My Mom is here for a short visit. She's been driving across country, visiting family along the way, enroute from Oregon to (ultimately) New Hampshire. Last evening Mom, my sister Juniper... and two dogs showed up. All were welcome, but it's been funny watching the dogs, her two and our (very spoiled) one.
They met rather more precipitously than I would have liked, as I went out to give Mom a hug, and my son followed me closely with our dog on a leash, because he didn't realize that she had her two along. That got growly and barky very quickly - dogs on leashes do not have the ability to get away from one another and complete polite circling and sniffing protocols. Also, several people standing around with three leashes means that things get tangled fast. Separation of mine to the fenced yard, and then she got banished to the bedroom...
We did, once we had them all in the fenced yard, achieve doggy detente. Mom's dogs are a 4 yo Rat Terrier/Border Collie mix, and a five-month-old mostly-Rottweiler (and yes, I'll try to get photos. Last night was sort of crazy). Ours is a 5 yo Black Dog, breed unknown, just short legs and sturdy build. She's also very much an in-charge kind of dog, so I was worried about that - her last playmate was a 80 lb boxer, and she pushed him around. The second attempt at a meet-and-greet happened in a close space in the yard, and the older two dogs got into a furball, it wasn't until we managed to do a geeting with plenty of room to move away and around that we were successful with them. Although we did discover that Ladybug (the rat terrier) considers Mom's lap to be her 'territory' and she will defend that!
This morning, our girl Tricksy was standing at the sliding glass door, through which she could see Mom's dogs at the truck, and warbled. I don't think I have ever heard her make that noise before. The Jr. Mad Scientist, sleepy still, came over and patted her and talked to her, which distracted the dog briefly. But then Tricksy realized that the family Cub wasn't going to do what she wanted, so she ran in to see if the master, the First Reader, would do what she wanted. It was funny to watch her run from the door to him, whimper, wag appealingly, and then back to the door. She really wanted her new playmates.
After a couple of times of this (and her Master ignoring her) Tricksy came over to see if couldn't do something. Anything! She whimpered and flattened her ears. I patted her, and said sorry, No... Which she understood, so it was back to the door and warble.
But now, I need to go put on a pancake feast. The dogs are being walked by the Boy, who is in doggy heaven. He's been instructed NOT to try to walk all three at once. That would be quite the furball!