mightyjesse (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mightyjesse) wrote2007-11-04 09:33 am
mightyjesse) wrote2007-11-04 09:33 am
Dogs and Geekery:
Last night Maggie and Jasmine and I went to Shava's house to do some work on organizing the Northshield Website. The work in and of itself was quite necessary, but really boring, so I'll skip over that part.
Shava has 2 dogs, one of which is quite chipper and loves rough-housing with our two girls. Unfortunately, there is a bit of tension between Shelly (I never quite caught if the dog's name was "Shelly" or "Shelby", so please excuse what is possibly creative dog-naming here.) and Jasmine when they are initially re-introduced. Shelly wants to be the boss because it's HER HOUSE. Understandable. Jasmine wants to be the boss because... She's a pretty, pretty princess and knows that she CAN.
When we first entered the house, there was quite a lot of growling and posturing between Shelly and Jasmine, with Maggie NOT HELPING by bouncing through the situation like a brainless high bounce ball. Finally Shelly had had it with the interlopers and went after Jasmine in a flurry of snarling and wrestling, which Giles mediated with my wool coat like a dapper medieval matador - beating both dogs over the head with muffling fabric and fouling up their lunges for each others' throats. (It was a really clever trick, I must say. I shall remember that for the next time I'm in a situation that involves a dog fight... Something that happens around me more often than I'm comfortable with.) After we broke up the fight, Jasmine did something that I'm still trying to sort out: She pasted herself against my legs and watched Maggie wrassle with Shelly. She would let Maggie approach, but not Shelly.
I'm trying to figure out if Jasmine was trying to protect me, or if she expected me to protect her. Either way it was a sign of affection, and it gave me a warm fuzzy... A good pack leader is trusted to PROTECT. I know Maggie trusts me to protect her, because she stands behind me whenever Zig is cussing her out for running in the house. Jasmine doesn't normally do this, however; she usually withstands vituperation from Zig all on her own - I believe it's because she trusts HIM not to hurt her.
Eventually we managed to pound through both dog's little brains that eating other dogs was EXTREMELY frowned upon, and they decided that rampaging through the house was more fun anyway. At that point, we kicked the lot of them out into the yard to play, and proceeded to get some actual work done.
I visited/worked for 4 HOURS, and Jasmine, Maggie, and Shelly did laps around the yard THE ENTIRE TIME. This morning both my girls are lying on their respective couches behaving like little angels because they're too tired to do anything else. I may need to arrange play dates with Shava more often.
:-)
Shava has 2 dogs, one of which is quite chipper and loves rough-housing with our two girls. Unfortunately, there is a bit of tension between Shelly (I never quite caught if the dog's name was "Shelly" or "Shelby", so please excuse what is possibly creative dog-naming here.) and Jasmine when they are initially re-introduced. Shelly wants to be the boss because it's HER HOUSE. Understandable. Jasmine wants to be the boss because... She's a pretty, pretty princess and knows that she CAN.
When we first entered the house, there was quite a lot of growling and posturing between Shelly and Jasmine, with Maggie NOT HELPING by bouncing through the situation like a brainless high bounce ball. Finally Shelly had had it with the interlopers and went after Jasmine in a flurry of snarling and wrestling, which Giles mediated with my wool coat like a dapper medieval matador - beating both dogs over the head with muffling fabric and fouling up their lunges for each others' throats. (It was a really clever trick, I must say. I shall remember that for the next time I'm in a situation that involves a dog fight... Something that happens around me more often than I'm comfortable with.) After we broke up the fight, Jasmine did something that I'm still trying to sort out: She pasted herself against my legs and watched Maggie wrassle with Shelly. She would let Maggie approach, but not Shelly.
I'm trying to figure out if Jasmine was trying to protect me, or if she expected me to protect her. Either way it was a sign of affection, and it gave me a warm fuzzy... A good pack leader is trusted to PROTECT. I know Maggie trusts me to protect her, because she stands behind me whenever Zig is cussing her out for running in the house. Jasmine doesn't normally do this, however; she usually withstands vituperation from Zig all on her own - I believe it's because she trusts HIM not to hurt her.
Eventually we managed to pound through both dog's little brains that eating other dogs was EXTREMELY frowned upon, and they decided that rampaging through the house was more fun anyway. At that point, we kicked the lot of them out into the yard to play, and proceeded to get some actual work done.
I visited/worked for 4 HOURS, and Jasmine, Maggie, and Shelly did laps around the yard THE ENTIRE TIME. This morning both my girls are lying on their respective couches behaving like little angels because they're too tired to do anything else. I may need to arrange play dates with Shava more often.
:-)