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: