Dogs: Arrival of a big dog without inhibitions

Because of his size and his just having had surgery, I took the animal control officer's offer to bring him to me instead of me picking him up at the vet. The downside of this is that he did not arrive until about 7pm. However, it was clearly necessary when he couldn't get up the few steps onto my porch so the man had to pick him up. He had weighed in at the vet at 79 pounds despite being thin.

Unfortunately, he also smelled like a foul barnyard. I don't know if the vet had kept him out at the barn (I suspect not) or if the animal control guy had been hauling hogs in his kennels, but he not only stunk but had stinky stuff on him. I would have gotten out the baby wipes and started rubbing him down right away except that he was completely loopy from the anesthesia. He immediately fell in love with Ginger. And he didn't get over it for about a week. She did not feel the same way and so I kept them largely separated for a couple of weeks. He was crazed for water, which I couldn't give him until the next morning. This is how I learned that he could easily get up into the dirty dishes in the sink. So it was a tense night except when he was flopped down on the floor, which was thankfully a lot of the time.

I didn't initially get a crate for him, hoping he might be like Jesse, a dog who had spent all of her life outside but behaved perfectly (with the exception of wanting to dive through the window at people on the porch) inside. This was not to be the case. For one, he is still very much a puppy. They say you can't skip developmental phases, whether dog or human. This dog was big enough to consider the couch a potential toy. And of course anything I provided as a toy--or were already my dogs' toys--he showed little interest in. So I was forced to get a crate. Because they are cheaper, I got the metal grate kind rather than the plastic form kind. I figured I could cover it with sheets or blankets like I do Ginger's crate. It was a nice theory. Two unfortunate things happened. One, the crate wasn't very well made. He was out of it the first night. He clearly enjoys problem-solving. As I reinforced it with what I had available (the clips on a tie-out line and gator clips), he observed the set-up closely. He was able to get the gator clips off but not to entirely get out of the crate despite bowing both the crate door and the frame of the door. Also, he was somehow able to get ahold of the drop cloth and sheet I had draped over the crate and pull them into the crate. He also was somehow pushing the bottom tray halfway out the front of the crate. So I would come home to the blankets, etc, pushed to the back of the crate and him on what little of the tray was still in the crate huddling as if to say, "see, this isn't working."

At least I was keeping him in the crate. I figured out how to keep the tray in the crate with a latch. I bought more clips and clasps to put around the door. I refrained from any further covering of the crate. And eventually he got used to it. I'd put some toys in it that my other dogs were always wanting to sneak in and steal when it was unoccupied so I've had to keep it closed whether he's in it or not. He'd never shown much reluctance to go in and now goes right in without a problem. But there has still been the issue of getting him to go out the back door, which will be another blog.

It should be said that he's done a wonderful job of healing from the neutering. He hardly fussed with the incision and the look of it never gave me concern. In the early days, he frequently laid as though he was still on the operating table, on his back with legs at full extension both fore and aft, much like the following picture but on his back. So it was easy to see that it was healing nicely.