The next weekend mom came down and met Charlie and I at the school down the street. Again thinking neutral territory would lesen the tension. Unfortunately we had the same outcome as before. They weren't trying to kill each other, but anytime they got close enough to notice the other one a fight would break out. We tried walking them to where they could see each other, but not get too close. We tried putting the chainlink fence inbetween them and still had the same reaction; growling, barking, jumping, and pulling. We worried they wouldn't get along in two weeks, when mom and Lulu would be staying with me while I recovered from surgery. Mom emailed the person who was fostering Lulu before as they had six dogs and Lulu got along with them. She agreed to come over the next weekend and help us get these two dogs to get along.
Our last resort happened the next weekend with Rachel (Happy Tails foster person) who suggested we arm ourselves with squirt bottles and leashes. We met at my house this time and brought them both in the backyard on leash. At first we got the usual reaction of barking, lunging and snapping at each other. After a good squirt to both of them, they seemed to realize they were on the same level and started to relax around each other. We kept a slack leash and let them explore the backyard and each other with the squirt bottle close at hand. After an hour of them slowly getting to get to know each other and getting closer to each other, we decided to move them indoors. Lulu immediately jumped up on the couch next to mom and showed her teeth anytime Charlie walked by. We knew we had to break that habit quickly, so mom has learned she has to stop "babying" Lulu around Charlie and Lulu will need to learn her place in the pack, at the back. After a few hours, they seemed to not really care about each other much, able to go in and out of the house without incidents and even watched mom make dinner in the kitchen without a fight or growl. This made us both feel much better about next week, when they would be coming to stay with me for a week.
Inside they both have taken up their spots on their respective couches (Charlie on the main couch with me and Lulu on the red couch with mom). They have had a few tussles over food and close quarters of the house. And we have found out that Charlie is a bit of a bully. Lulu has brought with her an array of toys that Charlie quickly takes away from her and hides in the back room. One day right before we were all going to take a nap (norco makes me sleepy) my mom decided to distract Charlie with a squeaky toy (Charlie's favorite thing in the world). As you can imagine this doesn't make for a restful nap for me while Charlie carried the toy between the couch and the office all while squeaky it to death. After about fifteen minutes he finally killed it and I hobbled into the room to find him eating the insides of the toy.
Over the week they have tolerated each other very well. Charlie even attempted to play with her in the backyard. Lulu gets VERY excited and will run the backyard at top speed playing fetch which gets Charlie very excited and nervous. He leaped towards her a few times and they just ended up barking at each other while jumping, not really sure what to do next. Whenever Lulu gets running or playing with a toy he comes up and barks at her or charges her until stops and drops what she is playing with and he takes it away and hides it. Or just barks at her, which is his way of yelling at her to stop.
For 7-8 pounds though she isn't a push over either. She loves barking at strangers or friends that come to visit. Whenever Charlie barks at people outside she now jumps up right beside him to warn off strangers. It's pretty funny as at first Charlie wasn't quite sure how to take it and sort of would look back at us like what is she doing. Now it's more like he is now looking back to say yeah we showed them.
She is quite a change from Charlie's lowkey manners. She easily goes from sleeping to full blown playmode. You will be petting her and the next thing she is biting at your hand and leaping at you as try to get away. She is putting all of Charlie's old toys to use, as she has flung all them around the house. Yet her favorite is a knotted up sock. But she can also change her moods quickly. She tried bite my face when I woke her up by kissing on her. She'll give you a swideways look and leap at you to play. Luckily she is so damn little and cute. Being so little those has it's draw back. One day mom almost killed her as she was sleeping behind the pillows on the couch and mom was leaning up against it. Poor thing probably say her life flash in front of her. Then today as I was trying to lift her up I accidentally hit her head on the bottom of the coffee table and she turned to bite me to let her down. But she quickly recoevered and jumped up and gave me kisses as to say she was ok and sorry for biting me. Be warned she is quick with her tongue and for some reason loves the nose!
While they might now be the best of friends they at least seem to be getting along just fine and almost seem to like each other. Lulu follows Charlie eveywhere, as well as mom. Charlie seems like he might want to play with her at times. But I think he'll be more than happy to send them home in a few days. I'm just glad to know whenever they come back to visit we don't have to worry about them getting along and hopefully we will look back on these first few months and think remember when they didn't like each other, as they lay together on the couch.
