Brenda and Winnie - Wednesday May 29th 2008

Last night, Lucy made me a proud "dog mom". I'd given up on the idea that Lucy would have many or even any doggie friends as she has gotten so riled up in the past around other dogs, I feared that she might become aggressive with them. But last night, I bumped into Brenda, a neighbor on my evening walk with Lucy. Brenda is a veteran dog owner. I usually remember her as "Dokey's mom". She recently adopted a young dog named Winnie, whom came bounding out of the house towards Lucy. Right away, Lucy's ridge of fur on her back stood up, her ears perked up and her gaze was locked. I worried and said, "I'm not sure if Lucy will be friendly or not, she tends to be too forward."
"Well," Brenda said, " we'll see carefully."

She let Winnie walk up to Lucy and both dogs sniffed each other. Tails were up and slightly wagging. I was still tense though. After a minute I tugged lightly thinking the greeting should end. "Don't worry," Brenda said," Winnie gets along with every dog, she's very laid back even if Lucy is a little forward." Just as she said that, Lucy practically climbed ontop of Winnie, but it was gentle not aggressive. She used Winnie's back like a shelf for her paws. Winnie is a good 2 1/2 times bigger than Lucy and an adorable amber colored dog. Brenda suggested that we take them for a walk together if I had time.
"That'd be great. I'd love it if Lucy made a doggie friend. This is the first time she's been friendly with a female young dog. She's usually better with male dogs," I said.
"Yeah," Brenda said,"Winnie is similar in that she seems to prefer to play with male dogs."

We walked around the neighborhood, the two dogs leading the way. Lucy acted like she'd found a big sister (literally) and wanted to do everything that Winnie did. It was adorable. Up at the tennis court, I hesitatingly let Lucy off the leash as Brenda let Winnie go too. In a moment, the two of them were running at top speed in circles around the tennis court. Since Winnie is so much bigger than Lucy, Lucy could barely keep up. She barked a few times at Winnie, as if to say, "Hey, wait for me!"

Then Winnie ran over to the gate of the tennis court and kept sniffing around it. Brenda took it to mean that she had to go "do her business." Lucy wanted to follow along, but I tried to keep her a few feet away at least so Winnie could have some peace & quiet. After about 5 minutes or so, we met them again at the tennis court and let them run around. This time was different. It was Winnie that was chasing and jumping onto Lucy.
"Ahh, that's a good sign," Brenda said, "when the dogs switch playing the dominant role."
I was glad to see that Lucy was responding well & having a great time with her new doggie friend. I think my smile was plastered on my face the rest of the evening. This renewed my faith that Lucy _can_ be socialized with other dogs and may never be a dog park dog, but at least be friendlier with other dogs.