Pyr Furniture

Emi is welcome to pick where she wants to sit or lay, including whatever furniture is in the house. Kiah isn’t so much about the furniture I have but seems to have decided that Emi is her own personal easy chair. It’s hard to describe accurately how she saunters over, not a care on her face, until she is close to Emi. Then she just flops down right on top of her, many times sliding off Emi’s soft fur to tumble over on the other side. She will either straddle Emi, fully on top of her, or drape her front legs across her and wiggle herself comfortable. Many a time Kiah will look up at me and smile while Emi peers out from beneath a tangle of legs looking very much abused.

Emi is full grown at about 55 pounds. Watching Kiah’s antics, knowing she is expected to weigh upwards of 100 pounds, I can’t help but wonder how Emi will survive without being squshed if this behavior continues. From what I read, it is common for pyrs to lay down and allow small children and animals to use them as fluffy jungle gyms. I have grown up with Golden Retrievers and have used a fair share of them as my personal jungle gym/pillow/wrestling partner so the behavior is somewhat typical of goldens as well. I can’t tell at this point whether Kiah is “training” Emi but I suspect that it may just be two dogs getting more comfortable with each other as friends and allies. While I am still the preferred prize to sit close to or capture the attention of, more and more the two of them will seek out each other. They play together as normal dogs would, but they also snuggle as well as lay very close to each other as they groom, chew on bones or sleep.

The other thing that has changed since Kiah came to live here in April is the dining experience. I feed raw to both dogs and during Kiah’s first month or so of meals she would eat what she wanted, from her bowl or Emi’s, it didn’t seem to matter. Emi has never been food possessive and had no problem sharing. Recently though, Kiah has been licking her bowl clean and leaving the other untouched, sometimes even going so far as to ask for more in her bowl. A few times she has even waited on Emi to arrive before she started eating. They both drink out of the same bowl, quite often at the same time. A friend of mine was kind enough to make a raised feeder with three bowls and it works perfectly.