Romeo was around 4.5 years old when we brought home Zuzu as a 6 week old puppy. While they had their rocky moments in their relationship, for the most part they were very good buddies and played well together.

Romeo would sometimes try to hump his sister Zuzu when they were playing.

Romeo was a rough player with a ton of energy, so he could be a handful to keep up with as a playmate.

He was perfectly capable of handicapping himself and adjusting his play to be very gentle. He didn't always choose to do that, but he was capable of it.

Zuzu learned quickly how to hold her own with a rowdy big brother. Eventually, she was larger than he was. As an adult she was weighed in the low 60's whereas he was only 45 pounds.

Sometimes Romeo would get a bit too rough in play, but Zuzu could hold her own and ward him off or outrun him. It's very hard when you are the big brother and your little sister can outrun you. So humiliating!

When they would race around our field as fast as they could go, Romeo could sometimes keep up for a couple of seconds but that was about it. Zuzu, being a Greyhound mix, was just faster. Once Zuzu hit her stride, there was no keeping up with her.

But mostly they loved to wrestle and play tug and roughhouse in the back yard or in the house.

Once in a while, when Romeo would get really worked up, he would try to hump Zuzu.

No, it was NOT him trying to be dominant. It was not a sexual thing.

It was play and overarousal. When he would get really wound up, and he could not quite figure out what to do with himself, he would try to hump her.

Zuzu, being the savvy street-smart dog that she was, figured out just the right way to handle Romeo when that happened.

Did she get mad and try to bite him? No.

Did she try to run away from him? No.

Did she sit there and put up with it? Heck no!

What did she do? She sat down.

Every time he would try to hump her, she would just sit down. It's really hard to hump someone when they sit down. Took the wind out of his sails and redirected him every single time.

She was quite adept at training him NOT to hump her. It literally never accomplished anything other than ending all the fun.

She figured out exactly how to redirect him without making a big deal out of it or potentially escalating the situation.

In that particular situation, Zuzu was far more effective at training Romeo than I ever could have been.

Good girl, Zuzu!

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