As you all already probably know.. I am like the local animal rescue in town. Here is the one dog who has that extra special place in our ♥ "Maxwell, Maximus"
I got a whatsapp one morning almost 4 yrs ago now, stating that there was this dane who a lady had confiscated from his owner's wife the previous day and brought him home.. but now "this dog" wants to eat her dane puppy so she locked him in her garage.. can I help?!
Here is the image I was sent,, clearly skinny dude but by no means aggressive features at all.
So of course here I climb into our SUV to go and collect this special breed of dog. On arrival at the ladies house I asked her to please let me meet him as I will be taking him home with me now and I asked her the dogs history "this helps my husband to introduce our newcomer to the right dogs in our current pack on arrival" So it turned out that he had a total of about 5 owners in his life and he was about 3 yrs of age. This lady who currently had him locked up in her garage had confiscated him from his owners wife the previous day as she was having a visit by her friend when she looked over the wall to see this dog locked up in a cage in the full summer sun without food or water in sight! WT@! This triggered me indeed, and now this poor baby is in a freaking GARAGE! When I told this lady to please just open the garage so that I can meet him to see his initial temperament etc.. to gauge how I would be able to help him I was told (oh no! he is much to aggressive to let out of the garage!) Well.. me being the blunt person I am, I burst into laughter. I mean here I am to just take this "monster" off her hands and she won't let me touch the dog :o) Well after I had a good laugh, I repeated myself telling her to just open the bloody door because the dog is coming home with me regardless of if he truly is this "monster" or not lol.
WELL! This was indeed a massive "monster dog" because he nervously greeted me and as soon as I showed affection he was a ball of love. I then asked the lady why she had labelled him as aggressive?! This was clearly just a malnourished dog, no horrible ways that I could see. Then I was told that she had taken him from his owner's wife's house and traveled back home with him in the car (2hr drive) and then when getting home she fed her dane puppy and him in the courtyard TOGETHER! I began giggling again.. Alright I said, remember that a Great Dane puppy is super bombastic, loud and in your face! You took a adult, malnourished, stressed Dane and jammed him into a courtyard which he didn't know along with your lively pup and "fed" them.. Of freaking course the dog will not tolerate competition to his food.. Goodness knows when last he had a meal!
I tried to educate this lady on introducing newbies,, but I honestly think it fell on deaf ears.
I took this photo of Maximus somewhere during his first week living with us... He looks really scary hey. LOL!
Maxi had issues with my cats in the beginning which took hubby a good few months to get out of him. He just slipped right into our existing pack without one hiccup.
He just wouldn't eat! This was a huge concern to us because he was already so thin. The second day of being with us he stole an entire loaf of bread and scoffed it down like nothing. Hubby then called our vet to ask why on earth would he do this but refuse his dog kibble?, answer was simple.. in our area a certain race of people "who I will not mention as I do not believe all of them are like this" they only feed their dogs bread as it is the cheapest form of food.. INSANE, Right?!
It literally took us weeks of me standing with him and his bowl and hand feeding him the kibble until he realized it is actually tasty lol.
Along with all the drama this poor dude had been through he had severe separation anxiety! He bonded with me and still is my big baby, but he couldn't handle it if we went away overnight..
Maximus simply LOVES my girls. From the very first night in our house,, I will never forget what a fright I got. Melody was a tiny baby sleeping in her crib, when she woke up her crib jiggled slightly and before I could even stand up Maximus was already there with his big black head inside checking on her if she was ok. Ever since that night he guarded her like GOLD.
Honestly he has become our packs biggest mascot!, every time I introduce a newbie he is the welcoming party for them. Super cute haha.
Lots of love to you all ♥