Posted by fallsfall on January 24, 2004, at 13:59:41
It was midnight and I really wanted to go to sleep.
I have 2 Cocker Spaniels, Sterling is a 10 year old male, and Patches is an 8 year old female. I've had them for 2 1/2 years, but they've been together for 7 1/2 years. Patches has always been the alpha dog. She has to be first for everything (food, going out, getting pats, whatever).
Neither of them play with toys. They don't even like to chew on bones or rawhide. Once in a while, though, one of them will decide that it is a day for chewing some doggie thing that has been on the floor, untouched, for weeks. If Sterling is the one who decides it is time to chew, then usually Patches will get jealous that he has the bone. She used to just look at him and he would get up and walk away, leaving her with the bone. But recently he's not so willing to give it up, and she has been barking at him. If I go in to intervene, he will always decide that I'm more interesting than the bone - and so she gets the bone.
Why he chose midnight last night to want to chew on the rawhide, I really don't know. But (even though there was a second rawhide bone in the same room...) she decided that it should be HER bone to chew on. I've been getting pretty sick of this, and decided to turn off the light and go to sleep and hope that they would decide that it was time to sleep. She barked at him on and off for 2 solid hours - and he wouldn't budge. Finally, she climbed up on my bed with me and went to sleep.
I'm facinated. I don't quite know why he is so spunky now. He's also decided that he is scared to ride in the car - and he'd rather stay home alone (I can deal with that).
It would be nice if their next fight wasn't between midnight and 2AM...
poster:fallsfall
thread:305041
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040120/msgs/305041.html