This is what happens when people read books. They start to think they understand you. If I wanted to be understood I’d have booked in to see the psychologist. Now, to be fair, she may have a point. Anyway, what has happened is that my Mistress is reading a book on pack leadership. Then she sat us all down last night to discuss our issues. What a nerve. We don’t interfere in her ‘issues’. To be honest, I prefer to think we don’t have any issues. She thinks that some of the problems with Megan and Shadow are because although Shadow thinks she is top dog she isn’t the one favoured by my Mistress. She doesn’t sleep in our room and she isn’t the one that my Mistress trains and looks after. Shadow was getting quite excited by this point, thinking she had got her point across. I on the other paw was feeling fairly glum as I realised some of the implications of the problem. Shadow is a very dominant dog. She is small and she makes up for it by using force to get her own way. She takes the bed she wants. She takes all the big chews and doesn’t let us have any. She has all the toys. More to the point, thanks to Shadow we don’t really get any toys. The only thing she doesn’t have is my Mistress. She is very definitely mine first and Megan’s second. Shadow does not share. Once she decides something belongs to her, she makes sure the others of us know that and doesn’t let us anywhere near. I can’t stand the thought that that might happen with my Mistress. She’s mine. We have a very special relationship and it would upset both of us if we lost that. So what is the answer? The only other possibility is if I were to assert my natural authority and put Shadow in her place, but I’m just not that sort of dog. I don’t do aggression. I would rather be the one on the floor submitting than have to use force to get my point across. Besides which, I’ve seen the teeth on Shadow and they aren’t pretty! We need to give it some more thought.