Ozzie Fuzzbutt...

Ozzie, the shitzu I took home in May, now has a new home. The need for a new placement was due to the aggressive behavior of my jack russell terrier. Ozzie's submissive behavior was not a good match against Sadie and she became quite the bully, always attacking him, making his squeal and dive for anything he could hide under/in/on to get away from her. I was frustrated because I was constantly getting after her for being mean, which compounds the problem by causing her to act out even more. So....the only solution I could see was to find him a new home where he could be happy. Fortunately my brother's house had recently went from a 3-indoor-dog establishment to a 1-indoor-dog establishment (another shitzu) so my brother's girlfriend, the original owner of Ozzie, took him back and I've never seen him so animated. Of course, he's acting aggressive toward her other shitzu but considering the role model he's had for the past few months, I'm not surprised. It should hopefully taper off as he feels more secure, but I'm just glad to know that he's happier.

However, my house didn't become a 1-indoor-dog establishment following this move. My family operates a kennel business where we raise and sell jack russell terriers. There was one pup remaining from the last litter who was at the age where it's critical to start housetraining so...I took her home with me. She was so docile and inanimate when I got her (I was concerned about socialization issues) but in the past 1.5 weeks, she's discovered her inner terrier. Even at 9-10 weeks, she's a match for Sadie when Sadie is at her most aggressive. She was even acting like Sadie last night by tearing around the yard as if her tail was on fire. She hasn't yet tried to run away so I haven't had to use the lead chain (thank goodness). Sadie takes off running the minute she senses freedom and, in fact, I spent 20 minutes chasing her down across people's backyards, through garages, and across gravel driveways on Saturday morning. *sigh* The brat finally got herself cornered by going into someone's fenced backyard which I closed upon following her in. She ran into the garage so I waited at the only entrance/exit where Sadie surrendered to the inevitable and meekly came back to me. She knew the jig was up. She spent the following 30 minutes in her kennel as I was very unhappy.

Dogs...sheesh.