I’m finally starting to feel somewhat normal again, despite a few stray coughs and sniffles. But, I spent most of this week catching up on work that didn’t get done last week. (A massive house cleaning still awaits.) That means we did nearly no training this week. Instead, here are some observations about Lilly’s reaction to her best dog friend Katie meeting Ginko last week.
After Ginko bullied Katie away, he resumed his game of fetch, and Lilly went with him. Rather than seem nervous herself, rather than trying to comfort Katie, Lilly went right into chase-Ginko mode.
When Ginko chased Katie later, with a targeted style of drive, Lilly ran behind, I believe, thinking that a game was afoot.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since Lilly and Ginko have lived together all these years, but it was very clear that despite her adoration of Katie, Lilly’s primary focus was Ginko when all three were together. I’ve heard others talk about “third dog” syndrome. I wonder if this is how it starts.
Before we let Ginko out, I allowed the girls to play quite a bit. The three of us even sat in the middle pasture and played some fetch. I had fun throwing a ball and/or stick for either one, then asking both for a DOWN before I threw again. Lilly, of course, flew flat into her down immediately. Katie took a fair bit longer to respond. Still … it was very sweet to have one in a down on each side of me, both just smiling, smiling.
I also watched Katie offer progressively more advanced calming signals to Lilly. Here’s how it went down … Lilly ran to get the ball, and Katie took off in pursuit, bird dogging Lilly. She leap up, then toward Lilly, trying to get her to drop the ball. At first, Lilly looked at her like, “What are doing?”, then she cautiously moved toward me. Each time Katie pounced, Lilly would stop, then change her course toward me a bit. After a while, Lilly was getting annoyed at having her path determined for her (in other words, a dose of her own medicine), so she showed Katie her teeth (but in a playful way because her whole body was wiggling).
Teeth — Katie stood still.
Teeth again — Katie sat.
Teeth again — Katie laid down.
Only then, did Lilly approach and give me the ball to restart the game. Before I did, I gave Katie tons of praise for being such a good girl.
***
I know everyone is dying to know about Katie’s future. We’ve been waiting for Tom to feel better (he’s been sick too, in case you missed it), but thankfully, he did NOT get nearly as sick as I did, so he’s also feeling somewhat better today, even though he got sick a good 10 days after I did. We were also waiting for Ginko’s broken toe nail to improve before we try taking some leash walks with Katie to see if we can get Ginko to mellow out around her.
We did what we could each day this week to try to speed along Ginko’s healing. We did manage to trim part of the broken end off. We did get him to let us soak his foot in warm water. And, today, he’s taking up residence on the sofa, which is his usual spot. So, that’s good news. He is being MUCH LESS of a Barnacle Bill, which means he is feeling somewhat better.
So, if he still seems good Saturday morning and weather allowing, we’re going to try some more neutral, more controlled introductions between Ginko and Katie.
Updates as news warrants.
Have a good weekend! I really need to go clean house now. Bleh!
Wow, Katie sounds like she’s a great communicator. If she gets the chance to ‘talk’ to Ginko, things might go well. It sounds like she’d be glad to defer to him.
I wouldn’t worry about the 3rd dog syndrome. Things would change over time as Katie became part of the pack – at least, that’s been my experience with adding a third dog and with long-term visiting dogs.