Skip to content

Magdalena has a disturbing new habit

  • by

Magdalena and Sirocco are continuing their bonding. Several times a day they play rough, pouncing on each other, or chomping on each other. Sirocco gives as good as he gets. He clamps on to Magdalena’s cheek with his teeth and won’t let go. Magdalena stomps on him, since she towers over him, usually eliciting a yelp from Sirocco.

However, Magdalena has come up with something new to torment the little guy.

I was in the kitchen getting ready to leave the house. Sirocco and Magdalena were charging through the house, as they often do when playing. Sirocco came up to me and gave me one of those looks as if to say “Okay, I’m tired, can you get her to stop playing?”

Magdalena strolled up behind Sirocco, grabbed his tail in her teeth, lifted up so Sirocco’s back feet were off the floor, then dragged him into the living room!

I was yelling at her the entire time to let Sirocco go, while following along behind her, but she wasn’t listening. When she finally stopped in the living room and I could catch up to her I told her “No!” then swatted her behind. She dropped Sirocco and hung her head.

I checked to make sure Sirocco was OK. No obvious signs of damage.

She grabbed his tail several more times throughout the day. She didn’t drag him through the house on the other occasions but even so I’m sure Sirocco didn’t like it.

It is things like this that make us wary of leaving the two of them alone together in the house. Most of the time we can leave Magdalena outside but with Fall / Winter coming and the weather getting colder that isn’t a good option.

The wife hired a dog trainer who has been working with Magdalena and us. The trainer said that we need to separate and crate all three dogs, on a rotating schedule. Put one dog in a crate, one outside, and let the other one roam the house. This gives each dog some ‘downtime’ away from the other dogs, letting their energy decrease so they can relax. She said that after a week we’ll see a big difference in the dog’s behavior.

With so much free time, and so little to do, she said the dogs, Magdalena especially, are bored and want something to do. That’s why Magdalena and Sirocco go at it. Magdalena, being a Husky, and Sirocco being a Pomsky, thus part Husky, are bred to be working dogs. They either pull sleds or herd animals when they are working. They have a lot of energy that needs to bleed off.

The trainer said that when Magdalena gets worked up we should try to take her in the backyard, without the other dogs, and brin a few toys. Then we need to find out wat she likes to do – chase balls, carry toys around, whatever. This gives her something to keep her engaged and occupied, and work her brain a little bit.

I’m willing to give separating and crating the dogs a try, if it will get them to calm down and stop charging through the house and hurting each other.

If you’d like to support my efforts, why not buy me a chocolate chip cookie through my Ko-Fi page? https://ko-fi.com/jhusum

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *