[heide210]

Originally Posted by gracielove

When I first got Gracie I had taken in a litter of kittens and they were about her size when she came home. I still have one of the kittens from that litter and Gracie still loves to wrestle with her. Missy the cat is much larger than Gracie but Gracie is sure she is the boss. You can tell when she thinks she is losing the match because she will start to bark more. It's a good thing I have steps for the bed at night because if she hears a cat move some where in the house she has to go check it out. She has her job to do. I hope if I get another dog that Gracie will not be as bossy with it as she is with the cats.

Your Gracie sounds just like our Gabby.Gabby loves to play with our cat Bunkie that weighs 20lbs. She will terrorize him. I have a pic where she was playing with him and must of bitten his head cause he was bleeding.Poor Bunkie ): So we r trying to teach her to play nice.

Gracie would probably enjoy having a brother or sis and she would play nice. (hopefully)

Originally Posted by navillusc

Brody and Mia have learned that when we s-p-e-l-l it means something special that they want. We are considering texting as well.

How cute,Brody and Mia are very smart (:

Originally Posted by concretegurl

-Kind of OT but my Shcnorkie (Yorkie Mini schnauzer hybrid) would herb the children.



Now strange as it is, many mini schnauzers are strong bred for their abilities in working lines and herding was something they actually did-in Germany they were used to watch small farm animals chickens, etc.



This 'ability' was very strong in Scoobers, he would circle and organize the kids playigin the yard if we had a group of them-it was quite funny to see him do it on his own, until I noticed he was circling barking and snapping his teeth-he never nipped or it but that was a little to close for comfort in seeing him progress this behavior on his own.


We really worked on him never mouthing but he'd still snarl and put his face on the children's legs, again he never nipped or bit (except the vet tech one time in rescue) but it was progressing so I had to put a stop to this game by having the kid's teach him soccer.



Unfortunately for us as cute as it was we had to detour the entire behavior because I'm not a strong enough trainer to isolate one activity against instinct (I still can't fully train him with recall or to be off leash outside of the yard one sniff of a scent he's gone in a cloud of dust).



So you really do sometimes have to choose what behaviors they take on and weather or not they can be allowed or have to be trained out.

Wow,that's neat that Scoobers instinctively knew what his duties are and reacted by herding the kids.I would of also thought is was cute until Scoobers started snapping his teeth.