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| 3 year old Macy |
A few weeks ago, 3 yr old Belgian Malinois, Macy and her dad came for a Meet 'n Greet. Macy was rescued and adopted from the Vernon SPCA just a few months earlier.
As with many rescues, Macy comes with very little info into her past and also some possible issues. Her caring mom and dad are helping her understand she is safe with them and prepared to work on Macy's needs as they become apparent.
They are teaching her with love, patience and strong leadership.
We look forward to many visits with Macy as she develops into a well rounded dog with great social skills.
On her first visit, Macy wanted very much to have a romp with our Princess MollyDawg, who rejected the invitation gracefully. Macy seemed to sense that Lady May was not one to invite and she kept her distance.
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| Macy: "Hey come on let's PLAY!" The Princess: "pffft, fergit it kid. Yer on yer own" |
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| Lady May: "Don't ask me to play, cuz I WONT!" |
Macy has already met several local dogs at the park in town. A few of them come to daycare already.
Our most frequent visitor, The Marchioness lil Molly, doesn't go to the dog park, so we decided to set up a special meeting between these two.
As normal, I have my gates set up and safety zones in place. Since Macy had previously met The Royal ladies, my focus was off them and concentrated on a safe meeting between the boisterous and often strong willed Marchioness lil Molly.
Macy started her visit the way many newcomers do. She worried about her mom leaving her and was quite vocal about needing her to come back NOW!
After short outdoor time, I brought Macy indoors to ensure her safety while she calmed herself and to distract her from her sentry duty at gate. It was going to be a longer day visit than first anticipated. Her mom was called out to Fire Duty. We decided it was fine for Macy to stay with us and not have to be moved to another sitters home, or go back to an empty house to wait for her mom's return later that night. We are set up to keep her safe and we felt she needed the stability of a lengthier stay.
I allowed Macy time to settle before we did an introduction with The Marchioness. She already had enough on her mind without having to cope with meeting yet another new dog.
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| When is my mom coming back for me? |
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| What if mom doesn't know I'm in this house? The Princess:"Dont worry kid, your mom will be home later. I promise" |
Since Macy accepts the presence of The Princess we all walked around the yards together. It didn't take very long for Macy's attention to shift into play mode instead of "The Gate". Soon ball play was on and we saw the happy face of Young Macy.
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| You're going to throw it right Lady? |
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| I don't get it. What's with the water in this thing? This is sure a big water bowl. |
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| I'll just stand here in the cool shade okay? |
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| Okay, Im tired. Can I meet the new dog later please. |
That's exactly what we did. We had Macy safely behind a set of 3 gates. . The two girls could see each other, and become more familiar with the others presence while Macy had time to adjust to being without her mom and dad. Even though our Lil Molly is very familiar with greeting new comers, we wanted to make sure there was a minimal amount of anxiety on Macy.
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| lil Molly: " I can still see the new dog ya know? If you give her cookies, I'll KNOW IT!" |
When the timing was just right, I invited Macy through the first gated area that lil Molly was behind.
To my surprise it was not lil Molly who reacted but our newcomer, Young Macy. She was not at all ready to meet any new dogs and made no bones about it. We made a couple more attempts at different times during the day. It was clear this day was not going to end with having a safe and happy foursome resting quietly all together in the evening. We did however, manage to get to only one gate separating them.
Good girl Macy. You did very, very well!!
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| Macy on the far left. Not quite ready to be included safely to the others. Soon dear one, Soon! |
Our day was simply a day of in and out and back and forth with separate play, in separate yards. Fortunately Macy felt comfortable enough to have Lady May in her presence as well as The Princess. So she at least had the companionship of other dogs.
Macy is a very happy dog that complied to all my requests. There were some instances of her looking at me and asking, "Do I really have to do this?" Yes sweetie you do. I only give instructions for something if its really necessary. If I'm asking you to walk with me, there's a very good reason for it. If you dont comply, we will simply stay put. You do not get to decide when, where and how we walk. I have loads of time to just stand here, and when you are ready, I will let you know if I'm ready to walk.
Then we'll play ball and have loads of fun!
So we did just that all day. Two dogs in, two dogs out. This gate open, this gate closed.
Macy is not particularly fond of sharing yet so we also attempted to work a bit on that.
We'll be continuing exercises in that regard on her future visits for sure. I'm looking forward to watching Macy's social skills evolve. I know she'll need every second of my patience and I'm up to the challenge.
You are a darling Young Macy. Welcome to our extended pack!!
