Simba gets a playmate

When I got my first Lhasa Apso dog the intention was to get a pet for myself but then he turned out to have an excellent lineage being a purebred with champions in his family tree. That got me interested in dog shows and I even entered Simba in his first ever show when he was almost 1-year-old. He won a reserved CC which showed promise for the future. I wasn't really very serious about showing at the time as it meant lots of travelling with your dog to dog shows around the country.

Meanwhile Simba grew up with a few terrible incidents which scarred him psychologically. There weren't any pups of his age for him to be socialized with and a friend's older dog wasn't interested in the 3-month-old pup getting frisky. So his initial interactions with other dogs were confusing, to say the least. When he was about 8-months-old he was attacked by two vicious street dogs outside his Vet's clinic when I feared for his life. We were completely taken by surprise with one dog behind him and the other right in front of him, having appeared from out of nowhere and trapped us between parked vehicles.

The first attack came from behind when the dog grabbed a mouthful of Simba's hair while the second dog prepared to go for the neck. Simba could only save himself by snapping off his lead and instinctively streaking across the road into the medical shop. Thankfully there were pedestrians who reacted sharply to stop the traffic and Simba was able to get away safely. Though not bitten, this incident taught him to be wary of unleashed dogs. In fact, he withdrew from most dogs after this incident and till date doesn't like being surprised with a touch on his rump.

By the time Simba was almost 2-years-old I realized that he needed a doggy friend because he was becoming too 'humanized'  and unfortunately took to hating street dogs so much so that taking him for walks down the street was becoming difficult. The only other dog he had befriended was his trainer/groomer's Lhasa female and when I heard that a pup was available from her parents I decided to make an addition to our family. Enter Lasya, a 8-weeks-old lively Lhasa Apso female pup.

Little Lasya was everything that Simba needed - a playful bundle of mischief :) But he wasn't prepared to accept that. The poor guy sobbed in my lap for the first two days because I'd brought a dreaded 'four-legged creature' into his home. But this little lady had him dancing to her tunes within fifteen days - for the first week he stayed out of sight, then he began playing peekaboo from around the door. In the second week Simba took cautious steps toward Lasya, backing away if she leapt at him. All this while she kept crying for him non-stop. Two weeks up, Simba came and bowed his head in front of Lasya, as if surrendering to her. Of course, Lasya was looking for her mother here which means she was heading for the non-existing milkbar!

I was warned by the Vet to watch out for food fights but these two insist on sharing food with each other. They switch bowls in tandem and if one of them has to be put on a different diet then I've had it... they show me exactly how discrimination is not acceptable.

Simba got a playmate in Lasya who gave him back his puppyhood and the two are now simply inseparable.

Making a beginning

So here we are with the first post finally being put down on a rainy afternoon. I have to admit it took a lot of 'thinking about' to get to this point, although I know that there is a lot we'd like to share with our readers. I'm the writer but this blog is truly authored by the subject - my Lhasa Apso dogs. Just one wasn't enough for me so I had to get them to multiply of course! But  I still have to introduce my babies to you, so beginning with the first who special for obvious reasons - Simba. His name is really Simha but as a pup he became so popular with the children in my locality that he could be nothing else but Simba the Lion King. Seriously, I've had kids from the end of the lane calling out to him while we're taking a walk!

Growing up with pets at home is not the same thing as getting a pet on your own; they come with a tremendous amount of responsibility. While I was mentally prepared for this I was also working long hours and wasn't sure if it was a good idea to leave the pet alone at home. And yet, I was fixated on the Pekingese breed as my very first puppy as a teenager was a Peke/Pom mix and at the back of my mind I was really looking to replace her in my life. I researched dog breeds on the Internet with the intention of understanding Pekes better and that's when I came across the Lhasa Apso - and instantly fell in love. It took me about three months to make up my mind, since I really would have to leave the baby alone while I was at work.

Then began the search for a dog breeder who could provide me with a Lhasa pup. I have to say, my first experience with a breeder left me wary for quite a while. I'd asked for an 8-weeks-old female pup  having researched that this was the right age for it to be separated from the mother or dam. First of all, I got a male pup which the breeder told me was 7-weeks-old and he convinced me that a week really didn't make that much difference. As for the gender, apparently he had misheard and then he urged me to take a look at the pup, swearing that I'd fall in love. Naturally he didn't want to lose out on a buyer and of course I would fall in love. Who wouldn't fall in love with a furry little pup who stepped out of his carrier with a sleepy yawn and then stepped on your toes to pee!

He's going to be 5-years-old on 31st August, which is pretty young for a Lhasa as they're known to live longer than other dog breeds. How Simba and I fared in the first three months is a story for another day...