Daytime vs Night

Interesting observation occurred last night.....I decided to let 7 of my dogs out to play last night in the yard since the weather was so warm and I could be out there to monitor things.......normally I would only let 2 or 3 of them out at the same time because as a large group they can get into trouble......barking too loud if someone walks by on the pavement or they see another dog etc etc...Well I decided to let Maroo out to play with the gang also.......He absolutely loved it! He was running and chasing the other guys as they formed their famous tail chasing train around and around in a huge circle trying to catch the dog the tail of the dog in front of them........too funny to watch! He joined in this game without and trouble and my guys welcomed him into the game without any problem....My Adam and him seemed to hit it off the best. Since Adam is twice his size, Maroo was jumping on top of him like a circus dog.....both of them doing the traditional play bow with their front legs stretched out.....too cute! Well this play continued for about 20 minutes before I brought everyone back inside to the family room for the night.

This morning once the sun came up I let Maroo out to do his morning business and to give him a chance to run with the other dogs and it was like a completely different dog then the night before......He was not as nervous as he has been in the first two days I had him but he was very skittish and seemed to want to come back into the house very quickly......he would run out to the yard and then back up onto the deck.......back and forth and back and forth......not interacting with any of my other dogs who were also out in the yard this morning......Then it it dawned on me that because the night before it was dark outside, very little traffic passing my house, very little activity in the neighborhood.......he did not have anything to frighten him........Once daylight was here and he could see the big wide world in front of him he still had issues with what he was seeing......just too much for his little soul to handle.......He has made progress from day in many ways but I can clearly see that he still has miles to go to build up his confidence. Hopefully with time and lots of love and patience this will occur in him......But for now it was an interesting observation.......Daytime vs Night in Maroo's head can be a scary thing.......I will continue to encourage him, this is all I can do right now.