Playing with Georgia

We spent another lovely, peaceful weekend with my in-laws and with the fast-growing baby Georgia!

Look how long her legs are now!

These two continue to get on brilliantly. They romped and played all weekend long.

While there were a few moments in which Pyrrha would get annoyed with Georgia’s constant puppy antics, for the most part, she was very patient and gentle with her. It’s interesting to me how great she is with Georgia and how she wasn’t all that enthused with Laszlo. (I also wonder if this has something to do with the fact that Laszlo was all up in her space.)

Update on Pyrrha’s leash reactivity:

We took the girls on several walks over the weekend. We passed a handful of dogs, and Pyrrha had two negative reactions. The first was at a golden retriever who barked and lunged at her, so she responded in kind. The second was at a pair of smaller dogs (looked like an American Eskimo and a JRT) and her reaction somewhat surprised me there, since the dogs didn’t seem very interested in her.

When walking her solo, however (apart from Georgia), she had no reactions to other dogs who passed her. Again, this leads me to believe that her aggressive reaction has something to do with either protectiveness (over Georgia) or boosted confidence (because of Georgia’s presence), leading her to put on a big show.

While I am thankful that she doesn’t display this behavior when being walked solo (she very happily and gently met a black lab puppy last night on our stroll), it is still something to be worked on, particularly as we may be getting our third foster soon. I hope to enlist Guion’s help with this and to apply some of the principles of LAT or BAT.

Otherwise, we are expecting to have Georgia (and her humans) come visit us in mid-May, for Guion’s graduation from his graduate program. We are looking forward to it already!

Dog park Sunday

We finally had a sunny and moderately warm day this Sunday, so we decided to take Pyrrha back to the local dog park for her second visit.

This time, there were many more dogs, and Pyrrha was considerably more anxious about it.

For the first 10 minutes or so, she slunk around with her tail between her legs, but after that, she perked right up and became one of the gang. We stayed for almost an hour and a half and saw a rotating door of dogs of many shapes and sizes.

Again, it was heartening to see how she can warm up over time and really enjoy herself with lots of new dogs and new people giving her lots of attention.

I think we’ll be going back again soon!

Noisy, impromptu play-date

I wasn’t planning on hosting dogs this weekend, but my friend Sarah (Roland’s mama) called and said that she was dog-sitting a boisterous Plott hound mix and that he could really burn off some steam. So, what better way to do that than a romp in the yard? Pyrrha was certainly ready for it.

Atticus is a feisty Plott hound mix with quite the pair of lungs.

He spent a good portion of the play-date doing this:

Baying, baying, and then some barks thrown in for good measure!

I could see the neighbors peering out of their windows, trying to figure out what was going on. Pyrrha and her pack of friends tend to be rather quiet dogs, and so it’s rare to hear much dog noise coming from our yard. After 45 minutes or so, Atticus finally toned down the barking, but by then, Roland had decided that this barking stuff looked like fun and he began to follow suit.

Aside from all the noise, Atticus fell in nicely with Pyrrha and Roland, who are already fast friends.

Atticus tended to get a bit irritated with Roland and Pyrrha during certain moments, and he’d lash out for a second, but he seemed to be able to recover himself after a time. We occasionally had to pull them apart and give them some space, but they got along without much needed intervention.

After a while, we decided to take the trio on a walk around the neighborhood, to get them to cool their jets a bit, and that was pleasant. And much quieter!

Being around a very vocal dog makes you really appreciative of how quiet your own dog is…

Post-snow play

It snowed Sunday morning, but by the time Pyrrha had her friends over, the snow had melted and left a pleasantly chilly sludge. But the dogs, clearly, did not mind.

Dear Heath showed up first, followed shortly by Loki, who is now HUGE (probably 80 lbs.). Do you remember when he was just the little guy?

It’s usually just a blur of color-coordinated fur.

Our new addition was baby Nell-abell, our neighbors’ sweet, three-month-old puppy. She is the most confident, spunky little thing I have ever seen! Here is the pack checking her out, with great interest:

I was worried that she was going to be scared by all of the big dogs, but she really held her own and jumped right in there with them. She was also especially adept at ducking and avoiding collisions when the chase games got a little crazy. She is a smart girl with a great personality. I mean, look at this face! So funny.

Nell-abell particularly hit it off with Loki. The pair were an absolute delight to watch: the biggest dog and the smallest dog in the yard, utterly smitten with each other.

Roland also came by at the end. He is perfect for wearing Pyrrha out, as their favorite play method with each other is a frenzied game of tag around and around.

Pyrrha was certainly worn out after two hours of play! That was the goal, after all. (Pyrrha also did better with the puppy than I thought she was going to do. She wasn’t as gentle with Nell-abell as Loki, but she did seem to temper her behavior to Nell’s size and age, which was heartening for when we go meet Georgia in a few weeks.)

Looking forward to more play-dates and continuing to grow her circle of friends!

Play-date with boys

Boys, boys, boys!

This afternoon, Pyrrha hosted beaus Loki, Silas, and Parker over for a nice romp in the sun.

Silas, you may recall, was the first dog to meet Pyrrha at our house, just a few days after we adopted her. It did not go so well, mainly because Pyr was freaked out and spent the afternoon snarling and growling at Silas and then running away from him. She’s come a long way with her manners since then, and so we finally had Silas back over.

This time, as you can see, Pyrrha was quite taken with him and Silas was, as always, a great sport. It was heartening to me to remember how Pyrrha reacted to Silas back in May and to witness what a different and happy dog she is now.

Loki also showed up; the kid has really grown! He might even weigh more than Pyrrha does now. He is precious as ever and is still gaining confidence but always a great sport when he gets bowled over.

Then we had our next-door neighbor Parker, the boxer/pit mix, join in the fun. Parker is a high-energy sweetheart, and he and Pyr like to watch each other through the fence slats, but we’ve never officially had him over.

They hit it off very well and spent most of the time engaged in Pyr’s favorite game, chase-until-you-drop.

Looking forward to keeping up this Sunday tradition! And now we just need to throw some more ladies in the mix…

Pyrrha and her young suitors

We enjoyed a lovely Sunday play-date with Heath, the handsome golden retriever, and Loki, back for his second round.

Heath showed up first and he was a perfect match for Pyrrha’s energy level. The pair did a lot of rolling around, kissing snouts, and chasing. They were a delight to watch.

Here Pyrrha displays her best “be pretty!” for Heath’s mama, the Keeper of the Treats:

Essentially, they ended the afternoon completely smitten.

Loki showed up later and then it was all one big love train.

It’s fun to watch Loki, the baby, gain confidence and work his way into playing with the big dogs. (Although, at 55 lbs. at 5 months, Loki will very soon be THE big dog.)

As you can expect with two young, unneutered males, there was also a lot of humping going on, but Pyr didn’t seem to mind it much. She’d take it in stride and then turn around and give the boys a taste of their own medicine.

Puppy play-dates! Always the highlight of my weekend. Hope to have Heath and Loki back again soon!

Pyrrha finally meets Bo!

I have long waited for this day! On Monday afternoon, Pyrrha finally got to meet her brother, Bo!

Bo, as you may recall, served as my surrogate dog during my long year of waiting to adopt a dog of my own. His lovely mama and my dear friend Liz moved with him shortly after we adopted Pyrrha, and the two never got to meet. But Bo and Liz were visiting town this week and we finally made that play-date happen!

As you can see, the two hit it off quite nicely, just as I had hoped.

(They also spent a lot of time mid-flight. They are both very agile and it was fun to see Pyr play with a dog that was exactly her size.)

How nice to see him again, my handsome golden boy! So happy to have him around and playing with that long-awaited dog of my own.

Double play-date weekend

After a very sad weekend (the death of a colleague and the unbearable tragedy in Newtown, CT), it lifted the spirits to have some puppies over to play. Get ready for the deluge of photos…

SATURDAY

Juniper, our landlords’ pointer/pit mix, came over for a brief romp while our plumbing was being repaired. She is a muscular sweetheart. This was Pyrrha’s first introduction to Juniper and the two of them played very nicely together. It is fun to observe how differently every dog plays. Juniper is a playful growler and she likes to use her strong body to block and check, as if she were a hockey player. And so Pyrrha would alter her body language accordingly.

Cute little incident: Juniper is apparently both cuddly and protective. I would crouch down to watch them play, and Juniper would sidle up next to me and lean against me. If Pyrrha tried to approach us, Juniper would snap at her and challenge her to a wrestling match. I thought it was cute and interesting; I’ve never seen a dog so quickly take “possession” of a new person.

SUNDAY

On Sunday, we had lots of friends come to play: Loki, my coworker’s five-month-old Newfoundland was the first to show up. And he is such a doll. Just look at that face!

Pyrrha’s gregariousness was a little much for him at first, but he warmed up very quickly and was soon flopping around and chasing her.

As you can see, he was very soon holding his own:

Roland, a dear favorite whom you may remember from previous play-dates, arrived next. (Check out Loki’s expression in the following photo… Cracks me up.)

And then we had a newcomer, Stella, the young Jack Russell terrier, who was none too pleased to join in the fun. She was terrified when she first arrived and emitted these sad, high-pitched screams whenever the other dogs would approach her. Poor girl. I don’t necessarily blame her: She is about the size of her playmates’ heads.

Stella eventually sought us for comfort and was more than happy when her mama, Audrey, showed up to take her home.

Aside from poor Stella’s fears, everyone else got along very well and we had a great (if chilly) afternoon in the backyard. I’m looking forward to keeping up these Sunday play-dates again after the holiday season.

Another Sunday play-date with Roland

Roland, who is quickly becoming one of Pyrrha’s BFFs, came back yesterday afternoon for another great play-date. As you can see from the photos below, they had a great time!

Getting some love from the ladies.

I am so thankful that Pyrrha finally has “friends.” The first few months we had her, I was worried that she would never get along with other dogs because of her fear. It’s amazing what some time and gentle encouragement can do! She now loves nothing better than romping with a canine pal. I’m grateful for Roland and his mama being in town!

Play-date with Roland

We had beautiful and unseasonably warm weather this weekend, so it was a perfect occasion for Pyrrha to have a friend over. We invited the recently adopted Roland, who was brought over by his surrogate handlers, my friends Celeste and Casey.

Hi! What’s your name?

As you can see from the photos, Pyrrha and Roland were very well-matched. They got along beautifully, with no fear issues or squabbles from either of them.

We all laughed about how dogs treat objects like small children. Their reasoning goes like this: If the other dog has a stick, I MUST HAVE said stick, even if I don’t particularly like sticks. Pyr and Roland went back and forth with this general gambit for some time. Thankfully, our yard has a plenitude of sticks, so they were never bored.

Friendz!

At the end of the session, they were both tired and happy—and covered in each other’s slobber. (Roland also had some grass stains from sliding on his pretty white fur.) Watching dogs play is one of my all-time favorite hobbies. I could do it all day! And Pyrrha certainly needs more of it in her life. Very happy to have found another great local playmate for Pyr.