I was sitting on the living room floor trying to dig under the couch for a picture frame sawtooth hook that fell off a frame the wife wanted me to hang.
The dogs were all huddled around me, because usually the only reason I’m trying to dig something out from under the couch is when they’ve rolled a bone or a toy under it.
Major was beside me and Magdalena was behind me. Sirocco was in the other room avoiding the two bigger dogs.
I pulled a clump of hair out from under the couch and tossed it to the side. I went back to searching underneath when suddenly Major Tom pounced at Magdalena, snapping and snarling up a storm. Magdalena gave back just as much as she got. Magdalena yelped at one point like she’d been bitten.
I tuned around and screamed at them to stop, then made a grab for them both to try and separate them. Thus, my learning deficiency.
One of the two of them bit me, but I’m thinking most likely it was Major Tom. It was the heel of my right hand and Major was on my left attacking Magdalena.
I did manage to finally grab enough of the scruff of their necks so I could pull them apart. Major Tom was exiled to his crate. After a quick check to see if Magdalena was hurt (no apparent signs of damage) she was exiled to another room. I didn’t want to see either one of them for a while.
I got the bite cleaned up. It wasn’t very deep and only broke the skin a little, but I figured best to treat it as a serious wound. I don’t it to get infected or anything. I put antibiotic ointment on it then covered it with a Band-Aid.
I know better than to put my hand down to grab a dog during a fight. I know I should have grabbed the spray bottle about two feet away and sprayed them in the face to break them up. But I didn’t. I went with instinct which was to get them separated as fast as possible.
I wish I knew what set them off. It could be the Gizmo stuffed toy that Jeanette brought them a few weeks ago. The dogs have plenty of toys and most of the time they share them. Well, share is a loose term. One of the dogs will select a toy and even if the others are playing with different toys, they want the one another dog is playing with. But they don’t normally have knock down, drag out battles to the death over the toys.
Magdalena has been rather possessive of the Gizmo toy, and Major likes to play with it too. Sirocco will play with it but only when the other dogs are outside. I think Magdalena grabbed Gizmo as I tossed the wad of hair aside. I think Major got jealous and thought I’d tossed the Gizmo to Magdalena when I hadn’t.
I’m not sure how to keep them from fighting over the toy aside from throwing it away and removing the temptation.
I hope your day is going better and is bite free, my Hordeling.
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