Week two - Night shift, the hirarchy question and the bonefight

Week two started very nice. I did not have to get up as my shift started at 10 PM so the four of us, Ine, Mischa, Orion and I could sleep a little longer.

We spent most of the time in Ine's flat and Mischa the flat's top dog behaved like he always did. Everything was his and he could do whatever he wants. That's what HE thought. And he should soon find out that things were not this easy any more. A few topics underwent a significant change.

First there was the attention I had given him for the last months. Now part of this attention - I admit, major parts - went to Orion and often you could see the question marks in Mischa's eyes because he could not see any reason for the presence of that other dog and the attention this dog got.

Then there was Ine's attention as well. A small part of this was Orion's now and once more Mischa did not really understand what was going on. As he is a good dog that adapts to many things without complaining he sulked a lot but did not try to get more than his share. Only his excitement when he saw me showed some change. His tail wagged less and he jumped less high.

The next topic, one that was more obvious, was the several places Mischa used to collapse at and feel comfortable. The mattress in the bedroom, the mattress in the living room the spot under the giant desk. Orion occupied these places without asking and Mischa once again sulked and accepted the loss. After a while they shared the mattress in the living room (in fact we all sat there together cuddling each other - o.k., Ine and I cuddled the dogs). And to avoid problems in the bedroom Orion got a mattress of his own.

But the worst one was food. Mischa's mind is rather one-tracked. Once food is involved it's his, no discussion! Now there was this other hairy thing and we all had to learn a lot. Feeding the dogs at the same time even in different places caused Orion to growl at Mischa and to show his shiny teeth. Mischa looked at Orion and his look just said "what?". Mischa inhaled his food like a hover, while Orion ate a little, had a little water, walked around the flat and ate a bit more. Well, as soon as Orion left his bowl, Mischa considered that Orion had finished and the leftovers were Mischa's now. This ended in even more growling and showing teeth. And Ine and I told Mischa that this food is not his. Now, this was the end of the world for Mischa. We tried several different kinds of feeding them. Same time, different places in the kitchen, same time, different places in the flat but what worked best was: Ine prepared Mischa's meal and while he inhaled it, I prapared Orion's and served him in a different room. No growling any more and we thought we'd won, but we should be proven wrong within no time.

As the two dogs had shared a rawhide-bone the other day I decided to get one rawhide bone each. Not the usual stuff. Rawhide filled with paunch. They got them the same time and had to work for it. Sitting with the "bones" in front of them for a few seconds. But then they were in doggy heaven and started chewing them. Mischa, the expert, in the office. Within less than 30 minutes the 23 cm bone shaped chewing stuff had changed to a palm sized piece of rawhide with no paunch left.
Orion, the novice, went to the living room and we could hear his teeth working on the rawhide. After a short time (while Mischa was steadily chewing on his "bone") Orion came to the office again, heavily breathing. A look at his chewing stuff showed that he had managed to chew 1 cm and to eat the paunch at the same length. I had to go to work so we walked the dogs together in the fading daylight. When we returned, orion immediately went to the place where he had dropped the "bone" and put it on the floor in the hallway, where Mischa saw it and - as everything edible is his - tried to get it. Growling was not enough now. No, Orion went for Mischa and they started fighting. Luckily I could get them apart before they had time to harm each other, but Orion had thus clearly stated what was his and that he did not want to share food with anybody.

Or was this only the revenge for the three times Mischa had peed on Orion's head today while the large dog was sniffing?

Now we (Orion and I) are back in my flat again and he tries to get all the cuddles Ine gave him the last days from me now. Pascal, as I expected, already wants to stay at home instead of walking the dog, though he was the one promising that he'd help me with walking and feeding. Never trust a teenager!