Thanks for your Christmas card.  I have put off answering you because what is going on with Maudie is not easy to put into words.

 

To begin, let me say that Maudie is an absolutely beautiful, loving little dog.  She will be 8 months old this Friday, March 7, and weighed 14.2 lbs. the last time we weighed her in Feb. and is very lean and muscular.  She has been spayed and is housebroken, going in and out the doggie door on her own.  But there are problems:

 

--The problem which upsets me the most is that she has started eating the feces of my other two dogs.  It has nothing to do with nutrition because she eats very expensive premium puppy food, both canned and dry.  I think it has more to do with the fact that Maudie considers herself to be the pack leader and these are the perks of being #1.  It takes constant vigilance of both Rod and me to pick up the poop before she can get to it, but she has been known to run ahead of us, grab a turd and eat it on the run.  This is ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING to me and has affected my relationship with her since I can't stand for her to lick me, etc.

 

--The next problem (which is actually more serious than poop-eating if you discount my revulsion) is that Maudie won't let either of the other two dogs play with ANYTHING.  She goes immediately and takes it away from them and bites Pal cruelly on his face or neck until he releases whatever he has, even his beloved ball.  (Lulu is submissive and does not get bitten, but she never gets to play with a toy either.)  Pal can't even play ball with Rod because Maudie grabs onto it right after he catches it and he has to drag her all the way back for Rod to throw the ball again, but the minute Pal releases the ball, she grabs it and runs off with the ball, effectively ruining the game he loves most.  Pal normally just lets Maudie have whatever she wants, but he cares about his ball, so sometimes he resists Maudie and then they fight, which, so far, we've been able to break up, but the day is coming when it will be truly awful, since I can see that Maudie will NEVER give up, and, as she gets older, will fight to her death (or Pal's).   

 

--Maudie has chewed up three dog collars with our phone number on  them, including her own collar.  She jerks Pal around when he's wearing a collar and eventually jerks it off of him and chews it up.  So, now, neither Pal nor Maudie have collars on because I can't figure a way around this. 

 

I thought buying a puppy would solve the problem of a companion dog pushing Pal around, but Maudie also took over even when she was still small because Pal just doesn't have it in him to stand up for himself except for a very few things.  We had tried several possible dogs for Pal to run with from various rescue organizations, but they ALL sized him up and then made him eat dirt, so we had to take them back.  Maudie doesn't play with Pal--she just muscles him around and bites on him even though she is much smaller yet than he is.  Maudie needs to be the only dog in the household so she can have all the attention for herself (she is quite loving with people), plus she doesn't eat her own poop, so that problem would be solved also.  I have not put an ad in the paper because I can't stand to think of her going to someone who wouldn't take care of her the way we do.  Do you know someone, personall y, who would want an older, spayed puppy and know, for sure, that they would be good to her and have plenty of time to give her all the attention she needs?

I have put in my puppy sales contract that if for any reason the puppy buyer does not want or can not keep the dog, the must return the dog to me. I just hope that little Maudie is in good health. I have a feeling that I will be seeing her again very soon. If anyone would like this little girl, please send me a pm. I don't have any current pictures....but I will hopefully have some very soon. Also do you think that I should offer advice to try before she returns her to me? Do you think that it will matter. I hate to disrupt this little one's life, but if they have made up their minds....I know there won't be room for discussion.

Thanks in advance!

Brandii

 

[I need to ask you this question, have you given up on Maudie? Would you like to give her another try? I have some ideas that might help.....but if you have given up it won't do me any good to email the ideas to you.

 

Brandii

 

P.S. If at all possible I would like to save the relationship between you and Maudie. It will take some work, and patience....but if you have really given up on her I will take her back and find a home for her myself. Have you looked into finding a behaviorlist? I would love to help you in any way I can. I am in it for Maudie's best interest. I appreciate you emailing me before taking any action. Please let me know how I can help. ]

This is her response:

(Yes, I've pretty much given up on her ever being a good citizen with my other two dogs.  We can't afford a "behaviorist," but more than that I feel so bad physically on a daily basis that I don't have enough energy to try and work with her problems.  I have fibromyalgia (which won't kill me, but just makes me feel like I'm going to die) and diabetes (which is actually trying to kill me right now) and high blood pressure.  Stress makes all my problems much, much worse.

 

When I looked out the window today and saw her out in the yard eating Pal's poop, I raised the window and hollered at her, but she just ignored me.  Rod went out right away and tried to stop her, but he was too late.  It upsets me so bad to witness that, I realized that something was going to have to be done or it was going to cause me to stroke out.  I simply am not able to take it in stride.

 

If you think you can find her a good home, that would be wonderful.  But, Brandii, she has never been crated or even left alone.  My health has deteriorated to the point that the only time I leave the house is to go to the doctor.  When I have to be gone, Rod stays home with the dogs.  What would you do with her when you're at work?  I think Maudie would lose her mind if she couldn't go in and out through the doggie door.  She does that a thousand times a day.  She's very busy.  And all the dogs sleep in bed with Rod at night--flannel sheets are hard to give up for a dog.  (I would love to have dogs in my bed, but I have a hard time sleeping because of the fibro.)  Maudie won't even let Pal sleep in "his" place which upsets him very much.

 

Yes, she's spoiled, but we're old people and our life revolves around our dogs.  But Maudie's problems were not caused by our loving her; they are just her personality.  I'm afraid that whoever adopted her might have problems with her requiring a lot of attention and exercise and she must be supervised because she is still a puppy and gets into things if you don't watch her.

 

I feel pretty hopeless about all of this.  Damned if I find her a new home; damned if I don't.

 

Sorry if I've depressed you.  I've been wrestling with this dilemma for several months, hoping things would just change on their own, but all that's changed is my health going downhill.)

I think I would easily talk her into it, but still it angers me!!