Missy came to us less than a week ago, a floppy puppy who wanted to play, play, play. The problem was that my older girl Blossom does not care for that style of dog. She likes her personal space. She also appreciates a polite invite from another dog to play which she will often decline but occasionally accepts. So how do we mesh these two styles? First we pretty much kept them apart or on top of Blossom so that she was giving short, acceptable (to us) corrections. Second we had some more age appropriate and much friendlier dogs play with Missy and give her a correction yesterday.
Today Missy is a different dog with Blossom. She has learned to respect her personal space. Basically Blossom has told her that she does not get to touch her. The end result is that while Blossom plays fetch or runs around the yard Missy runs after her, along side her or behind her. But does not touch her. If she tries to Blossom gives her a snarl and she backs off.
Missy is a very friendly dog who has not initiated any aggression with our dogs despite their grumpiness. However she is gaining some very valuable dog skills by learning in a controlled environment that not all dogs want to play with her.
There was actually no growl or altercation here. Just a look to see what Missy's intentions were.
Blossom does allow for accidental touches going in and out of the house. However if Missy intentionally tries to touch her Blossom lets her know that she is not allowed. Blossom was not like this when we were fostering Sunshine. However I think it was because Sunshine had no intention of trying to touch Blossom. As a result the two can play together beautifully and wrestle with no aggression on either side. Blossom also did better with Miller when he was our foster. In Miller's case he very quickly after just one or two attempts learned that Blossom did not want to be touched and as a result Blossom accepted him more quickly.
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