My oh my. Life with two Klee Kai is lots of fun, but it's also proving to be a big mess in this house. Well, probably not so much the Klee Kai part as the girl part. We have entered the "management" phase.
I've been cautious since the first bitch fight happened, but things were going well and I was trying to ease up a bit. Yesterday Secret & Lucy were starting to have a really nice and appropriate play session full of play bows and mutual chasing. Kaiser eventually ran over to join and then Secret decided she didn't want to play anymore. She walked away and flopped down in the grass and promptly started to growl and flash her teeth any time Lucy came near.
Well, I've learned that this is all it takes for Lucy to GO OFF. She launched at Secret and it was not good. I had to hold Secret up in the air by her scruff while I attempted to fend off Lucy and keep her from going after Secret. Once I got Lucy pushed far enough away I put Secret on a down (bless her, she's a good girl) and worked on corralling Lucy once she hobbled away.
Lucy had a spot of blood on her leg -- I'm not sure if she got a zinger from a tooth there (hence the short-term hobbling) -- or if it came from the nice little gash on her lip. I didn't see anything on Secret.
Lucy has been on high alert around Secret since then and Secret has mostly shown avoidance behaviors, but still doesn't hesitate to growl if Lucy gets in her space. I'm trying to avoid letting this happen at all costs because it seems to take so little to set Lucy off... So Lucy is staying on leash in the house when not crated and the little dogs are getting separate play time outside without Secret present. All four dogs can be outside together if we're wandering around, but I can't sit down without a fight brewing because apparently there isn't enough of me to go around. At the moment I have Lucy on my lap and Secret is at my feet without issue, but the trigger is light and we are trying to avoid it.
Lucy has an early alarm and today she had us up at 6:30 (better than 5:00 yesterday, but we did have a 3 a.m. potty trip outside). I took advantage of being up and got all of the dogs wore out before the heat of the day set in -- I don't know what it got up to today, but I just ran and got a pizza at 7:30 and my car still said it was 90. I let the little dogs run around outside for about a half hour to get their ya-ya's out before I'd have to put Lucy back in a crate. Then I threw on the roller blades and took Secret out for almost three miles and Luke for just over a mile and a half. Poor dog, he pooped out on me today. We ended up walking the last block or so back.
Once we got home it was Lucy & Kaiser's turn. I took the blades off and we just went out for a two mile walk around the neighborhood, still with a double-leash on Lucy. She's a good little walker, though, so I don't think we should have any issue. Lucy isn't fat, but she's not fit, either, and the walk did a great job of wearing her out for the rest of the morning.
Amazingly enough, I actually pulled it together to work the dogs this afternoon, too. I decided to set the latest drill posted on Ann Croft's Agility Coach Facebook page. We played on the original version of this course when it was first posted, so I thought it would be fun to try the new "International" version. I thought it might be a little beyond our skills, but Secret & Kaiser rocked it! (I didn't make Luke try it) Kaiser actually managed to get through completely clean once. Secret had one run with a single refusal on a backside and then another run with two dropped bars (I was jumping her at 24" and she was getting pooped by then).
Tomorrow I guess I have to go back to work. I'm not particularly looking forward to having to leave poor Lucy in a crate all day, but my dad should be coming over midday to let her out so I'm sure she'll be fine. My evenings are just going to be VERY full, trying to exercise and give attention to four dogs, when two of those dogs can't be together....
Lucy's future is still up in the air. Hoping we'll figure stuff out this week.
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