Living with the Bickersons

By Kathryn Socie, 7-23-08

	Caption: The Bickersons captured in rare repose

I like things in twos and follow a rather strict companion animal binomial system.  Any more than that and I get overwhelmed any less and my house feels empty.  The cats have each other to groom, hiss at, complain to, generally laze around and team up with for extreme nuisance making.  They’ve been together since they were kittens and after 12 years have managed to develop a ridiculously warm and fuzzy relationship that would make Hallmark proud—the kind of stuff featured on those hideously cutesy posters pre-teen girls are rather fond of.  My dogs have a different thing going altogether.

Part squabbling siblings, part old married couple and part just plain dog-ness, their dynamic is wholly perplexing to me some days and down right befuddling to most outsiders.  In the morning once my feet hit the floor they begin furiously tap dancing for the lead up to the door, as soon as it opens they launch out, racing each other to the fence line where they come to a screeching halt and get into what looks like a dog fight, sounds a lot like one too, but it is far from it-- they just bicker.

Weez channels her enthusiasm by biting Walker’s ear, he then turns and barks in her face. Weez, looking absolutely appalled barks back but with teeth flaring and it escalates from there—total bicker-fest. The scene is the same whether we pass dogs while driving, bump into deer, you name it. The Bickersons don’t play together so much as they steal that which is coveted by the other and run tight circles around the loser flaunting their prize.  They won’t sit on the couch without at least 10 meters separating them, ditto for the bed. After three years the bickering has not subsided in the least, its not increased either, it’s how they roll.

I didn’t get it in the beginning.  My experience with dogs has always been an initial period of working out issues, followed by pure bliss and strong attachment all leading to what might possibly be describe as love.  Behaviorists, trainers and vets have theorized that the Bickersons are too close in size, age, and breed, making for constant competition.  According to the experts, my dogs aren’t bickering they are in a battle for alpha.  If there weren’t thousands of years separating my dogs from wolves, I might buy that theory. That and these dogs have never had to fend for themselves or spend a night outside (in a tent, sure, on therma-rests, but never out in the big, wide world), instead they lounge on the couch and hunt only in their toy basket.

Theories aside, if you watch them closely, it actually looks like they enjoy the bickering; it’s an integral part of their daily routine.  And they are very close, in their own special way.  They look after each other and I’ve caught them curled up a time or two. Granted, only under duress, like when they are cold and extremely tired. 

Theirs is a different kind of relationship and one that has taken some getting used to, but I’m not about to judge something that seems to work.