The Big Snip

Well Archie is now just over 10 months old. He's trying to assert himself which means marking his territory down to the nearest twig every 10 yards and pouncing like an idiot on any other local dogs. He assumes that all humans want him to jump up on their clean trousers to give him kisses and cuddles and also assumes all other dogs should play with him. However, his approach leaves much to be desired. When he wants to play, he pounces on the other dog, hugging them around the neck or tugging on an ear. If he's not doing that he's too busy jumping around on all fours or running laps around them. Although reasonably endearing he is truly a pest sometimes and we've yet to master the recall totally. He's slowly ostrasizing himself from the other local dogs and only the big dogs will to play with him now, because they can sit on him if he gets too much. 

 We deliberated long and hard over castrating Archie, and finally came to the conclusion that as we aren't going to  breed with him, it might calm him down a bit and stop his dominant streak. The results (4 weeks on now) have been pretty good! He's just as bouncy, but more playful than dominant and also listens to us that bit more. We haven't perfected recall, but it's improving. Success i think!