Dita and Esk
Until a short time ago, Rocky, a large four-year-old Ridgeback-Mastiff cross lived with his lady owner in a very small house, just one room up and one down. Now her friend has moved in with her two beautiful Siberian Huskies, female Dita, 2 and Male Esk, 3. Previously each lady had lived happily with her own dog/s and no particular problems.
Rocky
What an extremely tricky and complicated situation this is. The environment, with only two rooms and no garden, is so small and crowded for three large dogs that living closely in harmony is a real challenge. Added to that, male Esk is not good with other dogs and Rocky considers this his home and territory. He now spends most of his time in the bedroom upstairs, and the Huskies well away from him, downstairs. The ladies have to operate what they call an ‘air-lock’ system to take the dogs out which needs to be done regularly because of having no garden.
There have been a couple of massive fights resulting in injury down to the bone to Esk – his shoulder and leg – you can just see some of it, and also to one of the ladies when she tried to break them up and got in the way. The wound on her arm is dreadful. None of these dogs is in any way aggressive to people. The two Huskies that we sat with downstairs were delightful with Dita showing none of her usual fears towards me, and Esk peacefully occupying the only remaining bit of floor space! Later Esk was put on lead and Rocky was brought down on lead, but with Esk eyeballing and growling across the small remaining space between them, then Rocky lunging and barking with poor Dita getting bowled over as she got in between to do her best to split things up, Rocky had to be taken back upstairs.
Add to the unhelpful environment the fact the general atmosphere, due to human health problems, is not always calm and consistent. Because of their humans’ lack of strength, the two Huskies are unable to receive sufficient exercise, stimulation and toilet trips.
The dogs are dearly loved and I know these two ladies will do your very best against the enormous odds, and I will do everything in my power to help them whilst also feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the unavoidable restrictions on the choices of action available.
