As I've chronicled here before, relations between Remy and Kirby have been a bit strained. If they're together, they're wrestling. At least that's how it has been pretty much ever since we brought Remy home. We've tried force -- pulling the dogs apart, telling them "leave it!" or "stop it!" but sometimes the grabbing and forceful words just seem to reinforce the fighting mood. Only a human-imposed segregation of the two dogs has allowed us peace for any extended period of time.
On Friday I was on puppy duty. (Jamie and I have been taking turns watching Remy and working downstairs while the other person works in their office upstairs with Kirby. Remy has a crate, but since we both work from home, we are afforded the opportunity to not have the little guy in a crate all day.)
Anyway... it was a day when we both really needed to work from our upstairs offices. I decided to go ahead and have both Remy and Kirby in the office with me. Of course, immediately there was a Tasmanian-devil-meets-Iowa-tornado-like whirling mass of rolling, growling, biting scruffiness happening under my desk. It wasn't long before I'd had enough. I went and got a spray bottle and a bag of little treats. I came back to my desk where the war raged on and gave them both a spritz. Immediately things fell shockingly silent. From under the desk there were four eyes focused on me, shining from from disheveled little faces, both wearing expressions of WTF?!?
Ten seconds later the wrestling started again. Another spray. WTF?!? After the third spray things were quiet a bit longer. I gave them both treats. Whoa. Treats! This process went on, with treats applied for calmness, until, I'm shocked to report, they each staked out a spot and took a nap. In the same room. It was almost unbelievable...especially given that the spray bottle was just a mister I use for ironing.
That night we had both of them up on the blanket-covered couch together and they slept through an entire movie...side by side. Touching even. The spray bottle and treats (liberally applied for good behavior) were sitting on the coffee table. Again, an almost unbelievable turnaround.
We've now done this every evening since and it seems to be sticking. It seems rather silly to say this, but ever since we brought Remy home (and even before), I've dreamed of having the two dogs stretched out with me on the couch as we watched a movie. It's never happened before, so this is HUGE for me.
Yesterday, while Remy napped in my office, I caught Kirby licking Remy's face and ears -- just like he used to do with Baxter -- and Remy seemed to like it. I think they genuinely enjoy each other's company, even if they have odd ways of showing it. And now that they know they can be together without fighting, they seem to rather like it. It's as if they've been given permission NOT to fight sometimes.
This is a pretty good testament to positive reinforcement -- rewarding positive behavior and applying just enough correction so the dogs know what's expected of them. Now it becomes a matter of motivation and choices...
A few days into this I'm finding the spray bottle/treat combo doesn't ALWAYS work. Remy and Kirby both understand the carrot and the stick aspect very well now. But sometimes the urge to wrestle is just greater than either of those options. I realize these guys need time to play and it would be wrong to expect them to never play together, even if the play seems a bit rough at times.
So now we're trying to dole out sanctioned play time. Of course, once they get into the fervor of it, it's rather difficult to get them to stop. It's a learning process. And it's not fool-proof. I did have a harder time managing the under-desk wrestling today. The spray/treat combo was working at first, but not for as long at a time.
I asked myself what was different? I think part of it is Remy has decided that he doesn't mind the spritz so much. (He is a water dog, after all, and he's also a fast learner...so that initial element of surprise didn't last long.) But, moreso, I think it's because it was a blustery day and we didn't get Remy out for very much exercise. The little dude just HAS to get his gonzo puppy energy out somewhere and, at 5 months old, he has a lot of gonzo puppy energy. Today was evidence that at least part of the trick to maintaining the peace on the home front is having a tired puppy.
Note to self: weathering the storm outside means not weathering a dog tornado inside for the rest of the day.
