Malone is feeling right as rain. Long since stopped the pain meds and he is totally back to normal now. Yesterday my neighbors old fat white dog was in our yard. I did not see her. Apparently she was in the back. She does not like Malone. She growls at him and lunges at him. Malone spotted her this time. I spotted her VERY soon after he did. Before I could call him back, he BOLTED towards her. Nigredo and I bolted after him. He got near her, she noticed him and lunged at him... hackles raised. He easily darted out of the way. He did it again, charged back towards her, she LUNGES, and he easily jetted out of the way. I am calling him all this time BTW. He is ignoring me. He does it again and again. Charges towards her, and when she LUNGES, he quickly jets the other direction and far out of reach. This is an extremely fun GAME to Malone. The white dog cannot get anywhere near him despite her efforts. She is MUCH too old and slow. She gives up after a while and just stands there and Malone just has zoomies back and forth to her. I cannot call him back and I definitely cannot catch him. She is not aggressive but she is not friendly. She growls at us and retreats if we get close. She is just standing there with all her hackles raised while a puppy taunts her. My goal is to get her to return home, and then I can call back Malone. While she is on our property, he was totally ignoring me. Don't want to get too close this time because she is agitated. So I make some shooing hand motions.... Go home girl. Doesn't work. I got my 4 foot pond net and extended it towards her gently... Go home girl. She turns and begins to slowly go home. Nigredo had heard me frantically calling Malone and he had come back to the porch already. As the white dog leaves and enters her property... I am finally able to call back Malone. He rushes to the porch, super happy and unharmed. Had the white dog been able to catch him... He likely would have been toast. She was quite angry, she is twice his size, and she is an American Bulldog mix. I don't think Malone truly perceived any danger at all. Ah.... PUPPIES.
Malone was not being naughty - OK he ignored you but he was having too much fun so conveniently went deaf. He is, after all, still very much a puppy, and he did come back as soon as the white dog had gone. I love that picture of him and Nigredo both sitting looking at you - Malone with that 'butter would not melt' look on his face! Tikva has a perfect recall... except when Nala from next door gets loose, comes into our yard and makes as if to go for her. Then no amount of calling will get Tikki in and believe me, trying to pull her in on her tether is just about impossible, and as I do not have a four-foot anything all I can do is yell at Nala to go home and wave one of my sticks at her. As soon as she has turned away Tikki comes in with a very satisfied look on her face as if to say that she scared that Big Black B.... away.
Malone is THE biggest troublemaker EVER. And he has been testing Nigredo. He has tried to mount/hump him a few times... Nigredo is having NONE of it. I do not allow this type of play but this is an example of the way they have begun to interact. It is rougher than I like and I can sometimes tell that Nigredo is getting upset. Even when he grounds Malone, Malone gets back up and challenges him again. Malone is about 6 months old and probably entering the phase where he is going to test his limits with me and other dogs... Nigredo will hold Malone down by the neck for a few seconds and then let him up... But Malone instantly gets up and goes back at Nigredo. When I see that Nigredo is losing his patience, I break it up. I have been told not to intervene, but frankly it gets loud and annoying and I lose my patience with them. EDIT: Excuse the background music if you play with sound... It has a few swear words. Forgot it was in there.
My view is that it's our job to intervene if things are getting a bit too boisterous. It keeps dogs safe and helps them put their trust in you. From the video, it does look like boisterous play with lots of signals to say 'hey, I'm only playing' .
It is truly very LOUD which is a major factor. Malone has some drive. He chased a rabbit the other morning... And today he killed a chipmunk. He's BAD.
