Day 8 - Boxing Day

Woke at 6am something feeling unwell. Went back to bed until Oslo woke up. Got up and took him to garden. Felt really ill and by 8 o'clock I was laid up and spent most of the day either in bed or on the sofa. Zen and Ben did most of the Oslo keeping. Bloody annoying as I like Boxing day, a bit like Christmas day but more laid back, anyway haven't felt that ill in years. Oslo was great in fairness and Zen and kids had to go to a family event which had been planned for a while. I woke up on the sofa at around 5pm too ill to even get the remote control from the table, looked at Oslo sleeping on the floor beside me and prayed that he wouldn't wake up. Found myself propped up against the garage door 20 mins later sheltering from the rain....only the thought of Oslo becoming a great big Mal and us doing lots of mountain walks in the future kept me going. Spent the next two hours mopping up or watching him outside. Both crashed out on sofa by the time Zen and kids came home. Felt well enough to take him for a short walk before going to bed.

Day 9

Ben took Oslo to post box but only got 20 feet from house before Oslo thought otherwise and put the brakes on. I shouted out to Ben to gently coax him (i.e. kick him up the arse) - joke, he got him going and got to post box and back ok.

Brother-in-law n Sister-in-law came over this afternoon with their two Springer Spaniels who were just the right temperament for Oslo, bear in mind that these are the first dogs he's ever come across in his life accept for his own litter mates....he did really well. I though that he needed some interaction with other dogs and was right as he spent the whole time running around the garden play fighting with them which continued into the house for two hours, he wore the two of them out which is saying something for a Springer, mind in fairness they had a lot of other exercise that day. Oslo crashed out for several hours after they left apart from the calls of nature of course.

That's the first week then. The rest of the time before going back to work will be getting Oslo used to Dean one of our friends who is currently on holiday. Zen works part time but Dean (and his German Shepherd) will be taking care of Oslo the days we are in work.

I'll definitely post some regular updates as and when as I'm sure there will be stories to tell. He's going to grow to be a big dog and he's certainly strong willed even at nine and bit weeks. When the Springer’s appeared earlier he got straight in there without hesitation even though they were full of energy as Springer’s are.

Mals can be stubborn, they are very intelligent and can learn to manipulate situations to their advantage. They also need lots of socialisation with other dogs so that they will accept all dogs after puppy hood. That probably means going to puppy class which I'm not looking forward to !!!!!!

 

Still not feeling very well. Oslo woke up around 5.30am, and I have work but at least its only half day.

Got home at mid day, spent a bit of time fussing Oslo and taking him outside but he'd been with Zen and kids all morning playing on and off so was chilled out. I gave him half a pigs trotter which he spent an hour or so chewing in the garden - he looked like a little wolf who'd made his first kill, he came away with blood on his cheeks...I think he thought it made him look cool even though he's still frightened by birds flying overhead !!!

Molly (she's our 15yr old cat) and Oslo are getting on fine...sort of. I didn't worry about Molly one bit as she's seen and done it all in her life and can handle herself. I did worry about her taking Oslo's eye out though. Felt sorry for him today as he's getting more confident and wants to play with Molly, I think he sees her as something to have fun with but she's having none of it. Last night he was on his front paws barking at her. I saw it as him testing the boundaries with Molly but realise today that he's just trying to play and for pups that involves barking and play fighting, will give him more slack in this area as Molly isn't phased by his barking, she just has a look which says ' make a move you big ball of fluff '.

Oslo spent a couple of hours in the garden with his trotter, nice to see that even at 9weeks being out in the cold doesn't bother him. Fun and games wrapping the last couple of presents for the kids with Oslo trying to rip the paper...he loves the cardboard rolls, had to shut him out of the room in the end.

Cesar teaches us (I do say that in a taking the piss type of way mind)!!!

No dog is born aggressive. One comment I remember from his book is that he's only come across 4-5 dogs who were aggressive because of psychological reasons, the rest that he's worked with (which number in the hundreds) developed aggression due to their owners influence and or their needs not being met, lack of exercise for example.

' Aggression in a dog isn't natural. Even wolves in the wild are rarely aggressive toward their own kind, or even toward humans unless there is a clear, specify reason such as starvation. Aggression develops when a dogs issues aren't dealt with, when frustrated energy has no release. Unfortunately such aggression always escalates if left unchecked '.

A trying day this one which left me wondering why I didn't stick to tropical fish instead of an Alaskan Malamute :)
Oslo woke up at a reasonable 6.45am...I woke up a bit before this and after half an hour of silence from downstairs my thoughts had gone from 'brilliant, he's finally got this sleeping lark' to.... 'shit, he's died in his sleep'. Seems a bit dramatic now I know but I really was expecting him to wake me in the night, after all this is all still new and strange to him.
We all felt guilty taking him away from his mum and litter mates. One time when we visited Maggie she lifted him out from the rest of the bunch so we could hold him and take a closer look. He played around for a bit with us and a tennis ball and obviously had a lot of confidence. When she put him back he clambered all over the rest of the sleeping pups and buried himself in the middle of the group. He literally tunnelled his way though the mass of pups to get onto the middle of the pile up, and so to go from that to a lonely dog crate at night is a massive step for any pup.
Once downstairs the priority is to get him in to the garden before I have to get the mop and disinfectant out. Most of the day was spent this way, in out, in out piss it all about. Sometimes I'd get him out there in time, sometimes I wouldn't, and what really pushed me to the edge was that I'd take him out and he'd have a wee only to have another one in the house minutes later...what's that all about. By the time Zen came home from work I had convinced myself that he was doing it on purpose and was taking the piss (pun fully intended), Zen had to remind me that he is 8 weeks old and still a baby, ''you're right'' I said, trying to ignore the splits in my hands from all the disinfectant. All said a trying day but at least he's got the sleeping bit.
Cesar teaches us....
When we humanize dogs, we create a disconnect for them. By humanizing them, we're able to love them the way we would love another human, but we are never going to achieve a deep communication with them and never going to learn to love and respect them for who and what they truly are.
My thoughts on this one....some farm dogs I came across when growing up (my grandparents lived in Rhosilli, Gower)didn't have much, if any love, at least not on our terms. The farmer respected them but they were animals first and as a result were some of the most 'balanced' dogs I've ever met, all because their two primal needs were met...exercise and discipline.
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I'll try not to bore you too much here, after all this is a blog about a dog which we haven't got yet. I wanted to put a diary together to record, well all sorts really, some training notes, notes on the dogs development and the funny and frustrating stuff that comes part and parcel with any dog. I know full well that any diary (and this goes for this blog) will only last so long as I don't get bored so apologies up front if there are huge gaps in this diary/blog and it ends without so much as a goodbye.

You may already know that we are getting an Alaskan Malamute, take a look on google for more info on the breed. We've thought long and hard about it and I've read loads about the breed and recently been reading Cesar Millan's books (more on him on later blogs), as well as some catch up via a puppy book.

Most people I mention a malamute (Mal) to think we are certifiable. I can sort of see why since Artic breeds can be high demand in a number of ways but I've always admired and respected these dogs. I really do believe that with the right training they can turn out to be one of the most friendly and well adjusted dogs out there. I will admit though that I am slightly concerned about it being aggressive with other dogs which pack (as in sledge pack) orientated dogs can be...I'm hoping again that early training and socialisation will avoid this.

Maggie is the breeder and we got to see her two dogs Naya and Kayla on a visit to Crewe a couple of weeks back. I had seen a couple of Mals in Swansea but although Zen had read loads on them I think it's fair to say that she was apprehensive about the breed and how big and independent they'd be. Although we only spent an hour or so around Naya and Kayla they were everything we thought a Mal should be. Nia can be a bit nervous around dogs that she doesn't know but these two were so gentle and friendly without any fuss...I knew then that Maggie was the one (so to speak) as she'd obviously done a great job on bringing these two up. Maggie has also put a lot of time, effort and knowledge in breeding from selected lines and breeds dogs on a very small scale and she doesn't even advertise, all of which impressed me.

So in a nut shell that's it. Maggie came back to us and said that she was willing for us to buy one of her pups and although all I wanted was a male both Naya and Kayla did make me think twice. It didn't help when Maggie offered us either a male or female...in the end I stuck with a male and had Ben on my side as both Zenya and Nia wanted a female. The pups are four weeks old this Fri (20th Nov) and we'll be picking our lad up on weekend 19/20 Dec. As someone said laughing (Janet), you're gonna have a bloody interesting Christmas.