The Dogs at This TIme

We watched Mom and Dad's dog, Abby, for ten days while they were on their anniversary cruise over Thanksgiving. She gets along really well with Bella and Boris, but she can irritate C a little bit - just by being a small dog. There are quite a few things that a small dog can get away with that a larger dog cannot (jumping on your leg, sleeping on your bed, picking fights, etc.). Abby is, through nature (genetics as a dauschund) and nurture (my parents' training) a burrower with a sense of entitlement. What this means is that she likes to sleep under covers. A problem in the R household because C has the tendency to move around a lot and could possibly roll over on Abby, and Abby, sensing an injustice towards her might lash out with her teeth. Not that this has happened before at all. No way. We've solved this by letting her sleep under the fleece blanket at the end of the bed. On the other side of the peoples from Boris.

There has also been a pack hierarchy shift. Abby and Boris are about the same age with about 50lbs difference between them. Bella is alpha female in our family. Abby will place her tiny head in Bella's mouth to show submissiveness. That's not the problem; the problem is that Abby has actually dominated Boris for the last two years and then something shifted. I'm not sure what changed, but Boris has asserted dominance and Abby isn't sure she likes it. I've caught them baiting one another with toys during this visit so that they can snarl and fight a little bit. Really, they're dogs! Am I going to have to call the Dog Whisperer?

Mom, Dad, here is some fuzzy proof that C LIKES playing with Abby. He does. He plays a little rough, but she seems to like it.

Abby is the guard dog. She has no fear. She's charged dogs way bigger than her. She even bit Bella on the snout when she was stressed out. You can just barely see her green ball at the right edge of the photo. Boris, that is HER ball, DO NOT touch it. Just sit there and look like a cute blue heeler.

This is what Bella does. And she is really good at it. Hardly even snores.

Super fun game: Guess who is the rightful owner of the dog bed. Does size matter? Is it the dog that "fits" in the bed the best? The one that looks the most comfortable? Does the bed match one dog better than the other? I thought this was way too funny to pass up!