Jaci Dawn

We spent the first two weeks of Harvey’s new life here just trying to keep him separate from Murphy. We weren’t too concerned they would fight, but we needed to keep them from playing too rough together.

I also had to avoid the temptation to give Harvey a bath and that was a real temptation since he’d peed all over himself when he was at the pound.

We let the dogs out together last Thursday. Harvey has to be tethered because he is a “runner”, but I found a long nylon horse lunge line that works perfectly for restraining him and yet allowing him to play rough with Murphy. I was afraid a cable or a chain would hurt a dog if it got tangled up, but the flat nylon is easy to untangle and doesn’t hurt as much. And it is longer than a cable or a chain, allowing for more movement. The caveat is: you have to monitor Harvey because he might conceive of chewing through the nylon. A very small caveat.

Sunday, Harvey got a bath while Murphy was out in the mountains hiking. Harvey came mostly clean, but not entirely. I’m going to have to return to the farm store and purchase some horse shampoo for white horses to see if I can work the yellow stain out of his long fur. I used to use some on my little white Appaloosa mare, so I know it’s out there.

Harvey wasn’t thrilled with a bath but he didn’t fight it, either. I found several old scabs that he must have earned when he was roaming free, before he was captured by Animal Control and taken to the pound. Makes me wonder, once again, what his story is.

Sunday afternoon late, Murphy returned from his grueling mountain hike.

Harvey jumped up and acted like his best friend had just returned from a long vacation. He was almost as excited to see Murphy as he is to see me after a long day away at work!

Murphy was a bit too tired after his hike to get too worked up.

There’s a definite pecking order in place as Harvey ducks down and Murphy takes the upper hand.

And this is about as rough as it gets.

Murphy does a lot of barking (we discovered that a loud “QUIET!” followed with a show of a squirt bottle works wonders to silence him) and Harvey runs in short circles for a minute before rolling over onto the grass and trying to dig a hole to hide in (another reason for the squirt bottle: to stop the digging).

It’s been an interesting experience. When Murphy was a pup, the water bottle didn’t work: he thought it was funny to turn into the bottle and lap up the water as we squirted him. Apparently he’s forgotten that trick and the squirt bottle now works wonders.

When we are not looking, sometimes Murphy hauls one of his precious “sticks” over to Harvey to “share”. Harvey doesn’t quite know how to play “stick”, but he does understand he’s being given a gift and he cheerfully chews on the stick with Murphy.

And then I caught him with the hose… I don’t know if Murphy hauled the hose to him or he discovered it on his own, but it had a nice hole in it when I caught him. I scolded him verbally and he cowered, tucked his tail and ran under the handicap ramp to hide.

Dang! Someone has used blunt force to correct him! I don’t mean a rolled up newspaper, either: Harvey thought I was going to hit him with the stick or my foot or … something more evil than the water bottle or a mere scolding. Once again, I wonder what his story is and I know whoever had him before me did not deserve him!

I wasn’t that upset about the hose, anyway: it already was bulging behind one of the couplings and I knew I’d have to shorten it and put a new coupling on it. Now I just have to throw it away because Harvey put a hole in the middle of it. Somewhere, we have a hose with a Murphy hole in it. And we still have extra hoses that are good.

I don’t like the digging, but as I find places where Harvey has tried to dig, I sprinkle on an organic compound to repel dogs & cats from digging (it contains a lot of pepper & sells for cheap at stores like Krogers or Wal-Mart). I’ve been using it for several years to keep Murphy from digging up my newly planted flowers & bulbs (after the year he dug up every single anenome I planted and ate them).

There were so many variables in bringing home a new male dog to a house with an established dominant dog, but both dogs – and both dog parents – have been learning how to manage. The dogs just happen to be well-socialized dogs (with other dogs) and the issue of dominance was settled with just a few short growls before we ever let them loose to play. The squirt bottle has been invaluable and I carry it in my hip pocket much of the time when both dogs are out (Harvey responds quite well to a sharp word). We’ve been able to have both dogs together in the small living room and still enjoy a movie (until some idiot down the road sets off fireworks and upsets Murphy – but that’s a whole rant and has nothing to do with dogs socializing).

Hard to believe this is only the third week of Harvey’s new life in his Forever Home.