The dog that came to live with my son Dan and I.  Here’s how it all started.

I got Scout, Belgian Malinois, female, dominant aggressive four years ago in early spring.  She was a rescue, brought to me a by a trainer from CA, Danielle Haffner – website here – completely free of charge.  Danielle is a true dog-humanitarian, what else can I say?  Go read about her.

Scout has been the queen of the roost as far as the house and property go and never shared me, or the place, with anyone else other than my kids, relatives, grandkids, etc.

She is truly a fright-night when other dogs are present, especially one that is female dominant like herself. She’s 7 now.  A wonderful companion, stays close, quiet, hardly ever barks unless she’s totally stressed, doesn’t chew up the household and responds well to many of my hand signals and voice commands…unless there’s another dog close to the fence or on a walk.  Then, there is no way to get through to her without buzzing her or startling her through the shock-collar.

I rarely use it but upon occasion it has come in very handy to remind her to behave.

She has also ‘protected’ me by biting two men on property, in two different incidents, after I walked ahead of them to talk about a yard project – they started following me, she nailed them.  She also went after a female friend of mine in the house.  That was my fault.  Scout wasn’t with me very long, I left my friend alone who was standing the kitchen and I headed for the bathroom. Scout was in the front room, my friend walked out from behind the breakfast bar and put her hand out to say “hello” and Scout leaped up, grazed my friend’s arm with her teeth and, I think it was her paw-nails, tore a hole in the thigh area of my friend’s jeans.  I should have been more aware but I hadn’t had a dog in a number of years, and definitely never one like Scout that is all about family protection.

That history being laid in, she has had a couple of fights with a dog that is a different breed, same size, female,  but has the same personality and lives across the street…Molly.  Molly will go over the fence and come out to fight, Scout is more than willing to take her on.  It’s happened a coupla times and I frigging hate it!  Neither dog wins.  Molly has taken the worst of it both times but it’s still hateful and it takes two people to drag them apart and get them away from each other.

Over the last few years I’ve toyed with the thought of getting another dog, wondered how Scout would take it, if she would eventually accept it or still continue with the same aggression.

After talking it over with Dan, a number of times, and reading a lot of information on the internet about dog introductions and working through the issue, we decided to bring another rescue home.  All the information pointed to a fairly young dog, male, etc., that would be more compatible and possibly fit in.

We/mainly me, started searching dog rescue groups in Pahrump.  It’s a joke.  Symphony Animal Foundation received a big amount of funding from either Nye County or the town of Pahrump (don’t quote me on this because I’m only writing what I’ve heard) and they built a great rescue facility, staffed, the whole nine-yards…but now they are shutting down.  WTF?

The Nye County Animal Control no longer houses stray dogs and tries to get them adopted.  They put them in a holding area where an owner has X amount of time to find them and then ships them out to other places around the area that will take them.  I sent emails, made phone calls, etc., and you can’t find jack-shit anyplace. Sure, I could drive to Vegas, but one of the main ones in Vegas didn’t even respond to my email.

There is one place in Pahrump named ‘West Star Ranch – old dog rescue’ that is active, but their website had the wrong contact info so I couldn’t call them. I drove out one Saturday morning and got there just before 10 AM when they open.  A woman pulled up a few minutes later.

After talking to her for a bit, Kim volunteers to help with everything needed.  There is a thrift store on property but the whole place needs a lot of work.  They receive no funding.  Their only income is through donated goods sold in the thrift store and donations of dog food, money, and people’s efforts to help.

We agreed a younger male might work and Scout could work in to it.  They happened to have one.  A wonderful, jumping, leaping 9-month old, all shots, neutered, looking for a home.  His owner had to go overseas and was sick at leaving him, but his loss was going to be our gain. Or so we hoped.

I loved Kim, great spirit, nice energy, and easy to talk to.  Dan and I came back the following day when Dan was off work, we had a new crate for Chevy, leash, and Dan had a pocket full of hot dogs.  No dog can resist hot dogs.

*brief interruption* Although Chevy’s paperwork from the county states that he’s German Shepherd and he is ‘small’ they are so far off, it’s not even funny.  We’ve found him after searching the Internet and he’s Rhodesian Ridgeback, without the ridge.  He may have some other mix and that’s why there is no ‘ridge hair’ but the following is a picture borrowed from animalia-life.com  that looks just like him…BTW, he is no small dog, his back is higher than Scout’s, his paws are bigger than my hand (not counting fingers) and we expect he will put on more growth over the next 5 to 6 months.  He weighs about 65 pounds right now, lean as a whip.

When we went to Chevy’s pen so Dan could look him over and take him out for a stroll, Dan gave him bits of hot dog through the fence.  When Dan was ready to leash him up for the walk, Kim asked, “Are you ready?”

Dan was, “Yeah,” as he laced his fingers into Chevy’s collar through the six-inch opening of the gate.  The gate swung open and the explosion started. They were down, rolling in the mud, (yah, it was the 3-day rain weekend), and Chevy was so excited he couldn’t stand himself.  It took Dan about 2-minutes to get the leash into the collar.  I wish I had a video…hysterical.

They went out for a walk, came back in about 20 minutes and Dan agreed, we should take him home.

I finished the paperwork, paid the licensing fee, and helped coax Chevy into the back seat with Dan.  I already had a dog cover on the back seat…*pats self on back  for thinking of it or it would’ve been a mud-disaster*.

Just before I left I told Kim I might be able to help them with their website. All help would be greatly appreciated…by everyone at the ranch.

So…dogzaster kicked into high gear.

Scout has a crate in my bedroom.  She loves it.  When we got home, she sniffed me up and down, Dan kept Chevy outside on a leash.  I took Scout to her crate and closed it and shut my bedroom door…she never stopped whining and barking.

Dan brought Chevy’s crate into his room to put it together, I stayed out in the car shed with Chevy.  He’s a wonderful boy.  Loves to be loved, we had a long heart-to-heart while I sat on a cement block and he sat right next to me with his head on my arm most of the time. The rain kept pounding the landscape, I scratched his ears and neck, he looked into my eyes and I just knew he should live with us. That was the brief lull before the mayhem began.

Scout tried to rip her crate door off, actually managed a pretty fine job of it, when Chevy was taken to Dan’s bedroom. Let the frantic sniffing under the door, chest heaving, wild-eyed barking begin.  Oh my!

We decided to see if they could even begin to be introduced.  I put Scout on her leash and went down the road to the desert.  Dan put Chevy on a leash and came out about 5 minutes behind us.  I continually talked to Scout, trying to get her to calm down and relax. It was kind of like dealing to Curtis Bibb when he was drinking and losing…tuck in and try to survive.

When we headed back to the house, Dan was on the street with Chevy coming towards us. Chevy was kind of jumping and walking with Dan, Scout had her best “I’m going to kill you!” attitude on as she tried to charge at them.  If I didn’t outweigh her by a 100 pounds, and know her tendencies, I would never have been able to hold her back.

We got about 15 feet from each other and for the first time, I think it dawned on Dan that this wasn’t going to work.  By now Scout was foaming/frothing at the mouth, choking herself out pulling on the leash and not even slowing down.

Dan, a bit letdown, said, “We have to take him back,” and headed for home. Chevy went back to Dan’s room, I put Scout in my room, and after we got Chevy outside, I let Scout out so she could roam the perimeter and make sure everything  was safe.

We took Chevy back to the rescue.  We were both heavy-hearted. After we got home, later that evening, I had a ‘girl-thing’ cry over it.  I loved Chevy, he would be a great dog for anyone.  I love my girl Scout, she’s a wonderful person.

From everything I had read, I knew the process could take up to two-months to introduce them, and then it still might not work.  I also knew that Scout seeing Chevy with Dan brought out an animal instinct/person feeling of jealousy and possible protection needed.  (Now after spending a bit more time on this, I think a lot of it is, “That’s my human, get the hell away from them.”

I talked to Dan about building a double-fenced pen for Chevy – that way they can’t fight through the fence and try to rip either’s lips off – and start initiating them to each other gradually.  He agreed that Chevy was a true gem and worth the effort.  I had to go to Vegas that night and on the way in I called Kim and told her we wanted him but we couldn’t get him until the following weekend,  They held him for us.

Dan got into high gear and built the pen, set up a tile area for his rug and food/water pans, and built a lean-to type of shade for cover for him, plus a Blue Ghost Eucalyptus tree is in his pen for a little cooling and plant life.

Chevy came home with us on Sunday, the 25th.  Since Chevy was already living in a pen, he doesn’t seem to mind being in it, and alone through part of the day. He comes in at night and stays in Dan’s room.  When Dan brings him in and out of the house, Scout is in my bedroom with me.

The first night was horrible. Dan was awake most of it with Chevy and he took him out a number of times for bathroom issues.  Scout wheezed and panted and jammed her nose under my door.

The second night we left music on all night, it seemed to help but then things slowly started to settle down.  The last two nights have been quiet, Scout has mostly stayed in her crate, Chevy is sleeping and not waking Dan.

We get up early, 5:30 to 6:00 AM.  I hate it.  I would love to revert back to my swing shift routine but we’ve been doing it for a number of months now to walk the desert early AM before it gets to hot.  We keep the same routine now.

Dan takes Chevy for a walk/road race, I take Scout out about an hour later for our walk.

I told Dan not to take the leash off of Chevy in the desert until Chevy started to pay attention to commands (he’s had some training but…). Dan is a bit hard-headed and sure he knows what’s best.

After two mornings back-to-back of Chevy seeing a rabbit and jumping from -0- to -60- in a heartbeat, Dan has now conceded that this needs a little work and the leash is a good idea.  Dan had to run his ass off to try and catch up/find Chevy, who by now, was sniffing bushes and checking out the landscape…about a 1/4 of a mile away.

When I got Scout, I never let her off the leash in the desert for the first few months…I knew I could never run her down so it was for my own good.

I take Chevy out for a property walk-around on the leash a couple of times a day, and Scout goes out for one too…on the leash.  I’ve managed to get her to walk up his pen, stick her nose through the first fence, and look at him while I keep talking to both of them.  He barks now and then.

Last night we were doing some work on Chevy’s pen and had Scout on a solid leash about 30 feet from us on a little grass patch we built for her.  She barked her ass off, prancing and wheezing when I went inside with Dan, only stopping a few times. I’m sure part of it is the jealousy thing.

It will be quite some time before they are ever going to get a chance to get close enough to sniff noses, but we are hopeful it will work out.  In the meantime, there have been no bites, tears, or rips on either dog.  They are both wonderful, and if it was like this until who knows when, it would work.

Dan will let Chevy off the leash – if the neighbors across the street have their dogs inside – in the back of the property.  Chevy is hysterical, he runs, leaps up in front of your face to look at you, runs some more, and loves to put his head against your thigh for hugs and pets.

We have a six-foot chain link fence on two sides of the property.  Monte (sis’s beau) put it up as they, and me, had already concluded we would buy the materials and he would do the work.  He’s incredible at all tasks and the fence is perfect. He’s working full-time now so the front and side between them and me is still a 4-foot field run fence.

I planted clusterberry bushes/hedge three years ago along the front and side and they are growing beautifully, about five feet tall, close to four feet across.  I wanted a privacy hedge.

A few mornings ago, Dan had Chevy off leash and the school kids were walking by to go to the bus, the neighbors dogs started raising a fuss (normal for them) and Dan said Chevy ran to the fence and then sailed over it, bushes and all, and wanted to join the party.  WOOPS!

So now, until the chain link fence is finished or if the dogs across the street are out, Chevy has to be leashed for yard walks.  I sure as hell can’t run that boy down.

Otherwise, all is good.  The dogzaster may grow into a bunch of fun loving yard romps and desert walks for all.

Updates as they happen.