Newfie Playday

Yesterday we had our first Newfie playdate as a family of four. We drove to Lake Dardanelle to meet Ellen & Chuck along with their two Newfies, Bucca & Corena (who are three year old litter mates). We introduced the four Newfs in the backyard with all of them on leashes. I was being cautious and protective over Louis because he is so much smaller than everyone else, but everyone got along perfectly. Bucca and Corena were incredibly sweet and gracious hosts and accepted Katie and Louis immediately.

Soon Louis and Katie were off exploring the big fenced in yard. Louis, our water obsessed boy, quickly found a big tub of water that he stuck his head into followed by his front legs :-). Katie decided to check out Ellen's beautiful flowers.

All eight of us went into the house to cool off. It was fun to see the four Newfs all hanging out inside together. Katie made herself right at home by crawling under a very low coffee table. Ellen and Chuck said their Newfs had never done that and were concerned about how she was going to manage to get out. They didn't know that Katie is famous for squeezing her body into all kinds of tight spaces and gets out the same way she got in. It is amazing how she can crawl so low to the ground. Agility tunnels would be a breeze for her.

Here is what it looks like to have four Newfs in your kitchen :-)
From left to right: Louis, Katie, Bucca and Corena

Corena, was hanging in the background in the above photo, so here is a close up of her. She is a super sweetie which you can easily see in her gentle face.

This is what it looks like to have four HUNGRY Newfs in your kitchen

The humans had a fabulous lunch of gazpacho and salad with smoked salmon. Ellen and Chuck were so kind to make delicious vegetarian food to meet my dietary restrictions. Ellen is going to give me the recipe later and I will post it here because it was divine.

After lunch we went outside to take a few photos of the dogs before their swim.

Bucca and Katie take turns shaking hands. Chuck has trained his Newfs to shake with their right hands like humans do, but Gary trained Katie to shake with her special white foot which happens to be her left one.

Katie waits expectantly to see if anymore treats might be available.

Chuck says "Look my hands are empty". While the boys give him their best pitiful looks. I'm sure Katie, who's face is away from the camera would win the award for looking the most pitiful since she is the most food motivated dog I know.

Time for a little bit of frolicking....right before the camera started rolling Katie was playing with Louis. Our new Newf friends, Bucca and Corena, seemed to think Katie was getting too rough with her little brother and they jumped up simultaneously to his rescue. They had to give him a sniff to make sure he was ok and wagged their tails approvingly.


Most of the time at home Louis is the one to jump on top of Katie. She will just roll on her back and let him chew on her. But yesterday Katie was acting like a teenage sister who wants to pick on baby brother a bit (I think she was trying to show off for her new friends) and Bucca & Corena decided to take on the role of mom and dad. Ellen said they hadn't really been around puppies, but the two them instinctively knew that Louis was a youngster that needed to be watched and protected. It was very sweet to see...Bucca especially would check on Louis every time he barked. Bucca even let Louis play with some of his stuffies.

Katie, by far the most energetic of the four Newfs, gets a sudden burst of the crazies and runs toward the camera...ears and tongue flailing.


After all of the romping in the hot sun we all headed down to the lake to cool off. Louis wore his life jacket so that his waterlogged puppy fur wouldn't pull him under. Contrary to the fact that he is our water obsessed child, he didn't seem to care much for swimming. I think he wasn't fond of the life jacket, but there was no way he could swim without it. Once his adult coat comes in I predict Louis will love swimming.

Corena, Katie and Louis (the pouty one :-)

Katie was the one who really surprised us. She had been swimming a few times but had never ventured into water deeper than her shoulders of her own free will. We were beginning to wonder if she would ever enjoy the water, but she saw Bucca swim out and decided that swimming looked like fun. Once Katie started swimming Gary said she seemed to think she wanted to swim across the lake...thankfully she was on lead. At first she barely used her back legs, but after a few laps she became very relaxed in the water. Having Bucca there was such an inspiration to her. He is a very strong swimmer and obviously enjoys the water.

Here our New(f) friend, Bucca, shows Katie and Louis how to retrieve a bumper.


Our first playdate was so much fun for the Newfies and the humans. Many thanks to our gracious hosts and hostesses :-)

The Newfie Line Up: Louis, Katie, Bucca & Corena