Yet more thoughts on dog fighting

Marley and Stevie have been at peace for many weeks now. They play together, wrestling, they gang up on Baker, they act pretty normally to my eye. One of them always disengages if things start to shift. Four and five weeks ago I was still interrupting the slightest hint of posturing, which they were very responsive to. The past four weeks there has been no need they have been so congenial with each other.

Today they fought. I'm examining the contributing factors:

They got stiff with each other a few times yesterday. There's been a bit of tension in our house with Sean preparing for a trip and lots of end-of-year school activities. I have not been really connecting with my kids or the animals, just going through the motions of making sure everyone gets their needs met.

We had an extended family incident yesterday that left me extremely angry and sleepless last night.

I took Marley in for grooming where they used electric clippers on him, which I imagine loaded him up pretty good, it also removed all of the hair overlapping his eyes and gave his body more defined lines.

I was in lala-land when I put Marley in the yard, then brought out Stevie and Baker, anxious to let them all do their business, especially since Stevie had diarrhea this morning. They were stiff and posturing before I even opened the gate. What was I thinking?

They immediately ripped into each other, with no small amount of rage. I can only reflect that I was watching my own rage express itself, fueled with pent up energy from the clipping and a lack of morning exercise, compounded by Marley's new appearance and smell.

Where we go to recover from this and get back to the wonderful place we were may require some serious time in the dirt, literally and figuratively. It is no coincidence that I have been doing some intense gardening and have felt euphoric from my time in the dirt. The dogs have also enjoyed laying in the dirt, Stevie in particular, they all become very playful, most especially Baker.