Well! Maybe I've been making a great deal more of the Ruby/Cassie doggy rivalry than fits the parameters of reality. It's been a surprising day...for a change, pleasantly surprising.

My son brought Ruby back to the Funny Farm today, after about a week of dog-sitting at his house while I recuperated from a painful surgical procedure. You may recall that the ongoing surgical soap opera had combined with what looks like incipient female/female competition to lead me to doubt whether I could keep Ruby at all, under the current circumstances. Ruby has taken to jumping on top of Cassie, grabbing her by the neck and biting, and given half a chance would chase her away from every food dish and keep her confined to the back bathroom.

I dreamed up a vague set of strategies to deal with this during the three weeks between now and the next time the surgeon gets her claws on me. These had to do with feeding order, sleeping arrangements, and restrictions on freedom to roam loose around the house and property.

Here's how it went today:

Ruby already knows what "NO" means. When you tell her "no" she will usually cease & desist whatever antic she's up to. Also, Ruby has "SIT" down pat, and she's got "STAY" provisionally (i.e., "don't expect this to go on too long, Human, and don't wander too far away"). This is good.

The minute she walked in the house, I clipped a 12- or 15-foot nylon training leash to her little halter, which except for a few yard excursions, has not come off all day. As long as she was inside, she was on this long lead.

First thing she did was stroll up to Cassie and try to grab her by the neck and face. I gave a light tug on the lead -- not a jerk -- and uttered the "NO!" word. And incredibly, to my astonishment, the little stinker stood down!

Cassie looked a little amazed, too. To say nothing of smug.

She tried a couple more times, and both times the same thing happened: a very mild correction, and she stopped!

When the time came to go outside, she did get off the lead, and Cassie came along. She tried once to grab Cassie but again quit it when I said "NO," even though she was now off the lead. At that point the dogs began to play normally, the way they used to: the I chase you then we turn around and you chase me game.  This seems to be benign: they trade off who gets to chase whom pretty evenly, and because they run around like crazy they get a little exercise. No biting or mounting takes place during this game.

Back inside: back on the leash.

When I climbed onto the bed to rest this afternoon, Pup went into her crate and Cassie went on the bed. No objection was raised.

Dinnertime: Chow was shoveled into each dog's dish. Ruby, still on the leash, was asked to sit & stay. Cassie's food was set down in front of her. Ruby lunged at the food dish. The human held tight to the leash and replaced Ruby at
sit/stay. After demonstrating that we could stay put in the seated position for a little while, despite the frenzy-making sight of Cassie eating, Ruby's evening feast was set in front of her.

She inhaled it all before Cassie, who had a head start, finished hers, and as usual proceeded to mop up every molecule that might remain.

Note that all the time Cassie was eating, Ruby was within sight of her. Normally, Cassie will run away from her food if she even see Ruby staring at her. Evidently dogs know that when another dog is on a leash, it is conveniently restrained. ;-)

After Ruby finished vacuuming up her food, I made her sit and stay until Cassie had finished licking every molecule off her dish and then ambled over and searched for a few remaining molecules on Ruby's. Ruby did not get off sit/stay until Cassie was satisfied that she had rendered the kitchen ant-proof for the evening.

They're quiescent right now; Cassie's back on the bed and Ruby is snoozing on the floor.

This turned out to be much, MUCH easier than I imagined it would be! I could hardly believe Ruby would stand down from climbing and biting on Cassie at the "NO" command. That was totally unexpected. I thought I just might, maybe, be able to train her to respond, but I surely did not expect her to do so after a single light correction.

Equally surprising was the food-dish dance. It's a little complicated to keep one dog on a leash while you feed the other and then give the second dog her food after she's patiently performed a sit-&-stay. But truth to tell, it's less hassle than locking one dog in an X-pen and then hiding the other one around the corner while they eat!

So we'll make this a routine for quite a while, until any habits that look competitive subside.

Tomorrow: a new plan for doggy walks.

I need to walk two miles a day to keep the fat and the blood pressure under control. Cassie can make a mile, if it's not too hot outdoors, but much longer than that and she poops out. Taking the two of them out at once is a hassle because Ruby still needs work in the walking-on-a-lead department.

So here's the plan: Out the door as dawn cracks. One dog goes with me on a well-beaten one-mile circuit. Then I bring that dog back to the house, fling her in the house, and leash up the other one. She goes on the other one-mile circuit.

Mwa-ha-hah! Each dog gets a full mile walk. Ruby gets my undivided attention for thirty minutes or so, honing her heeling skills. And I get my two miles in!

It's still not as much exercise as they should get. However, if this works out, then definitely we're headed for the Social Hour at obedience training, and we surely will try out the local herd-dog training place.

For a change (a big change!!), things are looking up.