A Crazy Trip to Nashville

Eric and I took a road trip to Nashville for Christmas this year. We thought it would be a wonderful time, since we could take the dogs and not have to worry about leaving them with anyone or boarding them. So we took off on our adventure...
We stopped in Kansas City at a world famous barbecue stop, Arthur Bryant's. It was much needed after 9 hours in the car, with temperatures outside hovering right above 0, with 30-50 mph winds. Brrrr! Everytime we tried to fill up the tank or take the dogs for a jog we immediately came back to the car because it was unbearable outside.

That night we made it to somewhere in Missouri, and when we got to the hotel the dogs must not have been in the best of spirits because they got into a fight. They have fought before and Eric body slams them to break them apart. It isn't pretty and we started wondering how we were going to manage them on this long trip. We divided the room and went to bed thinking all would be fine in the morning.
The next morning we loaded up the car and put the dogs in the back of the car and as we started to pull out the dogs started fighting again. This time it was harder to pull them apart, and Eric got a nasty bite on his hand. We realized we had to keep the dogs apart for the rest of the trip. We also bought muzzles to keep everyone safe and blood free. Cache was not in the Christmas spirit...

We stayed with my sister and thankfully she loves dogs, even ones with issues. Their basset, Molly, is quite a handful too so our dogs fit in. Unfortunately, Audrey went after Cache that night, even though Cache was muzzled...so we got another muzzle for Audrey.
Christmas was fun. Eric is "the world's greatest uncle" because he takes Sam to get cookies and they eat junk food. Here they are at the mall eating cookie slices.

I don't have many more pictures due to all the drama surrounding the dog issues and Alyssa was not feeling well. But I did snap this photo of Christmas morning. Messy wrapping paper drives Dave crazy!

We went down to Alabama to see Eric's family and had a wonderful time, but had to head back to Colorado. The dogs were ok on the way back, but once we got home they got into a few more tussles. We have decided to keep the dogs muzzled when they are together in the house, and to run them as much as possible. Most dog problems are from not giving dogs enough exercise. Many people have told us that we need to get rid of one or both of them, either by putting them down or finding new homes for them. However, Eric and I firmly believe that when dogs have behavioral issues, it is the human's issue-not the dog's. Sure, the dogs have baggage from other humans (both our dogs had previous owners) but if you implement the correct methods the dogs can adjust and the unwanted behavior will cease. We knew something we were doing or not doing was triggering the aggression so we've decided to take some classes to learn methods to help Audrey and Cache to get along.
We'll let you know how it all turns out.