The Valley of the Donkeys

[GOD'S GRACE]

Doing a belly crawl might come in handy too LOL.

You toy with us know, but when we're fully trained combat snipers the laughing will stop!

 

[Kaiser2016]

WOW, looks like a very cool place to hike! I wonder why so many dead things? Looks like Death Valley. LOL Love the donkeys! Yours too! The boys had a great time!

I was creeped out by the dead things too. They checked out a small part of the valley a few days prior to this bigger hike and I was a bit nervous that Kaiser would be sick from that collar bone or whatever that first one was. But he didn't get any loose stools at all! They all appeared to be fresh kills but there was no indication of where the rest of the carcass was! I guess dragged away to another spot? I think it was coyotes or wolves but they didn't see any predators when they were there. The bird looked like it had been shot down.

@Oh Little Oji and @Sir.duke865 carrying weapons is not legally allowed, however with all the hiking (which we never do at dawn and dusk because that's when they're out the most) we do take some precautions Making noise to alert any wildlife is another form of defence, so occasional clapping is done if you don't want to wear a bell.

 

[LifeofRubie]

How wonderful K and your HB seem to be bonding! My bf has his moments where he'll say "I'm really proud of Rubie" or "she was so well behaved!" and I just smile from ear to ear! I think he's much more appreciative of her now that we have the puppy, too

Hope Ks "leave it!" was on point with all those animal parts around

 

[LifeofRubie]

@Oh Little Oji and @Sir.duke865 carrying weapons is not legally allowed, however with all the hiking (which we never do at dawn and dusk because that's when they're out the most) we do take some precautions Making noise to alert any wildlife is another form of defence, so occasional clapping is done if you don't want to wear a bell.

Ah, to this point, we just got a baton-type thing that retracts (think: a little kids lightsaber toy) and I do have pepper spray that we might start taking with us when we go place other than our normal forest preserves. We have seen coyotes at the Arboretum and in some of the forest preserves, though!

 

[GOD'S GRACE]

carrying weapons is not legally allowed,

I would rather leave home naked...

 

[Kaiser2016]

Funny that you say this. I am waiting and hoping this happens with my wife. There tends to be some disappointment on her part because Ragnar will bypass her to get to me.

She is home with him all day, feeds breakfast and lunch and he does not show any care to her what so ever. Now, he will seek her out, make eye contact and then move about like he is checking up on her.

In his defense, Ragnar is not an affectionate Doberman. He is very aloof and independent. Hardly ever seeks out affection or cuddles.

Like you, I guess I need to find a mountainous valley to drop both of them into so they can work out their differences?.?.? Maybe they can seek solace and fortune from donkeys on the hillside and be better for it.

This is exactly what we went through too. When my hb stayed home with K, he would blast past him to greet me in the garage. I'd get the high excitement greeting of the wiggling nub and he'd do parade laps around me. For the longest time it seemed like more work and less reward. City walks are sniff fests which annoy my hb because it's never a high speed walk/workout which is what he wants out of Kaiser. But this valley hike brought about an unexpected level of bonding. He went on for hours about how smart and fearless K was. The creek swim surprised me the most! It was the same level of excitement he had before Kaiser the krazy donkey puppy came home Suddenly the breed is so smart and amazing again lol.

For your wife, I'm going to suggest a dog festival. It was where things clicked for me and Kaiser. Enough distractions requiring him to be alert! And probably less demanding than a one on one walk. I tried doing walks with him but before the bond was established, they were too hit and miss. We got talked into a dog festival by our then new Dober friend. I made my hb come along because I was unsure with all the dogs that would be around, but I ended up holding his leash most of the time while people came up to meet Kaiser! It worked for me and showed off how good he can be under my control. I thought we would only last 20 mins because we're not crazy about crowds and never trained Kaiser to handle all the commotion. We ended up staying for 2 hours and only left because it was too hot for Kaiser.

 

[Tropicalbri's]

Bogie’s needy and whiny stealth mode.

 

[Kaiser2016]

@Kaiser2016 weren't you concerned about his weight? I vote forget what the scales say. He doesn't look thin at all.
Seeing the bones reminded me of when we were all at the farm. My son says Where's G? No where to be seen, he called her. She came almost immediately dragging the hind leg of a deer. Pretty fresh so my son went to check it out. He found a doe on the edge of the corn field apparently taken down by something but not eaten yet.
Glad the boys had a good time!

Yes! I was worried about his weight for a long time because he didn't seem to put on enough. At 22 months, he is now holding his weight better and actually might even be a bit on the thick side. What do you think? I don't have a recent weight but he was 71 back when I was complaining.

We had a lot of changes to his diet since then: We added a high quality probiotic. We switched his brand of food. He was on bison/elk over winter. Moved him to Trout for the summer. The trout even feels fattier to the touch. We currently feed 2.5 lbs a day whereas we had been feeding only 2 lbs of the leaner meats during winter. Maybe we should go back to 2 lbs? And he's eating the bulk of his food for breakfast as we slowly transition him to one meal per day.

That leg in his mouth was icky. I'm told he didn't chew on it. Did Gigi also just parade around with the leg?

 

[Kaiser2016]

But yeah, even sometimes just sitting on the porch at night just my buddy and me makes me feel appreciation for the rascal.

We plan to go camping this summer. Will be Oji's first time, and our daughter's first as well.

Sometimes the quiet moments together can be so meaningful. The camping will be a great adventure! Make sure to tell us about it I wish we could camp, but my hb doesn't get it lol. "Why would I choose to lay on the ground?"

 

[Kaiser2016]

In his defense, Ragnar is not an affectionate Doberman. He is very aloof and independent. Hardly ever seeks out affection or cuddles.

I'm surprised by this! Kaiser is the same way but I thought it was because we sent him away so much in the early days and because he's not allowed upstairs so there's more physical separation in our household, whereas Ragnar seems way more integrated with your family life. How interesting. This is one of the many behaviors where I thought we might have 'wrecked' our Doberman. Guess not!

We took it pretty serious to not allow him to nudge our hands for petting (apparently that is a dominance gesture), so now he gets petted when we want to give it and he's ok with that. He'll even do the Doberman lean during this lol.

 

[Tropicalbri's]

@Kaiser2016 My hubs always mentions that the twins don’t get excited to see him. I always respond with; when was the last time you fed them, trained them, exercised or played with them? Never?!?
Hmmm I wouldn’t find you very excitement worthy either.
Bacall is just starting to show him affection and attention. Bogie is like “move out of my way dad, mom’s Home!
I am their grocery lady, their play lady, their snuggle lady, their boo boo fixer upper, their training lady, so naturally they are going to be happy to see me. If he was more involved in their activities I think he would see a huge change in their attitude.
They do love him and he loves on them but without the training and play interaction it’s just not the same.

 

[WiglWerm]

WOW he looks GREAT!!! What a wonderful day out exploring! As for dobie temperament every dog is different. There is something to be said about a dobie that is more aloof...Mine are over the top friendly...a bit embarrassing when someone comes, over sits on the couch and one of my two is up there next to them with their head on the guests chest. Yeah, those are my "guard dogs" lol. I brought Ruby to my MIL house to play with her rottie, Roman. The pizza man was coming so I put Roman inside and was heading out the door to meet the pizza guy at the fence (Ruby was outside), before I even had a chance to go back out the door the pizza guy was through the gate and at the door. I was SHOCKED...I said your feelin pretty brave today! He said I made sure she was friendly...I love dogs. Dang it RUBY, your suppose to be a GUARD DOG!!! At home she barks when people walk by...maybe she just wanted PIZZA!!

 

[Kaiser2016]

@Kaiser2016 My hubs always mentions that the twins don’t get excited to see him. I always respond with; when was the last time you fed them, trained them, exercised or played with them? Never?!?
Hmmm I wouldn’t find you very excitement worthy either.
Bacall is just starting to show him affection and attention. Bogie is like “move out of my way dad, mom’s Home!
I am their grocery lady, their play lady, their snuggle lady, their boo boo fixer upper, their training lady, so naturally they are going to be happy to see me. If he was more involved in their activities I think he would see a huge change in their attitude.
They do love him and he loves on them but without the training and play interaction it’s just not the same.

It took us forever to find any balance lol and it's still shifting. The cat used to be all about my hb but has started to get her snuggles from me now which has been a nice change.

 

[Ddski5]

@Kaiser2016
Ragnar will lay next to me only when I am watching tv late at night, that’s it. Any other time and he just wants to play or train. But he watches me like a hawk, if I move, he moves. If I go outside, he will pace the house until somebody lets him out. I truly love the way he comes out of nowhere and gives me a hard nosebut “Hey, just checking on you Pop!!!” He will also nosebut the rest of my family also.

I did a thread months ago and asked “Can a Doberman be a teddy bear?” From the answers I got, it seems there are plenty of Dobermans out there that are cuddly and openly affectionate.

I am trying to be hopeful that his aloof independent nature is more of a young Doberman stage, I don’t know, or is this what. Doberman does?

I do not necessarily enjoy his standoffish nature, I would like for him to be more affectionate and I have a plan to make this better. I started it yesterday evening when washing my truck.


@Tropicalbri's
I said the same thing to mine the other day.

There is a reason why Ragnar’s pecking order is me, youngest, older, wife and then middle. That is the exact order of who spends the most quality time with him. I am not talking about just time but effort to train, activities that make him happy, etc....

Anything happens to me? My 12 y/o will have better reception and control over Ragnar than anybody else.

 

[Tropicalbri's]

it seems there are plenty of Dobermans out there that are cuddly and openly affectionate.

Mine are annoyingly affectionate. They must be touching me at all times. I let them outside in the mornings and wind up having to go with them and hold their paw.
Going to the bathroom is obviously a family affair for them. Guess they figure since they join me in the bathroom it’s only fair that I join them.
When I am walking around the house inside and out, they are both right with me. I get a nose to the back of my legs for every step I take. If I lock them out of a room to get a break they lay at the door waiting for me to open it. Of course Bogie has to do his death wail whining like his world just stopped because I had the nerve to lock him out.
If I sit down, I have one on each side of me.
It’s most likely due to me taking them with me wherever I go since they were just babies and they have come to expect and demand it. Lol
Perhaps I am the creator of my own madness.

 

[Kaiser2016]

I am trying to be hopeful that his aloof independent nature is more of a young Doberman stage, I don’t know, or is this what. Doberman does?

I am finding the aloofness changes over time. We used to do flatter, shorter hikes while K was 6-10 months so it was mostly touristy spots and people loved meeting him. We were mixed up about the meaning of 'socialization' so of course we had him meet everyone. People, kids, dogs! He loved to meet and be pet by strangers.

Yesterday we did a walk by the river (in the city so it was busy) and guess what, he didn't show any interest in others! First time I've seen him be aloof in such a public setting. He looked like he was busy scanning. He didn't lean near anyone to even sniff them. It used to be that we had to carefully watch that as not everyone wants to be touched by a dog.

Then we have a basement development project going on for nearly a year now and he was very used to trades coming and going all the time. He'd hang out on the cat tree and just watch them go from the basement door to the front door. He'd get a lot of petting then too and he didn't act "guardy" at all - another moment of thinking we wrecked the Doberman - last weekend the work started up again after a long break and a new trade came and Kaiser was on guard the whole time. I put him on the deck and Kaiser watched us through the window with his game face on. Literally just stood there staring! I brought the trade to the deck but moved Kaiser off to the yard first. Again stood there watching. It's like a switch got flipped.

 

[Kaiser2016]

@WiglWerm I bet it was the pizza! One thing I'd like to test is whether a stranger with treats for K would be able to get into the house.

How old is Ruby?

 

[Tropicalbri's]

One thing I'd like to test is whether a stranger with treats for K would be able to get into the house.

My two used to snag the treats then start barking again spewing out crumbs from the treat. Now they are not allowed treats from strangers or even friends. I always worry about poisoning, so no treats are the rule.
They put on a good show at the gate and fence. No one wants to enter.
The only time they stop their insane barking and snarling is if I open the gate and let visitors in. Bogie is cautious at first then warms up once I introduce him. Bacall just wags, licks and leans on them which pretty much keeps them immobile.
Food delivery people honk their horn and stay in the car until we come out, then we have to go outside of the gate to get the food because they refuse to get near the gate.
Guess they don’t realize honking the horn just makes the pups crazy.

 

[Kaiser2016]

My two used to snag the treats then start barking again spewing out crumbs from the treat.

 

[GennyB]

What do you think?

Being a male, he is probably going to start maturing quickly at 22 months. I wouldn't want him heavier than he is now. Take that FWIW, I tend to like a leaner dog. I would keep a close eye cause that weight goes on a lot easier that it comes off.