Sibling Rivalry? Not in This House......

I read on the internet that when comedian Russell Brand married singer Katy Perry in India last month, he rode into the ceremony on an elephant, but the elephant's sibling had to walk beside them as well, as they are fraternal twins and can't be separated from each other without each having a panic attack.  I can understand not wanting an elephant to have a panic attack at your wedding...talk about a party crasher!  I can also understand the bond that siblings have in the animal kingdom.  It's a strong and sometimes impenetrable force that we mere humans are just going to have to live with.  I have a bond with my sister but it's not like I'm going to come unglued if we are not in the same room together.  (sometimes I come unglued when we ARE in the same room but that is a story for another time!)

I guess I should have read the puppy care book a little closer before I decided on my two fuzzy kids.  It suggested getting two puppies so they have someone to play with and keep them company, but to avoid getting two littermates, as the bond is so strong there that they have no need for you, the unofficial pack leader.  Not that it would have made a difference, I suppose, as when we took one look at these guys we were hooked regardless of what the $10 puppy book had to say.  But it does bring up a valid point.

Bodie takes his job as "big brother" quite seriously.   He can be away from her, in a different room in the house or in the yard, but it has to be HIS choice and on HIS terms.  A human forcing the separation is simply not acceptable.  Case in point, when Leila got a stick caught in her throat, and I thought we were going to have to rush her over to the vet to get it out.  The kids and I put Bodie behind the baby gate in the laundry room where they sleep, put Leila on a leash and rushed out the door.  The kids held Leila's leash while I locked the front door, and even from the front walkway I could hear Bodie frantically barking and hitting the walls, going completely ape shit at having been separated from the pack.  He is usually the quiet one in the duo, but that is partly because with Leila it's hard to get a word in edgewise.  By now, Leila is patiently sitting on the grass, having spat out the stick a few minutes ago on her own but we were all too frantic to notice.  She is looking at us quizzically, with a "Whazzup?" look on her face, so I figured a high-speed chase to the emergency vet was probably not needed.  We went back into the house where Bodie was still hysterically voicing his displeasure.  We put Leila over the fence and he was all over her like a second skin, with a sideways glance in my direction that needed no interpretation...he was pissed.

For some reason, when it comes to forced separation of the two, so far it's been Leila who needs to be pocketed away for one reason or another and Bodie is left behind.  When Leila needed ear drops put in each ear (a task I really don't recommend unless you have a suit of armor and six burly dudes to help hold her down) Bodie got so involved that we had to take Leila outside and leave Bodie inside so we could deal with one frantic dog and not two.  Bodie became unglued again, throwing himself at the window so he could see her and barking what could only be a string of canine obscenities.  The only good part of this whole scene was that even Leila was amazed at his bravado and stopped squirming enough to stare back at him through the glass and I could squirt in the medicine while her focus was elsewhere.  I may have to re-enact that special moment when I have to do it again next week.

The funny part about Bodie and his sibling-separation anxiety is that the rest of the time he is so mellow and really doesn't get worked up at just about anything.  The cat comes walking right past his nose....meh, no big deal.  The leashes come out and it's time for a walk....yeah, whatever.  Dinnertime....no, after you.  So when he does go into his "Demon Seed of Chucky" devil-dog routine, it is a bit of a head-turner.

The cute, tiny, 20-something technicians at the pup's veterinary clinic  first saw the pups as little 9-week old fuzzballs and have watched them grow into lanky, pre-teen fuzzballs.  They comment about how Bodie is coming out of his shell each time they see him, and is slightly more adventurous.  So imagine their surprise last week at the pup's visit when they had to take Leila into another room for a urine extraction (to check for a UTI as a result of her poop-eating antics) and sweet, mellow Bodie completely loses his shiz and goes nuclear.  From the waiting area in the front lobby I can hear him going ballistic from somewhere behind the closed doors, as I am sure everyone in a three-block radius could as well.  The little blonde vet assistant comes out to the lobby, wide-eyed and looking like just a little frazzled, as if someone just set off a firecracker right next to her.  "Uh.....they're all set now!" she blurts, trying to regain her composure.  Maybe she thought I thought they were abusing my quiet, timid Berner behind closed doors?  Although I was enjoying her discomfort immensely, I decided to let her off the hook.  "Sounds like Bodie had fun!" I chortled.  "Yes" she replied, "they seem to have a little bit of separation anxiety."  "Ya think???" I laughed.  I assured her this is not the first time has protested his sister being squired away against his wishes, probably won't be the last.

That being said, I am obviously going to have to alter my training tactics going forward with these two.  The book says to teach them to walk properly on a leash separately before taking them out together so they learn the ropes without distraction.  I think Bodie's hair-raising rant back in the house would be a distraction to just about everyone.  The puppy trainer at the pet store said to bring them to classes separately....yeah, I don't think so.  Bodie has definitely defined himself as the elephant at the wedding, and the rest of us are going to have to deal with it.  In a way, it's kind of comforting that Leila has someone willing to go completely postal in order to protect her, even though she takes full advantage of it in her flirty, starlet way.  When she is chewing on his ear or stealing the toy right out of his mouth, he looks to me as if to say "See what I have to put up with?"  My answer to him is always the same: "You love it and you know it!"