Christmas Chaos

Porter traveled to my in-laws on Christmas Day with us while Indi stayed home to sleep the day away. I wish she could have come, too, but she would have been miserable. The kind thing to do was to leave her at home. There is no way she would have been happy being accosted by 3 new male dogs with endless energy. Even Porter hit his breaking point a few times.

The first hour after we arrived was spend with Porter standing there and occasionally trying to shake Odin (a 7 month old intact Puggle) off of his shoulder. Odin's grip was amazing and he wasn't about to let Porter get away. You'd think we had sprayed Porter with Chanel #5. Here and there Guinness (the 4 year old altered Boston Terrier mix) would jump in as well. Porter was amazingly tolerant as these two males did their best to mount Porter. It was a bit comical given their sizes. Porter looked like a horse, just standing in the pasture, occasionally swatting away flies lazily.

Finally Porter had enough of Odin and gave a quick and appropriate correction (if I do say so myself). Odin responded perfectly and groveled his apologizes while bathing Porter in kisses. Guinness, however, was not able to handle this and charged over growling at Porter. Porter didn't let this go and responded in turn. We ended it quickly, but the same thing happened much later in the evening. Exact same situation. Only this time Guinness had a harder time letting it go.

I know I'm biased, but I don't feel Porter was in the wrong at all on these occasions. Both times he was just correcting an annoying younger pup. It wasn't over the top, but it was too much for Guinness to handle. Outside of those two situations Guinness and Porter loved each other and got along really well.

I was happy with the way Porter handled himself. I had forgotten that Odin was still intact and I actually didn't think he was going to be there. Despite Porter's previous problems with intact males younger than him, he was fine with Odin! Maybe it was the smaller size?? I don't know. Porter was fine with Teddy until Ted was about 7 month I think. Bigger than Odin, but not as big as Porter.

Committed Casanova

com·mit 

v. com·mit·ted, com·mit·ting, com·mits

v.tr.

1. To place officially in confinement or custody, as in a mental health facility.

v.intr.

To pledge or obligate one's own self: felt that he was too young to commit fully to marriage.

Agility class today had to be modified for Porter due to his extracurricular activities yesterday. I first noticed something was wrong yesterday when I spotted blood droplets on the ground. Then this morning, Porter tried to avoid sitting for his breakfast. Once at class he was hobbling while walking over the woodchips and just didn't have the spring in his step he normally has.

In class we dropped the bars and I shortened the sequences the rest of the class was doing. We skipped the dogwalk and the weaves and mostly let Porter relax in his crate after just a few small exercises.

Why did he need these modifications? Yesterday he spend the better half of an hour trying to mount and hump my sister's neutered tripod Golden Retriever. Porter didn't care if Beakers was flat on the ground, he was fully committed to giving it the old college try. The ground was rough which abraded his pad, either when he was in the throes of making a good impression or when he was leashed but tying with all his might to get to Beakers. I'm hoping that's all that is wrong and he didn't pull a muscle in his exuberance.

Intact teenage males are fun!