Separation is the best solution.
How does this work? I created an "isolation room" in a large room off the dining room/living room/kitchen area by attaching two panels of an expen to the door hinges. One of the expen panels has a door in it. I never lift the pups OUT of the isolation room because even though the expen panels are 42" tall they can easily jump them. They always exit by the doorway. And calling it the isolation room is a bit misleading. The room is in the heart of the house with a clear view of the kitching and living room where we spend most of our down time. The pup in that room is included in all of our activities, she just can't directly interact with her sister.
One pup is in the room and one pup is out with the other dogs. I switch them every hour or so depending on what is going on. The tension in the household dropped noticeably once I made the separation and it has been working very well.
Anyway, to the point of today's post. A local trainer trying to jumpstart her business offered a fun run today. It was a whopping 3 miles from my house. How could I not take advantage of this? I took a deep breath and loaded BOTH pups in the car and off we went.
Given what I described above, what would possess me to take both? There are three reasons I wanted both there. Gracie certainly isn't ready for a full course. But this would be a great chance to expose her to a trial-like environment and for me to see what sorts of distractions affected her the most. I also wanted to make sure that Mimi wasn't harboring any sort of permanent skittishness from her meltdown at her last tournament.But there was one big reason for taking both. Both girls are showing tons of aptitude and enthusiasm for agility. I can delay it but can't avoid it forever--there will come a day when both of them will be competing at the same trial. I'll have two super drivey terriers who are obsessed with killing each other. At the same trial. With food and toys and all sorts of high value stimuli. Exactly how would that play out?
My family took a lot of trips when my brother and I were very young. I have great memories of many very cool places that we visited. Some of these trips involved staying in hotels for a night or two which in turn required my brother and I to share a bed. We fought like proverbial cats and dogs and would end up poking, pinching, and kicking each other, and driving our parents crazy. Their solution was to roll the bedspread into a long tube and lay it under the covers down the center of the bed. We were instructed not to cross the center line, OR ELSE.
Since Mimi and Gracie can't even be in crates next to each other without growling and escalating aggression, and since I was crating out of my car for this fun run, I decided that the bedspread solution would work for them too. Notice in the pic below the two yellow towels blocking their view of each other (the crates only have holes in the top half). Sure, they know the other dog is in the next crate, but they can't see her, so it reduces the stress. When I checked on them throughout the afternoon, several times I found them curled up into little balls in their crates, sleeping calmly.
Gracie is on the left, Mimi is on the right. Vienna sausages on lower left!When I opened Mimi's crate to get her out to warm up before her runs, she never even glanced at her sister who was only inches away. She was completely focused on the agility game. It was the same for Gracie--not even a quick eye flick at her sister. She wanted her treats and her ball and my attention.
It was quite a milestone. I think I can make this work.
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