Great update Mike!

 Quote: Mike Arnold

I needed another dog like a hole in the head, or another hole in the head but he's still here. He is a good mutt. Glad he's here.

Your update made my day. Can't say I'm surprised. Will he be staying permanently?

All,

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement.

Yup. Looks like Sam is gonna be a permanent fixture around here.

He is getting more and more into the routine, though he occasionally tries to test boundaries. The food issue is almost where I want it to be.

Every once and awhile he decides he has to test his boundaries and role in the group but that is much less frequent, a good thing for him.

He has become a shadow. I stand, he stands. I move from one room to another, he moves with me. But he has learned that I am not a fan of possession of person, place or thing.

He has learned or seems to have, that if he persistently wants my attention I am more likely to give that attention to one of the other dogs. I decide how things go and what things go. Makes for more harmony, in my alleged mind.

All things being equal, too many dogs. I am doomed to a life with dogs underfoot.

 Quote: Mike Arnold

All things being equal, too many dogs. I am doomed to a life with dogs underfoot.

I can think of many worse fates in how to spend the rest of your life. Well done, Mike. Thanks for the update.

I think if you have dogs for companions all your life, you couldn't have better company, I can't think of a single human that I could spend my whole life with, as 2 ex husbands would testify dogs are just more agreeable, more amusing and more constant.

Good on you Mike.

Well, the saga of Sam continues.

Took him to the vet to get his ears checked because he was scratching them hard and it seemed he was hurting himself, and it took a vet tech and me to hold him while the vet put stuff in his ears. The result has been much reduced scratching of the ears, and a seemingly happier dog. He put up a real fight, though.

I had put a nylon muzzle on Sam for his trip to the vet as a precaution but he didn't do anything in an aggressive manner, just didn't want us poking around in his ears.

He has got the eating routine down pretty good. Wait until released is one of my objectives, and he does. Still, he occasionally is a tad food possessive but responds to my commands to stand down.

Toys are another issue that he has come around on. I can take stuff away from him but he still needs a preemptive command or notice I'm gonna take a objective. He doesn't like surprises but is getting more and more trusting, or so it certainly seems.

Working on focus, long downs, and stuff that will get him up to speed with the other mutts.

He finally decided that testing Titan was a bad idea that would never have a good outcome. Titan was remarkably tolerant for quite awhile but over time, Sam got more and more obnoxious and discovered that confusing good nature with passivity was a serious error in judgment. Shame on me but I let the lesson get taught. Much more harmony, now.

Sam and Titan are sleeping on the floor about 18 inches apart. Still a work in progress but no dust ups with any of the dogs in some time.

Stuff takes time. Sam will take time but he demonstrates more balance every day. My bride loves to take him for a walk. She says he is perfect. For sure I do not worry about her when she has Sam with her.

Maybe we'll work more on scent stuff.

Great progress!

I agree!

Plus, if you want a simple "fooling-with-ears" desensitizing protocol, I'll find it and post a link.

Good morning Connie.

Always a lovely morning after a night's rain, and with the sun shining through.

It seems the ear issue thing has ebbed nicely. It was probably due to inflammation that needed some treatment. His attention to scratching his ears has much diminished. And I have made it a practice to touch his ears almost every time he sidles up to me. He is noticeably more tolerant of the mauling I subject him to.

Generally speaking, he has turned almost 180 degrees from the behavior he exhibited when he first got here. He was a scary guy when he first got here. The transition has been nice.

Now, if I can just get him to believe he will be fed regularly, and that he doesn't have to gobble up his meal as if he'll never get another, I'll be happy.

Another day in the saga of Sam...

At my feet as I type. He's turned into a shadow. I move, and he moves. Trying to minimize it with the command to down but he clearly doesn't like to be too far away.

Took him to the cabin for a few days to see how much I had to work on, and see if he could be trusted to not bolt into the woods at every sound or critter. Turned out he stops dead in his tracks with just a Sam. I figured with the distractions and space he'd be inclined to test his limits but he didn't.

Still, he has little quirks that have to be worked on in addition to his long command compliance. He downs but struggles with durations. And when he eats, and if the moon is in the wrong phase or the wind is not right or whatever, he demonstrates food aggression, though in a much less aggressive manner than when he got here.

He has a seemingly endless amount of energy. Average play and running barely dents his endurance. I have a few heavy lengths of tree he seems to like to drag all over the place. He is really strong.

Mostly gets along with the other dogs though he occasionally tests dominance with Titan.

And he gets amped up and obsessed when a light is played around the room. Someone must have really worked him up with a laser or the like. Not a fan of the light game.

All and all, better than the needle.