Rosie and Sophie – Page 2

Doggie diaries: The story of Rosie and Sophie It’s going to get better, I know it will

Things are rarely as dark as they seem when you’re stuck in the moment.

The dogs are sleeping on the couch and chair behind me, having spent a couple of hours in their pen while I was at a poetry reading and Annie was out with her sister.

After last night, we were scared that we couldn’t leave them together — they went at each other at we were unable to break the tension afterward — but Pat, the trainer, called this morning and talked us down.

Rosie and Sophie, she said, are like teenaged sisters. They’ll fight over almost anything and then move on. At the same time, we have to minimize their opportunities. So all toys are now put away and to be doled out only when we want them to play. If they get territorial, the toys get taken away.

And we need to make sure we make them work, both physically and intellectually, both to tire them out but also to address their innate need to work.

Annie and her sister Susan took them for a 25-minute walk before and Annie and I played a few attention-span games before I showered and left.

I think we’re both still anxious, but it is better. We will get through this. The dogs will get through this.

Doggie diaries: The story of Rosie and Sophie Why can’t we break this cycle?

I am at a complete loss on this. We’ve been working pretty hard at reining in the dogs (pictured from the other day), making it clear that we are the alphas, the pack leaders and keeping them under control.

And yet, tonight, while Annie and her sister were in the office, the dogs went at it. I’m not clear on the details, but it appears that Sophie went for a ball and Rosie reacted, but that may not matter. What matters is that we broke the fight up quickly, but we have not been able to de-escalate the bad energy and it is going on two hours.

Sophie is acting scared and defensive; Rosie is being the aggressor.

The night started well. Both of them listened when my brother and sister-in-law were over with the kids and they played with the kids. But maybe there was too much excitement for them, maybe we should have done something to help calm them more when Mark and Ana left. I just don’t know.

It was probably less than 30 minutes after they left that the dogs went at it.

We broke them up, separated them and slowly brought them back together. But Sophie remains in defensive mode and Rosie went to bite and was barking. It is scary and both of us are shaken.

Annie has Sophie in the bedroom and I’m in the living room with Rose. We have two gates separating them and we’ll see if a night apart calms things. Both of us are terrified that something broke tonight that we won’t be able to fix, that we may have to — well, I don’t even want to think it at this point.

I just want them to get along.

Rosie is starting to fall asleep on the chair and I’m going to lie down on the couch. I hope that both of us get some sleep tonight, but I just don’t know if that’s possible.

We’re both worried about leaving them alone tomorrow and when we go to work on Monday.

I’ve Tweeted the trainer, and I think Annie’s checked in via Facebook. I’m hoping to hear from her early tomorrow and we’ll just take things one moment at a time.

I don’t know what else to do.

Doggie diaries: The story of Rosie and Sophie Couple of hours for a couple of seconds

We finally got to see Cesar Milan, after waiting in line for two hours in the MarketFair. We gave him a copy of a photo of Rosie and Sophie watching his show (above), which he seemed to find funny (who knows — it may have been all for show). He signed our book and a photo of the dogs. And then we were done.

Doggie diaries: The story of Rosie and Sophie Going back to dog school

It’s back to basics for our dynamic duo.

After our scare on Monday, when they got into a nasty fight that we had great difficulty breaking up, we brought the trainer back in for another round. Pat told us what we already knew, of course: We’ve spoiled them terribly and let them walk all over us.

Dogs, from everything we’ve read, look for a pack leader. If we don’t provide it, then they fill the vacuum themselves.

That’s why, as they approach their first birthday, they’ve retained far too many of their worst habits and have started developing new ones:

They jump on people when they first come in the door. They will calm down, but I can see how someone might not want to deal with it. Plus, they have sharp nails that leave marks.

They’ve started using their mouths to direct us or get our attention. That is unacceptable, but we had no idea how to address it. Now, when they use their teeth or their paws that way, we stop them and basically reset things.

They’ve become more difficult to walk, pulling so hard that Annie often has to let me have both dogs — not an easy chore. A few weeks ago, while we were walking on Hodge Road, one of the dogs went to the bathroom. Annie took both dogs as I cleaned it up — which seemed OK at that moment. Until someone nearby let their two dogs out in their fenced-in yard. All four dogs went nuts and Rosie and Sophie pulled Annie across the yard and into a pile of firewood. She was bruised and strained her shoulder, but the firewood probably kept it from getting worse. It all happened in seconds — like Monday’s fight — but seemed to unwind in slow motion.

They’ve been jumping on the counters again, after not doing that for months. Last night, with the trainer here, Sophie stole a loaf of carrot bread Annie brought home. She got to it twice, but we caught her right away. We’ve got to work on keeping her off the counter.

They also like remote controls — we’ve had to replace three so far and have another two that need to go back. They’ve chewed on a Blackberry, two laptop chargers and this morning got to a mini video camera.

None of this is acceptable, but it also isn’t their fault. It’s ours. We have done a terrible job raising our pups and now we’ve got to work twice as hard to make up for lost time.

You’d think we’d be better at this, given we’ve had dogs since shortly after we started dating. But it has been a long time since we’ve had puppies this young and now we have two. I wouldn’t trade them, but we probably should have thought a little more about it at the beginning.

In any case, this is a lifetime commitment, like raising a kid. Monday’s fight reminded us of that.

Doggie diaries: The story of Rosie and Sophie Help, the dogs are winning!

I’m still shaking. Two-plus hours after the dogs went at each other, after Rosie grabbed onto Sophie near the ear and locked in, two-plus hours after Annie and I stupidly attempted to break them up by grabbing their collars — a horrifying couple of minutes — and I’m still shaking.

The fight, probably just the fourth since we have them (though four is four too many), made us realize that we need to bring the trainer back, that their willfulness, their jumping on guests as they come in, is just not acceptible. We need help.

So we’re bringing back our trainer, Pat, who knows her stuff. The problem has been us — we just haven’t followed through with the hard work.

If that doesn’t work, we’re going to have to call in Victoria Stillwell or Cesar Milan (he’s going to be at Barnes and Noble next week) for an emergency session.

It is quite depressing to find that, after owning dogs for 25 years, these two have us where they want us and not where we need to be.