Dog wrangling

For my first BlogJune post, I thought I’d write about our current dog-chaos. Last week we finally took MissMolly to be sterilised. It had to be done… she’s almost two, after all, and puppies are not part of the game plan. But we felt a keen – and disproportionate – sense of guilt nevertheless.

She left here her usual bouncy-crazy self  on Monday morning, happy to be off on an adventure. When we picked her up several hours later she was subdued, confused, unhappy and shaking. She was wearing a  cone of shame and her one eye keep drooping shut. All the guilt.

Keep her calm and quiet, the vet said. No jumping or excessive activity for 6 – 10 days, she said. Oh, and no licking of the wound – she needs to wear the cone of shame until her stitches come out… in 14 days.

Right…

Then the vet looked at MissM and grinned. Perhaps, in her case, a gentle walk around the block from day two might be a good idea to get rid of some of her energy, she added, but keep her as quiet as possible…

So how does one keep a hyper-active Doberman quiet, calm and not jumpy – particularly around a four month old puppy who just wants to play? The very concept pushes the bounds of belief to the limits. In Molly’s case, it’s like saying flip the on/off switch – and she’s very resistant to the ‘off’ position.

In the end we’ve spent several stressful days keeping her on lead at almost all times. This is our way of trying to limit her bursts of crazy-wildness to some extent and separate the two dogs when necessary. It’s more-or-less working – although it feels like mostly less at times and involves an awful lot of dog – 26kg of dog – trying to cuddle up in my lap. All day.

Only 5 days to go…