Part 1: The Dog Fight
My girlfriend, Laura, and I were pet-sitting my parents’ two dogs because they were out of town. We also have two dogs of our own, and as you can imagine, having four dogs running around has been awesome fun. The pups had been getting along really well, with just a minor tussle over the ownership of a puppy bed. I had been worried because one of our family dogs is a boxer, Misha, and, while she is not a mean dog, she just is not sure about other dogs getting too close to her people, and she does not want other dogs eating her food, except for my parents’ other dog, Priss. Priss is an old pug with bladder cancer. She is not interested in playing with anyone else. She just likes to sleep, occasionally play with her toys, and pee every thirty minutes (even at night). I have taken Riley to my parents’ house several times and they all play really well. We already knew Riley would be happy; the more puppy playfriends for her, the better.
Another thing that worried me was that Marlo is an ‘alpha dog,’ or as we learned from the vet, has ‘little-dog syndrome.’ She barks at every dog when we are on walks and can be territorial. We carefully introduced the dogs outside. While they were initially wary of each other, nothing bad happened. The dogs did their sniffing routine and they were OK with each other. We also did not leave them alone until we were sure they were not going to eat each other. Things had been going well for about a week, but that quickly changed.
One night after dinner, when my girlfriend and I were cleaning up, we heard the barking and growling of a dog fight. We got to Marlo and Misha almost immediately, but there was damage. At first, we could not get them apart because Marlo had an alligator death grip on Misha’s leg. Unfortunately, when we did, we saw that Marlo’s eye was bleeding. We rushed to the car and sped to the animal hospital.
My girlfriend, Laura, and I were pet-sitting my parents’ two dogs because they were out of town. We also have two dogs of our own, and as you can imagine, having four dogs running around has been awesome fun. The pups had been getting along really well, with just a minor tussle over the ownership of a puppy bed. I had been worried because one of our family dogs is a boxer, Misha, and, while she is not a mean dog, she just is not sure about other dogs getting too close to her people, and she does not want other dogs eating her food, except for my parents’ other dog, Priss. Priss is an old pug with bladder cancer. She is not interested in playing with anyone else. She just likes to sleep, occasionally play with her toys, and pee every thirty minutes (even at night). I have taken Riley to my parents’ house several times and they all play really well. We already knew Riley would be happy; the more puppy playfriends for her, the better.
Another thing that worried me was that Marlo is an ‘alpha dog,’ or as we learned from the vet, has ‘little-dog syndrome.’ She barks at every dog when we are on walks and can be territorial. We carefully introduced the dogs outside. While they were initially wary of each other, nothing bad happened. The dogs did their sniffing routine and they were OK with each other. We also did not leave them alone until we were sure they were not going to eat each other. Things had been going well for about a week, but that quickly changed.
One night after dinner, when my girlfriend and I were cleaning up, we heard the barking and growling of a dog fight. We got to Marlo and Misha almost immediately, but there was damage. At first, we could not get them apart because Marlo had an alligator death grip on Misha’s leg. Unfortunately, when we did, we saw that Marlo’s eye was bleeding. We rushed to the car and sped to the animal hospital.
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