The Devildog

My previous blog was about my beautiful laid back Chloe, unfortunately things have not been so easy with our second dog, Gemma aka The Devildog!

Before I start, I have to say that we are now in a good place with Gemma and she is a very much loved part of our family - but - it took a long time to get there and for the first 6-9 months of having her she was referred to as The Devildog and certainly lived up to her name!

I've lost count of the number of beds and leads we have gone through as she has chewed and ripped them all up.

Gemma is 2 year old Great Dane x Labrador (again this is our best guess, she is another rescue dog). We adopted her when she was 9 months old, we thought Chloe would like a companion and with Chloe being such a low maintenance how hard could 2 dogs be!

I was very wrong...Gemma was a nightmare! She had so much energy and we had so much to teach her as her early training obviously had a few gaps.

First lesson - dogs are not allowed on the sofa - that was an ongoing battle that we only won through arming ourselves with a small water pistol and she got a small squirt on the nose every time she tried to climb on the sofa - it worked like magic!

I took her to a training class every week and she quickly rose through the ranks proving she is smart and eager to learn and behave for treat rewards. But I became frustrated because she was perfect (most times) at training but out and about on her walks all her good behaviour was forgotten and I was one of those people struggling to control a big black dog that people would avoid as we walked down the street :-(

Through time and understanding we are making progress and our walks are much more peaceful now, I'm beginning to learn that although she acts all big and mean jumping around and barking it is actually a result of her being scared or uncertain and not knowing what to do so she reverts to her defensive instincts. That realisation has really helped me to deal with her behaviour as I now reassure her when I see her behaviour start to change instead of shouting and getting angry at her which just made her worse.

The problem is she doesn't realise that she is a big black dog and most other dogs and people are scared of her without her doing anything so her big bravado act is not needed.

Thankfully she has also stopped destroying her beds and is now just sleeping on them :-)
We'll get there with time and patience and more socialisation for her.  I would definitely think twice about getting a young dog again - older dogs are so much more settled and comfortable with the world.