What a Day Truly!
Sunday, September 2, 2012 at 5:09PM 
We had Nathan's family over, his 2 brothers, the wives, our sister-in-laws and their 2 dogs. They have poodles so not only did our Havanese get to be exposed but so did the puppies.
Some of the photos are duplicates (gallery today on Fiona's blog), some not but check out the photos and in this one right here.
This was Nathan's brother Allan doing a my dog vs. your dog.
Interesting enough both brothers and wives want to go to the Havanese after one doesn't have their poodles and the other when they are not living with the sister-in-laws mom. We shall see.
But I am exhausted so I will keep this short. Tomorrow is a day of relaxation and then shows to get ready for - crazy stuff. Still, we will manage to have fun despite the work and that's what it is truly about!
Reader Comments (6)
Lovely family photos! Enjoyed seeing the poodles. They reminded me of my 1st poodle, Gigi, who was a black miniature. Like the Havs, very very intelligent dogs and great family members. (Is the lighter one an apricot?)
So cute seeing them w/ the puppies - like gentle giants!
Debi: These are full standard sized poodles. They are not necessarily gentle. They like to hunt small things so I was very much aware of it. We went to Nathan's brothers house who owns the 2 poodles and interesting enough at their house they were afraid of Roxie and she was friendly. The apricot hid in the plants. Here they tried to hunt her and Kat. Kat had no tolerance for such behavior and Roxie was nervous about it, Kat intervened just before I did and they backed off. After all this is his pack and he was letting them know. I would not trust the poodles with the puppies alone. They are not gentle enough without you having full control. They are not aggressive but they do like chasing and hunting. The pups and the poodles were allowed to sniff but the pups always remained in the xpen and under our full control. They are just of a size - well the poodles have caught and killed squirrels. So - no chances but good exposure so as they get of size they will not be afraid. In the country our friends have to always watch their pups due to fishers and hawks. When they are of this size they look like prey to too many but they do grow and that changes.
Yes, I could see they are standards. They are beautiful, but I do like the minature size as I find the toys too small and teacup - well won't go there as there was no such thing when I was a child. I knew poodles were water dogs and why Gig liked to fish, but I didn't know they preyed on animals. We've seen hawks around here from time to time and why I'm was always outside w/ Laci. Those birds make me nervous.
A lot of the terriers and herding dogs will hunt too. Its just instinct. It's not that you should keep them away from such dogs but you need to be aware if they go into that mode. These 2 were trying to tag team Roxie as she is so laid back. We removed their ability to do this. They tried it with Kat and not again but they knew he was serious and when it came down to it, singularly they are woos-es. Tag teaming empowers them and we didn't allow them to play that game.
I would have never trusted them with the pups alone - never - ever. With us there controlled - yes - as an adult without tag teaming with a dog that speaks up - yes.
What is tag teaming? Since Laci is quite socialable w/ dogs out and about, I'd like to know how to recognize this and when and how to intervene.
When they both work together. In this case they were working together to corner her so the only escape would have been jumping in the pool. Not nice. Some dogs will do this as play but when its not desired they should cease. Much like bite inhibition, the litter mate or other dog cries uncle and they stop. The odd dog does not and they need to be taught to stop. Interesting enough in their own environment they were afraid of her and she didn't send any signals out that should have gave them that reaction. If anything, she was warm and inviting and they remained afraid of her the entire visit. So, it was interesting in our backyard how suddenly they used each other to deal with their insecurity and made her the target till we stepped in and ceased the behavior.