He soon formed a VERY strong bond with us, but remained terrified of anyone he didn't know for quite some time. He was an incredibly naughty puppy (Separation Anxiety) he completely destroyed our home!
We tried crate training him, but failed miserably, we would leave him in there quite happily, but each time we returned home he greeted us at the door! (We even tried padlocks!) We couldn't lock him in or out of a room because he would just jump up, pull the handle down and open the door....He has never yet come across a door that he can't work out how to open.
As he matured and we got his confidence up he became aggressive towards strangers.
Lots of patience and HEAPS of love turned him into the lovely, really well behaved boy that he is today. We are very proud of him and often get praised by strangers for his good behaviour.
He is still very wary of strangers that come to the house and still gets anxious about anything new or different, but is now fine with everyone when we are out on walks.
He trusts us 100%
Last year he ripped one of his claws out and boy! did that bleed a lot.
As much as it must have hurt him (he would flinch when we touched his paw) Every time he saw us with a clean bandage. without us having to say a word, he would sit down and put his bad paw high in the air (almost like a high five) and leave it there until we had changed the bandage.
Unlike Kaya, my other dog, he isn't greedy, he only eats when he is hungry. He is bursting with energy and really enjoys all his walks. He can run like the wind!! He has 3 or 4 good runs a day....Sometimes more if the weather is good. I think he would continue running all day if we didn't stop him to take breaks.
His level of understanding never fails to amaze me! We go on frequent camping trips in our caravan, the first thing I do when we arrive is take the dogs bowls to the water tap (Which is quite a distance away from our caravan) and fill them up with water. I always say to Paul; "I'm just getting some water" Before I know what's happening Ollie is running off and racing me to the tap (it goes without saying that he always wins!) where he just sits and waits for me. On one occasion Ollie was playing with a small boy, the boy's mother shouted him and asked him to get some water. The boy looked at me and asked me where to get it from, I said "Ask Ollie?" He did and to his amazement (and mine if I am honest!) Ollie started running circles around him, herding him. Once he was happy that the boy was heading in the right direction he raced ahead of him and sat at the tap smile emoticon
It tooks us like forever to house train him, eventually we got him to do it in the garden! To this day, he will go on a really long walk and not do a poo until he is back home and in the garden!! One time, when during the night, he couldn't get into the garden, he pooed inside my husband's shoe...It must have taken great aim to do this so accurately! lol (Yes! He has many talents! Far too many to mention here lol)
He LOVES swimming!
He tries very hard to boss Kaya about, by herding her or pulling the most ridiculous faces at her (I think he thinks he looks fierce) Kaya completely blanks him and isn't phased one bit lol.
He is very funny and he makes me smile every day with his antics.
He has this thing where he starts to gently nudge things with his nose to move them along...This can be something on the coffee table, on my dressing table or the doorstop keeping the living room door open...He doesn't stop nudging until something happens...ie whatever it is falls on the floor, or the door closes because he has moved the doorstop...He watches in fascination every time he does these things lol. He isn't being naughty, he just likes to do things that make other things happen, it amuses him. We are in the process of thinking about some kind of a puzzle toy that we can make him that has a similar effect...Any ideas?
He is my baby and always will be
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