[Dailydrool] Screams in the night

[dpmcquade at verizon.net]

Dear Clueless MomPerson:
You have a basset drama queen for sure. And make no doubt about it--Gracie was in the wrong, even though she acted as if she had been torn in two. Almost certainly, little or no damage was done to her.

In our household, the drama queen is a king. Whenever Dexter walks into Holly, she will growl at him and sometimes snap. Occasionally she actually does bite, but even if she simply growls, he starts howling as if she'd nearly murdered him.

What Gracie is telling you is that she is afraid. I don't know how valid this fear is, but it has been Dexter's "poor little me" reaction to blindness. I think he does it because I won't let him feel sorry for himself because he lost his sight. This is the only time he gets to play victim status to the hilt and gets to have alpha Holly get in trouble at the same time.

And lest anyone think that I am being mean to Dexter because he doesn't get to play the victim, I have watched him intentionally walk into Holly. With such a good nose, I can't believe he doesn't know she's there, but he keeps on going. When he does admit that she's in the way, he will sit behind her and cry for me to clear the path. Of course I always step in and help him, since Holly likes to lie in the most common paths in which both dogs and people walk. She does take advantage of Dex this way.
 
Treating Dex like a victim would never help him live a happy life, so I don't let him take advantage of anyone that way. If I did, he would have me and everyone else he met waiting on him hand and foot. He knows exactly what to do to get people feeling sorry for him, and I'm not letting him get away with that kind of victimization of humans. He is a mostly happy boy who knows how to get the most attention from people and works that as much as he is allowed to. The only bad part of his day is when he walks into Holly.
Pam, food slave and argument settler to the Dashing Bassets