Petey's New Friend

This last week we went to Washington to be with our family. It was a sudden trip and we realized that the small little town that we live in does not have boarding for dogs. So we took Petey with us on the 25 hour drive to Olympia, Washington.

We were a little nervous about Petey being around other dogs since he was never given the chance to socialize with them prior to us adopting him. We knew that the family members house that we were going to had a male dog named Bronco. So we just figured we would keep Petey with us.

The gal of the house decided that Petey and Bronco needed to become friends. So we agreed to try it out and see what happened. Bronco is a pretty submissive dog, we learned that day, untill the gal was in between the two of them and then Bronco felt he needed to protect.

So the gal went inside and we proceeded to introduce them. There was a lot of sniffing, nudging, more sniffing and a little barking. But it seemed to go well. So we gave them a rest for a while and then did that again a few hours later. We took it slowly, made sure they were comfortable and then gave them more room to explore. Within the next couple of days they had done really well with their "greeting" their walking next to each other, a little playing while on leashes, and so on. So the gal of the house thought it would be a great idea for them to be off leash and to be "just dogs" with out us hovering.

Nervous doesn't even begin to describe how we felt but we thought it was an idea worth exploring. So one evening we got home and no one was there. Just me and the hubby with the two dogs. So this was a good time to try. After they were done with their greeting, we let them both off of their leashes. They took off after each other like they were playing a game of tag. It was awesome! They ran around, wrestled a little, play bowed, and did more sniffing. Tails wagging the whole time! It was so much fun to see! Petey was so excited to have a friend!

We started playing fetch with them and Petey would run after the ball and fetch it and Bronco would just run after Petey - like they were playing "keep away"! The hubby and I were so amazed that they were having such a great time together. That night, when we all went to bed, Petey slept in our room and Bronco slept outside the bedroom door just waiting for Petey to come back out and play. I can't even imagine the trouble those two could have gotten in to if we left them to play together all night :).