i'm back..dogs are driving me crazy.

Well...first off I have to apologize for disappearing..i've just been so busy, but as of Saturday...i'm a happily married woman!
Our house STILL doesn't have a roof on it, so my parents are kindly letting us continue to stay with them..dogs and all. I think everyone is about ready for their own space.
Poor Bear got a a cut on his neck somehow before the wedding and I was doctoring it...he wouldn;t leave it alone and was creating a hot spot, but I thought I finally had it under control they day we left for our honeymoon. Well, apparently the cut was not a cut, but an allergic reaction, and while we were gone he had these horrible spots pop up all over him, so Mom took him to the vet and he gave him a big steroid shot and some antibiotics because he had gotten an infection from scratching so much. He's resting comfortably now, but he sure does look ugly since it made his hair fall out on the spots too. His Grandma(my mom) couldn't stop talking about how good he was riding in the car and at the vet's. He was so good she took him to Whataburger and got him a dry burger(he's not spoiled...i promise).

The house has been pretty peaceful with the dogs until today. My parents have Ranger, our geriatric German Shepherd and of course Annie and Bear are good buddies. Well, Ranger has gotten really cranky and defensive since he's not that steady anymore and worries about my dogs bothering him. He had to get a bath this morning after his walk because he got in poison ivy, and he really dislikes baths. He was on the patio drying with mom(leashed), so I let Annie out and was following out the door with Bear on a leash. Well, Ranger apparently was ticked about his bath and somebody was gonna pay, so he showed teeth and pinned Annie to the ground. She went limp, said uncle and sulked away...you could just see her little mind saying "geez...mean old man". Well...that wasn't good enough, so he turned around and charged up to bear and tried the same move. However, my sweet passive Bear was not in a passive mood and went back after him and we had a dog fight on our hands..luckily they were both leashed and didn't really seem to be delivering any really damaging blows. I did get an arm in the way and got nailed, but it didn't break skin, just bruised, so apparently it sounded worse than it was. Annie also tried to jump in once she saw a fight was happening, but i yelled at her and she walked away again..so she was a very good dog this morning. So, from now on the pits have to be locked away from Ranger if unsupervised. It's quite obvious that Ranger doesn't want to be in their pack and they don't want to be in his pack, since he's a tyrant alpha. However, after the fight, Annie did go up and do submissive gestures to Ranger, so she's willing to still be below him..but she has been since she was 12 weeks old. So, lots of doggy drama around here. Hopefully we can keep it down from now on.

 

Let me be the first to congratulate you on your marriage.
The actions you described seem to be a battle for dominance. Most of those fights are more like shadow boxing but can accelerate into a serious fight if one dog doesn't back off soon. Lots of snarling teeth and growls but no contact. Ranger is defending his turf.
Hope you keep the peace.
Good Luck.

 

Congrats,!!

You are so lucky, if my dogs start a fight there will almost always be blood and a vet bill. Luckily last time I was able to tend to the wounds with no vet.

 

congrats Someday! yep it sounds like ranger is being a cranky ol man. I hear they get that way when they arent feeling well. and a bath to boot!

glad to hear no-one was really hurt