Interesting Weekend

we had to send chibi and sumo to a dog sitter this weekend (thurs through sunday). we usually use one of our friends who know the doggies, but since she was going to be with us this weekend, that wasnt going to work.

we were lucky enough to have our dog trainer (who also provides other services -- dog walking, dog sitting, etc.) available to watch them. she's known both doggies since they were puppies so we figured it was a win/win situation. she has a male golden retriever, which we figured would be good for the dogs (so in addition to each other, they have someone else to play with)

key learnings:

• sumo isnt quite as doggie social as chibi (not that he's anti-social, just not as anxious or enthusiastic about playing)
• chibi got in trouble a few times during the weekend for playing too rough/aggressively with the retriever (we always have suspected that our shibas play rougher than normal/happy play dogs. chibi and her brother tomo still go at each other pretty hard and loud everytime they meet, sumo and chibi are fairly aggressive in their play as well)
• chibi does have some food protection issues (which we have been noticing, but we usually dont have to deal with since we feed the dogs seperately across the room)
• both dogs are now famous for hating water/rain (our sitter noticed that they really acted like a bunch of pansies when it was time to pee/poop and it was raining outside)

like usual, when they got back 'home' with us, they pretty much slept the entire day and ate 2x their normal amounts (usually when we leave them, they dont rest much and they hardly eat).

it was nice getting to clean the house of most doggie fur, not have to worry about opening and closing doors with an eye to where they dogs were, and have some peace and quiet for the days they were gone. we're just as happy to have them back now too though.