Shio @ BBQ

J and I hosted a BBQ yesterday with 30 of our closest friends and family. Overall, the BBQ was a great success and most of the food was finished by the end of the day. To keep my 10 year old niece entertained during the BBQ, we had her watch Shio. She was very good about not letting Shio do things he wasn't supposed to do and Shio was very good about dragging her around the whole party. By the end of the night, Shio was happy to be able to run around for hours and meet new friends and full from picking up scraps from the floor. My niece also managed to feed him a full tray of his favorite treat (broccoli) during this time, resulting in very green poop last night.

[Picture courtesy of KiMickey]

Shio and Children

I've always been a Nervous Nellie when it comes to having Shio around children. Some parents understand and have had dogs while others are very nervous around them. When Shio first came home with us, we only allowed him near kids who were not afraid of dogs (as long as their parent were okay with it.) Each time that he approached a child, we would have them give him a treat so he would think that they were living treat dispensers. During that time, Shio was very intrigued by these little creatures.

After exposing him to a number of kids, he started viewing them as little human playmates and took their shrieking and running as an invitation to play. He also learned that he should sit and stay children who want to pet him but were also afraid of him.

I'm proud to say that he behaved like a model canine while I was babysitting my friend's son! Little G loves "doggies" and was very comfortable around Shio. They played with each other's toys and tried to eat each other's snacks during their two hours together. Little G and Shio are the two cutest elements in the world combined to create an unstoppable force that makes everyone stop on the streets all say, "Aww..."