola as she was such a submissive puppy and way smaller than her brother and sister and I think this is helping. Lola is just about house-trained after three weeks with just the occasional mis-hap. I have to be very quiet when I put her out at night to do her business because if Maya realises we're outside she won't leave Lola alone. She even shares here toys with Lola... well, one of the wife's clay ducklings anyway.



Lola's family have cottoned on to where we live and wait at the end of the road every morning for their breakfast. Mum with both husbands, brother and sister... soon they'll be waiting outside of our back gate.

[DrWilly]

Your lass is shooting up!

[Mendip]

^ 5' 4"

She's taller than a lot of the adults round this way.

It's all the good food she gets.

[katie23]

@Mendy - wow, 5'4" already? Last time I heard, she was 5'3". She's taller than me already. (but then I had short parents, so when I grew taller than my mom who's 5', I was happy already).

Does she feel self-conscious about her height when she's with her classmates? One of my high school classmates (half Fil, half American) was significantly taller than us - her final height was 5'9" and she was taller than many guys in our year. She slouched a bit but corrected that after her mom enrolled her in a beauty/ personality/ modelling school in Manila during one summer break. After our HS, their family went to live in the US, where girls with her height is seen as more "normal".

Re: Lola, I think Maya accepted her since Lola came as a small puppy and she could easily be dominant over her. Probably Maya sees her as a little sister, same with Coco.

Re: Anna, I think you're right that given Anna's history as a streetdog and her survival instincts, it's not in her to submit to Maya and probably sees her as an equal - and that's where their tension comes from.

My old dog Blondie (RIP) was the mom of my other dogs Seis (male) & Malin (female) . Even when Sais & Malin became adults, they would still submit to Blondie when she growled.

Seis and Guardie (Blondie's "husband", the father of her pups) had dominance issues when Seis became full grown - both were "intact". Guardie (the dad) sometimes attempted to jump on Seis. Homosexual tendencies? Or maybe it's to establish dominance - just like newbie guys being done in the a** by gangs in prison. (my theory only)

Blondie, Guardie, Seis & Malin have all passed away. RIP... (they've all served as fertilizer in the backyard)

*****
Does Yogi attempt to jump on the other male dogs in your pack?

[Mendip]

Katie, my daughter doesn't seem bothered about being the tallest in the class. There's another girl almost as tall but the boys are titchy and only come up to her shoulders at most. She's taller than many of the female teachers and it looks a bit odd at times. My wife is 5' 7" and my family in the UK are quite tall... my mum and one sister are 5' 10". I think my daughter will end up fairly tall so at least she will be able to help pick mangoes.

As for Yogi... he's strictly hetero and doesn't jump on the other boys but tries his luck with Maya now and again despite her being speyed. To be honest, if it has a pulse he'll have a go. I'm quite proud of him, truth be known.

Max is a bit gay and I think that may be due him being neutered. When Yogi was young, Max used to make him perform unspeakable acts with his mouth but now that Yogi's all grown up he won't put up with the bullying. In fact, if Max tried anything like that these days I think Yogi would bite it off.

Well... you did ask!

[DrWilly]

[katie23]

@mendy - thnx for the answer re: male dogs in your pack, re: jumping on each other. I do think that Guardie (the dad) jumping on Seis (the son) was to establish dominance/ Guardie being an alpha. I think when Seis became full-grown, Guardie got threatened since Seis was a bit bigger than him. Seis usually just avoided Guardie or did warning bites. They didn't full-on fight (to my knowledge).

When Guardie died, Seis became the "man of the house" and later on he impregnated his mom (Blondie). Yeah, I know it's incest. I think dogs _other animals don't have the concept of incest being wrong, since Guardie was also sniffing Malin (his daughter) when she became an adult. Thus the inbreeding among soi dogs & other wild animals.

The product of the union of Blondie & Seis (her son) is G-sip, my (my mom's) only surviving dog now. Seis also sniffed G-sip (his daughter/ sister) when G-sip was fully grown. I don't want to spay G-sip since I want puppies from her eventually. For now, when she gets in heat, she's always inside our gate/ property and she's alone. (my mom chose the name G-sip, so I didn't question her)

Re: dogs doing unspeakable things with their mouths, G-sip (female) has a crush on our neighbor's dog, Gorbachoo (named after Gorbachev). I think the crush is mutual since they always sniff each other. One time when I was out walking w/ G-sip (she was leashed), Gorbachoo approached her (he was unleashed). They wagged their tails, then Gorbachoo sniffed G-sip. G-sip allowed it for a few moments, then refused. But then G-sip did those "unspeakable acts of the mouth" to Gorbachoo, until I dragged her away. I bet Gorbachoo liked that. Heh.

It's interesting to see animal/ pack behavior among dogs. G-sip is alone now, so I sometimes let her play with Blackie-dog, the neighbor's female dog who is around her age. I don't let her play much with Gorbachoo since he has 1 thing on his mind (like Yogi). Heh.

Cheers!

[Loy Toy]

^ That's the problem when you take on a dog LT... you take them on regardless of faults and they become part of the family. Could you chain up Bruno during opening hours? Make a walled in space for him for the evenings?

As we have the builders working here Bruno is normally chained up from around 9.00 am to around 5.00pm. I hate it but Bruno doesn't seem to mind although the only place he likes is next to my sitting area which is nice and cool. The main problem is that people are scared of him even though he is restrained and will not enter our property. A dog shouldn't be chained up nor locked away on their own so it looks like he will have to move to our vacant land which is also a worry as Bruno is a creature of habit and to change his daily routine may make him worse.

I really love this dog but I wish we did not adopt him.

[katie23]

@loytoy - the YouTuber "WalterSanti" made a small enclosure for his dog outside of their house. The enclosure had its own doghouse and some space for the dog to walk around. The owner also takes the dog out for walks/ exercise, since the enclosure is quite small (but at least it's not a 1x1 meter cage). Is it possible for you to build an enclosure such as that? If your dog Iives alone in the unused land, he'll get lonely too (unless you get another dog to keep him company). Just an idea... Dogs are pack animals. Right now, he sees your family as his "pack".

[Mendip]

I really love this dog but I wish we did not adopt him.

And that's the crux of the matter. I wish you well with Bruno mate.

Maya continues to give us problems. Last night she had another go at Anna but I've been watching her like a hawk when they're together so any incident was avoided, but the intent is clearly still there. Maya received due punishment, which I hate to do but this has to be sorted. As with Bruno, I can't just get rid of Maya so we have to find a solution.

Today we started the rehabilitation program.

Not a hint of aggression from either, however Maya had just spent the night in quarantine after last night's misdemeanor and the muzzle completely emasculates her (if that's possible?).

That's me in the middle.



The daughter's on board.

I think that half an hour of this every night must help. The long term close proximity under supervision will hopefully result in both dogs just accepting each other. But where is Cesar when you need him?



Maya seems to be absolutely desolated by having to wear a muzzle. I would have to say that whereas the daughter is on board, the wife isn't really into this training program.

Because I can't get a muzzle to fit her!



Lola continues to be absolutely gorgeous. I actually look forward to an early night these days knowing that Lola will be wanting a cuddle while we watch 'Death in Paradise' in bed. She's great company. It ain't exactly the standard 'living the dream' lifestyle, but who needs Soi 4 every week?



Lola is now 6.5kg after arriving three weeks ago at 4.2kg. She puts on weight faster than I do.



And while I was weighing Lola I measured the daughter. Katie, the daughter is now a fraction under 5' 5" (165cm). She's like a giraffe.

[Mendip]

I've been doing some maths today and have worked out that we have seven dogs.

It's strange... we have seven dogs and some people have zero dogs. It's a funny old world.

Here's four of them. Lola continues to settle in and make friends.



Yogi just can't help himself and loves to show off to the girls.



Yogi has no morals or boundaries whatsoever. Poor innocent, sweet Lola...

[Mendip]

We do this every evening for 10 to 15 minutes and Maya and Anna seem to be quite happy in each other's company. I take off Maya's muzzle for the last 5 minutes and there's been no aggression whatsoever. Anna isn't comfortable, but that's understandable considering their past.

My hope is that continued time in close proximity will eventually mean that they just accept each other's presence without complaint or argument. After sixteen odd years this has worked for the wife and I, so fingers crossed.



Every morning I see Pajama Girl's two puppies. They really are a lovely pair and are growing fast.



Meanwhile, their sister also continues to grow and will soon need a new cardboard box. Apart from nearly taking out my septum (thanks Willy) yesterday morning, Lola is proving to be a delightful little puppy to have around. She's playful, well-behaved and smart... she has won over every member of the pack apart from Anna. That is still a work in progress.

[Reg Dingle]

Apart from nearly taking out my septum

It's 'scrotum'