So what does Ben think of Genevieve?

While we were all still in hospital, I was ducking home each day (generally around 10:30 or so) to give the Benno a walk and a feed (and a bit of a scratch too).

Each day, I meant to bring some of Genevieve's clothing home, so that Ben could have sniff. I didn't manage to remember this until the 3rd day (even though I had it in a bag, ready to go). On Ben's first sniff of Gen's stuff he was pretty interested... giving it a pretty decent sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff.

The next day, I managed to remember to bring something else. This time, he gave it a cursory sniff, and then felt that lying on his bed was the better option. This was the reaction that we thought he'd have. Initial interest, but then afterwards, oh... OK... so that's how it is then.

When we brought Genevieve home, we had her in the house for about half a day before we brought Ben in. When we did, we make sure we had his collar and just gently led him up the hall (his norm is to bound down at a fair clip). He didn't really notice her at first (she was resting in her crib) and went straight down to plonk on his bed. When she let out a sigh, or a wheeze, or a squeak, or one other of the many noises she has, Ben slowly got up and wandered over. He had a quick sniff and you noticed the look of recognition in his face, looked at the both of us and then plonked back down on his bed.

Now, the only time he really has an interest in her is when she is crying. Now I may be wrong here, but it appears that he is genuinely concerned for her welfare and he has this look of worry on his face. We reassure him that everything is OK and he (you can probably guess by now) plonks back onto his bed.

The morning after Genevieve came home, her waking and feeding in the morning coincided with the time we normally take Ben for a quick walk in the park next to our place. So we thought we may as well do this, with Gen as well, so that Ben realises that she will be a part of his routine life. So the photo (above), shows a very tired me with Ben and Gen on that first walk (it wasn't really that dark - but the camera's flash makes it appear so).

An interesting outcome of this is that when we have Genevieve in tow, when Ben is playing with his 'friends' in the park, he is not any more aggressive per se, but he does let out a low growl at times when running around with them. Again, we're no 'dog whisperer', but we think that just him exerting a little dominance amongst the pack to protect Genevieve. He had never done it before.

So, he's never in the room with Genevieve without supervision, but we're pretty happy that he's quite OK with her being around.