Guess Who's Back... Monday, August 5

Am I a terrible fur-mama if I admit that three weeks of life without the boys was pretty good?!  

I mean, walking three dogs and managing them plus my company, under the same roof does get kind of crazy.  I vacuum and wash the first, second and third floor floors every single day, sometimes twice actually.  And then there was the fact that Balboa and Cassius turned on each other.  At first is was a little fight here and there but then it quickly escalated and blood was shed, not only their blood by my blood.  I had this massive welt on my left leg from where I got accidentally bite when separating the two.  Their teeth had broken my skin, it swelled up and then it also bruised.  

It was nice to just have to worry about one of the three dogs, Rousey, and it gave us a chance to give her some extra attention that she's been deserving since she joined our family.  

The boys have been gone for three weeks now, off to doggie training camp where they've been living with a professional -- Trainer Mike of It's PAWsible.  Today they returned and I was told not to act with such excitement upon the arrival of them but it was hard not to do so.  Trainer Mike pulled up to the clubhouse and brought them out, both in the same crate.  He sat the crate down on the ground and there they whined and cried while I starred and tried my hardest not to whip open their crate down and scoop them both up.  

They lasted several hours, living in pure harmony, before their first fight broke out.  And just like that it's like they were back at square one. 

Thankfully, before Trainer Mike had left, he went over some of the commands and procedures with correcting them before he left so that was very helpful.  But it was hard to see them fight again and I instantly felt helpless and hopeless.  I just want them to be back where they used to be, back before the big move to the clubhouse in Taguig, before Rousey joined us and before I started having fighters come to my house to train.

Before all the big life changes -- all the big changes that I thought were what had made my life so great but that had ultimately caused them so much stress.

So far, so good.  

They had a fight and then another.  The second was bigger than the first and so I separated the two.  It's hard to discipline them when I don't really know who started it and can't exactly command them to calm down when it's me that gets all anxious at the sight of them even looking at each other. 

I think I'm the one who needs training here.

This will be a work in progress, I know, but I need to learn more of my responsibility in the bigger picture here and how I can be more effective in reenforcing the lessons that they spent the last month learning and doing on repeat, day after day.