8 State Hurricane Kate

Today was a beautiful spring day. We spent a lot of time outside. The pack behaves differently outside than inside. Cay pesters Bandit a lot outside and he doesn’t seem to react. She even nipped at his heels out in the yard. He just gave her a warning growl and she backed off. Crowded spaces can still be an issue though. I don’t have Cay loose with Bandit in the house yet.

Cay is afraid near the gates and the door, where Bandit has nailed her in the past. She still has a hairless patch on her butt as evidence. He thinks that he should go first, which is why I bring them in separately for now. At the door she panics and loses her mind, wanting to hurry in. He’s dominant and likes to exert control over passageways. When we’re coming in from outside, I currently solve the doorway issue by putting Bandit and Chase in the middle of the deck on a sit stay and letting Cay in the door first, putting her in her crate, and then going back to get the boys. She acts panicky and scrambles to get in the door without getting nailed in the butt. Normally, I’d let Bandit go first to keep the pack order, but she panics and crashes in, which doesn’t help! He does have to listen to me and for now I choose to have him wait on the way in.

So far she has done ok running up the hill to the pen with the other two, but when we’re coming back I put her on leash so they don’t get all bunched up coming down the hill through the “chute”. If Bandit starts stalking her and giving her the evil look for no apparent reason, I tell him to knock it off and leave her alone. I get between and block them sometimes. I do allow Bandit to correct her if she crashes into him or exhibits some other type of obnoxious puppy behavior. Bandit is good at teaching young dogs how to behave, but sometimes he’s overzealous with the “ROOLS”!

Posted on April 22nd, 2008 Filed under: Cayenne/ Zulu