I agreed to take my sister's dog, Whitney (Witless) overnight so they can help move their daughter to a new apartment. Whitney has always been a spaz; nice, but no social skills with people or dogs. Our dogs are used to having visitors and never once have we had a major fight. OMG.
The minute I got Witless to the house, I took her for a walk around the block to cool her jets and let her get used to the Hood. Hubby met up with us with Maggie and Doc and the fun began in one second. My husband sux as a dog handler because (1) he "thinks" he's good at it and (2) he isn't good at it. He's way too slow on the uptake where doggie language is concerned, so bad behavior doesn't get addressed until it's reached an 8 or a 10 on the 1 to 10 scale. Witless was just fine on the leash but Maggie and Doc took an instant dislike to her and attacked her. Hubby never saw it coming even while I'm telling him "They're gonna get her! Pull 'em back!" Huh? Oh yeah. Uhhhh....
Within 5 minutes I had all three dogs in my control walking just fine. Nobody was allowed to so much as look at anyone else. We head back to the house and let Witney off-leash to sniff around the yard while keeping Maggie and Doc on leash. So far, so good. Witless comes to say hello and they do the butt-sniffing meet-and-greet. I see Doc getting ready to attempt a mounting and told Hubby to correct him NOW. Huh? What? BANG! Doc starts the fight and Maggie jumps in and it's a free for all. My husband cannot control himself in these situations and his screaming and yelling only made things worse. I finally banished him and our dogs to the office.
I could deal with this issue if it was just me doing the handling, but we have a couple people coming over soon and it will just be too much chaos to get anything constructive done. We're going to take turns as to which dog(s) have free-range rights for the next 24 hours. Luckily Witless is crate-trained so when our dogs have the house, Wit is in the crate.
Never in all my years with dogs have I had this happen. Not only do I have to keep our dogs separated from Witless, but my husband as well. He can't get past the initial first impression, and blames her for the fights. Our dogs started the first three rounds, and Wit started the final and worst round. He won't admit that he added to the problem.
At least it's only until tomorrow morning. As soon as I can get some coffee in me, I'll take her back home. Poor Wit! I was really hoping she'd have fun running around the yard with the other dogs, but it's not meant to be. Right now she's perfectly calm sitting at my feet. As long as she's crated, Maggie and Doc come by to say hello and no sign of aggression from anyone.
On top of all that, the birds are screaming to be let out of their cages. They always spend the day on top and they're not very happy about the current living arrangements. Calgon take me awaaaay!!!!