Vivre can't howl

Poor Vivre, it really is so embarrassing. When the dogs are outside and the wolves start to howl the dogs will join in. Yoda is a GSD/Siberian cross. Thanks to his Sibe heritage he can howl beautifully. Even Apollo, the golden (?) cross can howl. Not a pretty howl, but he can howl. Vivre... not so much. Everyone is howling and Vivre is yipping. Over and over again. These little high pitched yips. Thankfully Vivre is blissfully unaware of how pathetic she sounds in contrast to the beautiful howls of the wolves. I am hoping that one day she learns to howl, preferably before she becomes aware of how sounds.

On a totally different note she totally shocked me the other day. Cold weather has sparked Yoda's energy level. At twelve his activity level is usually confined to short burst. I think having Vivre has been good for him because it has kept him active and for a twelve year old GSD he is still very mobile. Lately he has started play fetch. Something quite hard to do with Vivre around as she is so much faster than he is and will always get the toy first. I have started putting Vivre outside or in the crate while we play. Typically this upsets Vivre quite a bit she wants to play. So when I let her out and throw the toy for her she grabs it and runs around the house squeaking it ceaselessly. I can practically hear her mentally going "Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine," in time with the squeaks. She lays on the bed and squeaks it some more then launches herself to the floor and starts the circling all over again. The shock came yesterday morning. Yoda brought me the toy and instead of putting Vivre up I just started tossing it in a way where Vivre couldn't get to it first due to position and the lay out of the furniture. However when I turned to throw it the other way she actually stood still and let Yoda get it. She never stays still in the face of thrown objects and certainly never lets another get the toy.

I am sure she will return to her normal level of selfishness and I have no doubt that it will never happen again, but it does give me hope that she is growing up a little and I may actually be able to throw a dumbbell and have her wait until I send her to go get it.