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| Ross and Loki today |
Another day of incredible fatigue and I find myself unable to walk the dogs. Luckily it's a bright sunny day and the youngsters entertained themselves playing outside. It was mid afternoon and the girls had come in and settled leaving only Loki and Ross still playing outside. I watched through the window as they played chase and also tugging toys. It was lovely to watch two entire males playing so nicely together. I even commented to Steve that of all our males only Louis and Nico had previously played together. Louis would not play with Mikey and though Mikey and Loki got on well they never played together ... of course Blade would never have lowered his standards to play with Dexi. Blade was all about being the boss dog. (though Nikki was really in charge at the time .. girls usually do rule the roost!)
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| Dexi and Blade |
With a bang and a crash the door flew open and they both came in. They were giddy and happy. I got up to close the door, sat back down and gave them a few minutes to settle. Loki lay down and Ross went over to him with a toy in his mouth. Ross dropped the toy and pawed Loki .. what happened next both shocked and disappointed me. With unnecessary aggression Loki went for Ross and bit him 2 or 3 times in the face, luckily only puncturing his face the once but frighteningly close to his eye. Ross had hit the deck and was screaming after the first bite but Loki saw fit to bite him again. It was so unnecessary and so disappointing to see Loki take such a drastic cause of action.
There is no doubt that Ross is a handful and often needs telling. There's no doubt that he needs keeping in his place, but Loki's reaction in this situation was totally unfounded. Fair enough they had been playing and in Loki's mind the game was over, but he gave no warning and his reaction was far too aggressive for my liking. To be honest both Steve and I were quite shocked. I understand he is the older male and no longer wanted to play, but a growl or a show of the full set of teeth may well have got the message over. It's not necessarily a nasty dog who growls, it's usually a fair dog who growls, a dog saying "I'm not happy with that.. stop!" Loki gave Ross no opportunity to get it right and move away, how was the pup to know the game was over if he wasn't told?
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| Nico and Louis |
Ross was obviously shocked and the girls seemed to freaked, I lashed out at Loki but he was too quick and moved away. I held Ross for a few minutes whilst Steve went to get antiseptic to clean the wound and he didn't take his eyes off Loki who was now nervous as I'd at least been able to verbally abuse him .. it was enough actually. There is no doubt that Ross will have a lovely swelling on his face now, but I guess that's the least of our worries. I had no hesitation in letting Ross loose again with Loki today, males rarely hold a grudge and with Ross being so young he then kept away from Loki. Though bless him he kept peeking over at him and you could see the confusion on his face.
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| Loki and Mikey |
I think when a dog like Loki reacts like this it shocks you more. Loki though aloof with strangers is generally a lovely, easy, sensible and laid back dog. He's use to being part of a pack, the only thing he lost too young of course was the influence of an older male in the pack as he was growing up. He was thrown in at the deep end, being the only male with 5 bitches before his second birthday was a lot to ask and it did affect him at the time. Maybe that has contributed to his inadequacies in correctly deal with the situation? Maybe Mikey wasn't there at the right time to show him how it should be done? Maybe I'm making excuses for him? Maybe I'm trying to find a reason why he would handle a situation so badly? Whichever today I'm very very disappointed in him.
