But You Eat Chicken, Right?

Everything had been going along so wonderfully. The two dogs were playing, sitting on the ottoman together, etc. Well, the Snausages hit the fan.

Admittedly, the fight was my fault. I wasn’t even thinking about the fact that Annie is new here when I put the bowl of food down between the two dogs. Well, within seconds, somebody touched somebody’s snout, and it was a full on dog fight. Annie, who is about ten pounds bigger than Pub, pinned him on the floor. I screamed and yelled (cries to which nobody came running, by the way - good thing I wasn’t being mugged), and finally was able to pry her off of him.

My husband walked into the room just as I was opening the basement door to send Annie downstairs. He took her down to her crate, and I ran over to check on Pub, who was shaking like a little leaf. With Bill, he was always the dominant dog. Clearly, that is no longer the case. Within a few seconds, we noticed blood on the floor and on my hands. Pub had a tear in the skin of his neck, and it looked bad. I called the vet and he told me to bring him immediately.

I had to leave him for a few hours while he was sedated and stapled. The end result is a sweet, terrified dog with five staples in his neck. He is taking pain medication and an antibiotic. We left Annie in the crate all night, except to go outside, and we put food and water in the crate and made sure she knew she was on the bad dog list.

I was really shaken up by the whole incident. The vet was shocked. He met Annie last week for a check-up, and he thinks that rather than aggression, it was just a typical, run-of-the-mill dog fight for dominance over food. I tend to think he is correct, but I am still nervous. He told me that I must establish dominance, and fast. I have never been good at that, and frankly, I am not sure I know how to do it. I don’t want this to happen ever again.

Annie is back upstairs now, and she is lying at my feet while Pub sleeps on the couch next to me. They have interacted, but I have been trying to keep things as calm as possible. They seem fine together now, but I am so scared that it will happen again. The food is put away, so that shouldn’t be an issue.

Any advice would be wonderful. I have never had to show dominance or train a dog to respect me as the pack leader. Also,I don’t spank or use shock collars, so that won’t work.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

As I mentioned in my last post, the vet said that he thought that Annie might go into heat anytime, and that we should spay her. You can read Annie’s story here and here. Naturally, I wanted to mention it to my husband before I sent her to surgery, so I told him I would call back in the next day or two. As my luck would have it, she started bleeding the next morning. I have never had a female dog or been around one in heat, so I thought we could still spay her while she was bleeding. Wrong. The vet said it was very risky to do the operation while she was bleeding, so we have to wait it out. I am not at all shocked that I would be the person to temporarily adopt a stray dog and have her go into heat. Story of my life.

I went to look for doggie diapers, but the prices were ridiculous, so I decided to buy real diapers and cut a hole for her tail. That didn’t work either. Being the creative one in the house, I decided to take an old pair of my husband’s briefs, stick a pantyliner in them, and tie them on. It’s been working quite well, as a matter of fact. I guess that English degree is good for something.
I really don’t know how long the cycle lasts in a dog, but I hope it is short. Considering she is still potty-training,  the panty/diaper thing is kind of a hassle.

Also, we have no prospects on a new home for her, so it looks like she will be staying with us indefinitely. She and Pub are getting along quite well now–even playing chase. I am happy to see he isn’t jealous of her anymore.

We’ll see what happens. At any rate, she will be getting spayed as soon as it is safe to do so.

Here’s a photo of Annie in her Panties:

Well, today is day four. Annie did great in the crate downstairs, but we decided that yesterday was the day to get her ready to introduce to everyone else in the house.

The first step was the cat test. We took one of the cats to the basement to meet her on Monday night. She was on a leash, and she did great. She was curious and wanted to play, but when she realized that Linus wasn’t interested, she found something else to amuse herself.

Step two, probably the most important step, was to clean her up. I put her in my next door neighbor’s basement shower, and disaster ensued as her hair clogged the drain, the water rose, and I ended up just as wet and soapy as she did. But it was worth it, because now she is soft, fluffy, and smells like Mandarin oranges. Meanwhile, I just ended up smelling like a wet dog. After we came back home, I put her in her crate with her dinner so she could air dry and relax.

A few hours later, we brought her upstairs to meet Pub. He is very tempermental, and I was concerned about how he would react to her. They sniffed each other (well, he sniffed her butt and he went ballistic when she returned the favor), and she tried to play with him, but he wasn’t interested. In fact, he’s still not interested. He has been avoiding her at all costs, and he is seriously angry about the situation. When she gets too close, his lips pull back in a smile and he groans. We’ll see.

Within a half an hour, we were alerted to the fact that she is in no way potty trained. We decided that she should spend nights in the crate downstairs (and when we aren’t home.) I think she is catching on quickly, because she whimpered at the door last night to go out. She didn’t quite make it, but she did try. She’ll learn.

Today was our trip to the vet. She weighs 43 pounds, and she is about one year old. She was given a rabies shot, which she didn’t seem to mind at all. The bad news is that she is not spayed, and she is ready to go into heat. The vet said it could be tomorrow or it could be three months, but I don’t want her bleeding out in my house, so we are going to put a rush order on the operation.

She is an absolutely wonderful dog. She is gentle, sweet, affectionate, and eager to please. She doesn’t jump and she isn’t overbearing; still, we are trying to find her another home. We are still hoping that my mother-in-law takes her. They would be wonderful companions for each other, I have no doubt. No matter what, she will live here until we find a suitable home.

For now, she’s all spiffed up with a shampoo, new collar, and shiny rabies tag. Annie is living the good life.

Several years ago, my husband and I were visiting Baltimore’s beautiful Inner Harbor. It was a blustery winter day, and after walking around for a few hours, we decided to take a ride in a horse drawn carriage before heading back to the hotel.

The beautiful horses mesmerized me. Sure, I had seen horses before, but never really that close. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone in West Virginia lives on a farm and raises livestock. As we started our ride, my fascination with the horse was quickly replaced by my disbelief at the utter hostility of the drivers the horses had to contend with. They swerved around the horse while honking as if there were no possibility of harming or scaring them. I immediately began to feel guilty for taking the ride.

I have no doubt that the horses must have been terrified; I know every car that went by made me flinch for the poor animal that was being forced to drag my large butt around for fifteen minutes. That was my first and last ride on an animal.

A few months ago, a New York City carriage horse was startled by music in the park and ran into traffic; he didn’t survive. While I do realize that there are jobs at stake, I can’t help but be more concerned with the welfare of the animals involved. Any person who can look at the photo at that link and still approve of this industry is probably of the frothing, anti-animal rights variety.

This Wednesday, a New York City council member is set to introduce legislation that will ban the use of horse drawn carriages in the city. Naturally, there is a huge opposition; to supporters of the industry, the horses are irrelevant - think of all of the money that will be lost! Opponents of the bill, including Mayor Bloomberg, claim that the carriages are symbolic of New York City and it would be a mistake to stop using them. In other words – think of all of the money that will be lost!

Tourists love them, right? Sure, the horses are beautiful and people love the romantic idea of a carriage ride. Most of them never even consider that the animal may be scared, mistreated, wishing he were eating grass on a farm where he belongs…whatever. I know I didn’t. It took a ride for me to figure that out. Nevertheless, if there were no horse drawn carriages in New York, people wouldn’t start abandoning their reservations en masse. Let’s get real.