Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Alpha dog vs. Beta dog?

Contender #1: Bailey
age: 4
breed: Foxhound
traits: stubborn, a snuggler, obsessed with tennis balls

Contender #2: Skeeter
age: 2 and 1/2
breed: Chow/hound mix
traits: skiddish, a yapper, loves to chew, gives actual hugs

About a month ago, my dogs had a pretty serious fight. Bailey was playing with a tennis ball (which we don't even allow anymore) and growled at Skeeter who sauntered by with absolutely NO interest in the ball. Skeeter, who is normally very even-tempered and used to being harassed by Bailey for being in the vicinity of anything she doesn't want to share, had clearly had enough of the harassment and snapped.

When they started wrestling, it seemed as though the more my fiance tried to split them up, the more intense the fight became. When we finally got them separated, Skeeter's eye was badly scratched and bleeding. But Bailey got the worst of it (and rightly so, I might add). She had two sizeable puncture wounds and ended up needing staples and antibiotics. The vet bills totaled almost $300 (between the two of them), and in hindsight, we wondered whether we should have let them finish duking it out without our interference, as clearly no official winner, or alpha dog, was established.

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