Nyla, the four-year-old poodle who went to live with the giant horses continues to thrive. She loves to sit on her new “mom’s” lap and has settled into the family routine as if she always lived there.
Daily she rides out on the quad to feed and visit the horses. Initially suspicious of these giant creatures, she has developed quite the friendship with the smallest horse, a thoroughbred. He seems to enjoy her company as well. He will often leave some of his feed for her to clean up and stand back while she enjoys the scraps. Nyla being very clever quickly learned which horses were willing to share.
One day she uncharacteristically began barking at the herd as they came down the hill to eat. Her guardian was curious what that was about so in a followup communication session I asked her how she felt about the horses and why the barking:
NYLA: “They’re not so bad after all. But does that one big guy think he’ s a dog? He keeps sniffing after me like he thinks I’m in heat. I sure hope he doesn’t think he can breed me. Please explain to him that we are different species and are not meant to mix. I’ll be able to breathe much easier if he backs off.”
“I like visiting with them if the visits are brief. But they were taking too long to come down to eat and I wanted them to hurry up so I could go back to the cozy cabin with my mom. I wasn’t mad at them, just trying to help out. I think mom and Jocelyn appreciated it because they were cold and surely must have wanted to go back inside with me.”
Her guardian reports that the youngest stallion is indeed quite fascinated with Nyla and always wants to sniff her. She has explained to him that he needs to go slower and give Nyla time to adjust. We expect they will become great friends, like with the thoroughbred, as they get better acquainted.
Nyla has been in her new home for ten weeks and her progress has exceeded expectations. Her guardians and I are delighted that she has turned out to be the perfect dog they were seeking.
Tags: animal behavior, pet chatter, poodle, Technorati Tags: animal communication