Disasters in Dogsitting

Oh, this was a difficult weekend!  We were dogsitting yesterday.  We needed to watch a sheltie and he did not like Bodie!  He started growling right from the start and would occasionally snap at our puppy.  Bodie was okay with it at first and only reacted with curiosity.  But after several hours of a snapping, snarling sheltie, Bodie had enough and snapped back.  Good thing we were between the two dogs!  A sheltie could not win against a german shepherd.

After that, we needed to keep the two dogs separated for the rest of the sheltie's visit.  As the day progressed, Bodie got more and more wound up.  Any activity, from the next door neighbor to people on the trail, made him frantic.  I have never heard Bodie whine so much and carry on.  Thank goodness the visit left after about twelve hours!

We had tried to introduce the dogs properly.  We had plans to take both dogs for a long walk as soon as the sheltie arrived.  But circumstances did not cooperate.  The sheltie arrived without a leash or even a collar. No problem, I dug through Bodie's bag and found his old puppy collar.  But the sheltie had a really fluffy mane (a beautiful sheltie!) and it was difficult to fit him properly.  He kept slipping out of the collar and I had to keep resizing it smaller and smaller.  Next, there were two unleased large pitbulls just roaming around out front and we decided not to risk it.

Oh, well.  We will just have to avoid dogsitting in the future.

In rereading what I wrote, I realize that it seems like I am being negative towards the visiting sheltie.  He is a really sweet dog.  I wonder if some of his issues with Bodie are related to his disability.  The poor puppy is partially blind and deaf.  If I think on it, I can attribute his reaction to fear.