As I got home from my last walk a visiting friend had already arrived and was sitting in the sunshine on the bench outside with Steve and the girls. This is a friend I've know all my adult life, she introduced me to the Nantlle Vale Dog Club, Blade and Pepsi even stayed with her when I went to my brothers wedding. A real dog person ..
Anyway I came in with the three youngsters and they went over to Steve for their biscuits, they seem to notice my friend but biscuits were more important. I noticed Ross stick his face in my friends face and she smiled and then said hello to me .. at this point Loki turned and barked aggressively in her face. Now it was only a bark but the tone was completely out of line. I will in his defense suggest that in his excitement for the biscuit that maybe he hadn't noticed her and that all of a sudden he had a shock seeing that there was a stranger in the yard .. but his manner was a worry. Of course being an experienced dog person she said nothing, sat still and allowed us to deal with it, but it must have been pretty nerve wracking as his face was at the height of hers. I apologised and she assured me he had done nothing but bark .. deafened her by being close to her ear, but only a bark. Still not acceptable in my opinion!
As we sat and talked Ross and Kaiah pestered my friend with their old chuckit balls .. blood hell kids new balls please! My friend remarked that Kaiah had the potential to really work, I agree. Physically and mentally she really has it. My friend thought Asha was looking wonderful and doing so well, which was lovely to hear. She then said that watching Loki she felt that inwardly he was a real stress head, she said he seemed constantly on edge and worried, even when Ross went over to her, he tried to herd him away. I can't disagree he is different in character to the others, and I reminded her that she had helped me with his socialising as a puppy. She remembered and was really impressed how well he had come on and praised my pack for bringing him this far. Again I agree, Mikey was his saviour and I've said before that loosing Mikey at a young age had a detrimental affect on his progress. Still it was nice to hear the praise and also satisfying that someone else can see the flaws that we both do. Most people see the cool calm paw perfect show dog that he can be .. or the faultlessly obedient dog that he is on a walk. Not many ever see that the other side of Loki is still there, not many know it was ever there at all, but we do and mostly we are proud of how he is doing.
I think Loki is quite a complex character and because life goes on with little unrest we do tend to forget his needs are different and sometimes difficult. I'm not use to "stressy" dogs having only really had Storm with those characteristics. She was one we had back at 3 years old. Storm presented as they usually do with different behaviour to Loki, they are usually pretty hyper and OTT and don't relax well. She use to do that on edge "Wowwowwowwow" bark rather than wow wow .. if you know what I mean. Hmm saying that, though Loki isn't hyper he doesn't relax well and does seem tense a lot of the time, especially in the evenings... Anyway it is what it is and I can't see any further training or socialising will help him. All I can do is be more on the ball than I was today. I need to give him the love and support he needs and I need to bare in mind that he is different and in certain circumstances he will react differently to the other Blaniks. Another day another lesson in living with dogs learned.
