amusedOur neighbours have a yorkie and a beagle. The other day our doggies (Murphy and Vinnie) were lounging in the backyard when the neighbours' dogs were out as well. There was a HUGE commotion, mostly of Vinnie using his loud crying voice (which we hear often, he uses it when playing with Murphy and it's realllllly annoying) and Murphy barking very angrily. Running out to the backyard, we realized that the neighbours' dogs had pushed a board loose and had come on in to our yard to play.
And really, they just wanted to play. But Vinnie was TERRIFIED of them, and Murphy was standing in between them using his best BigPitbullDog voice and holding them at bay. The look on the other dogs' faces was priceless: They were mightily confused after having been 'invited over' to play (as they 'play' and bark at one another through the fence all the time) only to have this sort of reception.
So, two lessons learned here... Vinnie is in dire need of some socialization! I think maybe because he's so much bigger than Murphy (who is 12 years old this year) we forget that he's still a baby sometimes, so it was surprising to see him SO afraid of these other dogs, who only wanted to play.
And as proud as we were to see Murphy protecting his 'little' brother (Vinnie outweighs him by at least 10 pounds), he's going to get himself chewed up and spit out some day if he keeps pulling this pitbull thing!
For size comparison, here's a pic I posted the other day of our boys.
My wife finally took him to the off leash park yesterday and confirmed just what a big fraidy cat he is. It's funny, when we go to pet supply stores he's always so happy and excited to meet other dogs - but they're always leashed and with people. Venturing out in the off leash park he was even spooked by the birds. ;) What a city slicker!