Timber come, Timber go

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From Annie: Hi, y'all. How are you, we missed you. Don't know why the blogsite was down. Some hacker, apparently. Well, here we are again. It's good to be back. We've been busy with so many things. Unpacking the essentials, some higgledy-piggedly furniture, especially our two rocking chairs. One from Grama in Duncan, for when Joey was born, and one from Jeanette and Steve (God love them), what a great rocking chair that is. Have I written all this before? I can't recall, maybe it's deja vu. In any case those rocking chairs are worth mentioning again. We also bought some outside fold-up chairs, which have somehow migrated from the porch into the living room. There's one you can put your feet up, which is our neighbours' favorite. His name is Don, and is the stepfather of Aaron, who is our real estate agent Mary's son. Aaron is 12 like Joey, and the two get along like a house on fire. They both love X Box games. Joey went for a sleep over at Aaron's house on the week end, and Aaron also had his two best buddies there. The four of them had a blast. Mary and Don gave them the run of the house, including the pantry. All they did was play X Box, for like, oh, Joey counted out 17 hours! Until 7 AM ! They took little sugar breaks. Mary said they ate sweets, then ran around the house whooping and yelling, laughing and chasing each other, then went right back to the game. Joey came home half asleep, with red eyes, and grinning like a Chechire cat. He was so happy he was glowing. Greg's been busy getting the new appliances in, looking after the house, Joey, myself, and now .... Timber. His real name is Sequoia's Timber, and he's a NAID. A Native American Indian Dog. It's a real breed, registered with the American Kennel Society. It's the dog breed that had served the Natives for hundreds of years as guard dogs, hunting and fishing companions, sled dogs, and food source. They became nearly extinct when the Natives were forced onto reservations. The breeder we got him from made it her mission to bring this breed back. Timber had been sold to a lady and her son when he was a puppy, but they brought him back after a year, because the lady had "multiple losses" and didn't have the emotional reserves to look after him, we were told. So back he went to the kennel, where he was
in a fenced small area with two females, whom he had to fight for his food. We saw this happen. I was only there to cuddle him a bit to see if I was allergic, so we could get a puppy for Joey. But he looked so sad, and was so beautiful with kind eyes, that we fell in love with him. So we got him instead of a little puppy. He was delivered in a small van full of yapping little toy dogs, by a lady and her daughter who do pet deliveries all across the U.S. Timber went from Michigan down to Boston and wherever else over the course of 2 days, before we picked him up in Bangor, Maine. That's only 2 1/2 hours from Woodstock. Since then, the last 3 days have been very exciting, but also emotionally draining, especially for Greg. The last 3 days feel as full as two weeks. So much happened with Timber. He is very smart, and every little gesture, word, pat on the head etc. means something to him and creates behavioral consequences. We're training him, and he is training us. Some things were mysterious to us, until we considered the fact that he thinks in pack mentality. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Aug 25. It's been some time since I typed the above and saved it. It's been a rough time since then. Here's a copy of a letter I sent to a friend:: In the meantime, we had bought a dog from a Michigan breeder, a Native American Indian Dog (NAID) called Timber, who was already a year and a half old. He was introduced to us as a "rescue dog, who had been dropped off unanounced back at the kennel by his owner, a woman who had gone through multiple losses adn couldn't take care of him anymore." He was so beautiful, the size of a grown german shepherd, with a coat like a wolf. At first, all seemed to go okay, and he was behaving. We spent many, many hours with him in the first 4 days, taking him for walks, sitting with him on the porch until he fell asleep for a nap , watching the world go by. Timber especially liked to stare for a long time at things, like cats walking by, dogs, people walking, kids on bikes, birds in the trees, rustling leaves...his ears playing to catch every little sound. Everything Timber found fascinating became interesting to me as well, it was hypnotic; like watching the ants march through the grass was a spectacle. At night, he would be in the mud room, like a mini-garage, because Greg was concerned he'd chew through stuff in the house at night. The plan was to get him used to the crate, move the crate in the house, and then have him sleep in the house in the crate. But he hated being in the mudroom at night, he really wanted to be with us, so he kept busy chewing up the doorframe. Greg was up for hours the second night throwing shoes at the door whenever Timber whined or chewed the door.( It worked, actually.) We could have dealt with these things, as Timber was learning very quickly. The problem was his strong herding instinct, with him nipping our heels, even the real estate agent's, when we lagged behind in his opinion. He drew blood on both legs in the real estate agent. He also tore sleeves, trying to pull us closer into the "pack". He loved us all to be close together. But the more we gave him affection, mixed with a healthy dose of appropriate discipline, the more he became demanding and controlling. At the same time he became really attached to me, as I had a few days off and loved to spend hours with him hanging out in the sunny garden, me in a garden chair reading, and him chewing on a big cow bone that Greg had got him. He became cold toward Greg and Joey. On the third and fourth day, he attacked Greg. No bites, but it was scaringly close. What had happened is that I had the leash, which apparently meant control over Timber, which at this point he only accepted from me. Not clueing in to that fact, I handed the leash to Joey. Timber didnt like it, stiffening up and looking displeased, but tolerated it as I was still close by. Then Greg came out, and Joey handed him the leash. When Greg took the leash, Timber lunged at him, growling with teeth bared, with murder in his eyes. I had to hold Timber back. We were shocked. We realized that all trust was gone, and there could be no future with Timber, as Greg is, de facto, the alpha-male, and Timber couldn't accept that. After the initial shock and extreme disappointment had worn off , Greg consulted with dog experts by phone, like a retired RCMP officer who had trained police dogs. The consensus was, that nothing could be done to train this dog to be obedient to a male to a point where he wouldn't ever be a danger. There would always be a level of danger, and one should never be relaxed around Timber. He was a wolf, really. He'd always fight to be the alpha-male and be in control. He would be a danger Joey, the "second in command". We also phoned the previous owner in Connecticut. Here's the kicker. The breeder had told us that the woman owner never had problems with Timber, and that Timber was a good dog, a great dog for a family. When we spoke to the woman in Connecticut, the story was this: They are a family, including her husband. Timber had the run of their 600 acre (!) property, and he loved herding the deer. He chased rabbits to his heart's content. (the RCMP dog specialist told us it makes a huge difference in a dog's behaviour toward humans if the dog has ever killed anything, like a rabbit). At night, the woman would ring a large cow bell to call Timber home for the night. Timber really loved her, and the two were really close, and her husband was out all day working. Unfortunately, she started to let Timber sleep in her bed. When the hubby came home in the evening, her attention was on hubby, and Timber didnt like this. He then turned on the hubby and became aggressive when hubby wanted to go to bed, as Timber had claimed the bed. So hubby had to sleep elsewhere. Finally, hubby made the woman choose between him and Timber. Timber had to go. They discussed this with the breeder on the phone, and she let them send Timber back to her kennels. There he was for 6 months before we met him, sharing a small open-air space with two strong females, whom he had to fight for his food. Then we came into the picture. The breeder had not told us about Timber's true history, and had painted a rosy picture of him in order to get rid of him and make a profit in the process. She took advantage of our naivete, our enthusiasm to have a dog, and our wish to give this poor "abandoned" dog a loving home. Now we couldn't keep Timber for his aggressive tendencies. There was no way he could be trusted, he'd always fight for control and refuse to be dominated by a male. We were heart-broken.
So, then Greg phoned 11 animal shelters and SPCA's, with full disclosure of the problem. None wanted Timber. On the 5th day of Timber being with us, we had to put him down. There was no place for him in normal society. We were devastated. He was so beautiful and spirited, so strong. He belonged on those 600 acres chasing deer and rabbits. Because I was the one he had really taken to, I was the one to take him in to be put down. I was with him, bawling my eyes out. We had a really rough few days after that, emotionally. Greg had spent so much time, energy and money on Timber, and had initially bonded with him before getting attacked. And we had been very happy that I wasn't allergic to Timber. And I really wasn't. At first we thought we'd get another NAID, this time a small puppy, but we have lost trust in the breeder,whom we're really angry with for deceiving us. But we'll be looking into other breeds to see if we can find another one I'm not allergic to. We'll just give it some time. ////
Well, we're slowly climbing out of the emotional hole. We went to see The Bourne Ultimatum (good movie) and Mr. Bean (cute and funny). Joey has a friend over right now, playing X-Box and having a good time. Greg is in his kitchen, creating a terryake sauce for my tofu. It's therapeutic for him to cook and bake...
Right now he's on the phone with Ryan.
Well, we hope you're all doing fine, and let us know how you are.

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Photos

Timber
He was beautiful, and when he was good, it was great to be around him.

Timber at his favourite spot
He loved to just stand there for an hour or more and just observe, then flop down and nap, surrounded by us all.

Comments

[chris]

from Chris
Sorry to hear the story of Timber - It's cruel that the breeder chose greed over placing Timber into a suitable environment while fully knowing Timbers strengths and weaknesses. The breeder, like a parent and guardian was responsible to society, to his customers, future customers and to God for Timber, this child of the wilderness. Some complaint should be filed against him with some authority, perhaps in a joint letter with the former owner. Wishing you quality time in the comfort of your family. Luv Chris.