An idylic Sunday night in front of the TV with me and the wife watching the Academy Awards and in an instant a blur of white fur, primeval growling, and gnashing teeth...and that's how it was in a few terrifying seconds. It came out of nowhere. We were totally unprepared. Our two white, cute, lovable, darling, child-like Westie dogs were transformed into unrecognizable monsters. My immediate reaction was to shout at them to stop. Wolfie begrudgingly came towards me and I told him to "go outside!" He growled again in defiance. I repeated myself. He then went outside but immediately came back staring at us. We were in shock. What the hey just happened? Instinct had told us to not physically try to break up this fight. Neither one of us wants to get bit. Westies have unusually large, strong teeth for such a small dog. We have seen what they are capable of. They were beyond agitated. They were in high adenaline survival mode.

For the rest of the night we kept them separated. They both seemed spent. We had made it clear that what had happened was not acceptable. We both knew that being animals, they were not to blame. No one was. But we needed to understand why it happened. Luckily, no one was hurt. It was more of a scuffle than a fight to the death, but we have seen signs of Bella trying to exert her dominance over Wolfie when it came to getting attention from my wife. Just before the scuffle, both dogs were lying on either side of my wife on the couch. I noticed Wolfie get up and put his head next to Bella's shoulder...it looked innocent enough to me...but that's when all hell broke loose.

I have to remember that in a dog's world they go by the rules of the "pack" which have evolved over tens of thousands of years. I am the alpha dog of the pack...no question about it. But when it comes to Wolfie and Bella, Wolfie is the alpha dog and basically he was trying to remind Bella of her place in the pack, that he comes first when it comes to things of value...food, toys, and attention. She unequivocally told him to piss off and that's when things escallated. Wolfie is very layed back and it takes a lot to get him going. Bella is the communicator and is more territorial and aggressive. I've learned that it is rare for two dogs of opposite sex to fight; it usually happens between the same sex.

The day after this all happened I left the dogs alone until supper. They were both very timid. When I let them know I still loved them they seemed very relieved and started to play together. Now we have to figure out how to work things out so this never escallates into an all out battle. I was watching a TV program on dogsledding and you could clearly see the heirarchy between the dogs. And when they got into fights it was bloody and often one dog was killed. They don't experience remorse or jealousy but they have those instinctual "rules". What did I learn? This happens. It's normal. Don't ever try to physically break up a dog fight. Sometimes treating our pet dogs as kids can lead to this kind of thing. Maybe they become too attached? I don't know, I just hope it doesn't happen again.

This weekend I decided it was time to undertake the stressful job of cutting Bella's long claws. In the past I used regular snippers to do her claws and it was always a very traumatic experience plus it still left her claws jagged and sharp on the edges. So I decided to use my Dremel rotary tool. I have had no problem with Wolfie with the Dremel. He's a real trooper and will stay still until I'm done. Bella is a different story.

First off, let me explain that Bella weighs a mere 20 lbs...Wolfie weighs 30 lbs. Wolfie is layed-back, Bella is somewhat hyper. She is 20 lbs. of pure muscle and over-sized, sharp teeth. She is the strongest little dog I've ever seen. When I play with her with a rubber chewie, I can lift her into the air by her teeth alone...and she'll stay there till I let go. When she's rambunctious (often, after dinner), Wolfie runs away from her and hides. Still, she is a sweet, loving dog.

Getting back to the dremel. I did some research on this. I put a harness on her front two legs and another harness on her rear legs. I joined the two harnesses together and then with an adjustable strap over the garage joist, I hoisted her about  4 inches off the ground. My theory was to immobilize her. My theory was quickly disproven when I turned the dremel on. As I tried to do her first claw she bit the rotating dremel sanding bit and then my hand. She was wiggling all over the place. I put a muzzle on her. She got it off!

Finally, I put on leather work gloves tp protect me from bites and finished the job as quickly as possible. She was crying miserably. On top of it all, Wolfie was scratching on the garage door and wimpering incessantly. I got Bella out of the contraption and she ran to my arms. We were both shaking. I praised her and I comforted her over and over. After the ordeal, she felt proud of herself and let Wolfie know it. When I let Wolfie in, he immediately went to see if Bella was OK. Seeing she was, he broke into the "Westie" grin. Never again! She goes to the groomer next time.