Gael has fit back in admirably with the springers, who are a tight little family pack (and remember we’re all stuffed into two back rooms while my house is on the market). While some credit might go to the springers, I’d say most goes to Gael who, like my past Gordon, Vita, is showing remarkable ability to read doggie language and ease her way back into the pack. As Vita matured, she showed amazing abilities in reading other dogs, defusing aggressive dog behavior and making fearful dogs feel at ease. It also meant she was capable of subtle dominance moves that didn’t at all look like dominance, but in truth were, usually to claim a space or a person.
Gael has a ways to go to reach maturity, since setters don’t really mature until they’re 4 or 5. But I’m seeing clever little moves so far. She’s managed to transform to grown-up-dog-sleeping-out-of-her-crate status ever since she came back. She achieved this by quietly claiming the dog bed at about 8am that first night, and simply not moving until morning:
The next miracle happened this morning in the bedroom. I was working in the other room, and heard lots of bouncing and barking, which meant everyone was playing. When things got quiet, I peeked around the corner:
This photo might not look like anything unusual, but you need to know that Reardon is Lord of the Bed, and he can be a bit of a butthead with the other dogs on the bed without his say-so. This is the first time I’ve seen Gael share the bed with him. I’m certain that if he turned around to look at her, she would don her invisible Gordon cloak and pretend she simply wasn’t there. It’s these quiet little insinuations into the adult dog privileges of the household that I’m finding so fascinating right now. And Gordons seem to know how to do this better than any other breed. Other breeds bulldoze in or take the submission route. Gordons sidle in with a kind of intuitive subtlety unlike any other dogs….
The Spaniel Annals 
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