Category: pets

Today marks a full week since we adopted K, dog number 3. She’s not perfect (what dog is?), but she is a really good dog. While we are not quite ready to leave the dogs alone for any significant periods of time yet, we don’t have to watch them quite so closely. Hubby and I spent a good deal of time cleaning up leaves (again!) today. The dogs were cavorting in the yard for hours. Not unattended, but not closely scrutinized either.

Of course, if I weren’t already convinced that it was safe, that wouldn’t have happened. But I’ve been watching the dogs so closely all week, I feel like I’ve been monitoring some sort of science experiment.

It’s really neat seeing them together. Just as we’d hoped, Belle and K are ideal playmates. But there is one problem with K. She has a super-sensitive nose. And when she gets on the scent of something, she is very focused. So focused that when we tell her to come to us, she doesn’t always listen.

Which could be a problem at the WV place where there’s lots of critters and no fences. So Hubby has been working with K daily, weather permitting. He’s been working with the other girls, too, since, like kids, they are very jealous of each other. If we do something with one dog, we tend to do it with the others, too.

K does come after being told to stay for a period, but she just sort of mosies along. Hubby hoped maybe Belle would speed her up a bit. He said it sped her up a little bit.

In the photo above, K is still staying, although she did stand up. Belle, on the other hand, jumped the gun a bit. I had to take pictures from inside the house so as not to cause any distraction.

It was nice being able to watch while Hubby did his training thing.

Here they are holding in a “down” and “stay” position while Hubby slowly backs away.

Then, when he blows his whistle, they come. Well, that’s the idea anyway. K needs a little bit of practice. Personally, I think she’s just not completely sure about us yet. She likes us, she’s just not as used to the routine, our personalities, mannerisms, etc., as the other girls.

Meg had a turn, too. She and Belle are both good with the “come” and “sit” commands. But we’ve never really had to use “stay” much. Well, we could have used it many times, but we never needed it enough to enforce.

Hubby says Meg is the best of the three with the “stay” command.

You can really see the focus on her face.

Yep, that is serious focus. Do you think the cut-up bits of chicken hot dogs he’s using as a reward have anything to do with that?

With all this talk of K, the new dog, some folks may be wondering what’s going to happen to Meg. Will she feel left out? Ignored? Shunned?

Remember, part of the reason we decided to add dog #3 was for Meg’s benefit. Belle needed a playmate so she’d quit harassing poor ole Meg.

And you know what? I think it’s working…

Meg gets to mosey around the yard, doing what she wants when she wants.

Meanwhile, the other girls get to run.

Meg gets to soak up the sun (one of her favorite pastimes) completely unmolested…

…while the young girls wrestle like fools in the leaves.

Meg gets to observe, from afar, the chaos around her. And she knows to relocate when necessary.

The young girls also get to hunt. You really should click on the above image to see it large for a better view. Our backyard is full of moles. (I have more hunting pics to share later.)

So, you be the judge. Does Meg look unhappy? Or relieved?

I do realize this is the second long post of the day about the dogs, which may seem excessive to some, but there’s a lot going on.

This was the first workday with K here. I was certainly curious as to how that would go. I mean, I need to keep a close watch on things, as I explained earlier. That doesn’t mean I need to make sure I can see and/or hear the dogs, it means I need to be close to them watching them so I can intervene if necessary.

They’re actually doing well. Belle and K are equally obsessed with watching the backyard for critters.

That by itself isn’t a problem. The door they watch from, however, is on another floor at the other end of the house from my office. There weren’t many issues today, but I didn’t want to take any chances. So I encouraged K to hang out in my office with me.

She didn’t seem to mind too much.

I found it sort of distracting, though. Because she snores. And she looked so darn cute.

I just had to take pictures.

I think I may have been getting on her nerves…

I wasn’t keeping K prisoner or anything. I didn’t even have the door closed. The other dogs came and went throughout the day. And I took them all outside every couple of hours. (It’s a good thing I am not super-busy this week. I AM KNOCKING ON WOOD NOW!)

The only issues with K and Belle have been while they’re playing and one or both of them get too wound up. They’re just like little kids wrestling. They can be rolling around, bumping, hitting, biting, etc., but if one gets a little hurt or suddenly scared, they freak out.

With me or Hubby staying close by, as soon as we see things getting too exciting, we make them stop playing for a minute. That’s usually enough to calm things down and they’re back to being friends.

Late this afternoon, after they’d been romping and rolling for a good bit, I could tell K was getting tired. They heard the mailman or something and K took off running toward the front gate. Belle took off after her, body slammed K, bounced off and ran in the other direction.

Meg has learned how to anticipate and dodge this little maneuver, which is Belle’s way of saying “chase me.” Well, K turned around very quickly and chased her. K, who is also very fast, either stepped on Belle’s heel or just scared Belle. All of a sudden, Belle yipped and got this look of terror on her face. Had I not been right there to step in, Belle may have snapped, literally. Which would have pissed K off. Their anger could have escalated quickly.

That’s why, until they get to know each other really well, we have to stay close by.

Don’t worry, though. This sort of adjustment is completely normal. Some dogs can’t even be in the same room together for weeks or even months. I think these two are going to be just fine. Especially since most of the time they play with each other like this…

They’d been chasing each other around the yard, flopping in the leaves. Somehow, they ended up laying in the leaves for a while, just wrestling with their heads. It was very cute.

As for Meg…

She really is perfectly happy watching the crazy little ones tear around the yard. As long as I don’t ignore her, of course, which I won’t.

And she does her share of running, too. She may be getting older, but she still likes to run. She just doesn’t have it in her to be chased by our two little speed demons.