Vanya meets Miss Plushy; falls in love

Vanya got to meet Miss Plushy yesterday, and today they had their second date. I think he's in love, or at least in lust.

Yesterday, he was behaving politely near her, so I let him off leash and gave him the "go say hi!" cue, which I also use with the chickens (and it means: sniff and wag, but no teeth). If Vanya had zoomed over and attacked Miss Plushy, I would have been worried. But instead, he bounded over, tail wagging, sniffed her mouth, then curved around and sniffed her bottom then her groin. He began to seem a little puzzled and came back to her mouth and started licking her muzzle. She fell over (what a nice submissive pup!) and he went back to sniffing her groin, then doing some play  bowing in front of her. Eventually, it seemed to occur to him that she was awfully unresponsive, so he started chewing her nose, and at that point I called him away. Then I moved Miss Plushy to new places around the farm, and every time I walked him back into sight of her, he got excited once again: A DOG! Woo Hoo! (Ok, maybe Vanya's not the sharpest knife in the drawer).

I was very reassured that his response to her was to greet her, not to attack her.

Today we went through the routine again. He once again got very, very excited to see her off in the orchard, and had a bit of a hard time heeling politely as we walked in her direction. When I released him to go greet her, he bounded over, tail wagging, and started licking her. So, he's not polite, but at least he's not too aggressive. Just frustrated. Today he decided to try humping her to see if she's wake up and start playing (the very first thing I've ever seen him try to hump). When that didn't work, he decided to chew her toes (ok, I have a pervert for a pup).

LAT with chickens, Miss Plushy part 2, village walk

SHAPING CALMNESS AROUND THE CHICKENS:
Yesterday Vanya did a very nice job being calm with the chickens. His main concern with the chickens right now is getting to eat their food scraps, of course, but he can still play LAT (even though at first he thought I must have been referring to a squirrel, so he scanned the woods for squirrels rather than looking at the hens). That's fine:

sept 2009: fight

Much to my dismay, Tiva and Vanya got into a fight over a package of raw chicken a guest put on the ground between them, and they each bit the other. The fight lasted maybe 10 seconds, and neither dog grabbed or held the other--it was all flashing teeth. But the teeth made contact, for the first time, and Tiva required stitches. (When my husband picked Tiva up and held her over his head, he thought Vanya's teeth got her as he pulled her away, leading to the rip. Who knows). They've had a few little snarks in the past, but they were all vocal displays and no bites. This was very upsetting.

 We were prepared to crate and rotate, since our farm is well set-up for it (two floors in a loft that can be separated with a baby gate), but I wanted to get them calm together again. This is what I did, and it has reduced their tensions enormously: