Watching Zoe try to carry one of Zeeke’s big bones up onto the bed always causes me to giggle. The poor girl just doesn’t have the jaw strength of a larger dog. She can carry the big bones around the house, but when she jumps it inevitably slips out of her mouth and lands on the floor with a bang. You can almost see her sigh as she looks down at it from her new vantage point on the bed, before jumping down to try again. This time she gave up - trotted off to lay on the floor with it. lol

Just now Zeeke was happily curled up beside me, watching and resting. Zoe was laying further down the bed, chewing on a nylabone. She leans way back and stares into Zeeke’s face, upside-down. She then rights herself, grabs the bone, and leans back over, leaving the bone hanging about 3″ from his nose. He leaned forward, grabbed it, and tried to pull it away - but she didn’t let go. When he did, she went back to where she was and continued chewing on her bone, completely not caring that now she had taunted Zeeke and he wanted the bone. So I reached over and gave him a different one, which he took happily. But that wasn’t good for Zoe, no - she immediately left hers and ran over to take his. Oi, siblings.

Sometimes I think that one of the reasons Zeeke’s behaving so much better is that he feels better being in a pack where he’s not the lowest on the totem pole. Before we got Zoe he was constantly trying to take my place in the pack. Now he seems a lot more secure… and when he gets frustrated (like when Den or I tell him to stop doing something he shouldn’t be doing) he pushes her around. It’s like he’s making himself feel better by at least being better than someone.