Living with Molly
Molly is the resident dog that lives in my foster home. One of the reasons that my current foster home agreed to take me was that they thought Molly would benefit from having a friend. She doesn’t like to wrestle or chase, but I am okay with that. Most of the time we just hang out together. Here is how my foster mom describes our friendship:
Blu is currently staying with a 9 year old mixed breed Female dog named Molly. Molly is around 60 pounds. They walk well together and get along well. Molly isn’t much for playing, preferring to be more of a mother dog than a playmate to 2- 3 year old (approximately) Blu. I don’t have to crate either one when we leave, in fact, both are out all day long and both sleep in the bedroom with us (on their dog beds) at night. We don’t seem to have any aggression issues with either one. They sleep on whichever dog bed is currently unoccupied. Blu is fed in his crate, both to get him used to being in the crate as well as to allow Molly to eat as well. Except for when we first got him, he hasn’t tried to get to Molly’s food while she is eating. He waits for her to finish before checking out her bowl to see if she left anything behind.
On walks, we usually go about a mile each time, though we have gone further. Molly walks on the left and Blu on the right. I hold both leashes in my left hand, which allows me to have a free hand to shorten Blu’s leash when necessary (he does tend to cut her off when trying to check out some interesting smells on her side of the sidewalk, which is also the parkway side. They are only allowed to do their business on the parkway, not in people’s front lawns. I try to get Blu to go BEHIND Molly, both when going to the left and when coming back to the sidewalk, but so far I have had more success when returning to the sidewalk. With practice, I know he will catch on to the other.)
Blu is a very smart dog and learns quickly. He knows to sit on the side of his crate while I am putting the food in his dish, as well as to stay until I tell him it is OK to get up. He also sits and stays after he is done, until I tell him OK, so he can get out.
He gets along well with other dogs and leaves the cat alone as well. We kept a 1 year old maltipeke, and both dogs enjoyed playing together. The little one was used to playing with big dogs, and usually instigated playtime, but I was careful to keep an eye on them, because Blu was so much bigger.
Blu and Molly practice training together. They love practicing their skills and seem to benefit from being together. Blu caught on faster learning how to shake since Molly already knew that one, but now Molly is the one learning while Blu demonstrates all that he knows. They sit/stay and laydown/stay side by side, even while I am moving around the room. And both do like the mailman, though they have to bark every time he comes around. Molly has been shy, but having Blu around seems to have helped her come out of her shell more, as she is more willing to meet strangers when they are together.
Blu seems to love everyone, and the neighborhood kids feel the same about him. They even come over just to pet him.