Wild Kingdom

That was one of my favorite shows growing up and now it occurs every day in our home.


This morning is another Wild Kingdom morning.  Envy and Obie wrestling and romping all over the family room. I've tried to take pictures of it, but it always looks like "when dogs attack"  each other.  Given their shaky start, I'm happy to see them play - even when its rough and noisy.  


Now that the weather is warmer they've taken wild kingdom outdoors.  I'm grateful for the privacy fence.  I can't imagine what the neighbors think just hearing them.  Obie is so noisy when he plays and Envy makes her wild leaps and jumps.  Then they chase each other all over the yard.  Envy is getting faster as she grows, so Obie has managed to lose a pound or two just trying to keep ahead of her.  


When Envy came to live with us, Obie was very aggressive with her and the first night was terrible.  We learned quickly to keep them separated but in view of each other.  For weeks we kept gates closed all throughout our house and let them have separate play time with us.  Obie is very dog aggressive.  But he was able to live with our original girls.  They were all older and I don't think he felt threatened by them.   But we knew from training and other experiences that he would have a difficult time with a new dog.


We limited all their interactions but would often have Obie come and lay down by Envy's crate while we gave them both treats.  We wanted him to associate Envy with all things good.  And Obie lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllloves cookies.  


We walked them together as often as we could too.  That is a lot harder when you're walking a 9 to 13 week old puppy on a leash.  You can guarantee you won't just be walking.  Cookies help out here too.  One cookie in front of the nose will get about a block of attention out of a very young pup.


Finally on December 28th, they finally truly played.  My Facebook status that day was

"A new era of peace has been declared in our house. Obie is finally tolerating Envy and the baby gates separating them have been opened. She really likes him and wants to snuggle and he really . . . . . . . tolerates her. And that's good enough for us."

And a little Wild Kingdom goes on every day in this house ever since.