Changes in the Pack

It has been a tough few weeks.  Just four weeks ago, when out walking in the local area, a big dog charged Willow and Tolka from out of a field, latched onto Willow’s head and I really feared for her life.  I managed to get her loose, scared off the other dog with my can of “Pet Corrector” and a lot of screaming and shouting and got home with the girls.  I was bit, Willow had quite a few bites, Tolka managed to escape with just being a bit shook up.  But that has started a month of unrest in our little pack, as Willow’s position as “Top Girl” had been effected by her attack.  It has been a learning process for me as all the “big girls” (Willow, Tolka, Vicky and Yestie) are extremely well behaved and listen well and I have always spent time training them.  Kina is always a work in progress as she is just SO active all the time, but she does listen – although the smallest at 3.2kg she really likes to think she is in charge.  Up into this point, that had never been a problem.  But all of a sudden, Kina became the band leader of the puppy mafia – Rockette (who is just as active as Kina), Star and Peony and the four mounted a takeover attempt.  After a fairly dramatic last week, we are back to a normal state.  Why was the normal pack order destabilised??  Willow’s attack, Tolka’s recovery from IVDD, Yestie being in Moscow to be mated, the puppies going off to Crufts last month on their own – and me not realising that all this was going to cause havoc in the group.   I also realised that I had never spent the time training the puppies as I had the older girls.   It has been a tough lesson but they are all back to “normal” now, the puppy mafia is no longer running rampant, the girls are all listening and are much better behaved – – and Kina is back to her normal place of being cheerful and bossy but no one listens to her.  Willow is back as Queen of the Pack as she is feeling much more like herself and is fully recovered, a few minutes ago she was playing with Rockette and Rockette was deferring to her and not challenging her.  So calmness reigns again – – but this was a real warning to me about having such a large pack of girls.  During the worst of this period, 6 of the 9 were in season.  I had some good advice from friends who breed and show, and I am determined we never go through this again!  So to celebrate – a photo above of all the girls together (except Yestie who is still in Moscow).