Playdates

Did we get another dog? No...not yet :) But I did arrange for some friends to come over yesterday and bring their dogs. One is a 2-year-old Chesapeake Bay retriever and I didn't get a picture of him because he was too large to take one of. Not really, but he was still big. His name is Leo and he brought his new friend Shadow who is about 9 months and is being trained so she can be a Christmas present for my friends dad. Anyway, Gracie has never really played with other dogs and seems to really not understand them, so I thought it would be a good experience for her to socialize. When Leo and Shadow first arrived, she just stuck by her mommy and let them sniff her. Then we went to fields that are her territory and she still just went off by herself and stared at the other dogs playing. After getting caught in the crossfire of playing and getting trampled a few times by a dog twice her size, she decided friends weren't for her and she stuck to my side like glue. We walked for about an hour in fields that they could just roam...then what happened? After deciding she was tired of Leo's taunting, she decided to teach him who the Alpha was...well, turns out she decided it was her!!! After much encouraging from her mom to "man up" and DOMINATE! Gracie went after Leo! She would completely sneak up from behind, take a very well timed nip out of him, then bolt off, just daring him to follow. She would then whack him around with her paws and leave him crying for his mommy...*insert evil laugh* MY DOG DOMINATES!!!

Here's Shadow, who knew better than to mess with my girl


Shadow is also a pretty big baby and a total attention hog :)