At least as of yesterday......
With one week under our belt of living in this house with 8 dogs (Parker being the 8th) and Chantal & Stephanie, we've started to see which bugs need to be worked out. I suspected a problem 2 years ago when I was first with T and just sort of held my breath til we were actually together (thankfully in my house rather than his) with his dog. Poor dog. He's a Vizsla and he has no hair and is spoiled. He's done what he wants his whole life and it's not working here. Since no one is the boss of T I've had to bite my tongue til it's bled not to say too much about his dog. He was Tammy's baby and then became the buddy to comforted T after her death. It's not the dog's fault or T's as I think he's done the best he knew how, but the party's over now.
Having Parker here is like having 3 extra big dogs ~ he sucked a lot of energy out of the house and when he put his teeth on me when I tried to get in my side of the bed I thought I was going to blow a head gasket. I bit my tongue some more and figured we'd work it out when T went to work. I also had plans to get Cesar Millan's DVD's on aggressive dogs and watch them with T. The defining moment was when we left Chantal & baby in the house with Parker and she tried to move him from one room to the other and he lunged at her with his teeth barred (while she was holding Steph). She hadn't even touched him. She called us on my cell phone hysterical so I had T drive home and put him in the bedroom. The evening was tense for T & I as I really had to tell him that kind of dog behavior was not going to happen again in my house and how it needed to be changed. T agreed, but doesn't understand why his dog is acting like this. To me it's been a no-brainer but I haven't been in the position to change things til now. I've laid out the plan and T listened to me last night and it was amazing to see the change in the dog's behavior. He wasn't allowed to bolt thru the back door (or any door for that matter), he sat when I said "sit" or he got corrected after the first command. He wasn't allowed to act like a crazy dog when I made his food, nor put his paws on my counter to check out the meal. I waited to feed him, made him sit and lay down several times before he was allowed to eat. I took his food away from him in mid-meal, then gave some more commands. He was not allowed in the kitchen when we were making dinner or cleaning up. He was put away when we had dinner so he wouldn't beg. He wasn't allowed to sit on T's lap when T was in his chair watching TV. He had to find his own place. He slept on his dog bed all night and not with us under the covers. (THAT made me really happy).
I know this is going to be a hard road for us, but I pray every day that I get help. I pray that T will trust me and listen to me. It's hard for my macho Italian Stallion to not be in charge all the time but I don't want his dog to break us up. He's a good man and I know the dog is capable of respecting humans. So, our journey continues.....
