Dogs helping dogs

I always love it when a prospective adopter already has a dog. It means that they already know that dogs sometimes have accidents in the house, knock stuff over, chew things up. They commit dietary indiscretions and regurgitate the gastronomical experiment on the rug for all to see and examine. This is especially true if the current dog is still young enough that it hasn't reached sainted status for doing nothing wrong in recent memory. Even if the current dog is perfect, hopefully the people still remember the first few weeks, months, and years.

But the biggest reason I like adopting a second (or third, or fourth) dog into a home is because the current dog will teach the newcomer. The current resident knows the ropes. They know when and where to poop and pee. They model behavior that works for them in that home. A new dog comes in knowing that he has much to learn and it is always easier to learn from someone who speaks the same language. When the hound, Jeep, was adopted he was still extremely shy and fearful of people. He had probably never seen the inside of a house. But he went to a home with a big, goofy, playful chocolate lab and he followed her everywhere sucking up knowledge like a sponge. One might wonder how two dogs sharing a lab's brain could get by, but everything worked out beautifully. He got over his shyness and soon was acting as if he had lived indoors his whole life.

All of the above is a very long introduction to Maggie (brown and white dog in the picture to the right). She stayed with us last week while her people were out of town. Maggie came along with the warning that she was "not good with other dogs." I teamed her up with Teddy, who is great with other dogs, but is shy and scared of people, including me and Clay. They are about the same size and Teddy is completely non-threatening, so I figured he'd be a good choice for Maggie to test her temperament. She started off by telling him "go away and leave me alone", but there was never a real problem. Her biggest problem is just that she doesn't know how to play and interact with other dogs.

Teddy moved into my office for the week in a crate next to Maggie. They did everything together. True to form, Teddy followed her around and soon learned to go upstairs and downstairs and into a crate. He got to the point that he was approachable by us without too much fear. Maggie learned that the other household dogs were not a threat and she would go downstairs and walk among Cabell, Bremo, Zachary, Molly, and Emmylou, all of whom are 2-3 times her size. They didn't quite get to the point of playing together, although Teddy did his best to get her to do so. She thought about it, thought it might be fun, but didn't seem to know what to do.

Maggie went back home yesterday and was very glad to be there, but I hope she will come back. I think the experience was good for her and I know it was good for Teddy.