Our newest: Bitty

[Stinky The Clown]

She's been with us for a week and it seems to all be going well. She's a 10lb Shih-Tzu, maybe a year or so old, and a rescue out of New Hampshire. We got her from a local all-breed rescue. She has a terrific personality and is a bigger clown than me!

Here are the three of them together. She gets on amazingly well with Little, our Border Collie and resident alpha. Little is not readily trusting of other dogs and doesn't tolerate them well. She is very intolerant of another dog trying to be the alpha. That was the problem we had with the Pomeranian we had for a few days. The Pom was a young male, very cock-of-the-walk. Little snapped at him with sufficient aggressiveness that we felt the Pom would be better off with another family. Bitty has no such tendency. She's perfectly happy to let Little show her the way. Now we have her standing on her hind legs, batting Little's muzzle with her paws and Little clearly *loving* it.



Big is a different issue. Big is afraid of Bitty! When Bitty approaches, Big runs the other way, tail tucked and head down. Bitty *really* wants to play, but Big is having none of it. No aggression at all from Big, just cowering. The fact is, she's done this before with other little dogs. Our neighbors had a little mutt, maybe 15 lbs. He'd run Big back to the porch every time! Big hides behind Little, who takes up for her when need be.

Our only issue right now is that Bitty has no clue about alerting us when she needs to go out. We have various techniques to still try, so no one is worried yet. She's a smart dog, and she'll get it soon enough. She understands her name and "bad dog" very well. She gets that. Its just that she's always on the go and when she has to pee or poop, there's virtually no warning. She moves very quick and her eliminations are done as quick as anything else.

The cats fascinate her. The upstairs cat still has claws, so we'll let that work itself out. The downstairs cat has no claws so we'll just have to be more involved there.

Meanwhile, her favorite place is Sparkly's lap. Sparkly never objects.

Anyway, she's here and has claimed her place in the family.

[elleng]

1. Great news! Have fun, y'all!

[livetohike]

2. So cute! Looks like the family is in for some mischief

I'm sure Bitty will enjoy her new home. What a nice group of doggies :-).

[BrklynLiberal]

3. You have a wonderful pack there....Thanks for the update and the pics.

It really is funny when a big dog runs away from a little one....
Eventually I am sure Big will get used to Bitty and they will all be one big happy pack....sleeping together in a pile.