It happened

It happened; sooner than I had thought it would but we had a scuffle last night. Things are now going to change; as life changes you must adapt so we are adapting. I cooked up some gizzards and giblets last night for dinner; the dog's dinner that is. They love these and after Thanksgiving I stocked the freezer up with them. Jessie of course was done nearly before her bowl had touched down onto the ground and then started her ritual of moving in on Luke. I have already changed the eating routine once by placing Jessie on a bed in the kitchen once she finished eating.

By giving her a clear boundary it enables her to achieve a greater level of "stay there" success. If you don't make it clear then she starts her sneaky one step approach to the bowl. So with Jessie on the bed and the poodles finishing up their gizzards I turned to load the rest of the dishwasher. No sooner had I turned my head and there was a dog fight. My instinctive reaction kicked in and I quickly rushed the fight yelling. It was over in seconds and Jessie banished from the kitchen.

Now some people might fell compelled to yell at the big dog for going after the little dog but size nor age had nothing to do with this. Jessie was attempting to move in on Tilley's dinner. Normally Tilley doesn't mind so much but this is gizzards we're talking about. Tilley was obviously enjoying this more than usual and was not about to let the small white one steal it from her. As Jessie quickly moved into take what was left of Tilley's food; Tilley would have given a warning growl. Jessie couldn't hear it.

Seeing that Jessie was not backing off Tilley was forced to up her warning by lashing around hitting Jessie; which is when Jessie retaliated. A simple turn of the head was all that would have been required from her to defuse the situation. Jessie has always been quick to heed a warning around the food bowl but she is now unable to hear the warnings. This is a recipe for disaster; so change is required. Jessie will now be banished from the kitchen entirely once she has finished her meal.

After the initial commotion Jessie attempted to come back into the kitchen. It is difficult now to communicate with her as she is nearly deaf and has little vision. So my message had to be loud and clear even for Jessie. With a dish towel in hand and blustering up I let her know that she was not welcome back into the kitchen. This is now the law; once a law passes in this house, it is cast in stone. Dogs do not do well with middle of the road rules; it should always be black and white. So it is written.