Who let the dogs out??

I have never had a dog, nor have I ever wanted one. I am told by my parents that they had a Collie and a German Shepherd when I was little and I was afraid of both of them, so they got rid of them. The only pets we had growing up were some bunnies that my brother let starve.

We are living in my in-laws' house for a few months while they are in the U.S. and it is situated on a large seminary property. For safety reasons, they have always had dogs on the property. So, I'm learning a lot about dogs, how to care for them, how to talk to them and when to leave them alone.

The two dogs here now are a Boxer and a Labrador. They are both beautiful dogs and good guard dogs. They seem to be good with kids as well, as my kids have played with them, pulled on them, sat on them, etc. and they just wag their tails at it all.

Unfortunately, they are also both males. Well, I've learned that one has to be the leader...... apparently, they picked the other night at midnight to decide who it would be. They fought off and on all night, and I mean, really fought! We hardly slept at all that night. Brent had a really hard time breaking them up and he had two guys helping him. I was observing from inside the house, of course. In the morning, we saw that they were both bloodied and badly wounded. They also couldn't be together or they would immediately start growling and lunging for each other.

Well, it looks like this won't stop, so we are going to have to give one of the dogs away, which has broken my kids' hearts.

Moral of the story: there really isn't one. The way the dogs have treated each other and the fact that one MUST be the boss has really made me think about people and how I've seen people behave like this, as well! I've never really seen two people biting each other and clawing at each other, but they may as well, so destructive are their words and attitudes.

There always has to be a leader/ boss, right? I wonder what would happen if one of the dogs would just concede and decide to let the other one be the leader and live in peace. That's not going to happen with dogs, but shouldn't it be a little easier with people?? Just sayin'.

Miriam