Just back from a side-by-side walk to give Ginko and Katie the chance to spend time together in neutral space. We left Lilly home so that Tom and I could double-team Ginko with treats, attention, control. Katie’s mom walked her. Here’s how it went.
When we met up on the road, Ginko barked a lot with a more excited, not intimidating voice. The hair on his neck/back stood on end for a while. I’d say he barked the first 3-5 minutes. He wasn’t too keen or attentive about getting treats during this first phase.
Then, several times, we walked up and down the fire department driveway, where we would not encounter any other dogs or any traffic. We continued feeding Ginko treats the whole way. Tom and I took turns giving Katie some love too, while Ginko watched on. Honestly, he mostly didn’t watch. He does NOT have the same resource guarding issues over us that Lilly has. Plus, it wasn’t like she approached us with him there. We approached her, moving away from Ginko.
Once we got into the walking part, Ginko’s body language became much more neutral. His tail was lowish and wagging. He had slightly tucked Flying Nun ears. He was smiling.
For her part, Katie was her usual sweet self. A few times, she got rambunctious like she wanted to play, but we want them to have several non-contact encounters before we try anything else. We were happy to see that Katie didn’t seem to harbor any fear of Ginko or of us. Last week, after he scared her so bad and she was trying to jump the fence, she would not come to either one of us.
But, she did not seem nervous around Ginko, and the first time each of us approached her, she popped up on her hind legs to give us hugs.
Perhaps the best news is that Ginko mostly ignored Katie, which as we know from our earlier reading means he was feeling pretty comfortable. Part of that could be that he was just happy to be going on a walk and having a constant snack.
To add a measure of control, I did make Ginko wear his head collar. I think it helped.
We’re going to try again Sunday afternoon.
I bet you are right. Baby B has ears much like Ginko’s when he was a pup. At first, they stood up like Lilly’s, then as they got bigger and heavier, they fell over.
Love those pics. I think that our new puppy is going to end up with flying nun ears when all is done.
I’m pretty sure Brenda Aloff uses the phrase “Flying Nun” ears in her book (Canine Body Language), but here are some photos to help illustrate:
Actual Flying Nun from TV Show
What it looks like on Ginko’s head.
Yesterday, he held his ears a bit further back and a little higher on his head, which is very much a greyhound look.
It sounds like that went as well as you could’ve possibly hoped.
What are ‘flying nun’ ears? Funny phrase – but I can’t visualize it.