Strong Words, Softly Spoken

I had two choices this weekend: Go to the beach and play in the sand, or stay home and dogsit. I chose the latter. I’d like to take it back now.

I’m watching my mom’s dog, Jackson, for her. Everytime I’m asked to watch him I dread it, because he’s a 17lb Schnoodle who thinks he’s an 80lb killer. Plus, he barks…ALOT. And he’s anxious and whiny and neurotic and etc., etc., etc. But that’s not even the worst part. The worst part is that my dog has recently decided that Jackson coming to stay is not ok. And he expresses this feeling by repeatedly attacking the dog while he’s here, mostly over food.

Case in point: Last time Jackson was here Raimi drew blood, so this morning I decided to try a different approach. I was going to feed them both at the same time, but separately, and give Raimi his food first and then Jackson. I come walking out of the kitchen with 2 plates to call Jackson and Raimi sees him coming and immediately charges at him. I disciplined him, as Cesar the lovely Dog Whisperer has taught me to do, and started to walk back to the kitchen when Raimi went at him AGAIN. UGH. So, I called my neighbor, Brandon, who has this strange way of making dogs behave, and he comes over and helps me figure out how to feed them without one trying to eat the other one instead of his food. Success!

Fast forward 2 hours or so. I have a knock on my door. It’s Brandon again with his dog Cletus. Now, Cletus is Raimi’s best friend…and when I say they love each other, that is an understatement:

Normally when Cletus comes in my house, he just bounds through the door and he & Raimi take off chasing each other.  This time he ran right for Jackson.  Bad move, buddy.  Jackson is a 9 year old dog who doesn’t like other dogs in his face.  So, Cletus goes right for him, because he’s new, and Jackson wigs out and jumps on him, which, in turn, makes Cletus get aggressive right back.  It was an odd sight to see a 17lb dog be so aggressive with a 65lb dog…like Jackson actually had a chance.

After that Raimi got possessive of his toys, so I took every dog toy in the house and put it in the closet.  Jackson keeps whining to go outside and I won’t let him because it’s literally an every 5 minute thing.  So now I have 2 miserable, bored dogs who are barely getting along.

Who wants to change places with me this weekend?  Hmm?