Maggie’s Behaviour, the Shelter Dogs Join in, Free Play Moments

Between the more intense activities like lure coursing and Swiss ball, there’s a lot of free play time. In the big paddock, in the playground, the dam and in the big pool.

During this time there’s lots of lovely moments between the dogs but there’s also opportunities to join in for the less socialised dogs in our care.

Maggie joined the pack during this time and we got to see where Maggie is struggling socially.

She is clearly a very happy girl. So so happy it’s just beautiful. A lot like how blissful Miss Violet is.

But her intensity and also her inquisition of dogs that are not similar to her in play style and energy can only really come across as rude, that’s if you are the dog receiving the attention from Maggie.

To be honest she annoyed a number of dogs. To the point they were very politely telling her off. And this is where the danger for Maggie lies. If she were to do this to a dog that wasn’t so highly socialised and tolerant, it would not end well for Maggie.

Take Chance for example. Chance the American Bulldog who is one of the shelter dogs here for training. The intense nippy prodding until she gets a reaction most definitely got a reaction out of Chance. And you can imagine, the many other dogs Maggie would come across that would react similarly.

We can now see why she was not able to be walked or socialised out by the foster carer.

She is so very sweet and someone has just not put in the time with Maggie to socialise her properly and then they’ve given up on her entirely. It’s sad because now the workload for someone to manage this along with her being deaf is quite a lot.

But her happiness is infectious and she’s definitely a very very special girl.