Only Child

It has certainly been proven to us that Ollie prefers to be the only child. Since we've adopted him from Homeward Bound, we didn't know too much about his history. Whether or not he was raised in a home with many other animals or that he had be the only dog. None of this was clear to us. It wasn't till recently that Doc and I discover that he really PREFERS to be the only child. Especially with his new roomie around.
Much jealousy has ensued in the Ollie household. I'm not too keen on dog behavior but the best way i can describe it is to equate this animal behavior to humans. For example, the past few nights, when Doc and I head off to bed, we have a ritual of dragging Cosmo's bed to the hall way near our bedroom. Two dog beds in our bedroom is too many beds. There is barely room to walk around, so we just put the bed in the hallway. Ollie's bed is already placed in the corner but of course Cosmo will most likely be in it. Ollie refuses to sleep in Cosmo's bed for some reason. He would rather cope with the hardwood floors than to sleep in Cosmo's bed. Recently Ollie's been pacing back and forth in the middle of the night because Cosmo is in HIS bed. A couple of nights he would wander out to the living room to sleep in his other bed and be "away" from us.
The biggest indicator to us of course is the several mounting session that happens in our home. Back and forth the two dogs would try to mount each other. The best was last night. Ollie went over to Cosmo, who was laying down. Sat his butt right on top of Cosmo's head and started humping his head. Doc and I looked at each other with huge question marks on our faces and then of course busted out in laughter. We certainly need to get this on film.

Summer Fun

With the hot and dry weather, Ollie was happier than ever that I came home with this new toy. I bought the boys their own pool.
When we first met Ollie, he showed us how much he loved the water. He sat in a large horse troft with 3 inches of water and rolled around with such joy.
Here is Ollie cooling off in the heat. He's usually the first one in and last one out.

Bad Mommie

Last week Ollie and Cosmo went for a walk and game of fetch. We usually play on the grassy area near our home, but with two dogs I wasn't sure how Cosmo would behave with out a fenced-in area. Instead, we met up with a neighboring dog, named Maveric(golden doodle) and headed to the back of an abandoned warehouse that had lots of room to safely roam. Or at least I thought it was safe.
Ollie has gone to this area many times to play with other neighborhood dogs. Fetch on the hard gravel wasn't too much of a problem, but I did notice his paws would become inflamed when we got home. Doc warned me it was probably not a good idea to continue this, but Ollie always seem to be having so much fun!This occurrence was not much fun at the end. After twenty minutes of fetch, I noticed Ollie limping. He didn't dart off to chase the ball any more. Seeing that he was tired, I began to head home and take the dogs back. We live about three blocks from our home, so it was still quite a trek back. While walking back, Ollie darts onto the soft grassy area. Still stumbling and then all of a sudden, sat down. Would not move!
I kept pulling, not know what was wrong? Did he break his leg? Did he hurt himself? or was he just lazy and wanted to rest? I really got concerned because he has NEVER done this. He's sat down after a good game of fetch, but his legs never shook or in a sense collapsed. It was frightening. I sat down and examined his paws. They were torn up! Poor thing! The pads on his feet were separated from his foot. Like when you get blisters on your hands from playing on the monkey bars too much. Three out of his four paws were torn like this. Poor Ollie was injured, but he still was brave enough to not whimper or whine. We ended up sitting on the corner of this apartment complex while I called my brother to come pick us up. We were still a couple blocks from home, and there was no way I would make Ollie walk. Plus, there was no way I was lifting him up since he was a hefty 70 lbs. Luckily I got a hold of Billy and was able to get a ride home. Ollie was out of commission several days after that. He certainly was not himself and had difficulty walking. David wasn't too pleased with my decision to run Ollie on the hard concrete, but was still helpful in nursing Old Ollie back to health.

New Roomie

Ollie's got a new friend staying with us for three weeks. My friend, Shannon is in the middle of moving to another state and needed us to pet sit for their 7 year old German Shepard mix. Cosmo is such a doll. He's really docile and submissive and really easy to care for. Maybe the fact that he's older and has "been there, Done that" kind of attitude, he's more interested in sleeping than playing too much.
Ollie on the other hand wasn't too happy with sharing his mom and dad with a brother from another mother. I've never had two 70 pound dogs in my home before so it's been interesting to get adjusted to. Ollie has certainly displayed territorial traits that I'm not to proud to report. Along with the marking of territory in our back yard, he will physically try to get in between Cosmo and I. When I go to greet Cosmo and give him a belly rub, Ollie would squeeze right in between us and gesture my hand to pet him instead. On several occasions he's tried to mount Cosmo when they are playing outside just to show "this is my house!" attitude.
I'm finding that I have to feed them separately because Ollie will inhale his food and attack Cosmo's bowl right away. Poor Cosmo just walks away and lets Ollie bully him out of the kitchen. So I've learn that one dog eats inside and the other dog gets a picnic outside.
The first night was the toughest. Cosmo came to stay with us and brought his own bed to sleep in. Cosmo decides he like's Ollie's bed better. Though Cosmo sleeps in the living room and Ollie sleeps in our bedroom. Ollie decides that he must walk the grounds to make sure Cosmo was in his place. All night long, all i can hear was the scratching of dog paws trotting back and forth down the hallway. Being a light sleeper didn't help either. "GO TO BED OLIVER!" I finally screamed since I was fed up with the Ollie's new nocturnal activities.
Finally the second night was a lot better since I moved both their beds into the hallway for Ollie to keep an eye on everyone. Some of my friends have said that two dogs are easier than one. They've never lived with my Ollie.