Its been a rough day
Two stressful events for my dogs occurred in the past 24 hours. I have to preface this with a little back story though. Mosura went into heat last week. She started spotting on Friday for sure, could have begun on Thursday. According to her breeder, she already had her first heat, but I think she is way too young to be on her second. I'm not sure what's up with that.
Anyway, around the start of this week we started having conflicts. Gojira is naturally possessive (more so with food than toys) around other dogs. The only dog she has never fought with is Ghidora, although all other dogs she interacts with regularly are female, so I don't know if its a gender thing or Ghidora is just special. Gojira is definitely worse when she or another female is in heat. We had two arguments through the chain link at breakfast and one at dinner precipitating last night's event. Gojira started all of these fights with Mosura.
Last night as we were putting the dogs to bed, Mosura went to grab a toy we call Squid Bear. Its one of the dogs' favorite toys but I don't know why we still have it, since it is very often a bone of contention. The last and only major fight we had (involving our foster Akita, ShaSha/Sawyer) was because of Squid Bear. Mosura went for the toy and growled at Gojira as she did so. I reacted quickly to grab Mosura, but Gojira's reaction time was much faster than my husband's. By the time he got her under control, she had already lunged and snapped at Mosura a few times. Mosura bit down on my arm in an attempt to get at Gojira, after which point I pinned her to the ground. I didn't let her up until Aaron had Gojira secured in another room. By then I was holding her with one hand and a knee, because blood and a nasty black bruise was welling up on my arm and it was throbbing madly when I tried to do anything with it.
We got the dogs in their crates okay and I got my arm bandaged up. Its only vaguely aching today and will be fine by tomorrow I think. I had some puffiness where her bottom teeth left indentations but didn't actually break the skin and that's already gone. None of the spots I thought might open up have done so. Gojira and Mosura slept inches apart form each other without issue.
As an extra precaution we're not going to let Gojira be with any of the dogs until we're sure Mosura's heat is over. I don't want her to redirect onto Gryphon and open up that old wound, and we can't let her be with Ghidora at all since soon he's going to be very horny and we still don't know when Goji's next heat will start. (She had a split heat while I was in Japan, throwing off our plans to breed her in June.) So this morning I put the dogs out in their runs one at a time, putting Gojira in last after giving the others their breakfast. Doing it that way, no dogs would be lurking near Gojira's fence when I fed her, thus avoiding an argument.
It seemed to work... and then I heard barking. First it was Gryphon, whom the school children like to tease through the fence during recess. Then Gojira, then Mosura. It went on for about 15 minutes and I decided something other than recess must be going on. I went outside to see Gojira running around like a fiend in the back yard barking, panting, and too wound up to come to me. I was alarmed; Gojira has the middle run, and to get out meant she either went through the chain link (and could have gone through Mosura's run, although I hadn't heard a fight) or /someone/ was in my yard and let her out. The way the other dogs were still carrying on I thought it was the latter, and ran out to the back.
Well I was right.... sort of. The city had sent a cherry picker and crew to trim away the foliage from around the power pole. The power pole is in the corner of Gryphon's area, which is a triangular shape spanning the ends of the three chain link runs. The cherry picker was parked on the field in the school yard (I guess the kids have today off for holiday) with the man in the basket hovering over my dogs' kennels on my side of the fence. Branches, leaves, and other detritus was falling into the runs, and the machine itself was quite loud and stinky. The "flying man" must have been absolutely terrifying to the dogs; all but the boy were in a frenzy.
I saw how Gojira had escaped. In her panic she tore up the flimsy chain link inside the shed we have attached to the runs. She made a mess of the divider between her and Mosura's section, and also the bottom corner of the back edge of her own section. Once she had crawled out under the chain link she had busted open the plastic shed doors and bolted into the yard. Now that she knows she can get through the fence if she is determined enough, and given that she's been fighting with Mosura and that part is already weakened, I wont be putting her in her run anymore. We're going to have the guys who made the runs themselves come in and do the interior of the shed for us. I just don't trust it anymore.
(For what its worth, the interior chain link is an ASPCA 10' x 10' kennel that we customized to fit in the shed and have dividers. I was never very comfortable with how inadequate it seemed, and I guess I was right.)
After the men in the cherry picker left I put Gryphon back in her area. It took Gojira almost an hour to stop panting, drooling, and having her "tiny puppy freakout" in the house with me.
Anyway, around the start of this week we started having conflicts. Gojira is naturally possessive (more so with food than toys) around other dogs. The only dog she has never fought with is Ghidora, although all other dogs she interacts with regularly are female, so I don't know if its a gender thing or Ghidora is just special. Gojira is definitely worse when she or another female is in heat. We had two arguments through the chain link at breakfast and one at dinner precipitating last night's event. Gojira started all of these fights with Mosura.
Last night as we were putting the dogs to bed, Mosura went to grab a toy we call Squid Bear. Its one of the dogs' favorite toys but I don't know why we still have it, since it is very often a bone of contention. The last and only major fight we had (involving our foster Akita, ShaSha/Sawyer) was because of Squid Bear. Mosura went for the toy and growled at Gojira as she did so. I reacted quickly to grab Mosura, but Gojira's reaction time was much faster than my husband's. By the time he got her under control, she had already lunged and snapped at Mosura a few times. Mosura bit down on my arm in an attempt to get at Gojira, after which point I pinned her to the ground. I didn't let her up until Aaron had Gojira secured in another room. By then I was holding her with one hand and a knee, because blood and a nasty black bruise was welling up on my arm and it was throbbing madly when I tried to do anything with it.
We got the dogs in their crates okay and I got my arm bandaged up. Its only vaguely aching today and will be fine by tomorrow I think. I had some puffiness where her bottom teeth left indentations but didn't actually break the skin and that's already gone. None of the spots I thought might open up have done so. Gojira and Mosura slept inches apart form each other without issue.
As an extra precaution we're not going to let Gojira be with any of the dogs until we're sure Mosura's heat is over. I don't want her to redirect onto Gryphon and open up that old wound, and we can't let her be with Ghidora at all since soon he's going to be very horny and we still don't know when Goji's next heat will start. (She had a split heat while I was in Japan, throwing off our plans to breed her in June.) So this morning I put the dogs out in their runs one at a time, putting Gojira in last after giving the others their breakfast. Doing it that way, no dogs would be lurking near Gojira's fence when I fed her, thus avoiding an argument.
It seemed to work... and then I heard barking. First it was Gryphon, whom the school children like to tease through the fence during recess. Then Gojira, then Mosura. It went on for about 15 minutes and I decided something other than recess must be going on. I went outside to see Gojira running around like a fiend in the back yard barking, panting, and too wound up to come to me. I was alarmed; Gojira has the middle run, and to get out meant she either went through the chain link (and could have gone through Mosura's run, although I hadn't heard a fight) or /someone/ was in my yard and let her out. The way the other dogs were still carrying on I thought it was the latter, and ran out to the back.
Well I was right.... sort of. The city had sent a cherry picker and crew to trim away the foliage from around the power pole. The power pole is in the corner of Gryphon's area, which is a triangular shape spanning the ends of the three chain link runs. The cherry picker was parked on the field in the school yard (I guess the kids have today off for holiday) with the man in the basket hovering over my dogs' kennels on my side of the fence. Branches, leaves, and other detritus was falling into the runs, and the machine itself was quite loud and stinky. The "flying man" must have been absolutely terrifying to the dogs; all but the boy were in a frenzy.
I saw how Gojira had escaped. In her panic she tore up the flimsy chain link inside the shed we have attached to the runs. She made a mess of the divider between her and Mosura's section, and also the bottom corner of the back edge of her own section. Once she had crawled out under the chain link she had busted open the plastic shed doors and bolted into the yard. Now that she knows she can get through the fence if she is determined enough, and given that she's been fighting with Mosura and that part is already weakened, I wont be putting her in her run anymore. We're going to have the guys who made the runs themselves come in and do the interior of the shed for us. I just don't trust it anymore.
(For what its worth, the interior chain link is an ASPCA 10' x 10' kennel that we customized to fit in the shed and have dividers. I was never very comfortable with how inadequate it seemed, and I guess I was right.)
After the men in the cherry picker left I put Gryphon back in her area. It took Gojira almost an hour to stop panting, drooling, and having her "tiny puppy freakout" in the house with me.
Comments
When things are calmed down, I would practice wheel-barreling a dog back into a bedroom (with no other dogs around to gang-up on that weakness). There may be instances where hubby isn't around to help, and it's natural to irrationally worry about hurting a dog and not doing the wheel-barrel in the heat of the moment.
Yeah, I distrust most all chain-link fences because they bend and stretch. Thick gauge welded-wire or iron bars are what I trust.
I think you going out without pants would be the highlight of the tree-trimmer's week. They could swap stories with their friends about the no-pants crazy dog lady. :-)
The husband is almost always around when a fight happens (in fact only one fight - with the foster last year - he wasn't in the middle of). Part of it is he's a little less observant than I am and takes shortcuts when he's tired or inattentive. For example, I pick up toys especially Squid Bear, Crackle the Dragon, and Christmas Cthulhu Lobster, before letting more than one dog in the house. He didn't last night, obviously. The other part of it is that they get more excited and worked up around him than me. I don't know if its because I am their primary trainer and much more consistent with NILIF or because I am home all day and therefor less exciting or what.
No, @brada1878. They haven't ever injured one another. I saw blood once, but found out that the dog had bit her own tongue. Goji and Mosura didn't even connect with each other last night, we broke it up very fast. The best way I can describe it is "having an argument with teeth." They're not out to hurt each other, they're just quarreling and once it is over they're fine. Later, they will play together like nothing happened (although for right now, as I said, Goji is being kept separate).
I was really proud of Gryphon last night. Not only did she not get involved, but with both of us managing one dog we were able to verbally send her into the other room. In the past, she would have jumped on Gojira the second something exciting happened.
Pants or no pants, I dont understand letting the dogs bark for 15 minutes before checking things out, and perhaps I am a bit uptight in my dog-keeping, but I have absolute zero tolerance for anyone teasing my dogs, so writing their barking off as "the kids are probably just teasing them" is hard for me to comprehend. Help me out...
There isn't much I can do about barking during recess except bring the dogs inside till its over. Going out and telling the dogs to hush up doesn't work they just start right back up again. Normally Gryphon will quiet down on her own, and I was waiting for her to do that. I didn't go bring them in immediately because I had only just put them out and figured they needed time to eat, potty, run around, stretch their legs, and not be crated. The barking started while I was in the shower so I didn't see the exact time, either, so I could have exaggerated it; it seemed like a long time, but didn't trigger my "something is actually wrong" sense until Mosura joined in.
Typically, Gryphon barks cause she hears the kids or she hears the yappy dogs up the street (who were also barking during all of this) and Gojira barks because Gryphon is barking. Mosura only barks when someone she doesn't know is in the yard. Ghidora doesn't bark at all.
I hear what you mean about diff dogs barking. Sage will bark at all sorts of innocuous (to me) things, but I still go outside and help him out- he needs a guidance counselor. But if REILLY barks I know its something Id agree needs my action. Juno lets the big dogs handle the security detail.
rough day indeed...Id go with the glass of wine advice above!
I sure hope tomorrow is better!
Yeah, have a glass of wine and relax!