Coco Wrestling with Chihuahua

Here is a video of Coco playing with my sons' Chihuahua. They have become best friends. The Chihuahua can take a bone right out of Coco's mouth. Coco is so gentle with him. And he is adorable.

We took our time introducing them. In the beginning no bones, toys or food was left on the floor. After they got used to each other I started with a water bowl. Gradually, after staying over at the house and lots of walks together I could tell their relationship had grown. They were playful and napped together. So I put Coco on a leash for safety reasons and allowed each of them to chew on their rawhide bones in peace. In a couple of days they were okay with chewing on bones around and near each other. Now they can chew on their favorite bones in either one's house and the Chihuahua even takes bones out of Coco's mouth!

I thought by training Coco to greet dogs the way she greets people she would understand that was how I wanted her to approach dogs. This has worked really well. It is a slow process. The pace I take with her is based on how at ease she is as she is getting used to having dogs in her house and sleeping on her bed or chewing her bones and at how relaxed her posture is and her attention is when she is visiting one of her friends in their house.

We watched a Lhasa Apso a couple of months ago and we went through the same process and by the second or third day they were completely relaxed, playful and napping together. The Lhasa was also a female. There were no problems.

Coco has similar relationships with several other dogs including a Lhasa Apso that lives next door, a Newfoundland and a Cane Corso Mastiff. This video captures the gentleness she demonstrates when she plays with the Chihuahua. When she plays with the big dogs they run with all the speed they can and jump in the air and body slam each other!

Mad Dog Chihuahua and Coco

We had a guest this week. My son's Chihuahua. He and Coco have become the best of friends. I took the introduction phase very slowly. Feeding them separately, walking them separately and not showing much affection to either one while they were getting to know each other. I made sure all toys were put away. This is Mad Dog's third visit with us and now even the dog food can stay down. The dingbats play with any and all of Coco's toys. Often at opposite ends of the same rawhide bone.

Walking them is easy now. I feel like I'm guiding a pair of donkeys. Coco on my left and Mad Dog on my right. They have a blast going for walks. And napping together too.

Here are a few pictures of one of their play wrestling matches.

When Coco and Mr. Peepers were getting to know each other Peepers would run around her. He was relentless and never stopped. After awhile Coco wanted him to stop so she gently put her paw on him. This didn't slow him down much. He knew she was playing but he wanted her to get up so he started swinging his butt around in front of her face. Naturally, she held his tail for a few seconds. The first time this happened Peepers had this holy moly moment. But when he realized she wasn't going to kill him this became his initiation to get her to play with him.

While Mr. Peepers was still visiting, he and Coco were in the back yard. They were having a great time running around the yard. Then Coco started ducking her tail under and running from him. Looking back to make sure he was chasing her. And then it got hysterical. Mr. Peepers looked behind him to see who was chasing both of them. Coco repeated this running around and darting at him and then running away from him like mad until he figured out she was running from him. Then he started having a blast.

Every time she chased him and then darted away from him, he was quiet. And every time he chased her he was screaming bloody murder! I was laughing and watching this play when two of my neighbors came over to our gate. I assured them the dogs were okay and just playing. And thanked them for checking to make sure. They said it sounded like the little guy was being eaten!

When I told my son this story he said that Peepers always does this when he is playing with big dogs. He told me about a time when Peepers was playing with a neighbor's big dog and he was making a lot of noise. Another of his neighbors looked out the window to see what was going on. And she saw the dogs playing.

Her kids however, were crying because they were sure that the little dog was being eaten. She kept trying to get them to look out the window to see for themselves that the dogs were just playing. But they were so convinced he was getting killed they wouldn't go to the window to see. So she closed the window. Later the kids were quite relieved to see Mr. Peepers outside with all fours and his tail and head intact.

What I do now is if Mr. Peepers and Coco are playing the chase me game and he starts to scream-yipe-bark like Chihuahuas some times do, the play is over and we come inside. But it is funny to watch these goofballs playing tag especially, when Coco runs from Mr. Peepers.