When working dogs collide…..
Riggs, Annie and Mateo show off why they’re besties. They share a love of zoomies in the snow.
A unrelenting caffiene headache is a good time to show how we do treats here.
Notice I give each dog a nugget based on the pack hierarchy that I’ve noticed. Annie first, Omar last.
Everyone gets a treat in their houses (crates) to avoid altercations between fast eaters and slow eaters. And yea, they got a people food treat….I believe a little bit doesn’t hurt….don’t come at me.
Mateo does this every evening when his mom picks him up. How stinking cute????
Kanga and Roo are back in the house and they’re making fast friends with Mateo! See what I did there? “Fast” friends….I’m so witty. Please don’t unfollow me….🤣😂
Annie and Mateo are lovin’ the fresh snow….me, not so much.
One of the things I do here with visiting dogs is allow one-on-one playtime with my resident dogs (supervised, of course).
This is because while Annie (a Blue Lacy) is a runner so high energy dogs like Mateo are a perfect match for her. This video is a snippet of the 40 minutes they ran in the yard. Glory (a pitbull) is more of a wrestler. She’s short and stocky (not unlike her owner!) and has bursts of energy, but nothing sustained like Annie.
By allowing Annie and Mateo to run off some energy while Glory and Benny hang out inside with me, I avoid altercations between high energy dogs and lower energy dogs.
I love that I get the opportunity to find things that work not only for visiting dogs, but for the goobers that live here too.
People often ask how I can have so many dogs in my house…especially with a “pitbull” in residence.
Well, I do ALOT of things to make sure each visiting dog is safe.
1. I don’t accept dogs who are not spayed or neutered. Hormones are a dangerous thing, and by eliminating them, we eliminate things like marking territory or male on male infighting.
2. I don’t accept dogs who aren’t crate trained….at least for short amounts of time. I feed everyone in their houses (what I call crates). This prevents things like resource guarding, bowl bullying, and food stealing. Everyone eats safely in their own space.
3. Visiting dogs are not introduced to my dogs with their owner present. The reason for this is simple….much like kids who behave differently for their teachers at school than they do at home, visiting dogs act differently with owners here. Additionally, introducing dogs when everyone is excited is a good way to start a fight. So everyone gets a cool down period when they first arrive. My dogs and visiting dogs hang out in crates in close proximity to each other for a couple hours after arrival. This lets them “meet” safely.
4. Routine, routine, routine. All visiting dogs follow my dogs routine. Recurring visiting dogs adapt very well to how things run here and owners are often surprised when I tell their dog, “find your house” and they do right to their crate here. Dogs love structure. They CRAVE it. And I’m happy to provide it.
5. SUPERVISED play. Just like the video here, this is 2 of my dogs (a blue Lacy and a pitbull) playing with another pitbull and a heeler. I’m standing and watching every move, offering corrections when needed. No matter how much dogs like each other, excitement can trigger scuffles…me watching interactions and reading the body language helps stop them before they start.
There are so many more things I do to keep everyone safe and happy during their visit that I’d need days to write it. The importan