Dog Aggression

Has anyone ever had to deal with aggression in their multi-dog household? My Sheltie, Lady, has food aggression. We have pretty much nipped that in the bud by only giving treats, rawhides, etc while the dogs are in their kennels. When the dogs are fed, we stick pretty close to make sure Lady doesn't race over to Zoe's bowl and try to eat her food. Fortunately, Zoe eats much faster than Lady, so as long as we feed Zoe first, we don't have any issues.
Now, Zoe is starting to show aggression with her toys. In recent weeks, the dogs have gotten into two fights over toys. Zoe is the one initiating these fights and when I try to break them up, she continues to try to attack Lady. In the last fight, Lady had a little blood in her fur. I couldn't find any wounds on either dogs, so I'm not sure where the blood came from. In any case, I'm particularly concerned because we have a 2 year daughter and a new baby due in July. The dogs have not shown any aggression toward my daughter (they have been known to snatch food every once in a while though.) I don't expect they will be aggressive with the new baby; however, I'm afraid one of my children will get in the mix of one of these fights and end up hurt.
I don't want to overreact and give up one of our dogs; however, I must be protective of my children as well. Does anyone have any advice?

After Christmas Blues

Although I am glad to stop spending money for Christmas gifts, my husband and I tend to get the "blues" when the holidays are over. We really enjoy Christmas time, decorations, and spending time as a family and it's a bit of a let down when it's all over. But, all good things must come to an end.
My mom and stepmom always give our dogs gifts for Christmas. Usually, Lady and Zoe each get a toy and some treats. It's always fun to have some extra gifts for them.
Does anyone else have relatives that give your dogs holiday gifts? What kinds of gifts do you receive?

Just a few days 'til Christmas!

We have just a few more days until Christmas. This year should be fun for us. It looks like we will have a white Christmas here in Omaha, Nebraska, which is always a lot of fun. We plan to fill Lady and Zoe's stockings with treats and a couple of toys. Lady doesn't really play with toys, but I hate to only get treats. Although, she would love it, I'm sure. She LOVES to eat just about anything. Unfortunately, that also includes cat poop and our other dog's poop. In fact, both of our dogs eat each other's poop. I know this is gross, but we can't seem to get them to stop. I read a book that said it is abnormal for adult dogs to eat any poop and if they do, it's probably because they don't have enough human interaction or they are just plain bored. With my dogs, I really find that hard to believe. We play and cuddle with them all of the time! And when we aren't playing with them, they are playing with each other.
Can anyone else offer any advice on this gross habit? Personally, I think the dogs are just in the habit of it now and they can't break out of it. I don't see how I can follow them around the yard all of the time to make sure they don't eat poop. What should I do?

Zoe's accident

Well, we had a scary incident over the Thanksgiving weekend. My two dogs always play together, chasing each other around the house and such. They had just finished playing and came into the room my daughter and I were in. I called Zoe over and began to pet her head, when her skin spread apart, revealing a deep gash. It wasn't bleeding very much, but it was such a deep wound. I had to rush her to the emergency clinic, where she had to have her head shaved and several stitches. She also had to have a plastic tube inserted into her head for any drainage. Fortunately, she will be fine, but it was pretty scary.

We don't think our other dog hurt her, but she probably ran under our bed and must have snagged herself on a screw or some kind of sharp angle. We haven't been able to find out what caused it yet, but need to before she gets her again.

Has your dog ever suffered an injury from something in your home? How did you determine what caused it or was there anything you did to prevent future injuries?

Halloween

I dressed my dogs up for Halloween this year. Actually, I dress them up every year. Not for their enjoyment, but for mine! Instead of getting a full blown costume for each dog, I decided to simply to purchase some kind of hat and a scrunchie to go around their collars. I found a scrunchie with skulls and one with bats. In addition, I bought a witch's hat and a headband with a bone going through it (similar to the concept of an arrow going through a person's head.) So, Lady wore the witch's hat and bat scrunchie, while Zoe wore the bone headband and skull scrunchie. Immediately, they tried to get their hat/headband off. We had to take a quick picture - if it turns out I will post it later. I'm sure this behavior is not terribly unusual. Which brings me to my question - did anyone else dress up their dog(s) for Halloween? If so, what were they? Did they keep their costumes on? I'd love to hear about it!

Welcome to Privileged Poochies' Blog!

• I am really excited to start this new blog in connection with my retail website, www.privilegedpoochies.com! I have had dogs for most of my life and wanted to be able to share my thoughts and opinions about dogs and dog fashion. I currently have two dogs, a Sheltie named Lady and a Corgi named Zoe. They are great dogs and I look forward to sharing some of their antics with you and hopefully you will have stories to share as well! More to come....