Dear Reader,
Dog and Pony have been resident with me and LandLady for 4 weeks now. The local dog trainer asked me yesterday if we were bonding. My ability to read dog body language is still weak, so it may be...or not.
We are having some long heart to heart chats. This one happened in the car on the way home from her stay at the boarding kennel last weekend.
"Dog?"
Dog, in the back seat of the car, whines.
"Dog it's very important that you listen to me."
Dog turns to stare out the window.
"Dog, I don't have to keep you, you know. I can send you back. If you want to live with me we need to come to an understanding."
Dog turns to stare out the other window.
"There can't be any more gate jumping. No more sticking your tongue in the peanut butter jar. Less restless pacing."
More whining.
"And you owe LandLady an apology for taking her toast."
Dog lays down, rests her head on the seat protector and looks at me in the rearview mirror with an expression of submission (or boredom, it's hard to be sure).
A week later, I can assure you Dog is calling my bluff about sending her back. There has been an increase in gate jumping. I have even borrowed a taller baby gate system from a friend which Dog jumps with ease without so much as a running start. While this is extremely frustrating since I have good reason to want to keep Dog out of the kitchen, it is also beautiful to watch how effortlessly she does this.
Today, in an attempt to help both Dog and Pony work out their afternoon "zoomies", LandLady and I took Dog and Pony to the dog park. We were the only ones there, so we went into the big dog enclosure and turned them loose. Both were delighted, but we could tell almost immediately why Dog had been on the track longer than Pony; after a brief sprint, he began a long, slow, sniffing investigation of the enclosure, while Dog galloped the circumference of the enclosure, took a break to sniff around, and then did a second full out lap, all with an expression of pure joy on her face.
And then without being called and with her foamy tongue lolling out, Dog came up behind me and calmly began to follow me around the enclosure. "Awww." I thought. "That's my dog."
When we got home, there was still an hour before Dog's suppertime, but Pony was getting his dinner early. Dog did everything she could to convince me she should have hers too, but because she ran harder than Pony did, I denied her request even after she paced and whined and got into her crate unasked and laid down and jumped on the couch ... and... and...
And then I turned my back and Dog was over the gate, onto the porch, pushing past LandLady and Pony to dive headlong into Pony's (re-located) crate. Whether she hoped to steal Pony's dinner or to receive her own, I don't know. But in the kerfluffle, she let out a cry of pain and LandLady let out a cry for me. Pony's dinner was delayed as he was banned from the porch and Dog was checked for signs of blood or other injuries. There was nothing obvious (to an inexperienced owner like me) wrong with her, and I decided perhaps it would be a good time to practice her "down stay" which means she gets a lot of dog food for laying down on her blanket and staying put. And, like an over tired toddler, it wasn't long before she fell asleep.
Sigh. That's my dog.
~~ LeAn
Dog and Pony have been resident with me and LandLady for 4 weeks now. The local dog trainer asked me yesterday if we were bonding. My ability to read dog body language is still weak, so it may be...or not.
We are having some long heart to heart chats. This one happened in the car on the way home from her stay at the boarding kennel last weekend.
"Dog?"
Dog, in the back seat of the car, whines.
"Dog it's very important that you listen to me."
Dog turns to stare out the window.
"Dog, I don't have to keep you, you know. I can send you back. If you want to live with me we need to come to an understanding."
Dog turns to stare out the other window.
"There can't be any more gate jumping. No more sticking your tongue in the peanut butter jar. Less restless pacing."
More whining.
"And you owe LandLady an apology for taking her toast."
Dog lays down, rests her head on the seat protector and looks at me in the rearview mirror with an expression of submission (or boredom, it's hard to be sure).
A week later, I can assure you Dog is calling my bluff about sending her back. There has been an increase in gate jumping. I have even borrowed a taller baby gate system from a friend which Dog jumps with ease without so much as a running start. While this is extremely frustrating since I have good reason to want to keep Dog out of the kitchen, it is also beautiful to watch how effortlessly she does this.
Today, in an attempt to help both Dog and Pony work out their afternoon "zoomies", LandLady and I took Dog and Pony to the dog park. We were the only ones there, so we went into the big dog enclosure and turned them loose. Both were delighted, but we could tell almost immediately why Dog had been on the track longer than Pony; after a brief sprint, he began a long, slow, sniffing investigation of the enclosure, while Dog galloped the circumference of the enclosure, took a break to sniff around, and then did a second full out lap, all with an expression of pure joy on her face.
And then without being called and with her foamy tongue lolling out, Dog came up behind me and calmly began to follow me around the enclosure. "Awww." I thought. "That's my dog."
When we got home, there was still an hour before Dog's suppertime, but Pony was getting his dinner early. Dog did everything she could to convince me she should have hers too, but because she ran harder than Pony did, I denied her request even after she paced and whined and got into her crate unasked and laid down and jumped on the couch ... and... and...
And then I turned my back and Dog was over the gate, onto the porch, pushing past LandLady and Pony to dive headlong into Pony's (re-located) crate. Whether she hoped to steal Pony's dinner or to receive her own, I don't know. But in the kerfluffle, she let out a cry of pain and LandLady let out a cry for me. Pony's dinner was delayed as he was banned from the porch and Dog was checked for signs of blood or other injuries. There was nothing obvious (to an inexperienced owner like me) wrong with her, and I decided perhaps it would be a good time to practice her "down stay" which means she gets a lot of dog food for laying down on her blanket and staying put. And, like an over tired toddler, it wasn't long before she fell asleep.
Sigh. That's my dog.
~~ LeAn
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