The other day my neighbor asked me at the last minute if I would please watch her dog.
We are aware that her dog and mine have a complicated relationship. You see, when mine was five, theirs was a puppy who upon the sight of my dog did the wail for mommy. He matured and tried to mount my dog who was not interested. Pretty much, "been there done that," was her attitude. I think he took it badly. Ever since then the two of them have doggie hated each other so when they go past each other they rapidly bark as if they are sassing each other. But recently when my dog got out this neighbor rescued her and held her for me till I got home. I'm eternally grateful as it could have been a disaster otherwise. I would never have said no to her request.
She needed someone to watch her dog while she went off to college where she is studying for a Master's Degree in Child Development. Her landlord was finally sending in workmen in to repair the flooring of her kitchen which had been water damaged. There was going to be a lot of noise, hammers and buzzsaws. No place for a dog to be home alone with strange men.
She brought little Keaton over. She brought his big cage, his dog bed, his bone, his ball, and his blanket, all of which I suggested just in case. When my dog saw Keaton coming through the door she stared. Oh No! Not him again.
In an attempt to train Keaton and my dog in proper behavior when company, I tried to reinforce that my dog was not the leader of the pack, I was, but that she was second in command. Keaton, being younger, male, and more energetic and strong than my dog, was skeptical. He could see his house from our front door, so he knew he wasn't really away, and his person just went down the drive way. She'd be back, wouldn't she?
And so, in short order, Keaton decided that he would be at the front door, watching and waiting. So my dog got up on the sofa, leaning over it, and growling to let him know he was on her turf and watching him.
Then my dog started doing bitchy things to Keaton. She sniffed around his things and she stole his bone, not once, but three times. Each time I took the bone away from her, put it back near Keaton, and put her in the bedroom and closed the door for time out.
She got into her second most favorite spot, the chair she likes to sleep on and has pillows and blankets on, again to intimidate Keaton, who was looking around my kitchen floor and sniffing, hoping he was going to get some real food that dropped.
I went to the treats can and pulled out a few different ones, from little sausages, to cheese and chicken flavored mini-bones, and some kibble that comes in little bags and is made of trout. I put a couple of these down near Keaton's things but my dog was like an eagle coming out of the sun to blind its prey. Keaton couldn't get one treat because, with incredibly bad manners, mine ate them all, right under his nose.
It all worked out in the end. I never put Keaton in his cage and I never tied up the dogs inside the house to keep them apart. The noise and vibration across the way was intense and Keaton knew something was going on in his house and for a while he shook. He let me hold him and sooth him.
However, what I had to remember was how insecure my dog is because she has been dumped and rescued three times in her life. When she came to me she showed signs of having had to compete for food. Even though there were no other dogs around, she would take some kibble and hide it, or eat away from her dish, as if she were ready to be attacked. I believe she was born in a backyard and then was part of a breeding program. Mine may be the first house she has lived in and it may be the first time she has no other dogs to compete with. She came to me terrified to have her paws touched, fearful and uncooperative about baths, and generally seemed to have been, if not abused, roughly handled in the past and untrained. We've gotten so over those fears of hers that she comes to me eagerly when I say "bath." Like a person who did not have a good childhood, there are elements of her personality that are not companionable. I love her as she is.
I walked the two dogs together and while my dog tried to keep pace with me, and it was Keaton who started huffing and puffing first, I realized that Keaton was simply not going to perform any command I asked of him. He was not going to Come, Sit, or Stay, or Heel. He looked at me as if to say, "I no understand Hungarian!"
Moving into the holidays, I've already bought my dog a new collar and leash, a new toy, and a new sweater. I sent Keaton home with a new Christmas bow for his collar.
Here's to the days ahead!
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