glorious meatball...

Hey! Long time no talkie.

So... how about I start off with the good news? Well, Meatball's platelet count is stable and though she eats like a horse and pees like a fountain, she's basically alright in the physical department. And the vet is decreasing her steroids and she'll be completely off it in about four weeks.

Now for the bad news.
At first it wasn't REALLY bad, I mean we just thought she was grouchy from spending a week at the vets, being poked at by needles and having her temperature taken, so when she got home, and the hair on her shoulders stood up at Rask, we just reprimanded her with a "NO!" and she calmed down.
But then, about 2 weeks home, she and Rask got into their first big dog fight. I was all happy and asleep in my warm fluffy blanket and suddenly I hear this sound like a demon's wolf snarling and yelping and barking and I hear Joann yelling for me to get down there. So with my overly large sweatpants that kept falling down when I all but fell down the stairs, I ran down and found my sister buried in this mass of bristling, barking, dog hair. My first thought was to get a bucket of water, then I remembered it was something else. So anyhow, Meatball and Rask were both snarling and yelping and barking and they were trying to get at eachother with my sister in the middle. So with superwoman force, I dragged them apart and for the next ten minutes, all anyone could hear was me screaming and yelling at the both of them while Meatball stuffed herself under a chair and Rask sat there forlornly taking my yelling with as much dignity as she could muster. Then both Rask and Meatball came out and sat huddled next to eachother until I calmed down. So I gave them both looks that could send any dog cowering and went back upstairs to sleep thinking they had both learned their lesson.
After I woke up, I found out it was that when my sister was petting Rask, Meatball came and she pet her too. And then when she tried to return to petting Rask, Meatball went crazy and tried to fight with Rask. So I just said, okay, it's a dominance problem, from now on, pet Rask first and give Rask her food/treats first so it will show Meatball that Rask was older and higher in the social ladder than her.
A few days later, I was once again asleep when I hear the same sounds, and I thought, this cannot be HAPPENING AGAIN. So I stormed downstairs to find them locked in mortal combat, this time, like last time, they gave no regard towards me (and I bet my face was so red from yelling) and once again, I pulled them apart and gave them both a good portion of "time out and listen to josie scream." While walking barefoot out in the concrete.
This time happened because Rask wanted to go to the bathroom outside and Meatball wanted to play outside, Rask accidently bumped Meatball on the shoulder and the fighting ensued.
Now to cut my really long email short. WHAT ON EARTH CAN WE DO TO STOP MEATBALL FROM FIGHTING WITH RASK?!?!
It happened three more times, the details which I'm not too fond in remembering but knowing that Meatball tried to steal Rask's food was enough.
Oh and she's reverted to being food possessive again but now after a few days of training, she's completely non-food possessive.
But this FIGHTING.
And I hope the steroids do not make her more manly.
(Now smaller problems, she growls at the vets and assistants and she tried to pick fights with dogs TWICE her size including a gigantic Shepherd mix at the vet's, but I think it's just bad memories of the place since I had to carry her in, she weighing about 38 pounds of meat and fur, and me at 100 or so, being embarressed as all the other patients laughed and smiled.)
Anyway, hope we can solve this, I swear if they fight again, I will be screaming into the next century. Today being the 6th time and I didn't even bother to find out why this time.

With exasperated sighs,
Josie.

read on for my professional response. sans caps...

hey, josie,

o.k., first- does rask fight back or back off?

if she backs off, you'll have to encourage meatball as the alpha so that everyone in the house is on the same page as far as acknowledging who's the king (queen). if rask backs down from her, then she's basically saying to meatball, "i openly admit defeat." and if that's the case and everybody else in the house is acting like rask's top dawg, there will be more problems between the two dogs. most problems happen when none of the two dogs back down.

steroids can definitely make dogs and even humans more aggressive. definitely. DEFINITELY...

the best way to break up a dog fight between your dogs or any other dogs is to get a long object (broom or something like this) and shove it in between their faces to break their stares. you could also get a small fog horn to shock them with the noise, but i'm sure your mother wouldn't be crazy about that. never use your hands or feet because there's alot more of a chance that they'll confuse your limb with the other dog's limb and they might take an accidental chunk out of you (this is called "redirected aggression").

i think it'd be a good idea to let them both drag short leashes from their collars when they're supervised (take them off when you're not home or not paying any attention to what they're doing). this will let you have a handle to grab when they do get into fights so you can break it up a little more
easily.

take a look at how meatball interacts with rask when they cross paths. dog fights never just happen- they always come after a series of behaviors that are very subtle but identifiable if you're looking. if you see meatball locking into a stare when rask is moving towards her or if she starts to stiffen her body up and close her mouth while staring at her, that's when you have to correct meatball right away. if you stop the series of behaviors early, the fight is interrupted before it starts. this means that you
will have to watch them closely every single time they are together (annoying, i know). and if you can't
watch them, separate them (doubly annoying). it's not fair to rask to leave her to "the wolves" without any protection from her human tribe.

if you catch meatball about to fight, i'd put her in sit-stay or down-stay to make her refocus. you have to let her know that this behavior will never be tolerated, never, never, never, ever. it's not an
easy problem to fix because it requires constant supervision. ugh.

look forward to seeing a difference when she's off the meds.

about the doctor interaction- this happens alot when dogs get hospitalized because they're being hurt
everyday by the doctors and vet techs, so they start to warn them after awhile. the bad thing is that most people working in that situation don't take the time to desensitize the dogs to the triggers that scare them. it'd be really easy for them to give some kind of a treat each time they got poked, but people in animal hospitals just don't do it. so, you're stuck with the consequences. i'd practice poking her (not with needles) around her arms and in her mouth and nose, eyes, etc. but the best thing to do is to take her to the vet's office for mock vet visits to show her that torture will not happen everytime she goes there. bring lots of treats if you do this. if she can't handle being there (fighting with mammoth dogs), just hang out outside of the building for a bit to give her a break. she's not the only dog who gets overstimulated at the vet's. also when you bring her for a recheck, bring like freeze dried liver or some coldcuts with you so you can give it to her everytime she gets touched by the vet and reacts appropriately.

let me know how things go with this and we'll take it
from there...
m

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