Timken And Birdie

Timken has been in foster care with us 8 months now! People ask me all the time if our personal dogs and foster dogs all get along. Our personal dogs are pretty darn tolerant of all the foster dogs we bring in the house, although there are times we can tell that Skip would rather not have new dogs sharing his people and laps but all in all we manage the dogs so everyone is getting along.

Birdie on the other hand really likes the male dogs the best. Tim and Birdie had not really played too much until a couple of weeks ago. For one Birdie is deaf and this seems to alter the way she plays. Then Tim is awkward in his initial play and so the two just never really matched up for a play session that went very far. But then one day everything aligned and they started to play. Birdie does a lot of jerking and fairly rough playing. (When Tim played with past foster dog Neon they didn't play quite so rough.)

There is a lot of verbalizing in these two videos all coming from Timken. He even took on some of the jerky movements that Birdie does. They also did well with each others cut off signals too, Birdie does the sneezing then shake off routine. Tim usually does just the shake off.

It is always something to remember that it can take dogs a long time to get to the place where they will play (and sometimes they never do). When adopting a dog as a companion to a current dog, setting the expectations for play too high is a pitfall I see many adopters fall into. As an Adoption Coordinator I like to talk to applicants about what realistic expectations look like when adding a second or third dog to the family. My viewpoint is if the dogs live harmoniously in each others space then I am good with that. If from time to time they break out in play, then that is a bonus.

Here are three adorable pictures and Timken and Birdie waiting nicely together to get a treat :)

The background barking in the first video is Skip and the barking in the second video, (toward the end), which ends the play session, is Liza. The two of them have made barking at passersby and the mailman their personal jobs when out in the yard. :)