Puppy predicament

Posted By: Adam 2 Comments
Let me preface this by saying that we are not getting rid of Moxie, not particularly upset with him, and not considering putting him down. It's just a topic on my brain right now, mostly because I just read Jessica's post about her dog Boomer. (And hence the title of this post!) Moxie has always been just a little bit aggressive, as long as we've had him. He is, of course, a shelter dog – we got him from the Humane Society – so we don't know with 100% accuracy what breed he is (Lab mix. Everyone has an opinion on what with: Chow, Pitt, etc), and we don't know where the aggression comes from (certainly attributable to his previous owner). We do know that he is a big dumb lug, and we know that with absolute certainty. His paws are somewhere between the size of a small child and a Geo Metro. His passion is chewing. When left to his own devices outside, instead of chasing butterflies or trying to eat bees (which he has been known to do!) he would much rather lay in the shade and chew on a log. The only toy to date that he hasn't destroyed is a solid Kong-rubber ball, which can often be heard bouncing down the stairs or hallway, again and again. By and large, his worst problem is his paws. There's some sort of trauma there, and he doesn't have any problems letting you know he doesn't want you to mess with them. This makes trimming his nails quite a chore. We've done probably close to a hundred hours of dominance exercises – both of us – to establish that we are in control of him, not the other way around; and when we would trim his nails before, we would lay him down on his side and hold him in one of those positions. Still, he would growl and try to snap at you. We've since bought a mesh muzzle that we put on him for our own safety while trimming his nails, and should probably put on him more often so that he isn't conditioned to hate it. (We do some, but not enough, to be fair to him.) It also doesn't help that the way I have to sit to hold him in the nail-trimming position isn't exactly comfortable on my hips. When we got him, we always said that the first time he drew blood he was gone. And to be honest, that time has come and gone, for both of us (I'm pretty sure). I have a scar on my left hand on the outside of my thumb about 3/4" long where his tooth scraped me while I was grabbing his snout to stop the snarling during a nail trimming. I don't recall the circumstances of the time he drew blood on Megan. What I do recall is a very stressful week after that discussing whether or not we should have him put down or send him back to the shelter, and lots of tears. Oh god, the tears. In the end we decided that he wasn't necessarily to blame for either incident: I probably jammed my hand into his mouth while reaching for his snout. I think we decided that as long as he behaved and only had this problem with his paws and didn't show any aggression towards children, we could live with it. We agreed though, there are no second chances when it comes to kids; and we train him hard to behave well… but like I said, he's a big dumb lug. He doesn't know his size or strength, he's wound tighter than a 3 year old on a pot of coffee, and he really wants to PLAY! Of course this makes me worry about how he will act when we have children of our own. When they come home from the hospital they're not going to be much bigger than some of the toys he's ripped to shreds. And though I am a little scared, part of me knows that there will be a rough patch in the beginning while we're teaching him not to go near the baby, and I have faith that he will learn appropriate behavior, and then he'll be fine… Until it crawls, and we get to do it all over again. And then it walks. And then it talks. And then it wants doggie rides!

2 responses to “Puppy predicament”

  1. Knowing personally what a big lovable lug Moxie is, sometimes its hard to imagine his aggressive side, but I've seen it too, tho playing, and I dont think I've seen it at its worst.

    Definitely something to consider, and definitely something to take precautions for when there are children around. As you know, better to go the extra measure and be safe "now" (whenever that might be), than regret it and be sorry later.

    MomT

    MomT ~ Aug 4, 2008 at 9:56 PM

  2. To be perfectly honest, i like Moxie a whole lot more than I like Chance (which I don't think is really a secret), and I most definitely see where you concerns come from. I'd like to tell you though, two married friends of mine just recently had a child, and they have a veritable cornucopia of animals, only just shy of a zoo - 3 1/2 dogs, 7 cats (one got sent to the big litter box in the sky by a Bald Eagle that prowls their neighborhood) 2 ferrets, and then Eric himself (lol). The dogs, though, were always a concern of mine when they told me Heather was pregnant. Their oldest dog is quite reserved, but has a similar issue with her paws as Moxie, and she also has a dominance complex, stemming from her being the oldest pet that my friends have, and being very protective. (I don't know what breed she is, but her name is Pearl) Next in line is Belladonna, who is an English Staffy (pit bull). She is most definitely a very aggressive, playful dog. She does the same thing Moxie does in destroying every chew toy and non-toy within chewing range. The last little ankle biter is Tika (almost like Tiki [Torch] but with an "ah" at the end). The concern here was mostly that Tika was (at the time of birth) and still mostly is, a puppy. She's a lab mix herself, too. She's playful, and not very good at listening to her parents. Since Heather has been doing dog training for something like 7 years, all of their pets have been conditioned as well as possible, and 90% of the time they are good, especially around Caine (their baby). One of the first things I noticed is that when the baby came home, all of the dogs became a bit more reserved. They were still playful, but they were more inclined to chill out on command. And even to this day, just shy of a year later, they still get a bit too rambunctious around Caine. They still have to leash Tika outside to play, and put Bella in another room.

    I think the point I'm trying to make is that I doubt that any dog will become 100% baby-safe but at the same time I think that Moxie will relax a little with a shorty on deck. If nothing else, I'll ask Heather and Eric what they would recommend in ways of teaching Moxie what and what not can be chewed, and things like that.

    justinT

    justinT ~ Aug 4, 2008 at 9:56 PM