Another example of how different two siblings (in this case Yorkie siblings) can be.
Bailey doesn't hate baths. Doesn't love them, but she's really easy to bathe because she just sits there and takes it.
Meggie ... well, she's different. If she sees us open the cupboard where their shampoo is kept, or if she sees us bring a big bath towel to the kitchen (we bathe them in the kitchen sink), she sneaks away to hide. Her favorite hiding place - behind the washer & dryer in the utility room. Today she picked a new one.
My office is upstairs and at the end of a hall. As far away from the kitchen as you can get in our house. Today, I heard my wife calling Meggie, and she finally called to me and asked if I had seen Meggie. I said no, but as I turned to look around my office my foot hit up against something under my desk. Meggie had managed to get under my desk without my knowing about it, and she had no intention of leaving. Kathie called her and Meggie acted as if she heard nothing. I told her to go to Kathie, and Meggie acted as if she heard nothing. I reached down to pick her up, and it was as if she could multiply her weight at will. She did not want to be picked up. She did not want to "go to Mommy." She just didn't want a bath.
Well, as happens in most such conflicts, she is getting a bath. Because I'm the parent and I said so. But I sure am glad my wife is the one that bathes the dogs!
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Does Your Dog Think You're WONDERFUL?
If the answer is no, I have to tell you - I'll be very suspicious of you.
If you have a dog that you feed, talk to, pet from time to time and take for a walk or a run from time to time - he WILL think you are the GREATEST.
I adore my wife, my kids and my grandchild. But I have to admit I never show the completely unrestrained love and excitement at seeing them that my Yorkies show when I come home.
It makes me remind myself (often) that I am not really as wonderful as my dogs think I am. It's nice that THEY think so, though.
If you have a dog that you feed, talk to, pet from time to time and take for a walk or a run from time to time - he WILL think you are the GREATEST.
I adore my wife, my kids and my grandchild. But I have to admit I never show the completely unrestrained love and excitement at seeing them that my Yorkies show when I come home.
It makes me remind myself (often) that I am not really as wonderful as my dogs think I am. It's nice that THEY think so, though.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
They Just Won't Stop Digging
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.
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.
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.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
“How does a dog determine it’s bedtime?”
As I’ve mentioned before, our Yorkies sleep in our bed. If yours don’t, it probably sounds seriously uninviting to you – as it did to me with all of the other dogs I’ve ever had - and I won't be able to explain it to you. If yours do, I’m sure I don’t have to explain myself to you.
The fact that Bailey and Meggie sleep in our bed brings up a question I’ve thought about for some time. “How does a dog determine it’s bedtime?” After all, ours have been laying around – actually sleeping - most of the evening anyway. For some reason, though, at about 9pm they decide it is time to go to bed.
Whether I am sitting watching TV or sitting at my desk working or reading, at just about 9 o’clock they wake up and start staring pleadingly at me (you know the look, don’t you?). If I don’t respond within a minute or so, the little cries start. If the cries don’t get my attention, a bark follows. And still more barks follow if I still don’t respond quickly enough.
When I get up from wherever I’m sitting, they run for the back door to go out to go potty. Understand this – they don’t need me to let them out. They have a doggie door. But they want my wife or I to go to the door so that we will know they have gone potty. They want us to know it, because then they get a treat.
As soon as they have gotten their treats, they head for the bedroom at a run. They are so excited you would think that this is the absolute high point of the entire day. Better than food. Better than walks. Better than rides in the car. THIS is what they've been waiting for all day!
The door is closed, because the bedroom is one of the areas of the house where they don’t have unrestricted access. They stand in front of the door, looking back toward me then looking at the bedroom door and then back at me until I open the door. At that point, they run in and jump up on the bed.
Well, they’re little enough and the bed is big enough that they don't just jump directly onto the bed. They jump onto a little footstool that sits beside a trunk at the foot of the bed. From it, they jump onto the trunk and then onto the bed. Meanwhile, I am turning back the covers and putting the pillows on the bed, and they crash. Usually, they are laying down before I even turn and head towards the door.
So from all of this my question arose. What separates their “sleeping wherever I happen to be” time from their “bedtime?” I wish I could comprehend the activity in those sweet little brains!
The fact that Bailey and Meggie sleep in our bed brings up a question I’ve thought about for some time. “How does a dog determine it’s bedtime?” After all, ours have been laying around – actually sleeping - most of the evening anyway. For some reason, though, at about 9pm they decide it is time to go to bed.
Whether I am sitting watching TV or sitting at my desk working or reading, at just about 9 o’clock they wake up and start staring pleadingly at me (you know the look, don’t you?). If I don’t respond within a minute or so, the little cries start. If the cries don’t get my attention, a bark follows. And still more barks follow if I still don’t respond quickly enough.
When I get up from wherever I’m sitting, they run for the back door to go out to go potty. Understand this – they don’t need me to let them out. They have a doggie door. But they want my wife or I to go to the door so that we will know they have gone potty. They want us to know it, because then they get a treat.
As soon as they have gotten their treats, they head for the bedroom at a run. They are so excited you would think that this is the absolute high point of the entire day. Better than food. Better than walks. Better than rides in the car. THIS is what they've been waiting for all day!
The door is closed, because the bedroom is one of the areas of the house where they don’t have unrestricted access. They stand in front of the door, looking back toward me then looking at the bedroom door and then back at me until I open the door. At that point, they run in and jump up on the bed.
Well, they’re little enough and the bed is big enough that they don't just jump directly onto the bed. They jump onto a little footstool that sits beside a trunk at the foot of the bed. From it, they jump onto the trunk and then onto the bed. Meanwhile, I am turning back the covers and putting the pillows on the bed, and they crash. Usually, they are laying down before I even turn and head towards the door.
So from all of this my question arose. What separates their “sleeping wherever I happen to be” time from their “bedtime?” I wish I could comprehend the activity in those sweet little brains!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
A Caution About Chew Toys
When Bailey was still a puppy – nearly grown in size, but still a puppy – we had a scary evening. Okay, like anyone with puppies, we’ve had more than one. But I’m only going to talk about one of them now.
We were having a quiet evening at home and our younger daughter had come over to visit. Bailey had taken a rawhide bone and disappeared for a while, and the rest of us were talking and generally enjoying time together.
Suddenly, we heard the most horrible sound I have ever heard come from a dog. It was not a bark or a yelp. It was a scream! In a panic, we all started looking for Bailey – and she came out from behind a chair.
She was obviously in pain, and as I reached down to pick her up again, she wretched and made that same screaming sound! Without even taking a moment to think about it, I grabbed a towel to wrap her up, told my daughter to come with me, told my wife we were going to the emergency vet that was very close by, and headed out the door. I gave Bailey to my daughter since I’d be driving and headed down the road.
About a mile from the house, Bailey convulsed and threw up. Then she looked up at my daughter like everything was just fine. There, in the towel, was something all covered in mucous. I pulled over and looked at it – it was a chunk of the rawhide bone Bailey had been chewing on – now just a flat piece of rawhide. It was almost an inch across and over two inches long! No wonder she had been in pain.
Since she seemed okay now, I turned around and headed home. By the time we got home, Bailey hit the floor running around and seemed unaware that there had even been a problem.
Since that night, we still have rawhide bones in the house – but we watch very closely and dispose of them when they get chewed down very much.
We were having a quiet evening at home and our younger daughter had come over to visit. Bailey had taken a rawhide bone and disappeared for a while, and the rest of us were talking and generally enjoying time together.
Suddenly, we heard the most horrible sound I have ever heard come from a dog. It was not a bark or a yelp. It was a scream! In a panic, we all started looking for Bailey – and she came out from behind a chair.
She was obviously in pain, and as I reached down to pick her up again, she wretched and made that same screaming sound! Without even taking a moment to think about it, I grabbed a towel to wrap her up, told my daughter to come with me, told my wife we were going to the emergency vet that was very close by, and headed out the door. I gave Bailey to my daughter since I’d be driving and headed down the road.
About a mile from the house, Bailey convulsed and threw up. Then she looked up at my daughter like everything was just fine. There, in the towel, was something all covered in mucous. I pulled over and looked at it – it was a chunk of the rawhide bone Bailey had been chewing on – now just a flat piece of rawhide. It was almost an inch across and over two inches long! No wonder she had been in pain.
Since she seemed okay now, I turned around and headed home. By the time we got home, Bailey hit the floor running around and seemed unaware that there had even been a problem.
Since that night, we still have rawhide bones in the house – but we watch very closely and dispose of them when they get chewed down very much.
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