A Dog's Social Life (or Lack Thereof)

by Aimee Amodio | More from this Blogger

13 May 2008 10:23 AM

I read an article recently in Prevention magazine about how dogs need friends. Not just human friends, but dog friends, too!

You may have seen it before: your dog has a special canine buddy. They get SO excited to see them! They act differently (in a good way) around them.

Looking at my dogs, I'm hard-pressed to think of really good dog friends they've had. For Lally, I think the last dog she really loved was an ex-boyfriend's terrier mix named Jester. Jester (AKA "Pest") was the dog who showed Lally how to fetch: after watching him do it, she figured it out for herself.

Lally was so adorable when Pest was around. If he was stretched out on the floor, she'd jump up on the bed or couch and drop rawhides or toys on his head to get his attention. Cute! Lally also loves my brother's American Staffordshire Terrier, Lily Biscuits. The two of them have a silly game where they chase each other around and jump on the couches.

Moose, on the other hand, doesn't have a very easy time dealing with other dogs. I think he's kinda clueless when it comes to doggy body language. He doesn't "get" the signals that other dogs are sending sometimes. But he had a grand old time playing with my friends' dog back in New Jersey -- Casey. (You may remember Casey from our day at Bark in the Park or the Three-Dog-Circus.)

Moose and Casey definitely had that special connection. Casey would follow him around and do everything he did. If Moose dug a hole, Casey dug a hole. If Moose sat at the fence to watch the world, Casey helped. They had a weird little game of their own, too. Moose would flop out on his side in the grass and open his mouth... and Casey would stick her head inside.

We don't have any super dog-buddies out here in Oregon... yet. But we do make regular trips to the dog park, and there are lots of people with dogs in this apartment complex. Who knows where the next canine pal will appear?

Learn more about Aimee Amodio

Aimee is a fiction writer... dog lover... music lover...

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Courtney Mroch (9169) 13 May 2008 11:49 AM

Murph had Tucker in Jax and has some friends here he's always glad to see, but Tuck will ALWAYS be his #1 bestest dog buddy. Cute when they have friends! (Or cousins to pester, like Lally with Lily Biscuits...and can I just say what a CUTE name that is!)