We've had Gypsy nearly four weeks now. She was the disaster which should have been … but wasn't, thanks to a freak concatenation of circumstances, mainly involving Gypsy's wonderful character. Things are so, so much better in the household now than they were when we had Kim by himself.
Kim by himself was a dog without another dog to play with and just 'be' with, and frustrated because we wouldn't let him do 'doggy', 'ridgy' things to us, e.g. hand-biting, play-fighting etc. He wanted more than we could give him and it showed in his frustration, chewing the furniture, being demanding etc. On top of that, he was (and is) very, very 'wooden-headed' about obedience training.
Now he's got a playmate who's on his wavelength and he's a happy boy. No more 'bad' behaviours. And apart from being a playmate to play rough with, Gypsy's a good influence on him re training, as she's the opposite of him in almost every way. As a 10 month old neglected, abused, untrained, unsocialised pariah, she should have been a basket case. The homoeopathic Aconite cleared most of the fear in the first few days which made a big difference, but even before the fear had been cleared, we could see she was a very special girl. She's extremely bright and quick to learn and very highly motivated to learn, both for approval and for food (having been half-starved for 10 months probably has something to do with the latter). I had thought Kim was bright, and compared with other dogs I've had he is, but he's a dunce compared to her, and has gained the affectionate epithet 'Boofhead' (UK/AU slang for dunce) in the last few weeks, so great is the difference.
I mentioned in my last post I think that we had Gypsy sitting on command within ten minutes of her arrival; that wasn't an exaggeration, and the progress has continued. Compared to Kim's slow, placid, contemplative good nature and heavy build, she's slim, light and mercurial, fizzing like a box of fireworks, her eyes darting around watching our body language so she can 'learn us', her sharp, pointy nose poking in everywhere and giving everything a quick, inquisitive sniff, brain running on 110% every waking minute, as active and energetic as Kim is lazy. Surprisingly, she also has a very feminine grace, sensitivity and delicacy which was the last thing I was expecting in such a rugged breed as RR with a touch of Mastiff (which doesn't stop her holding her own in play-fights with Kim, although she's only 3/4 his weight and was very physically unfit - initially anyway - due to lack of exercise; brains, quickness and agility seem to even the score).
She also seems much more mature than Kim. Kim still looks (in the expression on his face) and acts like a big puppy to some extent, but Gypsy seems much more grown up and 'together' mentally, despite her background. I was told by the vet that Kim wouldn't be completely mature until he was 3 but that bitches are mature at 2. I don't know if that's correct, but if it is, it's like human girls growing up faster than boys, and it certainly seems to be borne out so far by these two.
She now seems to have gained dominance over him most of the time, presumably due to her much stronger, more fully-formed character (because she's not 'hard' emotionally; quite the reverse). And to some extent he's copying her when we train her: and she's a fast, motivated learner, so she's already better at some things than he is -- things she learnt by his reluctant example in the first place, e.g. "Off the bed!" at bedtime when they're told to clear off out of my room and go to their beanbag bed. And I often see him copying her, even though the command was given to her, as in "Gypsy, lie down", "Gypsy, sit". He sees her do the action and get the treat and enjoy it, and learns by copying what for some reason he didn't have the motivation to learn by direct interaction.
Apart from the house being much more emotionally content and peaceful now that Kim has appropriate company (although it's a lot noisier and more fun to watch ;-), Gypsy has a magic charm all her own. I could spend paragraphs trying to describe it, but suffice to say both my husband Alan and I feel a very strong attraction to her; she has enthralled both of us. She is so sweet-natured, with a 'soft', eager, responsive energy and she's so lovely to be with and to stroke and chat with, being so responsive and interested in us; she's just full of joy and she shares it. Obviously she's very happy to have a nice home to live in, and it really shows. I'll just give one example: some may disapprove of this, but I'm glad I did it as it's formed a very strong bond between us. The first night she spent here, never having been in a house before or been treated with kindness, I brought her onto my bed to sleep because she was still unsure of herself, though she had settled in surprisingly well already, and I wanted her to bond with me as 'my' dog even though Alan does the feeding. I did the same thing with Kim and it worked very well, and now I have both of them visiting me frequently and sleeping on my bed during days and evenings; Heaven!
Anyhoo, it's the middle of winter but we're in the tropics, so she couldn't sleep for being too hot, and she was panting. Then she sat up on her haunches to cool her body off. I opened my eyes to see her looking down at my face in the moonlight, and as I watched she lifted her left paw and placed it gently against my right cheek and held it there, like a hand, for about 10 seconds. Then she removed the 'hand' and sat and looked at me for a minute. Then she lifted her other 'hand' and put it very gently against my other cheek and held it there, looking into my face all the while. Then she eventually removed it and just sat and gazed at me. Her state of mind, as far as I could feel it, seemed to be a mixture of curiosity and tentative affection. It's the most intimate thing that's ever happened to me with any animal. I pushed the window open for a cooler breeze and she settled and slept.
I'm trying not to anthropomorphise the event but I'm very sensitive to atmospheres and that was what I picked up. She often uses her paws for communication, and she's always very gentle with them, unlike Kim, who has good-naturedly nearly bruised my ribs on a few occasions by treading on me as I lie here in bed. Kim's affection is the easy-going, relaxed, insensitive 'stand on your foot while licking your hand' kind, but Gypsy's … I can only describe it as 'sensitively enthusiastic'. We're left in no doubt that she loves us. A brother and sister couldn't be much more different than these two.
The only real problem we're left with after all these changes, now that she's been checked over, vaccinated and desexed etc, is that neither of them is inclined to come when called, and it's the only thing which gets worse if they're both off the leash, as they get absorbed in a game of chasings cum play-fighting and become utterly oblivious of everything else around them. Thank goodness there's almost no traffic here, and what there is is very slow as we're in between a speed hump and a roundabout in a very low speed limit area in a tiny hamlet. Still, we only have to survive until we're in our new house and they'll have a big, fenced yard to run around in when they're not at the beach (though it's amazing how much exercise they get just play-fighting in the living room and on their communal beanbag bed; and it's much more entertaining than watching the telly ;-).
I have a couple of questions, but I'll put them in separate posts, as this is too long already, as usual :-).
