Better Than Television

I know I haven’t posted many updates lately, but I have two reasons for that:

1.       Between the craziness at my full-time job and how busy I’ve been with my photography business lately, I simply haven’t had time.

2.       Unfortunately (and, perhaps, fortunately), there hasn’t been a whole lot for me to report.

I’m rather frustrated with the dog trainer at Petco, who was supposed call me weeks ago to tell me when Margot’s obedience classes start.  Claire called me twice at the beginning of the month to gather information about Margot (size, breed, age, etc.) so that she could place her in the appropriate class.  Then, I never heard from her again.  I called a couple days ago to check, and I was told by one of the Petco employees that “Claire has been sick.”  Okay, that explains why I haven’t heard from her.  That’s totally fine and I understand.  However, I left my name and number and asked them to have Claire call me to let me know when the obedience classes will begin, and I still have yet to hear back from her.  Grrrrr!!!

I’m very anxious to begin Margot’s obedience training because, now that the weather has finally gotten nicer, we’ve been going to the dog park a lot and trying to go for walks.  However, Margot is still pulling like crazy whenever I walk her, and I’ve been noticing a little bit more aggressive behavior from her at the dog park, as well.   On a few occasions, Justin and I have seen Margot growl and show her teeth to another dog who was showing interest in her stick or ball.  It’s been rare, but I don’t like it.  I’ve heard that a dog’s personality can sometimes change right around the time they turn 1 year-old, which will be in June for Margot.  She’s just always been such a pleasant, friendly, little social butterfly at the dog park, and I would HATE for that to turn sour in any way, shape, or form.   

I’ve also been noticing some herding behavior from Luke at the dog park, which I also do not particularly like.  Whenever another dog takes off running, Luke tends to give chase while nipping at the other dog’s hindquarters and giving a low growl.  For anyone who doesn’t know Luke’s sweet personality or recognize this as herding behavior, it looks as though he’s just being aggressive towards the other dog and trying to bite it.  As soon as he gets the other dog to stop, though, all Luke usually does is sniff the other dog’s butt, then go on about his business.  Still, I just hate the thought of anyone thinking that Luke is trying to chase down and possibly attack their dog.   I plan to research herding behavior and how to correct it, and hopefully I can break him of it.  (Anyone have any experience with this?  Feel free to share some advice!)

Sam is still doing well, although my heart breaks for her a little bit every time I look at her.  I try not to think like that, I really do, but I simply can’t ignore those big lumps on her side.  She’s still getting around well, though, and the lumps don’t seem to be affecting her or causing her any pain.  She still eats, drinks, and goes to the bathroom normally, and she routinely climbs the stairs to go jump in our bed every morning. 

One thing Sam hasn’t been too happy about lately, though, is all the puppy-sitting we’ve been doing for Zach and Kristy’s dog, Frank (the puppy I found abandoned in the building where I work).  Every time they bring Frank over, Sam starts barking at him.  It’s exactly the same way she behaved towards Margot for about the first month after we brought Margot home.  I guess Sam is just annoyed by the presence of little puppies.  Perhaps it’s because they’re so rambunctious and she’s “too old for that sh*t.”  In Luke’s case, he was kind of an older pup when we brought him home from the pound, and he was much more interested in playing with Margot than playing with Sam, which would explain why Sam didn’t seem as annoyed by him.  She barked at him a little bit for the first couple of days, mostly whenever he and Margot would play rough, but she’s been totally fine with Luke ever since. 

As for little Frank, he’s getting so big!  He has definitely started to resemble a Pit Bull more lately, too.  His body is kind of stout and muscular, and the bone structure of his face looks more like a Pit Bull than any other breed, I think.  He’s also been developing more of a Pit Bull-like personality.  He discovered his bark last week and doesn’t hesitate to use it.  He’s also gotten braver at playing with Margot and Luke.  He used to cower a little bit whenever they’d start wrestling near him, but now he tries to jump right in there with them!  He also likes to growl and bark at them to prove what a big, tough dog he is.  Haha!  It’s pretty cute, I’m not gonna lie.  I also love how gentle Margot is with Frank.  She always lies down so that they’re more eye-level, and she lets Frank bite all over her face and ears.   If he starts to get too rough, she’ll either stand up to remind him that she’s the bigger dog, or she’ll use her paw or chin to pin him down for a few seconds.  Luke has also dished out a little discipline to Frank on one or two occasions.  If he thinks Frank needs to settle down, Luke will give him a gentle “bite” on his hind end or his neck.  I find it all very fascinating, and I swear I could watch Frank, Margot, and Luke play for hours.  Who needs Bravo TV when I’ve got the drama of “The Real Canines of Cabell County” happening right in my own living room? 

Surprise! It's a Boy!

Well, ladies and gentleman, it looks like the girl who SWORE she’d never own a male dog is now the proud owner of a very happy, loving, and incredibly sweet boy.  Yes, it turns out that the pretty “girl” dog that Justin and I fell in love with at the shelter actually has boy parts, which are difficult to see because of the long fur on his belly.   The employees at the shelter even thought he was a girl!  We didn’t realize it until we took him outside to meet Sam and Margot last night at the shelter, and he immediately hiked his leg to pee on a sign. 

For a brief moment, I actually thought, “Well, crap!  I really kind of wanted to adopt this dog,” but then that thought was immediately replaced with, “But how can I say no to that face?!?!?”  He was so happy to see me and Justin.  He kept looking up at us with his big, goofy grin, wagging his tail like crazy, and he also kept hopping up and wanting us to cuddle him (which is a behavior that I immediately began discouraging, although I did think it was very sweet). 

So, I went ahead and got Sam and Margot out of the car to introduce them, just to see how it would go.  Both dogs basically ignored him, although Sam did let him sniff her butt, and he immediately acted like he wanted to play with Margot, which were both good signs in my book. 

After we put Sam and Margot back in the car, Justin and I took a few minutes to talk it over.  Finally, after weighing all the pros and cons of adopting this boy dog, I just looked at him and said, “I really don’t know whom I think I’m trying to kid by pretending like I can actually leave this dog here.” 

And, with that, Luke became the newest member of our little family.  I asked Justin to name him because I’ve named all the other dogs in my life, and because I also kind of wanted our next dog to be more of “Justin’s dog.”  (Actually, one of the biggest “pros” I took into consideration while briefly trying to decide if we should adopt Luke was the fact that he seemed to prefer Justin a little bit more than me, which melted my heart.)  Justin was having a hard time coming up with a name for the new dog on his own, though, so I started throwing out some suggestions.  Finally, since Justin is such a Star Wars fan, I suggested Luke, and Justin immediately approved.     

Sam and Margot continued to pretty much ignore Luke during the ride home, but as soon as we walked inside the house, Sam started barking.  I guess she felt the need to let Luke know that this is HER house and HER family.  Margot, of course, didn’t feel like she needed Sam’s protection from Luke at all.  As soon as I let them out into the back yard, after some preliminary butt-sniffing and territory-marking on Luke’s part, Margot and Luke took off chasing each other around the yard.  That’s when Justin and I could really see the Border Collie in Luke because he’s so fast and agile!  We can’t wait until we can let him loose in the dog park to really see him run.  I’ll bet it’s amazing. 

Anyway, I hate that Sam seemed so uncomfortable with Luke last night, but it was really no different from when we first brought Margot home.  If you’ll recall, Sam seemed so upset by Margot’s presence that we actually considered letting Sam live with Justin’s parents.  Thankfully, Sam eventually did warm up to Margot, and now they are the biggest cuddle buddies.  I’m just hoping it doesn’t take Sam quite as long to warm up to Luke.   Hopefully, once she realizes that Margot isn’t bugging her half as much because now she has Luke to play with, Sam will finally just relax and enjoy her lazy time alone on the couch.

As for Mr. Luke, he’s only been with us for less than 24 hours at this point, but so far so good.  He hasn’t had any accidents in the house, and we left him and Margot out last night without any problems.  My only concerns right now are clearing up his kennel cough and the fact that he didn’t really seem to want to eat this morning.  He ate just a little bit last night, but we weren’t concerned about it because we figured he probably ate at the shelter.  This morning, though, when I put food in all three dog bowls, he was more interested in loving on me than he was in devouring his food like his hungry sisters.  A little bit later, after Sam and Margot had both eaten and Luke and Margot had played for a while, I put the food bowl back in front of him and encouraged him to eat.  He only took a couple of nibbles, though, and that was it.  I’m hoping that he was just excited about waking up in his new house with his new family this morning, but I asked Justin to crate Margot this morning when he left for work and leave the food bowl out for Luke.  I’m hoping that when Justin goes home at lunch, Luke will have eaten his food. 

I’ve already made Luke his first vet appointment for Saturday morning, and I plan to have him neutered as soon as possible (the costs for both of these services were included in his adoption fee).  So, I’m sure Dr. Ellis will help get his kennel cough cleared up, and if Luke still isn’t eating very much by then, I will definitely discuss that with her, as well.  While I’m there, I may go ahead and sign Margot up for obedience training.  I wonder if Luke should take the classes with her, or if that will just be too difficult?  I’ve already started working with him because of his bad habit of jumping up on people, and I also started teaching him “sit” this morning, although only very briefly.   I guess I’ll just ask the trainer at the vet on Saturday if it would be a good idea for Luke and Margot to take obedience classes together.  In a way, that seems like it might be a good bonding experience for them.  :)