How Do You Live With 8 Dogs?

I love animals and have had pets off and on all of my life. One of the worst days I had while my sister was sick was the day I had to have our 16-year old Bichon Frise put to sleep. He had started having grand mal seizures and we did not know why. They could be controlled, but he was not the same dog on the medication. Since I was dealing with my sister’s illness, I didn’t even consider replacing him.

My son’s girlfriend needed a place for her dog when she and her roommates started having problems. Since I have a large fenced backyard, she called me for help. That’s when this big goofy dog Jack moved in. The dog was still a puppy but well behaved due to the training my son’s girlfriend was doing. After my sister passed away, I felt there was a hole in my world that could be filled by a dog. We took Jack and went to the local animal shelter to look for a dog. I wanted one about the same size and age as Jack. There was a very sweet Lab mix that was 10 months old and she became my Jill. My son felt left out, so we added Reggie, a dachshund-beagle mix, to the household.

With that many dogs in the house, I wanted them all trained. We signed up for a class and Jack became a star! That dog wants so badly to please my son’s girlfriend (now wife) that Jack tries to anticipate the next command. Jill did OK with training. Of course the truth of it is that the class is for the owner, not the dog. Where my daughter-in-law (DIL) worked with Jack daily and several times a day, I would practice with Jill a couple of times a week. My son was worse than me about practicing. In his defense it is hard to work with a dog who thinks that it’s all about getting the treat. Forget doing something for the treat-Reggie just wanted that treat. We did manage to graduate and the dogs do have the basic commands down. Jack outdid everyone by performing a pirouette in mid-air and I think that was the trick that got my DIL hired as a pet trainer. Some of the dogs work with her as demonstration animals.

My DIL had made friends with our teacher. The teacher had a dog she was giving away and my DIL wanted it for her grandmother. We ended up with the dog, Kippy, in our household for a month after she was spayed. She fit in very well and I fell in love with Corgis because of her. When her departure time was approaching, I started to miss her. We ended up getting one of her puppies, Winston. I call him my “little man” (even thought he ended up neutered). Things did not work out with grandmother and Kippy and I was truthfully delighted. Kippy came home and we now had 5 dogs.

When there are 2 dogs in a household, it’s not much different than having one; just more poop. Once you go over the number 3, you have a pack. It helps to understand a bit about wild dog packs. They are matriarchal although there is usually a male ruler too. Since Winston is the only male, that job falls to him-he is the Alpha male. Then the females decide among themselves who is the Alpha female. If it requires a fight, that’s what will happen and you just have to let it happen. So Jack and Jill went at it and Jack ended up having to have four wounds sutured. We thought the matter was settled, but noticed that Jill who up until then had treated Jack like her playmate and best pal was going into alert status every time she was near Jack. We had to keep them separated. Even though Jack was submitting, Jill would attack her. We made a very hard decision and found Jill a new home where she was the only dog. The confrontation with Jill seemed to wake up Jack’s need to dominate. She went after the other dogs a couple of times. The problem is that she is so much bigger than the others and could inflict some real harm.

We decided to manage the pack by isolating Jack. We have baby gates on most of the rooms. The smaller dogs go into a gated room while we move Jack outside and inside. The thing I feel bad about is that Jack spends a lot of time in her crate. We do have a pen inside the fence and have started putting her in the pen. She gets plenty of exercise then because the Corgis are herding dogs and seem to think they are supposed to herd Jack around the pen. They bark in unison and run around the pen while Jack bounces around inside. I hope the neighbors don’t mind.

My DIL convinced me that since we love dogs so much, we should try our hand at breeding. She wanted to start with a Yorkshire Terrier. I agreed, but only if it was to be my dog. I gave up Jill, so I wanted a replacement. We got scammed on our first attempt to get a dog (don’t buy off the Internet unless it’s a local breeder that you can visit). Then I got Raina. Her name is from reina, Spanish for queen, but spelled differently so people will know how to pronounce it. About three weeks later we got Penny, a Boston Terrier. She is definitely my DIL’s dog. Our latest addition is Hamburger, another Boston Terrier. She claimed my son as her human.

I almost forgot CC! I do that often. She arrived between Penny and Hamburger. In fact my son didn’t even know we were getting her. He was a little pissed when he got home from class and found another dog! My DIL found CC in an online advertisement; free to a good home! We were the first to show up to see her and there had been 8 or 9 serious calls, so we grabbed her. She is a pure bred Cocker Spaniel. CC is beautiful and very sweet. I forget her because she just blends in and doesn’t call attention to herself. I should remember her because my Yorkie bullies her terribly. There are times that we have to drag CC inside by her collar because she is afraid of Raina, a dog who is 1/3 of her size. I call Raina my “Yorkshire Terror”.

So far CC and Raina have been in heat. Raina was too young to breed, but we did try with CC. My DIL had found a male Cocker Spaniel whose owners were willing to let us use him as a stud. He came to stay at our house for a week of unbridled doggie love. Unfortunately we had two virgins and we are not sure they successfully mated. The books I have read recommend that one of the dogs should be experienced. The humans involved, meaning us, were inexperienced as well, so we don’t know if there was anything we could have done to encourage them.

So now there are 8 dogs in the house: Jack, Reggie, Kippy, Winston, CC, Raina, Penny and Hamburger. We use magnetic letters on the back door to show the location of each dog: at work, in the pen, in the backyard or in the house. We use baby gates inside the house to restrict access to the dogs. We use crates to aid to house-training and for sleeping. Selected dogs do get to sleep with humans, but only if they follow the rules. The crates are also used during feeding, but no dog gets their food bowl until they are calm and sitting. Just like children, the dogs need discipline and structure.