Another introduction: Meet Lea!

1490 Views 8 Replies 6 Participants Last post by LeoRose, Oct 2, 2019

crysania

Discussion Starter · Sep 27, 2019

After we lost Dahlia in August, we could see that Ben was pretty unhappy. We always knew that we'd probably have to get a new dog pretty quickly because he really craves canine companionship. We had my mom's puppy come over and friends bring over their dogs, but it's not quite the same. So I started glancing through Petfinder and had contacted a herding dog rescue (the rescue we got Ben from has gone to only senior dogs, so that was a no go).

And then a friend contacted me. She's had this Border Collie who she felt wasn't getting what she wanted in her home. She's a very soft dog and so not the type of dog she really enjoys training. And she really loves playing with other dogs, but none of her dogs want to play. She had been contemplating trying to find a home that she felt she'd happier in. And so when I posted a couple dogs I was considering as friends for Ben, she contacted me about her.

Long story short, we brought Lea home last Saturday. She's 2 1/2 (birth date 2/24/17) and came from an amazing breeder who was gracious enough to let my friend rehome her with me (she had already been returned to the breeder once for being too soft and not having enough drive). And so far we are ALL in love with her, including Ben (who I have such a hard time thinking of as "the older dog"). Ben is such an easy going boy that he just accepted her into the home without batting an eyelash. They walk together beautifully, they play together beautifully, they'll even lick the same spoon together. And we've had her less than a week. It's like she's always been here.

And of course, there were pictures...LOTS of pictures!

This is the lovely Lea:

Ben is clearly THRILLED! (looking WAY older than his 5 1/2 to 6 years! Geez!)

Gotta roll!

Lea found one of Ben's 18 gazillion toys.

There was LOTS of running!

And plenty of mad teeth!

Ben looks so massive here! He's about 43 lbs of muscle and fluff. She's only about 32 lbs. She's so TEENY.

And that was just the first day! I'll post some photos from the second day in the next post because there are so so many!

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crysania

Discussion Starter · #2 · Sep 27, 2019

Pictures from day 2!

Lea is gravitating to the toys that Ben either doesn't like much or that got run over by the lawn mower last year and Ben saved from the trash.

SO MUCH HAPPY.

These two photos cracked me up.

Ok ok whatever you say!

So Ben always leaped at Dahlia's head. Here he gets a bit of his own medicine.

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crysania

Discussion Starter · #5 · Sep 27, 2019

Dahlia, my old lady we just lost, was a sensitive flower. She had no confidence when we first got her, was terrified to step out of line (I think she was trained with some pretty harsh methods before we got her), easily shut down. But we had tons of fun doing agility and tricks and she tons of confidence. I'm pretty used to working with such a soft dog!

Ben is not soft at all, but he's also very empathetic and loves to cuddle. So he's really the best of both worlds. <3

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crysania

Discussion Starter · #8 · Oct 1, 2019

She is really really fitting in here! She and Ben are having huge runs around the yard, playing tug, and even starting to wrestle. I think she's still a little confused about where she is, but she's getting the routine and generally pretty happy. I think we'll keep seeing her open up more and more as the weeks go on. I'm enjoying having two dogs in the house. It seemed strangely quiet and very sad with just Ben (even though Ben is NOT a quiet dog! lol).

We're getting ready to register her with the AKC. Theme has to be songs, so she's going to be Wescot's Follow Your Arrow, which is a country song with a GREAT message (you can watch the video here). Part of the reason is because it talks of finding your own path and she's a dog who was wanted for BIG THINGS, like becoming an agility superstar and stuff, but the owner felt was too soft for what she wanted (original owner was really into things like Schutzhund, so if she was prone to using corrections in training, that would REALLY shut this girl down...she thrives with positive reinforcement from what I've seen!). The other reason? She has what looks like an arrow on the back of her head pointing in the direction she's heading.

Some photos from this weekend:

This octopus toy is HILARIOUS.

Ben had to get in on the fun!

Dogs on the other side of the fence OMG!

Flying leap! Ben does this too. Though he looks SO much more intense.

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