5-31-01 update: Back to the drawing board. Sadie attacked Pickles last night and they are both at the vet today. Pickles has a puncture behind her ear and Sadie is limping with a bitten knee. We are going to try the "nothing in life is for free" dominance behavior control program. We half-assed it the first time and thought everything would be ok. Obviously, that was a mistake. It breaks our hearts. If you are having doggie behavioral problems a great resource is "Dogs Behaving Badly" by Dr. Nicholas Dodman.

06-01-01 update: The puppies are back home. We kept them separated last night. Our vet says its an inter-dog problem and that Sadie from time to time feels the need to establish her "higher" place in the dog pack. I never thought I would have to learn about pack mentality, but it's a good thing to know for every dog owner. Everyone is recovering and the dogs seem very apologetic for the scuffle.

06-04-01 update: Sadie and Pickles seem to be readjusting to one another. Sadie takes on an aggressive posture when they pass through the door (they only come in one at a time!). It's as if Sadie looks at Pickles as if she's thinking "boy, if I could get away with it I'd bite your head off." But she gets over it in a minute or two. Who knew dogs could have such complex personalities?

01-06-02 update: We've been fight-free for several months now. We are careful to read Sadie's posture and let them in only one at a time. Treats are distributed Alpha dog first!

Dog Behavior Links:

We'll let you know about our progress.
E-mail us if you have had aggression problems, too.

THE FELINES:
Thankfully our cats get along fine. They play fight...you cat owners know the sequence, "one lick, two licks, three licks, bite and box!" They are all really good, friendly (and overweight) cats. Rooney, Atticus and Grayson MUST accompany you to the bathroom (at least one of them anyway). I don't know what they want.

Baxter sleeps a lot and yowls his special deaf cat yowl. He attacks things that aren't there on the comforter and tries to sleep on my face every night (he weighs 16 lbs.). Grayson sleeps on my side and drapes his paws and head over my shoulder, but he comes and goes. As soon as the lights go out, if Baxter's not already attempting to suffocate me, Rooney runs to the head of the bed and tries to make "biscuits" in my hair and drips slobber all over my exposed ear. Atticus sleeps in a creaky basket with some old half-done crochet blanket I made. He tends to go to bed when we do and I hear the straw of the basket creak about 10 times until he's really comfortable. The mystery is that he's never there in the morning. Occaisionally he'll sneak up on the bed and slide under my arm. I'll wake up holding him like a teddy bear, but Atticus will only join me if all the other cats are gone. My God. Oh well, I love them anyway.