Josephine is sometimes called our “Delicate Little Flower” because she is the smallest of our pack, kind of frail, and skittish of anything unfamiliar.  Yet, she tends to choose the biggest dogs as her playmates.  She and Julian were famous for their antics.  But this worked because Julian was exceptionally kind.  They would play in a rowdy manner, but he never hurt her.  He was very careful of that.  Callie often fills that roll now.  Rebel likes rowdy play and Josephine wants to join in, but she often yelped in pain as he got careless,  That resulted in an immediate cessation of play and a period of Time Out for Rebel in his crate.

He has figured that out and is learning self control.  This allows Josie Bean’s TRUE nature to show itself, as exhibited in her nick name: “Sharkey”.

After feeding the outside dogs their dinner I let them out of their kennels for a few minutes each to attend to “business”. When it was his turn Rebel was standing up dancing against the gate (he’s pretty tall when he stands up like that!) howling and yowling. I thought he must need to go really badly. As soon as the gate opened he was off like a greyhound, galloped two hot laps around the big yard then dashed back into his kennel and stood on his bed looking at me expectantly, “I’m done now. I’m ready for my treat. I just needed a good run.” Silly boy!

Marie and I don’t go out to whoop it up on New Years Eve.  We’re not into parties and crowds and drunk drivers, so we stay home with our dogs and have a more personal celebration.

Normally we do a meal that we can stretch out through the evening and have a themed movie marathon.  It’s a different theme each year.  This year we decided to watch episodes of the 1962 season of The Twilight Zone and eat Mexican food.

Marie made a pot of chili, we had chimichangas, and burritos, and for desert, pies cooked in the fireplace with a pie iron.

Rod Serling seems to have been obsessed with death in 1962.

I put Sable and Hudson to bed, and brought Rebel in the house, around 9:30.  Rebel watched the TV for a bit, then got bored and laid down.

Around 11:00 we all burned out and decided to go to bed.  All except Blondie: she said, “You folks have gone crazy.” and went to bed around 9:00.  The next morning …

Buddy Beagle has an odd habit of going bonkers any time I leave the house.  That’s a technical dog training term: bonkers.  It means to bark vehemently, run through the house looking out windows and, if he hasn’t emptied his bladder recently, leaving a trail as he goes.  He claws at shades and curtains.  His hyper-excited state often sucks Callie into his fit.  She can get destructive when in that state.  So it is better to not let Buddy get all lathered up.

I can crate him when I have to go outside.  He will still bark like a hunting dog on scent, but any leakage or destruction is limited to his own environ.  Callie does not get sucked into the excitement this way.  But the loud, frantic barking is annoying, at the least, and disruptive if there is anyone trying to rest or accomplish anything in the house.

I can take him outside with me as long as no beagle-unfriendly dog will be loose in the yard with us.  This keeps him quiet for about two minutes, then he’s up on the back door baying and howling and clawing the screen wanting back inside.  If Marie lets him in, he’s good for a minute then goes bonkers because I’m outside.

So I bought a Beagle Box.  My thinking is that this will provide protection from unfriendly beasts and keep him away from the house door.  And, if he gets tired of being summarily removed to the Beagle Box any time he goes bonkers as I’m leaving he may come to a point where behaving will be preferable to being beagle boxed for the duration of my outdoor chore — especially in bad weather.  Buddy does like his comforts.

And when this training exercise is over, the cost of the Beagle Box will not have been wasted because this is actually a portable kennel.  It folds up into a package compact enough to be carried in its own case.

This could be used if we take a dog (or two) to an event or show.  This would be way better than crating them when we’re not actively working them.

It’s not sturdy enough to be used as containment for small foster dogs.  This is for well behaved guests, not those who will be trying everything they can to escape and run off.  But I’m sure we will get good use out of it.

Go to Buddy’s Summary Page

Rebel has been coming inside at night for two reasons:

1. He is severely underweight and it’s been getting cold at night: down in the 20’s.  He is a pure Husky and has the thick fur of a Husky, and loves being outside in the cold, but with absolutely no fat in his skin I fear it would be bad for his health.
2. He gets lonely when he’s out in a kennel by himself, and his two kennel-mates (who are NOT Huskies) INSIST on going to their inside crates at night because of the cold.  I can’t crate Rebel inside with them because we’re feeding him a TON of food and he needs to go outside during the night to defecate.  When he gets lonely, he howls and yaps in what I call his Rebel Yell.

I’ve been crating him indoors.  Most of the time he does okay in a crate, as long as I am in view.  If I leave the room, he fusses loudly.  I tried crating him in the bedroom with the rest of us at night, but the crate that fits in there is too small and he kicked and thrashed against it all night long.  So we moved to the living room where he can sleep in a large crate (we borrowed Callie’s crate and swapped out the bedding) while I sleep on the sofa.  That was better but he tended to get too hot and would paw the crate wanting out.  Often.

Last night we compromised. I fastened a long leash to the leg of the sofa where I was going to sleep. This kept him close enough I could monitor (and away from other dogs so they could sleep in other rooms — Rebel tends to want to trot through the house constantly) and he was near me so he could get skritchies and be told what a good boy he is as needed. He could choose from his open-door crate (rejected), two dog beds (tried each, rejected) or a blanket (liked this much of the time), or the bare floor (when he needed cooling off).

We only had to get up three times last night (it was twice that the night before) to let him out for a breather. One time Blondie and Josephine went out with him and they all investigated something up in the woods. The yard is fenced so they cannot GO into the woods, but can see up there.  It got them excited, but they didn’t bark much. Bless their hearts: it was 2:30 AM, and the neighbors appreciated their self control, I’m sure! They all got along fine. Time for breakfast now as we launch into a new day.

Go to Rebel’s Summary Page