First Social Occasion

Yesterday, Lolli made her first official "social" visit...Miguel and I took her to my best friend Dana's house for a barbeque.  As Lolli is still deep in the throes of her "land shark" persona, I was a bit apprehensive.  Dana has a four year old little girl, the lovely and precocious Jenna, and while Jenna is an incredibly bright and bold child (actually, Lolli is a lot like her), I was concerned that Lolli might get the better of her if she decided to start chasing ankles.  Typically, when a child is presented with unwanted canine behavior, the child's usual first instinct is to run.  Running from Lolli when she is in shark mode is  a screaming invitation for her to apply sharp puppy teeth to any bare skin or flapping fabric that she can see.  Hence my nervousness.

However, I was very excited for Lolli to meet Yoggie (yes, that's how it's spelled, don't look at me), Dana's eight year old chocolate lab.  Yoggie is the most calm, stable, sweet and friendly labrador  I've ever met, barring of course my own black labrador Sterling, who passed away recently at nearly fourteen years old.  I had a feeling that Yoggie would be a great playmate for Lolli...too big to be pushed around by a smart-ass puppy, but too sweet to do her any damage.  To my utter delight, the moment we walked through Dana's door, Lolli and Yoggie made instant friends and soon entirely forgot about their humans as they romped in the back yard.  This was especially great for Lolli, as her housemate Toby (my boyfriend's nine year old beagle) had to that point showed no interest in playing with her, depite her repeated overtures.  Although Toby tried his best to remain stand-offish, even he was eventually sucked into the fun, and he ran  with Toby and Lolli as if he was beginning to remember the delights of puppyhood himself.  

A few of Lolli's adventures at Dana's included:

-Being rolled over "about 15 times" by Yoggie, and then begging for more (those of you who know my Grandma Lux will appreciate this reference).

-Eating a pill bug (aka a "roly poly").  Liking it.

-Making one quick attempt at biting Jenna's skirt, and receiving a swift squirt of water on her butt.  The best part of this is watching her unclamp her vise grip and spin around to look at her butt, as if her butt will somehow explain where the insolent water came from.  Incidentally, her own farts seem to elicit exactly the same reaction. 

-Performing some pretty admirable "sits" and "downs" at the instruction of a four year old.

-Trying to bite Jenna's skirt while she was swinging on the swingset.  Fortunately, Jenna's immediate reaction was lifting her feet very high so as not to kick Lolli until I could run over and scoop her out of the way.  Lolli clearly has no sense of self preservation yet, and relies on me to cover her ass at all times.  

-Falling into an exhausted sleep on my lap near the evening's end.  Dana came over and picked her up, and Lolli allowed herself to be cuddled like a baby, much to Dana's delight.  At this point, Dana wondered if a sleep over (for Lolli!) might be in order, and she also texted me today to inquire as to whether she could puppysit while Miguel and I went to a concert tonight. Clearly, Lolli is rapidly building her core fan base!

As a result of yesterday's activities, Lolli woke up quite late today, and spent a large portion of the day snoozing....

Tonight after coming home from the concert (Pepper and Pennywise - good stuff), I started working with Lolli on "take it" and "leave it".  I put one treat in each hand, and then show one to Lolli.  As soon as she shows interest, I close my hand and say "leave it".  She sniffs and paws at the hand, of course, and I just wait.  The second she turns away, even a bit, or moves her nose from the closed hand, I say "good girl" and then offer her the treat in the other hand, telling her to "take it".  In this way she is learning that when she is interested in something, when I tell her to "leave it" and she leaves it alone, something better is coming her way.  One key element here is that I never allow her to take the item I told her to leave, even though right now it's a treat.  The reasoning here is that at some point, the "leave it" item won't be a treat...it will be a pill that someone has dropped, or something disgusting on the sidewalk, and I never want her to think that she can go back to it after earning her treat.  She needs to know that leave it means don't touch that, at all, ever.  Tonight it was fun to watch her puzzle it out a few times, and then gradually move away from the "leave it" hand faster and faster each time.  Once she is really good at it this way, I'll start dropping a treat on the floor, covering it with my foot if necessary, and teaching her to leave that alone (eventually without the foot!).  I'm guessing that inside of a week, she will be getting a really good handle on this...I'll keep you posted!