Okay, on Wednesday I mentioned about our Yorkies' problem with digging. I really wish I had been at home on Thursday (yesterday) to take some pictures.
I came home in the afternoon to find two sweet, freshly bathed pups. They would normally have been bathed over the weekend, but bath time got moved up because my wife let them out in the back yard - unattended - for less than 10 minutes. When she called them in, their faces, chests and front legs were literally caked with dirt. In just a few minutes!
Like I said - I really wish I'd been able to get some pictures. Maybe next time. And I'm afraid it's pretty certain there WILL be a next time.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Backyard Romps Are A Pain
For all of their cuteness, you must remember that Yorkies are TERRIERS! They are spirited little animals, and love to speak their minds.
There is a short section of our border with our neighbor that has a chain link fence with lattice added on my side. The rest is stockade fence. It was that way when we moved in, and I've just never filled in that section with stockade fence. Our pups (they're both 3 years old this year, but they'll always be pups) are moving that stockade fence up on my priority list.
On the other side of the fence is an Australian Shepherd. She is a really sweet dog that hardly ever barks at anything. I wish I could say the same about my Yorkies. They don't usually bark much - mostly when they are playing together - but when they head out the back door, they practically fly to that section of fence that they can see through and start barking like crazy.
They're both in this picture - Meggie is just a little hard to spot on the far side of the bush. If all of their noise weren't so irritating, it would be really funny because I know how they would act if the fence weren't there. When they do meet other dogs (without a fence between them) they are really very timid. Not frightened so much as shy. But put that fence up, and they are holy terrors!
I've tried to teach them not to carry on so, but they are dogs - and dogs do bark. If I stay outside with them, I can tell them "Stop!" when they begin barking and they will stop. For a little while. If I'm not out there to remind them, it sounds like they're vigorously defending our home from the hounds of hell!
There is the point, too, that I almost hate to stop them from barking at the dog next door. When they stop barking, their attention turns to their other passion - digging. THAT is the main reason that I hate to let them out unattended. They love to dig even when there is no particular reason, but now they have a reason. We have a gopher (some gophers, more likely) tunneling under our back yard. Since they don't break out and leave big piles of dirt like moles do, I have taken a pretty lax attitude about them up to now. Not the pups. When not barking at their neighbor, they have taken it as their mission in life to find the gophers. Finding the gophers entails a lot of running around and sniffing and waaaaaaaay too much digging at the tunnels.
Fortunately, most of their digging so far has been at the gopher tunnels that run close to the spot where they stand to bark at their neighbor. I guess they want to keep their activities close together to facilitate multi-tasking. That area doesn't have grass because of the shrubs, but I assume it's only a matter of time until they expand their search out into the lawn. I guess I have TWO high-priority projects now. Extend the stockade fence AND get rid of the gophers.
There is a short section of our border with our neighbor that has a chain link fence with lattice added on my side. The rest is stockade fence. It was that way when we moved in, and I've just never filled in that section with stockade fence. Our pups (they're both 3 years old this year, but they'll always be pups) are moving that stockade fence up on my priority list.
On the other side of the fence is an Australian Shepherd. She is a really sweet dog that hardly ever barks at anything. I wish I could say the same about my Yorkies. They don't usually bark much - mostly when they are playing together - but when they head out the back door, they practically fly to that section of fence that they can see through and start barking like crazy.
They're both in this picture - Meggie is just a little hard to spot on the far side of the bush. If all of their noise weren't so irritating, it would be really funny because I know how they would act if the fence weren't there. When they do meet other dogs (without a fence between them) they are really very timid. Not frightened so much as shy. But put that fence up, and they are holy terrors!
I've tried to teach them not to carry on so, but they are dogs - and dogs do bark. If I stay outside with them, I can tell them "Stop!" when they begin barking and they will stop. For a little while. If I'm not out there to remind them, it sounds like they're vigorously defending our home from the hounds of hell!
There is the point, too, that I almost hate to stop them from barking at the dog next door. When they stop barking, their attention turns to their other passion - digging. THAT is the main reason that I hate to let them out unattended. They love to dig even when there is no particular reason, but now they have a reason. We have a gopher (some gophers, more likely) tunneling under our back yard. Since they don't break out and leave big piles of dirt like moles do, I have taken a pretty lax attitude about them up to now. Not the pups. When not barking at their neighbor, they have taken it as their mission in life to find the gophers. Finding the gophers entails a lot of running around and sniffing and waaaaaaaay too much digging at the tunnels.
Fortunately, most of their digging so far has been at the gopher tunnels that run close to the spot where they stand to bark at their neighbor. I guess they want to keep their activities close together to facilitate multi-tasking. That area doesn't have grass because of the shrubs, but I assume it's only a matter of time until they expand their search out into the lawn. I guess I have TWO high-priority projects now. Extend the stockade fence AND get rid of the gophers.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
As we usually do, we went to some garage sales Saturday morning and, as we usually do, we took our Yorkies with us.
Our Yorkies are affectionate little creatures, and they love going out where they get to meet people. They recognize what's going on in the house as we get ready to go, and they keep running back and forth from wherever I am at the moment to the ottoman in the living room where they always sit to have their harnesses put on. They also get brushed there before the harnesses go on. They will stand like little statues while I brush them, because they know that the brushing is a necessary prerequisite to going. I don't dare put them into their harnesses before I'm ready to take them to the car - because as soon as they're in the harnesses, they are READY! They run and stand at the door, whining and pleading to be let out.
Funny thing is, once they are in the car, they calm down. They know they're going and they're just alert to what's going on around them.
I go along just to drive, to tote heavy stuff to the car, and to enjoy the time with my wife without the ever-present distractions at home - so I don't even get out of the car at every stop. When the wife gets out, the girls hardly react at all. When I reach for the door handle, though, things change. THEN, they are excited. THEN they know their world is about to expand!
Bailey and Meggie love attention. This seems to be common among Yorkies. Ours crave it as much as food and water, and they usually get a good bit of it in the course of a morning of garage sales. When we get out, they are generally very well behaved. They are eager to explore the area, but they aren't hyper and they're not tugging at the leash. Let someone take note of them and show an interest in petting them, though, and that all changes. Of course they are on a leash, and that's a VERY good thing. Only the most ardent animal lover could withstand the unrestrained onslaught of these two furry attention-seeking missiles once they have been acknowleged. You can almost hear their thoughts - "YES! ME ... ME ... MEEEEEEEEE! PET ME! I'M RIGHT HERE! OOOOOOOOOO ... MORE PETTING! DON'T STOP!"
When that person stops, I direct the pups away, and they are once again calmly checking out their surroundings - until someone else pauses to pet them.
By the time we have gone through this at a dozen or more stops, the effort of being charming and loving catches up with them and they are taking naps in the car between stops. They usually sleep away at least half of the morning when they're at home, so staying alert and active all morning finally has them ready to return to home, lunch, and a long nap full of dreams of great masses of humanity with nothing else to do but love them.
Our Yorkies are affectionate little creatures, and they love going out where they get to meet people. They recognize what's going on in the house as we get ready to go, and they keep running back and forth from wherever I am at the moment to the ottoman in the living room where they always sit to have their harnesses put on. They also get brushed there before the harnesses go on. They will stand like little statues while I brush them, because they know that the brushing is a necessary prerequisite to going. I don't dare put them into their harnesses before I'm ready to take them to the car - because as soon as they're in the harnesses, they are READY! They run and stand at the door, whining and pleading to be let out.
Funny thing is, once they are in the car, they calm down. They know they're going and they're just alert to what's going on around them.
I go along just to drive, to tote heavy stuff to the car, and to enjoy the time with my wife without the ever-present distractions at home - so I don't even get out of the car at every stop. When the wife gets out, the girls hardly react at all. When I reach for the door handle, though, things change. THEN, they are excited. THEN they know their world is about to expand!
Bailey and Meggie love attention. This seems to be common among Yorkies. Ours crave it as much as food and water, and they usually get a good bit of it in the course of a morning of garage sales. When we get out, they are generally very well behaved. They are eager to explore the area, but they aren't hyper and they're not tugging at the leash. Let someone take note of them and show an interest in petting them, though, and that all changes. Of course they are on a leash, and that's a VERY good thing. Only the most ardent animal lover could withstand the unrestrained onslaught of these two furry attention-seeking missiles once they have been acknowleged. You can almost hear their thoughts - "YES! ME ... ME ... MEEEEEEEEE! PET ME! I'M RIGHT HERE! OOOOOOOOOO ... MORE PETTING! DON'T STOP!"
When that person stops, I direct the pups away, and they are once again calmly checking out their surroundings - until someone else pauses to pet them.
By the time we have gone through this at a dozen or more stops, the effort of being charming and loving catches up with them and they are taking naps in the car between stops. They usually sleep away at least half of the morning when they're at home, so staying alert and active all morning finally has them ready to return to home, lunch, and a long nap full of dreams of great masses of humanity with nothing else to do but love them.
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