Wednesday, December 31, 2008
My engines of destruction
*Laughs* Those dogs. They are two furry engines of destruction. They both love toys, and it doesn't matter if the toys come from PetSmart, or are found conveniently attached to the house. If it looks like fun, they play with it!
Monday, December 29, 2008
Four on the floor
I'm also trying to get him to stop mowing down the toddler. He loves the toddler (who's actually not a toddler-- he'll be four in February) and tends to greet him like an onrushing freight train. The toddler has been faceplanted into the grass more than once, which he not surprisingly dislikes. I've been avoiding this by the simple solution of keeping them separated, but sooner or later, I'd like them to be able to play together. Today I put out Hero and let him get his first bouncies out, then took the toddler out, holding his hand so he couldn't get far away, and made sure Hero didn't pounce on him. Hero actually didn't even try to jump on him, so I think he's improving on that front, too.
Hero does love his kids, though. He guards them with great intensity, and when they went back into the woods where he couldn't follow, he sat down and stared at them until they came back. And when the toddler's feelings were hurt by one of the older kids, and he sat down and howled, Hero came up to him and licked his face: Quit crying, kid, it'll be okay. I imagine dogs actually lick crying children's faces because they like the taste of salt, not in an effort to provide sympathy, but the toddler took it as a comforting gesture, and started to laugh, which made Hero's stub wag. As I said, he loves his kids!
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Coming home
I'm working on two new tricks with Hero. The first is "feet up, stay." He knows "feet up" already (he jumps up and puts his front feet where I point, whether on me or on a table or railing). He knows "stay," too. But he's a bit unclear as to what the two commands mean together. He jumps up well enough, but when I say "stay," his first instinct is to drop back into a sitting position and stay. He doesn't quite understand that "stay" means "hold whatever position you're in." But he's beginning to get it.
We're also working on "bang," which is just for fun. The eventual idea, of course, is for us to make a "gun" with our hand, shout "bang!", and have the dog play dead. But first I'm teaching him to roll onto his back. His previous lessons have taught him that "over" means roll onto his side from the "down" position, and "roll" means roll over entirely. I'm teaching him to roll over and expose his belly by saying "Bang!" and giving him the roll-over gesture, but stopping him with my hand midway. He seems to be getting it quite readily.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Guard the yard!
The UPS guy came today, parked his truck in front of the house, and headed for my porch with an armful of packages. When he was midway up the yard, two furry gray missiles came charging around the corner of the house, barking furiously: Intruder alert!!! The poor guy froze up, looking panicked. I yelled out the window to the dogs, telling them to back off, and headed down the stairs to rescue the poor guy.
Of course the dogs weren't attacking viciously, just doing their duty by sounding off, and then charging up to him, waggling their butts and looking for pats (and quite possibly wondering if they could get away with grabbing the boxes from him, too). The problem with an Aussie, however, is that they have no tail, and thus people who are unfamiliar with them often don't seem to realize they're wagging. The people I meet often seem to have difficulty deciding if Hero's intentions are friendly or not.
Anyway, I called my missiles off, the UPS guy delivered his packages, and then he headed for his truck. Hero then did what he always does-- waited till the guy had almost reached the street, then charged after him, barking loudly and dramatically. He then came strutting back to me: I chased him off, Mom! Who's the watchdog? I'm the watchdog!
Hero does this same performance with the garbage man every week, too, welcoming him warmly onto the property, with only a token bark or two, and then pursuing him when the guy is leaving and is only a foot or two from the street. Hero apparently wants everyone to believe he's a mean, lean guarding machine, when in fact he's a friendly goofball who'd happily show a burglar where we keep the silver if he thought he might get a treat out of it.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
New photos!
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Hero, mighty watchdog
Hero came racing to me and ran back and forth, clearly trying to tell me something was amiss: Mom, there's something out there!!!
"The neighbors just let their dogs out, you big dummy," I told him. He loves the neighbor's dogs, and doesn't bark at them much, but sometimes in the dark he gets a little overzealous with the guard dog routine. "Hush. It's late."
I grabbed at his collar, but he dodged, and went back to racing along the property line, barking like a maniac. I called to him, but he refused to come to me, just raced up and down, defending his yard for all he was worth. I said some unpleasant words under my breath, thinking of the poor neighbors who were being awakened by my very stupid dog, and went back in to grab a leash. With the leash on his collar, Hero settled down and allowed himself to be led back into the house.
This morning, when I was more awake, it dawned on me that Hero is not stupid (despite occasional appearances) and that if he was that angry, there was probably a good reason. I called my neighbor this afternoon, and she confirmed that her dogs hadn't been outside-- in fact, she'd heard Hero barking, and had decided not to let her dogs out because he sounded so upset. So whatever he was mad about wasn't her dogs. Might have been a deer, might have been a stray. Two different people have claimed they've seen a bobcat around (which seems extremely unlikely here in the suburbs, but I suppose it's possible), so it might have been that, too.
But whatever it was... it definitely didn't belong in the back yard, and Hero knew what he was doing when he chased it out!
Lap puppies
Here is Hero in one of his more dignified and stately moments:
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
So much for that decoration
But perhaps not. Because this morning, the dogs suddenly noticed the garlands (after they've been up for well over a week) and they're now in little pieces on my front steps. Little, bitty, shredded pieces.
So... it's just as well there weren't any wires involved:-).
Monday, December 15, 2008
Impulse gets bigger
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
New behaviors
Also, Impulse has developed a new method of gaining the upper hand. When Hero's running along full speed, Impulse will suddenly dart at his side, grab him by the shoulder, and fling his whole weight against him. He's bowled Hero over more than once this way, which is pretty impressive given the difference in their sizes.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Hero's education
Hero's other major downfall is jumping up on people. He'd improved greatly on this, but this is one area where getting Impulse has been a bad influence on him. Impulse jumps up to greet people, and Hero has picked up the habit from him. I'm working with him to try to correct it, but it's a hard thing to fix. Sixty-five pounds of exuberant Aussie can be a dangerous thing.
But despite these issues, Hero is a smart boy. He knows the following commands, and usually obeys them:
Sit
Come
Down
Sit/stay
Down/stay
Shake hands
Wave
Give me five
Take a bow
Look sad (drops head to the ground when lying down)
Over
Roll
Crawl
Jump
Speak
Heel
Wait
Let's go (command for loose-leash walking)
Shhh!
Feet up (command to put his front feet onto something or someone)
Up (command to jump up onto a table or car or bench)
Off
Drop it
Leave it
We'll be taking the advanced class in January, which works toward getting the companion dog certificate. Hero isn't going to get his CD unless he learns to greet people more nicely and to stay even with distractions, so those will be the two big areas we work on, I think.
A younger Hero stays:
Hero shows he knows the "jump" command:
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Play biting
As a puppy, Hero liked to bite hands when he got excited, but I noticed that if he got adequate time in with the big dogs, his tendency to gnaw on humans was reduced. Clearly biting was something he needed to do. To dogs, it's a form of communication and play. In teaching a puppy not to bite people, then, what we're doing is teaching him not that biting per se is bad, but that biting people, even in play, is bad. It must be like learning a whole different language for the puppy, and what they learn is, "Jaw wrestle with other dogs all you want, but don't put your teeth on humans." Considering how important play biting seems to be in dog society, it's amazing they can learn that lesson at all.
When I got Impulse, I wondered if Hero was old enough to tolerate a puppy hanging off of him the way the grownup dogs had tolerated him, or if it might cause fights. As it turned out, there was no cause for concern. Every morning, I let out Hero to do his business, and once he's ready he stands at the back door and yips for his brother. I let out Impulse, and Hero grabs him by the neck and pushes him to the deck. Impulse yelps and rolls over to show submission, and Hero lets him up. And they're off and running.
Sometimes Hero does get Impulse down on the ground and appears to be murdering him, biting his neck and stomach and legs with what looks like brutal savagery. (Over Thanksgiving, my father-in-law was quite alarmed by this show of apparent viciousness, and kept trying to break the dogs apart when they did this.) Impulse tolerates it for a while, then yelps, and if Hero doesn't heed his yelp, his little lips curl back and he utters a falsetto growl. Hero then leaps back and barks indignantly: I was just playing, kid, what's your problem?
But Hero's not the only one who does the biting. When Hero is sprawled out, peacefully chewing on a stick or a toy, Impulse will tend to sneak up on him and "savagely attack" him, leaping on his back and biting his ear and neck, and Hero will then amiably roll over and show his belly: Yeah, yeah, kid, you got me. You're the boss. Let me get back to my stick, will ya?
Hero has gotten two small scratches on his muzzle from Impulse's needle-like baby teeth from this sort of play. Impulse, on the other hand, has never ever gotten so much as a scratch. I check him over for scabs daily, and I've never seen one. As much as it looks like they're earnestly trying to kill each other... they're not.
Now, I don't know how things will shift as they get older. I expect some changes in the power structure (I have a feeling Impulse will one day be the alpha), and that may cause some real fights eventually. But I hope that since they grew up together, and since they will both be neutered, that they'll work it out peacefully and without any serious quarrels.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Dogs and decorating
I stepped outside and told him firmly to "leave it alone," and he's respecting it... for now. I think it's likely, however, that my $30 wreath will wind up shredded on the front lawn at some point. Crazy dog.
The Christmas tree is likely to meet a similar fate if I let them have access to it. We've already decided we'll keep the dogs out of the family room while it's up, and leave off all the fragile ornaments this year, just in case they get in (which means it won't have a whole lot of ornaments, but oh well). I hate to banish my boys from the family room, but there is no way a tree is safe around a hundred pounds of rampaging Aussie. All it takes is one happy leap, and splat!
Friday, December 5, 2008
Electric Blue Impulse
"That's pretty close," I thought. "But it's a little too early. I don't need another dog until Hero's at least a year old."
So, after mature and thoughtful consideration, I decided not to buy one. But I kept an eye on the site, and this little guy caught my eye, because his coloring was very striking and his face was so pretty (picture courtesy of Rocky Top Farm):
They don't get much cuter than that. Even so, I dawdled and dithered, and eventually, to my shock, this particular puppy was the last one left available. I don't know why on earth a blue-eyed merle (usually a very popular color with buyers) with such a striking pattern of color would be the last one bought from a litter, but the website said he was still available.
I looked at the picture again, sighed, and emailed the breeder. She confirmed he was still available, and I made an appointment to go up and look at him. That Friday, I found myself driving home with a second puppy.
I wanted to name him Steel (a comic book name), but the kids overruled me, and he was named Impulse (also a comic book name, but also appropriate given the somewhat impulsive way in which I'd bought him). He has a more relaxed and laid-back attitude than Hero-- where Hero tends to bound off walls, Impulse lies down and chills out. But he's also very smart and very trainable, and very sweet.
Here are some pictures of him at around two to three months. He's growing leggier all the time, and his adult fur has grown in on top-- I need to get some new pictures taken! His eyes have remained blue (surprisingly, as neither of his parents have blue eyes) and at his last checkup he weighed 33.5 pounds.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Big Blue Hero
I don't know why I picked him, exactly. Clearly he was too young for me to choose him on the basis of his personality. I liked his coloration (I rather superficially was looking for a blue merle with lots of white) and I liked the way his head and ears looked. I wasn't looking for a conformation showdog (I don't yet have the knowledge to pick out a show-quality Aussie from a lineup of full-grown dogs, let alone three-week-old puppies!), but I know the kind of Aussie head I like, so I did have a certain sort of look I was going for.
Hero had grown massively by the time we saw him again. He had mostly brown eyes, except for one streak of blue, and he looked like a ball of fluff (or possibly dryer lint). He was adorable. Here he is at three months, not too long after we brought him home:
He grew really, really fast, and quickly moved out of the dryer lint stage. By six months his adult coat had come in, though it was nowhere near as thick as it would become, and he looked almost like a full-grown dog. His earset changed to rose ears, folded to the side (which look fine most of the time, but flop rather goofily when he runs) and most of the pink on his nose filled in. He has a few "dilute spots" (areas where the fur is a murky brownish color, rather than black or gray), but his coat is nevertheless very handsome, and people remark on it all the time (merle coloration seems to be a novelty to most people).
Here he is now, all grown up. He's grown into a beautiful, sweet boy with a heart of gold and a brain of stone:-). Seriously, he's really quite smart and trainable, but he nonetheless has a goofily exuberant way about him that makes people think he's none too bright. I think he'll steady out as he gets older.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Greetings!
Here's a picture of them together, not too long after we got Impulse. Notice how nicely they sit... but only for treats!