1. We have noticed that our little chi has become more aggressive with Duke (the Mastiff) as Duke grows older. We see it when Duke wants to play and take all the toys for himself. In every-bodies honest opinion, who should actually be the one being disciplined? The Chi for defending himself, or the Mastiff who gets over energized and wants to play...
2. Duke with a major medical setback about a month ago. He had a bad case of pneumonia, still don't know which type either fungal, parasitic, bacterial, or viral. It was cheaper to treat for all 4 at once. He now has bounced back to 87# at 6 months. Considering that we almost lost him virtually overnight, is this cause of concern of his weight being on the low side of the scale?
3. We had been giving him trifexus since he was brought home at 8 weeks. This time, after giving it to him, he responded by vomiting it up that same day. I purposely waited a week after his rabies shot because he gets allergic reactions to all his vaccines not limited to the lepto. He has to have an allergen shot just to get any shots whatsoever. Any suggestions on a different oral flea/heart medicine for mastiffs?
4. Humping.. Where to begin.. It is most common at night, once I get home from work. Granted, he see's me a few hours before work, then I'm gone for the next 8-10 hours (husband is home in evenings with them both). And generally, he only wants to hump me after I'm laying down in bed ready for the night.. at almost 100#'s it's like pushing another person off and way. He does take his paw and like swipes at me as if trying to knock me over. What type of discipline should be used when he is in this mode.
5. I measured from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail and he measured 59". and from shoulder to paw standing on floor 28". y main concern is that his hip bones in the back are now starting to show.. but he has a lean firm body and huge huge paws and legs.... Does the back hip bones by the tail bone show mean we are not feeding him enough?
6. We have been trying food after food and have FINALLY found food that doesn't make him sick and poo go splat. He is on Bil Jac large breed puppy food and ranges from 6 - 7 cups a day, plus 1 cup of broth broken into equal parts through out the 4 feeds. That eliminated the pooping all the time by breaking his meals up in parts. We also give him a dollop of pumpkin now with two of the main meals and poop is firm as it should be. We are just concerned we are not feeding him enough.. he is at 87# and he just turned 6 months on the 22nd of this month....
7. Is it aggression, dominance, or protection kicking in. Up until he got sick and spent 5 days in and out of the hospital, he never barked, growled or even shy-ed away. During his hospital stay they fell in love with him and he fell in love with them as well. He never shows aggression/dominance over our "pack" except the chi when they get into it about who has what toy for how long and who is sitting in who's spot on our couch or who is getting petted or leashed first. now on walks he barks and sometimes even growls at people. We have to get him in by leaving a trail of crumb treats to get him in the house until HE is ready to come in. he will just sit on the porch scanning from side to side and letting out a woof when somebody comes by... and now when we go to the pet store (if the chi is with us) he is in full out protection mode. Is this something more serious then him going through a "phase" of showing dominance..
8. Training- What type of training at this point should we invest in? we've done the puppy class at pet smart and did wonderful.. sitting, stay, lay stay, leave it.. not drop it.. never would pick that one up.. but loose leash walking is a nightmare.. We have went through every type of harness there is including gentle leaders, leash walking harnesses, even attempted a prong collar which I obviously don't know how to use it and we took it back almost immediately because I felt barbaric. Since they are not suppose to be active, obviously any type of "agility" training is out of the question with our local k-9 police department that offers classes on the weekend. I'm in the central Florida Area.. Any suggestions even if it's a book, DVD, or private trainers? I know we need to nip this in the bud..
He will walk decently by himself, but add the Chi in.. and it's on like donkey kong.. PLUS he won't walk more than a block in either direction and will not let us go out of eye sight of our home....
9. House training- he is 99.9% crate trained. In the past 4 months he has only had two accidents in his crate. that's it! He is 90% pad trained and only reason he misses he pads is because he's to big for them and over shoots or under steps... He will go outside on command, but getting him to let us know he has to go is the issue. We have yet to figure out his clues. At this point shouldn't he be 100% house trained with no pads? My CHI was 100% house trained up until lately.. he has to pee over where duke pees on the pad.. Duke is still squatting to go pee.. is that normal at 6 months?
10. Bottom line.. if he was going to hurt, Mame, or GOD forbid kill our CHI, wouldn't he have done it already by now? I'm so scared that the playing will get to rough and snap goes a chi neck. Duke likes to grab him by the neck and when that happens.. my chi goes into psycho mood... It's like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide. If Duke was the same size as Davidson, Davidson would have eaten him for breakfast. I feel this is our fault for not allowing Davidson (The Chi) to "teach" him bit inhibition, or to play fair. When Duke was same size as Davidson, we would get in the middle because duke was a baby and we didn't want Davidson to hurt him.. Now it's turned the other way around.. Any Suggestions?