It was a sunny weekend afternoon. NiceLady had Millie out in the play yard for some off-leash exercise. Millie was being good and just wandering around sniffing things.
Millie
Suddenly someone pretty close by fired off several rapid rounds with a large caliber gun, “BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG”
Millie shot across the yard and into the dog cabin with a thump.
It is not unusual for Millie to play in the cabin, so Lady did not think too much of it as she sat in a sling-chair up on the walkway. But after a few minutes when Millie did not emerge and there were so scrabbling sounds of Millie scratching the shred paper used as bedding in there, she became concerned.
Lady went to the dog cabin and called Millie.
No sound. No indication she was even in there.
She called again and added, “Want a cookie?”, which is always an enticement.
Nothing!
The roof of the cabin is hinged so it can be swung up to clean inside or make repairs. Lady opened the roof and found Millie curled up in a tight ball with big eyes in the corner farthest from the door.
Poor Millie!
She is a Plott hound, and Plotts are known to be great hunting dogs. But THIS Plott don’t hunt … unless maybe you’re using bow and arrow.
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Before Millie had her heartworm treatments, Tinker and Millie were frequent playmates. Millie likes to play rough-n-tumble. Jasper was a great playmate for her, but Jasper has moved on. Blondie has not been fond of rough play since a foster snagged her eyelid and tore it, requiring surgery to repair it (and weeks in a cone collar). I don’t do rough play. That’s kid stuff. But Tinker likes to play, and he has been good with Millie.
Tinker is twice her size, but he does not abuse that, and neither of them get combative in play as some dogs do. When play turns to a fight it can get bloody fast. Tinker does growl when he plays. We don’t like that and are discouraging it. But some dogs are into trash-talking when they play and it’s hard to get them to stop.
Most of our foster dogs don’t like being penned and use every trick in the book to slip out every chance they get. Sometimes they play on the People’s sympathy, sometimes they use subterfuge, sometimes they attempt brute force. Not Tinker: he likes his “room”. He especially likes that Coolaroo and spent most of his time lounging on it his first day or two here.
Nearly all the foster dogs who were house-trained while here, came inside with the idea in their head that being allowed inside meant they could do anything they like, any time they like. Life for a house-dog is one big party. I’m pretty sure it’s Blondie who tells them this, but none have ratted her out yet.
We have to clamp down on that idea with heavy restrictions like being crated except for short, closely supervised “play periods” until they learn the rules. As they learn, we allow them more and more freedom until they are full-time, free-ranging house dogs like Blondie and I. When they break a rule, they go back a step.
Tinker is an exception. Tinker is an older dog (around 8 years) and was a house dog before being surrendered (aka “booted out”) by his family. We have found him to be quite calm and responsible. We actually have to encourage him to loosen up and have some fun. He IS allowed to sleep on the dog beds. He IS allowed to play with us (when we want to). He IS allowed to come into the house (or go outside) when he wants to. Blondie taught him to scratch on the metal part of the storm door when he wants in. He’s done that a couple of times, but mostly he just sits next to the door and waits for someone to notice him. I feel sorry for him sometimes.
This morning Tinker went outside to take care of business. NiceLady was asleep. HairyFace was in the den working at his button-thingie. I trotted into the room and started talking to him, “Rowr, rar, rar, rouf” and went toward the door.
Hairy said, “You want to go out, Chief?” (He sometimes calls me Chief) and followed me through the laundry room to the door.
Tinker was standing outside peering in.
“Oh, Tinker’s back.” observed the brilliant and deductive HairyFace. He opened the door.
My job done, I spun around and left.
Tinker said, “Thanks, Cochise, I was getting cold out there.”
Peoples can be so oblivious.
In the time he’s been here he has come out of his shell and is becoming a lot of fun. But we’ve never had to scold him for going counter-cruising, or getting on the people furniture. He considers carpeting ‘off-limits”. He is just now accepting that we have furniture of our own that he can rest on. He’s not fond of being crated, but when told to go “in his room” he does and is calm and quiet all night long. He is bright and obedient.
While food is being prepared he sits quietly and watches. He is interested, he is eager, but he stays out of the way and lets the Peoples get the food ready. He even keeps Millie company while they wait. Most newbies are underfoot hoping that something will get dropped. He already has a place at the table at meal times.
He eats slowly and in small amounts. Hairy worries that Tinker isn’t getting enough to eat and puts extra stuff like shredded cheese or chicken broth in his kibbles to encourage him to eat more. (I wonder why I didn’t think of that.) When he’s done, Tinker never tries to raid our dishes. He may sniff up at the table, but never tries to go after anything.
In short, there’s not much Blondie and I can teach him that he doesn’t already know. In fact, he taught us something new the other day.
How’s that for a role (roll?) reversal?
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We had a visit early this morning from a black & tan hunting dog. Blondie Bear and I heard him out front of the house and went into full-alert mode. HairyFace was in the process of fixing breakfast, so NiceLady went out to greet our visitor. When she opened our gate and tried to coax him in, he trotted the other way. But when she left the gate open and pretended to ignore him, he decided to investigate the play yard and go say “hey” to Millie and Jasper, who were in their pens.
He had a collar and tags, so she figured he was just a little lost (or out on a spree).
There was a phone number on his collar, so my Peoples called his Peoples and let them know where their wayward boy was. It wasn’t long before a truck pulled up our drive and a fella we didn’t know got out. He and Hairy chatted for a bit.
Our visitor’s name was Duke, and it turns out he’s deaf. He and his brother Houdini often go hunting together and as long as they stay together all is well. Houdini lets Duke know when it’s time to go back to the truck for the ride home. If they get separated, Duke can’t hear the recall signal and wanders off. Then the hunter has to hunt his hunting dog!
Duke had gone missing from his home the evening before and run around all night. He was hungry that morning and looking for a meal. Jasper and Millie had just eaten and Hairy was cooking bacon, eggs, and taters. Our house must have seemed like a likely spot to snag some breakfast! Hairy discovered quickly that Duke knows how to open gate latches: clever boy!
Duke was a friendly, well behaved fellow and the peoples enjoyed his visit. Millie and Jasper really wanted to play. Blondie too, for that matter. But the peoples kept us away from him because they didn’t know him and didn’t want anyone to get hurt.
We probably won’t see Duke again, but if he does get away some night, he knows where to find some friendly faces.
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It was a pleasant late-summer morning and early enough in the day to still be cool. HairyFace and Jasper worked the garden while Blondie Bear snoozed in the cabin. Lulu looked on from her pen. She wanted to be outside, but Jasper still spooked her: he’s a little too enthusiastic for her tastes. Me? I was attending important business inside the house: I was making sure the snuggle-beds didn’t escape and run off while everyone else was goofing off outside.
Jasper likes working the garden with Hairy and will raise a fuss if Hairy heads down to the barn without him. Jasper feels it’s his DUTY to help (and he likes to eat cherry tomatoes).
They spent quite a while watering, and weeding, and harvesting. When it was all done, HairyFace took his basket of produce and headed to the house. But Jasper had other ideas.
Jasper came galloping past Hairy and stood in his way, holding the pinkie-ball in his mouth and looking hopeful.
“Ohhhh, you’d like to play some fetch before we go inside?”
Jasper dropped the ball and it rolled down the hill almost to Hairy’s feet. Hairy set the basket of garden goodies on the roof of the cabin (where Blondie Bear was still snoozing). And picked up the ball. Jasper got set to run.
Hairy tossed the ball out along side the walkway, Jasper tore out after it. He snagged the ball as it rolled down the hill, tossed it in the air, caught it, tossed it again, pounced on the ball when it hit the ground. Finally he grabbed the ball and came running back to where Hairy waited for him. He dropped the ball at Hairy’s feet and Hairy tossed it again. More antics, then the return. This time Jasper added a new twist to the game.
They played fetch (with this new twist) for about twenty minutes before Jasper finally dropped the ball and let it roll away, “I’m done paying now, lets go inside.”
Hairy just chuckled, Jasper’s a funny fellow. Smart, athletic, and loving, but also such a clown. He’s quite entertaining.
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On most days NiceLady leaves us a little after breakfast and goes on a long car ride that lasts the whole day … until just before dinner time. We miss her terribly while she’s out having fun.
HairyFace stays with us to keep us company and open the door for us when we need to go in and out. And to give us lunch cookies. And to scratch us and pet us when we need it. He does some other strange things during the day, but mostly he’s here for us to look after him and keep him safe while he does those little trifles for us.
On Sundays they BOTH leave us at home by ourselves and that’s really awful. But that’s not all day, just long enough to get a good nap in.
When NiceLady has been gone all day we get excited about her coming home.
Sometimes it takes her a while to come in and we get impatient, but we’re always happy to see her.
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HairyFace often lets Jasper out of his pen in the morning while Hairy does his gardening. By that time all the rest of us have had a chance to relieve ourselves, and patrol the fences, and have gone back inside. Sometimes Blondie stays outside to watch Hairy work. When she does, she often sits in the door of the barn to stay out of the sun, but have a good view of what’s going on.
On this particular day, Blondie decided to go inside: there was a threat of rain in the air. Jasper had the yard to himself. He wandered about for a while, sniffing at things. He came to say “hey” to Hairy and get some scratching. He played with a ball for a while. Then he disappeared.
Hairy called, “Jasper: where are you?”, expecting to see him emerge from “the chute”: the pathway to the back door of the house. Sometimes he sits on the back porch staring at the door wishing he could go inside again.
Wednesday evening Lulu ripped a hole through the side of her wire crate to free herself from its confines while NiceLady and HairyFace were away. Since then she’s stayed in her kennel outside when the Peoples have to leave. But the crate was still her bed at night, they just turned the hole to the wall.
Lulu
Thursday night NiceLady decided to see if Lulu would sleep in a snuggle bed so they could dispose of the crate. She enticed Lulu into the snuggle bed (adorned with a pillow from her crate), got her to lie down, and gave her a goodnight cookie. As Lady went around the Peoples bed to get in on her side, Lulu hopped up and pranced down the hallway. Lady called, “Lulu, come here!”
Instantly Lulu was standing on the bed between NiceLady and HairyFace wearing a hopeful grin and tail wagging like mad.
“NO!” they said in unison. “Get down.”
Lulu refused, still hoping to coerce them. “But you SAID ‘Come HERE’: I’m here.”
So it’s back to the crate at night time.
Once she gets the idea of bed time, we’ll try a snuggle bed again. Lulu just has her own ideas about how things should work.
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Blondie and I are in our bedroom beds. HairyFace is sitting in bed reading. NiceLady is finishing up her end-of-day routine. Lulu is sitting in the master-bath watching Lady. Lady says, “Say good night to everyone, Lulu.” and Lulu trots out and sniffs at me, she walks around the bed and sniffs at Blondie. Blondie has a dog bed at the foot of the Peoples bed, but she often sleeps on the carpet next to Hairy’s side of the bed. Hairy says, “Good night Lulu.”
Lady asks, “Are you ready for bed now, Lulu?” hoping to direct Lulu to her crate.
Lulu’s eyes light up, “YES!” and she leaps up on the bed with Hairy. A dream come true!
Blondie bolts to her feet and stares at her wide-eyed, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? That’s not allowed!”
Hairy sets Lulu back on the floor, “No, Lulu, that is not allowed.”
Deflated, Lulu trods behind Lady to the crate. She whines a little bit, but settles in after a while.
Since Lulu has learned to scratch at the back door or whine at the Peoples when she wants to go outside, the Peoples are thinking about letting her sleep in a snuggle bed in the bedroom with us pretty soon. I think that would make her happy. Not as happy as sleeping on the People bed, but it’s as close as she will get in this house. There are rules in my house, after all. To be a good dog you must follow the rules.
Maybe Lulu’s forever home will not have a no-dogs-on-the-bed rule. Then that dream can be realized.
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Lulu listened intently as Jasper and Blondie told her about the luxuriant life of a House Dog. In fact, Lulu knew what it was like to be a house dog, she herself had been one before. But it was a different life from what they were describing. She was having a hard time comprehending what they told her. Jasper talked about racing around the house chasing a ball or hoofie. Blondie talked about lounging around on an assortment of beds – some in every room – that were there just for the dogs. Eating delicious foods. Getting special treats. Having the undivided attention of a People almost any time she wanted it.
Lulu’s life had been much different. Almost always confined to a crate. Play times tended to be antagonistic, even cruel toward her. She became fearful and started fighting back by nipping and acting out. So she ended up being dumped off at a place with HUNDREDS of dogs, all barking and carrying on. It was so scary. Then HairyFace and NiceLady came and took her out. They took her to a place out on a mountain where it’s quiet.
That’s where I live, along with Blondie, and Jasper – and, of course, my Peoples: HairyFace and NiceLandy. Blondie is my adopted sister, Jasper is a foster: like Lulu.
