Re: Katie visits her roots Oh and some training notes GH

[Gina Heitz <brier@oregonsbest.com>]

>  After first
> being intimidated by Tripod - they played really well together.

You mean after the vicious little beast that Trypod is told her the
RULES!  it's so darn funny to see this 6 pound dog put the BIG ones
down.  He can actually growl Haus down but would never hurt another
dog.  He is as dominate as they come and as insecure with in his
dominance as the come.  Little dog mentality, but ya gotta love
him!  He's great with a tennis ball too.  Carried one all the
way around the whole berry patch. 


>  If any of you
> go to visit - ask Gina to clip Reo's nails.  Reo is quite the drama
> queen and cute as can be.  

That's a nice way to put it, I like that "drama queen"... 
Reo and others in this litter are at the age that they will start
challenging us.  Reo started this last week:  She backs up away
from me when I call her, looks at me like what's in it for me? 
FOOD! :-)  I have also gone back to taking her outside on a leash
from time to time just to reenforce who the boss is.

Libby Reid called today, and her Lucy is exhibiting similar behaviors,
but more serious though not unfixable, she growls when told to get off of
the furniture.  Little Missy is in for a clock cleaning and if
anyone else is having such issues you too need to nip this in the
bud.  After talking with Libby for a bit today I determined that
Lucy is a mix of dominate and submissive as she will bare her belly in
submissive behavior but at other times does not want to submit. Lucy does
not know she has to submit so it's time she learn.  So rules at the
Reid house are changing, Lucy is no longer going to even be allowed to
even think she can get on the furniture.  Everyone in the family is
going to get involved in becoming dominate over Lucy, starting with
Phoebe, who Lucy does intimidate naturally since Phoebe is the youngest
member of the family and her "playmate".  Phoebe is going
to start feeding Lucy and  holding her on the floor  a couple
of times a day starting with Lucy on her side and gently getting her over
onto her back into a submissive posture.  As well as if Lucy so much
as curls her lip at anyone she will be picked up by the scruff with her
two feet off the floor leave the back ones on the ground please, and held
to a count of 5 or until she stops squirming.  I am sure with in a
few days Lucy will get the rules straight.

So what's going on with Lucy?  Is she a bad dog? 
Aggressive?  Dominate? Alfa?  What?  Well I would say she
is alfa and at this point in time she is trying to set the rules, see
just how far she can push.  Good thing for Lucy that Libby has not
let this go on and is taking steps to set the rules herself.  She is
a smart one and the smart ones are always the worst...  

Keep us posted Libby on what transpires and remember you have got to mean
what you say and follow though or Lucy wins and Lucy needs to not win.

Gina