Can't we all just get along?

In Muttville, Wednesday night is family dinner night.  All local family members, including the furry ones, gather in our much-too-small dining room for dinner and conversation.  Now that LOST has begun again we get through dinner a little more quickly and adjourn to the family room where we can be entertained and perplexed by an hour of LOST.  Ever since our family welcomed Sadira, Kysa and Josh's dog, there has been a little pack posturing.   Sadira loves Samten.  She usually avoids Cooper who is the clear alpha, but pesters Samten constantly.  She is still a puppy and wants to play, but there is also some desire on her part to be Cooper's second in command.  Samten, who has always been much too serious a dog to be very playful is deeply annoyed by Sadira, but will generally do nothing aggressive to stop her.

So Wednesday night we were sitting in the family room watching LOST and Sadira decides that she ought to join her family on the loveseat and hops up and makes herself comfy.  The rule has always been no dogs on the furniture, but we were all paying more attention to the TV than the dogs and ignored her. (small deviation - see that orb on the wall behind the sofa?  I'm sure it has something to do with the flash, but perhaps we have astral visitors.) Samten, who is too smart for his own good, stands and observes Sadira on the sofa, contemplates for a moment and then jumps up on the couch between AH and I, lays his head on the pillow and settles right in.  We decide that occasional exceptions to any rule is acceptable and continue watching LOST and ignoring dogs.  A few minutes later Sadira gets down, comes over to Sam and puts her nose right up to his.  He curls a lip in warning and then snaps at her.  He was careful not to actually bite her, but it was clear he was finally letting her know what her boundaries were.  I don't know if it was because he was sitting between AH and I, or just plain fed up, but it sure got our attention.  Sadira backed off and it will be interesting to see if things change next Wednesday night.  We have decided to let the dogs work it out, but sometimes its hard not to feel a little sorry for Sam. We are lucky that they are all well trained (well, except for the furniture thing) and obedient animals and would love for them all to easy with each other.  Perhaps in time.

Comments

[wenders]

It takes time -- don't worry! Clear rules help the most and my dog trainer told me once it can take up to 6 months for dogs to settle into anything new.