Sibling Rivalry?!

It's quite amazing how the ordinal position dynamic is replicated in house pets. At least that is the case with my dogs and a couple of other people, have also reported noticing how the elder-younger sibling dynamic is found in the relationship between their two dogs.

A number of websites offer great advice on how to introduce your dog to the new puppy viz. http://asnpr.rescuegroups.org/info/display?PageID=1804 They tell you how your older dog shouldn't feel insecure or threatened by the new one's entry. Few websites give you information on how competitive your new puppy can be. So Lexie wants the exact same toy that Kiki is playing with. Both are given bones, but Lexie wants the one Kiki is chewing on! It is really amusing and fun to watch the two of them wrestle and chase each other. I hope to shoot a video of the action and sharing it here soon!

The one thing that helped me train Kiki and will hopefully also help Lexie become a 'good doggie' is researching dog behaviour and dog-related stuff online. I have googled questions like 'My dog vomited bile' or 'My dog is sleeping a lot' or 'How do I make my dog play with the new puppy?' - all such inane questions have a long list of responses to them. And it is so comforting to hear others go through what you are and subsequently read the variety of responses.

I have also signed up for a newsletter by Sharda Baker which provides some very useful content. I believe reading stuff on dogs regularly is really important. It acts as a great refresher that helps one deal with one's babies better on a day-to-day basis.

Here is the link to Sharda Baker's site. You can even sign up for her newsletter.
http://www.easy-dog-obedience-training.com/newsletter/principles-for-house-dog-training.php 

Here is a picture of me holding Lexie. The naughtiest little Beagle in town. She has the most perfect puppy dog eyes as you can well make out, and a perpetual 'butter-won't-melt-in-my-mouth' expression. First timers always get fooled by her innocent expression, albeit for 5 minutes only. Post that Lexie reveals her true colours, which are far more intriguing than the staple Beagle tri-colour of brown-black-white!

For all the amazing quotes you have on puppies, the reality of actually having a puppy in your home is quite different. I won't say it's not amazing, in all fairness, puppies are absolutely amazing and delightful. But the not so delightful parts, like cleaning their pee and poop and getting them to stop making your house look like a perpetual disaster zone does take away from the amazing-ness of it all. I guess it's how motherhood is romanticized. It's not that motherhood isn't wonderful, but moms know just how difficult life is on a dat-to-day basis.

It's much more difficult if your first dog has been a relatively good pup. In my case, my elder one - Kiki, has been an angel. She's almost an ideal dog now and as a pup indulged in minimal destruction of property and minimal biting of parents. Au contraire, my little one - Lexie - really feels like she is the devil incarnate. Well to throw more light, Kiki is a 2 year old Lhasa Apso who looks like a cross between a teddy bear and a dog; while Lexie is a 3 month old Beagle who cocks her head to either side at every seemingly strange/new sound.

This is my second attempt at blogging. The first blog still exists, but I'm guessing it will remain dormant simply because it has an awfully lame blog name! After the struggle of blogspot confirming the unavailability of several names, this one got accepted. And I like it. I wanted a blog name to encompass the range of things I want to write about - the peripheral, the superfluous, the marginal - the emotional - the paraphernalia that comes with living life. While the 'etc.' looks after all that remains if you take away the paraphernalia.

This is also a particularly good time to take up blogging, given that I am serving notice and have exactly 3 days remaining for my last day at work. I look forward to using this time as productively as I can. Probably I won't make money, but I sure am looking forward to a restful few months when I engage in pursuits that please the soul. Amen to that thought; and a good note to end this first post on.