Stanley has his moment's

It is a mystery why Stanley traded Alpha for Omega at about eight months old. Up till that time he pushed, pulled, mauled and slammed Steffi around at will.

After all that is the rule of the wild. The largest and strongest take what they will and the rest exist with the 'leavins'.

To bring you up to speed: We are raising littermate Miniature Schnauzers. Stanley is a gorgeous Salt and Pepper boy and Steffi is morphing from a pure black into a stunning black cut with silver. I think it is cruel to try to raise one small puppy by himself if you are not going to be there in that crucial 'socializing' time. My research turned up exactly nothing on raising two at the same time so I have literally been writing the book myself. For information on that please consult my Resource Paragraph at the end of this article.

Now back to the story within this article. Suddenly Steffi took over. Stanley outweighed her by a quarter - their weight currently at thirty-three months echoes the ratio - she weighs seventeen pounds, he comes in at just short of twenty five.

She trounced him twice and that was enough to transfer Stanley from Alpha into Omega.

There was no blood. She nicks him every so often as they play and Stanley has the holes in his hide to prove how sharp her teeth are. Her favorite habit (and still is) is to grab him by the collar and mop up the floor with him. He loves it. He simply goes limp and lets her have her pleasure.

I think he lives with the old adage that any attention is good attention.

However he has added a 'twist' which makes his existence a little easier.

When she has something or a position next to one of us he wants he has developed two plans of attack.

He will go into another room and select the toy that he thinks may attract her. He will saunter back into our room, biting, growling and slamming the toy from side to side like he had a protesting cat in his mouth. He will brutalize the toy until Steffi can stand it no longer. She jumps off the couch, jumps on him and takes the toy away from him.

He does a good job of 'play wrestle'. Like wrestling you, know. He watches her and as soon as she moves toward him he drops the toy and circles around to what he really wants.

Also he has found out that he can bang the louvers on the strip windows near the front door and she will eventually come looking. He will slam them open and bark like crazy. She can't resist it. She runs over there also. He immediately gives up his place at the window. She takes over and he runs around the table and takes the spot she was occupying.

This an interesting twist since he is the most difficult one to train. When you give them a treat he has trouble finding it. Can't tell whether his nose, his eyes or both is creating the problem. They love the dried chicken strips and would literally do anything for a good sized chunk. I have noticed that whenever we give them any kind of 'goody' Stanley will look at his smaller sister seemingly asking permission to sample. Many times he will not touch the treat until she is half way through hers. I have to watch them at this moment because if she finishes first she will walk over to him and he will instantly drop whatever he has. If it is a treat he will step away and she gets a double treat.

However there are times when I drop a piece of it in front of him and he totally misses the fact that it is there. We are watching him closely and trying to make sure he does not have an ear or eye problem. He obviously is not in pain. We'll keep you posted.


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