I’ve been thinking about how I can get the girls to do what I want them to without having to use force. I need to be smarter about it. I don’t want to fight for who is top dog. I’m basically a non-violent animal. I’m more of your pacifist dog. However, I can see that the household order would be better served if I were to put my paw down and reinforce one or two ground rules. I need to work out if there is a smarter way of doing things. I know in human terms one thing that works is to make someone think they are getting their own way when in fact they are not. I’ve been wondering if that could work in the dog world. Is there a way I could make Shadow think she is important without her actually being top dog? The problem is that once Shadow thinks she owns something she doesn’t like to share it. Perhaps we need to go back to basics and teach her how to share. That might involve conflict though, so it is a bit of a vicious circle and in this case the emphasis is probably on the word vicious.
I may have told you that my Mistress is making a determined effort to get all the outstanding jobs done around the house. Some of those are easy but take time, like turning up the lounge curtains. Some of them are a little more difficult and involve a person with vertigo going up a double ladder. She has never really done that before so it remains to be seen whether she succeeds in putting up the blinds or just falls off the ladder. I suggested she should move the bed into a position so that is she falls she will have a soft landing.