Partly cloudy. Low around 40F. Winds light and variable..

Partly cloudy. Low around 40F. Winds light and variable.

I’m going to have to come up with a new plan for feeding the two fleabags.

The old house I moved into is filled with old doors with the old-style door knobs on the inside that don’t latch very well. The Boxer has already figured out how to open them herself. The only doors she’s not able to do that (thank God), are the exterior doors, including the front door and the door leading into the back porch.

I can’t feed the two dogs in the same room, because the Boxer will attack the shih tzu, steal his food and not allow him near her bowl – even with me in the room and no matter how far apart I spread their bowls. 

What I’ve been doing for the most part is shoving the Shih Tzu into my bedroom and feeding him in there. I keep the wiley boxer out by guarding the door and scolding her when she comes near me.T

But sometimes the dogs will take 20 or 30 minutes to eat (especially the Shih Tzu). Often, at the end of the day, I have other things that need to be done around the house and limited time to do it, especially if I have to work late or go back to cover a meeting or some other event in the evening. 

So a lot of time I don’t guard the door, but it latches better than the other doors, and the boxer is fairly good at pretending she’s going to be good (this time, at least). So I get it in my head, ‘It will be OK this once’ and sometimes it is – but most of the time I come back finding the boxer fooled me, got the door open and is stealing Leonard’s food.

Poor Leonard is lucky to get in a couple of bites before this happens. And after it does, he’s usually so upset and scared that I can’t get him to eat any more the rest of the night.

I’ve tried feeding Leonard in other places. The back porch worked fine as long as the weather was nice. But if it was too hot or too cold back there, Leonard won’t eat. 

I’ve fed him in an upstairs bed while I feed the Boxer downstairs, thinking that if the boxer got the doors leading to upstairs open (and she is able to fairly easily open those doors as they don’t latch at all), then at least the shih tzu would have a few minutes to sneak in a few more bites before she reached the top and through a couple of door. But frankly, that was more work than it’s worth.

I’ve tried stopping the boxer by putting her on a leash tied to a stove handle and putting up doors, but she always raises hell when I tie her up – especially when food is involved – and the baby gates don’t really stop her, they just slow her down.

The boxer is as much of a pain in the butt to feed when I take her to the farm. There, the big dogs are fed in one room and the little dogs are fed in another guarded by parents. The bigger dogs try to steal the little ones’ food occasionally, but there the little dogs don’t hesitate to eat from the other bowls the big dogs left behind. Sometimes it is amusing to watch them play musical bowls, because they are all fed the same food.

But my parents also think the solution to toning down the Boxer’s aggression is to let her eat as much as she wants throughout the day. It’s effective, because she’s really not all that hungry by the time they feed the dogs. But I can’t do this on a regular basis, as she’s already about 20 pounds heavier than she should be.

If I can’t find a better solution, I might have to actually deliver on my threats to trade her in for a cat. Maybe two.

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Contact Melanie Musselman at Dispatchadrep@gmail.com or call 785-632-2127

Long-time news editor Ryan D. Wilson recently purchased the newspaper and assumed ownership on Aug. 1, 2022. 

Tricia York, The Dispatch's Circulation manager, is the first face you you see when stopping in our office and the person you talk to when renewing your subscription or for customer service in delivery of your paper

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