The Dogmom Diary: Brotherly Love-ish?
These moments are my favorite..
When I look at this picture (see right), I forget that they didn’t always love each other this much
Bruiser was an only child for a very long time. He’s always been happy, full of energy and just loved EVERYONE. When we were out in the world, he was always the center of attention (even if he had to push the issue…ha!).
Then, Drifter came along.
Of course, I would find a herding dog under my work building and not a relaxed dog that could be okay with sharing the spotlight. Nope, that would be way too easy.
When Drifter first came home, it took him days to come out his shell. He was a little shy around all of us. We showered both dogs with so much love and made sure they were both okay with this new change. We knew this would be a transition period.
One morning we woke up and THERE was Drifter. His herding habits started shining through loud and clear. He was honestly way smarter than we were prepared to handle.
From peeing on Bruiser and being too rough with him to tearing up the home furniture, we knew we had to make some changes in how we cared for him verses how we cared for Bruiser over the years.
First, he needed activities, lots of walks, days at the shop with my boyfriend…he needed action with a purpose. Adding these things to his days helped a lot, but they didn’t fix everything (pun intended).
Second, after long conversations with the vet and a lot of work educating/convincing my boyfriend, we had him neutered. We saw a huge change in him and I feel it made him less anxious. I’m not sure if that is medically proven but our house got calmer after.
Finally, the real change happened after Bruiser’s vacation to his mawmaw and pawpaw’s house in Baton Rouge (my hometown) for a few months. Bruiser got all the attention and love from them while Drifter got to ease into his new surroundings and grow up a little.
The aftermath of these three significant events was a home of two loving dogs. On rare occasions, Drifter still plays a little too hard for Bruiser but they can’t deny their love for cuddling. And yes, Drifter wants to be the center of attention all the time but Bruiser is handling it a lot better.