Social experiment

Sparky (front, bobbed tail), Barkley (rear, long tail)

I've got two dogs coming tomorrow to stay with us for several days. It's Teddy and Cooper, they are both former fosters and they've been here before. I want to put them in Sparky's habitat, which means moving Sparky out, at least temporarily. I've been wanting to get Sparky integrated with the pack, so this presents an opportunity to take a few more steps in that direction. Sparky has been hiking with Max and Maya and has been fine with them both, and he came indoors at night this winter so I have reason to believe that he's mellowed a bit and is more accepting of other dogs.

I walked Sparky and Maya for eight miles Thursday afternoon and when we got back I brought Sparky into the dog yard with Max and Barkley. He and Max ignored one another because Max is not right in the head and everyone knows it. I knew Barkley would immediately want to engage in play and that was the experimental part of the evening.

They met, jousted a bit to take the measure of the other dog, and got along fine. Barkley is all play and he's in-your-face about it, but he will scale his play to whatever level the other dog wants. Sparky has never really had a playmate as such. He's older and not as playful as Barkley, but I think this will be good for him. Barkley hasn't had anyone but Max to play with really, and Max doesn't know how to play, although I have seen him trying to engage in normal play behavior with Barkley on a couple occasions. Trooper will play for about 10 minutes in the morning, but then he's pretty much done.

Barkley doing a play bow

Seeing them together made me realize it's been a long time since I've had two rotties together. They sure look good together.

Drinking together is always a good bonding opportunity.