puppies and middle-aged dogs

It's six years since I posted a photo of Penny racing eagerly around the garden while her old friend Bonnie mooched slowly around, ignoring Penny's antics.

How times have changed!

Now Penny is the older (NOT old...) dog showing an enthusiastic puppy what dogdom is all about. Yesterday early in the morning, before the heat of the day, we met friends with their puppy, Pebbles, and ambled around Westerfolds Park.

Penny, as the senior of the pair, ignored Pebbles. Pebbles took one look at the giant getting out of the other car and raced back to her humans for protection. However, as we walked along, Pebbles was more and more fascinated by Penny, but thought it would be a good idea to drop belly down if Penny seemed to be turning back to look at her.

She also took the precaution at first of making sure one of her humans was between her and the monster dog.

On the other hand, Penny's tail was mightily interesting. The humans were murmuring, 'Not the tail, Pebbles, not the tail,' as  the puppy got closer and closer to the waving, feathery thing.

Fortunately, Penny's patience was not put to the test. Perhaps Pebbles has good instincts about how to behave around other dogs.

On the other hand, when Penny was walking near the cars, and I put her lead on, the temptation was too great...

'What's this thing holding me back?' Penny seemed to be thinking.