Today was the big day, where we finally brought Bacchus home from puppy camp to meet the boys. We all drove up to camp, which is about an hour each way. The boys are still going through some separation anxiety issues, and we thought 2.5 hours would be pushing it for either of us to disappear.
The initial introduction occurred in the parking lot at the camp. It didn’t go very well. Both Evan and Alex were visibily scared. Given that he is nearly three times their size, it’s understandable. I really didn’t appreciate how big Bacchus was until he was sitting next to these two little guys!
We dropped Bacchus off for a quick bath and a little calm down period before taking him into the back yard with the boys. Both of them were still hesitant to get anywhere near him. We eventually had to call in the reserves. We asked some of the neighborhood kids to join us in the back yard so Evan and Alex could see that kids actually played with dogs. This seemed to help, but in reality the kids all ended up playing and began to ignore the dog.
Alex has shown more interest in dogs when we’re out in public, but as the day wore on, Evan was the first to get up the gumption to touch Bacchus. Alex actually took most of the day before he would get close enough to make contact. Even in the evening, he would still scream if Bacchus walked to close to him. I think he finally saw enough from his older brother to convince him that everything would be OK. By nightfall, they were fast friends – at least from the boys’ perspective.
I think Bacchus is still trying to figure out what has happened to his nice quiet house. He loves having the boys around, but I imagine he’s wondering when they will finally leave. He doesn’t get much peace any more. The boys constantly have to know where he is, what he’s doing, and are either grabbing him or calling his name. As anyone who knows Bacchus would guess, he’s put up with it all with incredible patience and gentleness.
We got a lot of precious video from today. This is a tad long, but it shows the progression of the relationship over the day. It was a little harder capturing Alex’s first interactions, but as you can see, by dinner time, they were both pretty comfortable around the dog.
katdav345
5 Oct 2011What a great personality Bacchus has. It allowed him to transform, in the boys’ eyes, from a scary lion into a gentle lamb all in the course of a day. I suspect Bacchus will be getting a lot more attention over the next few days as the boys become more comfortable with him and more curious about every aspect of his physical and mental being. I hope Bacchus enjoys all the attention of his new buddies . . . and knows of a quiet retreat when he needs some time to himself:-) It will be fun to watch that relationship grow.
Martens
5 Oct 2011Looks like Bacchus and the boys made a lot of progress in one day. Bacchus certainly demonstrated all of his best qualities. It was really fun to see the video – thanks.
w5lk
4 Oct 2011What a wonderful story in pictures… all without almost a need for commentary. These are pictures to be watched for years and years to come!
… really nice job!!
Love
Dad