As part of our dog product review of the KONG Braidz Monkey, I asked for interpretations of Lilly’s body position in one of the photos. The answer appeared later in the week in Wordless Wednesday: Third Time is a Charm.
What indeed looks like an appeasement gesture (lifting one paw) is a precursor to Lilly gearing up to be her bossy, border collie self. She often throws calming signals BEFORE and AFTER being a complete snot to an ever-patient (or ever-oblivious) Ginko.
Observe.
Lilly must confuse Ginko a lot … and other dogs too. Her social skills are greatly lacking, but she does her best. It’s a shame Lilly’s best-best dog friend (Katie, the borzoi) moved away. Katie had some of the best dog-dog skills I’ve ever seen.
Still, I’m glad that Lilly gets to live with Ginko and be around (if not engage with) other dogs at our various training classes, including our recent forays into goat herding.
She’ll never be the dog-park socialite, but at least our fearful (sometimes reactive) canine heroine can cope pretty well in most dog-dog situations in daily life.
I love these pictures…she acts so much like Clem! I swear there’s cattle dog in her too 😉