My engines of destruction

I let the dogs out this morning, and kept an ear out for any sort of barking or snarling, but didn't keep a very close eye on them. Bad me. When I went out onto the deck to check on them, I found they'd removed a screen from a window (there are two low windows over the deck) and totally demolished that sucker. I think it must have had a loose corner, and somehow they managed to pry it right off the window, and then used it as a dog toy. It's dead. Quite dead. They bent the frame, tore off the lower edge of the frame, and ripped a lot of the screen itself off.

*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!

Four on the floor

I'm working very hard with Hero on keeping all four paws on the ground when he greets people. He still jumps up on me occasionally, and the kids more often. We are all turning out back on him instantly when he starts to jump up. Then we turn around, tell him to sit, and reward him with a treat and praise for the polite sit. Already it's improving his behavior-- he doesn't like losing our attention when we turn our backs on him. And he has always been highly treat motivated.

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!

Coming home

After several days away visiting family, we went to the boarding kennel today to pick up Hero and Impulse. It's the type of kennel where they're in a run with other dogs much of the day, so I'm sure they had fun. But once they spotted us, they went into ridiculous paroxysms of joy. Impulse was so excited he piddled everywhere (something he very rarely does), and Hero was overjoyed and whirled around like a crazy dog, leaping up at everyone and whimpering with ecstasy. Once I got them in the car, though, they both settled down and just leaned their heads against us lovingly: Thank God that ordeal is over! Let's go 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.

Guard the yard!

I have an invisible fence, and both dogs are pretty reliable with it now. They spend a lot of time outdoors, because they love to run around (I do keep a pretty close eye and ear on them, though, because dogs can always go through the property line if they see something exceptionally exciting, and besides, the invisible fence line doesn't keep other animals out). The downside to the invisible fence, however, is that innocent strangers sometimes come into the yard and suddenly find themselves with two rather large dogs charging at them.

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.

New photos!

As I said in a previous post, Impulse has grown a lot lately. Today I took some pictures that show how big he is now in relation to Hero, and thanks to a friend who gave me a new gadget for Christmas, I now can upload pictures immediately. So here are a few new pictures of my handsome boys:

Hero, mighty watchdog

Last night around eleven, I put out the dogs for their last bathroom break, as I always do. A few moments later I heard Hero barking fiercely (and Impulse's more falsetto tones chiming in). I ran out and saw something large and brownish running through the neighbor's yard.

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

Something I love about my dogs is that they are full of affection and adoration for their humans. When I sit down on the floor with them, they both try very, very hard to climb into my lap. Hero in particular is not even remotely lap-sized, but that doesn't stop him from trying to fit into my lap. He's not a puppy any more, but he's failed to notice. As far as he knows, he's still "mommy's fwuffy puppy," and if you pat him very long, he'll roll around on the floor, wiggling with joy.

Here is Hero in one of his more dignified and stately moments: