Prince's Sister - Part 2

When Liesel was approximately 4 years old, and Prince was 5, my sister and I decided to give their introduction one more try.  By this time, Prince had turned into a gentlemanly sort of fellow (for the most part) and rarely reacted strongly to dogs anymore, especially if they were in their own yards or homes.  Therefore, I walked him over on a lovely summer day, and after fussing over him at the front door, my sister let him inside.

The first thing that happened was that her Schnoodle, Samara, greeted him in a more than enthusiastic manner, even jumping up on him and chewing on his face.  Prince responded to all of this graciously, wagging his tail and gently sniffling her back.  Then I walked him over to the kitchen, where Liesel was.

The fact that we had made a mistake of epic proportions was immediately apparent.  Liesel flew toward him barking at the top of her lungs, slid away, then returned, barking and snarling as if she intended to attack him.  Prince merely stood in the hallway, watching her except when she got close to him.  At those moments, he politely looked away or paid attention to Samara.  None of this helped to calm her down, unfortunately.  The longer we stayed, the angrier she became, until the only one who didn't feel uncomfortable was Prince himself.

After agreeing that it wasn't working out as we had hoped, my sister said a long and loving goodbye to Prince, and we left.  Unfortunately, Liesel was convinced he was still hiding in the house somewhere and continued to bark...and bark...and bark...for hours on end.  Every time she heard a noise, she erupted into a fit of barking...for the next 3 DAYS.

"Why is she barking?" I asked my sister each time I talked to her on the phone, hearing Liesel in the background.

"Because she thinks he's still here!" my sister said, angrily, and went to correct Liesel for what seemed like the hundredth time.

I wish I could say that Liesel calmed down completely after the 3 days were done, but she never did.  For months thereafter, a noise at the front door was enough to convince her that Prince had returned, and she would erupt into a fresh spate of barking that would last for hours.  My sister said we were never going to try it again...and I had to agree.

Oddly enough, my sister now lives next door to a couple with two German Shepherds, one of which is a male who is almost the same size as Prince.  Liesel doesn't seem fazed by him in the least.  I guess it's just Prince who brings out the best in her.

Prince's Sister - Part 1

Shortly after I had realized I was going to have to socialize Prince on my own, I discovered that the same lady who had bred him had a new litter of German Shepherd puppies for sale.  At exactly the same time, my sister told me she had decided to get a large dog, and I figured the stars had aligned in Prince's favor.  After all, who could be a better friend for Prince than his own sister or brother?

After convincing my sister that a sibling of Prince was exactly what she wanted, I contacted the breeder and explained the situation to her.

She told me that she had several males and females left...and one very special puppy that she was not sure she wanted to sell.  Her name was Sweet Pea, and she was the runt of the litter.  When she was born, she had been only half the size of her siblings, and they had taken her away from her mother and bottle fed her to keep her alive.

"I don't know if she'll ever be as big as her brothers and sisters, or even as big as a standard German Shepherd," she said.  "She's still only half as big as they are."

Then she added how hard it was for Sweet Pea to be with her brothers and sisters, because they all bullied her so badly.  "She's like a toy compared to them," she said.

"If you would like to sell her," I said, "she'd be perfect for my sister.  She'd rather have a German Shepherd that's not as big as Prince."

Thankfully, she agreed to sell her to us.

When my sister brought Sweet Pea home, she was so small, she looked like a fox kit.  My sister named her Liesel.  Beyond excited at the thought of Prince having a friend, I brought him over a week later...only to have Liesel run screaming from him in my mother's yard and hide under a bench.

"Well, what did you expect?" my sister asked, irritably.  "How would you feel if you saw a giant come walking down the street toward you?"

Poor Prince tried every way he could think of to win Liesel over (by ignoring her, trying to nuzzle her, even barking at her) but she refused to have anything to do with him.  Eventually I simply gave up, and only brought Prince over to see her one more time, years later, at my sister's house.

It was an experience neither my sister or I would ever forget.

Prince Goes To Obedience School - Part 2

The first thing that the instructor did was to select a well-mannered Golden Retriever out of the pupils in the class to do a demonstration with.  This was supposed to consist of his having the dog follow him, stop, sit and accept the snack, while he explained to us exactly what he was doing.  Unfortunately, nobody could hear a word that he was saying because Prince was barking excitedly the entire time.  The only time he stopped was when he tried to take off to meet a Labrador puppy in its owner's arms, dragging me and my chair behind him as if he were a sled dog pulling a sleigh.

"Now, now," the instructor finally said, and interrupted his lesson to come over and pet Prince, in an obvious effort to appease him.  This only resulted in more hysterical barking when the instructor walked away.

"Everybody, try to do the same thing with your dogs," the female instructor ordered, with a faintly miffed look in our direction.  As we started forward, the helpers gave each of us several dog cookies, which most of the dogs snatched up with gusto.  Prince spit his out and took off after the Gordon Setters again.

"Let's try something different," the lucky helper assigned to me said, and handed me some canned meat.  I gave Prince his instructions and tried to give him a small portion of the meat, whereupon he rushed through the exercise one time, snatched the rest of the meat out of my hand and took off after the spaniel on our other side.

"Please don't allow your dog to socialize with other dogs unless the owner gives his approval," the male instructor said.  With a heroic effort, I managed to haul Prince away.

The rest of the night continued in an agonizingly similar manner, with the movement of each dog (and the instructor) causing Prince to burst out in a fresh spate of barking.  I felt like the parent of the worst performing student in the class.  And German Shepherds are supposed to be one of the smartest breeds, I thought.

"Prince really needs more socialization," the male instructor told me, as kindly as possible,when the class finally ended.  "He's a really nice guy, but he needs to be around other dogs more."

I had to agree...and thus I decided that Prince was going to have be socialized more in a wholly different way, outside of the traditional classroom.

I just had to figure out how.

The First Day of School

On the first day of class at Prestigious Pup, Prince and I were the first ones to arrive.  The only individual at the outbuilding that was used for classes was one of the two instructors, and after I had identified who we were, he suggested I show him some of the things Prince already knew.  I told Prince to sit, and he stared at me as if he had never heard the command in his life.

"Well, he does it at home," I said, somewhat humiliated.

The instructor merely stared at me skeptically.

I soon found out why.  Moments later, his fellow instructor came into the building, with four dogs walking in a perfect line behind her.  When she paused and pointed, all four of them marched into their dog kennels,turned around once and lied down.

Prince appeared as fascinated by this phenomenon as I was.  He was not, however, fascinated enough to be quiet.  A spate of hysterical barking began, which increased in intensity and volume as the other dogs and their owners began to enter the building.

"Prince, no," I ordered...to no avail.  Blushing furiously, I pulled him to the back of the room, where a couple with two beautiful Gordon Setters was seated.  Prince barked at them, too,but the dogs didn't seem to mind.  They both just wagged their tails.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered to the owners.

"Never mind," the woman told me, reassuringly.  "He's gorgeous."

I feebly thanked her and pulled him away.  Little did I know that I was only at the beginning of what was going to be one of the most humiliating nights of our lives.

Prince Enrolls in Obedience School

After befriending Max and Jack, Prince was positive that every dog he happened to encounter was a potential friend in the making.  Each time an unsuspecting dog walker would pass by, Prince would gallop over to greet them, barking joyously, and race back and forth to try to reach the dog as it passed by.  Unfortunately, most people were somewhat taken aback by the sight of a 100 plus pound German Shepherd racing toward them, spraying dirt onto them liberally, and would hurry on their way instead of pausing to make his acquaintance...in spite of the fact that their dogs, no matter how small they were, never appeared to be intimidated by him in the least.  Some of them even tried to nip at him through the fence.

With the aim of socializing Prince further and calming his overly exuberant reaction to other dogs, I subsequently decided that obedience school might be a good option for him.  I had taken my old dog, Trevor, to obedience school years ago, and while it never really addressed any of his behavioral issues (or made him like other dogs), it was a good opportunity for socialization for him.  With that in mind, I signed Prince up for the "Prestigious Pup School."

"My brother knows the people who run that," my boyfriend told me.  "You should ask him about them."  So I did, even though I had already decided to take Prince.

My boyfriend's brother was somewhat less than enthused.  "Their dogs are like robots," he said.

"Well, I'm really just taking him for socialization," I said.  "Not to really train him."

"Oh.  Okay.  Well, that might work," he said, somewhat doubtfully.  I didn't pursue it further...but in retrospect, I really wish I had.

Max and Jack Part 2

When Prince was around 1 year of age, Jack disappeared.  He snapped his leash and ran into the park near our house, and although his young owner looked for him everywhere, even checking with the local humane societies, he never could find him.  I hope that he was picked up by somebody who loved him so much that they didn't want to return him.

After that, Max became the top dog of his household, and his attitude quickly changed.  Many times when Prince and I would pass by on our daily walk, he would try to attack Prince, which Prince mostly ignored.  One day, though, Max actually hurled himself at him... at which time Prince responded with such a threatening growl that Max quickly backed off.  He never attacked Prince again, but would often bark at him and snarl when we passed by.

Other times, oddly enough, Max would seem happy to see Prince and occasionally even followed him and licked him.  I think a lot of it might have depended on how things were going for Max that day.  His young owner left him with his father, and Max wasn't nearly as happy as he had been before.  A lot of times he was left to roam loose and would often go past our house (causing Prince to erupt in hysterical joy).  Other times, we wouldn't see him for days or even weeks.

Eventually, Max was gone, too...his new owner moved away, and Max was supposed to be going with him.  I hope he's still with him.  Every time I pass the house where he lived, I think about him...and so does Prince.  Even now, after Max has been gone for a year, he still strains at the leash when we get near "Max's house" and always pauses to look around and sniff for him.  I always say, "Max is gone, Prince," but obviously he doesn't understand, because he still looks for him every single time that we walk past.

Max and Jack - Part 1

When I took Prince to the vet for the first time, she told me the most important thing I could do to make sure he turned out to be a well-adjusted dog was to socialize him.  According to her, and to various articles that I read, this meant introducing him, at a young age, to as many unfamiliar people, places and animals as possible.  Since the last large male dog I had owned had absolutely hated other dogs (except for those that he lived with) I considered it crucially important that Prince meet as many other dogs as possible.  I also wanted him to have other dogs to play with, and since my other dogs were too small...and too afraid of him...I solicited the help of a neighbor.

The young man who lived three houses away from me had two large, young dogs...a Westie/Labrador mix named Max, and a Siberian Husky named Jack.  One day when I was talking to him, I asked him if he would like to bring them by to play with Prince, and he immediately agreed.

Unfortunately, Max and Jack's idea of playing was not the same as Prince's.  He thought they were there to run around the yard, chase the ball, sniff each other and maybe wrestle a bit.  Max thought he was there to dominate Prince by constantly mounting him, and Jack thought he was there to help Max get Prince.  After a couple of rounds of this, I decided Prince would be better off inside...but I continued to walk Prince by the yard where they were on a fairly regular basis, and allow them all to sniff each other.

Max and Jack's owner would tie them to the front of his bike and let them pull him through the park while he pedaled ( he said it took about 15 minutes to go a mile) and each time they would go by, Prince would go into hysterics and try to follow them.  I think he almost saw them as his pack and wanted to join in the fun.  Nothing excited him as much as seeing Max and Jack, at any time, in spite of their almost off-handed acknowledgement of him.  Unfortunately, they didn't feel quite the same way.