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My pets seethed at me this weekend. Snarls issued from the depth of my cat’s chest, before he retreated to the guest room and hid under the bed, refusing to emerge despite my cajoling. My dog paced around the house and seemed especially desperate for attention. What was the cause of such dramatics? Two basset hounds.
A co-worker of my husband’s needed a dog sitter for the weekend, and my husband, knowing of my love for dogs, volunteered. Thus early on Saturday morning our friend arrived with his four-year-old hounds in tow.
We introduced the dogs outside, in an attempt to thwart any potential canine aggression. Dogs may become territorial, so when bringing a new dog into a house that the home-dog has never met, it’s always best to introduce them outside first. Even though the dog might view the yard as its own as well, it’s less likely to be territorial outdoors than in.
As expected the canine introductions went just fine, so we brought all three dogs inside. The moment Cole saw the two intruders he wrenched free of my grip and ran towards the back of the house. He stopped, once, in the middle of the hallway to arch his back and give those chilling growls in warning. “Stay away from me,” he was saying, “don’t you follow me.”
Cole’s reaction was not entirely unexpected. He’s always gotten along with my dog, but after his very negative encounter with my friend’s dog, I’m not surprised that he doesn’t trust any strange dogs. By the end of the weekend he deigned to venture into the living room, so that was progress. If these new dogs had been ours, I assume he’d have accepted their presence by the end of the week.
Chihiro seemed much less certain as to how she should react to Pitch and Hazel, the bassets. This was her house, but they had a good twenty pounds on her so she seemed to want to avoid any confrontation. She didn’t want to join the puppy cuddle pile I kept trying to form, and she completely avoided sitting on their beds even if they weren’t using them.
She did make some overtures of friendship in her own way. During our time outside she did make a few attempts to initiative playtime. Neither basset was interested, however; rather than reprimanding her for the tries both dogs completely ignored her efforts. When not investigating their new surroundings Pitch and Hazel mostly wanted to sleep, making them easy houseguests.
The two dogs did like to cuddle, mostly because they clearly missed their owner. In fact they spent a good portion of their time huddled by the door from which he’d exited, giving the occasional plaintive whine. When cuddles were offered they’d take them, and that’s why my uncertain-of-her-place dog suddenly wanted attention.
As you can probably tell, I had a lovely weekend dog sitting. The highlights: spilling mustard on the floor, only to have Hazel roll in it. Apparently these dogs enjoy rolling in anything with a strong, not necessarily stinky, smell.
When the cat made his grand reappearance the next afternoon, he decided to first take up residence under the sofa, right in view of the bassets’ beds in front of the television. He proceeded to growl at them for being at all near him, and chased them out of the room by doing so. Neither dog was comfortable sleeping in the living room after that, even after Cole had moved. I was mostly amused by the scaredy-dogs.
I had such a good time, maybe I should start asking more of my friends whether they need dog sitters.
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*(This image by MarilynJane is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
