stephanie is: 
sleepy…
First, on a girly note, doesn’t anyone have suggestions on where I could buy/order something similar to this, but not for a bazillion dollars (more like move the decimal point one spot to the left)? It would be worn over an aqua blue dress with silver beading. We are going to Las Vegas for a weekend next month, and I thought it would be a fun outfit for going out at night. I’d need silver sandals and a small bag, but the shoes at least should be on sale now. I forgot to take a picture of the dress. Laura – you saw it when I tried it on.
India has been well behaved the last couple of days. I’ve been watching the girls via my webcams while I’m at work. We’ve come to the conclusion that problems only arise when we are around (I’m not sure if our pet sitters have any problems). It seems to be mostly dominance (India trying to raise her status in our “pack” over China) and territorial (India wanting to claim more ownership of us – mostly Danny – than China).
We have been doing three main things. It is too soon to know how much god they really are doing, but life has been calm.
The one I already mentioned is that India is no longer allowed to sleep on the bed with us. She was guarding us (probably mostly Danny – she is seriously in love with him and sees him as pack leader supreme that she has to impress) too much. I bought her a bed last night that she really likes, but we don’t have room to put it in a good spot by the bed yet (the bedroom is a wreck as Danny is rewiring speakers and whatnot after the whole speaker-falling-down fiasco). India came up on the bed just before 5 am. I woke up to Danny telling her to “get down”. She laid down on him because he said “down”. I told him to try “not on the bed” (she learned that so she would jump off the bed with stinky dog treats) of “off the bed” (close enough that she usually understands). She gave us a super sad look before getting down.
The second thing we are doing – and probably most important – is consistency in our commands and routines. It is easy for me to make sure I start giving the same verbal commands to her since I worked with dogs for so long. It is harder for Danny to remember, but he is doing great with it. It is easy to forget and say “Are you serious? I said sit down!” instead of just repeating a firm “India, sit.”
The third thing is to treat her as a dog and member of our “pack” before she is allowed to have affection and attention. We are reinforcing that China (who is older) is above her in status. In addition to making India sit before she is allowed inside after a potty break, we are now letting China go upstairs ahead of her and we are walking India slowly and calmly up the stairs. Before she was galloping up the stairs past China, running around pouncing on things. China never appreciated getting pounced by a crazy dog. Walking India up the stairs causes her to enter the room calmly.
We had one moment of growls last night. India growled at China across the room when Danny sat down nearish to India and China was watching. We both gave her her verbal reprimand and I told Danny to go give China affection to reinforce that she has a higher status than India. India watched for a second then laid herself prone on the floor and didn’t growl again.
This month is crawling! I guess because I am looking forward to getting away to Vegas. We are going the weekend after Labor Day. Can’t wait!