Panya
- Gender: female
- Birthdate: 02.04.2014
- Origin: WSC
- Meaning of her name (Swahili): rat
Her title “little princess” refers to both - her appearance and her behaviour. With her tall, slender figure and her white fur colour she is one of the most beautiful dogs we have. But also her behaviour would be classed “princess-like” by a lot of people. She doesn’t like to sit in the dirt and if she does not want to do something, she is not easily convinced to do it. We need all our patience to make her cooperate in that case.
... appearance
As she is the only white dog in her pack, she can be easily distinguished from the others. She has only some small brown spots on her back and in her face, which can’t be seen from afar so she seems totally white. Like her siblings, she has big ears, long legs and a long tail.
... with conspecifics
She knows exactly how far she can go with her packmates. When it comes to annoying her brother, she always joins in. When being close to Zuri, however, she knows how to behave and respects that Zuri ranks above her. Zuri always dominates Panya so when they are standing close together, it can happen that Panya crouches down, so she does not receive a muzzle bite.
Panya, her brother Enzi and their mother Layla like to play quite rough. They make a “victim” out of someone so their play sometimes doesn’t really look like play any more.
… when learning and in interaction with us
Panya loves known humans and nearly freaks out when they visit her in her enclosure. Wild, high barks and loud whines can be heard all over the game park and it can take some minutes until she calms down again. Additionally she bounces up and down like a rubber ball while making these sounds. As soons as she has calmed down, she loves to cuddle.
It depends on her mood, how well she performs in tests. If she can focus, she scores very high. When she is in a bad mood and hence not concentrated, she performs very bad. If she feels insecure in addition, she can be hardly convinced to join the test.
... with strangers and unknown objects
With strangers, she is insecure in the beginning. People have to gain her trust first. If tall, male students visit her, it can happen that she barks at them and does not approach them. Once, she has gotten to know you, however, she is very trusting and loves to sit on people’s laps.
She also keeps her distance to unknown objects in the beginning. She runs in circles around the object, until she finds the courage to approach. This does not mean, however, that this starts all over when she is confronted with the object again some days later.
... in puppy age
When she was born, Panya was nearly completely white. When her eyes were still closed and her face was crumpled, she reminded us a bit of a white mouse - this is why she was called “Panya”, which means “little mouse”. She developed quickly into a very beautiful dog, which felt comfortable in her pack. In comparison to the others from her litter, she needed some more time to get used to unknown situations and new things.