Wrestle Mania!

When Meadow first came to us I have to admit that I was a little timid towards her. She was a large dog, albeit poorly nourished. Her temperament was a big question mark and at times I thought that she had it in her to turn on me. Now, after gaining much more confidence towards her and having had to wrestle her into submission lately, I am amazed that she has never turned on me and I don’t think that she ever will.

Meadow on 8/20/2009

She’s only two I’ve kept telling myself.

When she came to us as Princess, I can definitely see how the previous owners came to give her that name. The dog had absolutely no remorse and very little respect for what anyone wanted.

Catching her in the garbage…nothing.

Catching her with plates and bowls that she lifted from the sink….nothing.

Catching her after laying on the couch….nothing.

No remorse, not even a dropped ear.

However, she does all of this when we are not looking. The only bad thing that she ever does in front of us has to do with how she treats Sam and Gandalf and in particular Gandalf.

Sam does not have it so bad. He is her personal play toy and thank goodness for his sake that he is extremely submissive. I find myself constantly telling Meadow to leave him alone and then try to occupy her attention with something that I am doing but it rarely helps. I usually have to go over to them like a referee and put them in neutral corners if I want it to stop.

I think Sam likes to play some of the time. I have seen him paw at her when she stops knawing on him and he only shows his teeth or cries when he’s fed up. Fortunately, when he cries, she leaves him alone.

Gandalf on the other hand is a totally different issue. She would like to tell him what to do or not to do but when she tries, the fur flies and once again I need to wrestle her into submission.

Even though we just finished 8 weeks of training, she doesn’t do “down” very well and she only “stays” when you keep staring at her. The second you turn away she’s up. As far as “down” goes, it always requires a strong coaxing but she has never nipped or growled. If she did, we would have a serious problem and I think that she knows it.

Gandalf however, is not going to be told what to do and submit to her so I guess we have a problem until she either calms down, learns to listen to me when I tell her to “leave it” or until Gandalf attacks her once and for all and gives it to her really good! The last alternative, I hate to say, is that she breaks the ol’ guy down so badly he finally does submit, or else he dies.

Knowing his personality as well as I do, he would never give her that satisfaction.

I recently had her with my son’s Portuguese water dog Bella who is exactly one year younger than she is. What I learned from watching her with Bella is that Meadow is not a viscous dog because she was so incredibly good with Bella who must be half of her height and weight, if not less.

They jumped on each other, nipped at each other without hurting one another and generally played like they were littermates even though one was a 70 pound white dog with straight fur and the other was a 35 pound dog with black wavy hair.

It was incredibly fun to watch and I have had her with other dogs since then and she is equally fun-loving and playful. I would suggest another puppy to Kerry for the sake of Meadow having a playmate but that would go over like a lead balloon until we have Brendan’s Meadows up and running.

Nevertheless, my 16 year old four legged daughter is giving me as much angst as a two legged version would probably give me.

Thank God that no boys are ringing the doorbell and that she can’t drive a car.