Tuesday, July 3, 2012

The Battling Bickersons

The three stooges are not all that excited about forming a pack.  In fact, they are pretty much behaving like the school bullies and the nerdy wimp...guess who's who.

That said, some progress has been made (though not nearly enough for their nervous Nellie of a grammy.  I get anxious whenever they are in a room together.  Am I helping the situation?  Probably not)  We are  having some success with "Harmony", the homeopathic formula that's supposed to help their anxiety.  Maybe I should be spraying it in MY mouth 3-4 x day?  They CAN be in the same room together for extended periods.  Though one has to remain alert for the inevitable "Let's gang up on Lulu" moment.  They do great on their daily walks, not a growl or bark from any of them.  They are doing really well on practicing their commands.

As long as Grammy isn't the one trying to make them mind. Katie chastises me regularly, saying I'm not authoritative enough.  True, I'm not.  But I give myself a big pat on the back for even TRYING to work with dogs.  I'm scared of dogs.  All dogs.  (except Lulu, but she's evidently one in a million)  But I'll keep working on it, as sooner or later I'm going to be home alone with all three of them.

The tense time seems to be when we are taking off their leashes and letting them back in the house.  I'm not sure why, but this is almost always a fail.  Last night, Lucy and Walt really went at it, and Lulu ended up with a wound under one of her legs.  Walt ended up with a cut by his eye.  So it was tit for tat.  Lois stayed out of it, for some reason.

We are back to keeping them separated, have a new procedure for getting them back in the house after walks, and are trying to figure out how best to introduce them all to the new house.  Hopefully it won't involve sedatives (for Grammy if no one else)

4 comments:

Meg said...

Poor Lulu:(. They will make it. Think how much the kids used to fight. In fact, maybe I should use some of that "Harmony" stuff for my little tards when they fight.

Laurie said...

I'm thinking Harmony may be the key to world peace.

Lis said...

I'm so with you on the alpha. I don't have an ounce of it in me. I think on the leash they're all equals but the second they come off it's game on. Sorry. :-(

Katie said...

things are SLOWLY looking up - Walt tried to pick a fight tonight, and Lola actually defended Lucy! Progress. :)