Hi all.
Recently I’ve been thinking about getting a new Dobermann puppy, a male one. I’ll be getting him in 5 or 6 months so there’s not really anything to worry about right now. The thing is, I already have five dogs; four Jack Russell Terriers and a Dobermann ***** who is 2 years old. The JRT’s are all different ages, one’s five, ones three, ones one and the other is two on New Years Day. They’re all fairly well trained, they don’t bark much, they do all the basic commands, and my five year old JRT, Tippi, is very, very well trained, doing most of the tricks just by voice or hand signal and such, but my older Dobie, Tia, has become slightly harder to control. i.e. Pulling on the lead, ignoring me when I call her, ignoring me when I give certain commands, picking on Tippi, and not ‘Leave it!’ when I tell her, which isn’t exactly great. I think it’s just because she’s not getting as much attention as she used to, but maybe she can sense I’m thinking about another dog? It sounds stupid, but that’s what some people told me she might be thinking on another site. Anyway, I don’t want to bring a 9 or 10 week old Dobie pup into a house with a 77pound, 34inch Dobermann ***** who is near to out of control. She’s easy to train, and I can train her back into her old ways easily, but I just have a feeling when, and if, I get this new puppy she’ll just go way out of control and be untrainable again. Her behavior started the morning I began to think about a new puppy, I was on the phone to a friend and they were talking about puppies they’d seen for sale, etc, etc. After the phone call, I left the house to go to the shop, it’s about 10 minutes away so I just walk. I leave all of the dogs to roam the house while I’m out because none of them are chewers, nore have they been. When I got back 25 minutes later, the bottom of the front door had been chewed and there was a gaping great hole that went strait through the corner of it and out into the front garden. Tia was in the garden looking like she was full of shame. After we had a little ‘word’ about why you shouldn’t chew the house, she simply went back to being her old self.
On Thursday the 11th, I went out to work as a School Teacher like always (I’m hoping to find a new job, one that I actually like). When I got home at just gone 4 the lino was ripped up, the sofa was shredding at the arm and the wicker dog bed had been eaten. I blamed Tia, obviously. I’m glad I did because when I wen ton my routine poop-clearup I found the remains of the sofa, lino and bed on Tia’s…on Wednesday, I came in from watering the chickens to find her chowing down on the leg of the kitchen chair, and yesterday, she leaped at the bird cage, which has my Cockatiel, Simon, in it, and knocked it over, giving poor ol’ Simon half a heart attack. She’s never been interested in the bird before, nore has she been interested in chewing things. Should I be worried that there could be something wrong with her – a brain tumour maybe? Could she just be trying to get more attention? And, the ultimate question, should I actually bring a new puppy into this?
I know I don’t need to panic right now, in 5 months she could have gone back to normal, but I’m also worried it could be a tumour or something. She has no lumps or bumps. Could she be trying to warn me about something? Allot of people on another site tell me ‘She’s warning you about something terrible!’ and ‘She’s jealous of the puppy you’re going to be getting!’ I never believed in the whole ‘Dogs sense things before they happen’ thing, despite it being true sometimes. I am also not one to rush off to the vet strait away.
Tags: jack russel, Jack Russell
