The Sven Saw Sisters try to have a Girls Night at minimum once per month, this month being a dinner date at my house. Kristie grilled some awesome salmon and walleye for us, topped off with grilled vegetables. We now have an equal ratio of ladies to dogs though I maintain that Holly counts as 2! Our strategy of letting the dogs play their hearts out in the back yard until they collapse, worked! All through the dining of our fabulous dinner, the dogs slept quietly. This was a good dress rehearsal for our Ely trip, coming up in July.
Holly is loving spring, being in the backyard with her soccer ball. The only thing that seems to distract her from having a ball in her mouth is having Keltie in the yard for some roughhousing play. Holly is not a dainty, graceful girly dog. She is fully a tomboy, loving to walk through mud and drink from garden hoses and make valiant leaps against the fence when saying hello to the neighbors. Yet, there is not one mean fiber in her body. The neighbors, two doors down, have two dogs – a young goldendoodle and a 7 year Golden Retriever. The Golden occasionally comes across to my fenceline with a bit of an attitude. Holly greeted her once, with innocent thoughts, and got some attitude flashed in her face through the fence. She scooted to me on the porch and sat behind my legs. To keep this in perspective, she also does this if Helen gives her a scolding. Since the fence occurrence, Holly avoids the fence and that side of the yard whenever the Golden is hanging out in his own yard. The neighbors and I have talked and I let them know that I owned a dog reactive Golden for 13 years. I’m not upset and they gave me permission to scold their Golden should she cross boundaries with an attitude again. They also gave me permission to scold their kids, which may have more likelihood than the other. I think in time, all the dogs can co-exist in their respective yards with no extra boisterous activity. There’s a lot of summer left to work it out. Even Boden and Louie became fence friends in time which is why I’m not to worried about it. I have to trust in the lessons I’ve already learned.