Getting to know you

So how New Age-y is this? We've planned and carried off a doggie play date. Before anyone goes judging me: there was no theme to the date, no one dressed the dogs in doggie party clothes, and I didn't buy any fancy dog treats. All that was served was water, from a communal bowl.

So it turns out that Leo, who is part shepherd and parts unknown, lives just up the street from us. I used to work with Leo's human dad. Dieter first met Leo a few months ago, on our front lawn. Both dogs were on leashes and they seemed to hit it off. And there was a lot of the shepherd talking going on. A woman I met at a dog event once said: "whenever shepherds meet, they instinctively know they're of the same breed and start talking up a storm." So Leo and Dieter were really getting into it: Ah-ooo ooo ooo. Woo woo woo. Yipe, yipe, yipe (not a literal translation, but my best attempt at what it sounded like they were saying).

Heel, heel.

Finally, yesterday afternoon, we had an off-leash play date in our back yard. Before we "let loose the hounds," we had them meet, sniff, and chat out front. They we walked both dogs into our back yard together. We wanted to make sure Dieter wasn't going to get all possessive about his back yard.

All went well, so off came the leashes. There was lots of mad dashing and running around, with Dieter herding poor Leo. Dieter outweighs Leo (78 lbs to about 60 lbs), but Leo is self-assured enough to let  Dieter know when he's had enough. "Ok, dude. Stop with the body checks. Oh, and would you please get your cold nose out of my behind?" To the right is an example of Dieter's herding technique.


It really went quite well--I swear Dieter was giving Leo the equivalent of a speed-reading tour of his back yard. "This is a rose bush, and this is a leaf, and this is a bird bath, and this is a gazing ball, and that's a weed, and that's another leaf, and this is my favorite spot to go potty. Nice, eh?"

Mine. All mine.

What I thought was most impressive is that Dieter was fine with sharing his toys. He has a hunk of old garden hose that he likes to play fetch with, and let Leo in on the fun. He also has a toy made out of what is described as super strong fire hose made into a dog toy. We refer to the toy as "Red Thing," and the dog boys had fun with it, too. Here's Leo, who has captured Red Thing, with the Dieter thing in hot pursuit. Just to be clear: Dieter is not in pursuit to teach Leo a lesson for taking his toy. It's just good old-fashioned dog fun.

So we've got to have some more of these play dates. It's great socialization for both dogs. And it's good to know that Dieter tries to be a good citizen canine.