Progress with Lola and Lusso!

Well -- thanks to online instructions from the Dog Whisperer (Cesar), we're making good progress here. We've had 3 visitors to the house since Lola arrived. The first one didn't go so well -- our good friend John Deikis, who's about 6'4" and has a booming voice, came for dinner last night. Both Lola and Lusso went berserk. We ended up putting the dogs in the guest house for the evening just so we could hear ourselves talk!

Then this morning, Ariel arrived with Elliott R -- Ariel's running a 5K this morning out in this area -- and again, Lola went nuts. After about 20 minutes, she calmed down, but continued to growl in a low voice at Elliott R.

So I got online and checked with Cesar to see what to do about aggressive behavior when a visitor arrives. It turns out you're supposed to exercise the dogs vigorously, like running them up and down stairs, then run them through a series of commands. That will tire them and get their attention. Then they also know you are the one in charge and will be much better about listening to you.

So after Ariel & E left, I ran the doggies up and down our stairs about 10 times. Each time when we reached the top of the stairs, I made them sit and stay. They both loved it, and they were both so exhausted at the end that they flopped into their beds and have been sleeping quietly for an hour!! Here are pictures of what they look like right now!! (They each have a bed on either side of my chair at the table, and that's where they stay when I'm working at the computer.) 

Other stuff: they are getting along pretty well, especially when I walk them together, or when I take them outside to "sniff". I remove reasons for them to be territorial with each other, and give them room to get used to each other. Lusso is a bit bewildered at this new development but he seems to have accepted that she is here, and he's doing his best to cope. Lola acts like she has lived here for years!