Introducing Misty

My younger son, Toby, and his wife Steph have a four year old Miniature Schnauzer called Misty so on Saturday we felt we should start to introduce Milo and Millie to her. We started slowly by meeting up on Minchinhampton Common and, after a few play bows and spins, we managed a very successful walk.

Today was a slightly different matter as we decided to bring Misty into our house. Bear in mind that Misty lived here for a few months whilst Toby and Steph were between houses and we have doggy-sat for them on several occasions so she thinks this is her home too. We started in the garden and it was not easy! Milo in particular was very shouty and he and Millie rather ganged up on Misty. It was all a bit tense and rather noisy although no teeth made contact - goodness knows what the neighbours thought. To calm things down we put Milo and Millie back in the house and, after a while, reintroduced Millie to Misty. They seemed to hit it off straight away and spent a happy half hour chasing each other round and round the garden until they gradually settled down and sat next to each other on Toby. Round two with Milo was not so good and the whole barking scenario was revisited until Daniel hit on an idea and pulled out the hose pipe. One quick blast was enough to calm the situation and was threat enough to stop the barking although they were all wary of each other.

As it was getting rather chill we all went back inside and Milo finally came close to Misty. Almost instantly he seemed to register 'it's a girl!' and his whole attitude changed. Peace and calm reigned and, although not best buddies yet, we are hopeful that after a few more meetings they can at least tolerate each other.