Oh the doggy drama. Try as we might not to, somehow we still managed to neglect the furry kids when Muncher was born. Not physically mind you, and not intentionally. We did our best to play with them and keep their regular schedules, but it didn’t help. The kids got jealous of the little guy.
Snickers, our beloved beagle – “the Eater” and the apple of daddy’s eye made it very, very, very obvious that she was feeling left out and jealous. She would not only do the cute things like lay in front of us on her back wriggling like a worm for a belly rub, but also the typical dog stuff. Whine, pout, beg… you get the picture. When that didn’t work to the extent that she wanted it to work she went one step further. She started having “accidents”. Now I label them as such because these were no accidents. She’s a 14 year old lady that knows bladder control, and there’s no problem with hers. Oh no, she knew what she was doing – my hubby doesn’t think that she’s smart enough to be a calculating, conniving witch, but I know better. I saw it in her eyes as she looked up at me and then squatted. She got what she wanted – she now gets more attention, anything to stop the peeing.
Sammie (aka The Barker) on the other hand was not as obvious. She may be a barker, but she’s a sweet dog (even though the hubby may disagree, can you tell who brought which dog into the relationship???!!!) and keeps pretty much to herself i.e. she’s not the attention hog that the Eater is. No, a typical day for her means getting up, going out, playing a little, sleep sleep sleep, go out, eat, sleep sleep sleep, go out, play and go to bed. She was a little disturbed by the doorbell ringing as often as it did those first few days (and poor hubby was disturbed by her barking – our little watchdog). It wasn’t until about 2 weeks ago that I noticed that she was loosing weight (it was hard to tell with all the fur she had on her). She was showing her jealousy and need for attention by eating less and less and I never noticed it because the evidence of said lack of eating was disposed of by… none other than the EATER!!!
Now that I’ve realized this, I have been working on clever ways to get food into her and keeping the other dog away from it– I’ve added water and heated it up, added carrots, or peanut butter, chicken broth, pasta, etc… I’ve also come to the conclusion that I have to sit there and watch her eat, so that when she stops I can stop the Eater from eating her food too. Such a hassle, but it seems to be working. The only one who’s not happy -once again- is the Eater. I guess you can’t please every dog.