I know exactly how you feel... When I brought Oliver home I set tons of ground rules for him and asked my mom to please comply while I am at work. ONE treat during the day is the big one - I bought him a huge tub of all organic dog jerky for Christmas - went to give him one the other day - almost ALL gone! Then we go to the vet and he's gained like 3 pounds. Well, YEAH! I know why! He was really sick this summer, and I find out that she's feeding him CHEESE with dinner... and if he stops eating, she gives him more to entice him... I flipped on that one. Said next time I'll be handing the vet bill to you, and it stopped. I still don't let her feed him much though. The last time I did I told her to feed him 1/4 cup like usual, come home and he's not touched it and there's like 1/2 a cup in his dish. How hard is it to scoop ONCE.
Now our biggest thing is barking. I've tried to get her to shake a bottle of pennies when he barks, instead she yells at him. Yelling at a dog makes them think it's ok to be loud, that doesn't work.
My new puppy comes home in 2 weeks. I did NOT plan to get another one until I had bought a house and moved out, but Oliver really needs canine companionship. I'm sure there will be a LOT of arguing about training. She's already fighting me on the name. Told her she can spend $700 and get her own and then she can name it anything she wants. lol
Good luck with the bf. I guess it would be even harder in that situation as the dogs are both of yours. Have him read an article or two on pancreatitis. This situation would be so much harder with kids, something to think on I guess... dogs have to be taught how to behave, that's our job as their humans! Dogs are like kids, if they are taught they rule the world, they WILL! Hopefully your bf will smarten up and see that acting this way not only hurts the dog, but it hurts you as well. It's not fun being undermined.
__________________ Oliver & Mya are my  |