He has always been a little terror but he was starting to get worse <frustrated sigh>. My dog, lil man, who turned 5 years old on February 21, had been progressively showing increased signs of aggression. Let me preface the rest of my post by informing you that his aggression stemmed from my then 9 year old son antagonizing him: pulling his tail, throwing balls at him, trying to sweep him with the broom, sliding him across the wood floor, and just doing what typical kids do a pet… (Side Note – I did not encourage or condone my son’s behavior towards lil man and he was thoroughly punished for his actions).
When he was asked to "go to his room" (his crate), Lil man would growl and try to bite at whomever through his cage as the door would be closed and locked, he'd hump people coming or going out of my house , and "marked his territory" every chance he'd get indoors. As a deterrent to a lot of his bad behavior, I'd leave him leashed to the front door with approximately 4 and a half foot span to allow him to roam free inside or outside.
A week prior to him being neutered I took him to my friend’s house (she works for the Atlanta Humane Society). When she tried to place him in his cage for the night he bit her (she tried to put him in there with her foot – this is something he doesn’t like because of ill treatment from my son). She was furious and did not blame her. She wanted me to come and get him IMMEDIATELY! I was not in the position to do so at that exact moment so we discussed some of the things that set lil man off. She had a talked with him, forgave him and gave him a second chance. I was apologetic and relieved because I was in the middle of moving out of my home and not able to retrieve him. SO, the day after this incident she was holding lil man in her lap, her daughter was coming to say goodnight to her and he bit her daughter. That was the last straw for lil man! I had to stop what I was doing and go get my dog. I felt so badly and the little girl was asking why my dog was possessed. SMH! This behavior had GOT TO END!
For all of you who advocate getting dogs spade or neutered at a young age let me explain why I did not get lil man fixed. My dog is a pure bred Maltese and the plan was to find or purchase a female so that we (my brother) could breed lil man – you know to at least make my money back ($1,200 USD). Well, that never happened!
On March 2, 2012 lil man was snipped, his little testicles were removed. The pictures you see are right after his surgery. Thus far, I see a huge difference in his temperament. I should have gotten this done years ago <raised eye brow + smirk> perhaps a lot of the incidents over the past 5 years could have been avoided.
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