Monday, April 4, 2011

Reunited with My Dogs!

After Houston, I spent the next night in Van Horn, also in TX. After another full day of driving and I arrived in Phoenix, AZ to ffluffy's house and my dogs!

As I somewhat feared, they did not remember me. Fancy greeted me with a mildly waving tail, then wandered off. Pie wagged, then also left. I called them both back and pet and talked to them and then something surfaced out of their far off memory and they became spastically happy.

Dottie was in her kennel and when she came out she mauled me right away but it is hard to tell if that is because she was happy to see me or because she is just like that with everyone.

The next day we went to the store and when I came back everyone was really happy to see me.

2 months is a long time for a dog. They really had no reason to remember me since ffluffy was treating them so well. I can see Fancy especially thinks of ffluffy as her additional owner. I went inside and Fancy elected to stay outside with ffluffy. It will be interesting to see how Fancy reacts to seeing ffluffy again at the end of the month.

Fancy also made friends with Bo, who is another agility competitor and lives next door and owns the agility field we play on at ffluffy's house. Bo came over a few times to let the dogs out to potty and was afraid Fancy was going to eat/ attack her because of her fearsome barking. (My Tibetan Terrier is a much better watch/ guard dog than the Mals.) But the day I left Fancy was cuddling up with Bo, happy to see her and get pet. With Fancy, you EARN her trust and friendship. She doesn't give it out to any weirdo on the street.

Now we are back home and the dogs are missing ffluffy and her more relaxed rules.

Bonnie update: she is afraid of the other dogs. I've had them all out in the yard together and while I keep my dogs from pestering her, if she thinks they are coming towards her she takes off running in the opposite direction. However, she did come up for me to pet her on one side while I was petting Fancy on the other side. She came upon Dottie in the kitchen and snapped at her in a very fearful manner. Later when she was in her crate she sniffed noses with Dottie and Pie and her ears stayed up and she did not act fearful. Perhaps she knows she is untouchable in the crate. I do not think she is dog aggressive in that she will go up to another dog with the intent to attack. Fancy was dog defensive aggressive when I got her but is fine now. I think Bonnie needs to get out around neutral dogs and see they are not a threat. She probably won't ever enjoy a dog park, but can probably live with other dogs and walk past other leashed dogs no problem. Time will tell. Still no problems with inappropriate behavior towards me. She was noisy last night. She'd go about an hour of quiet, then start yipping again. I'll try crating her in my room tonight. I took the other dogs with me today and left her home and when I came back I didn't hear any noise. She is in her crate right now being quiet. I think she will be a good pet for someone!

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