Monster and Dobie have gotten into several fights. It's becoming more difficult to call Monster away once they start tightening up against each other (understandable, but still bad). Speaking in a happy, light voice makes Monster wind down (lowering neck, lowering and relaxing tail, folding back ears), but makes Dobie worse. Speaking in an angry, loud voice can get Dobie to wind down (if you sound angry enough), but it makes Monster come much closer to attacking. Walking away has no (positive) effect. Stepping between them is of course not even worth considering.
Dobie has gotten a couple of bites in today, but Monster is no more than bruised, thank god. This is killing my hopes to have Monster feel better around other dogs. And every time I use some "trick" to try to get Monster away and defuse the situation I worry I'm ruining that for future use, making him associate it with a threatening situation. We're keeping them in separate rooms as much as possible, but it's Christmas and everything is a bit upside down.
In two days Dobie's Mom will get here. I go from looking forward to having her here to control her dog, to worrying Dobie will only amp it up once he has his family here to both get support from and guard...
This is a cloudy day.
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