MAUI – THE GENTLE GIANT – BULL MASTIFF CROSS

We live out of Dunedin and I was looking for a dog who was cat friendly, as we have two cats.  Our town didn’t seem to have any dogs fitting the cat bill, so I looked further a field and that is when I came upon Maui.

I wasn’t sure whether Dunedin would let me adopt, being out of town.  But with lots of emails and a visit from Dog Watch to inspect our back yard to see it was up to standard, the next step was to come to Dunedin to meet Maui and then take him home.  It was a long drive down and back up.  With Maui in the car we had lots of stops for walks.  He was not good on the lead.  But with a haul-tie on for 10 minutes, which he hated.  Then taken off – after that all I had to do was show it to him and he didn’t pull anymore.  This boy has brains.  He hasn’t warn it again.

We arrived home and my two cats were fine with Maui.  He ignored them.  They did the “What the” look but stood their ground and just watched.  He wasn’t happy 3 nights later and came down to our room.  I thought he wanted outside but NO, one of the cats had decided she wanted to sleep with him.  Being the gentle giant that he is, he just puts up with it and lets them on now.  He has a lovely big stretcher bed with lots of blankets, the blankets get washed every week.  spoilt.

He wasn’t much of a water dog when he arrived but with walking beside the river or down on the beach most days, he has started to love going in.  Not over his head but he does go deep.  He loves to fetch the stick and bring it back to us.  He especially likes the river and beach as he can be off the lead.  He knows to be beside me when people are getting near, and most of the time he does it himself before I even ask.  He gets excited when we nearly get to our adventure walks destinations (usual walks).  One thing he never used to do.

He has meet lots of other dogs and has learnt to be not so hypo around the small ones especially. He loves meeting new people too.  He loves going to soccer games/rugby games/softball games. Everyone who meets him falls in love with him.

Thank you Dog Rescue for letting us adopt Maui,  second chance dogs are the best.  We couldn’t of adopted a better dog.