The Anti-Murphy

Perhaps the most entertaining part of this first week here is watching the dogs get used to each other. My parents have a black lab/border collie mix named Maggie, who is cute as hell, but none of us realized the extent of her border collie instincts until she met Murphy, the most docile and passive dog in the world. They get along great but are total opposites, and Maggie spends most of her time herding Murphy. My poor dog has spent most of the past week either trapped on the landing between the downstairs and upstairs, or pushed up agains the wall in the living room. Maggie seems to think they're only playing, since her tail wags like crazy the whole time. And actually, Murphy seems cool with it most of the time, too, as his tail wags constantly and he is being more playful than ever before. But Maggie is also bent on proving her dominance, though what she doesn't realize is that Murphy is perfectly cool with her being the dominant one of the pack. He has no desire to be top dog and has never shown the smallest amount of dominance toward any other dog or human. Well, I think Maggie's still pissed at him for peeing in her favorite spot in the grass. And who could blame her? That's just totally uncool.


This is Maggie. She's so cute.

Check out Maggie trying to get Murphy to play:

Murphy tells Maggie to step back:

It's fun to watch, but I make sure Murphy also gets plenty of time in our room with the door shut, so he can rest without contending with Maggie's never-ending energy. In fact, right now, he's on the floor next to me snoring like an old man, while Maggie is on the floor just outside our door, waiting for Murphy to come play. I'll have to tell her that Murphy has to stay in for the night and will come play with her in the morning.