Miss Maple Meets Hawk

[Leigh Stoller <stoller@fast.cs.utah.edu>]

So, we have a little story for ya. We took Miss Maple to our friends Bev
and Steve yesterday. They have 3 goldens and 1 black lab. This was Maple's
first exposure to other dogs besides Torrey. Right from the start, it was
obvious that Hooch (Black Lab) and Hawk (Senior Golden) were not happy
about the puppy running admist them. Small amounts of growling and barking,
but we kept everyone under control. On the other hand, Correy and Dazzle
were predictably happy to have someone new to play with. Well, about 2
hours later it seemed like everyone was finally settled down and accepting
the new situation, when Maple got too close to Hawk's tennis ball, and that
was the end of the peace.

Total pandemonium ensued after Hawk went off. Maple ran screaming under a
chair, and then all 5 adults went after her. They were all barking like mad
while Maple screamed under the chair. EVEN Torrey was barking at her!
Well, Torrey being slightly wimpy, backs up when he barks, and he backed
himself right off the edge of the deck. Five feet down to the shrubs, where
he rolled around for a second, and then dashed right back up on the deck to
continue barking. Watching him back off the deck was truely comical.

We finally got everyone settled down, and Maple out from under the chair.
No damage; just barking. She stayed pretty close to us after that, but
finally started to venture out again, although Hawk and Hooch had been
banished to the house by then.

Our plan had been for Maple to meet some other dogs who would not put up
with stealing tennis balls and bones. I guess we accomplished that,
although I can't say we have seen any difference in her behaviour today!

Lbs