The Story of BB the Great Dane

BB in the early morning light, 40 weeks old

Beebers had a much better Friday night last night than he has in a solid month! Even with a whiney fussy toddler in his home (LAST TIME!), he was much calmer about it when Mom stayed calm. An episode of the Dog Whisperer finally turned on the lightbulb for Mom about “two negative energies” colliding: when he’s misbehaving, the more she gets irritated and angry, the worse BB gets. I guess she just needed to hear it the way Cesar said it.

So she started finding that “sweet spot” between firm and patient with him. Yay! Thursday night was absolutely horrible with those two fussing with each other. I got so tired of Mom yelling at BB and BB running wild that I went upstairs. Maybe this won’t happen again? Friday night’s relative relaxation in the face of his worst fears (a 2 year old little person) is very encouraging.

BB has changed alot the past 2-3 months. Back in the day, when BB was upset his brother’s presence would calm him. Now that they are almost adolescents, the two unnuetered males don’t relax each other ever. Since I stopped trying to rehabilitate BB’s fear of children, as well as train my own pup, Beebers isn’t a quick to mind me. His overall pushiness and not minding has gotten worse.

Puppies change!

BB at 10 months, right on the verge of the teenage male stuff, really really REALLY needed his Mom to get the idea of CALM discipline. Her tendency is to screeeeeech, get angry, pull away, and other behaviors that dogs see as weakness instead of leadership. So last night, she tried the other end. It worked! (of course)

BB does things like swat for attention, demand food at the table, nip at Mom’s feet when she won’t play with him, grab hands and pant legs when you’re walking away, try to shove his way onto Mom’s spot on the couch, bark when left in his expen… pushy and dominant. He was getting worse, so thank you Cesar!

I’m greatly relieved Mom is learning to discipline BB with calmness. It’s much more effective at preventing escalation, and he needs some heavy duty toning down and putting in his place to stop with wild and toothy. I’m really hoping she sets her mind to stay on this course, becoming less reactive herself. It would be so good for her, and everyone else!

I still believe that once she gets BB under her control, we can finally get the two boys to behave without constant, exhausting, and frustrating interference from us. Or having that darned old barrier up. I’m tired of shuffling the boys around so we keep them seperated. BB tangles up his brother’s legs and nips him all the time, every chance he can touch flesh.  

Beebs is absolutely relentless about getting his brother riled up, and once Kenai decides to knock him around, 120 plus pounds of irritated puppy is hard to command without equal intensity. Mostly they just want to play, but BB pushes it farther and it turns into something else in the blink of an eye.

I can correct Kenai and walk him away, but BB’s getting mixed signals if Mom doesn’t make it stick. We had once incident of Kenai getting really angry, and it was not easy to back him off, either. That came dreadfully close to the day of reckoning for a spoiled puppy we call Banana Butt.

The fine day was coming, when teenage or adult Kenai was going to use his extra poundage to more than kick his brother’s bent butt but good. I’ve always worried about that day. Kenai could easily injure BB or even kill him in a serious blood drawing battle.

I don’t allow ANY dominance in Kenai, with humans or his brother. He’s 25 pounds heavier than little brother, with solid muscle and perfect joints. Even still a puppy, Kenai would not be anything resembling a wuss. It certainly would take a tremendous amount of torment to push him far enough to fight like he meant it; he’s the most tolerant, obedient, gentle pup I’ve ever seen in 37 years of owning dogs.

Kenai is stoic, calm, and fearless. He won’t back down to little brother if he’s had enough, and he knows he can take him. He only puts up with so much before he takes matters into his own teeth. The threshold is very high, but his limits are definite. If Mom can’t back BB down into calm submissive role like his brother, eventually Kenai will do it for us.

That’s why Mom’s change of heart makes me feel better today about the prospects of a peaceful home this winter! Also happy is this being the last weekend my brother will live here. He’s been reminded every week for 6 weeks that he is leaving this week. Response: still unemployed, hasn’t left the house a single time to stop at the “now hiring” signs all over town.

Get any job to pay bills and child support, find a place to live, and work a crummy job until you find the job you want isn’t an idea that appeals to him. It will be an ugly week, finding out the foot dragging didn’t work this time. I hope Mom remains calm with my brother’s volatile moods, or both boys will be hard to handle.

So things are looking up when looking beyond the next week! The day we can take the barrier down in the living room and watch TV without a single ‘Hey, knock it off’ will be V-Day. It’s possible, but I can’t do it by myself, so keep up the good work with BB Mom!