Chima and Serra: Buddies?

Today after just 5 days Chima and Serra were actually playing together this morning! It was just short little 10-20 second wrestling matches but there were probably 5-6 of these interactions over the course of an hour this morning while I drank my coffee and watched. While it's not big news that two dogs might play together, what I want to highlight is how careful management up front can make or break the relationship of two dogs.

About the 3rd or 4th short play time this morning. Chima was getting a tiny bit overwhelmed so came over to play at my feet.

Chima is very wary of new dogs and up front I always limit her exposure to new fosters so she can slowly take them in and realize they aren't a threat to her before I ever let them spend time together without careful supervision to make sure things are staying positive. There have been times when I haven't been as diligent and an early on fight set the tone of how their relationship would be. Chima has a long memory. These time it meant that the entire time the dog was in foster care I had to keep the dogs separated for the most part meaning extra crate time for everyone and a lot of stress overall.

As I watch their interactions, I can see things start to relax between the two dogs and slowly let them have more time together. I won't kid you - up front it's a lot of work and kind of a pain in the butt to have to be so "on" all the time and constantly alert to how the dogs are in that moment. But it will save a ton of heartbreak and work in the long run because first impressions last with dogs. If things go badly in the beginning and interventions don't take place it will set the stage for the way those two dogs' relationship will play out.

I know I'm like a broken record on this topic but over and over we hear from people who have dropped two dogs together without any careful introductions and then are upset - usually with the new dog who is also getting used to new people, new home, new schedule. The dog gets labeled as aggressive, alpha, mean, bad, etc., none of which are true. We need to be diligent to set our dogs up in a way that they will be successful.

Are Chima and Serra best buddies now? Nope. More like tolerant siblings who sometimes play and sometimes argue about things. It's still going to be my job to manage their time together (although not as intensely as I did initially) to make sure things continue along a positive path.

Chima uses her sly, space invader move to get Serra to give up her nylabone chew.

Chima even was able to do her sly move to get Serra's toy this morning. She slowly gets closer to the chewing dog. Sniffs their face, etc., and keeps slowly invading their space until they either tell her off (which Sal will do) or get tired of her and drop the toy to go do something else. This video shows how she succeeded with Serra.  She later tried this with Salinas, to the point of laying her head down on top of Sal's head, and Sal completely ignored her and continued to chew on the toy.

Chima attempts to talk Sal out of a toy. Denied.