So this happened. Our little velociraptor in fur.
I can’t help being a little overwhelmed; Tierce was a puppy 10 years ago, back when I still had some pretensions of youth. I’ve probably lost a few pounds due to the fact that Little Miss has a little bladder and can’t go too long without needing out. Add to that the fact that she’s constantly moving and destroying and walks tend to look like the lesser of the many evils a bored Shiba puppy can visit upon its home.
Socialization is, of course, a high priority. We’ve been covering the below list… with a few additions, like ‘plate armour’, ‘chain mail’, ‘Elizabethan court dresses’ and ‘thrown knives’. The Society for Creative Anachronism: simply the best way to accustom puppies to the real world.
And then there’s Tierce. Oh, how I still worry about his feelings. However, he seems bearing up under the stress well, with only a snap or snarl to give our little darling a hint that he is not a chew toy. We keep them separate when not actively supervised. Of course, there was the one time when we came back from outside and Shimi came dancing up to us. She later demonstrated that she can scale the walls of the ex-pen like a goddamned spider. She’s been a lot better about not bothering Tierce… coincidence? Probs not. I think a ‘gentle discussion’ of appropriate boundaries went on.