Meeting and Greeting

Kenya did her damnedest to maintain her cool yesterday. She did all the right things: sniffed bottoms gently, bounced a bit in their direction, made it clear that the food was hers, but didn't get rough, even when the crotchety old bitch snarled and snapped at her nose. It was her first experience with elderly dachshunds.

It was also the owner's first experience with introducing her babies to a large dog, I think. Instead of giving the dogs the chance to figure things out, she grabbed the female and kept her suspended above Kenya. All of her owner's anxieties were transmitted to the poor old soul with the enlarged heart whose reaction to stress is to cough nervously. I think Lena tried to bite Kenya because both dog and owner were so anxious they were unable to read the signals Kenya was sending out. Kenya's tail wagged the whole time, but all the dogs' owner saw was a very large dog who could swallow her babies in one bite, and Lena was so neurotic she couldn't react naturally.

Teddy made a lot of yappy noise but settled down more quickly. I think both of the low slung old dogs would have been fine if their owner had been more relaxed. As it was, Kenya spent a long time outside in the rain looking wistfully in the window while the two dachshunds explored her home. Whenever she tapped on the glass to invite them out to play, Teddy set up a terrible racket and rushed the window, and Lena cowered with her tail between her legs. Kenya looked confused.

When they finally left I brought Kenya inside and put her in the crate with a cookie. It took some time for them to actually leave. Lena had a bowel movement on the path which had to be scooped, and Teddy marked his spots in the snow banks. Then Lena refused to climb the hill as she doesn't like to get her feet wet, and headed back toward me. Her owner came back down, scooped her up and carried her up to the road.

I am sure glad I have a relaxed dog. Mind you, when I had a dachshund, she was relaxed too. We create our dogs, I think. We create the ones that are comfortable with people and other animals, and we create the ones that are fearful. Dogs reflect their people.

We decided that it would be too hard on Lena's heart to spend time with Kenya.

Today Kenya met a three month old Labradoodle who will be visiting us for a day later this month. His name is Scudder and he is adorable. Kenya was fine with him ... just told him she was the boss mama a couple of times but otherwise was fine. His owners were cautious but relaxed ... nice guys.