TheBanyanTree: Odd dog

[JMoney]

If ever we mention Sean's name his dog, Taffy, goes to the front window and
stares out at the gate just as he used to when Sean used to home from school
through it.  We've all been quite touched by this evidence of what seemed to
us like Taffy's devotion to his master but recent events have made me start
to wonder what Taffy's real thoughts are on the matter and whether his
emasculation, a few months ago, might have anything to do with his current
uncharacteristic behaviour.

He used to be a complete sook where Tilly was concerned.  We'd give him a
bone to gnaw on overnight.  In the morning it would be where we'd left it,
untouched.  Tilly would promptly steal it and carry it off to the spot where
the lounge room, the dining area and the kitchen all meet.  There she would
strip every last skerrick of flesh from it and then some.  If Taffy
approached within 3 dogs' lengths of her while she was possessor-of-the-bone
she would go for him.  There would be ferocious snarling and barking, lip
curling, fearsome displays of teeth, a lot of jostling and claw clicking,
and probably a nip here and there, before he managed to escape.  But Taffy
is a clever fellow so he learned.  I know this because he soon took it upon
himself, on seeing Tilly in her spot with a bone, to take an immediate right
on exiting the hallway and then proceed to the back door by keeping to the
wall instead of going through the middle.  But if she wanted to go outside
too, well, she'd just rush straight to the door and push him aside.  If any
dog was going to go out she was going to be first.

This bullying behaviour of Tilly's worried me for a while.  But then I saw a
National Geographic documentary on wolves.  No doubt about it, the alpha
bitch is in charge.  Her mate gives her his food.  No wonder she felt
entitled to take whatever was his.

Since Taffy's neutering he has become much more assertive.  Give him a bone
in the evening and in the morning it will be as close to clean as a bone can
be that hasn't been left outside to the ants and the weather.  If Tilly
steals this poor prize he'll steal it back and it's become a toss up as to
who goes through the back door first.  Furthermore, blessedly, his indoor
territory marking has become a thing of the past.

When Christian arrived for Christmas we put him in Sean's room, where Taffy
has been accustomed to sleep since his puppyhood.  Taffy continued to sleep
there.  There was no problem.  When Sean arrived there were only two more
days left during which Christian would be with us so we put Sean on the sofa
bed in the spare room and Sean, feeling that Taffy was his dog, took him in
there to sleep.  That seemed to be no problem.

Then Christian left and Sean reclaimed his room.  Suddenly Taffy wasn't
willing to go in there any more.  At lights out he kept refusing.  We had to
pick him up, deposit him in the room and then quickly leave and shut the
door or he would, it seemed, have preferred to wander about the house all
night, which we couldn't allow due to the motion sensors and the piercing
sounds they emit when activated.

So we were all very perplexed, not to mention annoyed, by Taffy's odd
behaviour.  What would he do when Sean left to rejoin his shipmates?  Would
every night forever after be a drawn out drama of cajoling followed, on its
failure, by the exasperated application of brute force to get him to go to
bed in his proper place?

And it turns out that, following Sean's departure, Taffy is once again
perfectly willing to retire to the bedroom he's had for his own private use
for most of the last twelve months.  Now the problem is that he's unwilling
to come out in the morning.  At least, he's unwilling when the door is
opened by my husband even though my husband is the one who feeds him.  If I
open the door he slinks out willingly enough.

What does it all mean?  I think it means that Taffy thinks the room is his,
not Sean's, and that I'm the alpha bitch.

Janice