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Puppy Shenanigans "Handled" by a Senior Dog
Joy and I got a new puppy on Sunday! Meet Bliss, a 15wk Aussie. Bliss has been with her siblings, mama and an unrelated adult male up until she came home with me. She was very scared of Joy when they met. Bliss went stiff and lifted her lips into a snarl the first time Joy sniffed her. Bliss was a bit overwhelmed the first 24 hours and has given Joy lots of space. Yesterday we went for our first “off-leash/drag-line” walk, and we saw Bliss come into some silliness and speed. She still pretty much avoided Joy. This morning was a different story… Watch this clip which is a few minutes into our early walk.
Focus first on Joy, the adult Aussie – what are some subtle “don’t bother me” signals you see when Bliss passes by her the first couple times?
Do you see Joy’s correction? How would you classify this – mild, moderate, harsh?
What is the impact on Bliss? What’s she choosing, next?
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7 Replies
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Congrats to you and Joy on the new addition! I love this video share hot off the press.
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There will be many more to come!
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Whoo hooo! ????
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@catherine Congrats on that new pup! I love this video! I see such a great mild correction, and the puppy understand! Thank you for sharing:) Appropriate corrections from older adults are so important. We see a lot of this in our daycare when a puppy comes to join a couple older dogs. I am fascinated by it. I think some people don’t understand when they get the puppy and the yell at the older dog for correcting. Please share more videos!
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Thanks Krista! You know I will – and I totally agree. Thanks for your kind comments. Joy is a superb mentor dog. She helped in puppy classes for years when I was teaching them. She also was a shelter helper to fearful dogs who “pancaked” in the shelter environment. She’d greet them gently and they’d follow her. ????
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@catherine … you do realize that you’re not making my puppy fever any better right? ????
I’m fascinated by “maternal corrections” too @pawsup! The facility I work at trains its employees extensively. This is the first place I’ve seen with a specific protocol related to these interactions: praise/reinforce correcter, remove (slightly/briefly/as needed) the dog that was corrected if they don’t do so on their own).
I find myself wondering where the line is between these very appropriate social education corrections and grumpy dog snarking. Some of it can be viewed through the lens of what the corrected dog was doing before, but what else to use to decipher these interactions?
Below is what might be my favorite video of all time. It is quite relevant to this conversation, even though there are no corrects in it. What do folks see?
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