Well it was a pretty bad day for me today. Ayla has been sleeping through the night since her first full day here but it still seems that no matter how much I sleep at night (all 6 1/2 hours), I’m just not very rested in the morning. So I woke up today feeling pretty miserable and Ayla was having a particularly boisterous morning so it culminated in me feeling really depressed and that probably only triggered the dog to be more out of control.
After taking a more relaxed look at the situation, it definitely seems that she is now challenging me for the role of alpha female in the house. I have news for her because she won’t be winning that battle. If I’m sitting on the couch she feels she needs to be on it with me (although she’s never been allowed on a couch ever and rarely even sits in anyone’s lap) and when I tell her no she just keeps on going for the gold…and then there is of course the nipping and biting when I try to restrain her. It’s gotten to the point that it’s painful so I guess I will be doing some very thorough research in the future to end this power struggle once and for all.
I know it probably doesn’t really compare but I actually started to have a sense of what it must be like to be a mother home alone all day with a human baby. It definitely made me aware that I’m not even close to ready to take on a responsibility like that. I just wanted to crawl into bed and let the dog do whatever she wanted….but I’m a fighter so she won’t be winning that easily. What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, right? Can’t believe I’m making a comment like that about an 8 week old puppy…geez. But tomorrow is another day 😉
