Today we collected Zak from the Kennels after a very scary drive over (watched a joy rider smash up a car on the motorway). Having chatted for a while, we took Zak and Tara for a bit of a walk to get them acquainted before getting them in the car. Zak initially kept trying to climb over from the boot to the back seat, but stayed where he was when we were on the move.

We stopped off at Pets at Home in Renfrew to pick up some supplies and he was in general better behaved than Tara. She wanted to help herself to all the treats, but who can blame her. We did have a small incident while talking to some people about the dogs where Zak started winding himself up and was about to jump up and cause trouble for Graham, but we spotted the signs and calmed Zak down so it went without incident. We did notice that he is a great advert for GAL as he is very people friendly and people are attracted to his good looks and waggy tail. He and Tara make a good team as people initially come up to see the huge dog, who they could never imagine having, but Zak is the friendlier one and his is a size that people could deal with. Once they are told how cat safe he is, and that no, he doesn’t need loads of exercise they are quite taken with the idea.

Once we got home we let them get to know each other in the garden for a while. This gave us the first indication of potential problems. Tara was quite pushy and chased Zak round the garden a bit scaring him and shoulder charging him into the hedge so we had to intervene and calm them down. There were also a couple of instances where Zak tried the charge straight at us, looking like he was going to have a go, but we just stood our ground and ignored it till he got the idea that it doesn’t work.

We then introduced Zak to the house and he wandered around inspecting things. Having tried out Tara's bed and being stood over till he moved, we showed him his bed and got him to sit on it while we grabbed a late lunch. We then went over to Linlithgow to go to the pet shop for the things we had forgotten earlier. Then we went for a walk at one end of the loch. We kept Zak on the lead as his responses to commands are a bit lacking and we didn't want to lose him or have problems. Tara had a good run around and Zak got to sniff things, though he did really want off the lead.

We got back to the house and let them off in the garden, more of the same agro as earlier but this time Zak was growling and came away with a couple of mouthfuls of her fur. None of it was too serious so we let them get on with it till Zak had a snap and managed to bite his own tongue. At this point we took them in, calmed them down and had a look at Zak. No real harm done. After all the exercise they were exhausted so they just crashed out for a while, with a bit of begging while we had dinner. We then fed the dogs, having to stop Tara from eating Zak's food but without much difficulty. I have never seen her eat so fast or clean the bowl before! She even polished off the rest of Zak's when he left the bowl. I think that letting her do that was a mistake though and in future will pick the bowls up when the dogs leave them.

Having let their tummies settle for a bit we went for a little walk and they both behaved well, which allowed me to try walking both dogs at once. As they had behaved well on the walk they both got rawhide chews when we got back. Zak took his but didn’t know what to do with it so we gave him a pigs ear instead. This was the first sign we saw of real aggression. When Tara walked past he growled at her, a real full on, I am about to bite growl. When I went up to move her, he did the same to me. A little bit of this is fine in a dog but given that Zak has problems in this direction I took the treat off him. Having given him a bit of a timeout I put it in front of him and made him wait till I said go on before he got it back. I then repeated the procedure again later.

Later when Cisco our cat came in Zak was very good, wagging his tail and going to see Cisco, but backing off when Cisco indicated he had had enough. Zak did growl at Tara a couple of times though which I stopped. He also has a bit of a flinch reaction, one of the times when they thought about snapping at each other I stood up and clapped my hands loudly and shouted no to get their attention. Tara stalked off but Zak jumped two feet sideward in fright. I also notice that he flinches sometimes when I do the hand signal for the sit command. He really is a bit of a mixed up doggy.

All was calm then until bed time and the "not my bed yours" from both dogs. We made sure that both were on a bed gave them cuddles and switched the light off and we had no problem over night.

High points: Zak will now sit and lie down, though not with a great deal of consistency.
He is very good with the cat.
He loves his snuggles.

Day 3 - Thursday 4th August
(In which Graham takes a turn at writing the entry.)

Reading back over this, I notice how easy it is to focus on the negatives. Somehow the big events of the day seem to be the low points, whereas the long periods where the dogs slept peacefully, or had quiet fusses from me get overlooked. Despite what I ended up writing below, 95% of the time, Zak is a loving and friendly dog, and I'm glad to have him around.

The morning started much as usual. Both dogs rush to greet anyone coming through the door, worryingly enthusiastic. We need to break that habit – ignoring Tara till she calmed down worked before, but with Zak’s arrival she’s forgotten, of course. Persistence will pay off, I’m sure.

Otherwise, the morning was quiet, with both dogs sleeping till lunchtime. Claire’s early morning walk apparently is exhausting for them, even if it is just round the block. After I had lunch, I put biscuit back down for both dogs. Zak needed his bowl several feet from Tara’s before he would dare eat. Even then, she wolfed her own food, and tried to steal his. She left the food alone when told, but a minute later was trying again. After the third warning, I invoked our most dreaded punishment – a five minute time-out, shut in the toilet, followed by five minutes of being ignored.

When both dogs had eaten, and Tara calmed down, I took them for a longer walk. Half an hour each, one at a time. Not sure I’m brave enough to walk both at once until they’re a bit more obedient. On their own, both dogs walk pretty well. A little keen to see other dogs, perhaps, and to stop and sniff, but nothing worrying.

So far, the day had gone pretty well. By three they were getting restless again, and Zak hadn’t had much running exercise, so I let them both into the garden. This is a worrying moment – Tara is much more dominant in the garden, and Zak sprinting seems to set her off. To begin with, everything went fine. Tara pestered Zak a little, but obeyed commands to "Leave". They walked round together, sniffing and exploring. Even jogged a little. Soon, Tara collapsed in the shade of a tree, leaving Zak to play alone.

At this point, I decided to try a recall, and called Zak to me. He ran up, stopping just in front of me. But instead of sitting, he then bounced up, snapping and barking. I told him "no" and he ran off, circled round, and charged me. Tara decided this was her cue to join in, and charged at him. I called Tara off – amazingly she obeyed! – and got hold of Zak. I led him straight inside, and straight into the toilet. I also brought Tara in, and ignored her. While her behaviour wasn’t as bad, I do not want a dog thinking I need protected from another member of the household.

Zak seemed less upset by the time-out than by being ignored afterwards. He demanded attention. He poked at me. He climbed onto Tara’s bed, then my seat on the couch. When I’d released him from the toilet, I’d noticed a little blood on the floor, so didn’t want to do another time-out until I’d worked out what had happened. Instead, I took hold of his head, holding the loose flaps of skin , and shouted at him. Afterwards, I sent him to his bed. He went meekly, and lay there peacefully, while I went and fussed Tara. After ten minutes, I checked Zak’s feet – there was a small scrub on a back paw, presumably from running round the garden. Since he was now behaving, I fussed him, releasing him from his stay.

…

After dinner, we took our usual walk. A bit over halfway, Tara suddenly decided to initiate a dominance battle with Zak. As he was on the lead at the time, this was quite terrifying for him. Luckily, Claire swiftly had Zak under control, and I managed to get hold of Tara, who thanked me by trying to bite me. She went back on a short lead, and spent the rest of the walk behind Claire and Zak, who set the pace and explored anything they found interesting.

Unfortunately, I’m starting to notice a pattern. Punish one dog, and the other sees this as tacit support for their own dominance.

While Claire went for a well-deserved bath, I was left again to watch the doggies. A yelp from the sunroom had me scurrying through, to find Zak enthusiastically trying to mount Tara. In a sense this isn’t too worrying – they’re both snipped, and without her cooperation he can’t even reach – but not acceptable behaviour. I quickly separated them, and Zak went for another time out, while the bemused and terrified wolfie-cross hid behind me.

After Claire's bath came another potential problem - bathing Zak. He wasn't particularly dirty, but getting him used to regular cleans before he rolls in something just seems sensible. Getting Zak upstairs was straight forward - open the door, and he rushed to explore somewhere new. Getting him in the bath was a little more difficult. Like most dogs, he won't jump in, and needed lifted. I'm used to getting Tara into the bath - by comparison Zak seems almost weightless.

I don't think Zak exactly likes baths, but he tolerated everything. He just sat there while we removed his collar, washed, rinsed, and dried him. Tara normally liked to scoff treats while being washed, whereas Zak ignored everything, with a sort of weary expression, that seemed to say "if I don't fuss, they'll finish quicker".

Unfortunately, Zak's tolerance did not extend to rinsing out his eye (which still contains the bit of something) or cleaning his other ear. The ear involved a bit of gentle restrain and much praise, and was over fairly quickly. Flushing out his eye soon began to stress him, and we didn't manage as thorough a job as we would have liked. I've a bad feeling the eye will need another vet trip and a sedative before it's over.

High Points: Getting on with jobs, while doggies sleep around me.
Snuggles.
How good Zak is in a bath.

Low Points: The ongoing eye problem.
Dogs not yet working out their places in the hierarchy.
Having to pull out the "big gun" punishments.

Day 5 - Saturday 6th August
We got up this morning to find that Tara appears to be under the weather and had not lasted the night with a runny bum. Yuk. Not that it seems to have put her off her food.

This morning we decided to walk at Beecraigs - one of the quieter, out of the way walks. So, time to let Zak off the lead and see how good his recall outside the garden is. The answer is not very good. He did not want to go too far away from us so it wasn’t too much of a problem. He had a run around until he ran over what I suspect to him looked like a grassy bank but it turned out to be a ditch. He ended up on his back wondering what had happened. After scrambling out he ran to me for comfort and I checked him over. Not a scratch so just a fright. I did put him back on the lead at this point.

Later we had another incident of Tara thinking that she might have a go at him while he is on the lead and she isn’t. Again we dealt with it and she did the rest of the walk on the lead as well.

Later it was time to drive over to Grahams parents to celebrate his Dad's 60th birthday. The visit was good with both dogs generally behaving well. Zak was very popular with the whole family, especially Graham's sister and her two children Hazel and Ethan. The only incident we had was after dinner. Graham had given both the dogs rawhide chews but Tara had ignored hers and stolen Zak's. Zak refused to eat Tara's, so to make Zak feel better Graham gave him a pig's ear. Zak was a bit growly while eating the pig's ear when the children came near, so Graham also did the stroke him while eating it and take it away and give it back. He had done this a couple of times when Ethan started talking loudly to Graham and Zak growled. Graham put a hand down to him to stop this and got bitten. I was called through to find graham holding the pig's ear trying to not get blood on the carpet. Zak had caught him on the thumb just above the joint and it was a deep cut. Zak had instantly reverted back to nice friendly dog and really surprisingly the kids were not in the least bit worried about all of this.

Tara got the rest of the pigs ear as I wasn’t going to give it back to Zak when he had growled at Ethan and bitten Graham over it. We need to be careful when Zak has what he sees as high value treats.

High Points:
Zak was great with the whole family.

Low Points:
Biting Graham.

Day 10 – Thursday 11th August
This morning the dogs were very boisterous, possibly because we left hem last night. Zak is growing more confident and definitely has a passion for toast as he has managed to grab the bit that Graham had saved to give the dogs. Tara would not go right to the back of the surface to steal something (unless left on her own for a long while) Zak on the other hand will, though so far only if it is toast. He did let go on command, he obviously hasn't learnt the trick of swallowing it quick. We gave all the toast to Tara, in case giving any Zak encouraged future thieving.

One encouraging thing is the doggy sit. The dogs were playing rough in the middle of the kitchen and I wanted to distract them so I got a ****tail sausage from the fridge and said sit. Both dogs instantly sat at my feet despite being distracted. It was one of those moments where stomachs had commanded the dogs' bums to hit the floor before the dogs thought about it.

The only problem this morning is how much they are pulling on the lead. This is sorted by using the lead harness style on both of them. Although that works fine it feels like losing. I would be happier if they walked well without having to resort to that.

…

Graham has reported that when he got home from work (at lunch time) the dogs had re arranged the beds but there was no stuffing on the floor. Both of them have been behaving well for him.

…

I have just noticed that there are several missed calls and voice mails on my mobile phone. Two of them are from GAL people: one from Linda about volunteering at the GALA and one from Carole to follow up her call last week to see how we were getting on with Zak. As I was at work I e-mailed Graham the details to call. He chatted to Carole for around half an hour, and we now have a few more suggestions of things to try.

…

After dinner we had a nice walk without too many problems. As Carole had mentioned getting Zak interested in toys we took him into the garden to play with a kong on a rope. He loves the idea of fetch but is not very good at actually collecting the toy. He became very excited and started charging round the garden in ever decreasing circles and then running into us. As there was no growling just full speed running and a bit of jumping up at Graham we each time ignored it until he had calmed down. Once he was tired we tried Carole's advice and when he had the toy we said leave and offered him a treat (a gravy bone) and took the toy away. He was praised and the toy returned. We did this a couple of times. This should get him used to having things taken away, being praised for it, and that he does get them back.

…

After playing I went for a bath. Today is the first day I have had doubts about taking Zak on. It doesn’t help that I had a bad day at work, but laying in the bath I did wonder if I it was the best thing for Tara as sometimes she is taking it badly. Also whether we are doing the right thing with Zak, if things will get better. I am also worried in case there are more problems, like what will he do the first time we let him off the lead with other people around. Maybe we will never be able to do this. Not ideal thoughts really. I can take comfort from the fact that we have the support of GAL and some of the things we are doing are showing progress. In a lot of ways he is not as bad as we expected.

…

This evening I decided that we needed to have another go at cleaning his teeth. This time using the finger with gel method I managed to do his whole mouth without a single growl or curled lip.

High Points:
Teeth cleaning with no problems
Great sit when distracted

Low Points:
Worrying about things
Zak's mad capers when playing in the garden