Hi all, over the weekend Miko had her first playdate with another dog and we had some interesting side-effects. Some friends brought over their 10mo black lab mix named Tyson. He's quite a bit bigger than Miko at this point, but they got along just fine. She wanted to play almost from the get go, dropping down to all fours and bouncing around. He was game and they played hard for a good hour or more. It's funny how quickly she learned that by hiding under the coffee table she could use her size to her advantage, as he couldn't get under there. So she would bounce in and out from under the table making sneak attacks on him. I was surprised at how gentle he was with her. For the most part he let her have her way, only reacting when she would accidently grab his lip or something and even then he would just pin her down with his paw or bowl her over and walk away. A few times he would flip her over and nibble at her belly, but he wasn't really bitting, more like nudging her with his teeth, almost like he was tickling her. After about an hour or so she was pretty wiped out, but he still wanted to go. At this point she was coming to us (the pack) wanting to lay under our legs, but shortly would be back out again. Finally she just started rolling over onto her back when he would come to play again, seemingly accepting that he had won.

The interesting part of this is her reaction to us both that night and the following day. That night she would come to us to hide under our legs or get picked up when she wanted to some quiet time, which we obliged. I take this as a good sign as she see's us as something of her protectors. Also, the next day she was completely wiped out the entire day, but she was also much more involved with us whether it was her coming when we called for her or just wanting to be close by no matter where we were. It certainly seems to have increased whatever bond she has with us. I wonder how much of this had to do with a bigger dog taking some of the fire out of her the night before? Anyone had any experiences like this with their Shiba?